The Herald reports:

Māori voters who responded to a Horizons Regional Council survey overwhelmingly support bringing in Māori wards next year.

Councillors have been given the results of a Horizons survey mailed to nearly 18,500 individuals on the Māori electoral roll who are enrolled to vote in the Horizons region.

Ninety-six per cent of the responses were in favour of the regional council establishing Māori constituencies in time for next year’s local body elections.

What a waste of money. They did a poll of people who had already chosen to be on a Maori roll asking them if they support a Maori roll. Of course 96% said yes.

What they should have done is survey all voters in the area and break the results down as follows:

• Non-Maori
• Maori on general roll
• Maori on Maori roll

That may have given some useful info on what locals think and how it differs between groups. But doing a poll solely of Maori who have already chosen to be on a Maori roll is a nonsense.

It’s like polling members of the Liverpool AFC whether or not they support Liverpool.

Jarrod Gilbert returns to the Herald and writes:

Conflict between gangs rarely occurs without cause, and often leads to tit-for-tat retaliations and an escalation in violence. As has been the case recently, that escalation can endanger the public.

In these instances, police need to respond quickly and surgically to de-escalate matters. What that means is identifying the specific chapters of the gangs involved and blanket-policing them; investigating all matters involving their members and prosecuting even minor crimes, pulling them over at every opportunity, investigating old matters and generally staying on their tails.

Excellent idea. I hope the Police listen.

This approach is resource-intensive and therefore necessarily short-term, but it has three important effects.

Firstly, the suffocating nature of the policing means attempts at retaliation are made more difficult, allowing a cooling-off period that creates a firebreak in the escalation.

Secondly, it shows the gangs — both those involved and all other groups — that there are very real consequences for such actions and encourages the leadership and senior members to keep their men in line.

And finally, this blanket policing demonstrates public concern and ensures affected communities feel these matters are being taken seriously.

Consequences are a good thing.

Take family violence, for just one example, and the fact that on average one in every five weeks a kid is killed in a domestic setting. That is a far bigger issue with immense flow-on effects for the poor wee mites living in those households. For every innocent child that is brutally killed, there are scores who survive only to grow up dysfunctional and angry, often becoming the next generation of offenders.

Yet, we don’t discuss that massive problem nearly as much as we do the gangs.

Can only agree.

A nice story from the NZ Herald:

Ben Purua will stand on the stage at the Ahuwhenua Trophy Dairy Competition Awards Dinner as one of three finalists in the Young Māori Farmer Award. Ten years ago, as a teenager, he was convicted of manslaughter.

Ben was sentenced to five-and-a-half years, and served four years at Waikeria Prison. …

He said he grew up in Pukekohe without a father and in an environment of violence, drugs, alcohol and gangs.

As a kid he wanted to be a gangster just like his uncles, and took up drinking, drug-taking and crime to pave the way.

He said before he was a teenager he was in trouble and eventually he served time in juvenile prisons.

Before he was legally an adult he was charged with the murder of an elderly man in Hamilton.

The charges were downgraded to manslaughter and Ben pleaded guilty.

He felt that his life was over, he couldn’t read or write and he thought his gang life was all he had to look forward to.

But inside Waikeria he undertook the farm training programme, and with help with his learning problems he found something he enjoyed and was good at.

And now:

Luckily, he got a break when he was employed in a farming job.

He admits it was a big step for someone to take. Mostly he never got to the interview stage once he disclosed he had a criminal record.

Nikki explained: “Every prospective employer would have Googled his name and up came the case.”

But having been given a chance, Ben said he was driven to make it work.

Ben left the gang life – it was a big step, it was his whole life growing up – he got clean and applied himself to his new goals, and his life started to turn around.

He has completed the husbandry and feeding course Level 3 through Primary ITO and is currently part way through the Level 4 course. …

Now aged 26, Ben is the 2IC for a contract milker at Trinity Lands farm, a 307ha (287 effective) property near Tokoroa which runs 1000 cows.

Nice to see a story where rehabilitation has worked. Well done Ben.

Lindsay Mitchell blogs on three lots of data from the Household Economic and Health Surveys.

First she looks at the proportion of children living in households with high housing costs, by ethnicity. The figures are:

• European 8% over 50%, 35% over 30%
• Maori 8% over 50%, 32% over 30%
• Pacific 10% over 50%, 34% over 30%
• Asian 18% over 50%, 48% over 30%

So Asian children are far far more likely to live in a household with high housing costs than other ethnicities. So does this mean they are far more likely to live in mouldy homes:

• European 5% of children live in mouldy homes
• Maori 11%
• Pacific 17%
• Asian 3%

How about going hungry as their housing costs are so high. Here is the proportion of children living in a household where food sometimes or often runs out:

• European 15%
• Maori 29%
• Pacific 45%
• Asian 12%

Lindsay concludes:

Asian children live in homes with the highest ratio of housing- to- income costs.

Asian children have the lowest experience of damp, mouldy homes.

Asian children are the least likely to go hungry.

