Hamish Rutherford writes:

Justice Minister Kris Faafoi’s surprise announcement that the Government will make a temporary change to the Property Law Act shows how different governing is compared to just a year ago. …

There was no time for anyone to debate the merits or otherwise of rent relief this time around. Faafoi’s office released news that temporary changes to the law would be made as the Justice Minister was already speaking to reporters on the way into Parliament. He actually alerted them to the release.

He has not responded to interview requests since, but in his only brief comments on the matter appeared to admit that he did not know how much of a problem difficult landlords are.

Most leases include provisions around what to do if a tenant cannot access their building and many others had struck deals voluntarily. Beyond that, Faafoi mused that he understood there were “essentially, a couple of holdouts” that had not reached agreements.

Unless he was making a joke it seems weak grounds on which to insert the Government’s sense of fairness into contract law.

So a law change being rushed through under urgency for a problem that may be no more than a couple of landlords!

Not only did Faafoi fail to consult industry, he actively ignored it. Leonie Freeman, chief executive of Property Council New Zealand wrote to Faafoi early in the latest lockdown offering its members as sounding boards for policy development.

Freeman is still waiting for a response. 

Zero consultation with those affected.

Last year’s untidy attempt to offer compensation appeared to teach the Government that not all landlords were as wealthy as they might have assumed. In many cases the landlords were in a less powerful position than their tenants.

Losing a tenant can be a disaster for a landlord. They still have to pay interest on the debt on the building and have no income. It can takes months or even years to get a new tenant in some areas.

The Government is not proposing to force banks to offer concessions on loans, councils to reduce rates or insurance companies to reduce premiums. Forcing rent relief is choosing one of a number of problems and forcing that problem on to someone else.

Exactly. Why not force Councils to reduce rates instead?

Time and again political observers have warned that Labour is prone to close ranks when it faces complex problems, make decisions based only on input from those within the Beehive then be forced to try to push through bad policy because it has already announced the decision.

It does further damage to New Zealand’s reputation as a stable operating environment because investors perceive that the rules may change with little notice or research.

Government by fiat under urgencu

Neil Miller does a satirical defence of James Shaw:

You take the low road, James Shaw takes the high road, and he will be in Scotland a’fore ye!

Green Party co-leader James Shaw has been under fire for planning to fly to Glasgow for a climate change conference with an unspecified number of support staff. Priding ourselves on fairness towards New Zealand’s elected representatives, the Taxpayers’ Union offered Mr Shaw the opportunity to present his defence. It has not been edited, but all the spelling and grammatical errors have been fixed.

“I am not a hypocrite. I absolutely refute all the allegations made by far-right trolls, members of the media we have not paid for, and the Leader of the Opposition, David Seymour. Let’s go through them one by one.”

International air travel during a pandemic:

“I have been a long-standing and shrill critic of air travel but – and this is important – only air travel by people on business, ordinary people, and right-wing politicians. I have never criticised air travel by Green MPs. In fact, under my co-leadership we continue to top the charts in Parliamentary travel expenses. I am proud of our track record, including travelling more than the Prime Minister in 2019, and the fact that Air New Zealand had to invent a Titanium Class Air Points card thanks to us.”

An in-person international meeting during a pandemic:

“The United Nations is a humble non-profit. It is unreasonable to expect it to have Zoom.

“My comment ‘there was a perfectly serviceable option that would enable MPs to work from home – Parliament via teleconferencing software Zoom – and politicians should be modelling the health advice to stay home’ was taken completely out of context.

“Sure, Parliament can do it, workplaces can do it, schools can do it, but what is the point of being part of the United Nations if you do not get a few overseas vacations?”

The pesky public health issue

“Here, I stand by all my statements despite some of them being contradictory.

“I was correct to say on a Tuesday that ‘I think it’s absolutely irresponsible, I mean it literally risks people’s lives by holding an in-person Parliament’ and I boycotted Parliament.

“The next day, having realised we lost our oral question in the House, and no one was paying attention to us in the media, then it was suddenly absolutely safe for Green MPs to fly from Auckland to Wellington and attend Parliament in person. Not that anyone noticed…

“People have pointed out that Wellington has had only a handful of COVID cases this year while Glasgow has over 5,000 new cases a week. Now, I did some research, and it turns out Glasgow City is almost twice as big as Wellington. That is hardly a global hot spot in my mind.”

Taking up spots in Managed Isolation and Quarantine facilities

“I and my unspecified entourage will not be taking up MIQ spots desperately sought by Kiwis looking to return home, receive medical treatment, or attend funerals. Our MIQ spots are in the special wing of suites continuously reserved for bands, sports stars, and United Nations officials.

“I do like that they always leave a chocolate (Fair Trade of course) on my Egyptian cotton pillow.

“This matter is closed. Now, where is my passport?”

