Stuff reports:

A Government offer to subsidise free doctors’ visits to children under 13 has been taken up by 96 per cent of GP practices throughout New Zealand.

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said the rate had far exceeded expectations.

“Of the 1012 general practices in the country, 96 per cent have opted in for free medical appointment, covering 98per cent of children aged under 13.”

That included rural practices too.

“It’s going to make a real difference, because families aren’t going to have to think twice about going to see the doctor,” he said.

The Government announced the $90 million programme as part of last year’s Budget, making children under the age of 13 eligible for free general practice visits and prescriptions from July 1.

I comment on this because a couple of months ago the Greens were claiming that the Government had not set the level of subsidy high enough, and that only 90% of families would be covered. I pointed out that the Greens were effectively calling for the level of subsidy to be set at the whatever the most expensive GP in NZ charges. The results show that the Greens were wrong in their claims.

The Herald reports:

An Eden Park group is urging Justice Minister Amy Adams to ban palm-sized alcohol sachets, which are being found scattered around the stadium grounds after big games.

An Auckland councillor representing the Eden Park Community Liaison Group is particularly worried that the sachets can be easily smuggled into events with booze restrictions, adding to the country’s already high rate of alcohol harm.

Despite widespread concern that came with their entrance into the market in 2013 – and police dismay at the time – the sachets are still available at some bottle stores for less than $2 each.

Councillor Cathy Casey, a member of the liaison group, said Eden Park management was worried at how many were being taken into the grounds at big events, despite liquor licences banning people bringing their own alcohol.

In light of the complaints, she bought some of the 25ml sachets and was alarmed to find that Cheeky products, flavoured in three varieties and containing around 0.4 standard drinks each, carried a relatively high alcohol concentration of 20 per cent.

Dr Casey was further worried that a powdered alcohol product branded as “Palcohol” could also soon be available in New Zealand, after just being approved for sale in the United States. On behalf of the group, she has written to Ms Adams asking her to intervene and ban the importation of alcohol sachets and powder.

No the Government should not ban a particular type of alcohol. Alcohol is alcohol and prohibition in the past has been a miserable failure.

Professor Doug Sellman, director of the National Addiction Centre, doubted banning the products would have a big impact on binge drinking but supported the call all the same.

Dr Sellman did not consider their low price a major factor but there was concern the sachets made alcohol more accessible, especially in public places where booze was either banned or restricted.

And people can pour vodka into lemonade. Will we ban vodka?

As for the so called low price, well is $2 for 0.4 of a stand drink cheap? Let’s compare. To have four standard drinks this way would cost you $20.

Four standard drinks is also:

• 1 litre of 5% beer
• 350 mls of 14% wine
• 700 mls of 7% RTD
• 140 mls of 37.5% spirits

So what is the cost from The Mill for each:

• 1 litre of 5% beer – $4.40
• 350 mls of 14% wine – $4.67
• 700 mls of 7% RTD – $4.82
• 140 mls of 37.5% spirits – $4.62
• 250 mls of 20% Cheeky – $20

So these so called low cost Cheeky drinks are not a cheap source of alcohol. They are a massively over-priced rip off. They cost so much the average tight student will never ever get drunk on them. Public health advocates should be promoting them, not trying to ban them!

The Herald reports:

In a move that has fired up parents, teachers in the UK have won the right to inspect pupils’ lunchboxes and confiscate unhealthy snacks.

“Schools have common law powers to search pupils, with their consent, for items,” Schools Minister Lord Nash said.

“There is nothing to prevent schools from having a policy of inspecting lunch boxes for food items that are prohibited under their school food policies.

“A member of staff may confiscate, keep or destroy such items found as a result of the search if it is reasonable to do so in the circumstances.”

But not everyone agreed.

Iain Austin, a Labour member of the Commons education committee, said: “With Britain tumbling down the international league tables and with a generation entering the work force with less literacy and numeracy than the generation retiring, you would have thought that teachers might have better things to do than rummage through children’s crisps and fruit.”

