law

Categories under law

Kathryn Ryan – Let the man talk!

Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, March 11th, 2015 - 64 comments

One of my real pet peeves is interviewers who don’t let incredibly knowledgeable people speak to the topic on which they have been invited. Today Judge Peter Boshier was being interviewed by Kathryn Ryan in his capacity as a Law Commissioner.

Nats bungle Bain process

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 pm, February 19th, 2015 - 52 comments

A new review of compensation for David Bain. Another fine mess courtesy of Collins/Slater and National.

Aussies & US mount opposition to TPPA – but in NZ we just keep nodding

Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, February 14th, 2015 - 47 comments

So much to sell, so little time… When this Government is finished selling, we will have sold our right to make laws for ourselves too. Be under no doubt, if the effect of bringing in a law for the health and well being of Kiwis will cost a corporate millions of dollars, part of their lobbying after the TPP, will be threatening to  sue the taxpayers of NZ and watch such a Bill slip into obscurity. And those corporates wielding that power? Most will never pay a cent of tax into the coffers of NZ taxpayers.

 

 

NRT: Parliamentary Privilege vs Suppression Orders

Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, February 10th, 2015 - 27 comments

I/S at No Right Turn on the most interesting event at the first session of Parliament for 2015. The Speaker’s actions open up an interesting can of legal worms…

Tino Rangatiratanga

Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, February 8th, 2015 - 309 comments

It has been claimed that Andrew Little has advocated for Maori to have law making powers. What he has done is reflect on a recent Waitangi Tribunal decision which concluded that Maori never ceded sovereignty to the Crown and properly concluded that this is an issue that needs to be considered.

NRT: An untenable position

Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, January 29th, 2015 - 27 comments

I/S at No Right Turn on the Mike Sabin situation. “For the sake of propriety and the integrity of our justice system, Sabin must be stood down”…

NRT: Our financial laws mean nothing

Written By: - Date published: 4:25 pm, January 20th, 2015 - 20 comments

I/S – “the Financial Markets Authority knew about almost 4,000 crimes and never bothered to prosecute any of them”…

GCSB Head, Ian Fletcher resigns

Written By: - Date published: 1:49 pm, January 13th, 2015 - 78 comments

For family reasons he is stepping down… Nothing to see here says Chris Finlayson, great guy who did a great job. For national’s supporters of course there is  far more importance in receiving speeding fines  Woodhouse is moving quickly to say the enforcement is ambiguous. It appears that he sees a universal right to speed and kill people…

NRT: Abuse of power: The OIA / public records dimension

Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, November 25th, 2014 - 13 comments

Jason Ede deleted his personal emails. Some of those emails concerned ministerial business and should therefore are public records. There is a fine of $5000 per email destroyed. Similarly the SIS was illegally refusing media requests that are OIAs.  All as dodgy as hell. Time to charge some people violating public information acts?

Roger Sutton needs the book thrown at him

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, November 19th, 2014 - 101 comments

I have no real opinion about the details of the complaint against Roger Sutton, there simply isn’t enough information in the context. That would require seeing the report. However I do have strong opinion about someone who breaks the confidentiality clauses of any agreement. Throw the book at them

NRT: Long past time

Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, October 31st, 2014 - 4 comments

How long has it been since homosexuality as a crime was removed from the the law books? It passed into law on the 8th of August 1986. The government is finally considering wiping past convictions under the strange previous laws. It is an action that is more than 18 years overdue.

Roast busters – not prosecuted?

Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, October 29th, 2014 - 182 comments

“A lack of evidence”. Seriously?

Update: Confirmed.

Slater sued

Written By: - Date published: 8:49 pm, October 28th, 2014 - 53 comments

Radio NZ has a post up “Tribunal hears blogger privacy case”. A prosecution of Cameron Slater under the Privacy Act for breaching Matthew Blomfields privacy. I suspect that over the next 3-4 days Slater will ponce around acting out courtroom fantasies that have little to do with the law. And will probably get hammered. Good. (Updated)

Emmerson – The bloodsucker’s treat

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, October 28th, 2014 - 6 comments

emmerson-employment

Collective bargaining? Yeah right …

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, October 26th, 2014 - 11 comments

JAmooches continues their analysis of the effects of the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. Today the focus is on the provisions that negate the requirement for the parties to act in good faith bargaining, in particular for being able to conclude collective agreements.

