I was interested and horrified to hear Garth McVicar on the death of Wanganui prison inmate Taffy Hoten: “There’s not going to be any tears anywhere I mean, the justice system is failing, but ultimately there’s justice at the end of the day, it appears.”
Given McVicar has also recently said that they’ll be pushing for the Death Sentence in the future I think we have a fight coming.
I didn’t hear whether his lobby group had been able to establish their charity status so that they still get the handouts that provide the fuel for the continued rant.
It was under consideration and the committee? were considering withdrawing the status. What is the latest? McVicar said that he wouldn’t be able to carry on if status wiped.
For your information Mr McVicar does not get paid for the work he does on behalf of past, present and future victims. As a victim I would not wish the life I now live since by daughter was killed on anyone even those ill informed about the Trust. Believe me, if the trust is denied the status as a Charitable Trust there will be many people myself included demanding change. I also contribute to “the fuel for the continued rant” at my own personal cost. Why? because my 20 year old daughter was killed. Her death could have been prevented if police and corrections were doing their job to ensure pubic safety rather than pandering to the “status”, rights/needs of the repeat criminal offender. on parole and given a new identity, a new start in life under the Police Witness Protection Programme.
Personally the victims support side of the SST seems to reasonably effective from what I have anecdotally heard. The problem is that they seem to do less of that than they do pushing a political agenda.
That seemed to occupy the majority of the SSTs time and funding over the last few years as far as I can see, and looks suspiciously over-funded. The speculation is that it is largely funded by offshore private prison companies. To date the SST hasn’t convinced virtually anyone that they aren’t just a conduit for pushing covert political lobby funds.
They should either get a lot more transparent about their funding or stop being a charity and become a taxed lobby group.
Garth Mcvicar is a calm and rational man. Id like to see your source for claiming he wants to reinstate the death sentence. I think youve made that up.
I know the family of Kylie jones. I saw what that animal did to her. Its easy for you to jump on your moral high horse about Garth saying there will be no tears, because you still sleep at night. You go about your normal life happy as larry. The people who are left after a crime like this, never get to go about their normal life again. I had the most tenuous connection possible to Kylie, the crime was almost 10 years ago, and I still wake up in the middle of the night to check the house is locked, even though I know it is.
Things like that are across the board, with her family, her fiancee’s family and her friends. we’re talking about 20 or 30 people who have a huge hole in their lives.
Then there’s Taffy. Someone who not only made a concious choice to rape and Murder another human being, who managed to go ahead with it despite her screams and pleading. But who was comfortable enough with what hed done to take her bank cards afterwards, withdraw her money and spend it on booze and KFC for his mates.
He had a party while her fiancee sat at home wondering where she was, phoning anyone and everyone.
No one has moved on from that, and his parole hearings were going to start in only another 8 years. And everyone was going to have to relive it again from scratch.
His death has brought relief to the family that you could never understand. Everyone reads about these horrendous crimes, and everyone imagines themselves in the families shoes and thinks gosh wouldnt that be awful. But untill you sit there, with your family in ruins, with police coming and going through the house, not giving you information making you wait days for the tiniest scrap, being able to stand at the drive way and see the crime scene and know this persons body is still there. Until you experience a total paradigm shift of genuine horror like that. You can have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
A disturbing number of such people are dying in prison (Antonie Dixon another one). Convicted admittedly of extremely unpleasant crimes, it is disturbing because it looks like some prison staff adopt an “I know nothink’ approach to what in some cases appear to be proxy executions. McVicar definitely supports, just not openly yet, the return of capital punishment for sure.
Maybe you should spare a thought to the distrubingly increasing number of innocent victims who have had theirs lives ruined or taken from them by the people who are in prison. Maybe the offenders have woken up to the fact, albeit to late, that they are not nice people and cannot live in a controlled environment like prison let alone out in the community so have decided to end their heinous lives themselves. Don’t think you can blame the prison staff or anyone else. The responsibility lives with the offender and if he/she choses to take their own live so be it.
Well Angel I am with Russell Brown from another blog who maintains that victims of horrendous circumstances should get a free pass basically. But I see McVicar as an opportunist advancing his political agenda on tragic events such as you describe.
In the long run we are all in this together, if we allow an unequal society we all reap the crap that results. Societies with less inequality do better.
Some of these alleged prison suicides are actively encouraged in the absence of mental health care, and some of them are clearly murders. I don’t begrudge you for cheering when some sick soul expires but this is not where a civil society should be heading.
It is sad that little seems to be done to cut the number of crimes. Many people have been calling for a limit to alcohol sales by time and place for instance. It seems that the other problems that confront politicians and movers and shakers are seen as more serious yet a huge amount of our country’s cash is lost through crime and its aftermath.
