Thinking about lost causes, what’s happening with the the prosecution of Kim Dotcom?
We have had:
~ Search warrants found to be defective and then reinterpreted to be constructive.
~ The GSCB shown to have acted unlawfully by spying on him.
~ illegal bugging of him after his arrest that was said to have stopped, and then latter it was reavealed not to have stopped and continued for another month.
~ The then-police commissioner Peter Marshall sign an Agreement which would allow Dotcom to sue New Zealand if it emerged the FBI case against him was unfair and unfounded. (Dotcom has claimed the loss of Megaupload cost him more than $2 billion although others have argued the impact is far less…)
~ Dotcom has spent at least $10m on his legal defence so far, and the NZ Police will probably have spent at least $15m.
~ 5 days ago the NZ Police have backed down and reached a confidential settlement with Dotcom over their use of excessive force in undertaking the arrest, paying a six figure sum as settlement to him.
~ His arrest occurred in 2012: it’s now nearly 2018.
And remember, this is all about deporting him for a crime that is not a crime in NZ. (Whereas the USA will not deport a US citizen Dean Fletcher to Tonga for a very real crime. Fletcher is the murder suspect for the killing of his wife on his yacht there. It stinks of being a case of “him white ‘merican, them not white and foreigners.”)
Dotcom may not be the most likeable of people, but at what stage does the Government say to the NZ Police that there is a budget cap on this particular little cluster fuck. Is it time to say “Find a deal and get it done?”
This case has its own life, essentially independent of politics.
I can’t imagine the Attorney General interfering in the case at this stage. That would be a blatant political interference in the independence of the police and the courts. Besides New Zealand, as a state party to an extradition treaty with the US, has formal obligations under the treaty to do everything to facilitate extraditions. Not the reverse, which is what you are proposing.
The Court of Appeal is currently considering KDC’s appeal against his extradition, which was ordered by the District Court and which decision was approved in the High Court when KDC appealed.
Whoever loses in the Court of Appeal is likely to go to the Supreme Court.
If ultimately KDC’s extradition is confirmed, say around 2020, then the Minister of Justice has to actually decide to extradite. He/she, I am sure, will just go along with the court decision.
But that ministerial decision is also judicially reviewable. So another round of proceedings, High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court (if the SC agrees to take the case). So lets say another 3 to 5 five years beyond 2020.
However, it is not appropriate to give a particularly well heeled litigant the advantage of them spending money and getting hearings at every possible point on every single arguable issue, to be able to say, “stop the proceedings, it has taken too long”. That would be justice for sale.
So no-one is going to give up now. Both parties, being KDC and NZ/US, have way too much invested in the case. And for the US, it is a case of “the FBI always gets its man” (even though they often don’t).
The case will simply go through to its final end, even though it is likely to be a 12 to 13 year long legal saga.
The benefits of unlimited resources (on both sides)!
Jennens v Jennens is not a situation that should be encouraged: 117 years of litigation before a draw was declared (due to insufficient funds.)
NZ’s big investment in this case is in the political relationship with US. Having a new Government does create the opportunity to reset the situation.
As to having a formal obligation to do “everything possible” to facilitate an extradition, this obviously does not mean everything. Anticipating this type of objection I had pointed to a very recent situation where the USA didn’t do go anywhere doing enough to to facilitate an extradition.
Sooner or later this becomes a political decision in that the Minister has sign off on the extradition. Discretion is available at this point.
It would be very inappropriate for a Minister to cut across a decision of the Supreme Court (because if KDC is to be extradited it will be the result of a SC decision) and effectively block a extradition on political grounds.
The only legitimate question for the Minister would be whether a person will get a fair trial. I can’t see a Minister suggesting US Federal courts are not independent courts applying the rule of law.
So I would be amazed (and frankly appalled) if a Minister of Justice exercising an extradition authority acted in such a manner. It would make a mockery of his/her duty to uphold the law.
I would also note that KDC might win in the Supreme Court. In that case it is the end of the matter, and he gets to stay in New Zealand.
So that is how the issue should be resolved; in the Supreme Court. If he wins in the SC he stays. If he loses he goes. A simple resolution to the case.
I would also note that it would be much harder in the US for a litigant as well heeled as KDC to delay the main proceedings by the number of interlocutory matters that KDC had. In the KDC case the various procedural hearings and associated appeals delayed the actual extradition hearing held in the District Court for 5 years.
In the US the judge has much more control over what happens in the court, and unhappy parties just can’t go and appeal procedural decisions of the judge they don’t like. They have to accept the trial judges decision on such matters, and proceed with the substantive hearing. Only after that has happened can they appeal.
I think that is because the US system is much more accustomed to dealing with very rich defendants, and doesn’t really let them game the system. That is why the the various criminal trials in New York following the GFC were all dealt within a year or so after the GFC. And most of the people charged were convicted and did jail time. As with New Zealand once convicted you immediately start your time, and have to appeal from inside the prison.
In NZ the cases arising from GFC issues typically took a at least one or more years longer than in the US before they happened.
The government has confirmed it is dumping National’s controversial data-for-funding plan that would have forced groups like Women’s Refuge to hand over personal client details.
Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said she was scrapping the plan because it was dangerous and unnecessary.
