The Herald reports:

Rotorua’s seven deputy chief executives have gone more than seven months without job descriptions – a situation an employment lawyer says is ‘unusual’.

Rotorua Lakes Council has also created 10 new director or manager roles at tier three – the level below deputy chief executive.

A local government change management expert says he cannot see the justification for the organisational realignment or why it has taken so long to develop job descriptions.

The deputy chief executives were appointed on March 29 as part of an “organisational realignment”, which the council says is ongoing.

This is beyond a farce. You should have job descriptions before you establish the roles, not afterwards. And certainly not seven months afterwards.

Its wasteful for a tiny Council to have seven Deputy CEs in the first place, and as it has taken more than seven months to do job descriptions for them, the conclusion is the Council is dysfunctional.

Matthew Hooton writes:

Recent protests have been dominated by a hotchpotch of weirdos whose comparisons of Ardern with the worst mass murderers are as offensive as they as stupid. Ardern is not a Hitler, Stalin or Mao. But she is increasingly governing like a second-term Robert Muldoon or Helen Clark, which is surely bad enough — especially given what followed in their third terms, with moves like the Clutha Development (Clyde Dam) Empowering Act and the Electoral Finance Act.

Actually I would say she is more like a third term Clark or Muldoon, than a second term one.

A stench of bewilderment, detachment from reality, confusion and lack of candour has joined the old odour of incompetence that has surrounded Ardern’s Government since it first became obvious in early 2018 that it had no idea how to go about delivering its signature promise to build 100,000 KiwiBuild homes.

With a handful of exceptions like David Parker, the criticism that this is a government of student politicians rings true. It is not just that they don’t know how business produces goods and services to generate revenue to pay wages and returns on investment, but that most have never even thought about how the paper and toner gets in the photocopier in the university library, or how the campus gets cleaned at night.

It must be nice to have never worked in a business that had to perform well or face closure. A career path from student union to political advisor to MP is much easier.

For her part, Ardern never told anyone her Government was moving from quarantining sick people in hospital or the Jet Park to self-isolation at home — until media noticed the numbers from the Ministry of Health didn’t add up.

As of yesterday, 1230 people with Covid were self-isolating at home, despite Health Minister Andrew Little saying the system was designed to cope with no more than 120. Most of those allowed to self-isolate are unvaccinated.

Despite this, Ardern persists with her Government’s cruel and unjustified lottery system denying tens of thousands of New Zealanders their rights as citizens to return home, even if they have already had Covid, are double-vaccinated and consistently test negative for the disease.

The madness continues.

Radio NZ reports:

Auditor-General John Ryan has criticised the Health Ministry for failing to deal with potential conflicts of interest in its handling of the $50 million Covid-19 saliva testing contract, which was pushed through without an adequate procurement process.

Ryan said enquiries by his office revealed there was no procurement plan or independent audit before the contract was awarded to the Asia Pacific Healthcare Group in May.

Four of the five panel members indicated potential conflicts of interest, including past and current employment relationships with organisations tendering for the contract.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, the Government is about to pass a law allowing it to confiscate the assets of private testing labs.

Mt Hobson Academy to offer Nationwide Private School Online Option

Background

Through posting here and other media work we receive a lot of direct feedback and support from the good people on Kiwiblog. A number have asked recently about options for teachers and learners given current and future disruptions.

Model Background

The last two years have been incredibly disruptive in both days in school and the quality of teaching and learning in New Zealand. Children/young people deserve high quality academic options and we offer them. Over the last 19 years children who have been through our teaching and learning programme for at least one year have achieved Level 1 NCEA at 96% and thrived from there into a full-range of further study and employment/career options.

Cognition Education has this to say about our model:

“In summary we find and conclude that in both schools, the management and staff are actively involved in continuous development, and the delivery, of a unique programme of teaching and learning which is based on a comprehensive ‘local’ curriculum that is aligned with the New Zealand Curriculum, and which provides for the personalised needs of priority learners ‘many of whom have been failed by the current education system’.”

The next two years remains uncertain for education in NZ. November 15 2021 sees a vaccine mandate come in that will result in some very good teachers no longer able to work in person to person schools. When child vaccines become available some families will choose for their child to have them, others not. Some may prefer their children not to be in classes with children who are not vaccinated. Will the government mandate?

We will be able to provide high quality education and predictability through all of those circumstances.

