The Herald reports:

The Greens are taking aim at New Zealand’s supermarket “duopoly” and have called on the Commerce Commission to investigate the sector after it’s done looking into petrol companies.

This comes a day after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she “would not be surprised” if the commission conducted a market study into the supermarket sector.

Green MP Gareth Hughes said there is “long-standing” knowledge there is an issue in the supermarket sector.

He said groups such as Consumer NZ have been calling for an investigation for a while, adding that New Zealand does not have a code of conduct despite the fact one exists in Australia.

“When you look at the facts on the ground, Kiwis are paying more than our Australian cousins – in fact, more than any other developed countries on basically everything.”

I’m not against the Commerce Commission doing a market study. I’m not sure the supermarket sector would be a priority though.

Unlike petrol prices, food prices have not been increasing greatly in recent years. Here’s the annual average increase for each three year period since 1999.

• 00 – 02: 3.8%
• 03 – 05: 1.3%
• 06 – 08: 6.1%
• 09 – 11: 2.8%
• 12 – 14: 0.7%
• 15 – 17: 0.6%

So food prices since 2011 have been increasing at under 1% a year. In the last 12 months food prices have actually remained constant.

So bigger fish to fry.

Boing Boing reports:

Stuff reports:

Two Wellington region DHBs will have one boss to run them both.

Capital & Coast and Hutt Valley district health boards have confirmed that they will appoint a joint chief executive to run operations.

The new boss will oversee health services across Kāpiti, Porirua, Wellington and Hutt Valley.

“This is about both boards being clear in the vision they want – a unified health service across the region that provides better and fairer access to the same excellent healthcare services,” said joint DHB chairman Andrew Blair in a statement.

“We know that, with growing demand on health services, we need to take a closer look at how we operate and deliver services.

“Having a united vision and approach across our regions will be essential to ensuring we are best placed to meet demand, improve the wellbeing of our communities, and to continue our strong relationship with our neighbouring DHBs.”

A regional approach to health services makes a lot of sense, so all in favour of a joint CEO. I note they also have a joint Chair.

Sowhy not go the whole hog, and merge the two DHBs entirely. Am sure there would be considerable cost savings, and should lead to better health outcomes.

The Herald reports:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s calculation of how much extra tax Kiwis are paying at the petrol pump on Monday did not include the recent excise tax or Auckland’s Regional Fuel tax.

Which comes to 15 cents a litre. Which means what she said was junk information.

National Leader Simon Bridges said the Prime Minister has got this “badly wrong,” and has made a “staggering mistake.”

But a spokesman for the Prime Minister said her comments were “based on the most accurate information Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) had compiled at that time.”

At a press conference on Monday, Ardern said consumers were being “fleeced” at the petrol pump, blaming this on the increased margins of petrol companies.

Between October 27, 2017 and September 28 this year, petrol prices have risen 39c, according to MBIE data – Ardern said just 6.8c of that increase was due to “taxes and levies.”

That 6.8c increase is made up of a 1.77c increase in Emissions Trading Scheme (EST) taxes and 5.04c of GST over the same period, MBIE data shows.

But the 10c a litre Auckland Regional Fuel Tax and 3.5c a litre fuel excise tax, introduced on September 30, were not included in the “taxes and levies” side of Ardern’s equation.

So she said it was 6.8 cents more when in fact it was more than 20 cents in extra tax.

You can sign a petition calling on the Government to axe their tax increases here.

I don;’t object to petrol tax on motorists increasing if it is spent on projects that benefit motorists. But Labour and Greens are slashing spending on roads and spending it on stuff such as cycleways that maybe eight people a day use.

Here’s what 17 year old Lorenz Mekuli did:

He jumped on the bed and began strangling both the woman and the daughter.

In spite of their screams and pleading to be let go, he then dragged them both into the hallway where he forced the woman to remove her clothes.

Then, over a lengthy period, he raped the woman three times, punching her in the face, and forced her to perform oral sex on him while her daughter was forced to watch. He also sexually violated the woman and performed oral sex on her.

He raped her three times in front of her daughter, and strangled them both. She suffered a broken tooth and severe bruising to her face and genital area. The daughter had trouble breathing afterwards.

The maximum sentence for rape is 20 years. This is not the worst of the worst. But it’s pretty horrific. Surely he would get 15 years or so and a non parole period of say two thirds of that.

But no he got eight years and no non-parole period which means he is eligible for parole in two years and eight months!

Andrew Little says our sentences are too excessive and punitive. How is this an excessive sentence? It is the opposite.

Mekuli got a 35% discount for his youth and guilty plea. But his guilty plea was the day before trial which is the last possible time. I’ve seen other rulings where you get only a 10% discount for such a late guilty plea.

The victim is rightly upset:

“It is unbelievable he has only got eight years. It is not nearly enough,” she said.

“He almost killed me. He almost killed my daughter.”

She hoped judges dealing with such criminals in future would not be so lenient on offenders like Mekuli.

I hope so too. At least he has a first strike now, so if he offends again he won;’t get parole and a third strike would see him get 20 years no parole rather than possible parole is 32 months.

Stuff reports:

The Government has clamped down on the pay of public service bosses but no brakes have been applied to the heads of state-owned enterprises.

Landcorp chief executive Steven Carden took home an extra $90,000 in pay this year to lift his salary to $730,000.

Carden trails other state-owned enterprise bosses such as Transpower’s Alison Andrew on $1.24 million, KiwiRail’s Peter Reidy (recently resigned) on $1.18m and Kordia’s Scott Bartlett on $1m.

I think SOEs should be free to pay their CEOs what rate they deem necessary. They are primarily commercial entities.

But while they are commercial, not all of them face competition. My view is that when a CE has a responsibility to generate revenue in a competitive market, they should be be paid more than those who don’t.

