Stuff reports:

Not one person convicted of burglary or aggravated burglary has received the maximum penalty for the crimes in recent years.

And in most cases in which burglary was the most serious charge a person faced, jail sentences were avoided.

Data released under the Official Information Act comes at a time of heightened pressures on police to attend every burglary.

The maximum jail term for burglary is 10 years. For aggravated burglary, it is 14 years.

Despite more than 11,000 convictions for both offences, nobody for at least the past four years has received the maximum penalty.

And some burglars will have been convicted scores of times.

ACT leader David Seymour favoured a “three strikes” approach, with a mandatory three-year jail term for burglars found guilty of the crime a third time.

“I don’t believe anyone will be opposed to incapacitating them for three years.”

Seymour said some young burglars might deserve a second, or even third, chance.

“Once can be a mistake. Twice can be a mistake. But three, you’re a serial burglar.”

Sounds good to me.

The Herald reports:

An Auckland vegetarian cafe were shocked when the Auckland City Mission declined their offer for free, healthy food.

But Auckland City Mission says declining the deliveries was a mistake which happened because of a miscommunication and the charity would like to start up the partnership again.

Lisa Burne, operations manager at Revive, said the cafe had been providing the Mission with leftover food every Thursday and Friday for six to eight weeks when a City Mission staff member called to tell her the donations were no longer needed because the Mission’s homeless clients wouldn’t eat them.

She said the conversation left her “completely dumbfounded”. “I would have thought it would be in their best interest to provide wholesome food.”

Staff at the Mission had initially been “very, very keen and excited” to receive the food, Burne said, but less than two months later they asked for the deliveries to stop because clients preferred the cakes and pies provided by other supporters.

Revive founder and owner Jeremy Dixon said the charity did “amazing” work, often under difficult circumstances, however, he had been surprised by its response.

“We were absolutely flabbergasted.”

We obviously need a tax on pies to solve this problem!

David Cumin, Juliet Moses and Paul Moon write:

The sovereign integrity of states is one of those building blocks on which the modern world operates.

 It is a guiding tenet of international law, and one of the founding principles of the United Nations.

In the case of Israel’s protection of the waters on the southern end of its country, these principles are confirmed by the Oslo Accords and more recently by the UN Security Council.

So when a New Zealand politician openly and unashamedly decides to violate international law and another country’s sovereignty for the sake of a media stunt, that act will inevitably reflect poorly on that politician, the party they represent, and sadly, even on our Parliament.

What made matters worse in this case was that the politician concerned – Green MP Marama Davidson – participated in a breach of Israel’s sovereignty for no apparent purpose. When the protest ended more mundanely than expected, she was forced to resort to melodramatic language to dramatise events.

Ms Davidson described the Israeli Navy’s female crew taking her and the other activists to safety as a “kidnap,” and herself as a “hostage.”  Both terms are wildly inaccurate, and seem designed more to achieve provocation than reconciliation.

As I understand it the activists were treated wonderfully. They were even asked as they were departing if they had any complaints over their treatment, if the food was good enough etc – almost like a Trip advisor review. And Marama even had Israeli taxpayers pay for her flight home.

Women do suffer in Gaza, at the hands of the governing power  Hamas, an Islamist organisation.

But Hamas’ honour killings, persecution of gays, genocidal charter, and state-sanctioned misogyny do not rate a mention by these activists on the “women’s peace boat”.

Of course not.

Nor does Egypt’s stricter blockade of Gaza.

What many don’t realise is that while there is a total blockade by sea, there is regular passage by land. Thousands of trucks every week go into and out of Gaza. The only thing is they pass through a security checkpoint where it can be verified they are not smuggling guns etc.

The “peace activists” include a woman who created a video game that encourages kids to shoot as many Israelis as they can and another who accused Israel of orchestrating the recent terrorist attacks in Munich and Nice. Are these aligned with Green party or Kiwi values?

Now Kiwi values.

There was no aid on board.

This is something not publicised much. The boat had no aid or supplies on board at all. It was just an expensive PR stunt that backfired.

