Kiwiblog

The Herald reports:

Air New Zealand last night apologised for a crew manual which profiled passengers by nationality and suggested flight attendants watch Tongans who wanted to “drink the bar dry”.

The airline said the document, made public yesterday, was written in 2008 for flight crews. It had since been updated and did not now touch on alcohol or “cultural components”.

This is not surprising. Even if Air NZ has observed such drinking with some Tongan passengers, they could have made clear it was only a minority, and/or made it a general warning about all passengers.

Labour Party list MP Carmel Sepuloni, who is of Tongan descent, said the remarks were offensive, and she was considering lodging a complaint.

“I don’t know what Air New Zealand was thinking in putting something like that together,” she said. “They shouldn’t be making any generalisations of any ethnic group.”

I wonder whether that statement is going too far. I agree the Tongan alcohol reference causes offence, but taking another statement:

Staff were told not to be surprised “if you ask a Japanese female a question and a male customer answers on her behalf”.

I would argue that providing staff with this information can be helpful. If a staff member has not been warned, they might react with surprise and say something inappropriate the first time a male answers on behalf of his wife.

The Dom Post reports:

Local government leaders are seeking a law change to allow other councils to follow Whanganui’s lead and ban gang patches.

Whanganui was given the right to pass a bylaw last year banning all gang insignia except tattoos from public places, but other councils wanting to do the same must get their own enabling law through Parliament.

Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule said the organisation was trying to get a blanket law change that would allow any council to pass similar bylaws.

No surprise.

Palmerston North has also floated a ban on patches if the Whanganui law sees an exodus of gang members to the city, though mayor Jono Naylor said there was no problem at present.

So gang members would rather live in Wanganui with a ban on their patches, than move to Palmerston North.

Can’t really blame them!

I saw this headline – “Watermelons block motorway” and my first thought was a bunch of Green Party MPs and activists were protesting about some motorway.

It seems it was more literal:

Two tons of watermelons blocked Auckland’s southern motorway after a truck rolled south of the Newmarket viaduct this morning.

I wonder how many watermelons that is?

The HoS reports:

A Destiny Church pastor working for a child-fostering organisation that gets $10 million a year of taxpayer money is placing vulnerable children with Destiny members of the congregation.

New Plymouth Destiny pastor Robyn Edmonds oversees foster placements as the Taranaki branch manager of the Open Home Foundation, which helps “disadvantaged and hurt” children.

The foster kids are expected to attend Destiny’s controversial services each Sunday. …

He said it was part of the group’s ethos to have foster children attend church on a Sunday unless their natural parents specifically objected.

Former Destiny members from Taranaki said the congregation was encouraged to open its homes to foster children.

“They were encouraging people to go into social work,” said one.

The object was to have members make their homes suitable as potential foster homes, from which children could be taken to church services.

Another member said the extra children meant a greater income and higher tithes. However, he said the appeal was fresh membership.

In a statement, Child, Youth and Family national operations manager John Henderson said the foundation received $8.9m in funding last year, mainly for foster-family work. The group’s own records put total taxpayer funding at $10.7m.

“There have been no concerns raised with the Ministry of Social Development or Child, Youth and Family in relation to Open Home Foundation or Destiny Church,” he said.

My views on Tamaki are well known, and I suspect the motivation for the fostering is about more membership.

However if CYF has no issues with the quality of care given by Destiny members, then good on them for offering foster homes. NZ has a shortage of good quality foster parents, and kids do better in an actual family home than they do in an institution.

Some of the work done by Destiny Church is laudable, and this is an example.

However that does not make Arch Bishop Brian the physical manifestation of God, and does not excuse the extortion tithing racket which nets him a million dollars a year.

The Herald looks at the case of fraudster Stephen Versalko:

If it wasn’t for Bernie Madoff, Stephen Versalko could still be stealing millions.

The largest employee theft in New Zealand history was discovered only after an ASB Bank client saw a television show about Madoff, America’s US$50 billion fraudster.

In August, a woman who had invested more than $3 million with ASB adviser Versalko became uneasy about the fact he was the only staff member she had dealt with.

If something happened to her, she reasoned, 52-year-old Versalko would be the only person who knew anything about the funds into which her money had gone.