So when we look at the salaries in order:

1. Transpower, $1.24 million, monopoly
2. Kiwirail $1.18 million, mainly monopoly
3. Kordia, $1.0 million, competitive
4. NZ Post $0.89 million, mainly monopoly
5. Airways $0.79 million, monopoly
6. Landcorp $0.73 million, competitive
7. Metservice $0.52 million, partially competitive
8. Asure Quality $0.48 million, competitive
9. QV $0.44 million, competitive

Now of course salaries also reflect size of business, turnover etc. But it does seem strange the two highest paid roles are the ones with basically no competition.

This story was e-mailed out by the Sensible Sentencing Trust and it made me cry. I’m sharing it here because I think too often we overlook the victims of crime when debating law and order matters.

One thing that really resonated with me is that when someone has a loved one killed, the only people they can relate to are those who have been through the same. This is one of the incredibly useful things the SST does – providing a network if support to families of victims. You can disagree with them on their advocacy but still appreciate the huge difference they make in supporting families of victims.

When asked if I would like to contribute to this very personal page of emotional writings I thought I would use the journal I wrote in when the early days of grief seemed hopeless and so draining. I would write every evening, turning the pages with raw emotions, anger and revenge. I decided that after re-reading some of my very raw feelings it was actually too upsetting to put myself back in those early days.
 
So now I shall write as a parent that has battled grief for almost 10 years since the loss off our daughter. From the raw beginnings, to where we are now and how we worry about our inevitable future due to the shite judicial system that is in place.
 
Having been put through the system once when the little bastard was caught, held, the court hearing and then sentencing, Andy and I now face the fact that in 3 years he is potentially allowed to apply for parole. So, you see, we are never free to try and rebuild our damaged hearts and minds when there is this abhorrent and archaic system in place. At what stage are we going to say to the Parole Board, OK, let him leave prison and live a normal life, let’s see if the fractured mind of a 14-year-old, two weeks away from turning 15, who, let’s face it, knew right from wrong on that fateful day. Why is it partly our duty to go through these horrendous meetings to try and convince the Parole Board that he is not fit to be released? I am at a loss for words that as victims also of this trauma, we are annually re-victimised and will continue to be for the rest of our lives whilst eventually he WILL get to swan about getting on with his. I see no justice in this.
 
To say we are the voice of Libby sounds so cliché, but we are, and we will endeavour to do whatever it takes to keep him inside.
 
What both Andy and I have learned is that when you lose a child you can only take real comfort from parents of those who have walked in your shoes. It takes a parent of a child who has been murdered to fully understand what you are going through, and that’s because it’s a different kind of trauma and because of how we, the remaining family, are treated. This doesn’t marginalise grief, it’s just a different understanding of trauma.
 
Libby was murdered on the 1st November 2008, almost 10 years ago as I write this. Each year that passes I feel it is expected that we should somehow feel a little better, that it won’t hurt so much. ‘Time’ they say is a healer. Who says that? The reality is very different. Your life changes in so many unexpected ways. Your daily challenges become mountains in those early days which you somehow have to learn to manage, emotionally, methodically and patiently. Only the strongest and honest of relationships will survive and find a way to look forward. It’s hard, very, very hard, so please be patient with yourselves and keep working on it.
 
Andy and I emigrated from the UK to New Zealand in 2005. We had lived in Kerikeri for 3 years when work dictated the reluctant move to the North Shore. But in true Templeman style we took the challenge on with gusto. We had been in our new home for 10 days and the weekend before Libby was due to start at Rangitoto College she asked if she could go back to Kerikeri and stay with her best friend and family. We saw no reason to say no, after all it was just geography. We had often had kids saying over and Libby would go and stay with her friends, it was a normal teenagers weekend activity. Despite the distance, we knew with whom and where she was staying. Strict ground rules set up, transport sorted, phone topped up, school uniform bought, and school bags packed ready for Monday, she was all set to go and have a fab, fun time catching up with her friends.
 
We had kept in constant contact from the Friday afternoon when she left right up until about 35 minutes before she died. In fact, the last text conversation we exchanged was on the Saturday afternoon – Me: “So how are feeling being in Kerikeri again, what are you up to?” Libby: “I’m with the President, actually I miss home and I miss you guys” Me: “I’m sorry we had to leave but we needed this move” Libby: “No mum, I want to come home, I miss you guys.”
 
This was the last communication I received. We were out looking for a new fridge freezer at the time, funny what you remember!
 
I phoned her later that evening, but it went straight to her answer phone, I thought this very odd as her phone was never out of battery. For whatever reason I felt panic rise and knew that something was wrong. I tried several times to text and call but to no avail. I contacted her friend who was working and was told they were not expected to meet up until later that evening. I continued several times to make contact.
 
As a parent, we like to think we know our kids and after a couple hours we both felt there was something very wrong. Some people may have thought we were overacting but of course in hindsight, we actually did know best. We rang the local Kerikeri police station to file a missing person to which we were told 1) It was too early to file a missing persons report and 2) there were several parties going on that weekend and so not to worry, she was probably having some fun, had a drink and sleeping it off! It was 9pm and we knew our daughter.
 
Ironically, the police officer who was dealing with our call and said this to us was the officer who discovered Libby’s body. He has confessed he will never say this to another parent and has learnt a valuable lesson.
 
Andy decided to drive to Kerikeri while I stayed at home with our 12-year-old son Billy. I had a friend Clare join me that evening, the only person we knew living locally. I continued to make calls to her friends, trying to gather a picture of events. We had a rule that we needed to have all her contacts written down, she was happy to oblige and thank goodness she did. I became a detective that night speaking to several people who had spent the afternoon with her at a BBQ. I was then told that she left with X (I shall not use his name) as he had offered to walk her back into town to meet her friend. I found X’s telephone number on her contact list and called his number, it must have been about 10:30pm, I remember apologising for ringing so late.
 