Matthew Hooton makes eight points on Twitter:

1. Men do not tend to talk much in the locker room at all.
2. If we do, the talk is mainly about exercise, sport, family, work etc (and, for some losers, even politics).
3. It would almost always be seen as weird to talk about sex while getting changed or showering with other men.
4. When at the pub, a long boozy lunch or on a lads’ weekend etc, men talk about sex a great deal.
5. Almost all this talk is purely and passively voyeuristic, e.g. “Man that chick at the pub last night was hot.”
6. Going beyond voyeuristic talk is not unknown but it is uncommon because talking about acts risks being creepy even in such settings.
7. Even if talk is about acts, the concept of consent is implied. Anyone who boasted about a non-consensual act would be utterly shunned.
8. I’ve never heard anyone talk like Trump did. Even in my non-PC circles, it would mark someone out as a creep, a loser & dangerous.

I agree with Matthew.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes:

Throughout my life, I have been fortunate to have spent my time working for dignity for the living. I have campaigned passionately for people in my country and the world over to have their God-given rights.

Now, as I turned 85 on Friday, with my life closer to its end than its beginning, I wish to help give people dignity in dying. Just as I have argued firmly for compassion and fairness in life, I believe that terminally ill people should be treated with the same compassion and fairness when it comes to their deaths.

Dying people should have the right to choose how and when they leave Mother Earth. I believe that, alongside the wonderful palliative care that exists, their choices should include a dignified assisted death.

Tutu has been a priest for 55 years, a Bishop for 40 years and Archbishop for 30 years.

Two years ago, I announced the reversal of my lifelong opposition to assisted dying in an op-ed in the Guardian. But I was more ambiguous about whether I personally wanted the option, writing: “I would say I wouldn’t mind.” Today, I myself am even closer to the departures hall than arrivals, so to speak, and my thoughts turn to how I would like to be treated when the time comes. Now more than ever, I feel compelled to lend my voice to this cause.

I believe in the sanctity of life. I know that we will all die and that death is a part of life. Terminally ill people have control over their lives, so why should they be refused control over their deaths? Why are so many instead forced to endure terrible pain and suffering against their wishes?

That is the crux. The current laws impose pain and suffering on people who wish to choose to be relieved of that pain and suffering.

Regardless of what you might choose for yourself, why should you deny others the right to make this choice? For those suffering unbearably and coming to the end of their lives, merely knowing that an assisted death is open to them can provide immeasurable comfort.

I welcome anyone who has the courage to say, as a Christian, that we should give dying people the right to leave this world with dignity. My friend Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has passionately argued for an assisted-dying law in Britain. His initiative has my blessing and support – as do similar initiatives in my home country, South Africa, throughout the United States and across the globe.

In refusing dying people the right to die with dignity, we fail to demonstrate the compassion that lies at the heart of Christian values. I pray that politicians, lawmakers and religious leaders have the courage to support the choices terminally ill citizens make in departing Mother Earth. The time to act is now.

Obviously I agree.

The Herald reports:

Act leader David Seymour has slammed comments made by an education union president – saying teacher stress has nothing to do with serious offending against children.

But Angela Roberts, president of the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA), says Seymour has misconstrued her comments – and probably done so deliberately.

Seymour today called on teachers to demand the resignation of Roberts, over comments made to Newshub on Friday.

“Inappropriate conduct can severely damage a child for life,” he said.

“Over the past three years 75 teachers have been investigated and 54 struck off, but the PPTA show no remorse, simply citing ‘stress’ and ‘bad decisions.'”

Roberts was quoted by Newshub for a story on the number of teachers censured and deregistered in the past three years, including for sexual misconduct, assault and sex abuse.

The report quoted Roberts as saying it was important for the Education Council to monitor the statistics for any trends.

“They may find that there is an increased trend of teachers who are suffering from significant stress, and some really poor decisions get made,” she told Newshub. …

Roberts told the Herald that Seymour had misconstrued those comments, perhaps deliberately.

They were made as part of a longer interview, and were about the wider issue of dealing with both disciplinary and competency matters, Roberts said.

“If what I had said was, teachers are under stress and they make poor decisions – if I had been referring to cases of serious misconduct, then, yes, that would be dismissive and inappropriate.

“But that wasn’t what I was referring to. I was talking about all cases of deregistration – there is a huge range. There is conduct, but there’s also competence. And I was talking about all cases referred to the council.

Maybe the full transcript of the interview could be released so we can ascertain whether or not the comments were around all deregistrations or misconduct.