But politicians can’t steel themselves to do what’s necessary, carrot and stick stuff. Those prisoners who haven’t become Hannibal Lecters should be trained and taught skills so they can find a job, and moved out of prison. They would see education as a hard punishment at first. Many have never disciplined themselves to learn at school or have had unknown disabilities, deafness, mental illness etc. The other prisoners, who have shown themselves to be repeatedly violent or repeatedly to prey on society need custodial sentences, long ones perhaps whole of life. Such people may be mentally ill but once it has taken that line, they need to be locked away, for public as well as their own safety.
There is always demand for a bold politician to show leadership (that word has so many facile meanings at the end of the day). But it is usually a cry for more punishment. We need to be selective and keep the worst repeat offenders locked up, and habilitate the others who, once they have proved themselves able to conduct their lives, would be released on suspended sentences into a job on the outside. We should also not let the police trade new identities and clean slates with crims for information, as in a recent case.
The tragedies go on and the media suck up the grief like thick spongey towels. Thursday morning we seemed to have each family member of the murdered Christchurch woman commenting, one reading a prepared statement, about their grief after the killer Peach was convicted. And the same refrain, that the sentence isn’t long enough, that the loved one has had life extinguished while the killer goes on, and it is all true and sad to hear repeated, with so little effective change being made.
I wonder how much hands-on work is being done to reduce habits of violence being passed on from adults to children. There is much education, and publicity as for White Ribbon Day. But do sports people after a few drinks think its okay to attack others? Policemen think its okay to gang up and
intimidate women or men? What are NZ’s attitudes really? And what about the angry, violent women who assault? I wonder is any academic studying the crimes who can put some context on them. Greg Newbold for instance.
How do parents teach their children to handle rejection, bullying, abuse etc.
It would be interesting to know if the demand that women name the fathers of unplanned babies causes resentment and the extreme tension that boils over into attacks on the women, and perhaps the attacks on babies are from fathers linked to the child in this legalistic and moralistic way. I wonder if there is informed comment on the crime stats.
Oil company and automobile industry lobbyists get their way with the public purse.
In the age of climate change and predicted sea level rise, an undersea tunnel to accommodate even greater car use, is a scandalous and irresponsible use of a huge amount of tax payers money.
The parliamentary opposition parties particularly, the Greens and the Maori party need to be challenged to join a grand coalition against this lunacy.
Auckland bridge fix for $86m then $3.5b for tunnels
The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 03/12/2009
The cost of upgrading Auckland’s harbour bridge has doubled, it has emerged, as officials take the first steps to replace the route with tunnels.
The cost of strengthening Auckland Harbour Bridge’s clip-on lanes was set at $45 million when announced in 2007. Yesterday, New Zealand Transport Agency’s regional director, Wayne McDonald, said an extra $41 million had been approved to complete work.
The announcement came as the agency lodged notices of requirement with the Auckland City and North Shore City councils to earmark land for two road and two rail tunnels under the Waitemata Harbour. The estimated cost of the routes is $3.5 billion.
Mr McDonald said it was important to recognise that the 50-year-old bridge could not continue as the city’s main harbour crossing.
The 1.2-kilometre bridge has an average of 154,000 vehicle crossings daily, at times reaching 200,000. About 60 more cars are estimated to join Auckland roads every day.
He said repairs to the bridge required 43 per cent more steel than originally estimated. The complexity of the work had also increased labour hours, he said.
“The scale and complexity of this project is huge. The initial funding approval was an urgent measure to address an urgent need. As the work has progressed, the need for further investment to complete it to the required standard and extend the service life of the bridge has become apparent,” Mr McDonald said.
The strengthening is expected to be completed next year and keep the bridge open for heavy trucks for the next 20 years.
NZTA has filed documents with Auckland City Council and North Shore City Council to ensure land on the proposed tunnel routes remains free. They will link the central city at Victoria Park to North Shore City at the Esmonde Rd Takapuna interchange.
Agreed. We are quite possibly at peak oil now and these plans for the construction of motorways for decades on end appear to me to be severely short sighted.
We should be electrifying the rail system and building the Queen Street tunnell with the money that would otherwise be used on the bridge replacement.
To make such a decision would require political bravery and the ability to anticipate the future.
I am looking forward to walking across the current bridge, hesitating only to avoid the cyclists and trams in the centre lane, perhaps buying a snack from a vendor parked under the arch….a lot of people think I am joking and that “technology” will save us.
Good info Jenny.
Interesting bit on What Works The ST 2/11 on NZ geology. Wonder what Auckland harbour rock base is like. And who decides on tunnel which Banks says he prefers? Questions! Surely LTSA can’t be the lone decider. And why more connections at Takapuna? Why not spread to say Point Chev across?
