The Herald reports:

Ka Awatea Services also received a grant of $28,300 from the Ministry of Māori Development’s “suicide prevention” fund in April, 2021.

Mahuta was then, and remains, the associate minister for the department. Her ministerial responsibilities did not include purview of the fund.

The funding application form, supplied to the Herald in June by Gannin Ormsby, proposed the inclusion of Mahuta in the project (a three-day series of workshops, seminars and excursions for 40 Māori young people).

Mahuta was listed in the project’s “proposed list” of four panelists, who would critique participants’ potential ventures and business ideas. The panelists would be paid $2000 each to cover travel and koha for their time and the $8000 cost would be covered by the Ministry for Maori Development funding, the application said.

So the husband of the Associate Minister won a non contested contract for services on the basis of a proposal that included a panel whose members included the Associate Minister.

Under the OIA, the Ministry for Māori Development also released an “assessment of funding proposal” document related to the Ka Awatea project.

The document recommended that the ministry’s “investment sub-committee” fund the project. Under “conflict of interest” it states: “No severe conflicts of interest have been identified.”

Astonishing. Listing the Associate Minister as a panelist who will get paid $2,000 is not seen by TPK as a severe conflict of interest!

This seven minute speech from Boris Johnson is him at his best, as he pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth.

Lizzie Marvelly writes:

Rotorua has, whether deliberately or through absolute dereliction of duty, been transformed into a dumping ground. A place where the vulnerable are treated like cash cows, lining the pockets of a select few.

I despair that I’m at the point where I’m writing this column, knowing that more negative publicity will compound the impact upon Rotorua. But the situation is dire, it must change, and the people who have created this nightmare must be held accountable.

Those people would be the Government.

My wife and I lived just a street away from the Government and council-sponsored ghetto that is Fenton Street. We would drive down Fenton Street most days, and see some alarming sights. The toddler wearing just a nappy and a t-shirt wandering alone down the road. The young men fighting in the street. Not to mention the numerous blazes that engulfed the so-called “transitional housing” motels.

I find the word “transitional” ironic. Transitioning to where? The people in these motels are stuck. The conditions are squalid, the social challenges are profound and danger is ever-present. Many of the rooms in these motels don’t even have functioning smoke alarms. Single mums and their tamariki have been housed next to 501 deportees from Australia. It makes you wonder whether they are better or worse off than they were before they landed on Fenton Street.

The people who are undoubtedly better off are those receiving millions of taxpayer money to house and care for the vulnerable. But what do we have to show for the money being thrown around? If the system was working we’d see the number of emergency housing motels decreasing. We’d see a reduction in negative social impacts as people received the support and assistance they needed.

We are seeing quite the opposite. What key performance indicators, if any, have been put in place? When organisations and the offshore owners of Fenton Street motels are receiving millions of dollars of public funding, surely the public have a right to know what the spend is achieving. Forgive the crass expression, but in my view millions of dollars of taxpayer money are being pissed into the wind in Rotorua.

Rather than help those in need, the Government has simply spent a billion dollars paying motel owners.

Housing Minister Megan Woods featured in the recent Sunday story, saying that Rotorua had a homelessness problem before the pandemic hit. The way she phrased it made it sound to me like the problem we had before the Government initiated Rotorua’s emergency housing industry was similar to what we have now. Bollocks. Sure, the city had a small minority of rough sleepers, but nowhere near enough of them to fill 50 motels. How did a hundred or so homeless people turn into thousands?

We know that the numbers on the priority waiting list for public housing has increased 500% or so in five years.

It seems to me that Rotorua is out of sight, out of mind for the cosy politicians in Wellington. I’d like to welcome Minister Woods and her family to stay in one of the motels on Fenton Street for a week. Perhaps the people of Rotorua should extend that invitation to all of the Government ministers. There are plenty of sights to see: natural wonders, adventure tourism, gang fights in front of the library… A week on Fenton Street would be quite the holiday to remember.

Maybe they could shift the Beehive there?

It is the view of many at home that the current leadership, both locally and nationally, are destroying Rotorua.

The local leadership can only mean Labour Mayor Steve Chadwick and national leadership is all pretty obvious. The fact this is being by someone who used to be a huge fan of the Government, is telling.

Locals have been voicing their concerns to officials for years, yet things continue to get worse. It is difficult to see how the city will recover. There must be an independent review immediately, followed by swift and lasting change.

I agree. An independent inquiry is needed.

