The Herald reports:
A 39-year-old man has been found guilty of kidnapping and murdering a Hawkes Bay sickness beneficiary.
Steven Tiwini Rakuraku faced 11 charges, including the murder of the 50-year-old Johnny Charles Wright, who disappeared on June 21, 2011. …
A reader suggests that Rakuraku is a candidate for life without parole – a sentencing option available since 2010. He notes:
Victim was effectively imprisoned in his own home.
Victim was effectively tortured over a period of weeks, if not months, buy repeated beatings, including with a weapon of war (Taiaha). This was not a one-time, sudden loss of control murder, it was premeditated and repeated, brutal and callous in the extreme.
I understand the offender has a serious history of offending prior to this case.
The question has to be that if a crime like this doesn’t qualify for LWOP, what would qualify?
Liam Hehir at the Manawatu Standard compares NZ Labour to the US Republicans on four grounds:
I could add a 5th one on. Both parties are leaderless!
Last week we got a pic of one of our smallest arachnids, so this week it’s one of our largest. This is our native tunnelweb Hexatheles hochstetteri. They emerge out of their tunnels at night to wait for prey to stray close to the web. Which introduces the technical challenge of trying to photograph when it’s actually pretty dark. They have the more basal features of four book-lungs and paraxial fangs.
Click for larger, higher res image
The Herald reports:
Around 20,000 hectares of forest was felled by Cyclone Ita in April and a law change was required to allow beech, rimu, totara and matai trees to be harvested on the conservation estate — on the condition that they were taken outside classified areas and used for finished products and not firewood or wood chips.
The bill was debated under urgency and was expected to pass into law last night. In its early stages it was supported by National, New Zealand First, United Future, Brendan Horan and two Labour MPs.
Labour’s West Coast MP Damien O’Connor and Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene went against their party by voting in support, but had sought amendments to make sure profits stayed within the immediate community.
O’Connor would have probably lost his seat if he didn’t cross the floor. But the fact he was unable to persuade his party to side with the interest of West Coasters ahead of the Green Party, shows he has little influence.
In opening the debate, Conservation Minister Nick Smith said there was no reason to leave the fallen timber untouched.
“This country is not so wealthy that it can allow beautiful, valuable, native timber to be left to rot.”
Opposition parties wanted the law change to be put out for public consulation, but Dr Smith said urgency was needed because the beech trees would spoil quickly.
The minister tried to reassure Green critics who worried about the removal of crucial nutrients from the forest ecosystem, saying that only a fraction of the 20,000 hectares of felled forest would be removed and “oodles” of biomass would remain “for the bugs and slugs to consume”.
Best of both worlds.
A statement from Steven Ching:
This is interesting. Ching says Susan Zhu is the one to ask about fundraising from the Chinese community. Ms Zhu is a lawyer working for Presland & Co. Yes that Presland – the one who set up David Cunliffe’s secret trust for him.
I’ve blogged at Curiablog the latest poll results from 3 News Reid Research.
This is the average of all the recent polls, weighted for size and recency.
Better late than never!
Gallup reports:
Confidence in newspapers has declined by more than half since its 1979 peak of 51%, while TV news has seen confidence ebb from its high of 46% in 1993, the first year that Gallup asked this question. Gallup’s only previous measure of Internet news was in 1999, when confidence was 21%, little different from today.
And there is a political difference:
Slightly less than one-fifth of self-identified conservatives (15%) say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in newspapers, tied with the 10-year low. In the past decade, the percentage of conservatives expressing a strong degree of confidence in newspapers has fallen by nearly half. Liberals are far more likely than conservatives — or than the adult population in general — to be confident in newspapers (34%). Nearly a quarter of moderates (24%), meanwhile, have confidence in newspapers.
Most of the US media has a huge liberal bias, and people have revolted against it. We’re lucky things are not so bad in NZ.