A guest post by Gary Lindsay:

I have summarized some but definitely not all of the current excessive policing that is going on in Australia.  This article deals only with the actions of the police, and does not deal with the Australian response to Covid, even though the policing is the result of the Covid response.  Other than in the conclusion I have refrained from commentary so that the readers may form their own opinions.

Before I start, I would like readers to know that it is difficult to find many references to the current excessive policing in Australia’s mainstream media.  The same goes for Facebook and Twitter; they are actively deleting dissent including videos of police brutality, to the point where on the weekend of 18 September Facebook shut down all live streams from Victoria and the Victorian Police attempting to use the state of emergency to enforce a no-fly zone over the CBD to prevent TV helicopters from taking live pictures (this was later ruled illegal in the Supreme Court of Victoria).  Alternate media such as Avi Yemini for Rebel Media and many other amateur sources via platforms such as Telegram are the only way to find out what is really going on, along with the occasional article from SBS and the Guardian and some politicians.

July

On 21 June 2021 the government of New South Wales issued a stay-at-home (lockdown) order for the local government areas in the Sydney metropolitan area.  Melbourne’s fourth lockdown took place over two weeks in May and June, and a entered its fifth lockdown on 14 July.

The Sydney lockdown was initially due to cases in the wealthier suburbs, but after a few days the focus shifted to Western Sydney LGAs (local government areas) such as Canterbury-Bankstown and Parramatta.  Since mid-July much of Sydney’s west has been heavily policed, with mounted police patrolling the area looking for rule breaches and even aerial surveillance.  The Australian Defence Force has been brought in to assist police.  This heavy and highly visible police action has continued every day and there are no signs of it stopping.

A major rally protesting government overreach was arranged for the weekend of 24 July.  This protest went ahead in all Australian cities including Melbourne and Sydney.  I watched these protests via live feed on Facebook, and saw thousands of people marching and people generally being well behaved.  In Sydney the police began shepherding protesters to barricades near the Town Hall, where a fight broke out between police and protesters.  Police released a photograph of a police horse being punched by a protester, with later footage from citizens emerging showing this was clearly the protester fending the horse away from his face.  The man was arrested on animal cruelty charges and I do not know whether he is out of prison.  In Melbourne the police did not engage with the protesters until the protest began to disperse, when they began rounding up and arresting those left behind.

Melbourne’s fifth lockdown ended on July 27.

August

The government of Victoria issued its sixth lockdown order on the 5 of August, approximately one week after completing the fifth.  That evening a group of approximately 2000 protesters marched through the streets of Melbourne, playing cat-and-mouse in an attempt to evade police.  There was also a major rally on 6 August during daytime.

During another rally on 11 August Victorian police arrested a man named Marty Focker and charged him with crimes they knew would not stick in court, with the intention of obtaining onerous bail conditions so they could re-arrest him and hold him in prison when he inevitably breached them.  Unfortunately for the police involved Marty recorded them discussing the conspiracy on his mobile phone and the footage was sent to Rebel Media.

On 21 August there were more nationwide rallies, including in many regional towns.  I personally attended the rally in Brisbane, which was peaceful.  Both Sydney and Melbourne suffered from excessive policing, with the rally in Sydney was cancelled at the last minute after the lead organizer was sent to jail for 8 months (for organizing a protest!), 1500 police were deployed in Sydney’s CBD, public transport was shut down, and ride share providers had to ask patrons to prove they were essential workers.  In Melbourne the police pursued the rally, and opened fire on protesters using rubber bullets (they’re brutal, and can be lethal), which was the first time this has happened in Australia. 

Police in both cities began arresting people for not wearing masks, and sometimes even when they are not breaking the law.  Note that they are arresting people, not issuing instant fines.  One example is presented in a TikTok which emerged in late August of a father dressed in his running gear, in handcuffs in front of his young child.   A passer-by began recording and telling the cops they were out of line, and after several minutes of discussion he was released.  Had the good Samaritan kept walking it is likely he would have been imprisoned.

On 31 August a well-known blogger and anti-vax campaigner named Monica Smit was arrested in Melbourne on two counts of incitement.  She was offered bail on the condition she shut down her political movement and delete her website.  She declined so she was detained in prison for 22 days until the Supreme Court of Victoria granted her bail and set a precedent in the process. She is Australia’s first political prisoner since Pauline Hansen in 2003.

September

More of the same continued into September.  On Saturday 18 September major rallies took place.  Victoria shut down public transport and Victoria Police searched every vehicle moving in and out of Melbourne.  Organisers caught the police unawares by changing the location from the CBD to Fitzroy at the last minute.  There was still significant violence from the police, including a 70 year old woman being tackled by multiple officers then sprayed with mace while on the ground.

On 20 September a large group of construction workers gathered out the front of the Melbourne office of their union, the CFMEU, demanding the officials stand up to the mandatory vaccine.  The union officials did not, and the Premier called in the counter terror squad.  The union officials then began fighting with their own members, with the assistance of police.  In retaliation to the protest the Premier shut down construction for at least two weeks.