Under the policy, which was meant to be in place from July, the National government made it a contractual requirement for providers to hand over the personal details – such as the names, birth dates and ethnicities of their clients.
Excellent indeed. All small steps to overturn dangerous and petty (well it is petty, and just plain nasty) Natz policy are more than welcome. Keep at it!
Did the lost comment begin “Thanks, weka. I think there have been one or two women killing multiple people. But when I looked …”
I just newly found it sitting in “trash”. I can’t send it back to Weka’s post, but can cut and paste it there if you want. (Don’t know why it would have gone to the “trash” folder btw)
Probably got bumped in auto-moderation because Carolyn has a login as a subscriber on TS. Any comment that she writes when not logged in shows up as a probable attempt to impersonate a author and goes into auto-moderation
Can I reiterate. If you have a login to the site, then please login. It causes issues for moderators if you don’t as they have to release all your comments. If you don’t know your password, then slip me a email with your handle and a valid email, and I’ll reset and send you a new password via email.
In my view the best gift the world should give all Our small Island nations
Is renewable energy and with this energy they will be able to have safe drinking water they could grow vegetables hydroponicly there are many low costs systems out there this could miter gate salt water leaching there land. And give them the research information to survive climate change humanly. With the education thing with OUR Australian cousins well the cost of living is so high here and the lack of houseing In my view coming here won’t be attractive.
Ka pai
1. It is the Commission Opening of Parliament starting at 11am (with the State opening tomorrow at 10.30am – could be fun seeing Trevor Mallard being ‘reluctantly’ dragged to the Speaker’s Chair.
“The opening of Parliament consists of two ceremonies – the Commission Opening on Tuesday 7 November and the State Opening on Wednesday 8 November.
The Commission Opening will take place at 11.00am on Tuesday 7 November. The Chief Justice, acting as a Royal Commissioner, will open Parliament so that members can be sworn in and a Speaker elected.
The formal State Opening will be on the next day, Wednesday 8 November at 10.30am.
The Speech from the Throne takes place at the State Opening when the Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy sets out the Labour-led Government’s intentions for the next three years.
On a much more serious note, than my earlier comments here today, it is also a Big Day for the Manus Island refugees.
The PNG Supreme Court (which in March this year ordered the closing of the Centre) is to rule today on the resumption of supplying power, food, water, medicines etc to the men remaining in the Centre. An application filed by a lawyer last week was heard by the Supreme Court yesterday. More here:
RNZ is doing a good job of keeping up to date with the situation IMHO.
Yesterday, I also found a regularly updated resource on Facebook for “from the horse’s mouth” reporting well worth reading – somewhat surprisingly the PNG Govt Today site.
“cause international embarrassment” to Australia if they do not accept an offer for New Zealand to take up to 150 people a year from offshore detention centres, Labour leader Andrew Little says.
“If the Australians aren’t going to cooperate and allow New Zealand’s offer to assist – which is the right thing to do – then John Key should cause international embarrassment to Australia,” Little said today.
“This is a time to step up and say, in an age of world wide humanitarian crises, one that is on our doorstep, one that involves our nearest neighbour physically and diplomatically then we need to be applying a bit of a stiff arm on it and say, ‘we can help.”
So where is Labour on this now.
Seems like Jacinda just rolled over and said “OK” – there certainly (as far as I have seen) been anything else she has done.
Where is Andrew Little on this now? Kelvin Davis? nothing from them – do they find this acceptable now Jacinda is leaving the government.
James you are an idiot for making up stuff. Get your facts straight, what Ardern said about the Aussie rejection, was ” our offer is still on the table”.
I do realize you are not a fond Labour supporter, but stop lying.
“Seems like Jacinda just rolled over and said “OK” – there certainly (as far as I have seen) been anything else she has done.” As I said Ardern did not roll-over, the offer is still on the table. Australia don’t wan’t any detainees in New Zealand simply because they may end up across the ditch, some time in the future.
Secondly, I say something like this: “I’m sure you’ve heard the expression ‘everyone is entitled to their opinion.’ Perhaps you’ve even said it yourself, maybe to head off an argument or bring one to a close. Well, as soon as you walk into this room, it’s no longer true. You are not entitled to your opinion. You are only entitled to what you can argue for.”
A bit harsh? Perhaps, but philosophy teachers owe it to our students to teach them how to construct and defend an argument – and to recognize when a belief has become indefensible.
You may be right, I don’t know, but mere conjecture isn’t good enough.
Radio NZ reporting in the news that the government didn’t have enough MPs in the House today to ensure the election of Trevor Mallard as Speaker? A deal had to be cut with National, trading off the number of Select Committee places from 96 to 108. Pretty messy stuff.
It wasn’t just pretty messy stuff. I wasn’t just a big whoopsie. It was diabolical, inexcusable, it was beyond amateurish. The fact that so many weren’t there was inexcusable. Nothing at all should have had precedence over being in the House, anywhere in the world.
They were expecting to kick the conversion when they hadn’t even scored the try.
If the level of awareness is so low of what is likely to happen with that Opposition they may as well resign now.
I’m trying to figure it out. Reports say the government was down 5 MPs (from 63 to 58) and Opposition was down 1 (from 58 to 57? So technically the government still had a majority?