The Herald editorial:
Taxing the rich seems a defining policy of the Labour Party. It plays especially well to its left wing, a point underlined by the Council of Trade Unions’ hearty welcome to the announcement that Labour proposes lifting the top personal tax rate from 33c to 36c for those earning more than $150,000 a year. On other grounds, however, the policy doesn’t make a lot of sense. Not only is it unnecessary but it will surely raise far less additional revenue than anticipated.
Labour says the new top rate would raise almost $200 million in the 2015-16 year, increasing to $350 million a year by 2020-21.
It won’t. The 2000 tax hike for those earning over $60,000 did not produce any significant extra revenue, and may in fact have reduced it. It will just drive high earning NZers to set up a company (28% tax rate) or to move their tax base overseas.
Nor is much of value likely to come from its plan to clamp down on tax avoidance by internet-based multinational corporations such as Google and Facebook. As welcome as this instinct may be, and as unwelcome as the practice of avoidance is, there is little hope that its approach will yield anything like $200 million a year.
It won’t bring in $1.If anything, it will see them pay less tax in NZ, as they close their NZ subsidiaries, and just have people deal with say their Australian one.
The only was one can deal with global companies choosing a tax base in a low tax country, is through international agreement. Not press releases.
Stuff reports:
From John Key’s Facebook page to the Official Monster Raving Loony Party and a video of a laser-chasing kitty cat – the man behind Sue Moroney’s billboard prank is offering a moving feast of political larrikinism.
This has been hilarious – the latest redirect is to The Civilian,
Last week, Moroney erected an election sign in the Hamilton West electorate with an expired domain name obscured under masking tape.
The masking tape was removed, revealing an obsolete campaign web address from 2008. Someone notified West Auckland IT guy Frank Collingwood, who registered it and began his shenanigans.
“It’s their own fault for putting up a billboard with an expired domain name, which can be registered by anyone,” Collingwood said in an email.
Collingwood was last in Hamilton more than a decade ago and was not affiliated with any political party in New Zealand, but said the claim the prime minister was behind it was “quite frankly, ridiculous”.
Moroney was silly enough to use some old hoardings, and she is blaming the PM for this guy having a sense of humour.
He said the link to Key’s Facebook page was “one in a long list of possible redirections” which had gone from the moggy videos to McGillicuddy Serious Party archives posted on Youtube.
The Monster Raving Loony Party was established in England in 1983 by musician David Sutch, better known as Screaming Lord Sutch, who Collingwood said was an “absolute legend” and “superb role model” for politicians.
“I really don’t even want any publicity, just seemed a good prank at a time when pollies across the spectrum are taking themselves far too seriously,” he said.
I wonder how many other Labour hoardings have the old URL on them, plastered over? One good reasons to not have a different site for every election.
NZ Herald editorial writer John Roughan has published the first biography of John Key – John Key, Portrait of a Prime Minister. It’s a fascinating insight into Key’s childhood, business career and then political career. There’s a lot of material that hasn’t been in the public domain before, as not just Key, but Bronagh and Key’s sisters agreed to be interviewed for the biography.
People often wonder why Key gave up his business career to become a backbench MP. He had been fantastically successfully in business. In fact the book reveals that he was seen as a candidate to become the global CEO of Merrill Lynch. Why give that all up, to enter politics? It wasn’t a deep ideological conviction like Ruth Richardson or Norman Kirk. It wasn’t because he wanted to be famous like Kevin Rudd. It wasn’t because he needs the money. It wasn’t because he defines political success as critical to his self-worth like Helen Clark.
I’ve had the occasional contact with John Key, and like most, think he is a pretty amazing guy – both as a political leader, and as a normal Kiwi, who is devoted to his family and treats everyone around him well. This is rare than it should be in politics.
But despite that occasional contact, I have never been able to work out what motivated him to enter politics. He was on track to become a global CEO, and was succeeding in a role which didn’t require interrogation by media every day, or 17 hour working days.