NRT: National lets Shell drill illegally

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, October 26th, 2014 - 14 comments

Illegal drilling in our “Exclusive Economic Zone” gets let off with a “warning”.

Hager vs police – suppressing debate

Written By: - Date published: 6:46 am, October 24th, 2014 - 71 comments

The police and Hager are in the process of initiating legal proceedings against each other. The police action against Hager was and is designed to intimidate, to suppress debate. Rod Oram calls shame on dirty politics and the people who perpetrate it.

Hypocrisy and the cost of crime

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, October 21st, 2014 - 58 comments

The Government canned a report on the costs of various kinds of economic crime. RNZ obtained a copy under the OIA, and we can see why the Nats would never have wanted it released…

Terrorism and thoughtcrime

Written By: - Date published: 6:54 am, October 13th, 2014 - 51 comments

Key is considering bringing in thoughtcrime. Guilt by association. Detaining people because they may commit a crime.

Donations still rolling in for Hager

Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, October 11th, 2014 - 16 comments

Assisted no doubt by attempts to have the fund shut down, donations are still rolling in for Nicky Hager’s defence.

Who is trying to shut down Hager defence fund?

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, October 10th, 2014 - 191 comments

The Hager defence fund stands at over $41,000 $43,000 $44,000 and still climbing. But some mean-spirited wingnuts are trying to have it shut down…

Hager defense fund approaching $35K – Make that 40K

Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, October 9th, 2014 - 33 comments

The legal defense fund for Nicky Hager is approaching $20,000 $25,000 $35,000 $40,000. Why not help it over the line?

Hager defense fund about to hit 20K – make that 25K

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, October 8th, 2014 - 77 comments

The legal defense fund for Nicky Hager is about to hit $20,000 $25,000. Why not give a little?

Defamation on the net

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, September 20th, 2014 - Comments Off on Defamation on the net

Stephen Price wrote on an interesting Appeal court decision that relates to blogging and defamation. The decision seems to leave a considerable amount of room for lawyers to continue to explore. But it effectively lays out some guidelines about site responsibilities.

NRT: Key admits the GCSB has broken the law

Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, September 17th, 2014 - 17 comments

If the GCSB has access to XKEYSCORE, and XKEYSCORE has information on New Zealanders, then arguably they’ve intercepted it even if that information has been collected by another agency, as they have “acquired” it. And if they actually look at it, there’s no “arguable” about it.

Key’s reputation and the law

Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, September 15th, 2014 - 26 comments

An interesting article by lawyer Steven Price at Media Law Journal.  Some extracts quoted, but well worth going and reading the full article.

Popcorn time: how craven is Slater?

Written By: - Date published: 9:36 pm, September 12th, 2014 - 34 comments

A nice decision by Justice Asher. We are now sort of journalists. But it left Cameron Slater naked in front of the clipping shears of Matthew Blomfield’s defamation case.

National’s sockpuppet is trying to muzzle press?

Written By: - Date published: 8:18 pm, September 4th, 2014 - 218 comments

Cameron Slater looks like he is the front person for National’s attempt to muzzle the press over their dirty politics for the next few weeks. How else can someone who has been pleading poverty in court seeks a High Court injunction against reporters writing about whaledumps of his emails? Updated with a offer to keep feeding and publicising the whaledumps.

Slater’s privacy conundrum

Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, August 25th, 2014 - 31 comments

For me the funniest thing that happened last week was Cameron Slater proudly announcing that he’d put in a privacy complaint about the someone hacking his data. Three days later he finds out that he was the target of a privacy act prosecution for similar acts.

Was a crime committed when Slater accessed Labour’s computer system?

Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, August 17th, 2014 - 46 comments

Occasionally erudite disagrees with one part of rocky’s analysis of the legality of Cameron Slater and Jason Ede’s accessing and copying the data from the Labour party’s computer. However he still thinks it is likely to be criminal.

Labour Party Policy on Sexual Violence – A Closer Look

Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, July 14th, 2014 - 71 comments

This past week has seen both mainstream media and political blogs of all persuasions, opine with fact-free ranting on the reversal of the burden of proof in sexual offence cases.

A bit of a plea . Sexual Violence is a sensitive issue. The least that ought be done, by those releasing policy around it; the media reporting it; the bloggers opining on it; and us, the individual’s commenting on it; the least we can do is try and make sure we have our facts in order first. Please?