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July 3, 2026 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 03 July 2026

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General Debate

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Cassandra

Former lotto presenter Russell Harrison received a taxpayer funded salary for five years after he was arrested as part of a global FBI sting.

The former face of Lotto and a well known entertainer in New Zealand admitted his part in a global drug syndicate that saw him travel to Turkey with six bars of gold bullion to deliver to the “International Commander” of the Comancheros.

He was paid at least $400,000 while,suspended. Under the Justice Department’s policy he was innocent until proven guilty. “Other people’s money”. He was some sort of court liaison officer.

The report doesn’t mention any tribal affiliations.
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July 3, 2026 8:03am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  He’s Te Rarawa/Ngāti Hine…. (Northland iwi)
  
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  July 3, 2026 8:18am
  - pdm
    
    Maggy.
    
    Does anyone care?
    
    To me he is just another bad bugger who should have been put in the slammer 3 or 4 years ago.
    
    Why are there such long delays on these cases?
    
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    July 3, 2026 8:50am
- peterwn
  
  Same with police and some other agencies. A high profile Police case was a very senior police officer accused of various things. He was suspended on full pay for four years or so and retained the use of his ‘company’ car (minus Police radio). He used the four years of ‘gardening leave’ to do a law degree and was controversially called to the bar (the Law Society could find no reason to deny his admission). He resigned with objective completed before he had to face the music.
  Perhaps the legislative framework that allows people to be suspended on full pay while under investigation needs to be reviewed. Perhaps their pay could be reduced by 20% while suspended with provision to claw back the remainder if subsequently dismissed with cause or convicted of any related offence.
  Incidentally I wonder what happened in the K-mart case where a security guard was suspended without pay for physically engaging with a shoplifter contrary to company police. The Employment Tribunal overturned his suspension without pay but K-mart ‘reinstated’ him on pay pending resolution of the matter but did not allow him to return to work.
  
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  July 3, 2026 8:26am
- Gravelroad
  
  Are ”tribal affiliations” relevant to this man’s offending and financial reward due to five years of taxpayer funding?
  Or can anyone expect to be paid by the state while travelling the world as a drug runner these days?
  
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  July 3, 2026 8:27am
  - peterwn
    
    Perhaps he will be plucked bare under Proceeds of Crime legislation.
    
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    July 3, 2026 8:38am
artemisia

The Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill progress in the House is now under way.

In that context, Mr Hosking’s morning opinion after the 6 am news takes aim at a ‘professional legal menace wasting our time’ and ‘adventurous judges who like the idea of a bit of legal exploration and dabble’. Both can contribute to a hopelessly slow process of endless claim and counter claim that inevitably pushes other cases well into the future. Justice delayed ….

(Can listen online if interested but usually these turn up as Mike’s Minutes during the morning. )
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July 3, 2026 8:19am
- peterwn
  
  This is exactly the way the system is supposed to work. If judge made law goes in a direction that goes against the will of Parliament then Parliament (as allegedly the highest court) is entitled to legislate accordingly. It is a political matter rather than a legal matter whether Parliament is ‘entitled’ to take such action.
  
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  July 3, 2026 8:35am
  - pdm
    
    pw – not intending to be pedantic but,
    
    should allegedly not be supposedly?
    
    or
    
    should it not need an adjective at all?
    
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    July 3, 2026 8:54am
Tomtoddy

Despite all the brouhaha over the years the costs of damage from climatic events has not increased in Europe in any noticeable manner. Pielke Jnr has run out another useful blog posts showing how authorities are failing to “normalise” the data properly, fooling most including themselves, about catastrophic warming.
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July 3, 2026 8:44am

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