That’s right Scott. I hate to say it but Bridges and the Nats bluffed and it worked. Jacinda and Hipkins were quite simply panicked possums in the headlights. They are going to have to do about 1000 percent better than that from tomorrow onwards or we are all in for some miserable times when parliament is sitting. Talk about amateur hour. And the Nats got the select committee MP numbers increased to 108 from 97 in the on-the-spot deal they talked Hipkins and Jacinda into on the floor of the house as a result of their bluff.
It’s not a deal that was diabolical, double-inexcuseable, yadda yadda, no.
It was a fuckup that might make things more difficult in a select committee or two, but everything needs to go through the House anyway, ministers will still be able to regulate, and if the committee is particularly obstructive then urgency still exists.
It’s not the end of the government, and frankly I doubt it will particularly affect the government’s agenda.
On the flipside, if it had been a vote on welfare reform, or getting rid of the fire at will act or hobbit law, that would have been a major blow, delaying any reintroduction of that bill for the remainder of the year.
No you did not say that! However, in fact, the small increase in select committee numbers from 96 to 108 will not make much difference as National are not the sole beneficiary of the 12 places. The increase is split almost evenly between National on the one hand, and Labour, NZF and the Greens on the other hand.
As you said it was not like a vote on the Budget, or vote of confidence, and Mallard was still elected to Speaker unopposed. But several lessons learnt today, for example:
1. The Labour, NZF and Green whips need to work very closely together to avoid a repeat.
2. Check everything National says before accepting it.
I suspect the PM will pull finger – three strikes? . Hipkins and she go back a long way but I have no doubt that she will pull the plug if necessary.
Re my comment above, I have now checked and the 12 extra select committee places will be split evenly – 6 to National/Act and 4 to Labour and 1 each to NZF and Greens.
Great fun for National no doubt. You’d have to think though that pulling a stunt for no more reason than trying to embarrass the government is likely to wear thin for the general public pretty smartly.
The MPs not present were David Parker (L) , Winston Peters (NZF) , Poto Williams (L) , Priyanca Radhakrishanan (L), and Gareth Hughes (G).
I wonder whether Parker (as Trade Minister) and Winston Peters (as Foreign Minister) were tied up with MFAT on TPP negotiation matters; or have already left for the APEC meetings which start in Vietnam tomorrow (8 Nov) with TPP negotiations happening on the sidelines. They were due to fly out with the PM either tomorrow night or Thursday morning.
English and Co may have won that small concession on select committee numbers; but good ole Peters has today filed legal action against English, several other National Ministers, a couple of beaurocrats, and two journalists re the leak of information on his having been overpaid his superannuation.
UPDATE – RNZ is now reporting that Labour DID have the numbers to elect Mallard as Speaker but fell for National telling them that they did not have the numbers…. Dirty Politics anyone?
If the Government carry on like this they won’t last to the end of their first term. They deserve this – Winston and Parker were valid absentees – where the hell were the other two that supposedly were missing – if they did have the correct numbers then surely they can tell National to get stuffed over the 108 select committee members they had to negotiate over – lying in the House surely is against the parliamentary laws.
Cringe making – sorry folks but it just won’t cut it if they think they’re going to be able to combat the evil bastards on the other side of the House. They will be mincemeat.
Well, Kate is right, and so are you. It’s one of those “if these trends continue…” things.
Unlike AGW, we have little reason to assume that these trends will continue. But then… Trump. So who knows?
I suspect it was Hipkins who made the fuckup, because Hipkins seemed to do the negotiating. But maybe Hipkins wasn’t the one supposed to count. Either way, someone needs to stand up and take a rap across the knuckles, and smarten up. They’re in government now, they need to get up to speed quickly.
I doubt it was habitual incompentence, probably more a change in pace that caught them wrong-footed. But still…
It’s a passing giggle compared to the belly-laugh the election brought.
Did Bridges play sneaky today?
Or was it a genuine mistake on his part, claiming Labour had too few MPs in the House?
Ummmm… I’d say, sneaky going by a number of indicators.
“Or was it a genuine mistake on his part, claiming Labour had too few MPs in the House?”
citation that he made that claim Robert?
“However, in what is an embarrassing oversight for the new Government, at least five of its MPs were absent and things threatened to go pear-shaped when National MP and shadow leader of the House Simon Bridges raised a point of order, querying whether MPs who weren’t sworn-in could participate in the vote.”
I cannot see anywhere that he made the claim you stated?
Disgusting.
Demeaning.
Embarrassing.
Humiliating.
And incorrect…*
“I, Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern, solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her heirs and successors, according to law.”
Did we campaign and vote for our Labour PM to swear allegiance to a foreign monarch rather than than The People of New Zealand?
When can we stop this trite insulting infuriating shite?
I look forward to Labour immediately scrapping the knight and dame garbage that the Natz reintroduced.
I look forward to Labour declaring Aotearoa an Independent republic with an elected Head of State.
*NZs current head of state is the monarch of the UK. There was no Queen Elizabeth the First of the United Kingdom. There was one for England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603.
“I look forward to Labour declaring Aotearoa an Independent republic with an elected Head of State”
Yeah because Labour has the mandate for that tiny constitutional change???
Are you going to consult one of the two signatories to the treaty before doing so. I think Maori may have a fairly strong view on your republican opinion.