All of Libby’s friends by this stage knew that she had not been seen since she left the BBQ late that afternoon with X and were worried as this was so out of character. Libby always wanted to be seen and heard!
 
I remember my conversation with him (X) vividly because he made a couple of silly errors when answering my questions but more importantly, he did not seem worried about her absence, he was the only one not to show emotion of her odd disappearance. It absolutely stuck out like a sore thumb. I thought about his answers and our conversation all night, something just didn’t add up… I called him again early the following morning just to clarify something and he changed his story. I wouldn’t say Libby was lazy but unless in the company of others she would prefer not to walk, always preferring a lift. So, when he said the previous evening that when he dropped her off at the school and watched her walk through the school grounds I accept that but now in the morning he said that she decided to walk back with him and was then happy to walk back into town on her own, I just knew he was lying. She didn’t walk anywhere alone unless she had to and certainly not an extra 4/5k’s! I tried asking him more questions, but he was faltering, and I could feel his uneasiness.
 
The following day, Sunday, it was the local Kerikeri primary school fundraiser. Libby’s friends had made posters, and these were now plastered all over the town and announcements made over the school tannoy asking if anyone had seen her. Police were now involved, and the search was on. As mentioned earlier, the officer who met my husband the previous evening was now on duty and whilst out looking he saw a small clearing in some scrub in an old, disused orchard which was on the road where Libby was last seen, he decided to investigate, he followed the beaten down tall grass and brambles and eventually came to a clearing where he could see there had been a struggle as the grass was flattened and blood was found in the area. Eventually, he saw Libby’s lifeless body lying face down on the opposite side of the Wairoa stream. The stream is tidal. She had been there since approximately 6:10pm the previous Saturday evening, it was now Sunday late afternoon. Nothing prepares you for seeing death and especially not a murder.
 
During the course of the Sunday Andy was out helping look for Libby with the help of some of our very dear friends. He had spent many hours during the night combing the area, calling her name and searching in lots of areas around Kerikeri. He was shattered and frightened. We kept in touch keeping our calls short in case she made contact. I needed to stay home in case she turned up as well as look after our son. We were both so frightened and disconnected as we individually did what we could in our search for Libby. At one stage Andy was standing in the Police Station when X was there too, he was with some friends ‘helping’ to look for Libby. Although Andy can’t remember it, X actually spoke to Andy saying he hoped she was found soon, and he was looking for her too.
 
A short while after one of our friends, David, pulled up outside the police station and spoke to Andy just as the police were informed that a body had been found. Andy was asked to go into the station and David accompanied him along with our other friends whom had been with Andy a lot of the night and day. They were taken into a room at the back of the station and told that a young woman fitting Libby’s description had been found. Dead. I have been told the guttural noise that came from within Andy was so primitive. They will never forget that day or that moment.
 
At this early stage it was suggested that foul play had indeed played a part in Libby’s death although they could not say how they came to this conclusion. We found out later her half naked body had been beaten, face and head punched several times and an attempted strangulation had taken place, although none of these injuries were the cause of death. They did however render Libby unconscious. X then dragged her semi clothed body across gorse and brambles, bruising and scratching her already beaten and now unconscious body, rolled her down a bank into the water, dragged her across the 5 metre stream and placed her face down in the water. Libby was still alive at this stage. According to the police records he then put on his shoes, cycled home, changed his blood-stained clothes, attended to an email and then proceeded to watch the movie Liar Liar. How fitting!
 
Andy was driven home that Sunday night by David followed by our other two friends. Andy and I exchanged a phone call and I sensed straight away that he was coming home alone. He couldn’t contain his emotions and told me that Libby had died. The boys arrived home late, a Police officer and Lorraine from Victim Support followed them in. When we saw each other it was almost surreal, neither not knowing what to do or say to each other, feeling the eyes of people on us. We hung on for dear life, not understanding what was about to unfold.
 
The rest of the week went by in a haze of disjointed phone calls from the Police and very few visits until we were asked for our statements and to be honest we both felt out on a limb, often finding out what was happening through media and TV rather than first hand. That first week was shocking as far as Police presence and assistance was concerned. After that, I have to say that our assigned officers in charge were really very good and were there to answer questions at any time.
 
Going through the courts was harrowing, nothing was hidden, and we were in the forefront of the media for weeks on end. No amount of words or guidance really prepares you. During the trial we were so exposed but fortunately not exploited. The reporters were very respectful and kind, we are still in touch with a few from time to time, as friends.
 
The sentencing was nothing short of shocking for everyone and a relief for his family. I remember seeing his father smirk… how I wished I had wiped that from his face! With a judge who was afraid to hand out the punishment fitting to a murderer, as in Life means life and not life with a 11.5 year non-parole period and according to the Judge, he thought his (X) age needed to be taken into consideration. Apparently, he showed immaturity, however no lack of remorse! His immaturity the judge thought contributed to his lying 3 times to the Police and in the courts. The judge wondered if he really understood right from wrong! Most young children at the age of 7 can tell you what is right and wrong, so I find this difficult to understand. The judge used the word ’cunning and guile’ in his summing up and although X didn’t start out to harm anyone that day; an opportunity presented itself to him and he took it. There were several times when he made stupid decisions to cover up his actions. He didn’t know when to stop then and given the same rage may not know how to stop his actions again should another opportunity present itself. The summing up is available on line, just google and decipher for yourselves!
 
The upshot is the Judge felt unable to give a harsher sentence. I have followed with interest other cases where again the Judges are weak. Someone needs to make a stand, make a point of difference when criminals go to court. Forget about the lack of jail beds, who gives a damn? Let them share 4 or 6 to a room, work to earn a mattress, loo paper, hot meals and warm blankets. The majority of people would say the same but perhaps not so outspokenly. Walk in our shoes and you will change your mind. The Bangkok Hilton is a mens prison in Nonthaburi Province, 11 km north of Bangkok. Once incarcerated, well the prisoners know they are in Hell. This is the punishment that comes to my mind when a heinous crime is committed. Life for a life. Done.
 