At about the same time, she watched a documentary about Ponzi fraudster Madoff that rang alarm bells. Madoff’s technique of fobbing off his victims reminded her of Versalko.

A phone call to ASB confirmed the investor’s worst fears – her multimillion-dollar investment portfolio was fictitious.

Madoff finally does some good.

Then a Serious Fraud Office inquiry found nearly 30 wealthy clients had been defrauded of nearly $18 million over nine years.

Criminal charges were laid in the week before Christmas, and Versalko pleaded guilty in February.

Yesterday, he was sentenced in the Auckland District Court to six years in prison, with a minimum-non parole period of four years.

I don’t think that is enough, for the scale of his offending. He had ten years of the good life living off his victim’s money.

But one of the more sordid details of the case is that Versalko paid $3.4 million to two prostitutes with whom he had long-term arrangements.

Good God. That is a lot of money for sex!

If one assumes the cost of a normal sexual encounter is $200, then that is 17,000 bonks. Now over 10 years that is 1,700 bonks a year or around five bonks a day.

Now there were two of them, so he may have had threesomes, but that would still be two threesomes a day with change left over.

The Herald understands Versalko took one of the women – instead of his wife – on a business trip to Dubai to stay in the Burj Al Arab Hotel, where the cheapest room costs US$2000 a night.

He was married? Oh yuck. Poor woman.

TVNZ reports:

Three men accused of breaking in to the Waihopai spy case near Blenheim and damaging a protective dome have been found not guily.

The jury returned the verdict on Wednesday night. They were found not guilty on all three charges.

Adrian Leason, a teacher, Dominican friar Peter Murnane and farmer Sam Land pleaded not guilty in Wellington District Court to one count of burglary and two of wilful damage at the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) facility. …

In his closing arguments, Leason’s lawyer Michael Knowles said the men were driven by a belief that the satellite caused human suffering and their actions to shut it down, if only temporarily, were lawful.

“That belief doesn’t have to be correct,” he said.

“They had a belief in a higher law, a law for protecting people.”

I’m not totally surprised at this, even though I disagree. Bryan Law’s updates on Scoop and other blogs, had indicated that the jury seemed quite sympathetic to the defendents.

I think the verdict reflects that many NZers do not like spy stations, regardless of the actual applicable law.

What will be interesting is if this sets out a spate of attacks on properties by protesters, who will hope for a similar outcome.

As for Waihopai, they may need to invest in some extra guards with tasers!

The Dom Post reports:

Women are being prevented from taking part in a two-day conference on male suicide rates.

The conference, with more than 100 participants from around New Zealand, features male-only guest speakers.

Wairarapa suicide prevention coordinator Barry Taylor said women were excluded to encourage men to take responsibility for their own mental health. “Men’s mental health has been a hidden subject over many years. Part of the problem is that they don’t talk about their feelings and they don’t ask for help.”

Mr Taylor said some women had asked to be part of the conference but were told no.

How silly. I’m all for a focus on men’s health, but banning women from attending a conference on it, is as silly as banning men from a conference on women’s health. Doctors and professionals tend to be of both genders.

The Dom Post reports:

The man who kidnapped, tortured and brutally murdered Lower Hutt schoolgirl Karla Cardno will remain in jail for at least three more years.

Paul Joseph Dally has already served 20 years of a life sentence but the Parole Board considers him too dangerous to be freed.

In its latest decision, issued yesterday, the board took the extra step of making a three-year postponement order, meaning Dally will not be eligible for parole again until 2013 except in exceptional circumstances. He had not even begun to rehabilitate, the board said.

Dally kidnapped 13-year-old Karla in May 1989 as she cycled to her Lower Hutt home. He then raped and tortured her in his nearby home, watching from the window as her frantic family searched outside.

Later he drove to the Pencarrow Coast, near Eastbourne, where he smashed her skull with a piece of driftwood and buried her face-down, naked and still alive, with her hands bound. Her body was found several weeks later.

The decision quoted a “chilling” psychological assessment given to the board, saying Dally showed “a high degree of relationship to serious and violent recidivism”.

If life without parole had been available as a sentence back then, Dally would be a perfect fit for it. The Parole Board has correctly judged that Dally shows absolutely no sign of rehabilitation, and is not letting him out.

It is a pity that they have to go through the farce of a hearing every three years, when life without parole would have meant the victim’s family don’t have to put up with the case hitting the media again, every time he has a parole hearing.