“New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. This system is based on the Westminster system, although that term is increasingly inapt given constitutional developments particular to New Zealand. The head of state, the monarch of New Zealand is represented in the Realm of New Zealand by the Governor-General and is the source of executive, judicial and legislative power.”
The Monarch of NZ is Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. She is not a ‘foreign ‘monarch.
Well, lovely for her – and if the illness indeed lasted only a week per person then they were lucky; 7-10 days is the norm for uncomplicated measles. But measles infection carries a range of costs and risks, about which she seemed blissfully ignorant. Or couldn’t care less; on that thread, it was hard to tell sometimes.
It then goes on to detail all the added costs of having the measles.
There was a pretty hard core of anti-vax kooks long before Wakefield’s lies. But fuck me, Wakefield certainly managed to inflate it from a minor lunatic fringe nuisance into a full-blown public-health problem.
Or National looking sneaky. Either way, it’s unbecoming. Minor glitch though, like getting stung by one hornet and noticing the nest you were about to step on. I guess we should thank Sneaky Simon 🙂
Its not looking sneaky – its just shows when there is such a large opposition how they can make life difficult for the government, and that they really intend to.
maybe it’s about time James the national party grew up and realize they are not in high school anymore, they are a party of has been’s so desperate to cling to power, it is not about people at all but there own ego’s and what they get out of it, Collins and Bennett people loath those two, I personally loath the whole party actually, none of them of them have any scruples
Being a strong opposition for Natz, is playing dirty politics. It’s all it knows.
As it is now a proven fact government did actually after all have the numbers over Natz for the Speaker vote, why isn’t it possible to withdraw the select committees deal?
Today’s events I’m sure will be a wake up call for the government to be even more alert for the expected Natz cesspit of murk and filth to raise its odorous stench to score points.
Sore losers Natz obviously still stinging badly about being sent to the opposition benches!
Mediaz having a poor property investor moment saying they might not be able to afford to stuff some basic insulation in a house and provide just one source of heating for their tenants.
No talk of how a family could be freezing to death in there, no just how the investor could shock horror lose everything with these additional costs and how the bastard investors would make the tenants pay for it.
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As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
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Thinking about lost causes, what’s happening with the the prosecution of Kim Dotcom?
We have had:
~ Search warrants found to be defective and then reinterpreted to be constructive.
~ The GSCB shown to have acted unlawfully by spying on him.
~ illegal bugging of him after his arrest that was said to have stopped, and then latter it was reavealed not to have stopped and continued for another month.
~ The then-police commissioner Peter Marshall sign an Agreement which would allow Dotcom to sue New Zealand if it emerged the FBI case against him was unfair and unfounded. (Dotcom has claimed the loss of Megaupload cost him more than $2 billion although others have argued the impact is far less…)
~ Dotcom has spent at least $10m on his legal defence so far, and the NZ Police will probably have spent at least $15m.
~ 5 days ago the NZ Police have backed down and reached a confidential settlement with Dotcom over their use of excessive force in undertaking the arrest, paying a six figure sum as settlement to him.
~ His arrest occurred in 2012: it’s now nearly 2018.
And remember, this is all about deporting him for a crime that is not a crime in NZ. (Whereas the USA will not deport a US citizen Dean Fletcher to Tonga for a very real crime. Fletcher is the murder suspect for the killing of his wife on his yacht there. It stinks of being a case of “him white ‘merican, them not white and foreigners.”)
Dotcom may not be the most likeable of people, but at what stage does the Government say to the NZ Police that there is a budget cap on this particular little cluster fuck. Is it time to say “Find a deal and get it done?”
This case has its own life, essentially independent of politics.
I can’t imagine the Attorney General interfering in the case at this stage. That would be a blatant political interference in the independence of the police and the courts. Besides New Zealand, as a state party to an extradition treaty with the US, has formal obligations under the treaty to do everything to facilitate extraditions. Not the reverse, which is what you are proposing.
The Court of Appeal is currently considering KDC’s appeal against his extradition, which was ordered by the District Court and which decision was approved in the High Court when KDC appealed.
Whoever loses in the Court of Appeal is likely to go to the Supreme Court.
If ultimately KDC’s extradition is confirmed, say around 2020, then the Minister of Justice has to actually decide to extradite. He/she, I am sure, will just go along with the court decision.
But that ministerial decision is also judicially reviewable. So another round of proceedings, High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court (if the SC agrees to take the case). So lets say another 3 to 5 five years beyond 2020.
However, it is not appropriate to give a particularly well heeled litigant the advantage of them spending money and getting hearings at every possible point on every single arguable issue, to be able to say, “stop the proceedings, it has taken too long”. That would be justice for sale.
So no-one is going to give up now. Both parties, being KDC and NZ/US, have way too much invested in the case. And for the US, it is a case of “the FBI always gets its man” (even though they often don’t).
The case will simply go through to its final end, even though it is likely to be a 12 to 13 year long legal saga.
The benefits of unlimited resources (on both sides)!
Jennens v Jennens is not a situation that should be encouraged: 117 years of litigation before a draw was declared (due to insufficient funds.)
NZ’s big investment in this case is in the political relationship with US. Having a new Government does create the opportunity to reset the situation.