Louise Upston said:

Minister for Women Louise Upston says she’s disappointed to see an increase in the gender pay gap.

The New Zealand Income Survey released today by Statistics New Zealand shows the gender pay gap is now 12 percent, up from 11.8 per cent in 2015.

“While it’s been encouraging to see a downwards trend in Gender Pay Gap figures over the past 17 years, this year’s result is disappointing.”

It would be good for there to be no gender pay gap, but we also need to compare apples with apples. What I think should be the focus is on people doing the same job getting the same pay. For example a female lawyer specialising in torts with five years experience should get paid the same as a male lawyer specialising in torts with five years experience. This doesn’t happen, and it would be good to have men and women paid the same for doing the same job.

But let us be careful about what we decry. Just as you could reduce income inequality by cutting the pay of the poorest by 10% (so long the the pay of the richest dropped by 12%), what does this increase from 11.8% to 12.0% gap mean?

In fact hourly earnings for women increased 3.6%. This is a good thing with inflation at just 0.4%.

Sure hourly earnings for men increased a smidgen more at 3.9%, but what would you rather have?

A – median earnings for women increase 1.5% and men increase 1.2% (closing gender gap)
B – median earnings for women increase 3.6% and men increase 3.9% (increasing gender gap)

Of course you might prefer an outcome of say 3.9% for women and 3.6% for men, but the point I am making is that the gender gap is not as important (to those on struggling incomes) as whether or not your income is rising in real terms. They’ve both important, but not equally important. Having men get a smaller increase than women, doesn’t help pay the bills.

Incidentally the gender gap of 12% is slightly lower than the 12.5% it was under Labour in 2008.

Fascinating to see the endorsements of the daily newspapers to date in the US.

111 newspapers have run an editorial to date, and their endorsements in order are:

• Hillary Clinton 90
• No-one 9
• Gary Johnson 6
• Not Donald Trump 6
• Donald Trump 0

Yep Trump has 0 out of 111 endorsements. And you might say well the media are all left leaning. Well let’s look at the 24 newspapers who endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012. They have gone:

• Hillary Clinton 17
• Gary Johnson 3
• No-one 3
• Not Donald Trump 1
• Donald Trump 0

So not a single newspaper that endorsed Mitt Romney has endorsed Trump.

Cr Chris Milne writes on FB:

At the last meeting before the election the Wellington Regional Council has resolved to pay a “Living Wage”. Question: would you donate to a charity to assist the lower paid if you were told that 72% of your donation would be gobbled up in overheads? What if you were told that the government was applying a 72% tax on your donation? Here’s how it works. To pay a living wage you must gather funds via rates. Rates include GST, which gets paid to the government. Then the recipient of the wage pays PAYE, ACC and has their income support reduced due to the higher income (called “benefit abatement” in tax jargon).

Worked example:
$100 in rates rates
GST content: $13.04

Payment to Living Wage recipient therefore $86.96 from the $100 charged to ratepayers.

The recipient then has to pay PAYE, ACC and also suffers an abatement of their other income support (eg Working for Families).

Assumed 50%* abatement of $86.96 is $43.48.
PAYE and ACC of 18%* is $15.65

So, from the $100 taken in rates, the split is:

Central Govt: $13.04 + $43.48 + 15.65 = $72.20 = 72.2%
Living Wage recipient: $27.80 = 27.8%

So from the $100 charged to ratepayers to fund the Living Wage, $72.20 goes to Central Government.

So ratepayers are the loser.

A living wage is a very bad way to try and help families because it treats all families the same – the 16 year old first time employee living at home and the 50 year old parent of three paying a mortgage.

The best way to help families is through a targeted welfare system which takes into account their income, their number of children, their accommodation costs.

The Herald reports:

It will now be tougher for would-be migrants to gain residency under the skilled migrant and family sponsored categories.

Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse today announced that there would be fewer residence approvals planned for the next two years to 85,000-95,000, down from 90,000-100,000.

The number of points required for residence will also be raised from 140 to 160 points under the Skilled Migrant Category and the number of places for the capped family categories would be reduced to 2000 per year from 5500.

This is sensible, and even overdue. I’ve been saying for a while that I am very pro-immigration but the numbers we have are putting a strain on infrastructure. This will take the pressure off a bit.