The following day construction workers protested in Melbourne, shutting down the West Gate Freeway.  There were violent scenes as police separated the protest into smaller groups, with one large group ending up at the Shrine of Remembrance.  Victoria Police stormed the Shrine and dispersed the crowd, despite the crowd sitting still and being well behaved.

There have been protests in Melbourne met with police violence every day since.  An enormous convoy of perhaps 100 police vehicles was videoed travelling through the Melbourne CBD on 22 September, another excessive show of force.

There was another major rally in all major cities on Saturday 25 September, with similar levels of violence in the Melbourne and Sydney rallies and generally peaceful everywhere else.

Not only have the Victorian police been deliberately antagonising protesters, they have become more aggressive towards the public in general.  Several videos of incidents where police crash-tackle unsuspecting members of the public, including one at Flinders Street Station where a man was talking with several officers when he was attacked from behind by another officer.  There have also been reports of the Victorian Police targeting anyone wearing high vis clothing, because they might be construction workers on their way to a protest.

On Monday 27 September several nurses and healthcare workers risked their careers to attend a rally.  Unlike other rallies, everyone was wearing a mask and social distancing, and were in full compliance with the health order.  The police still turned up in riot gear and dispersed the crowd.  This is particularly noteworthy because people were enjoying the same park doing social distancing the same way but were not dispersed – the only difference is that the gathering on the Monday was political.

Conclusion

The people involved in these rallies and protests are mostly people who are negatively affected by the government policy – the small businesspeople, the newly unemployed (thanks to the Covid response), and more recently tradies.  There are also people who are generally concerned about human rights abuses (whether freedom of speech, freedom of choice with the vaccine, just generally against excessive government), as well as those with fringe beliefs who seem to come out when there is a protest for some reason.  For the most part the protestors are just ordinary Australians who only want life to go back to how it was in 2019.

Following the protests on 17 September the mainstream media have finally begun to report the police violence, but even now they’re only showing the particularly bad bits such as the woman who got maced on the ground and the man crash tackled at Flinders Street.  They have not reported that this has been going on for months, and has been progressively getting worse.  They are still using the term “rubber bullets” as if they are Nerf bullets that don’t hurt.  As I have been writing this it has occurred to me how much the attitude of the Victorian and NSW governments have towards their citizens has deteriorated since June.  It is not something I ever expected to see in this part of the world, in either Australia or New Zealand, and it saddens me to think that a large proportion of my fellow Australians actually believe that this behaviour is acceptable. 

Finally, I want to make it very clear that not all of Australia’s policemen are violent thugs.  In Queensland, where I live, the average cop is extremely reluctant to police Covid and I have it on good authority that their unofficial policy is to only act when a complaint is received.  Even in Sydney and Melbourne the vast majority do not wish to be committing these acts; most do so only because they have debts to pay and kids to raise, and are simply doing what they have to in the hope that this will end soon.  If it does not end we may find a significant shortage of labour in the Forces.

Reference Links

July 2021 protests

https://www.rebelnews.com/thousands_descend_on_australian_capital_cities_for_freedom_day

https://www.rebelnews.com/this_is_what_really_happened_at_the_rally_for_freedom_in_melbourne

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jul/09/nsw-police-crackdown-in-south-west-sydney-results-in-eight-fines-for-covid-rule-breaches

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/audio/2021/aug/18/sydneys-suburbs-hardest-hit-by-covid-now-at-breaking-point

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/police-launch-major-operation-targeting-delta-spread-in-south-west-sydney-20210708-p5880d.html

https://t.me/gchristensen/231?single (horsey punch).

http://rebelne.ws/3DC8dCy (police trumping up charges)

August

https://www.rebelnews.com/watch_massive_protest_in_melbourne_as_sixth_snap_lockdown_declared

https://www.rebelnews.com/thousands_march_across_australia_against_lockdowns?fbclid=IwAR0_RvSPkNSPrEiigovzS0lProFEq7FRUIqZ8g2yzo6gJ76rrP1HNwk5HT4

https://fb.watch/8iEgL-99Eq/ (Brisbane rally)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-21/nsw-police-arrest-47-issue-260-penalties-anti-lockdown-protest-/100396384

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9938693/Little-girl-sits-handcuffed-fathers-lap-arrested-Sydney-Covid-hotspot.html?ito=facebook_share_article-top&fbclid=IwAR1RdAU7aLpFDUPUPl5gDEnU1kCjmFPjEQJxPCuB1lE8q63bLmswaC7W0HM

https://www.rebelnews.com/the_world_needs_to_witness_what_police_did_in_melbourne_yesterday (First time VicPol fired rubber bullets)

