Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, May 22nd, 2012 - 12 comments
It’s an interesting fact that the one area in which National is going against its traditional approach and moving towards what the experts advocate is prisons. And I think I know why. In education, health, welfare etc National’s ideological positions correspond with cutting spending. But ‘lock em up and throw away the key’ costs. When Bill English called prisons a “moral and fiscal failure” his emphasis was on “fiscal”.
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, May 21st, 2012 - 19 comments
National is going to cut 125 police staff. They’re not sworn officers but who’s going to pick up the work they were doing? Sworn cops, of course. Course, tying up cops with paperwork will help the crime stats drop. And with the navy so underfunded half its inshore patrol vessels are being mothballed I bet illegal fishing instances drop too. Funny that.
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, May 9th, 2012 - 15 comments
The Government’s ‘sinking lid’ on homicides means that John Key can personally garotte 3-5 enemies and the overall number of killings will still decrease, a smiling Prime Minister told journalists today. “On current trends, the number of murders is dropping by half a dozen a year. Which means no-one should mind if I bump off a few annoying arseholes” said Mr Key
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, May 8th, 2012 - 5 comments
Despite keeping prisoners in prison too long and an escape, Serco’s private management of Auckland Remand has been judged a success by the Government because it has met all the standards set for it. Sounds reasonable. Until you look a layer deeper and discover that the standards Serco has to meet are much worse than what Corrections already achieves.
Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, April 30th, 2012 - 96 comments
With pot related arrests down by half over the last eighteen years, the police have been accused of “decriminalisation by stealth”. It’s probably time to have the debate properly.
Written By: - Date published: 6:19 am, April 27th, 2012 - 101 comments
John Banks has had a miraculous change of heart on pokies. He used to say gambling bosses were “wide boys” who “sucked” the people of this country dry. Now, he’s rubbed up against John Key and become ‘relaxed’ about more pokies. Maybe the $15,000 undeclared donation from SkyCity helped. A donor Banks was legally required to disclose but didn’t. Labour’s laid a complaint. Update: donation has been referred to police.
Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, April 21st, 2012 - 111 comments
A sad story in the Herald today of a man who got hooked on pokies. It has destroyed his family and relationships. He’s started ripping off clients at work. All to put money in the machines that SkyCity profits from. SkyCity has so many addicts customers it says it needs more machines. SkyCity is a cancer. We shouldn’t just stop its expansion. We should excise it.
Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, April 17th, 2012 - 30 comments
The Greens have revealed that criminals are laundering millions of dollars through SkyCity, taking their gambling losses as the price of coming out with clean, untraceable money. The Government’s sleazy ‘law for sale’ deal with SkyCity would only make it worse by allowing more anonymous, higher stake gambling on the pokies. Instead, we should be clamping down.
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, April 5th, 2012 - 83 comments
“Prime Minister John Key says hundreds of extra pokies at Sky City Casino will not increase gambling addiction”. Key is lying and he knows it. That’s why the Nats won’t release the official advice they have received on this topic…
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, April 3rd, 2012 - 18 comments
The recorded crime rate has been dropping for two decades now mostly due to changing demographics. More good news this year with a 4.8% drop, mostly attributable to a 21% fall in Canterbury. But something’s a little off in these numbers. The number of offences recorded has fallen, yet the percentage solved has fallen even more. Shouldn’t less crime mean more resources to solve the ones that do happen?
Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, March 30th, 2012 - 22 comments
Evidently the people at iPredict don’t like being called “bookies” or being described as “opening a contract” on someone. We are now being targeted by this shadowy organisation.
Perhaps it is time that the police exerted themselves as the entertainment for the media and started operation 9 against this subversive organisation
Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, March 29th, 2012 - 162 comments
You know that bookies sense when there is blood in the water and they’ll create contracts. I don’t gamble but the interesting contracts today in my mind are “Judith Collins to cease being a Minister before 1 June 2012″, “An ACC official ….to be found to have leaked Boag email”, “Beehive staffer to be found to have leaked Boag email”, etc. And a politician is definitely in trouble in NZ when they start talking about defamation 
Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, March 27th, 2012 - 55 comments
When a government figure says someone broke a law when there has been no conviction they are effectively imposing an extra-judicial punishment by defaming them. Key and the Police cannot be allowed to serve up extra-judicial punishments to whomever they choose by branding them a criminal and then not taking them to court to prove it.
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, March 26th, 2012 - 85 comments
New Zealand has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the world, and an international study has just highlighted the fact.
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, March 23rd, 2012 - 15 comments
1,200 prison beds, 1 in 8, are empty plus the 1,300 bed reserve. Prisoner numbers are projected to keep falling. So, why are the Nats spending a billion dollars on the Wiri private prison? And where will they get the prisoners? By closing existing public prisons. Rather than upgrading what we have more cheaply they’ll let a foreign company make a profit off locking people up.
Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, March 9th, 2012 - 25 comments
Can anyone tell me why the Nats are spending $300m to build and $36m pa to run a 960-bed PPP prison when there are 2000 spare beds in the system and prisoner numbers are projected to fall? Or why Joyce is cutting a dirty ‘convention centre for pokies’ deal when international convention numbers are falling? Or why they’re spending $1b a year on low BCR highways when vehicle numbers are falling?