It won’t have a huge impact as the overall net migration is influenced more by the fact fewer NZers are leaving, more Kiwis are returning and more Aussies are moving here. But it will help a bit.

Stuff reports:

The by-election in Mt Roskill to find a replacement MP for Phil Goff has been set down for December 3, Prime Minister John Key said.

It follows the former Labour leader’s win in the Auckland mayoralty.

“On the basis that Mr Goff resigns this week it is my intention that the by-election will be held on Saturday, December 3,” Key said.

Almost a waste to elect an MP for just nine months or so. The law currently allows no by-election if within six months of a general election. Maybe it should be if within 12 months?

Key reiterated that no sitting Government had ever won a by-election in a seat it did not already hold.

“So I think we need to accept that’s a bit tricky.”

But National would select a good candidate and it believed it had a “good story there” and would “give it a good go”.

Labour has already chosen Michael Wood as its candidate, and the Greens have announced they will not stand to lessen the chance of National winning the seat.

I look forward to Michael Wood campaigning on Labour’s Chinese surnames policy.

Stuff reports:

Former Wellington Tenths Trust chairman Sir Ngatata Love has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

His lawyer, Colin Carruthers QC immediately made an urgent application for Love to be released on bail while an appeal against the sentence is lodged. 

Justice Graham Lang took a short adjournment after delivering the sentence to find out when the Court of Appeal may be able to hear the application. When he resumed he rejected the appeal.

The disgraced Maori leader, aged 79, was found guilty of obtaining property by deception on September 1, following a trial in the High Court in Wellington in August. The charge carried a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

This seems appropriate.

While he was entitled to a discount for his health, Justice Lang said the conditions could be managed in prison.

He granted Love an additional discount of nine months, giving a sentence of two years, six months in prison.

While Lang said it was in his power to grant Love an additional discount to take the sentence down to two years in prison, as an act of “mercy” he would not do so, as Love showed no remorse.

He read part of the victim impact statement from the Wellington Tenths Trust, which said the most important thing trustees and beneficiaries wanted was a full apology for what had happened, but Lang said he had seen no sign of this.

“I do not see any remorse for what has occurred,” Lang said, adding that during the trial he had seen no sign that Love had shown comprehension of his offending and its impact.

This is key. Love has not shown any remorse. He said he had done nothing wrong and blamed everyone else.

Danyl McL blogs on Helen Clark’s campaign for the UN Secretary-General:

Domestically the big winner in all this is Key, who got to demonstrate to a couple hundred thousand female swing-voters what a progressive, balanced women-leader-supporting, generally great guy he is. It’s conventional wisdom on the left that Key et al are morons, and the left is morally and intellectually superior, and I’m not sure how this squares with Key and his party constantly doing very smart things, and the left’s parties and leaders mostly, consistently being pretty dumb.

At least the left leadership is consistent!

But we have all those withering take-downs of neoliberalism and books on Gramsci! It’s almost as if we congratulate ourselves on metrics that have nothing to do with success in modern democratic contests.

Like going to Gaza to demonstrate solidarity!

Bernard Orsman looks at the three most likely contenders:

Penny Hulse 

Hulse has been deputy mayor to Len Brown for six years. She is a centre-left independent from West Auckland where she was deputy mayor to former Waitakere City Mayor Bob Harvey. …

Goff is expected to include Hulse in his inner circle with a senior role, but he will want to put plenty of distance between his council and the Brown-Hulse regime that has left trust with council’s performance at 15 per cent. Goff says this is a “fail”.

Choosing Hulse would make it look like business as usual.

Bill Cashmore 

Cashmore, a second-term councillor for the rural ward of Franklin, farmer and National Party member, is highly regarded by some of Goff’s advisers. …

Cashmore is also associated with Brown’s fiscal policies(he was the architect of transport levy that propelled rates rise to 9.9 per cent in 2015) and is easily captured by the bureaucrats.

“Bill is too much of a prefect and apologist for council management,” says one colleague.

The staff’s choice!

Desley Simpson

If Goff wants to be bold and rev up the Super City he will appoint Desley Simpson as his deputy.

Simpson offers the greatest risk, but also the greatest reward.

An early challenge for Goff’ will be to build a united team round the council table. If he wants to be a centrist mayor, Simpson can deliver the right to the table, and open doors at the highest levels of Government.