The book helps answer that question. I’l get to it in the third part of thsi review, but in my opinion it relates back to his mother and her expectations of him.
The book is an easy read at 248 pages, but there’s a lot of material in there. I’m going to summarise and review it in three parts – Key’s early years, Key’s business career and then Key’s political years.
It starts with an interesting and amusing tale about how Obama came to invite Key for that round of golf. Tony Abbott asked Key to introduce him to Obama at Mandela’s funeral, and that is where Obama asked Key if he was going to be in Hawaii in January, and if so would he be keen to play some golf. The amusing part is that Key only told MFAT about the invitation two days before it occurred. I can just imagine the panic it set off!
Key’s early years
In the next post, I’ll cover his business years.
Questions for Oral Answer
Questions to Ministers 2.00PM-3.00PM
1. Dr JIAN YANG to the Minister of Finance: What changes has the Government made in recent years to make the tax system fairer and to help families and businesses get ahead?
2. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Minister of Internal Affairs: On what basis was the recall and cancellation of New Zealand Passport LN138690 undertaken?
3. Hon DAVID PARKER to the Associate Minister of Finance: Does he still believe that a 33 cent top marginal income tax rate is the reason for fewer departures to Australia in 2014?
4. CATHERINE DELAHUNTY to the Minister of Education: Did she write a new preference factor for Partnership School applicants on the 14 November education report “Confirming Round Two of Applications to Operate Partnership Schools”; if so, on what advice?
5. CHRIS AUCHINVOLE to the Minister of Conservation: What reports has he received on the extent of the damage to West Coast forests from Cyclone Ita and what estimates are there of the area affected and the volume of wood felled?
6. PHIL TWYFORD to the Minister of Housing: How many homes out of the 5,000 earthquake damaged Housing New Zealand homes have completed repairs as part of its Repair 5000 programme?
7. TIM MACINDOE to the Minister of Education: What recent announcements has she made to celebrate and recognise the highly effective and innovative practice happening across the education system?
8. Hon PHIL GOFF to the Minister of Defence: Has there been a reduction in the capacity of the Army in the last three years to sustain an overseas deployment; if so, why?
9. MELISSA LEE to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: What support is the Ministry of Social Development providing to people in Christchurch still dealing with the impact of the earthquakes?
10. GARETH HUGHES to the Minister of Conservation: Does he agree with the statement given on behalf of the Minister of Energy and Resources that “there has not been a single observation of a Māui’s dolphin in the block offer area”?
11. CAROL BEAUMONT to the Minister of Justice: Given the magnitude of the problem of family violence, is it acceptable to her that none of the Family Violence Death Review Committee’s recommendations from their last annual report have been completed, and no action has been taken on a number of recommendations around funding family violence training for professionals, and addressing the need for better multi-agency practice addressing family violence?
12. KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI to the Minister of Statistics: What is the Government doing to modernise the next census?
Today Labour are asking about the top tax rate, housing repairs, deployment capability of the New Zealand army, and family violence. The Greens are asking about partnership schools funding, and dolphins. New Zealand First is asking about the recall and cancellation of passports.
Patsy question of the day goes to Tim Macindoe for Question 7: What recent announcements has she made to celebrate and recognise the highly effective and innovative practice happening across the education system?
Government Bills 3.00PM-6.00PM
1. Appropriation (2014/15 Estimates) Bill – Committee Stage
2. Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) – First Reading
3. Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill – Second Reading (continued)
The Appropriation (2014/15 Estimates) Bill is being guided through the house by the Minister of Finance, Bill English. This bill seeks parliamentary authorisation of the individual appropriations contained in The Estimates of Appropriations for the Government of New Zealand for the year ending 30 June 2015 .
The Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) is being guided through the house by the Leader of the House, Gerry Brownlee. The Bill’s purpose is to prevent the lapse (expiry or deemed revocation) of certain subordinate legislation that, by virtue of the Acts under which it is made, lapses at a stated time unless earlier confirmed or validated by Act of Parliament.
The Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill is being guided through the house by the Minster of Commerce, Craig Foss. This bill amends the Commerce Act 1986, introducing criminal sanctions for hard-core cartel behaviour and making amendments to provisions that govern jurisdiction and penalties.
Heh, somehow Fairfax used an extract from a Steve Braunias satire column as a caption for a story on David Cunliffe.
The Herald reports:
It was naive to suggest there wasn’t a problem in an area where two school-related stabbings occurred yesterday, a child psychologist has said, following a comment from the electorate’s MP that “boys will be boys”.
Mangere MP Su’a William Sio down-played any problem in the area when he appeared on TVNZ’s Breakfast show this morning, saying “boys will be boys”.
“I think it frightens anybody when you hear of young children in a situation where allegedly there is a weapon being used, but that’s symptomatic of a community that has a high proportion of young people in it.
“Whenever you’ve got young people, you’re going to get this kind of situation from time to time, although most of us do not accept that the allegations of weapons would be part of a schoolboy fight.”
“I would just say to those boys; ‘grow up’,” Mr Sio said.
Boys will just be boys. My God. The bigotry of soft expectations again. The issue isn’t that the boys need to grow up. It’s that they have access to weapons, and have a moral compass that thinks it is acceptable to threaten and use weapons and stab people.
Stuff further reports:
Labour MP Su’a William Sio admits he could have chosen his words more carefully when he said “boys are gonna be boys,” but insists he wasn’t trying to downplay a two schoolyard stabbings in South Auckland. He also has a warning for outsiders – “don’t judge us”.
I don’t judge the community, but I do judge the MP who downplays the seriousness of it.
USA Today reports:
The U.S. economy turned in its worst quarter in five years during the first three months of 2014, shrinking more sharply than previously estimated.
The nation’s gross domestic product in the first quarter fell at a 2.9% annual rate vs. the 1% contraction previously believed, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected a 1.8% drop in output.
The decline was the sharpest since growth tumbled 5.4% in the first quarter of 2009 during the Great Recession. The last time the economy shrank was in the first quarter of 2011, slipping 1.3%.
The more dramatic drop was largely the result of weaker household consumption. Consumer spending increased just 1%, vs. the 3.1% gain previously estimated as health care spending dipped slightly. The government previously said that medical expenditures contributed substantially to growth as the Affordable Care Act began to cover more Americans.
Also, exports declined 8.9%, vs. the 6% drop previously estimated. And businesses replenished their stocks even more slowly than believed after aggressively adding to inventories late last year.
Quite a contrast to the NZ economy, as we have exports booming, and a strongly growing economy. Once upon a time the US economy contracting would seriously damage NZ’s economic growth also. But we’re less tied than we used to be.
As Labour have decided that they need to penalise those earning $150,000 by taxing them more, I thought I’d remind people of how much tax they already pay. Households (which is not the same as individuals, but that is all we have data for) earning over $150,000 make up 14% of households. They generate 42% of taxable income, pay 50% of gross income tax and 73% of net income tax.
This table was put out by Bill English a couple of weeks ago.
It only deals with income tax, and direct welfare payments such as benefits, WFF, PPL and accomodation supplement. I’d be keen to see a fuller dataset that includes indirect taxes (such as GST) and also indirect subsidies (education, health etc).
But it is still a very useful look at basically cash in the hand. It is how much you directly pay to the Government, and how much the Government directly gives to you.
As you can see households with income under $50,000 overall receive more in direct welfare than they pay in direct income tax. Their net income tax contribution is -30%.
Households with income from $50,000 to $110,000 contribute +30% of net income tax. So in one sense the total net tax contribution from households under $110,000 is zero.
It is households over $110,000 that then make up the $18 billion of net income tax that the Crown gets to spend on education, health, defence etc. Of course the Crown also gets company tax and GST.