September

https://mobile.twitter.com/OzraeliAvi/status/1441507339043950593?s=04&fbclid=IwAR2CG-69oPGP98ZzHfhZNaDNMjvTKQu7_dEj8Z_oHO7n0F5tYhXourSDTeQ (Western Sydney again)

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/antivaxxer-and-antilockdown-activist-monica-smit-charged-with-incitement/news-story/dd17be970ebbf3d4d533b404cca852fb

https://www.rebelnews.com/monica_smit_overturns_onerous_bail_conditions?fbclid=IwAR1l1hHR9voqgFYsMdy62plC34L7US8w8CAtOZ-6w_rvDzapWorswYvSdJQ

https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/25859?fbclid=IwAR0CvE–VVdB2BCi8tsWj6wTBxttnSyT7v_aFavv0-0cLqdJYSQdZy0MVWo

https://fb.watch/8iJqne4pgF/ (tradies outside the CFMEU)

https://fb.watch/8iK8DAnOOz/ (“highlights” of 18 September)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-21/victoria-construction-industry-shutdown-melbourne-protest-police/100478450?fbclid=IwAR1gJ3lBmECE6F6zdCXG019zmqim2bc8PMxKgBHgbJ59jAsQb7TCaYrVq8o

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/victoria-police-confirm-footage-shared-to-social-media-of-flinders-street-station-arrest-will-be-investigated/news-story/5443b75c32de028fdea9b23a10cc742c

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10005641/Policemen-douse-elderly-woman-pepper-spray-Melbournes-anti-lockdown-protests.html

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/23/arrest-footage-and-teargas-raise-concerns-about-victoria-polices-use-of-force-to-quell-protests

https://www.rebelnews.com/police_move_in_to_force_health_workers_out_of_protesting_in_melbourne

https://www.rebelnews.com/how_they_tried_and_failed_to_stop_a_freedom_rally_in_melbourne

https://www.rebelnews.com/its_scary_police_swarm_shopping_centre_with_helicopters_drones_and_horses

https://www.rebelnews.com/police_deploy_counter-terror_squad_on_construction_workers_in_melbourne

https://twitter.com/tdolling/status/1440492866401226758 (convoy of police vehicles)

https://t.me/ausrural/1541 (another video of the enormous convoy)

https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/26054 (another man brutally arrested by Victorian Police)

Stuff reports:

An iwi with an 800-year history with Marlborough’s east coast was not considered tangata whenua when the council first proposed plans to ban vehicles from its beaches.

Rangitāne o Wairau wants the Marlborough District Council to scrap the “unlawful” bylaw – which would prevent them from using vehicles, such as quad bikes, to exercise their customary right to fish – and start again.

I’m all in favour of recognising customary fishing rights. But to argue that you must have quad bike access to be able to do customary fishing is hilarious.

Newshub reports:

Newshub can reveal a COVID-positive man, believed to have gang links, was allowed to isolate at home in South Auckland – but nearby residents say people in the household were seen walking around the neighbourhood. 

A green portaloo was the only remaining sign of the at-home isolation arrangement. It was there for a security guard to use. 

The guard was keeping watch on a COVID-19 case in isolation – although a nearby resident says family at the address didn’t stay home, and were seen walking up the road to the shops. 

30,000 Kiwis stuck overseas are told they can’t be trusted to self-isolate at home and must do MIQ, but gang members get special treatment and are allowed to do so.

Even more farcical is they knew he wouldn’t actually do so, as otherwise why would they have hired a security guard?

I always knew the Government’s soft on gangs approach would be bad for law & order. I never realised it would also be bad for public health.

To lift our vaccination rate we need to not just vaccinate those already booked in, but get more people actually wanting to vaccinate. And sadly the data is not looking great. Here’s the number of people who have been vaccinated or booked in from MOH data:

• 23 September 3.347 million
• 28 September 3.375 million
• 30 September 3.388 million

So the total wanting to be vaccinated has increased just 38,000 in one week which is 5,500 a day.

So at this rate we would only get to 90% in 77 days at the current rate. Now sadly the rate is more likely to fall than stabilise or grow but let’s assume it stays at 5,500 a day. That means we get 90% with one vaccination by around 16 December. And waiting six weeks for second doses gets you to end of January and two weeks after that for immunity to be most effective and we are in mid February.

This means that lockdowns may continue until mid February, unless the Government can lift the vaccination rates.

The Guardian reports:

Wayne Couzens has been ordered to spend the rest of his life in jail after a judge said his crimes were as serious as a terrorist atrocity because he abused his powers as a police officer to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard.

The former Metropolitan police officer used his warrant card and handcuffs to get Everard, 33, into his car as she walked home in south London at the height of Covid lockdown restrictions in March. The restrictions were his probable pretext for stopping her.