I don’t advocate life without parole for all murders, but it would have been appropriate for Dally’s killing of Cardno.

What a silly story. It tells us nothing unusual.

Entered Eden Park during Thursday’s cricket international between New Zealand and Australia dressed as construction workers – wearing hard hats and reflector vests hired from a costume shop. Despite having no tickets or ID, the two reporters had unfettered access to construction areas and other restricted zones within the stadium

The getting in without a ticket is silly. Does the SST really think terrorists can’t afford to buy a ticket?

And the access to construction areas in a big yawn also. One could leave a bomb in a bathroom just as easily. And as I said yesterday, one could fake an ID given five minutes anyway.

I take it as a given that if someone really wanted to smuggle a bomb into a provincial rugby match, they could do so. The protection is that the probability of someone wanting to do so is miniscule.

If you really wanted to minimise someone getting a bomb in, you would have metal detectors, frisking of fans, passport level security for staff and contractors IDs etc etc. Now that level of security might be practical and justified for a Rugby World Cup match, but it is ridicolous for provincial rugby matches.

The Australian players are particularly concerned about security right now, following threats by al Qaeda against this month’s IPL tournament in India, and have demanded that rigid security be put in place before they take part in the tour.

And this is the key difference. The tour is in India. New Zealand is not India. India has a long history of violent rebels, of armed conflict, of lethal religious tensions, and in this case there have been specific threats.

If the Gore Liberation Front started shooting government officials, and threatened a campaign of bombings against rugby games, then I would expect security to change.

Took toy explosives and detonators, as well as alcohol, in a bag and on the body, into Waikato Stadium during the March 5 Chiefs-Reds Super 14 rugby game, with Red Badge security staff failing to search one reporter’s bag. He walked freely around all parts of the stadium, approached the Reds’ bench and shook hands with a team manager, entered the VIP corporate box area and spoke with boxer David Tua, got players including All Black Sitiveni Sivivatu to sign the bag containing the toy explosives and walked unchallenged through the players’ tunnel, getting within a metre of the changing rooms before finally being asked to leave by a security guard.

Oh wow. And one could also get within a metre of them at the after match bar the team goes out to. One could also get a fake bomb in a bag within a metre of the Prime Minister (no doubt their next stunt) at most of the many public engagements he undertakes.

New Zealand is not a country that has security based on paranoia. It is based on credible threat. I do not want to live in a country where I get x-rayed going to the local rugby match. Bizarrely, the Sunday Star-Times does.

The HoS reports:

According to a global survey on market research website onepoll.com, New Zealand women are the most sexually experienced in the world, with an average of 20.4 sexual partners in a lifetime, more than any other nationality.

Comedian Michele A’Court thinks the findings prove New Zealand women are more honest than those in other countries.

In the US, for example, some young women proudly proclaim their virginity, despite engaging in non-penetrative sex acts, she says. “Without making myself sound like a slapper, my initial reaction is that 20.4 doesn’t sound like a huge amount over a lifetime.”

20 is quite a bit more than Cactus Kate’s number and quite a bit less than Busted Blonde’s!

Society has changed massively in the last 30 years. Women used to not go to university, work for a few years, marry their first or second boyfriend in their early 20s and start popping out kids.

Now far more women than men go to university, and are career focused. I’d say the same proportion still want kids, but not until the early to mid 30s – and generally one or two only.

And this reflects in relationships also. As the baby age has got older, the marrying age has changed from 20ish to 30ish. And in that extra ten years of singledom, a couple of different bonks a year isn’t a huge deal.

Sexologist Dr Michelle Mars puts the result down to the failings of Kiwi blokes.

“New Zealand men aren’t very good at picking up women unless they’re really drunk. So what tends to happen is in New Zealand, women are just as likely to ask men to have sex as men are to ask women.

Heh, Australian women are even more, umm, assertive.

“While a lot of people would read that statistic quite negatively, I think it’s quite a positive. It’s more of a gender balance in people getting the kind of sex they want.”

Former gossip columnist Bridget Saunders, who is writing a book on bad sex, believes New Zealand women are “incredibly sexually active” and is worried by the trend.