Josie Vidal of Straterra writes:

If you ride a bike or drive an electric vehicle, thank you. If you eat, cook, or keep food in the fridge, thank you.

If you use a mobile phone, laptop, computer, access medical services, play the guitar, rely on solar panels to heat your home, thank you. Like me, you all support mining, because if you look at how your stuff is made, the components come from the periodic table and they were mined.

If it wasn’t grown, it was mined and almost everything you use every day, including the kitchen sink (partially made from Ni, or Nickel, 28 on the periodic table), is at your fingertips thanks to mining.

Most people have no idea how much of what they use comes from mined products.

Boiling it down, it appears those against are saying they don’t want mining in New Zealand but are happy to use all the goods that are made from mining if production is out of sight and out of mind. Too bad that potentially it was children who mined that cobalt (Co, 27 on the periodic table) that keeps your battery-powered devices running, including the electric vehicle. The children that survive the high-risk mining, with their bare hands, get to sell a bag of rock for 0.75 cents or one dollar. I think they call that NIMBYism – not in my backyard.

The less mining we do in New Zealand, the more mining gets done in other countries, often using child labour.

Electric car sales around the world continue to break records, and a recent International Energy Agency report highlights this brings with it an increase in the demand for raw materials. It suggests, “Governments must leverage private investment in sustainable mining and ensure clear and rapid permitting procedures to avoid potential supply bottlenecks”.

There are so many opportunities to contribute to a better future, why wouldn’t we seize them?

If the future is electric cars (and it is), then we need a lot more mining, not less mining.

Many on the left claim that the PPP model used for Transmission Gully is responsible for the fact it opened late, and cost more than budgeted.

But I think that is ideology speaking, not analysis.

So I saw an article this week on the Auckland City Rail Loop (which is not a PPP) and thought it would be useful to do a comparison.

The CRL was estimated to cost $2.5 billion and then up to $3.4 billion when funding was finalised.

Then it rose to $4.4 billion and no one expects it will stay at that level.

But already it has cost 76% more than first budgeted. It will probably end up at over $5 billion.

Transmission Gully went from $850 million to $1.25 billion – a 47% increase, and that is final.

The lesson is Government often under-estimates the cost of construction projects. This is not unique to PPPs.

The Herald reports:

Lotto is being urged to drop plans to launch an online Bingo game, with a member of its expert advisory panel saying it could increase gambling harm in Māori and Pasifika communities.

But Maria Bellringer, director of Auckland University of Technology’s Gambling and Addictions Research Centre and a member of Lotto’s expert advisory panel, wants the company to ditch the idea.

Bellringer said online Bingo is a form of “continuous gambling” where players can immediately reinvest their winnings, unlike a lottery draw where gamblers wait hours or days for the result.

The vast majority of people who gamble are not problem gamblers. They enjoy it. It is a form of entertainment.

Lyman told RNZ New Zealanders were already playing the game on offshore websites and it would be safer for them to play Lotto’s version – which would also return some of that money to the community.

“It’s a game that’s being played by Kiwis through offshore, unregulated sites. That troubles me. I think that we could provide that service to those New Zealanders onshore, for a regulated site where there are harm controls,” Lyman said. “We’re not trying to create a market here. There is a market already. Hundreds of thousands of Kiwis are playing Bingo offshore.”

That is the key – people are already playing it on overseas sites.

Kiri Allan announced:

The Government is introducing some amendments to the Electoral Amendment Bill to ensure greater transparency around political donations, in the wake of the New Zealand First Foundation High Court case.

The High Court recently determined a person receiving a donation must be involved in the “governance and management oversight of all the Party’s affairs” for it to be considered a “party donation”.

As I blogged it was an appalling decision, and I am glad to see it is being appealed. But in case the decision stands, it is good to plug the loophole.

This paved the way for third parties not involved in the governance and management of a political party to receive donations for the benefit of the party without having to declare it.

“These amendments clear up any ambiguity about what a donation to a political party is intended to be,” Justice Minister Kiri Allan said.

“The amendment clarifies that a party donation is when a person donates to a political party or any other person with the intention that the donation is for the benefit of the party.

Looks like a good change – makes the intent of the donor the key element.

The Herald reports:

The Government will decide on Monday whether to scrap the whole traffic light system and other Covid-19 orders, a decision that would see the remaining restrictions such as mask mandates gone by next Wednesday and end more than two years of Covid-19 rules.

The Herald understands Cabinet on Monday will be deciding on a recommendation to scrap the traffic-light system altogether rather than tweaking the settings or moving to green.