Rik Mayall as Alan B’stard lauds the virtues of the Alternate Voting system, for the No to AV campaign a couple of years ago. This follows on from his characters’comment that the beauty of proportional voting is that even if they don’t vote for you, you’ll probably still get in.
The Herald reports:
Team New Zealand has released a statement this afternoon confirming it will challenge for the 35th America’s Cup.
Chairman Keith Turner said the team had secured sufficient private funding and sponsorship to be able to commit to a challenge without having to ask for Government funding.
Excellent, Go Team New Zealand. But I still think the rules are rigged even more than normal, so it will be hard. I’m not convinced the taxpayer should invest next year either, but worth looking at the economic case.
The Dom Post editorial:
Labour’s list is not inspiring. There are few fresh people in winnable positions, because the party has been unable to chop out dead wood. There are half a dozen sitting MPs who should have retired, but didn’t. This adds to the voters’ impression, once again, that Labour is a party not yet ready to govern.
Politicians who are past their use-by date rarely go voluntarily. And perhaps Labour leader David Cunliffe decided that a forced purge would simply be too damaging to a party that is already in trouble. Renewal can be another name for bloodbath, although National has managed to refresh its line-up without great strife. Perhaps renewal is easier in a party that is doing well.
So we are left with the current caucus dominating the winnable list, and a number of unimpressive MPs in constituency seats. These are of course more difficult to shift than list candidates who can simply be moved down the rankings. But someone should have tried harder to persuade Ruth Dyson to retire this time. The West Coast’s Damien O’Connor and Mangere’s Su’a William Sio similarly add no value to the Labour Party brand and should move on. Hutt South’s Trevor Mallard dresses up his decision not to seek a list place as a magnanimous gesture to help Kelvin Davis in the north.
Which is nonsense. Only if Mallard loses Hutt South, would his not being on the list help Kelvin Davis.
Labour does have the virtue of taking the issue of women’s representation seriously. It aims for 45 per cent of women MPs, although it would reach this figure only if it wins more than 30 per cent of the total vote. On present polling that looks an ambitious target.
Yep. So what happens if their caucus is not 45% female? Does the President resign for breaking the constitution?
Labour’s list is not at all a “fantastic array of talented candidates”, as Cunliffe claims. But the party’s problems lie far deeper than the list. It has altogether failed to win over the voters of New Zealand. It can blame the factitious charm of Key, or the economic upturn that came at an unhelpful time in the electoral cycle, or whatever other excuse it likes. The voters, whether they are right or wrong, are still broadly happy with the country’s direction. And Cunliffe has utterly failed to sell himself as a plausible alternative prime minister. All the signs suggest that Labour will have another dismal day on September 20.
If Labour do do badly on 20 September, then their lack of new blood will make 2017 even harder for them.
The Herald reports:
First it was the mayor catching the train while being followed by his ratepayer-funded chauffeur-driven car.
Now, Len Brown’s staff have been riding in special shuttles zipping around Auckland – apparently because it’s faster than the public transport they provide to ratepayers.
Oh they are far too important to catch public transport. Public transport is for everyone else to use, to leave the roads free for the elite!
It reminds me of interviewing Green MP Sue Kedgley a few years ago. She spent most of the interview going on about the importance of public transport. I then askeed her how she was enjoying using the Snapper card, and she said she didn’t have one – it was obvious she never actually used buses herself much!
The Herald reports:
Controversial businessman Donghua Liu has issued a new statement to the Herald confirming “close to” $100,000 in total payments to Labour and its MPs – including anonymous donations – but clarifying that the money was not for one bottle of wine.
Liu, to whom Labour gave permanent residency against official advice, says his earlier signed statement on the wine auction was “capable of two meanings” and after repeated inquiries from the Herald he says he wants to clarify what he spent the $100,000 on.
The signed statement obtained by the Herald on Sunday said that at a 2007 Labour Party fundraiser, he “successfully bid on bottles of wine including one bottle signed by the then Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon Helen Clark, with a contribution of close to $100,000”.