Couzens drove her to Kent before strangling her with his police belt and burning her body. Lord Justice Fulford told Couzens his crimes had damaged the victim’s loved ones and wider society, shattering the Everard family, eroding faith in the police, betraying his wife and two children and stoking the fear women felt.

It was a hideous crime, and an appalling abuse of power.

What earned Couzens a whole-life tariff, said the judge, was the abuse of his position to commit his crimes, meaning the court would treat it as seriously as a murder carried out for a terrorist motive. The sentence means Couzens will die in jail.

Good. I wish we would see more life without parole sentences in NZ.

I believe lockdowns were a “necessary evil” in 2020 as there was no vaccine then for Covid-19 and our hospitals would not have been able to cope with mass infections.

But as we come towards the end of 2021, and we still have internal travel restrictions, it is worth reflecting how the powers granted to Government are a huge infringement of our human rights, and must be temporary. Before 2020, the thought you would need permission from the Government to get in your car and drive from Auckland to Hamilton would be something from a former Soviet country, or some sort of dystopian fiction.

And the notion that one could be confined to your house for weeks on end, only allowed out for local exercise and queuing at your local supermarket would have been dismissed as too fantastical for a fiction book.

So as some people argue these restrictions should remain with us in 2022, we should assert that the right to travel, the right to leave home, the right to go to work is not a privilege granted by Government, but a basic human right.

So let’s look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. and see how many we have temporarily suspended:

• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person: Needing permission to leave your home is not liberty
• Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state: No freedom of movement for a third of the country
• Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country: 30,000 or more New Zealanders unable to return
• Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry: Not under Level 4!
• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;: Can’t go to church or mosque etc
• Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: Can’t attend a protest march
• Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.: Not under Level 3 or 4
• Everyone has the right to work: Not when your employer can’t open or operate
• Everyone has the right to education: Not under Level 3 and 4
• Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community: Not under Level 3 or 4

Almost every major human right is infringed by lockdowns. They were a necessary evil pre-vaccine but we must be resolute in stating it will be unacceptable for them to be part of life going forward. People sneer about how people want to trade lives for holidays. The right to travel is not a privilege. The right to return to NZ is not a privilege. The right to attend church services is not a privilege etc.

Stuff reports:

Two senior judges did not act inappropriately when contacting a Family Court judge in relation to a part-heard case, the Judicial Conduct Commissioner has found, but he said that guidelines for judges could be made clearer.

Commissioner Alan Ritchie decided to investigate after reading an article on Stuff on August 25, which revealed that Judge Peter Callinicos had been contacted by Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu and Principal Family Court Judge Jackie Moran in relation to the part-heard “Moana” case.

Judge Callinicos said the senior judges had wanted to convey concerns from Oranga Tamariki interim chief executive Sir Wira Gardiner. He said their actions were inappropriate and any communication would be “a breach of judicial independence”.

A government agency involved in a court case secretly complains about the Judge to the two bench heads and they approach the Judge while case is still live – hard to think of a more open and shut case of breaching judicial independence.

In a preliminary report issued on Wednesday, Ritchie said he decided to treat the media coverage as a complaint due to “the perception I have of a growing and wide-ranging concern felt (rightly or wrongly) by parties to proceedings, complainants and others in the community about challenges being faced by women and children in the Court system”.

This implies there were no formal complaints, which is false. Lawyer Tony Ellis complained, and I believe others did also.

The commissioner sought comment from Judges Taumaunu and Moran. Judge Taumaunu denied any attempt to direct Judge Callinicos and said he and Judge Moran wanted to engage with Judge Callinicos about their concerns over his “in-court conduct”, not his decision-making.

Here’s the incredible thing. The JCC never interviewed or sought comment from Judge Callinicos. This is the Judge who said he regarded the approaches as inappropriate and a breach of judicial independence. And the JCC did not even talk to him. He just talked to the two bench heads. I’m sorry, but that destroys any credibility in my eyes.

And the suggestion it was only about his in-court conduct is risible, as if so they could raise that after the case was decided. But they intervened while the case was live.

Judge Moran said there had been numerous complaints about Judge Callinicos and “they had to be addressed promptly by the Heads of Bench in order to prevent their recurrence and to maintain public confidence in the Court”.

She said she held monthly meetings with senior Oranga Tamariki staff and those meetings frequently involved discussion about difficulties the organisation’s Napier office was experiencing with Judge Callinicos.

So now they make Judge Callinicos to be the person at fault. They cite numerous complaints but were all of these from Oranga Tamariki? Why does a government agency get to have secret meetings with the heads of bench?

There is a well established procedure for raising concerns about Judges – the lawyer takes it to the local law society who takes it to the NZ Law Society President who raises it with the head of bench. In this case OT was communicating directly while the case was active.

Judge Moran said Oranga Tamariki believed Judge Callinicos’s alleged behaviour was “seriously undermining the confidence of the Napier community and compromising the safety of children”.