If it goes ahead, it would come into effect as soon as next Wednesday – when the main legal instrument under which the Covid-19 orders are issued will expire if Cabinet decides not to renew it.

Pleased to see the Government looking to do this.

If Cabinet gives it the nod, Covid-19 would be treated similar to the way the flu is managed.

As it should be. The original variant of Covid-19 was much more lethal and contagious than the flu. But the dominant variants today are massively less lethal for those who have been vaccinated.

The Daily Mail reports:

Twitter has removed a series of vile tweets written by a critical race theory professor who was mocking Queen Elizabeth II just hours before her death, prompting thousands of people including Jeff Bezos to slam her for the insolent words. 

Uju Anya is an ‘anti racist’ teacher and associate professor at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and she sparked outrage after calling the ailing Queen the head of a ‘thieving, raping, genocidal empire’.

Writing shortly before the Queen’s death was announced, Anya said she hoped the Monarch’s final hours of pain ‘be excruciating.’

Her appalling invective has ignited a firestorm of outrage, and cast a light on previous attempts by hundreds of people to get the outspoken academic fired from her teaching job for her violent, racist words. 

In a disgusting tweet, now deleted by Twitter, modern language teacher Anya wrote: ‘I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.

Sounds like a lovely person, who you would love to have teaching your kids.

The victims of the rapist who got nine months home detention have spoken out. It is a hard read, as their lives have been torn apart by what happened to them, and now this laughable sentence.

There have also been protests around the country, all aghast that someone guilty of violating five under age teenagers got little more than a slap on the hand.

In response to this the Tauranga prosecutor has explained why she did not seek a jail term. But I will detail why her reasoning is (in my opinion) so incredibly flawed.

First of all be aware that rape is a very serious offence. The maximum term is 20 years and the Court of Appeal has stated that even the least serious rapes should have a starting point of six to eight years (for a single rape).

This afternoon, Tauranga’s Crown Solicitor Anna Pollett defended the sentence, explaining that a “rehabilitative approach is to protect the community in the long term from re-offending.”

“In the circumstances of this prosecution, and in careful consideration of all the available material, the Crown did not oppose a sentence of home detention to balance the need for accountability and deterrence while also maximising the opportunity for intensive rehabilitation of the young person,” Pollett said, in a rare statement from a Crown Solicitor.

Now this statement would be defensible if the defendent had only raped one person, pleaded guilty, was remorseful and not seen as likely to reoffend. If this was the case, I would absolutely agree that you don’t send him to prison.

But in this case, there were five separate victims and he was guilty of four separate rapes and four sexual violations. This is not a case of a young person making an extremely bad judgement call once. This guy was, beyond doubt, a predator.

He did not plead guilty. He forced his victims through a trial. You normally get a large sentence reduction (up to 25%) if you plead guilty. He did not.

He has now shown remorse. The victims think he is not remorseful. There are reports his family are not remorseful either and see him as the victim. The Corrections report found he was minimising what he had done.

And he is likely to reoffend. He is deemed at medium risk of raping again. That means they have assessed the probability that he will rape again within the next five years as being between 30% and 70%.

When you consider all the circumstances, it is clearly wrong that the Crown Prosecutor agreed not to seek a jail term. This is even worse than the Judge making a bad decision, because they can be appealed. But when the Crown Prosecutor doesn’t even seek a jail term, they can hardly then turn around and appeal it.

I’ve put together a timeline about the Northland lockdown, so people can see how terrible the misinformation and disinformation from the Government has been, as it scapegoated two women for what was a Government blunder.

• 1 Oct 2021 – woman applies for permission to enter Northland and is granted
• 2 Oct 2021 – enters Northland
• 5 Oct 2021 – following suspicions and complaints from locals, MSD reviews permit application. Find it was granted in error, and revokes it.
• 8 Oct 2021 – Hipkins announced lockdown of Northland and says “the person obtained a document by providing false information in order to get the document to travel across the border. By the time the falsity of that information had been identified and the document had been revoked, they were already in Northland at that point.” Women leaves Northland
• 13 Oct 2021 – Ministers are formally briefed in writing that the application was approved in error
• March 2022 – Hipkins says he stands by his previous statements on the women
• September 2022 – Public find out there was no false information. Hipkins refuses to apologise

The Northland lockdown was a major event. Not only did it impact everyone living in Northland, but it cost $23 million to their economy. And the Police investigation into the “trip” involved a massive 75 police staff.