The risk is she might outshine Goff and pose a threat in three, or six years. Then again, she could be a bigger threat outside the tent.

I’d rather have Desley on my time working with me, than working against me!

The Herald reports:

World champion pole vaulter Shawnacy Barber was cleared to compete at the Rio Games after an arbitrator accepted claims he had accidentally ingested cocaine after kissing a woman he had solicited for sex on the internet.

Barber tested positive for cocaine after winning the Canadian Olympic trials. He was later cleared to compete in Rio where he finished 10th.

According to Deadspin, the decision was made by the Sports Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada two days prior to the beginning of the Olympics, but had only become public information today.

Barber stated he had posted on the casual encounter section on Craigslist, looking for a disease-free, “professional” woman to help ease stress ahead of the trials in Edmonton.

A man responded with a woman who Barber was told was a mother of two, which Barber liked as he believed that meant she would be “more cautious” and “reserved”.

The woman, who spoke at the hearing, had snorted cocaine prior to arriving at the hotel Barber was staying at, and again in the hotel bathroom upon arrival.

Heh, an unusual defence. I did not snort cocaine, the prostitute I hired did.

I wonder if they got any scientific evidence about whether you can get enough cocaine in your system from kissing, for it to show up?

A very good article from the Washington Post at Stuff. What especially got to me was:

Gannon tracked down the family’s neighbours.

Many agreed that he had “done the right thing.”

“I am proud of this man,” said one. “He has done the right thing to kill her. When the news spreads they will praise this man.”

Said another, Babar Ali: “I am proud of this man that he has done the right thing, to kill her. We cannot allow anyone to marry outside our religion. He did the right thing.”

Killing people for marrying outside the religion is barbaric. But so is supporting the death penalty for apostasy.

As for the father, Gannon said, he was the most reluctant to talk of all. When she showed up at his doorstep, he was preparing to leave Lahore for the village from whence he had come. He told Gannon his big regret was no longer having the small amount of money Rajhu brought in from his job and the notoriety, now, of his son and the family.

He had this to say: “My family is destroyed. Everything is destroyed only because of this shameful girl. Even after death I am destroyed because of her.”

So the father blames his daughter, not his son for killing her. You see where the son got it from.

Stuff reports:

A Sydney-style lockout law that bar owners feared would cripple Wellington’s nightlife has been rejected. 

Police and public health officials wanted the Wellington District Licensing Committee to impose a 3am lockout condition on Siglo bar, in Courtenay Place, which was applying to renew its 4am licence.

Police and bar owners have been anxiously awaiting the committee’s decision on what all sides regarded as a test case for the city licensing laws.

On Thursday it granted Siglo a 4am licence and rejected the one-way door condition, which would have prevented anyone entering or returning to the bar after 3am. Those already inside could have stayed until 4am.

The committee accepted that alcohol-related harm was a problem in Courtenay Place, but it was not satisfied a lockout would reduce that harm “by more than a negligible degree”.

This is a good outcome. As I have previously blogged the Police have been trying to usurp the powers of law makers and unilaterally determine licensing hours. Parliament voted against having a one way door condition policy and so did the Wellington City Council. But the Police has threatened license holders they they want them to agree to one, or have the Police object to their licence. That threat has been neutralised now by the Wellington District Licensing Committee.

This reinforces for me that the abuse of their powers by the Police should see a law change. Their role should be changed to merely reporting on how a license holder has complied with the law, rather than advocating what they think the hours should be.

Wellington area commander Inspector Chris Bensemann said the decision would be carefully reviewed before police decided whether to appeal. 

I doubt an appeal will be successful as the Police case has no evidence behind it at all.

The 2nd US Presidential debate was a terrible ugly debate, at least at first. To have one candidate get up and proclaim that the spouse of the other candidate is a rapist was so ugly. Especially when the spouse is a former US President, and sitting in the audience with his daughter.

Yes Juanita Broaddrick has made allegations that Bill Clinton raped her in 1978 but as it happens there is also an accusation of rape against Donald Trump. Thank God Hillary Clinton didn’t respond by bringing that up. These allegations should be dealt with in court, not in political debates.

Almost as bad a lowlight was Trump proclaiming that if he wins the election, Hillary Clinton will be in jail. This is what you might expect in Uganda politics, not the US. To have someone seeking the most powerful job in the world proclaim he will jail his political opponent is chilling.

