Te Korowai Ture ō Waitākere

The WCLS are proud to be  continuing it’s association with the Massey Community House, located at Triangle Park on Don Buck Road in Massey. We will be providing education services there in the month of May, and you are most welcome to come along! They will be entitled ‘Life Skills Sessions’, and we hope to provide practical advice for people in the NZ of today about their legal rights and how to protect themselves. The details are as follows:

Protecting Yourself as a Tenant and Flatmate

An important difference in the law is the distinction between a tenant and a flatmate. They carry very different obligations, and it’s important to know what your rights and responsibilities are before it’s too late. This is going to be an overview of the Residential Tenancies Act, and will be interlaced with flatting scenarios for discussion.

When: Tuesday 15^th of May at 10am, FREE
Where: Massey Community House (Triangle Park, Don Buck Rd, Massey)
Click here to book yourself in! <http://www.waitakerelaw.org.nz/our-services/bookings>

Protecting Your Children With The Law

We’ll be covering parenting through separation and protection orders. We will also cover CYFS applications.  This is ideal for couples that have or are separating, family violence or child service sector workers, parents that have or are experiencing family violence or people that want to up-skill in this important area.

When: Tuesday 22^nd of May 10am, FREE

Where: Massey Community House (Triangle Park, Don Buck Rd, Massey)

Click here to book yourself in! <http://www.waitakerelaw.org.nz/our-services/bookings>

Traffic Offences and Drink Driving

We will focus on traffic offences relating to drink driving and those which can carry serious penalties. This is a good session for anyone interested in traffic law, and we would encourage questions, comments and stories.

When: Tuesday 29^th of May, FREE

Where: Massey Community House (Triangle Park, Don Buck Rd, Massey)

Click here to book yourself in! <http://www.waitakerelaw.org.nz/our-services/bookings>

We are also putting on some night school classes in Massey High School near the end of the year, stay tuned for details!

The Maori caucus of the Coalition of Community Law Centres wrote a submission on the changes to the Legal Aid Amendment Act which argued that these changes eroded access to justice, and consequently would perpetuate the over representation of Māori in the justice system.

This collective submission was recorded by Radio NZ, and has subsequently provided an affidavit for the Criminal Bar Association, who is challenging these changes in the High Court. We are going to be holding a forum to discuss these issues, with the details of the forum to be announced shortly. Some good resources on the subject are as follows:

Department of Corrections. (2007) Over-representation of Māori in the criminal justice system, An exploratory report. Read online here.

Gordon, L (2011). Causes of and solutions to inter-generation crime: the final report of the study of the children of prisoners. Read online here.

Hess, J,. (2011). Addressing the Over Representation of the Māori in New Zealand’s Criminal Justice System at the sentencing stage: How Australia can provide a model for Change. Pacific Rime Law & Policy Journal Association. 20(1), 180-209. Read online here.

Hough, M., & Roberts, J. (2007, April 4). Understanding Public Attitudes to Criminal Justice. Open University Press.

National Council of Welfare (2000). Justice and the Poor.  Read online here.

Quince, K. (n.d). Māori and the criminal justice system in New Zealand. Read online here.

Te Puni Kokiri (2011). A study of the children of prisoners. Findings from Māori data June 2011.Read online here.

The WCLS is disappointed at the very narrow timeframe for consultation on the latest round of benefit system reforms. The new reform will be aimed at youth and will introduce a new system of benefits for youth called a ‘Youth Package’. It will involve information sharing about young people across organisations in order to prevent them from going onto the benefit at 18. It will also “[strengthen] work availability expectations and work preparation requirements for sole parents, widows, women alone, and partners of people receiving a main benefit.”

This is a reasonably big change and will affect many young people. The WCLS is unable to formulate a researched response informed by community consultation due to the extremely short time frame for submissions.

If you wish to contribute to the submission process and have your say we would encourage you to do so. The documents and how to submit to Parliament can be accessed here

Hope everyone out there had a fantastic Easter break and enjoyed all the fine weather we have been having. For those of you that follow our radio show, Radio Waitakere Law has changed timeslots. From now on, you can get your fix of legal information and community advocacy on the first Wednesday of every month at 2.10pm. We are still broadcasting on Planet FM 104.2 in Auckland. Our listenership has been higher than expected, and it is great to hear that so many people are getting legal information that they need to know. Our next show is on Human Rights and Discrimination, and will then be followed by Traffic and Drink Driving.

If you want to listen to our previous shows then you can check it out on our website here

The Waitākere Community Law Service is proud to be bringing you more legal workshops for March. We are excited to present an Employment Law Series at our office for small businesses! We get so many clients coming in with problems in their agreement, discrimination and unfair dismissals. If we can teach those that employ, then the people that are employed will no longer have employment problems and it’s a community win-win!

We also now have an online booking system, just click the link under the information to book yourself in before you miss out!

Employment Law For Small Business – Employment Agreements

In this workshop we will be covering how to build an employment agreement, including minimum rights at work and the foundation of a healthy and productive employment relationship.

When: Monday 19th of March at 6pm, $20
Where: WCLS Office, 1a Trading Place in Henderson
Click here to book yourself in!

Employment Law For Small Business – Discrimination and Harassment

In this workshop we will be talking about grounds of discrimination, including sexual, racial and age discrimination. We will also discuss harassment, and what to do when you are harassed on the job.

When: Monday 26th of March at 6pm, $20
Where: WCLS Office, 1a Trading Place in Henderson
Click here to book yourself in!

