MICHAEL WOODHOUSE List MP in Dunedin

Joint Media Release: Woodhouse and Dean welcome Insulation Milestone

nospam@example.com (admin) — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:47:29 +1200

The Government’s initiative to help insulate New Zealand homes has been an outstanding success. Today we have reached the milestone of 150,000 homes insulated under Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart, said Dunedin based MP Michael Woodhouse and MP for Waitaki Jacqui Dean.

“Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart is making a real difference to people in Otago and throughout the country. To date 8,286 houses in Otago have been retrofitted under the scheme” Mr Woodhouse said.

“Each of those homes represents around two to three people so up to 24,000 people in Otago are now better off.

“Many of us get sick during winter with colds, flu, asthma, and allergies that proper insulation and heating can help prevent. Families here in Dunedin and throughout Otago can now keep themselves warmer, drier, and healthier throughout those cold winter months.”

Delivering better public services is one of National’s four key priorities and Ms Dean says insulating homes is a great example of this.

“Insulated homes are easier and cheaper to heat and keep at healthy temperatures. Warmer homes mean fewer visits to the doctor, and less need to take time off work or school,” Ms Dean said.

“The scheme is run by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority and offers funding to homes built before 2000 to help homeowners get ceiling or underfloor insulation. The programme is also a key part of our Relationship Accord with the Maori Party and our Memorandum of Understanding with the Green Party.

“I’m pleased that we have reached the milestone of 150,000 homes insulated under the scheme, and particularly delighted that over 8,000 Otago households are now living warmer and healthier lives,” Ms Dean said.

ENDS

Media Release: MP welcomes redevelopment of Carisbrook School

nospam@example.com (admin) — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:00:06 +1200

Dunedin-based National MP Michael Woodhouse welcomes today’s announcement for the approval of the redevelopment of Carisbrook School.

Associate Education Minister Craig Foss announced a $4.6 million investment to upgrade Carisbrook School which will provide a 21st Century learning environment for students.

“Last week I received a fair hearing from the Minister and left our meeting confident that he would approve the project,” Mr Woodhouse says.

“There is a lot of interest in the community on this issue and I am pleased a decision has been made which will go a long way to providing some certainty for the school community.

“Throughout the process, the Minister has been well versed on the issues facing this school and the need to bring forward the site upgrade.

“Everyone, from the Minister to school boards and parents, has been working together to secure the best possible outcome for the students.

“Today’s announcement reflects that hard work and the development of Carisbrook will be a great example of the modern-school model at work.

“The upgrade is expected to take about18 months to complete. More than 400 students will be based at the Caversham site for the beginning of the 2014 school year.”

The Dunedin school opened on 1 February 2012 as a result of decisions made in 2011 to merge Caversham Primary School, Calton Hill Primary School, and College Street Primary School.

To accommodate a growing school roll, students are currently split between the three school sites.

ENDS

Media Release: Carisbrook School

nospam@example.com (admin) — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:03:00 +1200

Dunedin-based National MP Michael Woodhouse was pleased with the reception from Associate Minister of Education, Hon Craig Foss, at their meeting late on Wednesday evening.

Mr Woodhouse had asked for the meeting to add his support for the proposal to bring forward the redevelopment plan for the new school on the Caversham site.

“I received a very fair hearing from Minister Foss” said Mr Woodhouse.

“He was well versed on the issues facing this school and the need to bring forward the site upgrade.”

“I left the meeting optimistic, if not overly confident that the Minister will approve the project and I will continue to work hard to that end.”

Carisbrook School opened on 1 February 2012 as a result of earlier decisions made in 2011 to merge Caversham Primary School, Calton Hill Primary School and College Street Primary School and create a new Year 1-8 school called Carisbrook School on the Caversham site.

This year there have been larger than expected numbers of students attending the school on the Caversham site meaning some students are still attending school on the other sites.

“There is a lot of interest in the community and I hope a decision will be made soon to deliver some certainty for the school community going forward,” said Mr Woodhouse.

ENDS

Video update

nospam@example.com (admin) — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:11:00 +1200

In this update Michael talks about some of the things he has been up to recently, including his recent visit to Christchurch with Hon Amy Adams. Michael goes on to talk about the recent Mainland National Party Conference and its focus on education policy. Michael also discusses the issues surrounding the Hillside Rail Workshops and finishes by talking about the latest result for the Highlanders.