What role has ARC got? Will that be vanishing when the all-Auckland crowd get power?
Imagine if we were allowed to keep kiwis as pets. And native frogs and lizards. And, well every native creature. It would surely boost the populations of those endangered species. Sounds like a good idea … Sounds a tad foolish that we can’t …
The company has to make a profit if it makes an investment. Straightforward and incontrovertible. That’s what electricy company Mighty River head Doug Heffernan said this morning. Also that there are no price controls, no limits like cost plus which I suppose is more like a not-for-profit system.
It’s what you get when you have privatisation of infrastructure, ie electricity, prisons, health services, old age care, contracted out needs. The company carrying them out has to make a profit. Why should it be a holy grail that private companies do it better, cheaper, more efficiently? Every hour paid for by the contracting organisation is diced and sliced, and the worker dangling at the end of the key ring gets as small a portion as possible and probably poorer work conditions. If the org priced on cost of labour plus administration, it would be cheaper. And keeping them efficient, and up to standard, there would need to be adequate overview, it’s necessary but merely privatising everything is no answer.
The description of the report by Finance Minister Bill English as “too radical” is the final absurdity. The report is not just too radical; it is economic and social bullshit, a serious waste of taxpayers’ money, and every copy should be recycled into toilet paper.
Another Garth George opinion piece that I mostly agree with.
Two more disappointments from the right today.
1. Auckland City Council continue with their policy of abandoning the homeless to their fate. Why use a carrot and stick approach, when you can just use a stick? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10613125
2. A constraint on the gas supply to Auckland is identified. So, as Minister of Energy, Gerry Brownlee calls the interested parties together and then proceeds to issue a statement saying “there’s nothing the government can do.” Why actually solve infrastructure problems when you can leave it to the market? After years of failing to plan, now the various parties are going to get their act together. And all because Gerry told them to. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/12/03/1245d905af3d
I move that this country has no confidence in the official opposition.
“The Opposition aims to hold the government accountable and to present itself to the electorate as a credible government in waiting’
The opposition led by Phil Goff and the Labour Party has failed to meet these aims.
They have not managed to hold the Government accountable on the issues that really matter and instead have focused on the petty things. The job of the opposition is to ask questions and publically hold the government accountable for their actions. If the National-led Government was so minded they could do what ever they wanted with the opposition doing nothing.
The Labour Party (and Jimmy) have not presented themselves as ‘a credible government in waiting’. They are failing (or should I say “they have not yet achieved’). They are ineffective and present themselves as tired faces with tired policies from the 1980’s. In the latest poll, Phil Goff was at 5%.
They present a man who appears to be drunk onto television prattling on about how bad Roger Douglas is/was and that New Zealand started to go down hill from his time. I’m sorry but, what party did he belong to?
For the Labour Party to gain real traction, they need to have a turnover. They need to remove the old faces and bring in new ones. They need to scrap the leader and his deputy and gamble on a younger face.
As I see it, the real problem with the Labour Party is that their more experienced members are too old and their brighter faces are too young. For the time being, Labour is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I move that this country has no confidence in the Labour-led opposition because they fail to hold the government accountable and they fail to present themselves as a credible government in waiting.
KT123 – You need to read the whole wikipedia article that you sourced that quote from. Even with a tiny imagination it is clear that Labour has held the govt to account.
As for presenting a credible government in waiting, the next election is a long two years away. And what with a week being a long time in politics and all that….
Why are you trying to run this distraction, are National so bad that you need to divert the attention away from them with crap like this?. Honestly, it stinks of desperation.
@Armchair Critic Please do provide the quotes from the article that you a referring to.
@Lynn National was a bad opposition under Shipley and English. I know that. I never said otherwise. Where did I even mention history? As typical you completely change the topic to suit you.
I didn’t quote anything KT123 – you did.
I just cut and pasted “The Opposition aims to hold the government accountable and to present itself to the electorate as a credible government in waiting” from your comment and googled it. The first thing that came up was a wikipedia page on the official opposition in NZ. Coincidence? I doubt it, it is a long quote.
So now you are writing rubbish, as a distraction from how awful the government actually are, based on information from wikipedia and you can’t even acknowledge it. Weak.
I am an avid user of Wikipedia. (check my profile, same name.)
I am not denying that I sourced it from wikipedia.
My point was, What do I need to read on the wikipedia page that makes Labour a good opposition.
I can’t see it there.
Of course you weren’t quoting it, that’s why I asked you to quote it.
I, for one, am not too sure what your complaint about Labour as an opposition actually is.
It seems that you don’t think they are a credible opposition simply because Phil Goff is polling so low. While that means that they obviously aren’t in any sort of position to govern, that’s all it means.