Who: Mt Hobson Academy Online (Villa Education Trust)

Leadership: Karen Poole (CEO), Dr Bruce Knox (Qualifications Guidance), Alwyn Poole (Villa Education Trust), and two others to be announced.

Where: NZ wide online with regional academic/adventure camps 1 per term and local grouping.

Years: Years 5 – 10: Run the Innovative Education Project Based and Core Curriculum.

                Years 11 – 13: Full NCEA provision.

Contacts:

1. To express interest as a teacher/educator who may look to work with us – vaccinated or not: [email protected]
2. To express interest as a family to be a part of this high quality, Private School, option:

       [email protected]

We have more information available upon request. We will ensure the cost is as reasonable as is feasible.

Please note: The Mt Hobson Academy has full in-person learning in Auckland for up to 40 Year 11-13 students (www.mthobson.school.nz)

Five Australian states or territories have actually had fewer Covid-19 cases than NZ, and four of them fewer fatalities per million. It is great we have not had the numbers of NSW and Victoria but would be even better to be a Queensland or Western Australia.

Bruce Cotterill writes:

As I’ve reflected on those things, there is one that stands out. It’s something we’ve always had in this country. Something our forefathers fought for. It’s something we’ve now lost.

In Auckland we are struggling without it.

It’s called freedom. I’m missing our freedom.

Sure, I can do my work from home. It’s not ideal. Not as productive as I’d prefer. Some things take longer. Recruitment is riskier when you can’t meet the candidates.

Negotiations take longer when you can’t sit around a table and work through the issues. Building cultures and business planning is almost impossible on a Zoom call. But we’re getting by.

But freedom. That’s a different story. Freedom to do what we want. A morning coffee with a colleague. A beer with some mates. A swim at the local pool. A barbecue with friends. A visit to my mum. Perhaps a weekend away. Or even the ability to jump on a plane and have a holiday.

A break from the madness, if you like.

Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that this is a government that has become increasingly comfortable taking our freedoms away. You see, the more you do something, the more comfortable you become doing it. After a while, it becomes automatic. Even if what you are doing is wrong, it becomes acceptable in your own mind.

I think this is right. The extraordinary threat of the pandemic did require an extraordinary response, but the Government has now come to see these measures as normal day to day tools to be used. How else could they come up with an idea to allocate Aucklanders a designated time they can take their vacation?

By Wednesday it was worse. Laughable, even. When discussing the prospect of Christmas holidays, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins suggested one of the options being considered was vaccinated holidaymakers could be allocated a time slot advising them when they can travel out of Auckland for their Christmas holiday.

Excuse me? This is not even laughable. It is disgraceful. North Korea, here we come.

I think these complacent politicians living in their Wellington bubbles need to hear a few facts. So I’m hoping they’re reading this.

You see, while those making the decisions that affect our lives are collecting their pay cheques every month, there are many New Zealanders who are not. Their businesses are on hold indefinitely. Their busiest time of the year is about to pass them by. And even if they can go back to work one day, their debt and stress levels are unthinkable. It’s no wonder these people are at breaking point.

Small business owners can spend years or decades building up their business to a position where it has sufficient cash reserves, and then they have to see 20 years of hard work wiped out in a few months.

And I have no doubt that one of the greatest tragedies in all of this mess lies in the group of New Zealanders who want to come home, but can’t. We’re not hearing enough of their stories.

Apparently, we have to make room in our MIQ system for criminals who are deported from other countries, and the entourages accompanying our government ministers on their overseas jaunts.

But the average, law-abiding Kiwi who just wants to come home? We put them into a poorly organised raffle every week. There are 30,000 such people. Kiwis. Our people.

I really can’t comprehend why the Government doesn’t allow fully vaccinated NZers who have tested negative to return home immediately and self-isolate. Even if say 2 returnees a day had Covid, that pales compared to the 150+ cases a day Auckland has.

Curbing freedoms is becoming more and more a feature of this government. It started with the daily updates. “Tune in at 1 o’clock and hear from the single source of the truth,” they said. Lockdowns. Confiscating water assets. Centralising healthcare. Centralising education.

It’s not hard to see that the arrogance that comes with such behaviour leads to a stifled democracy. While the locked-down people are tired and frustrated, our politicians place unelected representatives onto councils and boards, take control of newly centralised education and healthcare and rewrite school history curriculums. All such roads leading to further curbs on the freedoms of the people. …

A city of people who are tired and oppressed. A city of people whose freedoms have been eroded and livelihoods destroyed. People who are beyond frustrated and in many cases are now angry.