Looks a lot to me like Asians prioritise renting or buying at the limit of their capability; that they seek better properties and better neighbourhoods and take responsibility for any damp or mould; and that even on tight budgets they know how to feed their kids.

Many Asians are immigrants. A lot come from countries that are much poorer than New Zealand. We should look at why they are relatively so successful and try to emulate it.

For those interested in the law, some interesting recommendations from the Judicial Rules Committee, focused on improving civil justice. Their recommendations include:

• Increase the maximum threshold for the Disputes Tribunal from $30,000 to at least $50,000 and possibly $100,000. Possibly expand appeal rights for cases above $50,000.
• Rename the Disputes Tribunal to the Small Claims Court or Community Court.
• Appoint a Principal Civil District Court Judge to oversee and strengthen the civil registry of the District Court
• Allow for senior lawyers to work as part-time Deputy Judges
• Require more evidence at the High Court to be documentary rather than oral, except where there is a significant factual contest

Looks like sensible reform proposals. The status quo is not satisfactory as the costs of civil litigation are rarely worth pursing it as an option.

NBC reports:

As Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot approaches the two-year anniversary of her inauguration, reaching the halfway point through her first term, she told the city’s media outlets that she would grant one-on-one interviews to mark the occasion, but with one condition: she will only speak with journalists of color.

An inevitable extension of the ever growing trend to divide everyone up by their skin colour.

Newshub reports:

The ACT Party claims advice from the Ministry of Education around healthy school lunches proves Kiwi kids who bring their own food to school are being discouraged from eating it.

“After it was revealed this week thousands of lunches are going to waste, the Ministry now wants to stop children from eating their own lunches,” ACT leader David Seymour says.

The Ka Ora, Ka Ako – healthy school lunches programme aims to reduce food insecurity by providing access to a nutritious lunch for students at certain schools across the country with high levels of need.

Advice from the Ministry of Education from March suggests schools could try to ensure children are getting the most from their lunches by creating a time of around 15 minutes for their provided lunch, “while food from home stays in students’ bags”.

Seymour claims this treatment “punishes” schoolchildren and their parents who have taken “personal responsibility” for providing their own lunch each day.

“It’s just mean to leave kids sitting there at lunchtime waiting to eat their own food,” Seymour adds.

I’d call it bonkers, not mean.

The Ministry also suggests that schools should choose a time for lunch that will give staff and students the most opportunity to benefit and claimed healthy food tastes better if you are hungry.

Yeah when you are starving, even lettuce tastes good!

• Benefits up $32 to $55 a week
• Student allowances up $25 a week
• $200 million for Pharmac
• Maori Housing to get 1,000 new homes, 700 repaired homes
• $100 billion of borrowing for next five years
• Net crown debt to hit 48% of GDP
• No surplus until at least 2027

NBC reports:

The New York Attorney General’s office said Tuesday that it is pursuing a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization, in addition to the ongoing civil probe.

“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA. We have no additional comment at this time,” said Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the office said in a statement.

This is significant. You don’t announce an investigation is now criminal, unless you have some pretty good evidence.

The NYAG’s investigation into the Trump Foundation saw it closed down, Trump paying $2 million and Trump found unfit to be a charity director, without supervision, again. So they have a record of winning. This is going to be very interesting.

A very good article in (surprise) the NY Times. Basically someone appeared on Jeopardy! and did a gesture with three fingers. A mob of 600 former contestants signed a letter condemning the gesture as white supremacy and demanding to know why it wasn;t edited out.

Of course the gesture was not white supremacy. He had won three times and was signally the number three. He signalled two when he was on two wins and one when he had his first win. But even confronted with these facts, they would not back down. They still demanded he apologise for his gesture. Somehow the fact he had a photo of Frank Sinatra on his Facebook page was also relevant.

The Auditor-General reported:

I am not yet confident that all of the pieces will fall into place quickly enough for the immunisation programme to reach the level of vaccinations required for the Government to meet its goals. In my view, there is a real risk that it will take more time than is currently anticipated to get there.

Anyone want to bet against the Auditor-General’s view?

Newshub reports:

A Newshub investigation has found persisting issues with our contact tracing capacity, with staff during the so-called Valentine’s Day cluster at risk of burnout despite dealing with just a handful of cases.

Emergency planning documents from the February outbreak have been obtained, which show concerns were flagged about “limited resources” almost immediately. 

At the peak of the outbreak, with just 15 active community cases and 160 people to follow up within a day, the majority of staff were not working sustainable or appropriate hours. 

Weren’t we promised a contact tracing system that could cope with 1,000 cases a day? In fact it was the now Associate Minister of Health who said that is what we needed. And what we have is a system that struggles to cope with 16.

Thank God we are an island(s) state.

The Herald reports:

The Health Minister is making an urgent law change after a High Court judgment ruled it was “reasonably arguable” the Government’s provisional approval of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine is “problematic”.

The case – Nga Kaitiaki Tuku Ihu Medical Action Society Incorporated v The Minister of Health – was in the High Court at Wellington last week.