This would have all been avoided if a Government agency hadn’t made a mistake. All the costs are because of that mistake.

But that is not the worst part. The Government knew on the 5th of October that the application had been approved in error. The suspicion there was false information supplied was not confirmed (and turned out to be wrong). Regardless of whether the information was correct or not, MSD were wrong to approve the application. This was known three days before the lockdown.

Rather than tell the truth, Hipkins got up and unleashed the entire country on the women. He said they had lied and falsified information to gain the permit. They had not. He never told us that even if the info was correct, the permit was granted in error.

The women were despised from one end of New Zealand to another. The Minister himself said they had falsified information so they were criminals. The rumours about being gang affiliates and sex workers were treated more credibly because the Minister had told us they lied on their application forms.

Ministers were beyond doubt verbally briefed before the 5th of October. And they were briefed in writing on 13 October. They knew the reason the women were in Northland was because of a blunder by MSD. And they said nothing. Because they did not want to be blamed – so they blamed the women.

And even worse in March of this year Hipkins still stood by what he said. That makes it disinformation, not misinformation.

And now 11 months later, Hipkins won’t apologise for what is one of the worst character defamations by a Minister in modern history.

They claimed it was the podium of truth, and in fact it was the opposite.

As everyone will know, The Queen died last night. She was arguably the most well known and respected woman in the world. Her life of service and duty reflected her dedication to her role as Head of State.

She worked right up until her death at 96, swearing in the new UK Prime Minister.

For the vast majority of New Zealanders, she has been our only Monarch. She has been stability in a time of change.

She saw 16 New Zealand Prime Ministers appointed by here. They were:

1. Sid Holland
2. Keith Holyoake
3. Water Nash
4. Jack Marshall
5. Norman Kirk
6. Bill Rowling
7. Robert Muldoon
8. David Lange
9. Geoffrey Palmer
10. Mike Moore
11. Jim Bolger
12. Jenny Shipley
13. Helen Clark
14. John Key
15. Bill English
16. Jacinda Ardern

In the UK, her PMs were:

1. Winston Churchill
2. Anthony Eden
3. Harold Macmillan
4. Alec Douglas-Home
5. Harold Wilson
6. Edward Heath
7. James Callaghan
8. Margaret Thatcher
9. John Major
10. Tony Blair
11. Gordon Brown
12. David Cameron
13. Theresa May
14. Boris Johnson
15. Liz Truss

The BBC reports:

The Queen is under medical supervision at Balmoral after doctors became concerned for her health, Buckingham Palace says.

“Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision,” they said in a statement.

“The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral.”

Her immediate family has been informed.

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have travelled to Balmoral, Clarence House said. The Duke of Cambridge is also travelling there.

Hopefully her health recovers.

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced her new Cabinet. Major portfolios are:

• PM: Liz Truss
• Deputy PM, Health: Therese Coffey
• Chancellor: Kwasi Kwarteng
• Foreign Secretary: James Cleverly
• Home Secretary: Suella Braverman
• Lord Chancellor: Brandon Lewis

The Cabinet has 23 members. By a quick count I make it eight women and 15 men.

In terms of backgrounds you have Ministers whose families emigrated from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Iraq and Nigeria.

UK Labour are now well ahead in the polls. Truss has a big job ahead of her to turn things around.

Stuff reports:

The ACT Party wants to put ankle bracelets on “hardened” youth offenders who do ramraids so they can be electronically monitored.

The Government on Tuesday announced more “wraparound support” would be provided for children caught committing crimes, as ramraids on shops continue to make headlines.

This will be as successful as all the other Government policies in this area!

ACT Party leader David Seymour said the Government’s plan simply extended existing programmes, and lacked a single consequence for youth offenders committing the crime.

“Some people will say 11 to 14 is too young to wear an ankle bracelet. Do those same people say it’s too young to carry out a ramraid?,” he said in a statement.

Consequences are important, especially for young people. As a parent I spend much more time than I every thought I would, having to explain and implement consequences to my kids.

“Ankle bracelets are non-intrusive and allow the police to know where they are at all times.”

Seymour said using such bracelets would make it easy to ensure young offenders attend school.

“If they have a tracking bracelet, their mates will not want them around and penalties such as staying at home in the weekend and home after 5pm could be enforced.

“This is a simple and effective way to make kids think twice before offending and to break the habit. It sends the message our community does not accept this behaviour. It is not glamorous, it brings shame.”

