Why is the video of Mana Wāhine Kōrero’s oral submission against the Midwifery Council’s revised Scope of Practice being withheld from public viewing?
In an extraordinary move, the NZ Parliament Petitions
Committee has decided to withhold the videoed oral submission made against the
Midwifery Council’s revised Scope of Practice by Māori women’s group Mana Wāhine Kōrero (Sovereign
Women Speak) from public viewing.
The Petitions
Committee, who “oversees and coordinates the petitions process, and
considers petitions and any related matters”, has advised of this decision
without explanation. Conversely, they have made the videoed oral submissions by
the Midwifery Council and midwife Deb Hayes, who was the initiator of the petition against Midwifery Council’s revised Scope of
Practice, available for public viewing.
The Committee invited Deb and two groups - Mana Wāhine
Kōrero and the Midwifery Council - to make oral submissions to them about the
petition, which had collected almost 7,500 signatures. That’s a lot of
signatures for a Parliamentary petition in New Zealand. However, many more
people than those who signed it agree that a document about women and babies
should at least have the words ‘woman’ and ‘baby’ in it. The Midwifery Council
spent four years revising their Scope of Practice, which takes up no more space
than an A4 piece of paper, only to make it sexless and baby-less. At the last
minute before officially gazetting the Scope, in response to what I’m guessing was a
grudging awareness of the petition, they (perfunctorily) inserted the words
‘woman’ and ‘baby’ into it before the petition was presented to Parliament.
The entire development of the Midwifery Council’s revised
Scope of Practice has been a woke shambles. Both Deb and Mana Wāhine Kōrero
have dug deep and exposed this, which, using the discovery of that information,
I have previously written about. I have included screenshot versions of the
Scope in both English and te reo Māori (Māori language) in the above-linked
article. See if you can make any sense of this revised Scope.
Normally, videos are available for public viewing shortly
after oral submissions to Parliamentary committees have been made. But, for
reasons unknown, the Petitions Committee have advised that Mana Wāhine Kōrero’s
video of their oral submission will not be made available for public viewing.
Whatever is in their submission which the Committee has deemed unsuitable
hasn’t been conveyed to them.
I watched the livestream of the oral submissions to the
Petitions Committee about the Midwifery Council’s revised Scope of Practice,
and heard nothing I considered objectionable. If we’re scraping the bottom of
the barrel, the only ‘objectionable’ thing I heard was the Midwifery Council’s
rather less-than-stellar performance from a professional body. True, Di Landy
and Sarah Henderson’s joint submission on behalf of Mana Wāhine Kōrero asked
some hard questions, as I would expect in any important matter, but whether or
not that is what the Committee has deemed unsuitable for public consumption can
only be guessed at.
In light of the Petitions Committee decision, Reality Check Radio
(RCR) has invited Di and Sarah to read their oral submissions on ‘Breakfast
with Paul Brennan’ on Monday 30th September NZT. The replay will be
available afterwards.
In the video embedded in their blog below titled “What’s
going on??!”, Di and Sarah discuss what has happened. Di also notes that
when her sister, Rex, called MP Ginny Anderson a “fucking disgrace” at the end
of her oral submission about prisons a while ago, not only was that video kept
available for public consumption, it got into the news!¹
NB: Mana Wāhine Kōrero have their own Substack. I have copied and pasted this blog below from there, because X shadow bans anything with a Substack link in it.
What's going on??!
Pānui, Pānui, Pānui!
The Parliament Petitions Select Committee have declined to upload our 12th of September video submission about the Midwifery Council’s (mis)use of Te Reo Māori in their Revised Scope of Practice.
Effectively, the public record will show that we were never there.
Proof that we were there and spoke: left to right, MWK co-founder Di Landy making her submission, Petitioner & Midwife Deb Hayes, & MWK member & founder of Terfs Across the Water Rex Landy in support. Not pictured, Sarah Henderson, MWK member submitting via Zoom. Image thanks to Stone the Crone, Terf Sister in Australia. Kia Ora Stone.
Di and Sarah discuss the developments here on MWK's YouTube channel
When we asked why our submission was not allowed to be viewed, we were brusquely informed that no reason why or when it might be available could be shared with us.
So we will be reading it out loud on Reality Check Radio instead, on Monday morning, on Paul Brennan’s Breakfast Show. Join us and find out what’s going on! Click Here for RCR.
This is not the first time that we have been ignored or denied a chance to enter our objections about the Midwifery Council into the public record without a proper explanation.
The Petitions Committee did accept our written submission, but suddenly they don’t want to upload our video.
The Regulations Review Committee were very polite, but of all the groups who made complaints, the only group whose complaint was rejected was ours; the only dedicated Māori organisation speaking about the use of ‘whānau’ among them.
Every sitting member of the 53rd Parliament ignored our email outlining our concerns.
Why doesn’t the Petitions Committee or other unknown persons in the Government now want anyone to hear or see us? What question did we ask that hit a little too close to home? Who or what is being protected?
To get the clearest picture of what is happening, we recommend listening to the submissions in the order we appeared:
Petitioner & midwife Deb Hayes (whose video we’re relieved is available and linked below).
On Monday 30th, on Paul Brennan’s Breakfast Show (available by replay if you miss it) MWK co-founder Di Landy and member Sarah Henderson will read our submissions on air and discuss events.
Then watch the Midwifery Council’s response and consider their reasoning for doing what they’re doing. Their video is linked below on the same page as Deb’s.
To get to Deb and the Midwifery Council’s video submissions, Click Here
We look forward to this issue becoming a matter of open, public discussion - the hallmark of free societies.
“He Wāhine, He Whenua ka ora Te Tangata - It is by Women and by Land, that the People are given Life”.
Noho tūturu, noho tangata!
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