Mangere Labour MP Aupito William Sio has hit out at claims by Tongan Māori Party candidate Manase Lua that Labour has done nothing for Pasifika people.

In comments reported by Kaniva News, Lua said Labour had backed 80 percent of the National Party’s legislation.

Aupito, who is Labour’s spokesperson for Pacific Island Affairs, said the Māori Party had been part of the National government and was responsible for New Zealand’s growing unequal society.

“They are responsible for the growing unequal society we now have,” Aupito said.

“While the wealth of the wealthiest New Zealanders continues to rise, we see more homelessness in our communities.

“People live in cars, garages, or share a bedroom among several people in a boarding house, a caravan, or hotel room.

“New Zealand never used to be this way. The Salvation Army tell us they see more and more people who work full-time coming to them for food parcels.

Māori Party support
““All this has happened under the National government, supported by the Māori Party.”

Aupito said that in opposition Labour had challenged the government on its spending of public funds and advocated strongly for more affordable housing, better fund healthcare, free education and for the lifting of family incomes and workers’ incomes.

“National has refused and only promised tax cuts, which favour the very wealthy.

“Labour has voted against the government’s budget in the last nine years because we don’t believe in giving wealthy people more money at the expense of creating more poverty, more homelessness and making it difficult for families to put their children through tertiary studies.”

Inequality more severe
In an interview with Kaniva News before the last election in 2014, Aupito said that in the previous six years inequality in New Zealand had become severe.

“People come to my office for a variety of reasons and often turn up as a last resort where they just aren’t getting any assistance from the various government departments,” he said.

“A lot of these issues have been determined by the struggles our families are facing.

“There’s also the housing crisis which affects so many of our Pacific families.

“The housing crisis has also been exacerbated due to the government removing itself from providing state houses.”

In the same interview, Aupito defended Labour’s record against criticism from the Pacific community for its stand on gay marriage.

He said at the time that while he respected members of the gay community, he had voted against gay marriage to reflect the views of the majority view of his Pasifika constituency.

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By Hele Ikimotu in Auckland

Pasifika youth should be more engaged with climate change, says a Labour MP.

With the damaging effects of climate change increasing, Labour spokesperson for Pacific Island Affairs Su’a William Sio says it is important for young Pasifika people to be aware of the issue.

“As Pacific people, we will have a sympathetic view towards the Pacific and can advocate strongly for the rest of New Zealand to look at the Pacific with humanitarian eyes.”

He said young people were in an advantageous position to be aware of climate change.

“They’ve got strengths and talents that they can use in telling the climate change story, which will have an impact on the rest of the world.

“This is a defining issue for the world and it’s an issue that future generations are going to have to deal with.”

According to NASA, sea levels have risen by about 20.32 cm since the beginning of the 20th century.

Climate change awareness
The areas most affected by climate change include Fiji, Kiribati and Tuvalu.

A report by the Pacific-Australia Climate Change Science and Adaptation Planning Programme (PACCSAP) estimated that by 2100, sea levels would rise by 20-60cm in Pacific Island countries.

Su’a said it was mainly the government’s responsibility to raise awareness.

“Ultimately governments have the power and resources to drive the issue. It should be included as part and parcel of our educational curriculum,” he said.

In March, Fonua, a play framed around climate change showcased at the Mangere Arts Centre as part of the Auckland Arts Festival and further enabled people to understand the realities of climate change, organisers said.

“It was a Polynesian response to climate change – we just wanted to bring awareness around it,” Fonua‘s artistic director Jase Manumu’a said.

Manumu’a said the show ultimately brought the Pacific Island community together to understand how detrimental climate change was.

Climate change ‘topical’
Professor Geoffrey Craig, head of research within Auckland University’s of Technology’s (AUT) School of Communication Studies, said climate change was a topical issue that people needed to be aware of.

Also a former environmental journalist, Dr Craig said a lot of people saw climate change as a “frightening issue”, but that it was starting to become more active.

“Issues relating to the environment are going to be hitting home now over the next few decades. So the people who are going to be really affected by it are young people,” he said.

Hele Ikimotu is a Niuean and Banaban-Gilbertese student journalist on his final year of a Bachelor of Communication Studies, majoring in journalism, at Auckland University of Technology.

Radio Waatea and The Daily Blog featured the Pacific and climate change on their daily live Fifth Estate programme tonight.

Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury spoke to a panel, including Labour spokesman on Pacific affairs Sua William Sio who was stranded at Tarawa on a fact-finding mission to Kiribati.

Sua spoke about the “fighting spirit” of Pacific islanders trying to sustain life in the face of the reality of climate change and called for a better United Nations framework for Pacific people impacted on by the dramatic changes as a result of global warming.

Many of the speakers talked about New Zealand needing to accept Pacific climate change migrations, adopt humanitarian policies and tackle the issue of sovereignty of their communities.

“We have to recognise and have a serious discussion about people from the vulnerable climate change frontline states who are overstayers in New Zealand because I now recognise that some of them, depending on which islands they belong to, cannot go back to those islands,” said Sua.

“You can’t be an overstayer if you have got nowhere to go back to,” said Bradbury.

In the studio for the programme were:

International refugee Michael Timmins, a lawyer who has worked internationally with NGOs and the UN refugee agency UNHCR

Professor David Robie, director of AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre

On the phone from Samoa: Ötara-Papatoetoe Local Board Councillor Efeso Collins

And on Skype live from Kiribati as part of his fact-finding mission in the Pacific: Labour Party Spokesperson on Pacific Affairs and Pacific Climate Change Sua William Sio

• Watch Fifth Estate and climate change on YouTube
• Discussion plus at The Daily Blog