Media Release: MP reacts to KiwiRail’s announcement to sell Hillside

nospam@example.com (admin) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:20:41 +1200

National List MP in Dunedin Michael Woodhouse today described KiwiRail’s announcement of the decision to sell Hillside as a potentially very positive development for the struggling engineering workshop.

“KiwiRail have been challenged for months to make a decision about Hillside and now they have done so,” says Mr Woodhouse.

“From the beginning, it has been clear that any decisions regarding the future of Hillside would be commercial decisions, not political ones.

“While I believe there are positive impacts for Dunedin that could come from the sale of Hillside, this decision was made solely by KiwiRail with no involvement or influence by the Government.

“The sale of Hillside is a great opportunity for owners with more commercial engineering experience and a wider customer base.

“New opportunities exist nationally and internationally for a new owner to grow the business beyond just rail needs.

“Hillside’s capabilities involve heavy engineering work, so it makes sense that a specialist engineering business take the site over and widen the scope and manufacturing ability of the complex.

“This decision is by no mean the demise of Hillside. But the sale and future success of Hillside will largely depend on the reactions of the unions and Dunedin residents and the support they choose to give to potential new owners.”

KiwiRail has committed to continuing to allocate heavy maintenance rail work to the new owners.

ENDS

Michael speaking on the Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction Amendment Bill - First Reading

nospam@example.com (admin) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:38:32 +1200

nospam@example.com (admin) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:23:25 +1200

Building a Brighter Future - Pacific Affairs

Column: Hyde Street Keg Party: Too Public, Too Dangerous, Too Costly

nospam@example.com (admin) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:41:00 +1300

Whenever I see articles about alcohol that begin with “I’m not a wowser but...” I think ‘here comes a sermon from a wowser’. So I won’t bother starting that way. I’ll just say that there is no good reason for the public of Dunedin to continue to tolerate public drinking events on the scale of that seen at the Hyde Street Keg Party (HSKP) last Saturday.

The event fails any rational test of benefit on a social, wellbeing, cultural, economic, academic, or reputation basis for either the University or the City. Where the University once benefited from - and for a time, through its marketing, tacitly endorsed - the quirky tomfoolery of students, events like the HSKP and the Undie 500 grew to such scale as to be uncontrollable by authorities.

Organisers and participants can rightly ask what the annual HSKP has to do with me and other Dunedinites and the social liberal in me tends to agree. I support individual freedoms as long as they don’t impinge on the freedoms of others; as long as the costs of one’s actions fall on the individual. However, in the case of the HSKP, they don’t. Dozens of Police, Campus Security, Emergency Department staff, Fire Service personnel and Council staff are deployed to control the event at a direct cost of tens of thousands. Add to that the clean-up, the damage to property, loss of value to landlords, ACC claim costs and the long term damage to the reputation of the University, there is no doubt that the costs to the wider community far exceed the benefit to a drunken few.

I ask OUSA President Logan Edgar, whose Association funded marketing, portaloos, and other support for the event whether OUSA would also be prepared to underwrite the enormous cost of damage the event does. I’m sure he would argue that this isn’t expected of other organisations when they hold sporting or cultural events. He would be correct of course, but then those events don’t so comprehensively fail the test of any benefit in the way the HSKP does.

If we learnt one thing from last Saturday, it was that we need to call time on the Hyde Street Keg Party.

ENDS

Michael speaking on the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill - Second Reading

nospam@example.com (admin) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:54:00 +1300

Speech: Fair Trading (Soliciting on behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill – Second Reading

nospam@example.com (admin) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:16:00 +1300

On behalf of Michael Woodhouse, I move that the Fair Trading (Soliciting on behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill be now read a second time.

I want to begin by thanking the Hon Amy Adams for bringing this important issue to the attention of the House and congratulate her for the effort she has put in to what is such an important cause and worthwhile Bill.

It is my pleasure to have this Bill transferred into my name and I am pleased to be able to contribute to such an important piece of legislation.

It is important that the public have faith that their donations to charities are going to the charities.

I want to increase public confidence in charitable appeals.

I want to improve transparency and accountability for those who work with charities.