As to having a formal obligation to do “everything possible” to facilitate an extradition, this obviously does not mean everything. Anticipating this type of objection I had pointed to a very recent situation where the USA didn’t do go anywhere doing enough to to facilitate an extradition.
Sooner or later this becomes a political decision in that the Minister has sign off on the extradition. Discretion is available at this point.
It would be very inappropriate for a Minister to cut across a decision of the Supreme Court (because if KDC is to be extradited it will be the result of a SC decision) and effectively block a extradition on political grounds.
The only legitimate question for the Minister would be whether a person will get a fair trial. I can’t see a Minister suggesting US Federal courts are not independent courts applying the rule of law.
So I would be amazed (and frankly appalled) if a Minister of Justice exercising an extradition authority acted in such a manner. It would make a mockery of his/her duty to uphold the law.
I would also note that KDC might win in the Supreme Court. In that case it is the end of the matter, and he gets to stay in New Zealand.
So that is how the issue should be resolved; in the Supreme Court. If he wins in the SC he stays. If he loses he goes. A simple resolution to the case.
Spoken as a Law Commissioner. Just looking back at Parihaka and the actions of the Judiciary to accommodate political outcomes.
I would also note that it would be much harder in the US for a litigant as well heeled as KDC to delay the main proceedings by the number of interlocutory matters that KDC had. In the KDC case the various procedural hearings and associated appeals delayed the actual extradition hearing held in the District Court for 5 years.
In the US the judge has much more control over what happens in the court, and unhappy parties just can’t go and appeal procedural decisions of the judge they don’t like. They have to accept the trial judges decision on such matters, and proceed with the substantive hearing. Only after that has happened can they appeal.
I think that is because the US system is much more accustomed to dealing with very rich defendants, and doesn’t really let them game the system. That is why the the various criminal trials in New York following the GFC were all dealt within a year or so after the GFC. And most of the people charged were convicted and did jail time. As with New Zealand once convicted you immediately start your time, and have to appeal from inside the prison.
In NZ the cases arising from GFC issues typically took a at least one or more years longer than in the US before they happened.
Enron collapsed in 2001. Ten years on US prosecutions were still being litigated.
Other cases of well heeled defendants pushing cases out are easy to find with a Google search.
We cannot afford the rich.
The Paradise Papers reveals even more of their tax dodging.
And who and what they are.
Bono.
The Queen.
Uber.
Apple
Nike
https://www.theguardian.com/news/live/2017/nov/06/reaction-around-world-release-paradise-papers-live
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/paradise-papers-latest-apple-nike-glencore-everton-fc-tax-leak-offshore-investment-haven-companies-a8040056.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/paradise-papers-latest-jeremy-corbyn-queen-apology-investing-millions-offshore-tax-leaks-haven-a8040061.html
Excellent news from Carmel Sepuloni – reported on RNZ:
Excellent indeed. All small steps to overturn dangerous and petty (well it is petty, and just plain nasty) Natz policy are more than welcome. Keep at it!
yep – a petty and nasty measure we’re well rid of.
I submitted a comment under weka’s “Guns don’t shoot people…” post. It disappeared into the ether. Are comments under that post being fully moderated?
Oh. A second attempt to post a comment under that post went straight through. Don’t know what happened to the first one.
Did the lost comment begin “Thanks, weka. I think there have been one or two women killing multiple people. But when I looked …”
I just newly found it sitting in “trash”. I can’t send it back to Weka’s post, but can cut and paste it there if you want. (Don’t know why it would have gone to the “trash” folder btw)
Probably got bumped in auto-moderation because Carolyn has a login as a subscriber on TS. Any comment that she writes when not logged in shows up as a probable attempt to impersonate a author and goes into auto-moderation
Can I reiterate. If you have a login to the site, then please login. It causes issues for moderators if you don’t as they have to release all your comments. If you don’t know your password, then slip me a email with your handle and a valid email, and I’ll reset and send you a new password via email.
Otherwise create a new identity
The work around appears to be using a different email address.
Ah. OK. Thanks.
Yes, that was it, Bill.
If you have a bucket nearby , you could try this…
https://youtu.be/zotdxQGCM0s
Oh My God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Wayne – have you seen this?
Y’know, if there was any hint of intentional self-parody in that, it would actually be funny. But as it is, well, my eyes and ears are still in pain.
Think…Thelma and Louise, final scene
Think…Thelma and Louise, final scene
In my view the best gift the world should give all Our small Island nations
Is renewable energy and with this energy they will be able to have safe drinking water they could grow vegetables hydroponicly there are many low costs systems out there this could miter gate salt water leaching there land. And give them the research information to survive climate change humanly. With the education thing with OUR Australian cousins well the cost of living is so high here and the lack of houseing In my view coming here won’t be attractive.
Ka pai
Woman who gave Trump the finger fired.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11941192
@ (7) James … give that woman a medal 🙂
I think she would prefer a job.
Kim Hill had English on the ropes this morning…..
Looks like he makes her skin crawl. Or something.
Still skewered the lying scumbag though.
Today is a Big Day …
1. It is the Commission Opening of Parliament starting at 11am (with the State opening tomorrow at 10.30am – could be fun seeing Trevor Mallard being ‘reluctantly’ dragged to the Speaker’s Chair.
