I write to you on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who practice many different faiths and religions, who continue to be unable to gather in any meaningful way for worship this weekend because the Covid-19 restrictions your Government has chosen to keep in place limit the number of people who can attend religious services to 10. Continue reading

"Society needs more bridges that bring together the different sectors of the community, and that's what we do", she explained.

Welcomed to Challenge 2000 with a mihi whakatu by staff, volunteers and young people last Thursday, Simon Bridges spent the day in the Ohariu electorate with local National MP Brett Hudson, and joined Challenge 2000 for a cup of tea, biscuit and a chat.

Bridges already knew of Challenge 2000 and its success, but was keen to learn more about this community and social agency which has operated for 30 years.

McKinley was quick to point out that key to Challenge's ongoing success is the creation of a positive loving community where people can aspire to and believe that they can achieve.

"Long-term structural inequality and injustice is not helped when serious social issues are treated as political footballs", she told the aspiring PM.

Acknowledging that serious social problems weren't solved over-night, McKinley proffered that society needs a system that endured longer than a single parliamentary term, a mechanism which is accountable for achievements, is responsible and learns from its failures.

She highlighted how difficult it is trying to work with the obstacles, which she called ‘silos', created by various government departments not working together.

Focussing briefly on last year's "cluster" of suicides in Porirua, McKinley also mentioned she thought the country needs to do more to help our young, and the most vulnerable need to be identified and helped.

She says she is proud that Challenge continues to be such a help to society's neglected people.

"Challenge certainly punches well above its weight", Brett Hudson added.

Challenge 2000 Director, Steve O'Connor agrees. Working in schools, the community, and the youth justice system, "we do more than we are funded for because that is part of our ethic; we just try to make it work," he says.

Highlighting the success of Challenge's four youth houses, O'Connor says these community houses are based on family and family values.

"There's a saying ‘love works'. And it does", he says.

Bridges agreed, commenting that having a family foundation, where people know they are loved gives people a massive advantage in life.

Responding to the question how Challenge makes it happen, Business Manager John Robinson (pictured) said Challenge enjoys an enormous amount of community support.

"Everything Challenge has is either donated or given to us. We remain very grateful" he said.

Bridges and Hudson said their farewells on the front steps of Challenge, where two years ago the then Prime Minister Bill English officially opened Challenge's newly donated premises.

A chat over morning tea became an hour-long visit.

On Monday, Jack Tame on TVNZ and Susie Ferguson on Morning report challenged his position.

Bridges said his position on abortions was that they should be "rare, safe, legal" - with an emphasis on rare.

He said he believes the present system is working well.

Bridges said the issue would be a conscious vote for National MPs.

On its website, TVNZ notes that Bridges is "religious."

Bridges' father was a Baptist minister and he is a practising Christian.

In a 2013 interview, Bridges said religion played a minor part in his adult life.

"I would still consider myself a believer. I do believe in God."

He and his wife Natalie are reported to have attended an Anglican church in Tauranga.

They met at Oxford while she was doing a Masters in English Literature and he was doing a Bachelor in Civil Law.

Both Ferguson and Tame's questions were motivated by the Irish voting in a referendum to remove the prohibition on abortion from their constitution.

"If you look at Ireland, they had a situation where it was probably the most restrictive regime in the western world - that's not where we're at" Bridges said.

Irish Minister for Health, Simon Harris, will seek the cabinet's backing on Tuesday to draft the new legislation.

The proposed legislation will allow abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

It will allow them up to the 24th week in exceptional circumstances.

New Zealand Catholic bishops' position is the law should protect the rights of both the mother and the unborn child.

They say it is both a justice and a health issue.

Source

• bbc.com
• radionz.co.nz
• thecivilian.co.nz
• tvnz.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• www.noted.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

Active monitoring of Easter trading law breaches may be scrapped in favour of giving labour inspectors more time to investigate migrant worker exploitation.

Labour Minister Simon Bridges has signalled that in the future officials may rely solely on complaints because inspection staff were needed elsewhere.

"There are some very serious issues in relation to migrant workers and exploitation in this country," he said.

"It is a question of using our resources and the labour inspectorate better."

There is support from the Employers and Manufacturers Association. EMA employment services manager David Lowe says they are getting cases of migrant workers being paid $4 or $5 an hour, which is unacceptable.

"We need to make sure that that law is upheld. And I certainly would say that that is far more important than worrying about whether a garden shop is open on Easter Sunday or not."

A garden shop chain that for years has ignored the law and opened at Easter has welcomed the Government's move to go easy on them next year.

Darren Odering's 10 garden centres are always open at Easter. Doing that has cost him nearly $200,000 in fines over the years, so he's welcoming news that the policing of Easter trading laws could be relaxed.

"Generally [it's] our Easter sale and we're very busy - a great time for planting - and we have a lot of demand from people to be open."

Family First NZ believes that the National government wants to liberalise Easter trading laws as a pay-back for the ‘Mondayisation' bill which was passed in April.

"Families throughout NZ take time out for family holidays, camps, reunions, Easter church events, cultural and recreational events over Easter weekends. Even politicians take a Parliamentary Recess during this period. Kiwis employed in the retail industry should also be able to enjoy the public holidays and extended weekend," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• 3 News
• NewsTalkZB
• Scoop
• Image: CND.3News.co