“A lot of it is to do with the new ‘ladette’ culture,” she says. “It’s almost like wanting to be one of the boys, or to be more like one of the boys than the boys are themselves.”

One sees the ladette culture, in more than just the bedroom. Go to a rugby match – once they were 90% male spectators, and now there are huge numbers of female fans.

Society used to teach young men and women to have very different expectations in life. Women’s job was to get married and have kids, and men’s job is to get a good job and by the family provider. Men with multiple partners were studs and women were sluts. Men were seen as more suited to higher education, and women were not.

I think one of the best things about living in today’s world, as opposed to in the past, has been the increasing equality of women.  WWII started the cultural change, and it has been for the better – even if some people don’t like the fact that women are catching up to men in the bedroom stakes – not just the education and work stakes.

The Herald reports:

BRIAN TAMAKI’S INCOME:
$950,000 to $1.1 million

* Salary from Destiny Auckland: $200,000
* Salary from Destiny Rotorua: $148,500
* Pastors’ tithes: $100,000
* Speaking engagements: $150,000
* First Fruits: $350,000 to $500,000

Extras

* Profits of messages sold at
Destiny Church pay for $500,000 boat
* All 20 Destiny Church branches are encouraged to give at least $1000 to buy gifts for celebrations, including birthday, Christmas Day, anniversaries and Father’s Day.

Purely from a business point of view, you have to admire the set-up. Basically Arch-Bishop Brian has combined God and Amway to make himself rich.

I wonder how he decided on God to be his commodity?

The Press reports:

It is understood the newspaper had a reporter carrying fake explosives in a backpack and a dummy detonator on his body. It is believed the “bomber” was able to achieve access to restricted areas at the ground.

Of course he could. It was a provincial rugby match. I could probably do the same if you gave me five minutes with a colour printer and a laminating machine.

Sunday Star-Times managing editor Mitchell Murphy said critics should withhold judgment about the newspaper’s actions until the results of its investigation were revealed.

“Our investigation, which is a matter of significant public interest, was well planned and carefully considered,” he said.

There is little public interest in the fact that someone with a fake bomb could sneak into a rugby game. We don’t have armed guards and metal detectors at the grounds. The main purpose of security is to check for alcohol, not to x-ray and body frisk people.

Security should be proportional to the threat. For the Rugby World Cup one would expect higher security, as it is a potential target. Quite frankly with the aviation industry hysterically over-reacting with security, it’s nice to not have that same paranoia at our local rugby matches.

“We sought legal advice prior to commencing our investigation, and the journalists involved worked under strict protocols.”

He said the reporter carrying fake explosives had a letter outlining the investigation in case he was stopped, which would have prevented evacuation.

A letter!!! For fucks sake.  So does the SST believe that if Police come across someone in a restricted area, with what appears to be explosives, they should take no action because they have a letter with them, saying there is no threat.

I’d love to see the SST try that stunt at an airport!

“At no stage was the public at risk; nor did we break the law,” Murphy said.

It seems no law was broken, but the stunt was still moronic. Of course there was a public risk if their mock bombers had been discovered.

With the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand next year, stadium security needed to be first-rate, and the investigation had exposed flaws.

Oh what self serving crap. As I said, I have no doubt I could infiltrate a restricted area of a stadium with a bit of effort. Our stadiums are not designed to be like the Pentagon.

For the World Cup, you do expect a higher level of security, but even then, some common sense. Frankly terrorism related paranoia should not overcome common sense.

Associate Professor Jim Tully, who is the head of the Canterbury University journalism course, said the alleged action was “a silly piece of journalism”.

“It’s one thing to potentially test security measures pretty close to the World Cup, but doing it now seems pretty dumb because they’re unlikely to be in place,” he said.

The story could backfire on the newspaper by damaging its credibility, he said.

A story focused on security is quite valid. But giving people fake bombs just reeks of a PR stunt.

Just received this press release:

A newspaper stunt at major provincial rugby games last weekend could easily have resulted in matches being called off and stadiums evacuated, Police Minister Judith Collins said.

Ms Collins was advised that a newspaper commissioned people to masquerade as terrorists who then gained access to restricted areas at Super 14 matches in Hamilton and Christchurch.

“The actions are unbelievably stupid and irresponsible. This stunt had the potential to result in games being called off and stadiums evacuated,” Ms Collins said.