“The opening of Parliament consists of two ceremonies – the Commission Opening on Tuesday 7 November and the State Opening on Wednesday 8 November.
The Commission Opening will take place at 11.00am on Tuesday 7 November. The Chief Justice, acting as a Royal Commissioner, will open Parliament so that members can be sworn in and a Speaker elected.
The formal State Opening will be on the next day, Wednesday 8 November at 10.30am.
The Speech from the Throne takes place at the State Opening when the Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy sets out the Labour-led Government’s intentions for the next three years.
The public can watch both ceremonies in Parliament grounds or live on Parliament TV and RNZ.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1710/S00072/state-opening-of-the-52nd-parliament.htm
2. Then the Melbourne Cup at 5pm – Jacinda is apparently having a bet according to Morning Report …
3, If you have not had enough, then Jacinda Ardern on TVNZ1 at 8.30pm in The DNA Detectives finding her ancestors.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11939688
Parliament is getting with it – great little guide to the opening of Parliament
https://www.parliament.nz/en/visit-and-learn/parliament-in-election-year/te-whakatuwheratanga-o-te-p%C4%81remata-opening-of-parliament/step-by-step-guide-to-the-opening-of-parliament/
h/t Claire Trevett Twitter
Manus Island Update
On a much more serious note, than my earlier comments here today, it is also a Big Day for the Manus Island refugees.
The PNG Supreme Court (which in March this year ordered the closing of the Centre) is to rule today on the resumption of supplying power, food, water, medicines etc to the men remaining in the Centre. An application filed by a lawyer last week was heard by the Supreme Court yesterday. More here:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/pacific/343232/court-decision-on-manus-detention-centre-services-due
In the meantime the health of the men is deteriorating badly
http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/343217/emergency-exposes-manus-island-healthcare-deficit
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018620560/the-health-of-the-manus-island-detainees
RNZ is doing a good job of keeping up to date with the situation IMHO.
Yesterday, I also found a regularly updated resource on Facebook for “from the horse’s mouth” reporting well worth reading – somewhat surprisingly the PNG Govt Today site.
https://www.facebook.com/PNG-Govt-Today-1974657442816433/?ref=nf&hc_ref=ARTQH9l6DNb_R7OSY9bhIVhmGjs–Ud_lY49K7qKVxop5LDi-JSYneZy4ZOTmvHO9tI
This contains a number of local PNG media reports yesterday on the situation – eg
http://www.thenational.com.pg/asylum-seekers-claim-situation-worsening-manus/
http://postcourier.com.pg/refugees-application-go-sir-salamo/
It also contains this PNG govt photo and statement that did not give me much comfort re the refugee’s safety …
https://www.facebook.com/1974657442816433/photos/a.1981407718808072.1073741828.1974657442816433/2008672982748212/?type=3&theater
IMHO this is a disaster in waiting which needs to be sorted urgently – regardless of ideologies, rights and wrongs etc.
“cause international embarrassment” to Australia if they do not accept an offer for New Zealand to take up to 150 people a year from offshore detention centres, Labour leader Andrew Little says.
“If the Australians aren’t going to cooperate and allow New Zealand’s offer to assist – which is the right thing to do – then John Key should cause international embarrassment to Australia,” Little said today.
“This is a time to step up and say, in an age of world wide humanitarian crises, one that is on our doorstep, one that involves our nearest neighbour physically and diplomatically then we need to be applying a bit of a stiff arm on it and say, ‘we can help.”
So where is Labour on this now.
Seems like Jacinda just rolled over and said “OK” – there certainly (as far as I have seen) been anything else she has done.
Where is Andrew Little on this now? Kelvin Davis? nothing from them – do they find this acceptable now Jacinda is leaving the government.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11730987
James you are an idiot for making up stuff. Get your facts straight, what Ardern said about the Aussie rejection, was ” our offer is still on the table”.
I do realize you are not a fond Labour supporter, but stop lying.
Where have I lied. Where is the fight that labour had before on this issue ?
Are they doing anything about it?
“Seems like Jacinda just rolled over and said “OK” – there certainly (as far as I have seen) been anything else she has done.” As I said Ardern did not roll-over, the offer is still on the table. Australia don’t wan’t any detainees in New Zealand simply because they may end up across the ditch, some time in the future.
Bit of a “tell’ there James. Now Jacinda is leaving ? (leading)? government.
Oops. Apologies.
fingers crossed for them.
Good article with accessable and interesting information.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/06-11-2017/gods-whanau-body-parts-making-sense-of-health-with-whakapapa/
Yep that pissed them off LOL you no what they can go and do
And with that I’d say that you’re talking out your arse.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
You, of course, have a much better idea than I so as such your opinion must be more valid than mine
Well, you’re the one who made the assertion in the first place – now you need to back it up.
And, as always, No, you’re not entitled to your opinion:
You may be right, I don’t know, but mere conjecture isn’t good enough.
Radio NZ reporting in the news that the government didn’t have enough MPs in the House today to ensure the election of Trevor Mallard as Speaker? A deal had to be cut with National, trading off the number of Select Committee places from 96 to 108. Pretty messy stuff.
well, that’s a big whoopsie.
I was watching and guessed what was unfolding.