This was especially so in the “Moana” case, she said. Three social workers involved in the case “were so badly treated by the judge that they were left feeling mocked and beaten to the extent that psychological support had to be organised for them,” she said.

Actually the problem seemed to be the OT staff lied to the court and were found out. They were held accountable for their terrible behaviour. I’ve read his judgement and here are some extracts:

It is apparent from the evidence that, unbeknown to the caregivers, Moana’s lawyer and the Court, certain Ministry personnel had been planning to retract from the purported permanent placement of Moana with the Smith’s and instead place her with Ari’s caregivers. The evidence in support of this being a clandestine strategy is both strong and concerning. It does not put the actions of the Chief Executive in a good light. …

The evidence demonstrates how Ms Martin operated simultaneously in two worlds; what she said or wrote to persons external to the Ministry, and what she communicated internally of it. The external and internal communications were often polar opposites. …

The evidence of most of the Ministry’s witnesses left the impression that they have lost sight of the importance of review documents, almost as if they were a mere tick box or perfunctory exercise, rather than carrying any real purpose. The evidence of some social workers around their lack of awareness of what was contained in the statutory reports was concerning. It was of such level that it supported a conclusion that the social workers did not place much stock in the importance of these fundamental documents. …

Judge Harrison recorded her concerns as to what she called the “untruthful, unprofessional…and emotionally abusive” statements made by one social worker.

I have no doubt OT staff do not like appearing before Judge Callinicos. But that is their fault, not his.

Complaints about Judge Callinicos’s behaviour in the ‘Mrs P’ case were dealt with by the Commission in June. Ritchie declined to refer the matter to the Attorney-General and instead referred it to the heads of the High Court and District Court, stating it was up to them what they wished to do.

Judge Callinicos told Stuff he had not been approached by the commissioner.

“If the Judicial Conduct Commissioner was investigating a complaint in which I was a participant, but not the subject of, then in the absence of some extraordinary reason, I would have thought that I would have been invited to make input,” he said on Wednesday night.

This is the most incredible aspect. Judge Callinicos was never interviewed or approached by the Commissioner. This is farcical.

HDPA writes:

It’s been fascinating to watch the reaction to Sir John Key involving himself in the political debate around our Covid response. 

One of the more interesting hot takes was that John Key isn’t reading the room right, which is to say he’s not in step with public opinion.  

Isn’t he?  

Feels to me like he’s absolutely reading the room right when it comes to Auckland.  

I gather this might be news to Wellington, but Auckland is angry. Auckland is over this lockdown.    

Compliance is way down. The streets are busy. People are breaking bubbles outside cafes.  More than thirty people played a game of touch in mt roskill.  We’ve had reports of people having parties at their houses.  And that’s just what ends up in the papers.  

I really feel like the mood is changing.  John Key is only the latest high-profile kiwi to have a crack at the way the Covid response is being run.  Rob Fyfe did, Sir Ian Taylor did, Don Braid of Mainfreight did, 90% of the columnists in yesterday’s papers did.  This wasn’t happening six months ago.  

The polls are shifting in opinion.  Remember that Herald poll showing support for elimination?  Well, only 46% of people wanted to keep endlessly eliminating.  A bigger number, 52% wanted us to drop elimination now or drop it after we got to 70% vaccination rate.  

This weekend, Research NZ put out a poll showing 70% support for lockdowns.  But look closer. Two thirds of those people said they only support lockdowns until we get vaccinated.    

Which is my position. Lockdowns must be a temporary tool that is phased out.

Last night I reflected that I began teaching thirty years ago. Leading into that I had an Economics degree and a teaching diploma. While teaching in the first few years I was desperate to understand the inequity in our system and the lack of political investment in genuine excellence for all. Equity with excellence is called mediocrity (a level above where we currently are).

Last week I read an article by very passionate journalist Ethan Te Ora on housing for Maori over the last thirty years.

These were some key comments:

“No Māori will own houses by 2061, unless the current trajectory reverses.”

“Migration to the cities, however, was effectively a transition from a subsistence lifestyle into low-wage work.”

“You still needed a decent income, to be able to service your mortgage.”

“Even when whānau did manage to buy a house in the city, the reliance on the Government for work was a ceiling of another kind. “They were at the bottom level in terms of income, meaning there was no intergenerational wealth developing,”

 “The other reasons were wide-spread institutional racism, and the inability to accumulate intergenerational wealth.”

“Māori have moved into the cities; they’re working predominantly for the public sector,” Rout says. “They’re in this really precarious position, where they are dependent on the state for their income and housing.”

“It was the year Māori home ownership rates started to drop, and they never rose again,” Rout says. “They just kept trending down.”

Where we are racist as a nation in education is not through a system that cannot bring young people up – but that we carry a set of expectations on a daily basis (from a range of sources) that young Maori and Pasifika, poor and neuro-diverse are less capable than the apparent favoured few. We expect noting but what Hipkins calls “appropriate pathways.”

