1[The House] New bills, ferry debacles and Samoan citizenship rights Parliament tussled through another long week of urgency, and more besides. The House weekend edition has a stormy debate on ferries, five new bills for comment, and submissions on restoring Samoan citizenship rights. Parliament’s week began with an urgent (i.e. unplanned) debate into the recent stranding of an Interislander ferry (and the demise of the ferry replacement contract). You can read and listen to our report on that debate debate here. The debate was unusually and (sometimes unintentionally) entertaining. The best accidental fun arose from ACT MP Cameron Luxton’s complaint that there are not nearly enough back-office public servants – quite the opposite to ACT’s usual line. He even backed that claim up with numbers. The debate quality was raised by the Speaker’s use of a new rule that meant MPs had an extra hour of preparation for their speeches. New bills wanting feedback Once Parliament’s week began in earnest, ten different bills were debated under urgency through one or more stages. Two bills were debated from start to finish: the Transport (Clean Vehicle Standard) Amendment Bill, and the Forests (Log Traders and Forestry Advisers Repeal) Amendment Bill. Five new bills received only first readings during the urgency. All of them will now be opened up for public feedback. The new bills would: remove agriculture from the carbon trading, bring back charter schools, bring back three strikes sentencing, allow overseas investors to buy land for housing developments, and repeal the recently passed regulatory framework for medicines, alt health products and medical devices. For more details on all those bills read the story here. Returning Samoan citizenship rights While the House spent the week debating under urgency, the Governance and Administration Committee found moments around the extended sittings to hear submissions on a member’s bill about Samoan citizenship. The Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill is in the name of Green MP Teanau Tuiono. It seeks to correct what all parties seem to agree is an historical wrong – committed by the Muldoon government in 1982. In 1982, Robert Muldoon’s National government passed a bill expressly to ignore and outflank a finding of the Privy Council (then New Zealand’s highest court). The Privy Council had ruled that a generation of Samoans, born when Samoa was under New Zealand control, were in fact New Zealand citizens (Falema'i Lesa v Attorney General NZ). The 1982 law stripped them of that right. There are only an estimated 5,000 of that generation still alive. They were born between early 1924 and the end of 1948. The current bill would create a means for them to gain that citizenship. It doesn’t include any reparations, or an automatic right for their descendants to acquire the same right. [Sunday 30 June 2024, 07:00]

2[The Detail] Aotearoa's first historical feature film in te reo, from a Māori lens | A long fight to tell the story of New Zealand Wars in te reo After years of development and funding rejections, Ka Whawhai Tonu hits cinemas this weekend. The story behind the groundbreaking film about the New Zealand Wars, and its battle for funding. The groundbreaking film Ka Whawhai Tonu goes to cinemas this Matariki weekend, with high hopes of a box office success after eight years of development and several funding rejections. The pivotal 1864 battle of O-Rākau in the New Zealand Wars in Waikato is told through the eyes of two young teenagers caught up in the chaos of the battle. It is the first feature film to tell a piece of history from the Māori perspective, in te reo - and that made it difficult to secure funding, says lead producer Piripi Curtis. "Everyone's going, 'sounds good, but am I going to get my money back? No, it's too risky'," he says. Speaking to The Detail at his family home on the shores of Lake Rotoiti in Bay of Plenty, Curtis says one of the challenges was convincing the Film Commission that three first-time feature filmmakers could pull it off. "They have trust issues," says Curtis. "They need to know that you're not going to take the money and throw it away." It declined funding at least three times, but continued to support the film's development. The film was made on a budget of $7.6 million, half the Film Commission's recommended $15 million, but Curtis says it was all they could scrape together. It included $2.5 million from the commission's Te Rautaki Māori fund, as well as smaller amounts from Te Mangai Paho, NZ on Air, and Te Puni Kōkiri's Te Pūtake o te Riri which raises awareness about the New Zealand Land Wars. The team also went to friends and family, and applied for grants and sponsorships, but it was the 40 percent Screen Production Rebate that got the project over the line, Curtis says. "We tried every avenue. We've been out there and gone to a lot of places," he says. He even tried BNZ after learning more about the role of its founders, particularly that of Thomas Russell, in funding the New Zealand Wars in Waikato. "I went to the BNZ bank and said 'hey, how about you help out with our publicity as a way to front foot your role in the NZ land wars because people are still hurting from it'. "So I got as far as the third tier, but he couldn't get past his own boss who was in the second tier and then of course there's the top tier boss. "So I guess I really wanted to say how miserable the BNZ has been in responding to their own history of devastation and blood, and they couldn't even front up with some cash." In response the BNZ says it "receives numerous requests for funds or sponsorship for various commercial and philanthropic projects and [is] unable to support them all". Curtis says the box office takings this weekend are important to this film and future projects in this genre. "If we make this a box office success, especially in the Matariki weekend, we get to change the funding landscape for our films because no one's funding our films. So if we can prove that this is a sound financial investment we'll be able to see more of our own stories, which is really crucial." [Tuesday 25 June 2024, 05:00]

3[Sporting Witness] Muhammad Ali started MMA Muhammad Ali’s controversial fight against professional wrestler Antonio Inoki in 1976. The story of Muhammad Ali’s controversial fight against professional wrestler Antonio Inoki in Tokyo in 1976. It's now considered by many as the origin of MMA mixed martial arts. In June 1976, Muhammad Ali was the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Ali travelled to Tokyo, Japan to face his next opponent, the professional wrestler Antonio Inoki. In a first of its kind, the exhibition fight called “The War of the Worlds” was met with controversy because of the rules applied. Ringside Photographer Claude Charlier tells Sean Allsop how the fight unfolded in a packed Budokan Hall and how many now consider this fight the origin of MMA Mixed Martial Arts. Released on: Saturday 22 June 2024