In a decision released today, Judge Rebecca Ellis said: “it is reasonably arguable that the decision to provisionally approve the vaccine for much wider use is problematic” and went beyond the powers of section 23 of the Medicines Act.

The Government had has months and months to plan for the vaccine. And part of that should have been checking the legality. If they had identified some uncertainity over legal authority, then it would have been easy to bring a bill to Parliament which could be considered quickly but with good scrutiny.

Now what we have is urgent legislation to be passed which will probably have minimal scrutiny by MPs or the public.

So the net support/opposition for each issue is:

1. Rename breastfeeding chestfeeding -63%
2. Allow children to use puberty blockers -48%
3. Take down historic statues -41%
4. Allow men identifying as women to use women-only facilities -29%
5. Lose your jobs for politically incorrect posts on social media -19%
6. UK is systemically racist -10%

It’s a useful reminder that the loud voices on social media don’t represent the majority, or close to it.

Note I’d be in the minority on a couple of those. I do support under 18s being able to use puberty blockers where clinically justified.

Would be interesting to repeat this poll in NZ.

Stuff reports:

A Canterbury businessman died from a fall after drinking 3.5 litres of beer and up to 1.7 litres of wine in less than four hours.

That’s 27 standard drinks in four hours or one drink every nine minutes.

A coroner’s report into the 47-year-old man’s death, released publicly on Monday, warned of the danger of intoxication and the importance of monitoring a head injury after the man fell backwards while drunk at Christchurch’s Carlton Bar and Restaurant.

If he didn’t fall he may have died from alcohol poisoning!

After the man’s death, the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority ruled Carlton staff should have noticed the man’s intoxication levels in the last 45 minutes he was there.

It suspended the bar’s on-license for eight days at the end of 2019, including New Year’s Eve, and the manager’s certificate for 28 days.

A fair call.

Stuff reports:

Auckland Council libraries have stated there is no plan to pull two “transphobic” books which describe being transgender as a mental illness, despite complaints.

The books in question are Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing our Daughters by Abigail Shrier and When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment by Ryan T. Anderson.

The complaints came in the wake of Mighty Ape choosing to pull the books after a number of people who are transgender complained.

Em, a transgender, non-binary Aucklander, said they had emailed Auckland Libraries with concerns after they noticed the books were available to borrow from a number of locations.

“They refused to remove it from their shelves citing freedom of access to information.”

“I think it’s reprehensible Auckland Libraries are providing access to hate speech while hiding under the cover of free speech.”

The books had the potential to cause real harm, Em said, particularly to vulnerable young transgender, non-binary and takatāpui rangatahi.

Or they could just not take them out. Or trust parents to be able to read a book and decide for themselves if there is any merit to the arguments in it.

Auckland Council Head of Content and Discovery Catherine Leonard said she understood the concerns the community had, but the books would not be withdrawn.

“In line with the Auckland Libraries collection development policy we have no plans to withdraw these titles.

“As a very large public library, we retain titles for a variety of reasons and our role is not to censor or limit what people may choose to read.”

Bravo. At least the libraries still stand for allowing people the right to choose what they read.

One could argue that some of Karl Marx’s books should be banned as they have led to hundreds of millions dying. But you know, I think people should be allowed to read it and make up their own minds.

The latest twist in the Samoan elections is fascinating. Here’s the sequence of events to date:

1. HRPP Party has governed since 1982 and the PM has governed since 1998. They have become more authoritarian over time
2. In response to proposed constitutional amendments the FAST Party was set up in July 2020 and in March 2021 the former HRPP Deputy PM became the FAST Leader.
3. In the April 2021 election HRPP candidates got 55% of the vote and FAST got 37%. However both HRPP and FAST got 25 seats each due to vote splitting. HRPP is used to being unchallenged in many electorates so they stand multiple candidates to allow the electorate a “choice”. This allowed the sole FAST candidates to win many seats with a plurality.
4. Five of the 51 MPs were women which is 9.8% of Parliament. The Constitution required 10% to be women and the Electoral Commission announced an additional female MP from HRPP.
5. There was one independent MP elected who then announced he would support FAST which gave both parties 26 MPs each.
6. The Head of State voided the elections due to the deadlock and called new elections for 21 May. This was opposed by FAST.
7. The Supreme Court has today unanimously found the appointment of the additional MP unconstitutional which means Parliament is now HRPP 25 and FAST 26
8. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the legality of the Head of State voiding the April election and calling new ones for May.
9. There are also 28 electoral petitions to be heard

The best case scenario is the new elections are cancelled and FAST forms a Government with a 26/51 majority.

If new elections go ahead, then I expect HRPP will win a majority as they have withdrawn candidates from seats they lost in, so they have only one candidate per seat.

The worst case scenario is HRPP tries to subvert the constitution and sacks the Supreme Court or the like, in an attempt to cling on.

UPDATE: The Supreme Court has also just the new set of elections called by the Head of State are to be cancelled.