Sun 21 Sep 2014 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Kevin Hague The move towards charter schools, which are significantly funded by public money but run by groups such as anti-gay religious orgasations, will inevitably pick up momentum due to the general election outcome and spells trouble for some glbti students, according to senior Greens MP Kevin Hague. Hague will return to Parliament as one of six openly gay MPs. "Regarding education, we're in trouble there," he says. "To firm up their position National will inevitably do a deal with ACT so we won't be able to reverse the charter schools policy... we can't stop the real momentum charter schools are gaining." A report he released in August, How Safe Are Our Schools, concluded that only a third of New Zealand schools have policies around homophobic bullying, and barely any acknowledge gender diversity at all. Hague, who also guided a 2011 Greens report into how the lives of glbti youth can be improved, is concerned about the lack of consideration for glbti youth shown by private schools, most of whom are publicly funded, throughout the country. "The poor response rate from private schools, who are not subject to the Official Information Act, is disturbing," he says. "I can only hope we might be able to do something to require a higher level of accountability." Although the Green Party, which is staunchly supportive of glbti equality initiatives, did not surge ahead in the election as generally expected, Hague says he feels good about the campaign they ran. "We think it will stand us in good stead for the next election... and being in opposition won't stop us from working on our goals... it's quite possible we can work with National," he suggests. Hague says he also intends to approach whoever becomes the Minister of Justice in the new government with a view to pressing ahead with proposed changes to the Adoption Act to enable gay couples to adopt children.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 21st September 2014 - 11:41am