People who want their family members to come home and their kids to go to school.

People who have played their part, stayed home, and become vaccinated. People who are now being told, by an increasingly authoritarian government, whether and when they can have a Christmas holiday.

Many years ago I observed that an incompetent manager will often limit the opportunity for their team or their organisation by slowing things down to a pace that he or she can cope with. In other words, to control the pace to a level that suits their agenda. We are all learning now that an incompetent government can do the same.

When one party asserts control, another loses freedom.

An astute analysis.

Stuff reports:

The Government has appointed a working group for its Three Waters reforms to settle issues over how four new water entities will be run.

The group, announced by Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta, will consist of nine mayors – including Auckland’s Phil Goff, Christchurch’s Lianne Dalziel, Lower Hutt’s Campbell Barry, and Nelson’s Rachel Reese – and nine Māori representatives.

90% of Councils are against, so they stack the working group with Labour Party Mayors – Goff, Dalziel and Barry. Why have they done this?

As Labour Party members they are bound to vote in accordance with Labour Party policy as stated in Rule 95(e) of Labour’s constitution. Their job is not to represent their Councils to the Government, but to give cover to the Government when it proceeds with stealing their three waters assets.

If they vote against Labour, they risk not just deselection, but expulsion. So anyone who thinks this working group is going to come up with any substantial changes is dreaming.

Stuff reports:

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from industries and households rose by 4.8 per cent in the June 2021 quarter, according to Stats NZ data.

This follows an earlier 1.4 per cent increase in the March quarter and was mainly due to a large increase in the use of coal to produce energy.

The largest contributors to the increase were electricity, gas, water, and waste services up 16 per cent; transport, postal, and warehousing up 19 per cent; and agriculture, forestry, and fishing up 0.9 per cent (seasonally adjusted).

Environmental economic accounts manager Stephen Oakley said the electricity, gas, water, and waste services sectors reached a record quarterly level of 2927 kilotonnes of GHG emissions (seasonally adjusted), up 412 kilotonnes on the March quarter.

“This is mainly due to a large increase in coal use for electricity generation,” he said. 

The Government announced two goals – net zero emissions and 100% renewable generation for electricity, and they are going backwards on both of them.

In June 2017 the greenhouse gas emissions for electricity, gas, water and waste was 2,029 kT. In June 2021 it was 2,927 kT – an increase of 44%.

That ban on further natural gas exploration is really going well, with coal imports at record levels.

The vast vast majority of those who get second or third strikes are hardened recidivist criminals. Labour is going to change the law so that they will get shorter sentences on their third and subsequent strikes and be eligible for parole despite a lifetime of offending and ignoring parole conditions.

The three strikes law actually saw reoffending rates drop. It did act as a deterrent for some, and for those it didn’t – it kept us safer from them by stopping the merry-go-round of short sentences and early releases.

Labour will regret repealing this law as more New Zealanders end up victims of serious recidivist criminals.

Pew Research has a political typology quiz. It is one of the better ones, as it got me pretty right. They classify you into one of nine groups:

1. Faith and Flag Conservatives
2. Committed Conservatives
3. Populist Right
4. Ambivalent Right
5. Stressed Sideliners
6. Outsider Left
7. Democratic Mainstays
8. Establishment Liberals
9. Progressive Left

I was classified Ambivent Right, which is described as:

Young and politically cross-pressured: Conservative on economics and issues of race and gender, less so on immigration, social issues

On issues ranging from the size of the federal government to views about business, gender and race, Ambivalent Right hold many views that are largely consistent with core conservative values. Yet they also hold more moderate stances on several social issues and differ from some other segments of the GOP coalition in taking a more internationalist view of foreign policy and a less restrictive position on immigration.

Ambivalent Right differ from other GOP-aligned groups with their support for legal abortion and less negative views of the impact of same-sex marriage. They also are distinct from other Republican-oriented groups in their views of Donald Trump. Whereas large majorities of each of the other Republican-oriented groups say they feel warmly toward Trump, Ambivalent Right are somewhat more likely to say they feel coldly toward the former president (46%) than warmly (34%). And most (63%) would not like to see Trump continue to be a major national political figure for many years to come.