An opposition, by definition, will tend to be polling lower than the govt. Especially at this point in the cycle, and especially after having so recently been in power for so long.
If you define ‘credibilty as an alternate government’ solely by whether or not they have the support to govern, then you are not really giving any opposition the chance to fill the definition, so your complaint is rather senseless.
I suspect the phrase means something else.
You say:
If the National-led Government was so minded they could do what ever they wanted with the opposition doing nothing.
and I’m, again, a bit confused as to what you might mean.
This is what governments are like. They have the power to govern despite the opposition. That is what governments are, the group of politicians in parliament with the confidence of the house, and the votes to do whatever they want, over the objections of the opposition.
@PB Well reasoned but I fail to agree… National is leading Labour by 22%. In my opinion, to be a credible opposition you need to be within 10% of the Government.
The Government is leading the opposition by 58 to 31. (I got these figures from a Wikipedia page btw.)
“No matter who loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people” Marches, protests and talk-back calls mean something to the Government. The opposition has failed to get the country behind them in holding the government to account.
I look forward to another mature and insightful discussion with you, PB.
That is a good rule of thumb for an election year.
There isn’t an election this year. There is unlikely to be one next year. The next election is likely to be in November 2011. Because a good rule of thumb is that governments that call for early elections tend to get punished for early dissolutions.
Please look for the “engage brain” switch. Turn it on.
Sorry KT, but polling isn’t the point of credibility. Credibility as it applies to oppositions goes to whether or not they could credibly govern if they had the support.
The fact that they do not have the support is what makes them oppositions. ( The following is longer that I intended, but the last para hints at what credibilty actually means for oppositions)
This government for example, has the support to govern, but they at times make an awful hash of it. I’m not here talking about policy that I disagree with, but the mechanics of governing.
Look at the scramble to get an ETS, where they pork barreled the maori Party to get over the line. The forestry issue relating to treaty settlements needed to be resolved one way or the other, but the least credible way of doing it was the way they chose. It would have been far better to keep the two issues separate and dealt with on their respective merits, instead, neither issue was dealt with on the merits.
Or the gang patch legislation fiasco which ended up trading ACT votes against themselves for the 3 strikes bill.
Or the ACC legislation which Nick Smith had to hold back from bringing to the house because he didn’t have the votes.
Or Gerry Brownlee’s management of the house, with urgency brought in, but then the house having to stop sitting because they run out of things to do.
The underlying issue to this events is that this government, for all it’s popularity, is incoherent. Key has tried an experiment with getting as many parties on board as he can. Good on him, he can do that, but it comes with costs.
Were we to face some sort of dire emergency, the system would survive fine (I’m thinking here about a war of necessity or a natural disaster) but only because the solutions to those types of events are generally non ideological, so parliament tends to act in unison.
With a crisis that was prone to ideological solutions however, this govt would struggle. Should a major trading partner, or a central player in the world economy face a genuine collapse or crisis, what would this government do? There would be the same mad dash for votes in the house that we see over any issue that is ideological, with the lead party, National, flailing around trying to find which of it’s smaller partners it wants to wag it’s tail.
And that is why we have a credible opposition. National are not prepared to do anything too radical, or even to put a mark n the sand about much. Most of the position taking under Key has been done by the junior partners in govt, with the Nats picking sides between them on an ad hoc basis. the explanation for that strange behaviour, is that key is all too aware that in Labour there is a credible opposition that people will vote for if he moves too far from the centrist pragmatic branding that he carved out for himself.
kt123: So young, so inexperienced, so much learning to do.
Also your history is crap. If you want to look at a really pathetic opposition, read up on the 1999-2003 national party. They really did bring a new meaning to the word ‘pitiful’, with exactly the the issues that you’re describing in age ranges.
They basically spent 4 years wondering why in the hell the electorate rejected them and back-biting themselves. This opposition has pretty well pulled itself together in less than a year.
Labour looks pretty good to me as an opposition at present. Mind you, they’d better be. Otherwise I’d be kicking some arse.
In the meantime they’ve managed to get the 1000 cuts campaign underway that is required to destabilize a government (with a bit of help from here). Of course the NACTs are so disorganized that it has been pretty damn easy to date. The wingnuts are starting to do their bit out on the right…
Policy is Labours issue next year, to be done by the end of the year. They started the discussions at annual conference. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes next.
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The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
The Tribunal had called on Minister for Children Karen Chhour to provide evidence at an urgent inquiry into the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Midjourney image by T.J. Thomson As more than half of Australian office workers report using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for work, we’re starting to see this technology affect every ...
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I was interested and horrified to hear Garth McVicar on the death of Wanganui prison inmate Taffy Hoten: “There’s not going to be any tears anywhere I mean, the justice system is failing, but ultimately there’s justice at the end of the day, it appears.”