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, February 25th, 2012 - 74 comments
Directorships are the golden ticket in the world of the business elite. You attend maybe 10 meetings a year, sign whatever’s put in front of you, typically get paid $3-4K a pop, and do it over again half a dozen times or more for various companies. It’s a gravy train for managers past their use by date. But customers and shareholders have to trust what directors sign off on.
Written By: - Date published: 10:56 pm, February 14th, 2012 - 25 comments
Watch Grant Robertson’s question to Key today Robertson to Key on Radio Live Key didn’t know his office was deeply involved in the show that breached the Broadcasting Act? Even though he personally chose the guests? It was a matter solely between the Electoral Commission and the broadcaster? Judge for yourself.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, February 10th, 2012 - 25 comments
Armed Police assisted by the Eagle helicopter, the counter-terrorism unit, customs officials, and the police launch towed on its trailer have raided Prime Minister John Key’s Parnell mansion, executing warrants relating to the illegal ‘DJ Key’ election ad. Simultaneously, a joint Police-SAS taskforce has stormed RadioLive, deploying teargas and tasering all present.
Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, February 9th, 2012 - 82 comments
There’s a few interesting threads to the Kim Dotcom saga. Should merely providing a tool that can be used for piracy be a crime? Did the alleged offences justify a 70-strong armed police raid or was this more heavy-handed showing off by the cops? And, if Dotcom really is such a bad guy, why did National let him come to live in New Zealand in the first place?
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, February 9th, 2012 - 43 comments
The Electoral Commission’s decision on the ‘DJ Key’ hour on RadioLive has been leaked. It shows that Key’s hour-long DJ spot was an election ad. It’s the only sensible decision. Key was clearly on the show to promote his brand to win votes. He made several political comments. RadioLive now faces a $100,000 fine for perverting our election. And Key’s reputation takes another hit.
Written By: - Date published: 11:57 pm, February 3rd, 2012 - 11 comments
After the horrifying attack on a 5-year old tourist in Turangi in December, Kiwis showed their compassion, and their shame, by donating over $62,000 to the family. Now, the family has said they don’t blame the community and have used some of the donations to fund children’s play equipment in Turangi and medical equipment for the children’s wing of Waikato hospital.
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, December 17th, 2011 - 14 comments
A quick post on sentences handed down in the wake of riots in England.
Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, December 8th, 2011 - 99 comments
In its final days, South Canterbury Finance quietly loaned $300m to related-parties. Breach of the deposit guarantee scheme’s rules. Nats did nothing. When SCF collapsed the related parties got off scot-free – if they owned SCF bonds, the Nats even paid them $350m voluntarily. Now, the Serious Fraud Office has laid the biggest fraud charges in history over SCF. What’s the bet it’s over those related-party loans and bonds? And where’s our fucken money?
Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, November 25th, 2011 - 8 comments
Key and Collins say police training next year hasn’t been cancelled. They say fewer new cops are needed because fewer are leaving. All lies. The attrition rate is rising, not falling. There is 1 training wing booked next year, not 4. Cause is cuts. 5% nominal to the training college, 15% nominal to Police HQ. Meanwhile, Key is wasting Police time over the tea tapes.
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, November 24th, 2011 - 69 comments
John Key said last night the Nats has boosted Police numbers by 600. In fact, 2008, Police numbers have grown by only 442, 5.4%, barely more than population growth. All but 80 of those extra cops came in the 2008/09 year – under Labour’s last budget. Cops per capita has fallen in the last two years. No wonder there are more unsolved crimes.
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, November 21st, 2011 - 43 comments
In what seems a very wise move, police are holding off their searches of four media organisations until the legal situation has been clarified. See also some notes on the legal situation prior to Tuesday’s hearing.
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, November 18th, 2011 - 21 comments
John Key says that it’s OK for the Police to waste time trying to intimidate the media on his behalf because they have “spare time” with the drop in crime. There were 220,000 unsolved crimes last year including 8 homicides. The cops solved 15,000 fewer crimes than the previous year. Don’t tell me they’re sitting around waiting to do the PM’s bidding.
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 pm, November 17th, 2011 - 57 comments
Interesting looking at the current law on getting and using search warrants on media organisations. There are some quite clear guidelines from a 1965 case.If the guidelines are adhered to it is hard to see how warrants could be obtained. Reading and publishing the search warrants and the supporting materials looks to be the only way that the public will be able to decide if John Key is walking down the path of close cooperation between the police and the current prime minister used by other ‘democratic’ countries.
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, October 30th, 2011 - 28 comments
Jeez some people just can’t catch a break. Not only is John Banks coming second in an election race to a guy specifically chosen to lose to him but now the word is some scoundrel’s stolen his Harley Davidson.
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, October 20th, 2011 - 19 comments
Anyone noticed the sudden overbearing presence of Police at peaceful protests? Bugging Greenpeace and intimidating lawful activists. 25 Police at a 150-strong anti-deepsea drilling protest in Tauranga. 12 officers at a 60 worker picket at CMP Rangitikei. Are they just hyper because of the Cup or is it about shielding businesses from people exercising their democratic right to protest?
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