What he said :- I love the diversity that immigration brings, Maori believes in manaaki, everyone should know and learn about the Treaty of Waitangi, Police has done an amazing job in tackling bias against maori, Iwis also have a role to play in bettering maori health outcomes
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Born in Korea, and brought up in Malaysia, Melissa Lee moved to New Zealand as a young adult in 1988. What followed was over two decades of journalism in both print and television, including fifteen years as the presenter and producer on TVNZ’s Asia Dynamic and Asia Down Under with 600 episodes to her credit. In 2008, she entered Parliament as a National list MP, making her New Zealand’s first Korean MP. Alongside, she held positions as a Vice President of the Korean Society, Vice-President of the Korean Womens’ Association, Board member of the Asia-Pacific Producers’ Network, advisor to the National Unification Council of Korea, and an Asian advisor to the Auckland Police.
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"I absolutely despise the word assimilation. I think it should be consigned to the dustbins of history. A similar such word is tolerance. These words inherently mean that there is one preferred way of doing things, and everyone should adhere to that. Among developed nations, France is the only one, which went on the path of assimilation due to its cultural arrogance and it’s been an absolute failure there. What we should do instead, is integration and acceptance. A rather simplistic analogy is that of a soup and fried rice. In a soup, you can’t taste the ingredients separately, which is possible in fried rice. I want our New Zealand society to be like fried rice."
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Abhinav Manota, an Indian immigrant who came to New Zealand in 2014, to study Diploma in Business and Enterprise Management (Level 7) from Christchurch-based Abacus Institute of Studies, is now the new Zealand men's singles champion in Badminton. Describing his journey, he said, "Along with my studies, I started playing with Badminton Canterbury players when I was a bit settled in Christchurch. That gave me an opportunity to represent Canterbury in the nationals. Dylan saw my potential and invited me to shift to North Shore so that we can train together. I did. Nowadays, I train at least four hours everyday, and have equipment sponsorship from Badminton New Zealand. Their support in my success has been great."
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"Certainly not. Over 27,000 charities for a country our size, doesn't make any sense. Duplication and proliferation are the two major issues here. Firstly, we have to understand and acknowledge that a lot many charitable trusts are formed for tax avoidance purposes. The problem is once a charity passes the public benefit test in New Zealand, it doesn't have to pay any taxes. This is absurd. We need to change that. A charity should be able to accept donations and people who donate get tax reliefs. But the charity itself is not tax exempt. We need to divorce these two things."
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Democracy in action! MPs from all four major political parties putting their parties stand in front of the New Zealand public on April 27 at the Aurora Centre for Performing Arts. From left - Denis O'Rourke from NZ First, Megan Woods from Labour, Stuart Smith from National, and Kennedy Graham from Greens. Also on stage is350.org organiser Charles Drace. (picture credit: Elizabeth Guthrey)
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A number of organisations in the Christchurch and Canterbury region are merging into a single entity – ChristchurchNZ – in an effort to optimise the opportunities that tourism, international education, major events, city promotion and economic development can deliver. These include Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism (CCT), the Convention Bureau, Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC), Christchurch Educated, and the Christchurch City Council’s Major Events team. Together, their purpose is to "support prosperity, opportunity and a great quality of life in Christchurch and Canterbury". The new entity will be located in the new BNZ Centre, Cashel Mall once the premises are completed in July or August. One example of collaboration already underway is the Canterbury Job Ready Programme, designed and delivered by economic development, regional Chambers of Commerce, NZ Trade and Enterprise and the regional international education team.
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Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse on April 19 announced changes to permanent immigration settings include introducing two remuneration thresholds for applicants applying for residence under the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC), which will complement the current qualifications and occupation framework. One will be set at the New Zealand median income of $48,859 a year for jobs that are currently considered skilled. The other threshold will be set at 1.5 times the New Zealand median income of $73,299 a year for jobs that are not currently considered skilled but are well paid. These changes will come into effect on August 14, 2017. He also proposed a number of changes to temporary migration settings to manage the number and settlement expectations of new migrants coming to New Zealand on Essential Skills work visas. Additionally, the minister announced a one-off pathway to residence for around 4,000 long-term temporary migrant workers and their families living in the South Island.
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