It made his casual dismissal of his Vice-Presidential candidate’s remarks on Syria as totally wrong, as less important than they normally would be.

However despite all this, the second debate was actually better for Trump that the first one. If you put aside the awful first 20 to 30 minutes, he was far more effective in attacking the foreign and domestic policies of Clinton and Obama. He didn’t allow her to get inside his head this time and make it all about his business record. And even on the issue of his taxes, he responded quite well.

To some degree they both came out of the debate having done what they needed to do.

There was incredible pressure on Trump with the 2005 video tape. His entire campaign was seen to be on the brink of collapse, yet he got through the debate with a better performance than in the first one. His ugly ugly remarks about the Clintons probably went down well with his core supporters.

As for Clinton, she mainly played defence, interrupting Trump rarely. She didn’t need to. She now has a commanding lead in the polls and just had to get through the debate. She is perhaps fortunate that the Wikileaks leaks of her speeches were released around the time of the Trump tape. If they had come out during the primary against Bernie Sanders, she may have lost to him. They show her as very friendly to Wall Street (saying bankers are best placed to regulate themselves) and also as a rampant free trader (which is great, except contradicts her phony position on TPP).

It could have been even uglier. The Trump campaign tried to have the accusers against Bill Clinton seated next to him, so they could confront him. This really would have turned it into the Jerry Springer show.  It still ranks as the worst debate I have ever watched in a democracy.

Audrey Young had done 10 reasons Helen Clark didn’t become UN Secretary-General. They are:

1. State of Origin I: She was not from Eastern Europe
2. State of Origin II: She was not from Europe at all
3. Leadership Style: Guterres is seen as a warmer character than Clark.
4. Refugee crisis: Helped Guterres.
5. Reform agenda: P5 not want a reformer
6. No advantage: Security Council not into “turn for a woman”
7. Head start: Clark started campaigning too late
8. US opposition: US not forgiven her for the 80s
9. UK’s passive support: UK supportive but not a champion
10. No momentum: Clark’s support declined.

The Herald reports:

Air New Zealand will begin rolling out inflight wifi on its jet services next year, starting with transtasman flights.

Chief executive Christopher Luxon said “Air New Zealand is in the final stages of commercial negotiations with suppliers.

Proving flights would begin in the second half of 2017 and internet services progressively available on Tasman, Pacific Island and long haul jet fleets from the end of next year, said Luxon.

The airline is negotiating with Inmarsat and Panasonic Avionics. Internet connectivity wil be supplied by Inmarsat’s new global GX satellite constellation and integrated with Air New Zealand’s in-cabin Panasonic Avionics technology.

Domestic New Zealand jet services were likely to offer a wifi service from 2018.

Long overdue. Hopefully it will be priced at a sane level.

Stuff reports:

It was just a scraped knee. So three-year-old Ashley Pacheco’s Venezuelan parents did what parents do: They gave her a hug, cleaned the wound twice with rubbing alcohol and thought no more of it.

Two weeks later, the little girl writhed screaming in a hospital bed. Her breathing came in ragged gasps as she begged passing patients for a sip of water.

Her mother stayed day and night in the trauma unit. She kept Ashley on an empty stomach in case she might cut in front of hundreds of other patients for emergency surgery in one of the hospital’s few functioning operating rooms.

Her father scoured Caracas for scarce antibiotics to fight the infection spreading through his daughter’s body. They had no idea how much worse it was going to get.

If Venezuela has become dangerous for the healthy, it is now deadly for those who fall ill.

One in three people admitted to public hospitals last year died, the government reports. The number of operational hospital beds has fallen by 40 per cent since just 2014. And as the economy fails, the country is running short on 85 per cent of medicines, according to the national drugstore trade group.

One in three admitted to hospital now die!!! In NZ the figure is 1.48%.

What is so appalling isn’t just that Venezuela has ended up in this state, but the Government refuses to acknowledge its policies are failing and they are doubling down on them rather than take steps to help the people suffering.

“I really don’t know of any other country where things have deteriorated so quickly, to such an incredible extent,” said Rafael Perez-Escamilla, a Yale University School of Public Health professor who has worked in Latin America and Africa. “Venezuela’s health system was a model for Latin America. Now you are seeing an implosion where people cannot get basic care.”