“This would have caused not only great public inconvenience and cost, but possibly presented a risk to the safety of spectators.

“Common sense would tell you that running around a stadium dressed as a bomber has the potential to end very badly.

“If there had been panic there was the very real possibility that people – particularly the elderly, children and those less mobile – could have been hurt.

“Police are taking this matter very seriously.”

This is beyond moronic. The newspaper responsible is the Sunday Star-Times. I’ve often criticised the media for creating news, instead of reporting it, but this goes to a new low.

Ms Collins said security at major events is based on risk, and that security at a provincial rugby game will be much less than for a major international match.

“The only thing people masquerading as bombers will achieve is an unnecessary increase in security at considerable cost and inconvenience to the public,” she said.

“The last thing people want is the situation where people have to be body searched before attending provincial rugby matches.”

What were the SST trying to prove? Of course a suicide bomber could blow themselves and lots of other people up at a provincial rugby game.They could also blow lots of people up at a school rugby game, or the McEverdy Shield in Wellington.

I suspect their real intention was to scare monger about the Rugby World Cup. So their aim was to scare tens of thousands of people off globally from coming to New Zealand.

I’m pretty sure there will have been some laws broken by the people who posed as terrorists, but they should not be the ones prosecuted. The people who paid or commissioned them to do so, should face some consequences for such stupidity and malice.

Again I wonder what the SST saw as the end point for this. Do they want every provincial rugby game to have armed police officers, bomb checks, metal detectors?

The Herald reports:

Auckland Mayor John Banks, a candidate for the mayoralty of the proposed Super City, has been uncharacteristically modest about his efforts to rescue a cat in a tree.

It is understood the kitten was part of a stray cat colony in Dove-Myer Robinson Park, Parnell, where Mr Banks is known to feed the animals.

He got a call late on Wednesday night from a constituent about the kitten’s plight and spent about two hours yesterday morning helping to rescue the animal.

But later, Mr Banks said he didn’t want to talk about it.

“I love cats. I am an animal rights activist. Thank you very much for the call. There is nothing more to say.

“I change light bulbs for elderly people, I unblock drains and I rescue cats.

“It is part of being the mayor of a super city. That is all I want to tell you. Have a great day.”

Heh, that is a funny story. John is a renowned pet lover, and I can just imagine him dropping everything to go help rescue the cat.

Mind you, I’ve never worked out how a cat needs rescuing from a tree. If they got up it, I’m pretty sure they can get down if they really want to.

The Herald reports:

An Auckland healthcare worker has been left “disgusted” after finding a maggot in her McDonald’s burger box.

Linda MacDonald, a mental health carer, had just finished eating an Angus Burger Combo, which she bought from the Pt Chevalier McDonald’s, when a colleague she shared the burger with pointed out something “wiggling” in the box.

The 59-year-old grandmother spat out her remaining mouthful and ran to the toilet to throw up.

“It was awful,” she said. “They offered me McDonald’s vouchers, and I told them: ‘No way am I ever going to set foot in there again’. The cheek of it – it’s so wrong.”

McDonald’s NZ boss Mark Hawthorne said he did not believe the maggot came from within the restaurant. It was dead when the company conducted tests. …

She says she cut the burger with a knife when she shared it with her colleague, but is adamant the maggot did not get there then.

There are many criticisms one can make of McDonalds, but bad hygiene is an unlikely one. It is not impossible of course, but they have a manual which is explicit on every single process, and management are trained to do nothing at all that deviates from the manual. This is bad for innovation, but good for consistency – which is their brand.

So I think it is unlikely the fault is with McDonalds, but do have sympathy for the customer concerned (my guess is the knife) as finding foreign material in your food is one of the most unpleasant experiences you can undergo. I had a Wellington shop prosecuted many years ago when I found a sticking plaster in my meal, as I was cooking it at home.  I chucked up the moment I realised exactly what was on the end of my fork. Thank God I had not actually eaten any – that would have been worse.

Absolutely thrilled to just get a press release from the newly formed Pacific Fibre:

Pacific Fibre, an early stage international fibre venture founded by a group including New Zealand businessmen Stephen Tindall, Sam Morgan and Rod Drury, announced its plans today, aiming to break the digital divide between New Zealand, Australia and the rest of the world.