And I want to discourage third party collectors from charging charities exorbitant fees for their services.

This Bill seeks to restore confidence in the charitable giving sector.

The purpose of the bill is to increase the transparency and public accountability of third-party businesses that collect funds on behalf of registered charities.

There is a concern that a disproportionate percentage of donated money may be retained by the third-party collectors to cover “costs”, and that the members of the public making the donations are not aware of this.

The Bill purposely does not seek to address the issue of consumer confidence involving charities’ internal use of funds. This is not where the concern lies, and indeed donors are free to decide on the basis of information about a charity’s objects whether it is worthy of their philanthropy. What isn’t available is the degree to which donations made are having the “ticket clipped” so to speak, by collections agents, and the proportion of the donation being retained by them.

By way of example I am aware of a recent news release highlighting a group collecting on behalf of two very well-regarded charities where under that organisation’s retention model the full first year of a donor’s regular monthly donation is retained by the collection agent. I believe the public have a right to know more about those arrangements in order to make an informed decision about whether, where and how much one is prepared to donate.

Concern also exits around the professional telemarketing firms and the so-called “chuggers”, or “charity muggers”, who approach and occasionally hassle passers-by on the street to donate to a charity.

I have spent many hours volunteering to collect money on the street for charities like Arthritis New Zealand, my Rotary Club and other worthwhile charities. I’m sure many of my colleagues in the House today have done the same.

I am pleased to be able to contribute in this way to the fantastic work that our charities do.

However, through forcing disclosure of improper practices, I am hopeful that worthwhile fundraising campaigns will not suffer from growing public concern about how much of the money donated actually gets to those it is intended for.

I would like to thank the Commerce Committee of the 49th Parliament under the Chairmanship of the Hon Lianne Dalziel for their hard work and recommendations to ensure this Bill achieves its intention.

The committee received and considered 25 submissions on this Bill from interested groups and individuals.

One of these submissions was from Arthritis New Zealand, who along with a number of other submitters, generally support the aim of this Bill.

In their submission, Arthritis New Zealand stated that as a charity, they had been concerned by media reports on the lack of transparency in the collection and use of money by some charities.

They said, and I quote, “our experience is that these reports make the donating public extremely nervous and this impinges on our good name and that of others”.

Well, they are absolutely right. The lack of transparency around third-parties has caused public concern towards donating to charities.

The Commerce Committee recommended the bill be changed so the new rules will be delivered through regulations, rather than by amending the primary legislation as originally intended.

The first version of the bill added provisions to the Fair Trading Act to prescribe what can or can’t be done when soliciting on behalf of charities.

It proposed amendments to the unfair practices part of the Fair Trading Act 1986 that would require disclosure by collectors, in particular by providing that when a third-party collector retains more than 20 per cent of the funds raised; this fact must be disclosed to the public.

The bill also provided that where the retained portion is greater than 50 per cent, the percentage portion must be disclosed proactively.

The committee concluded that the complexities involved could not be dealt with in primary legislation and that there is no simple universal solution.

The bill has been changed to instead provide for a regulation-making power. This gives more flexibility to make the changes work. I thank those officials who support the Committee through the submissions and deliberation process, and also those involved in redrafting the Bill to give effect to the Committee’s recommendations.

The select committee’s recommendations uphold the purpose of the Bill in its original form in that it they will create transparency and ensure that the public are in fact aware of where their donations are going and just how much is going to the charity.

I welcome the Commerce Committee’s recommendations and I commend this Bill to the House.

ENDS

Video Update: Michael Woodhouse MP

nospam@example.com (admin) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:23:38 +1300

In this video update Michael talks about the speech the Prime Minster gave last week and the supplementary questions that Michael asked the PM in the Parliament. He then goes on to talk about the campaign launch for Arthritis New Zealand. Michael discusses the issues facing the Otago Rugby Union, and the solution that has been found to those issues. He also discusses the marmite shortage.

Media Release: MP helps launch Arthritis New Zealand’s new awareness campaign

nospam@example.com (admin) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:07:55 +1300

Senior Government Whip Michael Woodhouse and other MPs today helped launch Arthritis New Zealand’s new nationwide awareness campaign.

The awareness campaign, titled “Arthritis, it could surprise you!” features a television commercial and an interactive website.