It wasn’t just pretty messy stuff. I wasn’t just a big whoopsie. It was diabolical, inexcusable, it was beyond amateurish. The fact that so many weren’t there was inexcusable. Nothing at all should have had precedence over being in the House, anywhere in the world.
They were expecting to kick the conversion when they hadn’t even scored the try.
If the level of awareness is so low of what is likely to happen with that Opposition they may as well resign now.
wtaf?
Was that Hipkin’s fault? Or the MPs who weren’t present?
Mallard’s Speaker…but the Government has crow for dinner tonight.
I’m trying to figure it out. Reports say the government was down 5 MPs (from 63 to 58) and Opposition was down 1 (from 58 to 57? So technically the government still had a majority?
You are right – see my comment at 14.2.
That’s right Scott. I hate to say it but Bridges and the Nats bluffed and it worked. Jacinda and Hipkins were quite simply panicked possums in the headlights. They are going to have to do about 1000 percent better than that from tomorrow onwards or we are all in for some miserable times when parliament is sitting. Talk about amateur hour. And the Nats got the select committee MP numbers increased to 108 from 97 in the on-the-spot deal they talked Hipkins and Jacinda into on the floor of the house as a result of their bluff.
geez, chill, dude.
Yeah, the whip screwed up. But it’s not like it was budget day or something.
You don’t think the numbers on select committees is very important? How come?
Did I say that?
I thought you implied that it wasn’t such a big deal, which is why I asked for clarification.
It’s not a deal that was diabolical, double-inexcuseable, yadda yadda, no.
It was a fuckup that might make things more difficult in a select committee or two, but everything needs to go through the House anyway, ministers will still be able to regulate, and if the committee is particularly obstructive then urgency still exists.
It’s not the end of the government, and frankly I doubt it will particularly affect the government’s agenda.
On the flipside, if it had been a vote on welfare reform, or getting rid of the fire at will act or hobbit law, that would have been a major blow, delaying any reintroduction of that bill for the remainder of the year.
No you did not say that! However, in fact, the small increase in select committee numbers from 96 to 108 will not make much difference as National are not the sole beneficiary of the 12 places. The increase is split almost evenly between National on the one hand, and Labour, NZF and the Greens on the other hand.
As you said it was not like a vote on the Budget, or vote of confidence, and Mallard was still elected to Speaker unopposed. But several lessons learnt today, for example:
1. The Labour, NZF and Green whips need to work very closely together to avoid a repeat.
2. Check everything National says before accepting it.
Exactly – it was a slap and a rude awakening.
Although too many of these oversights will be a rust on the government. Someone needs to pull finger.
I suspect the PM will pull finger – three strikes? . Hipkins and she go back a long way but I have no doubt that she will pull the plug if necessary.
Re my comment above, I have now checked and the 12 extra select committee places will be split evenly – 6 to National/Act and 4 to Labour and 1 each to NZF and Greens.
There’s a new post up too,
https://thestandard.org.nz/build-a-bridge-and-get-over-it/
Great fun for National no doubt. You’d have to think though that pulling a stunt for no more reason than trying to embarrass the government is likely to wear thin for the general public pretty smartly.
It wasnt for no reason – there were at least 2.
1 – to get the select committee numbers where National wanted them – tick (a good win for National)
2 – to make the government look like fools – tick ( http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11941411 )
Yes, that certainly was messy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11941362
The MPs not present were David Parker (L) , Winston Peters (NZF) , Poto Williams (L) , Priyanca Radhakrishanan (L), and Gareth Hughes (G).
I wonder whether Parker (as Trade Minister) and Winston Peters (as Foreign Minister) were tied up with MFAT on TPP negotiation matters; or have already left for the APEC meetings which start in Vietnam tomorrow (8 Nov) with TPP negotiations happening on the sidelines. They were due to fly out with the PM either tomorrow night or Thursday morning.
English and Co may have won that small concession on select committee numbers; but good ole Peters has today filed legal action against English, several other National Ministers, a couple of beaurocrats, and two journalists re the leak of information on his having been overpaid his superannuation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11941372
UPDATE – RNZ is now reporting that Labour DID have the numbers to elect Mallard as Speaker but fell for National telling them that they did not have the numbers…. Dirty Politics anyone?
lol nah, fair cop. Someone’s in the schtuck.
My guess is that the whips were looking to their own parties, and not too closely with their colleagues.
If the Government carry on like this they won’t last to the end of their first term. They deserve this – Winston and Parker were valid absentees – where the hell were the other two that supposedly were missing – if they did have the correct numbers then surely they can tell National to get stuffed over the 108 select committee members they had to negotiate over – lying in the House surely is against the parliamentary laws.
Cringe making – sorry folks but it just won’t cut it if they think they’re going to be able to combat the evil bastards on the other side of the House. They will be mincemeat.
They didn’t lie – read the news reports. Labour just didn’t count their people.
It’s hilarious.
Gee, Whispering, you’re quick to doom-monger! Does getting caught out by National’s sneakiness really bode so ill? Mincemeat Nah!
Well, Kate is right, and so are you. It’s one of those “if these trends continue…” things.
Unlike AGW, we have little reason to assume that these trends will continue. But then… Trump. So who knows?