Ambivalent Right have also largely rejected the unsubstantiated claim from Trump and others that Trump was the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Ambivalent Right do not feel very warmly toward either Republicans or Democrats. On a “feeling thermometer” ranging from 0-100, where 100 represents the warmest feelings and 0 represents the coldest feelings, Ambivalent Right give Republicans an average rating of 43. Ambivalent Right are cooler toward Democrats, with an average rating of 34. 

I rated both parties negatively. One lot have abandoned democracy and the other lot are crazy.

Item 1: More international acclaim for our Prime Minister.

This time from the most popular pod-caster on the planet – Joe Rogan.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2021/11/joe-rogan-attacks-jacinda-ardern-for-shutting-down-covid-19-press-conference-interrupted-by-heckler.html

 Item 2: Issues with Education turn a governor election in Virginia.

Sleepy Joe got a 10% win in Virginia in the presidential election. A year later it has been turned around and Virginia now has a Republican Governor, Deputy Governor and Attorney General.

If you want to see what a true political speech looks like then this is worth a few minutes: https://www.wdbj7.com/2021/11/03/republican-winsome-sears-makes-history-first-woman-become-lieutenant-governor-virginia/

Item 3: For the record – I sent this to Auckland Principals last week.

“I read about the 1st XV decision re vaccines today.

It may turn out to be a VERY poor decision.

The unvaxxed death rates in Britain (for September)

U20 is zero – why would we consider vaxxing kids/teenagers?

20-30 less than 1/100,000

30-40 still less that 1/100,000

40-49 3.5 per 100,000

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1025358/Vaccine-surveillance-report-week-41.pdf

ps – the rates of people getting covid is much higher for the double vaxxed for most age groups.

The Principals are interfering in an invasive medical decision for young people. How much responsibility will they take when someone has a significant issue? Or dies?

A very close contact in Auckland spent the best part of the two days following her first jab in hospital with blood clots.

Heart issues are occurring in young men: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cdc-heart-inflammation-cases-ages-16-24-higher-than-expected-after-mrna-covid-19-2021-06-10/“

Item 4: The lost of teachers, teacher aides and administrators.

November 15 in New Zealand will be interesting for education and those on the front-line respond to the Pfizer vaccine being “mandated”. Brilliant speech from the EU on that here:

I contacted the NZEI and PPTA about how they are standing for the 20% (their stats) of their members who are against the mandate and whether they would take the same compliant stand if Key/Parata had implemented the mandate. No response of course.

The next highly divisive moment will be when the child vaccine comes to NZ. Some parents will refuse to allow their children in the same classroom with the unvaccinated and may parents choose to avoid and vaccine which they will consider to be entirely unnecessary for their children.

Mt Hobson Academy – will be launching a nationwide online school from Years 1 – 13 on the 14^th of November

Item 5: The fishing in Russell has been incredible recently. Just the last two nights I brought these home from the wharf.

For Kiwiblog readers I am very happy to offer a 10% discount for you to stay at www.titorelodge.co.nz or www.baylight.co.nz. I will out 5% of what you pay to David Farrer’s site.

https://www.facebook.com/Wood2Water

Item 6: Two nations conquered by Brigadier General Kane Williamson

Afghanistan defeated! England defeated.

We should not under-estimate the defeat of England. In 1940 Germany attempted to defeat England. They have not played a cricket world championship since. They main problem was the quality of their attack. They really only had four bowlers and history shows that they were clearly limited. Apparently Hitler had only got one ball, Göring had two but very small, Himmler was similar and their spinner, Goebbels, had no balls at all. This was documented by historians Armstrong and Miller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1DWJQkOJew&ab_channel=HatTrick

The Herald reports:

Labour has taken a shellacking in the two new polls as the ongoing lockdown in Auckland starts to bite.

A leaked copy of Talbot Mills Research poll (formerly UMR) shows Labour has dropped by five points to 41 per cent in the last month – its lowest result since January 2020, before Covid-19 hit New Zealand.

The latest Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll out today also showed Labour had crashed six points to 39 per cent – while National was up four points to 26 per cent.

In both polls, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has also taken a hit in polling.

Both polls still show Labour forming a Government with the Greens, but the trend is what is most important and the gap is shrinking between Labour/Greens and National/ACT.

The Taxpayers’ Union/Curia poll highlights are here.

 In September the gap between National/ACT vs Labour/Green was 19.2%. Last month it was 12.1%. The gap is now 5.8%.

Also of importance is for the first time since the GFC more New Zealanders think the country is heading in the wrong direction than the right direction. 

