Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, December 27th, 2011 - 54 comments
Radio New Zealand reports that Peter Ellis has a petition to the Minister of Justice seeking a pardon. The current Minister of Justice, Judith Collins, signed another petition seeking an inquiry into his case in 2005. The question is will Collins now walk the talk?
Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, May 7th, 2011 - 11 comments
Gordon Campbell demolishes the Nats’ hasty excuse that the blowout in Key’s diplomatic protection costs is due to a particular threat. He also takes Judith Collins to task for her argument that the police should have an unlimited and unaccountable protection budget , or lives could be put at risk…
Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, May 6th, 2011 - 27 comments
Judith Collins has joined the long list of National MPs with their hands buried up to the elbows in the taxpayer’s pockets. She claims it was all within the rules. That doesn’t make it right.
Written By: - Date published: 6:44 am, May 6th, 2011 - 129 comments
Judith Collins has broken protocol to defend John Key’s overuse of the DPS.
Looks to me like the threats they’re most concerned about are the threats to brand Key.
And they’ll pick and chose the rules they want to defend it.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, May 2nd, 2011 - 10 comments
Police Minister Judith Collins’ announcement that crime dropped last year left more than a few people scratching their heads. The economic conditions, especially high unemployment, should mean more crime, not less. Now, we’re starting to learn the answer: procedural changes that havem wiped thousands of crimes off the stats.
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, February 3rd, 2011 - 5 comments
Crushless Collins’ double-bunking money saver costing $2.6m.
Shock! Paying someone else to build and operate our schools won’t save money.
Nat-appointed public service chiefs paid to air-commute. Pay cuts for frontline.
Key smiles at launch of new science ministry, waves in $3m of science funding cuts.
Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, February 1st, 2011 - 62 comments
Judith Collins is an utter failure. She calls herself ‘Crusher’ but hasn’t crushed a single car two years after promising to. Crime has gone up under her watch and police deaths have increased despite her claim that the Taser would make them safer. So, there’s plenty of good ways to criticise her without dumb shit like this.
Written By: - Date published: 11:31 pm, January 4th, 2011 - 89 comments
A few of us have chipped in to review the performances of the government in major areas. We’re looking at whether the facts back up the promises that National made to get elected. Let’s have a look at crime/law & order. Rightwing governments are always big on scaring the middle-class about crims and promising solutions. Has National delivered?
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, December 15th, 2010 - 28 comments
3 under the radar stories yesterday. All linked by ideology. Kiwirail to buy 300 wagons from China because its cheaper than building them here. Not allowed to consider wider economic gains. Collins outsources her new prison to a multi-national with a history of prisoner abuse. English wants more ‘value’ from public assets. Value for whom? The likes of Serco?
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, November 4th, 2010 - 24 comments
National are continuing their privatisation by stealth. Hospitals services and a new prison are the current targets. Tony Ryall, Judith Collins and Bill English are the ministers currently pushing their ideology in their respective areas.
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, October 24th, 2010 - 7 comments
“They are blue – to match other uniforms in the justice sector such as police.” These words from the Police Minister are very difficult to misconstrue. The choice of colour was deliberate and in case everyone has forgotten, the uniforms were olive to make the clear distinction of Prison Officers from Police. The Government is blurring the distinction.
Written By: - Date published: 7:19 am, August 30th, 2010 - 17 comments
Number of recorded offences in the 2008 calander year: 431,383
Number of recorded offences in the 2009 calander year: 451,405
Number of unsolved crimes in Judith Collin’s first year as minister: 235,787, up 5,000
Number of cars crushed: 0
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, July 14th, 2010 - 28 comments
The NZ Herald editorial criticising National’s pursuit of a private prison in Auckland should make Judith Collins and her cabinet colleagues sit up and rethink.
Written By: - Date published: 6:55 am, July 13th, 2010 - 7 comments
Judith Collins is lauding the $1.2 billion of economic activity that will suppoedly result from the private prison at Wiri. But wait, the government is planning to spend $101 million on construction and $40m per year for 30 years on wages. That’s $1.3b spent for only in $1.2b of economic activity. How’s that? Oh, yeah, the private foreign owner who will be taking hundreds of millions offshore.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, June 30th, 2010 - 4 comments
Judith “Crushless” Collins always has plenty of bluster but behind it all she has done precious little. 18 months after her spin doctors gave the media her moniker, Collins has yet to have a single car crushed (which is a stupid and wasteful policy any way). Her Offenders’ levy is another flop – it’s only going to raise 40% of the money promised and most of that will be spent collecting it.