Greg King the late criminal defence barrister offered his service pro-bono to investigate if X could be deported back to South Africa having served his sentence. Despite being an immigrant, it seems that if you have New Zealand citizenship it won’t be rescinded even if you are found guilty of taking a life! There is something very wrong with the immigration process when Citizens (or not) the New Zealand Government and people do not want unwelcoming, dangerous criminals as their guests. Send them back. Surely the Government has more important things to spend our money on…
 
Libby’s zest for life was infectious. Her sense of humour dry and extremely mature for her age. Her ’surround sound’ followed her with a hum of music, phone buzzing, camera clicking and bubbles of giggles. Whilst not an academic her life skills and passion for song, theatre and stage was very strong. At the age of 15 she played Princess Yasmin for the Kerikeri players production on ‘Sinbad the Sailor’. It was a riot of fun and she was excellent in her role taking it very seriously. Who would have thought that just 4 weeks later she would be centre stage again at the same theatre attending her own funeral?
 
Each day is a good day. Each day I count as a blessing. Each day I get to see my husband Andy and our son Bill who is now 22. I feel blessed we have found a way to manage our new lives without Libby. We are stronger in so many ways and yet so fragile. A song, a smell even the stillness or the warmth of summer sun can shatter our emotions like shards of glass. We tread carefully, have our wall of mirrors reflecting negativity outwards whilst creating an inner wall keeping us safe. We certainly don’t sweat the small stuff anymore but more frighteningly, we subconsciously count the days till we shall see her again. Death doesn’t frighten me as it used to. Whilst when my time comes I won’t want to leave my family and friends, I can’t wait to be reunited with our gorgeous girl again.
 
Rebecca Templeman

Kris Faafoi announced:

“The introduction of an interest and fees cap on high-cost loans will prevent people from accumulating large debt from a single small loan. For example, if you borrow $500 you will never have to pay back more than $1,000 in total, including all fees and interest.

Overall this seems a good step. Most loan sharks prey on people in difficulty and sign them up to exploitative stuff such as 25% per week interest.

However there is a risk of unintended consequences. The cap may become the default. It might lead to some lenders increasing their rates.

Also there may be no incentive to every pay a loan back once the cap is reached. Let’s say you borrow that $500 and don’t repay it and eventually you owe $1,000. Then you can never be charged any more interest so why repay?

“The changes also lift the level of professionalism across the industry, by requiring directors and chief executives of lenders offering consumer credit contracts to pass a ‘fit and proper person’ test in order to register as a Financial Service Provider.

That seems worthwhile.

The Herald reports:

Asia Bibi has spent almost a decade in prison.

The Christian woman was sentenced to death in Pakistan for insulting the Prophet Muhammad during an argument with a group of field workers. …

Aasiya Noreen “Asia” Bibi is a mother-of-five from Ittan Wali, a small rural village in central Pakistan.

In her biography, Blasphemy: A Memoir, Bibi describes the moment that would radically alter her life forever.

On June 14, 2009, she set out to the fields near her house to take part in a berry-picking harvest, for which she would be paid 250 Pakistani rupees for a day’s work — the equivalent of $3.

She described a climate of open hostility towards her from the women she worked with, because she was part of the country’s Christian minority, which makes up less than 2 per cent of Pakistan.

Around midday, dehydrated and sweltering in the sun, Bibi walked to the nearby well to have a drink of water.

But after she refilled the bucket a second time, a woman screamed: “Don’t drink that water, it’s haram!”

According to Bibi’s account, the shouter then turned to the dozen other women working in the fields and said: “Listen, all of you, this Christian has dirtied the water in the well by drinking from our cup and dipping it back several times. Now the water is unclean and we can’t drink it! Because of her!”

The argument intensified, with the women calling on Bibi to convert and “redeem herself”.

It was one sentence she fired back with that would seal her fate: “What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind?”

After this, Bibi said the women started screaming, spitting at her and physically assaulting her. She ran home in a fright.

Such kindness and tolerance.

Less than a week later, she went fruit-picking in another field when she was confronted by a rioting crowd, led by the woman who had initially shouted at her.

The crowd surrounded her, beat her and took her to the village, screaming: “Death! Death to the Christian!”

The village imam said: “I’ve been told you’ve insulted our Prophet. You know what happens to anyone who attacks the holy Prophet Mohammed. You can redeem yourself only by conversion or death.”

She protested: “I haven’t done anything. Please, I beg you, I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Bibi was taken to the village police station, covered in blood, where police interrogated her and put a report together. She was then put into a police van and taken straight to prison.

She has been in that cell ever since.

She gets beaten up by a mob and is the one arrested.

Bibi, 47, has already received one stay of execution from the Supreme Court, after lower courts rejected her appeals.

If today’s appeal fails, she will become the first woman in Pakistan to be executed for blasphemy.

Bibi’s case has sparked widespread outrage in the international community over Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws.

“There is overwhelming evidence that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws violate human rights and encourage people to take the law into their own hands,” Amnesty International director of global issues Audrey Gaughran said. “Once a person is accused, they become ensnared in a system that offers them few protections, presumes them guilty and fails to safeguard them against people willing to use violence.”

There should be no criminal sanctions for blasphemy, and especially not a death sentence. It is the polar opposite of freedom of religion.

Would be nice for the NZ Government to speak up on this issue and show as much concern for Asia Bibi as it does for asylum seekers in Nauru. Maybe they could offer asylum in New Zealand to Ms Bibi.

