NRT: Urgency for abuse

Written By: - Date published: 4:59 pm, November 17th, 2015 - 20 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, class war, national - Tags: , ,

I/S at No Right Turn:

Urgency for abuse

The House has just gone into urgency for two key (for the government) bills – the first to punish retroactively people who have already been punished, the second to steal from the poor.

The first bill is the government’s returning offenders legislation, designed to impose “parole-like conditions” on New Zealanders deported from Australia after serving their sentences. This means not just a host of invasions of privacy such as taking fingerprints and DNA, but also restrictions on where and how they live and the ability to recall them to jail:

Those who breached the conditions would be “dealt with as any other offender” and could be put back in prison, she said.

But, as noted above, these are people who have already completed their sentence. They’ve done their time, been deported – and now the government is proposing that they be punished again through invasion of privacy, conditions, and possible jail – for a crime they have already been punished for. And this, pretty obviously, violates s26(2) of the Bill of Rights Act:

No one who has been finally acquitted or convicted of, or pardoned for, an offence shall be tried or punished for it again.

[Emphasis added]

And yet, somehow, the bill failed to attract a section 7 report from the Attorney-General. Benefits of urgency, I guess. But once again, we’re seeing all-stages urgency being used by National to pass a bill repugnant to our constitution and to basic standards of justice. And once again, its a strong argument that parliament simply is not fit to decide such things, and that they need proper supervision by the courts.

The other major bill they’re passing under all-stages urgency is a bill to steal from the poor. For 18 years, WINZ deliberately underpaid beneficiaries, robbing them of a day every time they signed up for a benefit. And then when they were caught, the government’s solution is not to pay people what they are owed, but to legislate retrospectively to legalise this theft. It is unfair, and it is unjust, to rob from the poorest New Zealanders. But isn’t it so very, very National? And isn’t it so very, very National to bring Parliament into disrepute by committing such theft under the cloak of urgency?

20 comments on “NRT: Urgency for abuse ”

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  1. Lanthanide 1
    17 November 2015 at 5:32 pm

    The general voting public will support both of these measures.

    It is a democracy…

  2. Wensleydale 2
    17 November 2015 at 5:44 pm

    Nothing surprises me with this toxic government anymore. I’m just waiting for them to declare a new public holiday, “Spit on a bene day!” Or perhaps, “Punch a beggar in the kidneys and then laugh like a drain day!”

    • NZJester 2.1
      17 November 2015 at 7:45 pm

      I’m guessing that Holiday will be an unpaid one that you will still have to work on anyway.

  3. Detrie 3
    17 November 2015 at 5:56 pm

    Sadly, I too believe most people will support this. They only see those in detention as ‘bad people’ and/or ‘bludgers of the state’ regardless of how they got there or why. As Key said, these bad people deserve little sympathy and ‘good people’ must be protected from them. It’s a very simplistic, self-centred view of the world and of others – The definition of good and bad is often defined by cruel, rich lawmakers.

    My view is that only some academics and those in our society who have a sense of empathy for those less fortunate, will see all this as wrong or unjust. Statistically, people with this particular ‘personality quirk’ (genuine caring for others) are around 30% of the population. They often become doctors, nurses, social workers, caregivers etc. A few get into law or into parliament but are soon overwhelmed by the vile, self-serving nature of it.

    Human nature can be cruel… It amazes me that the world (and democracy) has lasted this long, especially after what we see happening in the middle east and europe now…

  4. Tracey 4
    17 November 2015 at 6:45 pm

    Interestingly Adams revalled today that this government which last week said it was protecting us from rapists etc deported from Australia has had a few arrive in the last year to which this legislation didnt apply.

    As for the beneficiaries, I am sure it is a coincidence that this is going through while people are looking at Paris.