I once got published in Stuff on housing. The key point being that we live in a market economy. To buy a large asset you have to save. To save you have to have the ability to earn more than you spend. To do that you have to have a skill set to offer to employers or you need to take risks as an entrepreneur.

Sir Peter Buck is one of my role models on I draw on frequently (there are many others alive today bucking trends).

I love this information: “This was a great tribute, because Peter was a well-educated man. In 1896, he went to Te Aute College, a place that forever helped his future. When Peter started at the boarding school, it was under the leadership of John Thornton, who taught the boys unforgettable lessons in life. “I remember that he once emphasised the fact that everyone, no matter how humble his walk in life, was necessary to the fullness of human society,” Peter wrote.

For any family to have intergeneration wealth change education is a major key. If you leave school and you have no, or very limited, qualifications you have nothing to offer to an employer (your earning mechanism). Without a ticketed trade, degree and/or profession, or ability and willingness to take ownership risks you are stuck on a minimum wage or welfare. Wealth growth is simply not on your horizon. It CANNOT happen.

I am not a person given to despair; however I have never seen our education system so disconnected, disregarded, segregated and neglected by a Minister and Ministry. Schools that were once pillars of their towns, cities and regions are in decline. The newest schools are statues of mediocrity. Is it any wonder that employers are desperate for immigrants to fill skill gaps because our schools are failing at a very deep level.

Our young people deserve better and with genuine leadership the best is yet to come. It is not just the government – even this week in the House – not a single question on education at any level. National and ACT are completely MIA in this area. They need as much pressure as Hipkins does. A government can only be held properly accountable by an active and informed opposition. Try and guess who the Greens spokesperson is?

When we have 10,500 of school age students not even enrolled. When our decile 1 – 3 children are fully attending at 41%, when we have a range of schools losing their 14 – 16 years olds at up to 30%, where some of our high-profile schools have less that 15% moving into degree study, when Maori and Pasifika achieve UE at 20% and Asian students at near 70% … where can “intergenerational wealth change” possibly come from?.

If a Labour reader ever drifts here … I will call anyone out from any government … but this has been, by far, the worst government (very must including our Ministry leadership) for children and education in our history.

I can back it up with a full-set of processed data on our high-schools. Email me on:
[email protected]

www.innovativeeducation.co.nz/

National released:

The Government must urgently explain why it wants to give itself the power to delay next year’s local body elections limitless times through to 2023, National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop and Local Government spokesperson Christopher Luxon say.

“The Government is currently able to adjourn a local election for up to six weeks in a local body election year.

“In a bill introduced to Parliament only yesterday, and now rushed through its first reading under urgency, the Government wants to empower itself to adjourn polling day multiple times without constraint – and not just in an election year, but the year after as well.

Considering local body elections are done via postal ballot, this sneaky urgent law change should be seen as a bad faith power grab, and be rejected.

If the Government really thinks its management of Covid-19 is so bad that we can’t even have local elections in October 2022, then its pretty dire for those sick of lockdowns.

The Herald reports:

The highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 is “seated” in Auckland’s gang communities and among rough sleepers, the Ministry of Health has told MPs today.

“If we think about the current outbreak, how it seems to have seated itself in a gang environment and the homeless, these are people that are less likely to be trusting of the health system,” pacific health director Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone said at today’s online select committee briefing on the Government’s response to Covid-19.

Gangs are not just less trusting of the health system – they are less inclined to regard themselves as bound by the law. So when most NZers are following the law around lockdowns etc – why are we surprised that many gang members are not?

Yesterday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a South Auckland boarding house that provided transitional housing was the focus of a new sub-cluster as cases emerged among residents.

Many in transitional housing are gang members or affiliates.

So the question I have, is how many of the current Covid-19 cases involve gang members or associates?

Stuff reports:

Two judges have taken remarkably different stances on a controversial drug rehabilitation programme, which targets gang members, who suffer addiction issues.

Earlier this month, two gang members, in two cities, came before two judges for meth-related offending. Both asked for sentencing discounts for attending a new drug rehabilitation programme, which is led by the Notorious Chaindog chapter of the Mongrel Mob. They received two very different reactions.

One believed the controversial gang-run rehab programme provided valuable treatment, and warranted a discounted sentence. The other said there was nothing to back up the efficacy of the programme, adding that the involvement of a group that was central to the country’s meth problem undermined the validity of the initiative.

Again the Mongrel Mob have it so good. They make money importing and selling meth. They make money running a course to “rehabilitate people” from meth and if any of their own members get caught, they go on the course which both generates more money for the mob, but also allows them to ask for a lighter sentence.

These cases, which played out in the High Court at Wellington and the Napier District Court, show the differences in how members of the judiciary view the Kahukura drug-rehab programme.

This is the key – one judge was local and knows how ridiculous it is to have the Mob both selling meth and running a rehab course for it, and one is in Wellington.