Other founders include Mark Rushworth, former Vodafone Chief Marketing Officer, technology industry veteran John Humphrey, and strategy consultant and entrepreneur Lance Wiggs.

Pacific Fibre is engaging in early discussions with cornerstone investors and customers. The group is looking to secure funding and build a 5.12 Terabits/sec capacity fibre cable to be ready in 2013 connecting Australia, New Zealand and the USA – the initial proposal is a cable which will deliver five times the capacity of the existing Southern Cross system. …

The current proposed cable configuration would be 13,000 km long, and have two fibre pairs with 64 wavelengths (lambdas) each at 40 Gigabits/sec per lambda. The maximum lit capacity initially would be 5.12 Terabits/sec, but would be upgradeable to over 12 Terabits/sec as the emerging 100 Gbit/sec per lambda technology becomes reality. The newer cable and repeater technology that Pacific Fibre proposes to use will be substantially more easily upgradeable than that of existing cables.

Further competition and capacity on the international bandwidth front is much needed. Superb to see such a talented group of people come together to try and make it a reality.

I, for one, would invest in it. And look forward to the benefits another cable would bring.

Words can’t describe how cringeworthy this plan is. It will make Wellington look cheap and tacky, and trying to be something we are not.

Yes Wellywood is fine as an occassional nickname, when referring to the wonderful growth of the film industry here. When we use it, we do so with pride for what has been accomplished.

But please please Wellington Airport, do not stick that sign up on our hills. It is tacky and awful. Mosgiel can do that as a joke, but not Wellington.

I’m not a big fan of civil disobedience which damages property, but if that monstrosity goes up, I’ll be half tempted to call for volunteers to pay it a visit at midnight. A few axes and problem solved.

If it said Wellington only, it would be a bit less tacky. But even then, it doesn’t work. Hollywood is Hollywood. Wellington doesn’t need to copy their sign. We have a great city, with so much going for it. A sign like that just makes us look like we have some sort of city penis envy.

NZPA report:

A new study of graduates with bachelor degrees has revealed that men start earning more than women a year after starting work.

Women’s Affairs Minister Pansy Wong said today her ministry’s study used data from Inland Revenue and looked at the difference between the income of male and female graduates between one and five years after they started their employment.

The pay gap started developing from the first year, and after five years it ranged between 1 percent and 20 percent, with the biggest difference in management and commerce.

“While the income gap varies between different fields of study, no matter what area of study is pursued an income gap has emerged between men and women … and it is quite a significant gap,” Ms Wong said.

“The bottom line is that a bachelor’s degree held by a woman should be worth the same in the marketplace as one held by a man.”

It is disappointing there is a pay gap between male and female graduates, so soon after entering the work force.

The fact that overall average female pay rates are only 88% of male pay rates, has never convinced me this is due to discrimination.  The reality that many women take time out of the workforce when their children are young, makes it unlikely one will ever have the average pay rates the same. There is also the issue of different professions having different gender compositions.

So in a way the overall average pay rates for men and women, are not very useful – just as overall crime rates are also not very useful.

But the study referred to by Pansy Wong, does lend credence to the theory that there is discrimination in pay rates. You would expect a female and male commerce graduate who both enter the same profession to be attracting the same pay rates – at least in the initial years.

The ministry was using the extra $2 million it was being given over four years to increase its ability to address the gender pay gap, she said.

Part of this would be the ministry working with universities to recruit up to 6000 students graduating this year who would be tracked over the next 10 years.

That would also be worthwhile research – far better to track a large group of students, than merely to just compare the average wages over all occupations.

I’m generally reluctant to conclude discrimination, and look for other factors, because discrimination is just so plain stupid. I can’t understand how anyone would think someone is more or less capable in a job because of their gender, and would pay them less. Mind you, I think the discrimination might be subconscious, rather than a conscious decision.

The Herald reports:

A stabbing victim is leaving the country and fears for his life because his attacker is about to be released from prison without having done any rehabilitation programme.

The Corrections Department has classified his attacker as low risk and will release him next month, even though the Parole Board views the man as a risk to the community.

If I was the victim, I’d also be leaving the country – well that or making sure I had ready access to a firearm (yes I know that is illegal).

In July 2006, Frame, who is now in his 50s, sliced Mr McArtney’s face, cutting his mouth and tongue with a 15cm blade in what was described as an unprovoked and irrational attack.