Written By: - Date published: 3:55 pm, May 25th, 2010 - 42 comments
“Three strikes” is likely to become law today. This video shows that three strikes legislation hasn’t worked overseas. It’s unlikely to work here. It’s a crime bill that is not expected to deter or reduce crime and may increase murders.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, May 5th, 2010 - 12 comments
This is a crime bill that is not expected to deter or reduce crime and may increase murders. That’s not acceptable. It’s not even really a crime bill, it’s a stupid PR stunt that puts lives at risk. No responsible government would pass it. But this is not a responsible government. It is willing to cause more murders for the sake of appearing tough on crime.
Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, May 2nd, 2010 - 16 comments
We all know that Police and Corrections Minister Judith Collins has, for all her tough talk, failed to bring down crime, and suppressed the official advice that her 3 strikes law may increase murders. But what about the policy that got her the nickname that she revels in? How many cars has ‘Crusher’ crushed? The answer may surprise you.
Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, May 2nd, 2010 - 7 comments
In Florida, a legislative plan to close as many as five state prisons and ship inmates to a private prison run by GEO Group was scaled back last month.
The feds may be searching to see if former state House Speaker Sansom received any kickbacks from the company. The GEO group are also contenders for running private prisons here.
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 am, April 20th, 2010 - 154 comments
The Government has received advice from the Ministry of Justice on its ‘three strikes’ legislation. It reveals such a horrendous risk of passing the law that any government should have abandoned it immediately. Instead, Simon Power was shuffled out of the way, Justice was muzzled, & the advice was suppressed. Until now.
Written By: - Date published: 2:07 am, April 4th, 2010 - 45 comments
Regular readers of The Standard will know that a primary driver of crime is joblessness. It’s no surprise, therefore, to see that crime went up in the last year. Fewer jobs to go around = more crime. Crime is a symptom of socio-economic distress. It is not, primarily, ‘bad’ people behaving badly because they are …
Written By: - Date published: 12:20 am, March 5th, 2010 - 16 comments
For just $2.4 million a year, the Prisoners’ Aid and Rehabilitation Society and its 500 volunteers help 25,000 inmates and ex-inmates with rehabilitation and readjustment each year. Their efforts help turn people away from crime. But the Nats cancelled the funding. All they believe in is putting the boot in harder even though it doesn’t stop crime.
Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, March 4th, 2010 - 38 comments
An ugly side of the Right, one that a lot of people thought was long defeated, has reemerged in recent weeks. Yesterday we had David Garrett’s ‘sterilise the poor because they might become criminals or breed criminals’ and last week we had arguably more disturbing comments from Judith Collins about how she wanted to restore “fear” of the Police.
Written By: - Date published: 8:18 am, February 23rd, 2010 - 29 comments
BLiP puts his distinctive view on why the police have been losing “the respect of the community” with one of his locally famous lists. He attributes it to ‘Crusher’ Collins and wonders why John Key is cluessly fronting PR wanting stronger sentences for disrespecting police.
Written By: - Date published: 1:35 pm, October 1st, 2009 - 29 comments
The Police statistics out today show the crime rate continues to follow the unemployment rate. With unemployment on the rise, so is crime. Recorded crimes per person leapt 2.8% in the June year, as unemployment climbed from 4% to 6%. It’s obviously not a coincidence. Crime is a symptom of a society in distress, the …
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, August 27th, 2009 - 10 comments
Excellent piece by Patrick Gower in the Herald today on Judith Collins’ attempt to smear Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon. Collins has leaked part of an OIA (which she’s so far refused to release to Labour) which she says shows “union bosses” are “living a jet-set lifestyle” on the taxpayer after they received $127,000 in …
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, June 17th, 2009 - 13 comments
I’ve never been the biggest fan of Clayton Cosgrove, but he’s sure got ‘Crusher’ Collins running scared on her cuts to police vehicles. Yesterday in Parliament she refused to answer a question as the Minister of Corrections, telling Cosgrove he should take it up with the Minister of Police instead. The Minister of Police, of …
Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, March 29th, 2009 - 9 comments
On Q+A this morning, Judith Collins couldn’t defend prisons for profit but she sounded quite reasonable when talking about the need for more rehabilitation. She even criticised Labour for longer sentences that are leading to overcrowding in the prisons. Good sentiments but, funny, it doesn’t sound like the Judith Collins we know. 19 July 2007 …
Written By: - Date published: 5:10 pm, March 9th, 2009 - 32 comments
So, ‘Crusher’ Collins has failed in her high profile campaign to have Barry Matthews sacked. How embarrassing, what with her staking her entire political reputation on it and all. I doubt John Key will be particularly happy about being dragged into this whole sorry affair either. Less than two weeks ago the Herald reported: The …
Written By: - Date published: 4:15 pm, February 23rd, 2009 - 6 comments
Should have seen it coming Judith Collins has been vying politically with Rodney Hide to become the NACT’s Minister of Embarrassment (and Comedy). This is creatively portrayed in today’s Mike Moreu cartoon, as he ties her last weirdo play for the kneejerk vote to her current one. For a background on this current Judith Collins …
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