Given McVicar has also recently said that they’ll be pushing for the Death Sentence in the future I think we have a fight coming.
I didn’t hear whether his lobby group had been able to establish their charity status so that they still get the handouts that provide the fuel for the continued rant.
It was under consideration and the committee? were considering withdrawing the status. What is the latest? McVicar said that he wouldn’t be able to carry on if status wiped.
For your information Mr McVicar does not get paid for the work he does on behalf of past, present and future victims. As a victim I would not wish the life I now live since by daughter was killed on anyone even those ill informed about the Trust. Believe me, if the trust is denied the status as a Charitable Trust there will be many people myself included demanding change. I also contribute to “the fuel for the continued rant” at my own personal cost. Why? because my 20 year old daughter was killed. Her death could have been prevented if police and corrections were doing their job to ensure pubic safety rather than pandering to the “status”, rights/needs of the repeat criminal offender. on parole and given a new identity, a new start in life under the Police Witness Protection Programme.
Personally the victims support side of the SST seems to reasonably effective from what I have anecdotally heard. The problem is that they seem to do less of that than they do pushing a political agenda.
That seemed to occupy the majority of the SSTs time and funding over the last few years as far as I can see, and looks suspiciously over-funded. The speculation is that it is largely funded by offshore private prison companies. To date the SST hasn’t convinced virtually anyone that they aren’t just a conduit for pushing covert political lobby funds.
They should either get a lot more transparent about their funding or stop being a charity and become a taxed lobby group.
Garth Mcvicar is a calm and rational man. Id like to see your source for claiming he wants to reinstate the death sentence. I think youve made that up.
I know the family of Kylie jones. I saw what that animal did to her. Its easy for you to jump on your moral high horse about Garth saying there will be no tears, because you still sleep at night. You go about your normal life happy as larry. The people who are left after a crime like this, never get to go about their normal life again. I had the most tenuous connection possible to Kylie, the crime was almost 10 years ago, and I still wake up in the middle of the night to check the house is locked, even though I know it is.
Things like that are across the board, with her family, her fiancee’s family and her friends. we’re talking about 20 or 30 people who have a huge hole in their lives.
Then there’s Taffy. Someone who not only made a concious choice to rape and Murder another human being, who managed to go ahead with it despite her screams and pleading. But who was comfortable enough with what hed done to take her bank cards afterwards, withdraw her money and spend it on booze and KFC for his mates.
He had a party while her fiancee sat at home wondering where she was, phoning anyone and everyone.
No one has moved on from that, and his parole hearings were going to start in only another 8 years. And everyone was going to have to relive it again from scratch.
His death has brought relief to the family that you could never understand. Everyone reads about these horrendous crimes, and everyone imagines themselves in the families shoes and thinks gosh wouldnt that be awful. But untill you sit there, with your family in ruins, with police coming and going through the house, not giving you information making you wait days for the tiniest scrap, being able to stand at the drive way and see the crime scene and know this persons body is still there. Until you experience a total paradigm shift of genuine horror like that. You can have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
There’s not going to be any tears anywhere.
In fact, I drank champagne.
A disturbing number of such people are dying in prison (Antonie Dixon another one). Convicted admittedly of extremely unpleasant crimes, it is disturbing because it looks like some prison staff adopt an “I know nothink’ approach to what in some cases appear to be proxy executions. McVicar definitely supports, just not openly yet, the return of capital punishment for sure.
Maybe you should spare a thought to the distrubingly increasing number of innocent victims who have had theirs lives ruined or taken from them by the people who are in prison. Maybe the offenders have woken up to the fact, albeit to late, that they are not nice people and cannot live in a controlled environment like prison let alone out in the community so have decided to end their heinous lives themselves. Don’t think you can blame the prison staff or anyone else. The responsibility lives with the offender and if he/she choses to take their own live so be it.
Well Angel I am with Russell Brown from another blog who maintains that victims of horrendous circumstances should get a free pass basically. But I see McVicar as an opportunist advancing his political agenda on tragic events such as you describe.
In the long run we are all in this together, if we allow an unequal society we all reap the crap that results. Societies with less inequality do better.
Some of these alleged prison suicides are actively encouraged in the absence of mental health care, and some of them are clearly murders. I don’t begrudge you for cheering when some sick soul expires but this is not where a civil society should be heading.
It is sad that little seems to be done to cut the number of crimes. Many people have been calling for a limit to alcohol sales by time and place for instance. It seems that the other problems that confront politicians and movers and shakers are seen as more serious yet a huge amount of our country’s cash is lost through crime and its aftermath.