Mr McArtney, a semi-retired IT consultant, says the corrections system is flawed because Frame has had no rehabilitation treatment, despite pleas from the Parole Board that without it he is a threat to the community.

Documents show the Parole Board and the Corrections Department had a conflicting view over the risk Frame poses.

The board repeatedly refused to release him because he had not done any rehabilitation programmes, and was thus a risk to the community.

But Corrections considered him a “maintenance” low-risk prisoner and not eligible for any programmes.

I am surprised the view of the Corrections Department trumps the view of the Parole Board.

Frame’s sentencing notes state he has a “a long and fairly well-documented history of depression and drug and alcohol abuse”, which was at the root of his offending.

Last October, the Parole Board report said: “[Since his last appearance in April] no steps had been taken to address his offending and none were likely to be taken. …

The Parole Board said in its November 2007 report that for Frame to get into a programme, his security classification would need to be readjusted.

It was not.

Mr McArtney is flabbergasted the department ignored the board’s pleas.

“It seems to me the Parole Board can say what they like and the department doesn’t pay any attention.”

Prison Services assistant regional manager Bronwyn Donaldson said Parole Board recommendations had been acted on where appropriate.

Where appropriate, means if we agree.

It has also been revealed that Frame had previously been charged with murder, in 1975 when he was 16. He was subsequently acquitted.

I would be most interested in the grounds on which he was acquitted.

He was convicted in 1990 for possession of a knife and in 1997 for aggravated burglary and possession of an offensive weapon.

The latter convictions relate to an incident, described as a “damage spree”, through the Raumati Village Shopping Centre. Afterwards he broke into a house armed with a knife, and then assaulted a member of the public who came to investigate.

And then the stabbing also. And this is what Corrections is calling low risk?

I blogged yesterday on how the Herald on Sunday front page headline gave a false impression about Michael Laws.

Leonie Brookhammer (Laws’ wife) has put out a press release (Whale has it here) as the HoS story was so misleading.

An extract:

I have no wish to expose my private life to more media scrutiny, and I did not wish to answer personal and offensive questions from Auckland journalist David Fisher over the past couple of days. But today’s ‘Herald on Story’ story misrepresents my personal situation and is full of inaccuracies.

Over the past five years, and since Michael has been mayor of Wanganui, our family and our personal life have been the subject of ongoing malicious rumour and hurtful gossip. These rumours appear to come from the same sources and are always at their worst in election years.

Michael has a very high profile and has taken the lead, on behalf of Wanganui, on a number of controversial issues. As a result, our house and our family have been personally targeted by anonymous cowards who regard any association with Michael to be fair game.

Our daughter Lucy’s diagnosis of leukemia, and the associated complications and treatment, has placed enormous stress on us and particularly myself. I have not slept properly in the last three years.

The rock throwing incident – which showered glass all over my childrens’ bedroom in the early hours of the morning , and came when Michael was representing majority opinion on the spelling our city – continues to have ongoing effects. I lie awake listening for the next incident. …

It is also not fair for the media to imply there was a domestic violence incident that required a Police call to our house earlier this year. It was not. Michael is not that kind of person, abhors violence and has never lifted a hand to myself.

But that kind of malicious story is being regularly fed to media to discredit him. And both my family and myself are considered fair game in making that happen.

The press release really speaks for itself.

The Herald reports:

Jim McCorkindale, 70, of Gore in Southland, told the Weekend Herald that while dropping off children last July, he saw two boys pulling the hair of a girl and got out of his driver’s seat to try to stop it.

“I went over and touched the boy on the arm to attract his attention, and that was the assault.”

When the boy did not respond to being told to stop, “I threatened to hit him in the ribs, and he flinched and let the kid’s hair go to protect his ribs”, Mr McCorkindale said.

“But I never touched him again.”

The boy had continued misbehaving after Mr McCorkindale returned to his seat.

Children on the bus called the police and he found officers waiting to talk to him when he finished his run.

When police rejected the option of diversion, Mr McCorkindale received a court summons.

Amazing. If the boys are assaulting the young girl in question, he had every right to intervene to protect her.

What were the Police thinking?

But in the Gore District Court, Judge Kevin Phillips threw out the charge.