The Herald reports:

Two of four police trainees facing misconduct allegations are the subject of criminal investigations, police have confirmed.

Police Minister Stuart Nash has admitted it’s not a great look but is adamant that standards for recruitment have not dropped as the Government looks to fulfil its promise to recruit 1800 extra police.

The four recruits from the 100-strong Wing 318, which trained at the Police College near Porirua from June to September, have not yet graduated while their behaviour is investigated.

“We do not graduate anyone who does not meet our standards,” Police general manager of training Superintendent Scott Fraser said today.

Fraser confirmed that two of the recruits were the subject of criminal investigations but would not go into detail of the allegations.

“There’s two criminal investigations under way but I can’t talk about the details. What I can say is that if matters are upheld that are criminal or outside our values or standards, people do not get graduated,” Fraser told Radio New Zealand.

Among the allegations against the four recruits are indecent assault, careless driving and intimidation.

Another six recruits involved in a drinking incident at the Royal New Zealand Police College were told off and still graduated earlier this month.

Fraser said today it was a “very, very minor matter”.

“They were noisy in the barracks and were up late at night doing some very silly things.”

The 100 recruits in Wing 318 was the largest intake by the Police College in 12 years.

So 10 out of 100 recruits of 10% are involved in misconduct. Guyon Espiner made the point that a 10% offending rate would be unacceptably high for a journalism course, let alone a Police cadet intake.

National’s police spokesman Chris Bishop said the Government’s plans to introduce 1800 new police officers within three years was to blame for the lower standard of officers.

Recruits were being pushed through even if they were unsuitable and it had resulted in declining behaviour and ethical standards among new recruits, he said.

Other police officers had also raised concerns about the declining standards with him.

“These officers have to serve with the people coming through,” Bishop said. “They are worried that the force’s overall service to the public will decline.”

The old quality vs quantity.

Tom Switzer at CIS wrote:

One of the basic elements of a genuinely liberal society is free speech. That includes the right for people to advance views others disagree with — even views that many might find unpalatable. Alas, many contemporary Western democracies are awash in movements — mainly on the left spectrum of opinion — that seek to shut down debate, suppress opposing views or insist that some groups are more deserving of a ‘platform’ than others. This is especially evident across universities in the US and Britain, where invited scholars have been shouted down by angry mobs clearly unable to mount an intellectual challenge. According to CIS senior fellow Emeritus Professor Steven Schwartz, a Knight Foundation poll of 3,000 American students last year found 37% believed it was acceptable to shout down speakers and 10% thought using violence against speakers was sometimes acceptable.

At this stage, and notwithstanding the recent attacks on Bettina Arndt, the attempt to stigmatise opponents into silence has failed to attract widespread support on Australian campuses. How long, though, will our universities remain immune to these illiberal trends? There are some disturbing signs, and in a series of articles in September we recommended how the governors of the universities could protect intellectual freedom with a Chicago University-style charter.

See Prof Schwartz’s piece for The Australian, Dr Jeremy Sammut’s piece that ran across News Corp and my own piece in the Fairfax press. According to Prof Schwartz — a former university vice chancellor and a recent recipient of the CIS McGregor fellowship — Australian universities would avoid the erosion of their public standing and advance liberty by adopting five rules:

• Affirm the value of free speech.
• Forbid administrators from dis-inviting speakers.
• Discipline students or staff who try to silence speakers.
• Remain institutionally neutral on matters of public policy.
• Levy security charges on all speakers, not just those on one side of an issue.

In an upcoming Policy Paper, Jeremy will have more to say about university freedom charters. Let’s hope Canberra takes note. 

These would be welcome in NZ – especially forbidding administrators from dis-inviting speakers.

The Herald reports:

Sitting in a car in the dead of night, a woman had a gun put to her head.

When she couldn’t give David Aaron Stephenson the information he wanted, he fired the pistol at the windscreen.

Then back at her head.

Just five months out of jail after being sentenced to a near three-year jail term, 31-year-old Stephenson was after vengeance on those who testified against him and he wanted the victim to tell him where they lived.

He has been offending for a long time. At age 18 he assaulted a taxi driver dropping off three children.

Stephenson, a Filthy Few gang member who has “HEIL” tattooed across his face, was in the High Court at Hamilton today when he was sentenced to six years and five months’ prison on a raft of charges including kidnapping, indecent assault, assaulting a female, unlawful possession of a firearm and several methamphetamine charges.

With “HEIL” tattooed on his face I am sure he will get a job once released!

Justice Katz also issued a second strike warning for the kidnapping and indecent assault charges which are qualifying violence offences.

That means no parole. It means he must serve all 77 months, not be eligible for parole after 26 months.

And beyond doubt he will go on and get a third strike and then be locked away for a long time. If three strikes had been in place earlier this would be at least his third strike and instead of six years five months he would be serving 14 years without parole which would mean 14 years where the community is safe from him.

A guest post by David White:

Are turtles lives more important than peoples? 

The implied reason for banning plastic bags is due to their polluting nature in the marine environment. The assumption seems to be that marine animals turning up dead with plastic in their stomachs in other places, means that the same thing must be occurring in NZ. However it seemed a stretch to me, to assume that sea life say in the mediterranean was (a) the same that occurs in NZ waters and (b) they are exposed to the same plastic debris in NZ waters. 

I attempt to keep an open mind on things, since until the data is reviewed, one cannot make any conclusions. Hence I set out to review the literature on NZ animals. 

Anecdotal evidence 

Anecdotal evidence, is obviously not perfectly reliable, but may indicate trends. I regularly pick up litter by our roadside areas which boarders onto the Waikato river. And also remove litter from the riverside. What I have observed is the litter is dominated by drink containers. Glass beer bottles, aluminium RTD’s and plastic water bottles. The second group is fast food litter. It is said that most plastic in the ocean comes from land users, incorrect disposal of rubbish. Thus I would conclude that the plastic flowing down the Waikato and out to sea is PET drink bottles. Thus plastic bags are not thee dominante polluter.