It’s worth a go.

MSN reports:

A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property.

If this is correct he’ll be doing some serious jail time.

Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs

The fact his lawyers lied to the FBI and signed a statement certifying that all classified materal had been returned, is going to be a huge problem for him.

The Herald reports:

A teenager convicted of raping four girls under the age of 16 has been sentenced to nine months’ home detention – despite a judge acknowledging the consequence would ordinarily be a prison sentence of “many years”.

Jayden Desmond Meyer, now 18, was charged after multiple police complaints by young women in the Bay of Plenty who alleged sexual violence across 2020 and 2021.

An investigation followed, resulting in 10 charges including four of rape, four of sexual violation, and two of doing an indecent act. There were five young female victims, four of whom were raped and one who was sexually violated.

According to district court documents obtained by Open Justice, all five victims were aged 15 at the time of the attacks.

He raped not one, not two, not three but four 15 year old girls.

On another occasion, he filmed the rape of another unconsenting girl.

What a lovely guy.

Meyer, who has no criminal history, pleaded not guilty to all charges but was later found guilty.

If he pleaded guilty and was remorseful, then maybe maybe a case could get made for a non custodial sentence. But he claimed he did nothing wrong, and made the victims go through a trial.

A psychologist, who saw Meyer 30 times during the prosecution, found he had a medium risk of reoffending, and continues to minimise the effect of his crimes.

So he raped four 15 year old girls, denied it, is likely to rape again and is now showing remorse.

And he got home detention!!!!

Both Crown prosecutor Anna Pollett and Meyer’s lawyer Rachael Adams submitted that a sentence of home detention would be most appropriate

Don’t blame the Judge – blame the Government. The Government/Crown did not seek a term of imprisonment for four rapes of 15 year old girls. The Government has a policy to reduce the prison population, so the Government prosecutors reflect that in the sentences they seek.

We now have a justice system that is focused on criminals, not victims.

Hello Willie

I know that you will be a regular reader of Kiwiblog. In contrast – I almost never watch TV – but I happened to watch the Sunday programme on the weekend. The one about Fenton St in Rotorua.

One aim of the programme seemed to look to blame the tragedies on people gaming the system.

But there was so much wrong there – highly inhumane – that I was sure that you and the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction would suddenly appear (Bit-Man and Robbin?). You see – my family was without a home for much of my first two years of high-school and I had to live in a bus. As per the Monty Python sketch – compared to what many of these motel dwellers have … the bus was “luxury”.

I was blessed through a friendship and one good teacher that helped me understand that education is a HUGE part of breaking the chains of inter-generation poverty.

That was 40 years ago. Do the Math on the human cost since. Why is what Sunday showed happening in our nation in 2022? Why – as Minister for Maori Development – are Maori so highly represented in the poverty statistics? What have you achieved in the last 5 years?

Do you believe in education for Maori? If so – just picking one stat – why do 67% Asian School leavers (many of them without English as a first language) have University Entrance but only 18% of Maori? It has got worse under your watch. What are you doing about it? It is urgent Hon Mr Jackson.

David Fisher reports:

A blunder by a government worker sent Northland into an 11-day lockdown after travel documents that were meant to be declined were mistakenly approved. …

Detective Inspector Aaron Proctor’s summary of “Operation Hiking” quoted an email from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment which said the travel documents were “issued in error by the Ministry of Social Development, (the error not being the fault of the applicant)”.

Another document showed it was known three days before the 11-day lockdown was announced on October 8 that human error was behind the travel documents being granted to the women.

One Northland mayor has branded the case “incompetence by the bureaucracy” while another says it would have been “tipping point” for some businesses struggling under Covid-19 lockdowns.

The women were publicly vilified for crossing the border with then Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins accusing them of using “false information to travel across the border”.

So much for the podium of truth. Hipkins stated the women used false information and the country collectively hated them. And now 11 months later we find out this was a lie. The Government made the blunder that locked Northland down, and even worse knew about it three days before the lockdown.

In March Hipkins said he had yet to receive any information to suggest he was wrong.

Now compare this to:

This led to the October 13 briefing from MBIE to Hipkins, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash. The briefing said: “It is our understanding that the intention was to decline the application but it was approved in error.”

Hipkins was told on October 13 that the fault lie with the Government, not the women, yet in March he was still claiming the women provided false information.

This is a huge cover-up. It should not take 11 months for the truth to emerge.

The podium of truth was the podium of disinformation.