MPs Release Australian Travel Itinerary
new-zealand-labour-party
Tue Aug 07 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
MPs Release Australian Travel Itinerary
Tuesday, 7 August 2007, 3:55 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party
Labour, Maori Party And Green Mps Release Travel Itinerary
Tuesday 7th August 2007
MPs Hone Harawira, Nandor Tanczos, Lynne Pillay, Ann Hartley and Charles Chauvel resolved yesterday to release the itinerary of the Justice and Electoral Committee in Melbourne this week.
Last week, the three National Party members of the committee announced via the media, without raising any prior concerns with their committee colleagues, that they would not participate in the visit to Melbourne. This was despite their full involvement in travel arrangements and setting the itinerary.
Lynne Pillay, speaking between meetings from Melbourne, said “as the National Party members knew when they backed out last week, the itinerary was still being finalised between officials in the Office of the Clerk and the Victorian Parliament.
“Now that it is confirmed, it is obviously robust and substantial. Between our check-in at Auckland Airport early yesterday morning and our departure from Melbourne at noon on Friday, we will have held fourteen substantive meetings, as can be seen from the attached itinerary.
“We are calling on, amongst other agencies, the Victorian Electoral Commission, the Electoral Matters and Law Reform Committees of the Victorian Parliament, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, the Neighbourhood Justice Centre, the Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal and the Victoria Police Victims’ Advisory Unit.
“It is a shame our committee’s National Party members will miss out on valuable insights to assist our consideration of the electoral finance bill, our inquiry into victims’ rights and our consideration of the efficiency of the provision of legal services to the Crown. The committee clerk decided on these three key outcomes and every meeting we take contributes to them. These are important issues, and we are disappointed the National members do not seem to think so” says Pillay.
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“We record our thanks to officials in New Zealand and Victoria for their hard work putting together our itinerary. We look forward to reporting to Parliament on what we have learned from this exchange.”
See:
ENDS
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