But politicians can’t steel themselves to do what’s necessary, carrot and stick stuff. Those prisoners who haven’t become Hannibal Lecters should be trained and taught skills so they can find a job, and moved out of prison. They would see education as a hard punishment at first. Many have never disciplined themselves to learn at school or have had unknown disabilities, deafness, mental illness etc. The other prisoners, who have shown themselves to be repeatedly violent or repeatedly to prey on society need custodial sentences, long ones perhaps whole of life. Such people may be mentally ill but once it has taken that line, they need to be locked away, for public as well as their own safety.
There is always demand for a bold politician to show leadership (that word has so many facile meanings at the end of the day). But it is usually a cry for more punishment. We need to be selective and keep the worst repeat offenders locked up, and habilitate the others who, once they have proved themselves able to conduct their lives, would be released on suspended sentences into a job on the outside. We should also not let the police trade new identities and clean slates with crims for information, as in a recent case.
The tragedies go on and the media suck up the grief like thick spongey towels. Thursday morning we seemed to have each family member of the murdered Christchurch woman commenting, one reading a prepared statement, about their grief after the killer Peach was convicted. And the same refrain, that the sentence isn’t long enough, that the loved one has had life extinguished while the killer goes on, and it is all true and sad to hear repeated, with so little effective change being made.
I wonder how much hands-on work is being done to reduce habits of violence being passed on from adults to children. There is much education, and publicity as for White Ribbon Day. But do sports people after a few drinks think its okay to attack others? Policemen think its okay to gang up and
intimidate women or men? What are NZ’s attitudes really? And what about the angry, violent women who assault? I wonder is any academic studying the crimes who can put some context on them. Greg Newbold for instance.
How do parents teach their children to handle rejection, bullying, abuse etc.
It would be interesting to know if the demand that women name the fathers of unplanned babies causes resentment and the extreme tension that boils over into attacks on the women, and perhaps the attacks on babies are from fathers linked to the child in this legalistic and moralistic way. I wonder if there is informed comment on the crime stats.
Oil company and automobile industry lobbyists get their way with the public purse.
In the age of climate change and predicted sea level rise, an undersea tunnel to accommodate even greater car use, is a scandalous and irresponsible use of a huge amount of tax payers money.
The parliamentary opposition parties particularly, the Greens and the Maori party need to be challenged to join a grand coalition against this lunacy.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3121081/Auckland-bridge-fix-for-86m-then-3-5b-for-tunnels
Auckland bridge fix for $86m then $3.5b for tunnels
The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 03/12/2009
The cost of upgrading Auckland’s harbour bridge has doubled, it has emerged, as officials take the first steps to replace the route with tunnels.
The cost of strengthening Auckland Harbour Bridge’s clip-on lanes was set at $45 million when announced in 2007. Yesterday, New Zealand Transport Agency’s regional director, Wayne McDonald, said an extra $41 million had been approved to complete work.
The announcement came as the agency lodged notices of requirement with the Auckland City and North Shore City councils to earmark land for two road and two rail tunnels under the Waitemata Harbour. The estimated cost of the routes is $3.5 billion.
Mr McDonald said it was important to recognise that the 50-year-old bridge could not continue as the city’s main harbour crossing.
The 1.2-kilometre bridge has an average of 154,000 vehicle crossings daily, at times reaching 200,000. About 60 more cars are estimated to join Auckland roads every day.
He said repairs to the bridge required 43 per cent more steel than originally estimated. The complexity of the work had also increased labour hours, he said.
“The scale and complexity of this project is huge. The initial funding approval was an urgent measure to address an urgent need. As the work has progressed, the need for further investment to complete it to the required standard and extend the service life of the bridge has become apparent,” Mr McDonald said.
The strengthening is expected to be completed next year and keep the bridge open for heavy trucks for the next 20 years.
NZTA has filed documents with Auckland City Council and North Shore City Council to ensure land on the proposed tunnel routes remains free. They will link the central city at Victoria Park to North Shore City at the Esmonde Rd Takapuna interchange.
Agreed. We are quite possibly at peak oil now and these plans for the construction of motorways for decades on end appear to me to be severely short sighted.
We should be electrifying the rail system and building the Queen Street tunnell with the money that would otherwise be used on the bridge replacement.
To make such a decision would require political bravery and the ability to anticipate the future.
So I am not holding my breath …
I am looking forward to walking across the current bridge, hesitating only to avoid the cyclists and trams in the centre lane, perhaps buying a snack from a vendor parked under the arch….a lot of people think I am joking and that “technology” will save us.
Good info Jenny.
Interesting bit on What Works The ST 2/11 on NZ geology. Wonder what Auckland harbour rock base is like. And who decides on tunnel which Banks says he prefers? Questions! Surely LTSA can’t be the lone decider. And why more connections at Takapuna? Why not spread to say Point Chev across?