But in stating this on facebook, two friends who live by the sea and regularly walk the beaches stated that the most common thing they find are plastic bags.

Thus we can tentatively conclude that plastic bags are making it into the marine environment and staying suspended such they wash up / blow onto beaches. So they could be a significant source of pollution in the sea, even if they don’t make up the largest plastic by say volume, or weight. 

Scientific studies 

The next stop, was to find scientific studies looking at stomach contents of marine animals. Given save the whales has an emotive ring, I started with whales.

Turns out common dolphins don’t have plastic bags in their stomachs, 53 dolphins from 1997 to 2006 where studied. There is zero mention of any plastic in their stomachs. This study was looking at what these dolphins preyed upon for food. So it is possible they ignored plastic in their stomachs. But find it very hard to believe that nature lovers who are passionate about dolphins (otherwise why would you study them) would ignore plastic debris in the stomachs if they were present.

How about sperm whales? Of the 19 sperm whales beached between mid 90’s and 2004, no mention of plastics again occurs. 

Long‐finned pilot whales? Ditto, no mention of plastics in the five whales that beached themselves on Farewell Spit in 2005. 

There did not appear to be other studies of sea mammals stomach contents in NZ. From this data I would conclude that sea mammals are either not interested in eating plastics, or if they do, the plastic is small enough to pass through the digestive track without difficulty. 

A doctoral student investigated the stomach contents of 35 green turtle (Chelonia mydas) 2007 and 2013. The green turtle was thought to prefer warmer waters than NZ, so it was surprising to find that these turtles are feeding in NZ waters throughout the year including winter, when the sea temperatures are below 14 degrees, and it was assumed that the turtles would migrate out of NZ waters at this time. However they did not appear to do so. 

The green turtle is found throughout the world in tropical seas, with genetically distinct populations in the pacific and atlantic oceans. The range of the pacific turtle stretches throughout the pacific ocean, from the West coast of the America’s through to the asian coasts, and obviously includes the pacific islands. It also is found through the Indian ocean and the East coast of Africa. The green turtle is considered endangered, which is category half way between no concern and extinct. 

The population in NZ was found to be made up of turtles from the West coast of Mexico / South America and also turtles from East coast and easterly islands from Australia and up to Guam. One expects the connection with seas north of NZ, but was a surprising result to see animals from East of the Americas coming to NZ. 

Plastic was only found in approximate a third of the turtles (12 of 35). Which surprised me, as I would have assumed that given the media beat up around turtles and plastic, that nearly all turtles would have been affected. 

It should be note that these turtles are all juveniles. They take 20 – 30 years to become sexual mature. So given they have migrated from regions with poorer rubbish disposal than NZ, it could be argued that at least some, if not a significant proportion of the plastic may have come from waters outside of NZ. There was a piece of plastic found in one stomach that had a wellington business address printed on it, which implies that at least some of the plastic originated in NZ. 

The plastic was broken down by type, and by color. These are shown in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively. What is interesting is that if you remove all soft plastic, which plastic bags are that the turtles would still have plastic or human created debris in their stomachs. Thus the reduction of turtles with plastics and human waste in them would not significantly reduce (that is an intelligent guess that it wouldn’t be statistically significant, since it would only reduce by 1 turtle). On the other hand, soft plastic did make up 50% of the total plastic waste. So there would be a large reduction in the total volume of plastic in these turtles stomachs. 

Table 2 shows that the soft plastic is dominated by clear or white plastics. These two make up 70% of the soft plastic debris. 

Included in the thesis is a photo showing the plastic found in turtles. Visual observation shows that this plastic does look like plastic bags. As I can’t think of any other source of this type of pollution. If you look closely on the left hand side, at the top of the second blue square, you can see a turquoise plastic fragment. I strongly suspect that this is from silage wrap.  

So we can conclude that of the green turtles that migrate to our shores, consume plastics in the oceans around NZ. And this plastic consumed is dominated by plastic bags. 

It is considered common knowledge that turtles eat the soft plastic bags because it either looks like sea lettuce that they feed on, or look like jellyfish that they see as food. 

Thus it would be a reasonable assumption that other marine animals that feed on sea lettuce or jellyfish may be impacted by the plastic bags. However 

Impact on humans. 

Banning recyclable plastic bags, are likely to have an impact on humans. For example we gift away a lot of produce from our orchard….. all in plastic bags. Others use them to pick up dog poo. These types of applications can be replaced by purchasing packets of paper bags, or other plastic bags like lunch bags. So these behaviour changes involve costs, but not much risk to human health. 

However grocery shopping is a different kettle of fish. It would be easy to see how a bag could be contaminated with meat product. And this could be transferred onto fruit or vegetables that are not cooked before consumption, or contaminate surfaces of packaged goods, which go onto contaminate kitchen surfaces. 

Thus you would expect to see a rise in disease with recycling of grocery bags. This is indeed what you see. Data mining to extract the impact of the San Francisco County ban on plastic supermarket bags, there was a 32% increase in E. Coli, 27% increase in Campylobacter, 6% increase in Salmonella, but not increase in Toxoplasmosis. Disturbingly there was a 46% increase in deaths from  foodborne diseases. 

It is well known that NZ has very high Campylobacter rates. Using readily accessible 2012 data 7031 cases were reported, which gives an 159 per 100 000 people, which is the highest in the developed world.

Another grim fact, is that for every campylobacter case reported, 9 go unreported. Thus infect rates across NZ are approximately 1% of NZ’ers get campylobacter every year!

So an increase in infection by 30%, is going to effect approximately 20 000 people.

In 2016, there was 712 hospitalizations due to campylobacter, (fortunately no deaths), so a 30% increase would results in an additional 214 hospitizations. 