This was all preventable. This is not a country that never had a strong economy and healthcare system. Their policies have led to this.

The left-wing administration of President Nicolas Maduro calls the medical crisis an invention peddled by opponents of the country’s 17-year-old socialist revolution. The week Ashley was hospitalised, Maduro went on television and called on Venezuelans to start growing medicinal herbs.

What a terrible man.

The government has refused to let in humanitarian aid. So donations of medical supplies sit in warehouses and shipping containers in countries including the US, Spain and Panama.

Appalling.

A guest post by GROTIBCW:

ELECTORAL FRAUD — WILL IT EXPLODE THIS ELECTION

Its easy and we posted earlier that it is happening.
https://www.facebook.com/Noislandbaycycleway/posts/1143346702410849

How widespread time will tell. The above post talked about intercepting postal ballots and voting using some one else’s ballot paper. This post talks about overseas voting and the potential for easy fraud.

Overseas special votes are one area the Greens have always targeted and done better at it than any other party at national, and presumably local body elections. Remember it is often the Greens that get an extra seat or two well after national election night, when “Special Votes”, usually from overseas voters or those not in the electorate on voting day, are fully counted.

Its usually the fringe parties that focus on benefiting from this voter segment. But with the MoU between Labour and Greens once could say that Labour will benefit in both local body and national elections. Lester with his open and public endorsement by Greens might be feeling happy.

Overseas and postal votes are increasing. Here is a paper from a Maori voter perspective done under the aegis of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University which has some interesting statistics.

http://ips.ac.nz/publications/files/759b2c8f278.pdf

___
“The first major leap in the total overseas vote came in the 2002 election. In June of that year, the chief electoral officer announced that overseas voters would be able to download their papers from the internet and fax them back to New Zealand to record their vote. The result was that the number of New Zealanders enrolled overseas jumped from 18,000 to over 30,000 and the number of overseas votes cast
rose 47% to nearly 17,000.

Sensing the potential for overseas votes, the political parties scrambled to entice them. ACT leader Richard Prebble speculated that there were as many as 250,000 potential expatriate New Zealand voters around the world, while Labour Party president Mike Williams suggested that there were ‘hundreds of thousands’ of potential voters in Australia alone. Prebble went so far as to predict that the new laws could lead to a ten-fold increase in the overseas vote. He announced that ACT would send its MPs to campaign in Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom and that it planned to contact 100,000 New Zealanders abroad via email (ACT New Zealand press release, 13 June 2002).

The Green Party based candidates in London and Sydney, and Labour placed advertisements in overseas magazines, launched a website, and made use of its London branch and its links with the Australian Labor Party. National also targeted overseas voters via a website and permission-based emailing lists, although its campaign director was sceptical of the value of sending MPs overseas to campaign.

The other notable exception to this excitement was New Zealand First, which preferred to put all its efforts into securing local votes”
___

Also at the last election, an attempt to create an Expatriate Party was made on the basis that about 20% of NZ population lives overseas.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/236378/party-wants-to-%27galvanise%27-expatriates

But the Green Party with the international Green movement and focus on climate change has the most success in this area. As evidenced by them repeatedly winning extra seats after special votes (that include overseas votes) are counted.

The Green party also has as its natural constituency young, idealistic (and dare we say it – naive) voters who are easy fodder to target. Their need social acceptance and virtue signalling and the fact that they are overseas and will not pay any of the taxes and tax increases (which are the usual consequence of implementing Green policies) here makes them more likely to vote Green and for Green Policies without thinking too much about impact on resident tax payers or rate payers.

The Green Party has organised “enrolment parties” overseas at pubs over wine, beer and skittles to encourage supporters to enrol.
https://kiwigreensuk.wordpress.com/2014/07/31/cheers-to-voting/

Greens also ran voting parties during the 2014 elections to get people to vote electronically with their Print->Tick->Snap->Upload->Green in Govt! campaign. See Pic 1 below and here https://goo.gl/btYMal

When the voting systems were First Past the Post, it did not matter much because fringe parties could NOT pick up a seat easily. With the MMP system they can add 1-2 candidates, or more, easily–as proven by the Greens’ results in recent past. Under STV system for local bodies, overseas votes can be even more influential. Remember Celia W-B beat Kerry Prendergast by a measly 176 votes in the 5th iteration of counting. At that time she was supported by the Greens.

