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I have become increasingly concerned about the huge concentration of power in our grocery retail sector in two huge supermarket chains. Between them, Progressive Enterprises and Foodstuffs control around 95% of the grocery retail sector— the highest market concentration in the world.
We are still waiting, a year later, for the Minister of Agriculture to announce a new Code of Welfare to Hens.
I predict that he will ignore the vast majority of submitters who called for an end to the cruel practice of keeping hens in cages, and will instead approve a new code that says hens can be kept indefinitely in ‘colony’ cages –cages that sound a bit better than a battery hen cage, but which still give a hen around the size of an A-4 sheet of paper in usable space.
Sue delivers her valedictory speech in the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2011. She speaks on a range of topics including parliamentary reform. Includes video and transcript.
All around the world people are questioning the relevance of political institutions, and public cynicism is growing, not only with politicians, but with the whole political system.
In America, the Occupy Wall Street movement is calling for a clean-up of the American political system, which they say is corrupted by lobbyists and by dysfunctional and bitter partisanship.
On December 9th 2011 our Minister for Food Safety met with her Australian counterpart to decide whether to accept a host of recommendations to radically improve our food labels and give consumers more information about the food we eat.
I’ve been trying to find out what our government’s position on these recommendations will be, but the government has steadfastly refused to divulge this. It has turned down several Official Information requests.
There is growing concern about the health effects of electromagnetic radiation, particularly new technologies such as wifi. Growing numbers of people are becoming electromagnetic sensitive and Sweden recognises electromagnetic sensitivity as a recognised disease. There is no requirement for new technologies like wifi to be safety tested before they are rolled out.
The present standards on electromagnetic sensitivity are far too lax and dont take into account health effects, as exposed by the important BioInitiatives Report.
Sue protests against the use of CCA Treated Timber for constructing childrens' playgrounds.
About Sue
Sue Kedgley is a freelance writer, consumer advocate and campaigner for safe, healthy food, animal welfare, parliamentary reform and other issues. She was a Green Party MP from 1999 to 2011. More about Sue