The previous sentence in the signed statement said dinner and a boat trip on the Yangtze River in 2007 with a group including Rick Barker, the Minister for Internal Affairs at the time, which Liu estimated to cost between $50,000 to $60,000.
Okay, this reduces the amount donated to Labour. Paying for Rick Barker to cruise up the Yangtze River is not a donation to Labour. It is a gift to Barker, and if his share of the cost was over $500, he should have declared that in his Register of Pecuniary Interests.
This leaves $40,000 he still claims he donated to Labour, including the $15,000 for the Helen Clark book. The disclosure limit in 2007 was $10,000 – so we still do not know why these were not disclosed.
“Some of these donations were made anonymously which was perfectly legal and so such donations will only ever appear in some individual donation returns as anonymous.”
This suggests that possibly the $40,000 was split up between multiple electorates or candidates.
Fairfax says (correctly) few Maori Mps have been elected in general seats. However they miss a few out.
Elected Maori Members of Parliament in NZ, excluding Maori electorates
1993: Sandra Rose Te Hakamatua Lee-Vercoe, Auckland Central; Winston Peters, Tauranga
1996: Winston Peters, Tauranga
1999: Georgina Beyer, Wairarapa; Winston Peters, Tauranga
2002: Winston Peters, Tauranga
2008: Paula Lee Bennett, Waitakere.
2011: Paula Lee Bennett, Waitakere; Louisa Hareruia Wall, Manurewa
They missed out Simon Bridges (Tauranga), Mike Sabin (Northland) and Jami-Lee Ross (Botany).
UPDATE: Also missed out Ben Couch (Wairarapa) and Rex Austin (Awarua off memory). Also Sir James Carroll (Waiapu).
Questions for Oral Answer.
Questions to Ministers 2.00PM-3.00PM.
Today Labour are asking about inequality, revenue cuts and expenditure of the government, savings in the health budget, investment in education, and carbon pricing. The Greens are asking whether the Prime Minister stands by all his statements, and logging operations on DOC land. Brendan Horan is asking about a road. Yes, a road.
Patsy of the day goes to Scott Simpson for Question 5: What progress has the Government made in reducing reoffending rates for prisoners?
General Debate 3.00PM-4.00PM
An informative and entertaining debate of 12 speeches of no more than 5 minutes each.
Private and Members Bills 4.00PM-6.00PM and 7.30PM-10.00PM
1. Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Bill – First Reading
2. Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill – First Reading
3. Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill – First Reading
The Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Bill is a Private Bill being guided through the house by the Member for Christchurch Central, Nicky Wagner. This bill reflects the local, national, and international heritage significance of the Arts Centre. It is intended to provide legal foundations for the trust board to continue to be able to respond to, and recover from, the impact of the earthquakes.
The Summary Offences (Possession of Hand-held Lasers) Amendment Bill is a Members’ Bill being guided through the house by a National List MP, Dr Cam Calder. This bill proposes amendments to make it an offence for a person to have in his or her possession a hand-held laser, without reasonable excuse.
The Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill is a Members’ Bill being guided through the house by a Labour List MP, Sue Moroney. The purpose of this bill is to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks.
Stuff reports:
Victims of serious violent and sexual offences can now have a “non-contact order” placed on their attackers.
The new legislation is the latest in a raft of reforms to the way in which the justice system treats victims of violent crime.
The non-contact order may be applied to offenders who have been sentenced to more than two years in prison for a violent or sexual offence.
It prohibits the offender from contacting the victim in any way, including electronically. In some cases, offenders can be banned from entering, living, or working in a particular area.
Victims must apply to a court for the non-contact order after the offender has been sentenced. The order can also cover an offender’s associates.
Justice Minister Judith Collins said the new measures would help victims move on with greater piece of mind.
A lot of victims live in fear once their offender is released from prison. while these orders do not guarantee offenders will obey them, they should help in most of the cases.