I blogged in June around the controversy over Kainga Ora spending almost $500,000 on advertorial fluff pieces that appeared to be genuine news. The background is:

• Kainga Ora (Housing NZ) signed a contract with NZME to spent $25,000 a month for almost two years in return for stories they would write that would look like news stories.
• NZME failed to state that this was supplied content, and for many months they appeared without any disclaimer that they were paid for.
• The Minister of Housing, Megan Woods, denied in a written question that there was any agreement between NZME and Kainga Ora. This was false, and later blamed on a clerical error.
• One purchased article was in May 2020 and featured Arena Williams (now a Labour MP) and was full of details about what she had done for her community – it appeared three days before the Labour selection for Manurewa.

So all this is bad enough, but it gets far far worse. It turns out that not only did Kainga Ora know Williams was an aspiring Labour candidate, they decided to pretend they did not know!!

OIAs released to Nicola Willis show that Kainga Ora staff knew that Williams was seeking the Labour nomination in a few days and the response from the Senior Comms Advisor was:

we can just act as though we don’t know anything!

So their strategy was to promote an aspiring Labour candidate, and if questioned to pretend they didn’t know!

This is confirmed, as they negotiated with Williams:

She was worried that putting herself out there in the media might suddenly seem like she’s helping coordinate some publicity for herself. I assured her it wasn’t a problem in my view and we could proceed as though we didn’t know about her impending announcement

So Kainga Ora told the aspiring Labour candidate that they would just proceed as though they didn’t know she was about to be announced as the Labour candidate!

And if we can promise to show her the copy for approval, she might get some additional comfort from that.

So the NZ Herald published a story that was written by a Government agency, funded by taxpayers, whose content was personally approved by the aspiring Labour candidate – and none of this was known until revealed by Nicola Willis as none of the stories had been marked as advertorial.

We’re getting close to the pre-election period where it’s stipulated that: The neutrality of the public service and other agencies in the state sector must be protected throughout the pre-election period.

Kainga Ora doesn’t seem to understand that public service neutrality applies all the time, not just during the pre-election period.

The $500,000 was wasteful spending at the best of times anyway. But to spend some of it to promote an aspiring candidate and state in writing that the agency will just pretend not to know she is about to become the candidate is appalling ethics.

Newshub reports on the story here:

Newshub can reveal the Government’s housing developer Kāinga Ora brazenly took steps to cover up the fact it was using a Labour candidate in its taxpayer-funded advertising – risking its political neutrality.

Although it knew Manurewa MP Arena Williams was planning to run for Labour, emails show it hid the fact, choosing to act like it was unaware. 

And Nicola Willis sums up:

“Documents released to me under the Official Information Act show that just months before last years election, Kāinga Ora secretly commissioned, paid for and arranged publication of ‘advertorial’ material about Labour Party figure Arena Williams, and on finding out about her impending candidacy senior public servants agreed to ‘proceed as though we didn’t know’. …

“These actions by senior public servants show a flagrant disregard for the proper use of taxpayer funds and the need for public agencies to consistently act with integrity and in the public interest.

“I am gravely concerned about the culture at Kāinga Ora. New Zealanders have a right to expect that the Government housing arm will focus its time and money on getting houses built – not promoting Labour Party candidates.

Never mind that the waiting list for state housing has increased almost 500% – let’s spend $500,000 on fake newspaper stories making us look good.

Pano Kanelos writes:

I left my post as president of St. John’s College in Annapolis to build a university in Austin dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth.

So much is broken in America. But higher education might be the most fractured institution of all.

There is a gaping chasm between the promise and the reality of higher education. Yale’s motto is Lux et Veritas, light and truth. Harvard proclaims: Veritas. Young men and women of Stanford are told Die Luft der Freiheit weht: The wind of freedom blows.

These are soaring words. But in these top schools, and in so many others, can we actually claim that the pursuit of truth—once the central purpose of a university—remains the highest virtue? Do we honestly believe that the crucial means to that end—freedom of inquiry and civil discourse—prevail when illiberalism has become a pervasive feature of campus life? …

On our quads, faculty are being treated like thought criminals. Dorian Abbot, a University of Chicago scientist who has objected to aspects of affirmative action, was recently disinvited from delivering a prominent public lecture on planetary climate at MIT. Peter Boghossian, a philosophy professor at Portland State University, finally quit in September after years of harassment by faculty and administrators. Kathleen Stock, a professor at University of Sussex, just resigned after mobs threatened her over her research on sex and gender.