What role has ARC got? Will that be vanishing when the all-Auckland crowd get power?
Imagine if we were allowed to keep kiwis as pets. And native frogs and lizards. And, well every native creature. It would surely boost the populations of those endangered species. Sounds like a good idea … Sounds a tad foolish that we can’t …
Not all animals can be tamed and the main benefit of maintaining the population only exists if they’re in the wild.
The company has to make a profit if it makes an investment. Straightforward and incontrovertible. That’s what electricy company Mighty River head Doug Heffernan said this morning. Also that there are no price controls, no limits like cost plus which I suppose is more like a not-for-profit system.
It’s what you get when you have privatisation of infrastructure, ie electricity, prisons, health services, old age care, contracted out needs. The company carrying them out has to make a profit. Why should it be a holy grail that private companies do it better, cheaper, more efficiently? Every hour paid for by the contracting organisation is diced and sliced, and the worker dangling at the end of the key ring gets as small a portion as possible and probably poorer work conditions. If the org priced on cost of labour plus administration, it would be cheaper. And keeping them efficient, and up to standard, there would need to be adequate overview, it’s necessary but merely privatising everything is no answer.
Majority favour MMP – poll
So, why are we having the referendum again?
It’s annoying, but if MMP wins the first round in any sort of knockout, that’ll be all she wrote for at least a few decades.
Garth George: A taskforce not to be reckoned with
Another Garth George opinion piece that I mostly agree with.
Two more disappointments from the right today.
1. Auckland City Council continue with their policy of abandoning the homeless to their fate. Why use a carrot and stick approach, when you can just use a stick?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10613125
2. A constraint on the gas supply to Auckland is identified. So, as Minister of Energy, Gerry Brownlee calls the interested parties together and then proceeds to issue a statement saying “there’s nothing the government can do.” Why actually solve infrastructure problems when you can leave it to the market? After years of failing to plan, now the various parties are going to get their act together. And all because Gerry told them to.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/12/03/1245d905af3d
a little disappointed that no-one’s pointed out John Key being a ‘fast follower’ yet…
I move that this country has no confidence in the official opposition.
“The Opposition aims to hold the government accountable and to present itself to the electorate as a credible government in waiting’
The opposition led by Phil Goff and the Labour Party has failed to meet these aims.
They have not managed to hold the Government accountable on the issues that really matter and instead have focused on the petty things. The job of the opposition is to ask questions and publically hold the government accountable for their actions. If the National-led Government was so minded they could do what ever they wanted with the opposition doing nothing.
The Labour Party (and Jimmy) have not presented themselves as ‘a credible government in waiting’. They are failing (or should I say “they have not yet achieved’). They are ineffective and present themselves as tired faces with tired policies from the 1980’s. In the latest poll, Phil Goff was at 5%.
They present a man who appears to be drunk onto television prattling on about how bad Roger Douglas is/was and that New Zealand started to go down hill from his time. I’m sorry but, what party did he belong to?
For the Labour Party to gain real traction, they need to have a turnover. They need to remove the old faces and bring in new ones. They need to scrap the leader and his deputy and gamble on a younger face.
As I see it, the real problem with the Labour Party is that their more experienced members are too old and their brighter faces are too young. For the time being, Labour is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I move that this country has no confidence in the Labour-led opposition because they fail to hold the government accountable and they fail to present themselves as a credible government in waiting.
KT123 – You need to read the whole wikipedia article that you sourced that quote from. Even with a tiny imagination it is clear that Labour has held the govt to account.
As for presenting a credible government in waiting, the next election is a long two years away. And what with a week being a long time in politics and all that….
Why are you trying to run this distraction, are National so bad that you need to divert the attention away from them with crap like this?. Honestly, it stinks of desperation.
@Armchair Critic Please do provide the quotes from the article that you a referring to.
@Lynn National was a bad opposition under Shipley and English. I know that. I never said otherwise. Where did I even mention history? As typical you completely change the topic to suit you.
I didn’t quote anything KT123 – you did.
I just cut and pasted “The Opposition aims to hold the government accountable and to present itself to the electorate as a credible government in waiting” from your comment and googled it. The first thing that came up was a wikipedia page on the official opposition in NZ. Coincidence? I doubt it, it is a long quote.
So now you are writing rubbish, as a distraction from how awful the government actually are, based on information from wikipedia and you can’t even acknowledge it. Weak.
I am an avid user of Wikipedia. (check my profile, same name.)
I am not denying that I sourced it from wikipedia.
My point was, What do I need to read on the wikipedia page that makes Labour a good opposition.
I can’t see it there.
Of course you weren’t quoting it, that’s why I asked you to quote it.
I, for one, am not too sure what your complaint about Labour as an opposition actually is.