The new television commercial and interactive website focus on osteoarthritis – the most common form of arthritis in New Zealand.

The launch was to take part on the Parliament grass with a game of cricket between the Members of Parliament team, led by Michael Woodhouse and the Arthritis New Zealand All Stars team, with top New Zealand cricket umpire Billy Bowden as the special guest umpire.

“A cricket match would have been a fantastic way to launch the new awareness campaign, and tie in the theme of the new commercial which tells the story of a New Zealand family playing cricket on the beach,” Mr Woodhouse said.

“Unfortunately the weather prevented us from hitting a few overs. But the message and aim of the campaign is still the same – that is, people with arthritis can still live a full and active lifestyle if diagnosed early and treated accordingly.

“That is the important message that Arthritis New Zealand’s ‘It could surprise you” awareness campaign is trying to communicate to the public.
“More than 305,000 New Zealand adults are living with osteoarthritis which means it affects nearly everyone in some way, whether it is personally or through a friend or family,” Mr Woodhouse said.

Osteoarthritis is the result of a mechanical breakdown in the joints. In a healthy joint, cartilage provides a smooth surface between the bones that allows for easy movement. When a joint develops osteoarthritis, the cartilage gets thin and rough and, in some cases, completely breaks down, leaving the bones unprotected.

Mr Woodhouse, who was diagnosed with another form of arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis (AS), about 14 years ago, said he was pleased to launch Arthritis New Zealand’s latest campaign about osteoarthritis.

“I was incredibly lucky that my GP diagnosed AS quickly, which enabled me to get the treatment that I needed straight away.

“Having AS is just something I have to deal with, it does not define me. Through the years I’ve managed to keep up rugby refereeing and for my sins have taken the field for the parliamentary rugby team.”

To learn more about arthritis, or to view the new television commercial, click here.

ENDS

Media Release: Dunedin schools to be connected to ultra-fast broadband network

nospam@example.com (admin) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:40:25 +1300

Michael Woodhouse, National List MP based in Dunedin, welcomes news this week that students from 21 Dunedin schools will have access to ultra-fast broadband by July next year.

“I’m delighted schools in Dunedin, including Halfway Bush and Kaikorai School will have access to ultra-fast broadband, and all the services it brings, by the middle of next year,” he says.

“Ultra-fast broadband is an exciting tool for the future of education and will allow schools and their communities to prepare for what will be a transformation in teaching.

“Schools will be able to share scarce resources like physics and IT teachers, and students will be able to take part in virtual classrooms and courses that might not be available at their own schools.

“Faster internet will help connect our schools with the world and prepare students for living and working in the 21st century.

“Building a more competitive and productive economy is one of the Government’s four key priorities for our second term and the rollout of UFB is a vital part of this.”

“National is spending $1.65 billion on its ultra-fast broadband initiative and rural broadband initiative (RBI). We have this week announced a further 693 schools to be connected to the ultra-fast broadband network. By July next year, more than 410,000 students at over 1500 schools around the country will be connected under both initiatives. Our commitment means no school will miss out once the roll-out is complete.

By the end of 2015, 97.7 per cent of schools and 99.9 per cent of students will receive ultra-fast fibre enabling speeds of 100 Mbps.

The remaining schools, which are in the most remote locations, will receive a high-speed wireless or satellite connection.

The 21 Dunedin schools that will be connected to UFB fibre by July 2013 are:

Broad Bay School
Brockville School
Halfway Bush School
Kaikorai School
Liberton Christian School
Macandrew Bay School
Macandrew Intermediate
Musselburgh School
Portobello School
Ravensbourne School
Sacred Heart School (Dunedin)
Sara Cohen School
St Bernadette's School (Forbury)
St Brigids School (Tainui)
St Clair School
St Joseph's Cathedral School
St Leonard's School (Dunedin)
St Mary's School (Dunedin)
St Peter Chanel School (Green Island)
Tahuna Normal Intermediate
Tainui School

ENDS

Video update

nospam@example.com (admin) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:01:00 +1300

In this update Michael talks about extended sitting hours and in particular the passage of Treaty of Waitangi Settlements. He then goes on to discuss the mixed ownership model legislation and the sporting events that have been, or are taking place in Otago.

nospam@example.com (admin) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:40:52 +1300

Blue&Gold: March 2012