Employment Law For Small Business – Personal Grievances

In this workshop we will take an in depth look at the personal grievance procedure, particularly focusing on unjustified dismissals. What are the grounds for unjustified dismissals and redundancy and what happens when you screw it up?

When: Monday 2nd of April at 6pm, $20
Where: WCLS Office, 1a Trading Place in Henderson
Click here to book yourself in!

Don’t forget, places are limited. We’ll see you there!

The WCLS is active on the North Shore to serve our clients in North Shore and Rodney. We have legal clinics on Monday’s, a free phone line running from Monday to Thursday and regular education services! So if you’re north of the bridge and you have a legal issue, don’t be afraid to contact us! Our walk-in legal clinics are:

Monday 10am – 12 at the Northcote Citizens Advice Bureau, Ernie Mays Street, Northcote, North Shore
Monday 1pm – 3pm at the Birkenhead Community Link, 87 Birkenhead Avenue, Birkenhead, North Shore

We also have our free phone line 1.30 to 3.30 Monday to Thursday. This is 0800 529 463, and it’s free from your cell!

Finally, we have education services ongoing for our clients and community groups in the North. We wish to thank to Citizens Advice Bureau for their continued support. Our next session is at Northcote College on Tuesday 15th of May, where we will be talking about a general overview of employment law. This will be at 7pm, keep an eye out for further details!

With Christmas coming up, the Waitakere Community Law Service would like to remind you to be careful taking on debt over the silly season. This is the time of year we all need to be extra careful with credit contracts and managing our finances as best we can. We have a radio show coming online on the 11th of December with more details about your rights and the potential risks with credit contracts. You can check it out on our website here

The WCLS is closing down from the 23rd of December 2011 and re-opening on the 4th of January 2012. From all the team here at the Service we would like to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Here is the 2012 programme for Legal Education in the Waitemata area. Thanks to all involved for a successful 2011 year. There were many challenges, and we are looking at ways in which to face those challenges with slick, professional standards in advertising, booking and delivery.

The session style of 2012 will differ from that of 2011, and we will focus on making our sessions more interactive. We will also be looking at charges for the public classes of the 2012 year and limiting numbers when appropriate.

We are taking bookings for the 2012 year, and if you want us to do some training for you then drop us an email here. Without further ado, the planned bookings for 2012:

CAB TRAINING

In 2011 we helped CAB’s right through Waitakere, Rodney and the North Shore with any training they needed. In 2012 we will be looking to do all that and more. We really value the support and partnership that our organisation shares with the Citizens Advice Bureau across our area. We will be taking it up a notch and really get more involved with this great organisation and its many fantastic volunteers.

RADIO WAITAKERE LAW

We started our radio show in November of this year and it has been going great. We will be continuing to provide this service across Auckland and streaming on the internet, coupled with increased promotion of our shows. Thank you to Planet FM 104.6 for its continuing support.

COMMUNITY GROUP TRAINING

In 2011, we were involved in training many community groups including Challenge Trust, Waipareira Trust, Western Refuge and the Waitemata DHB. This year we are going to give an increased focus to training community groups. Through community consultation, we are noting that all community groups out there seem to have a legal element to take care of, and it would be great to increase targeted services to helping in any way we can.

ADULT EDUCATION

We were involved in night school in Rutherford College in 2011 and it was a roaring success. We cannot thank enough the great service Andrea and the team provide over there. Buoyed by that success, we will be involved in Rutherford and Massey Colleges out west and Northcote College as well throughout the year. Keep an eye out for the latest Adult Education promotion materials.

TE ATATU EDUCATION OUTREACH PROGRAMME

We have had great success at the Te Atatu Peninsula Community House, fronted expertly by Jacqui Hanson. We are excited to continue this work, and will be unveiling very shortly the programme to make Te Atatu and the surrounds a beacon of legal empowerment.

LEGAL EDUCATION SERIES 2012

This is the main event of our Legal Education programme, and we had some great speakers last year and some tremendous support from Unitec and Onepoto Awhina. We want to maximise attendances and provide some real practical legal knowledge to the wider populace in the Waitemata area. Keep an eye on the details, places will be limited.

MEDIA RELEASE

Waitakere Youth tell politicians about issues affecting them
Monday, 31 October 2011, 2:00 pm

Press Release: Youth Political Forum out WEST
POLITICAL YOUTH FORUM
31 October 2011

A unique opportunity for young people in Waitakere to speak to politicians about issues affecting them has been organised for the 7th November at Waitakere’s Youth Facility, Zeal Café in Henderson from 2pm to 4pm.

The youth political forum looks to be charged with a number of young people wanting to speak about their concerns, with youth unemployment, education and training opportunities, family violence, youth homelessness, suicide, teenage parents, poverty, the environment and youth justice being key issues said “Haley Epati-Magele, a youth leader in Waitakere.

Auckland Council Youth Broker: Hadleigh Pouesi, had this to say “Young people! Come down and learn more about who you are going to vote for, our vote counts and the decisions that are made today are going to affect us and our whanau in the future. Be smart, be brave, have your say.”

Waitakere Youth Call to Action who are representatives’ of the Youth sector in Waitakere have organised the event to provide a space for young individuals to become more politically aware. Paula Bold-Wilson states “we’ve had a really good response from the various political parties and hope that the politicians will listen to the young people’s concerns, and explore long term solutions to addressing these issues.

Politicians from the following Party’s have confirmed their attendance: Green Party, David Clendon, Labour Party, Carmel Sepuloni, Maori Party, Dr Pita Sharples, Mana Party, Hone Harawira, National Party, Tau Henare and David Seymour from Act.

ENDS