I suspect it was Hipkins who made the fuckup, because Hipkins seemed to do the negotiating. But maybe Hipkins wasn’t the one supposed to count. Either way, someone needs to stand up and take a rap across the knuckles, and smarten up. They’re in government now, they need to get up to speed quickly.
I doubt it was habitual incompentence, probably more a change in pace that caught them wrong-footed. But still…
That’s not dirty politics- it just labour cannot count. By god it’s laughable.
It’s a passing giggle compared to the belly-laugh the election brought.
Did Bridges play sneaky today?
Or was it a genuine mistake on his part, claiming Labour had too few MPs in the House?
Ummmm… I’d say, sneaky going by a number of indicators.
“Or was it a genuine mistake on his part, claiming Labour had too few MPs in the House?”
citation that he made that claim Robert?
“However, in what is an embarrassing oversight for the new Government, at least five of its MPs were absent and things threatened to go pear-shaped when National MP and shadow leader of the House Simon Bridges raised a point of order, querying whether MPs who weren’t sworn-in could participate in the vote.”
I cannot see anywhere that he made the claim you stated?
Disgusting.
Demeaning.
Embarrassing.
Humiliating.
And incorrect…*
“I, Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern, solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her heirs and successors, according to law.”
Did we campaign and vote for our Labour PM to swear allegiance to a foreign monarch rather than than The People of New Zealand?
When can we stop this trite insulting infuriating shite?
I look forward to Labour immediately scrapping the knight and dame garbage that the Natz reintroduced.
I look forward to Labour declaring Aotearoa an Independent republic with an elected Head of State.
*NZs current head of state is the monarch of the UK. There was no Queen Elizabeth the First of the United Kingdom. There was one for England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603.
“I look forward to Labour declaring Aotearoa an Independent republic with an elected Head of State”
Yeah because Labour has the mandate for that tiny constitutional change???
Are you going to consult one of the two signatories to the treaty before doing so. I think Maori may have a fairly strong view on your republican opinion.
Ignorance of the level in PB’s comment is just not worth replying to. LOL.
Back up your remark please or don’t write at all.
Try these for a start
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_New_Zealand
“New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. This system is based on the Westminster system, although that term is increasingly inapt given constitutional developments particular to New Zealand. The head of state, the monarch of New Zealand is represented in the Realm of New Zealand by the Governor-General and is the source of executive, judicial and legislative power.”
The Monarch of NZ is Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. She is not a ‘foreign ‘monarch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_New_Zealand
…….a bit change resistant sweetie?
This is what happens when vaccination levels aren’t good enough:
This is a good article on the added costs of measles:
It then goes on to detail all the added costs of having the measles.
All still fall out from that fraud Wakefield.
There was a pretty hard core of anti-vax kooks long before Wakefield’s lies. But fuck me, Wakefield certainly managed to inflate it from a minor lunatic fringe nuisance into a full-blown public-health problem.
NZ Herald on how the new government looked today.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11941411
Guess the news tonight will be the new government looking stupid on day 1.
once bitten, twice shy.
Or National looking sneaky. Either way, it’s unbecoming. Minor glitch though, like getting stung by one hornet and noticing the nest you were about to step on. I guess we should thank Sneaky Simon 🙂
Its not looking sneaky – its just shows when there is such a large opposition how they can make life difficult for the government, and that they really intend to.
maybe it’s about time James the national party grew up and realize they are not in high school anymore, they are a party of has been’s so desperate to cling to power, it is not about people at all but there own ego’s and what they get out of it, Collins and Bennett people loath those two, I personally loath the whole party actually, none of them of them have any scruples
No – not in high school – agreed.
However if Labour was smart enough to count to a high school level – then they wouldn’t have made this stupid mistake.
Now National have the majority in 7 of the 12 select committees.
Do you mean a majority or a plurality?
It is not a “large opposition” – actually one seat smaller than in the last term. However a govt that cannot count looks foolish, yes.
simple simon met a pieman
“Simple Simon met a pieman”,
trying to elect a speaker;
Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
Ill take all the select committee seats we want”
It dosnt rhyme, but its the end result.
Ten Reasons We Got Rid of National
No. 3: Dr. Jian Yang
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11937380
Being a strong opposition for Natz, is playing dirty politics. It’s all it knows.
As it is now a proven fact government did actually after all have the numbers over Natz for the Speaker vote, why isn’t it possible to withdraw the select committees deal?
Today’s events I’m sure will be a wake up call for the government to be even more alert for the expected Natz cesspit of murk and filth to raise its odorous stench to score points.
Sore losers Natz obviously still stinging badly about being sent to the opposition benches!
So Mary_A – nobody said that they didnt have the numbers, so nobody has ever disputed the fact you are pointing out.
Bridges asked if people who were not sworn in could vote.
Labour are bumbling idiots, who couldn’t count and panicked. But at no point in this did Bridges tell a lie.
So no dirty politics – its incompetence.
But a great result on the select committee seats !
Mediaz having a poor property investor moment saying they might not be able to afford to stuff some basic insulation in a house and provide just one source of heating for their tenants.
No talk of how a family could be freezing to death in there, no just how the investor could shock horror lose everything with these additional costs and how the bastard investors would make the tenants pay for it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/houses/98628647/proposed-changes-spell-trouble-for-young-landlord