National has released their Covid-19 plan. A summary of the key points are:

1. Supercharge vaccine rollout – prioritise South Auckland, increase resources for Maori health providers, vaccinate in MIQ, use incentives, vaccinate in schools, be ready to vaccinate 5 – 11 year olds once approved and mandate vaccinations for healthcare workers
2. Order vaccine boosters – Order boosters for 2022 and 2023 now.
3. Upgrade contact tracing
4. Roll out saliva testing – mandatory daily testing for border workers and in quarantine.
5. Roll out rapid tests – Have rapid testing for arrivals from low and medium risk countries, essential workers and allow all NZers to access rapid testing if desired
6. Set up a dedicated Covid response agency – will be based in Manukau, not Wellington.
7. Build purpose built quarantine facilities – Aim to open in early 2022
8. A digital app to authenticate your vaccination status – would also include history of tests
9. Invest in next generation Covid-19 treatments – Ringfence some Pharmac funding for Covid-19 treatments
10. Expand ICU capacity – implement a specialist healthcare workforce migration plan, support migrant nurses already in NZ, fast track build of new wards

All 10 points look great to me, and should already be happening – sadly they are not. National of course can’t make any of these things happen as they are not in Government. But by clearly stating what they would do, they will hopefully influence the Government to move quicker on saliva testing, rapid testing, a dedicated quarantine facility and expanding ICU capacity.

National then proposes a three step future.

1. Status quo – lockdowns with elimination strategy
2. 70% to 75% vaccination rate – elimination strategy without lockdowns
3. 85% to 90% vaccination rate – vigorous suppression strategy with traffic light travel system into NZ

The vigorous suppression strategy will still see tools such as vaccination boosters, mass testing, contact tracing, isolation for positive cases, use of Covid-19 app and mask wearing.

The normal hysterical types will claim 90% vaccination rate is not enough to open up and that it would lead to thousands of deaths. You have to wonder if the highest vaccination rate in the world would not be enough to open up for them, then what would be? Will they give a straight answer as to what level they would open up?

And this is the problem with the Government. We know that at some stage they will open up the borders, as the rest of the world is. But they won’t tell us their criteria for deciding (possibly because they don’t have any). National is being transparent and honest in laying out what they would do.

I will link to the full policy when it is online. It is 52 pages long and extremely detailed. It is one of the most thorough and considered policy documents I have seen from an opposition party, and should be a template for others.

One News reports:

The 1News Colmar Brunton poll asked whether vaccines should be made mandatory, except for those with a medical exemption. The results are as follows:

It should be made mandatory for all New Zealanders aged 12 and over: 44%

It should only be made mandatory for New Zealanders aged 18 and over: 17%

It should not be made mandatory: 35%

This shows that the majority of NZers have been scared into supporting draconian measures.

I am a huge vaccine fan. On Tuesday I became fully vaccinated with my second shot. I think any adult who chooses not be vaccinated is foolish.

But people have a right to decide for themselves their own medical treatment. The thought of the state forcing an adult to undergo medical treatment they don’t wish to, is repugnant. You can make a case for certain jobs to require vaccinations, but there is no case for forcing a medical treatment on a non consenting adult.

Likewise, Council for Civil Liberties spokesperson Thomas Beagle said it should be “the very last method” chosen.

“There’s a lot of other things we can do first before we get into coercion or forcing people,” Beagle said.

The Council for Civil Liberties should not be saying forcible vaccinations is the last method chosen. It should be saying it is never acceptable. There is a difference.

The Herald reports:

Norway has ditched all its Covid-19 measures, even social distancing, in a radical move that as yet has unclear consequences.

On Friday, the Nordic nation’s government announced that it was time to “live as normal” with Covid-19 after 561 days of enduring some kind of restriction, whether that be venue capacity limits or stay-at-home orders.

Now, Norwegians can attend restaurants, night clubs, sporting events and anything else at full capacity, with social distancing thrown out the window.

They’ve even started encouraging travel outside of Europe, removing travel warnings.

The new rules come into effect on Saturday, 4pm local time (Sunday, 4am NZT).

“It is 561 days since we introduced the toughest measures in Norway in peacetime … Now the time has come to return to a normal daily life,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg told reporters.

More and more countries are doing this. The restrictions were the right thing to do, but they must be temporary not permament.

The Herald reports:

The Lancet medical journal has been accused of sexism after describing women as “bodies with vaginas” on the cover of its latest edition.

A Tweet sharing the front page has provoked a wave of criticism, with academics cancelling their subscriptions and resigning as reviewers, doctors blasting the phrase as “dehumanising” and activists suggesting the term is “unhelpful” for broader debates about inclusivity.

If only there was some sort of medical term for human bodies with vaginas, then the Lancet could use it. Maybe there was one that was popularly used in the past?