Given that NZ health system is already stretched, an additional 20 000 illnesses and 214 hospizations is going to put additional stress, on an already overstressed system. 

Conclusion

The only NZ sea animal that is known to be negatively affected by plastic bags are sea turtles. These are not unique to NZ, and only 30% seem to be affected by eating plastic bags. Also NZ culture does not value these turtles as unique indigenous animals, like for example a tui.  Removing plastic bags will reduce the plastic ingestion, but not eliminate it. Although other sea animals may feed on the plastic mistaking them for sea lettuce or jellyfish, this is conjecture at this stage. 

There are important health effects for humans, with an additional 20 000 people getting infected with campylobacter, and an additional 214 hospitizations. That isn’t counting any other foodborne diseases increasing. 

So do the benefits to sea life outway the negatives to humans? Well to save a handful of animals not unique to NZ, while creating 10’s of thousand illnesses every year, to me is not a wise choice, and one that I cannot describe as ethical. 

David Whyte is a speaker, researcher and author

The Government’s financial statements for 2017/18 show a very healthy set of accounts.

It is worth emphasizing that these largely reflect the decisions of the last National Government that passed the 2017 Budget. Most changes since then by the new Government didn’t come into force until after this financial year.

Also the impact of public sector pay increases are yet to be recognised.

So Grant Robertson has been gifted almost the strongest set of Government books in the OECD. Some key data:

• Tax revenue up 6.1% and expenditure up 5.5%
• Average wages up 3.0%
• Jobs up 3.7%
• OBEGAL surplus of $5.5 billion
• Total surplus of $8.4 billion after accounting for investment gains
• Net debt down $2 billion, decreasing from 21.7% to 19.9% of GDP

Tax revenue has increased by almost one third since 2014. This partly reflects the strong economic growth we have had, but also the effect of fiscal drag.

These accounts show there is absolutely no need for tax increases, and if the Tax Working Group proposes anything that isn’t fiscally neutral, it should be rejected.

An interesting read of the Court of Appeal decision dismissing the appeal by Mark Lundy over the murder of his wife and daughter.

Lundy lost on every ground raised, bar one. They found the mRNA evidence should not have been admitted. But they concluded that even without that the evidence was overwhelming.

Also of interest is that a journalist who covered the trial for North & South, Michael White, gave an affidavit in support of the appeal!

On the DNA evidence, the expert witness said:

So by that I mean that this DNA evidence is one million, million, million times more likely to occur if the DNA in these two samples from the polo shirt originated from Ms Christine Lundy, rather than from someone else unrelated to her and chosen at random from the general New Zealand population.

And the fact there was central nervous system tissue on the shirt was undisputed. The court found:

The conclusion that it was Mrs Lundy’s CNS tissue can then quite easily be reached in two small steps. First, on the night that the appellant was wearing the shirt, Mrs Lundy was murdered by having her head attacked with an axe with the consequence established in Dr Pang’s evidence that a significant portion of her brain was exposed and indeed missing from the skull cavity. Second, the only human DNA found in association with the CNS tissue was that of Mrs Lundy. It was of good quality and found in substantial amounts.

And the random burglar theory holds little weight:

The notion that the deceased were the victims of a random burglar was unlikely, for a combination of reasons. First, the savagery of the attack on both Mrs Lundy and her daughter. There were in each case a high number of very hard blows to the head. In the case of Mrs Lundy they had the effect of destroying much of her face and head. Further, Amber Lundy could not have been regarded as any kind of threat to a random burglar, as opposed to somebody she recognised in the course of the attack on her mother.

So Lundy remains in jail. His non-parole minimum was 20 years so he may get released after 2022.

Hamish Rutherford writes:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is convinced that Kiwis are being “fleeced” when they pay for petrol.

“As a moral stance, I think New Zealanders are paying too much,” Ardern said.

With motorists paying close to $2.50 a litre for petrol in many parts of the country, it is understandable that the issue is back in the headlines, and that the Government wants to be seen to be taking action.

The problem is, the action being taken is to ask the Commerce Commission – effectively the referee on whether consumers are being ripped off – to investigate. These studies tend to take around a year.

If Ardern is already convinced that a rort is taking place and Energy Minister Megan Woods believes the market is “broken” as she said in May, why are they bothering to investigate?

Not only is the Government is putting immense pressure on the independent competition regulator to give it the answer it wants, Ardern may be stalling for time because her Government does not know what it will do to fix the problem.

Of course they don’t know what it will do to fix the problem. They’ve not had a working group yet!

But the Government’s urgency has a rich irony. Ardern has described climate change as New Zealand’s “nuclear free moment”.

Her Government seen fit to crack down on the oil exploration industry, ending new offshore permits, purportedly as a means to take action.

But the reason the climate is warming is not because fossil fuels are being extracted, it is because people are burning them.

If Ardern was really serious about tackling the issue, surely she would do something about demand.

Leaving aside whether the petrol companies are making too much profit, the best way to get Kiwis to drive less is by ensuring they pay more.

But on Monday, Ardern’s “moral stance” was that Kiwis are paying too much to do the very thing she surely believes threatens the planet.

If Ardern had the courage of her convictions she would be welcoming the higher petrol prices and tell New Zealanders to give up their cars for the greater good.

The Taxpayers’ Union is about to launch its latest report and present the inaugural “Jonesie Awards” for government waste at Parliament.  The steam below will go live in the next few minutes.

Update: Winners announced

The winners are:

Local Government Jonesie: Auckland Council’s “vegan-approved goat hunt”.  The Council spent $91,742 on a Hunua Ranges goat cull in 2016/17 that killed zero goats.