It seems that you don’t think they are a credible opposition simply because Phil Goff is polling so low. While that means that they obviously aren’t in any sort of position to govern, that’s all it means.
An opposition, by definition, will tend to be polling lower than the govt. Especially at this point in the cycle, and especially after having so recently been in power for so long.
If you define ‘credibilty as an alternate government’ solely by whether or not they have the support to govern, then you are not really giving any opposition the chance to fill the definition, so your complaint is rather senseless.
I suspect the phrase means something else.
You say:
If the National-led Government was so minded they could do what ever they wanted with the opposition doing nothing.
and I’m, again, a bit confused as to what you might mean.
This is what governments are like. They have the power to govern despite the opposition. That is what governments are, the group of politicians in parliament with the confidence of the house, and the votes to do whatever they want, over the objections of the opposition.
@PB Well reasoned but I fail to agree… National is leading Labour by 22%. In my opinion, to be a credible opposition you need to be within 10% of the Government.
The Government is leading the opposition by 58 to 31. (I got these figures from a Wikipedia page btw.)
“No matter who loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people” Marches, protests and talk-back calls mean something to the Government. The opposition has failed to get the country behind them in holding the government to account.
I look forward to another mature and insightful discussion with you, PB.
That is a good rule of thumb for an election year.
There isn’t an election this year. There is unlikely to be one next year. The next election is likely to be in November 2011. Because a good rule of thumb is that governments that call for early elections tend to get punished for early dissolutions.
Please look for the “engage brain” switch. Turn it on.
Sorry KT, but polling isn’t the point of credibility. Credibility as it applies to oppositions goes to whether or not they could credibly govern if they had the support.
The fact that they do not have the support is what makes them oppositions. ( The following is longer that I intended, but the last para hints at what credibilty actually means for oppositions)
This government for example, has the support to govern, but they at times make an awful hash of it. I’m not here talking about policy that I disagree with, but the mechanics of governing.
Look at the scramble to get an ETS, where they pork barreled the maori Party to get over the line. The forestry issue relating to treaty settlements needed to be resolved one way or the other, but the least credible way of doing it was the way they chose. It would have been far better to keep the two issues separate and dealt with on their respective merits, instead, neither issue was dealt with on the merits.
Or the gang patch legislation fiasco which ended up trading ACT votes against themselves for the 3 strikes bill.
Or the ACC legislation which Nick Smith had to hold back from bringing to the house because he didn’t have the votes.
Or Gerry Brownlee’s management of the house, with urgency brought in, but then the house having to stop sitting because they run out of things to do.
The underlying issue to this events is that this government, for all it’s popularity, is incoherent. Key has tried an experiment with getting as many parties on board as he can. Good on him, he can do that, but it comes with costs.
Were we to face some sort of dire emergency, the system would survive fine (I’m thinking here about a war of necessity or a natural disaster) but only because the solutions to those types of events are generally non ideological, so parliament tends to act in unison.
With a crisis that was prone to ideological solutions however, this govt would struggle. Should a major trading partner, or a central player in the world economy face a genuine collapse or crisis, what would this government do? There would be the same mad dash for votes in the house that we see over any issue that is ideological, with the lead party, National, flailing around trying to find which of it’s smaller partners it wants to wag it’s tail.
And that is why we have a credible opposition. National are not prepared to do anything too radical, or even to put a mark n the sand about much. Most of the position taking under Key has been done by the junior partners in govt, with the Nats picking sides between them on an ad hoc basis. the explanation for that strange behaviour, is that key is all too aware that in Labour there is a credible opposition that people will vote for if he moves too far from the centrist pragmatic branding that he carved out for himself.
kt123: So young, so inexperienced, so much learning to do.
Also your history is crap. If you want to look at a really pathetic opposition, read up on the 1999-2003 national party. They really did bring a new meaning to the word ‘pitiful’, with exactly the the issues that you’re describing in age ranges.
They basically spent 4 years wondering why in the hell the electorate rejected them and back-biting themselves. This opposition has pretty well pulled itself together in less than a year.
Labour looks pretty good to me as an opposition at present. Mind you, they’d better be. Otherwise I’d be kicking some arse.
In the meantime they’ve managed to get the 1000 cuts campaign underway that is required to destabilize a government (with a bit of help from here). Of course the NACTs are so disorganized that it has been pretty damn easy to date. The wingnuts are starting to do their bit out on the right…
Policy is Labours issue next year, to be done by the end of the year. They started the discussions at annual conference. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes next.
ACC’s reserves are now above forecast by $739 million (5.4 percent), a further improvement over last month
hmm
http://blog.greens.org.nz/2009/12/04/mirrors-smashed-and-smoke-dispersed/