    Shamefully nasty nation we are becoming. Smugly self righteous in our comfort

    • sabine 4.1
      17 November 2015 at 7:27 pm

      i have posted in a previous thread a few days ago an article from the Herald dated 15th of August, in which she describes People arriving in NZ form Oz, since I think last year, and that they are working to get stuff place n shit. I kid you not the first line of the article related to rapists, murderers and child molesterers. I will go and find it.
      T’was a fun read. Question, since when did they know that OZ was stripping Visas and sending peeps back home to the motherland, and why did Key turn into a screeching Harpie in Parliament. :

    • sabine 4.2
      17 November 2015 at 7:38 pm

      Here is the Article in the NZ Herald date August 15th

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/71091542/Hundreds-of-criminals-face-deportation-to-New-Zealand

      then you have this

      http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11535919

      one would assume that they have known now for a while. So really, Key screeching in parliament and accusing the opposition of ‘supporting rapists, murderers and child molesters’ is just absurd, considering that as per the first article they have let them come back ‘home’ for some time now, with nothing done to monitor them, nor to inform the public about them.
      What a bunch of fuckn tossers.

      • Tracey 4.2.1
        18 November 2015 at 8:40 am

        I thinkit’s even earlier than this Sabine. May is in what I laughingly call my memory, and also late 2014.

        Also that rapits and murderers have long been automatically deported seems to have escaped Key’s mind…

        • Sabine 4.2.1.1
          18 November 2015 at 8:42 am

          i still find it curious. Or else the outburst really is just over Christmas Island and not over the fact that people are deported back.
          I would also like to know how the new ‘rules re probation and sentences served’ with affect released offenders in NZ.

  5. alwyn 5
    17 November 2015 at 7:47 pm

    Does this really apply to people who have, in your words “people who have already completed their sentence”.
    I thought, and I haven’t read it, that it was intended to treat them in the same way as people who were convicted and jailed in New Zealand.
    If you are sentenced to 3 years and are released after 18 months you remain on parole for the next 18 months don’t you?
    Does not this legislation simply extend the same provisions to people who did part of their sentence in an Australian prison and are then released early and deported. Are they not then going to be treated as if they are on parole for the remainder of the original sentence?

    • Draco T Bastard 5.1
      17 November 2015 at 7:59 pm

      Considering that a number of them had the charges and the punishment years ago?

      • sabine 5.1.1
        17 November 2015 at 8:24 pm

        considering that at least one of them has committed no crime other then by ‘association’. But who gets in the way of a good law that will make one a criminal on parole for ever…after all we have prisons for profits and they need prisoners to fill them to capacity. Twice punished for the same crime…..Profit!

        We could also just brand them, would be cheaper in the long term. But then the fearful National Voters has no issue spending taxpayers money on security. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_branding

        • Pat 5.1.1.1
          17 November 2015 at 9:38 pm

          perhaps we could devise a system of coloured triangles that they could be required to wear at all times?

  6. gsays 6
    17 November 2015 at 9:58 pm

    Hi Sabine, I heard on the radio this evening that the oz justice or immigration minster(I don’t recall which), notified the nz gummint in Feb about the big increase in deportees.
    So we get rushed legislation, under urgency.
    Business as usual.

    • sabine 6.1
      17 November 2015 at 10:21 pm

      Have a look at the article that i have linked under Tracey’s comment. Article dated August 15th speaking about this, and Amy Adams not displaying a sign of urgency.
      I would like to know why and why the screeching of John Key in Parliament. Unless he is just insulting people for shits n giggles.

  7. sabine 7
    17 November 2015 at 11:06 pm

    seems that some Australians are none to happy with the doings of their government

    https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/60652

  8. Smilin 8
    18 November 2015 at 12:14 am

    You could call this process Flowery Fascism. Yes contradiction of sorts
    But these pious good people have all the words and law to convince their followers with such small minded ignorance that this is the only way to deal with bad people because John Key said so and he was very upset in parliament so he must be right How bloody bent can you get but obviously Keys insanity and lack of the serious truth about the situation keeps the MSM paid
    The trouble with these good people is their emotions dont match up with the Bigger picture Australya is abusing basic human rights
    I like the coloured triangles they go with Flowery Fascism. I presume you mean the ones that make a star