We had thought such censoriousness was possible only under oppressive regimes in distant lands. But it turns out that fear can become endemic in a free society. It can become most acute in the one place—the university—that is supposed to defend “the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.” …

We are done waiting for the legacy universities to right themselves. And so we are building anew. 

I mean that quite literally. 

As I write this, I am sitting in my new office (boxes still waiting to be unpacked) in balmy Austin, Texas, where I moved three months ago from my previous post as president of St. John’s College in Annapolis.

I am not alone. 

Our project began with a small gathering of those concerned about the state of higher education—Niall Ferguson, Bari Weiss, Heather Heying, Joe Lonsdale, Arthur Brooks, and I—and we have since been joined by many others, including the brave professors mentioned above, Kathleen Stock, Dorian Abbot and Peter Boghossian.   

We count among our numbers university presidents: Robert Zimmer, Larry Summers, John Nunes, and Gordon Gee, and leading academics, such as Steven Pinker, Deirdre McCloskey, Leon Kass, Jonathan Haidt,  Glenn Loury, Joshua Katz, Vickie Sullivan, Geoffrey Stone, Bill McClay, and Tyler Cowen.

We are also joined by journalists, artists, philanthropists, researchers, and public intellectuals, including Lex Fridman, Andrew Sullivan, Rob Henderson, Caitlin Flanagan, David Mamet, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sohrab Ahmari, Stacy Hock, Jonathan Rauch, and Nadine Strossen.

We are a dedicated crew that grows by the day. Our backgrounds and experiences are diverse; our political views differ. What unites us is a common dismay at the state of modern academia and a recognition that we can no longer wait for the cavalry. And so we must be the cavalry.  …

Our rigorous curriculum will be the first designed in partnership not only with great teachers but also society’s great doers—founders of daring ventures, dissidents who have stood up to authoritarianism, pioneers in tech, and the leading lights in engineering and the natural sciences. Our students will be exposed to the deepest wisdom of civilization and learn to encounter works not as dead traditions but as fierce contests of timeless significance that help human beings distinguish between what is true and false, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. Students will come to see such open inquiry as a lifetime activity that demands of them a brave, sometimes discomfiting, search for enduring truths.

This core purpose—the intrepid pursuit of truth—has been at the heart of education since Plato founded his Academy in 387 B.C. Reviving it would produce a resilient (or “antifragile”) cohort with exceptional capacity to think fearlessly, nimbly, and inventively. Such graduates will be the future leaders best prepared to address humanity’s challenges. 

An education rooted in the pursuit of truth is the antidote to the kind of ignorance and incivility that is everywhere around us. As Frederick Douglass proclaimed: “Education . . . means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light only by which men can be free.”

A superb initiative. Most of he legacy universities are doomed in terms of their culture. A new university with academic freedom embedded in its core should do well.

I normally highlight sentences which I think are too light, but in this case I’m starting with one I regard as too harsh, even though it was murder. The case of Cherylene Lawrence:

A mother who murdered her terminally-ill daughter has been jailed for six and a half years.

Cherylene Lawrence, 49, was sentenced in the High Court at Napier on Friday after pleading guilty to a charge of murder in September. …

She acknowledged that Chevana was particularly vulnerable, but took into account her “overall impression” of the case, specifically the pressure she was under to care for Chevana, the emotional impact of her deteriorating condition, the desire to end suffering, and the fact Lawrence posed little to no risk to public.

Gwyn said “the pain of watching your daughter deteriorate over the last 13 years of her life is unimaginable”. She acknowledged the professionals she dealt with often did not know how to care for Chevana.

Lawrence had dedicated much of her life to ensure Chevana had a good life, and this meant she had to sacrifice a lot, the judge said.

“It’s clear to me your personal circumstances would make life imprisonment manifestly unjust.

The Judge was right to find this is a case where life would be manifestly unjust.

At just 16 Chevana had been diagnosed with juvenile Huntington’s disease, a less common early-onset form of Huntington’s disease. Huntington’s disease causes the progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the brain, resulting in movement, cognitive and psychiatric disorders.

Chevana’s condition deteriorated steadily over the years. She resided at care facilities until moving back home with her mother late last year.

Chevana would often lash out at her mother and other caregivers.

Lawrence struggled to cope. She became sleep-deprived and her mental health suffered. By mid-December she became despondent. She cried the whole time, and felt her daughter no longer had any quality of life.