Instead, he told the boy he should be “thoroughly ashamed” of himself and had a policeman take him to the cells, the Southland Times reported.

Clap clap clap. Bet you he was smirking the whole time, until that happened.

Well done Judge Phillips.

Homepaddock blogs on her stolen laptop:

Top marks to the police officer at Christchurch airport who was dealing with the case of my stolen laptop – he’s got it back.

The saga began early last month when I was careless. I put my laptop and case down while paying for parking, picked up the case when I’d finished and walked off without picking up the laptop too. When I realised what I’d done a few minutes later I returned to the pay machine to find the lap top had gone.

I reported it to a police officer who went through video footage in which he saw a bloke pick up the laptop and walk off with it. The information on how much he’d paid for parking enabled the officer to work out when he’d entered the car park so he trawled through the video from the entrance and got the car’s registration number.

He traced the driver from that to an ex-girlfriend’s address and then to two former employers but the trail went cold from there. However, he persevered, found the bloke, got him to return to the airport where he admitted he’d taken the laptop and still had it.

Now I am really impressed the officer went to such lengths, to recover one item. And some good logical thinking also. He:

1. searched the video footage of the area where the laptop was taken
2. Got the parking machine records to tell how much the offender had paid for parking
3. Deduced the likely time he entered the carpark
4. Pulled up the video from the car park entrance
5. Got the car registration number
6. Traced the car to an ex-girlfriend
7. Traced him from there to two ex-employers
8. And finally traced the offender down

I suspect many a copy may have given up, or said not much could be done. Great to see such dedication and perseverance.

Ele is also seeking feedback on whether or not the offender should be just given a warning, or charged and then given diversion.

I think it is better to have him charged, in case he offends again.

The Herald reports:

New revelations have emerged of the inner workings of Destiny Church, including claims of eftpos terminals being used to take collections, men-only church meetings, and numerous tithing nightmares.

Former churchgoers contacted the Herald after revelations that dozens of members walked out of the Brisbane branch of the church on Sunday in support of Pastor Andrew Stock, who resigned from Destiny over a recently introduced covenant that clashed with his beliefs.

One man said the church was a “cash cult” and he was “not happy with the fact they had eftpos machines in the middle of the church”.

Another described the church as “Destiny Bank”.

And essentially that is what it is. A make money scheme for Arch Bishop Brian.

Chris Keall at NBR (sub needed) blogs his power list for the tech sector. Some of his picks are:

• 1 Bill English, Finance and Infrastructure Minister
• 2 Steven Joyce, Comms and IT Minister
• 3 Paul Reynolds, Telecom CEO
• 4 Matt Crockett, Telecom Wholesale CE
• 6 Russell Stanners, Vodafone CEO
• 8 Ralph Chivers, Telecom GM of Govt and industry relations
• 10 Tex Edwards, Founder of 2Degrees
• 11 Rod Drury, Xero CEO
• 12 Allan Freeth, Telstra-Clear CEO
• 13 Mark Ratcliffe, Telecom Chorus CE
• 16 Ross Patterson, Telecommunications Commissioner
• 17 Ernie Newman, TUANZ CEO
• 18 Simon Mackenzie, Vector CEO
• 22 Keith Manch, DIA Deputy Secretary Regulation & Compliance
• 23 Peter Dengate-Thrush, ICANN Chairman
• 25 Matthew and Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Creative Freedom Foundation founders

Personally I would have the Telco Commissioner much much higher up the list, and I would also have Bruce Parkes the MED Deputy Secretary on there. But an interesting selection.

This is one of the reasons I love Powershop. I can monitor both my usage, my overall power costs, but also the cost per unit. As one can see I paid an average of 19.2 a unit last year.

Consumer has a neat facility that allows you to compare plans. The next cheapest for me is Mercury Low User which is 22.9c a unit PLUS 37.5 c a day.

The Contact low user plan is 25.6c a unit PLUS 37.5 c a day, as is Empower.

And the Empower medium use plan is $1.24 a day PLUS 21.6c a unit.

The savings to my power bill have been massive. I’d say around 20% less due to the lower tariffs, and another 10% off because I am more aware of my power usage, and am better at conserving energy.

No wonder Powershop tops the satisfaction survey done by Consumer. I can’t work out why you would not use them if you are a regular online user. The only negative is you pay in advance.