One of the other key factors in overseas and special votes influence on local body elections is the low turnout. At 40% turnout in recent times for Wellington, a zealous, committed and active voter base with a good communication system provides the opportunity fringe parties to easily benefit. Being comfortable with using online technology also helps. And the electoral system has made it easier to do this without appropriate checks and balances.

With the percentage of special votes and postal votes steadily increasing at national elections, this becomes an issue. It is even more of an issue at local body elections because voting is 100% by postal vote.

The biggest weakness with NZ enrolment and voting processes is its total, and in our view naive, trust based acceptance of a signature on a form, whether sent in physical form or electronic form, with out any need for verification of identity. There is an attemp to use the RealMe governement logon feature, but it is not mandatory.

The addition of online enrolment and voting options, and the fact that postal voting is becoming more prevalent, with no published process that checks for where these actions originated from, and who they were done by, before people vote or even before votes are counted are all creating conducive conditions for fraud.

If there is a suspicion that votes were rigged, political party or candidates’ scrutineers could raise objections and trigger a enquiry. Its no longer petitions but an expensive and lengthy legal challenge. But that has not happened only once recently. Parties tend not to progress this if overall results were favourable. Also because suspicion can only be raised after full count of votes, parties seem reluctant to be seen as sore complaining losers.

We think this will change soon. And either the law will be changed before a scandal hits or will definitely be changed once more scandals occur. And those scandals could occur during the local body elections currently underway.

To ENROL right now (rolls are processes are same for all elections), one can go online and enrol by providing details which are effectively name, date of birth, occupation, phone number and address (or last address if you are now overseas). One can opt for the enrolment form with those details included, to be sent an email address or a physical address.

The form needs to be signed and posted back. If being done electronically, the process allows the form to be printed, signed, scannned and upload (or posted). One can use a RealMe account to do this, but it is not mandatory.

To VOTE in national elections you just need to provide you name date of birth and address to obtain a ballot paper either electronically or by post. Which you vote, sign, scan and upload or post back.

To VOTE in local body elections which is a fully postal vote, you can ask for your a physical pre-printed ballot paper to be sent to a different address locally or overseas. It is not clear what checks are done to validate the person requesting this is the voter. Once received you just tick, sign and post back. Local body elections do not seem to allow for electronic option (print-vote-sign-scan-upload/post)

IN ALL PROCESSES ABOVE THERE IS NO MANDATED NEED FOR PROVIDING PROOF, OR VERIFICATION, OF WHETHER THE SIGNATURE IS OF THE PERSON WHO CLAIM THEY ARE. IT IS ACCEPTED ON TRUST UNLESS SOME PARTY RAISES OBJECTIONS AT THE TIME OF COUNTING OR AFTER RESULTS ARE DECLARED.

There is another option. One of the ways of enrolling if you are overseas is as follows (from elections.org.nz)

“You can get someone else to complete the enrolment form for you, but:
– they must be a registered elector (ie, they must be enrolled
themselves), and
– they must print “Elector Overseas – signed by their direction” on
the form next to their signature.”

That is it ! So really any eligible voter can enrol anyone eligible to vote! At this point there is no proof required for identity verification, or residence.

If someone intent on committing electoral fraud is willing to take the risk to sign enrolment and voting papers they can easily do so.

It is a long and difficult process to identify and prove fraud. Although a recent high profile case has succeeded and wet bus ticket convictions handed out.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9511429/Aspiring-politician-guilty-of-election-fraud

There is talk about how fraud may be detected using statistical methods, but NZ does not seem to have a routine process of applying such techniques.
http://polity.co.nz/content/uncovering-electoral-fraud

All the while, the Green Party continues to resist all attempts at any tightening of the process.
https://home.greens.org.nz/speeches/holly-walker-speaks-third-reading-electoral-amendment-bill

We think the process is archaic naive and totally based on trust. It is too open to manipulation and any fraud is very difficult to prove.

THE ENROLMENT AND VOTING PROCESS NEED TIGHTENING UP. THE ABILITY VALIDATE IDENTITY IS ESSENTIAL. ESPECIALLY FOR POSTAL VOTING.