Central Government Jonesie: The New Zealand Film Commission’s $1.6 million “Power Rangers pavlova”. The Commission paid American producers of the children’s TV show “Power Rangers” $1.6 million to include references to New Zealand in its script, such as a plot involving a pavlova.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development, Infrastructure, and Forestry, receives this award in recognition of the scale of pork-barrelling achieved via his $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund – of which so far only 10 per cent has been allocated.

The full list of nominations (and the report) are on the Taxpayers’ Union website.

David Seymour spoke at Massey last week. Some great points worth highlighting:

Thank you to the Massey Politics Society for inviting me here today. You folks have weathered a storm for a very important cause, the right to be a thinking and valuing individual who can express their thoughts without intimidation by thugs and bullies.

The Problems at Massey

I have said several times in public that your University Council should be looking for a new Vice Chancellor. I stand by that assessment, because any institution is bigger than one person. If an individual undermines an institution then the institution must save itself, not that individual.

But why does Freedom of Speech matter? I think the best answer comes from the Sir Karl Popper. Sir Karl was Jewish and lost 16 members of his family to the Nazi regime. He was lucky to be in New Zealand during World War II, and it was at a New Zealand University that he wrote the Open Society and its Enemies.As Michael King wrote in the Penguin History of New Zealand, this was ‘probably the most important book to come out of New Zealand.’

Sadly, Sir Karl left New Zealand at the end of the war because he was treated abominably by the University of Canterbury. New Zealand lost one of the greatest 20^thcentury philosophers because we treated him terribly. He writes about all of this in a foreword to later editions of the book. That’s the choice our Universities face, they can either be centres of intellectual enquiry with global appeal, open societies; or closed-minded backwaters.

That is the choice that Massey especially faces.

Sir Karl Popper’s Open Society

Popper went on to describe the difference between thinking and valuing individuals and primitive life forms. He started with bacteria and Amoeba, extremely simple creatures that have no ability to hold an idea, let alone generate new ones. They simply do what they’re genetically programmed to do, and if the conditions change they die.

Animals, of course, are a bit more sophisticated, but they have the same basic problem as micro-organisms. They live or die based on the instinctive behaviours they are born with. They don’t have intelligence, the ability to assess and reason for themselves.

Humans obviously do have that ability but whether we use it depends on the kind of rules we have in our society. In a closed society, we must follow the leader. The leader tells us what the course of history will deliver us, and we must obey. If the leaders get it wrong, our society fails just as a badly adapted species of amoeba dies out when the conditions change.

On the other hand, an open society has the ability to think and value for itself. An open society is able to absorb new ideas, roll them around on its members’ tongues, and decide whether they fit. An open society never dies, because when its ideas go out of date, it has new ones to choose from.

Our very survival depends on the ability to have an open culture of ideas. We are not going to solve poverty, inequality, environmental challenges, transport, housing, remain competitive in the world economy, or even get a better quality of craft beer if we are not able to try new ideas on for size, discard those that don’t work, then relentlessly look for better ones.

Sadly many don’t want an open culture of ideas. They only want their ideas. They want other ideas silenced because someone may be offended by them.

A guest post by Elliott Ikilei, Deputy Leader of the New Conservative Party:

The below ad has been sponsored heavily, repeating constantly on FB; I was happy to let it go, but it was repeated so often that I really felt to put in a balance viewpoint.

A politically incorrect response:

This ad is not about monogamous relationships.

It is specifically about men having sex with other random men.

The ad requests promiscuous, homosexual men to get tested every three months for HIV as per male homosexual activity with multiple men and inconsistent, little or no condom usage being high risk.

Ok, some information from the ad, the website and a couple of reports I perused:

– it is estimated that there are 3500 people living with HIV in NZ (0.07% of the population).

– since 1985, the vast majority of HIV diagnoses are from within the homosexual community

Under “Here’s three reasons why nearly 80 percent of HIV diagnoses in New Zealand are among gay and bi guys:” the three points given are:

1. It’s much easier to get HIV from anal sex
2. There’s already a lot of gay and bi Kiwis living with HIV.
3. We’re more closely connected than you might think.

Apart from free condoms, free lube, free testing, we now also fund a drug called Truvada, or PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis). It is effective for high-risk activity, cutting down HIV transference by around 99%.

If not taxpayer-funded, this pill would cost around 1000 dollars per month, every month, for every year of engaging in high-risk activity.

So…last year the Labour party promised to pay for the promiscuity that you now fund. The funding was from March this year…

According to Pharmac, the criteria to receive this taxpayer-funded ‘magic pill’ includes:

Patient is male or transgender; and

Patient has sex with men; and

Patient is likely to have multiple episodes of condomless anal intercourse in the next 3 months;

“likely to have multiple episodes of condomless anal intercourse in the next 3 months”

Let that sink in for a moment…

We have a horrific disease that is spread almost entirely from promiscuity, that is, sleeping around.

The vast majority of those with HIV are within the male homosexual/bisexual community, meaning this horrific disease is spread mostly by men sleeping around with different men who can’t be stuffed to protect themselves with condoms.

We see nothing about promoting one man being with one man only. Indeed, Auckland ratepayers also help fund fisting events and other sex-based activities.

You do fund the pill that is used to confidently sleep around with no condom or commitment.

At a cost of 12K per person, per year, for every year they want to hook up with multiple partners.

You fund this high-risk activity.

In the meantime, cancer rates grow, people with terminal illnesses crowdfund for life-saving medication, operation waiting lists extend out…but at least men sleeping with random men because they want to, is funded…

Want to stop HIV?

Stop sleeping around. Stop forcing us to fund irresponsibility, avoidance of accountability and the further degradation of commitment.

FYI we would not fund a pill that encourages promiscuous male sex…we would use for life-saving treatments, needed operations, supporting commitment over condom-less convenience…

#WhyAreWeForcedToFundThis

#NewConservative #Family #Democracy #Justice