In these circumstances I think even six years is excessive, I’d even consider home detention.

And contrast that with this case:

The man appeared before Judge Tony Greig this week on a representative charge of sexual violation.

Judge Greig outlined how the offending started when the man was almost 14, and his sister 11.

He said the man sexually violated and raped his sister on a “number of occasions”.

The judge said no sentence he could impose “would undo the harm you’ve caused”.

He outlined how the man had no previous convictions, had not offended since, had entered guilty pleas and showed true remorse.

Greig also took into account the sheltered childhood the man lived, with a “lack of sexual education”, and how when he got a computer he came across pornography.

“Anecdotally, pornography has led to a huge increase in sex offending in teenagers.”

He said “you would only have to casually peruse” pornographic sites to see that many portray non-consensual sex.

“It’s a well known problem, and as far as I’m aware, nothing is ever done to try to rectify it.”

Greig said he had to look at the man’s moral culpability, and the “seriousness must be viewed through the lens of you at the age of 14, 15 and 16”.

“For that reason” he discharged the man without conviction and ordered he pay his sister $10,000.

He raped his 11 year old sister repeatedly, and he got discharged without conviction!!!

Sure these is case that he doesn’t need to go to prison, but to discharge without conviction just seems absolutely wrong.

Audrey Young has done another of her regular ratings of the Cabinet. The numbers in brackets are the changes from the last one six months ago.

• 9/10: Robertson (nc), Sepuloni (+2), O’Connor (+5)
• 8/10: Little (-1), Henare (+1), Wood (-1), Shaw (nc)
• 7/10: Ardern (-1), Hipkins (-1), Parker (nc), Mahuta (-1), Jackson (+1), Allan (nc), Sio (+2), Twyford (+2)
• 6/10: Davis (-1), Woods (-1), Nash (-1), Tinetti (+1), Verrall (nc), Whaitiri (nc), Davidson (+1)
• 5/10: Faafoi (-2)
• 4/10: Williams (-2)

Public health experts at Otago University write:

Analysis of countries with reasonable quality data implies that the risk of Covid-19 infection for most vaccinated international arrivals is typically less than the current risk for Auckland residents. Current MIQ requirements for vaccinated arrivals to Auckland could therefore be dropped for most, without increasing the risk for Aucklanders.

They have determined that Aucklanders are at more risk from other Aucklanders than returning NZers who have been double vaccinated.

In Canada, for example, after adjusting for their lower testing rate, there could be 130 new cases per million people per day. While this rate is higher than in Auckland, their vaccination rate is 75%. That means their case rate in the vaccinated is estimated at 68 new cases per million people per day, less than Auckland’s 83. So if you’re at the supermarket in Auckland, a fully vaccinated person randomly teleported from Canada is less likely to infect you than an average resident Aucklander in the aisles.

Yet the Government says they will still have to go through MIQ until March 2022!

Given the limit it imposes on the right of NZers to enter their country, any requirement for MIQ must be risk based and consistent in order to be justified. With tested, vaccinated travellers from many jurisdictions having a lower risk of Covid-19 infection than Aucklanders; with no vaccination or quarantine requirements for Aucklanders permitted to travel outside Auckland; and with the decision to allow many known positive cases in the current outbreak to isolate at home in Auckland, current MIQ requirements for tested vaccinated travellers have become inconsistent and arbitrary.

Furthermore, filling MIQ rooms with arrivals who typically have a lower infection risk than Aucklanders wastes limited MIQ space. Public health would be better served by having those rooms available for community cases, when their homes are not suitable for home isolation.

This is key. The Government’s MIQ requirements actually increase the risk to New Zealand as NZers who have actually tested positive to Covid-19 are shut out of MIQ, as most of the capacity is being used for incoming NZers who have been double vaccinated.

Stuff reports:

The gunman who killed 51 people at two Christchurch mosques says his guilty pleas were obtained under duress due to mistreatment in custody, according to a memorandum from his lawyer.

He has the right to appeal, but considering he livestreamed his murders and wrote a manifesto justifying them I’d say his chances of success are around the same as Labour delivering 100,000 Kiwibuild homes.

Ellis complained the Chief Coroner repeatedly describing the offender as “the individual” – also used in the Royal Commission of Inquiry report – rather than using the offender’s name, was a serious breach of human rights and “deeply offensive and unlawful”.

I think mass murdering 51 people is deeply offensive and unlawful. Choosing not to use someone’s name is trivial in comparison.