The row over packed lunches erupted after Cherry Tree Primary in Colchester banned junk food.

Outraged parents said this was unfair because the school’s menu offered “unhealthy” food including high sugar desserts like pancakes, cookies and mousse.

Vikki Laws, 28, said her daughter – six-year-old Tori – was not allowed to eat her sausage snack. It was confiscated and returned at the end of the day with a note from teachers. She said another parent was warned not to give her child Scotch eggs.

For f**k’s sake. The food gestapo inspecting your children’s lunch boxes to see if they personally approve of what you have given your kids to eat. Why stop there – send the teachers into their homes, to approve their dinners and breakfasts also.

Time Magazine reports:

“Britain’s Schindler” stepped up to save children while the world was burning

What if the only way you can be good is to be great? There are moments in history when people are confronted by moral choices so stark that they either have to take risks or turn away. In 1938 it became clear that the Jewish children of Europe were marked for extinction. All across the world, people came to know this shocking truth. And all across the world, people did what we all do—they turned the page of the paper, took another sip of coffee, shook their heads at the tragedy of it all.

Sir Nicholas Winton, who died Wednesday at the age of 106, realized the threat while traveling through Czechoslovakia. Great turning points in human history do not take place in public but in a secret chamber in the hearts of human beings. The heart must be awake before the dramatic action. Winton, a Jew by descent who had been raised as a Christian, decided that he could not simply shake his head and drink his coffee and know that these children would die. His heart woke; he decided to be good by being great.

Winton arranged trains to carry children from Nazi-occupied Prague to Britain. He became the “one-man children’s section of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia.” His plans were ambitious: He drew up lists of thousands of children and persuaded families to accept these refugee children.

So many people today are alive thanks to him.  But remarkably he told no one about it.

Winton kept quiet about his work, and the truth of his heroism did not come to light for decades. For almost 50 years he was silent until his wife found documents in the attic, and his story was told.

He didn;’t even tell his wife he saved 669 children from extinction. He saw his actions as ordinary.

He will not be forgotten.

The Herald reports:

Ron Mark is New Zealand First’s deputy leader after caucus members voted to dump Tracey Martin from the position.

Leader Winston Peters issued a statement confirming the change this morning, ending speculation that had swirled around Parliament all week.

The fight for the deputy position is seen as important in terms of an eventual successor to Mr Peters.

A vote on caucus positions was planned for March, but was delayed after the Northland byelection and Ria Bond joining as the party’s 12th MP.

Caucus voted on Tuesday and elected Mr Mark as deputy leader, with effect from today.

Very tough on Tracey who has been a loyal and hard working MP for NZ First.

Mr Peters, who is currently travelling to Tonga, was believed to have supported Ms Martin.

Like Colin Craig, Winston is discovering he doesn’t have sole ownership of his party.

Note I reported this outcome yesterday. My sources were correct.

Some very nice tributes to retiring Clerk of the House Mary Harris:

Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): I seek leave to move a motion without notice recognising the retirement of Mary Harris, the Clerk of the House.

Mr SPEAKER : Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is none.

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Well, we will ignore Mary, so there is no objection from anyone else. I move, That this House recognise the retirement of the Clerk of the House, Mary Harris, and put on record our appreciation and thanks for her years of service to Parliament. Mary was appointed Clerk in December 2007. She began her career in Parliament in 1987. Before coming to Parliament, she worked for the Department of Statistics, producing the labour force statistics in the household labour force survey – team. She was a professional violinist, captained the Wellington women’s cricket team from 1982 to 1986, and was vice-captain of the international 11 in the 1982 Cricket World Cup in Christchurch. She taught Brendon McCullum everything he knows.

I never knew Mary was a top cricketer.

Since Mary became Clerk in 2007 she has served three Speakers—Margaret Wilson, Lockwood Smith, and yourself, sir—all of whom speak very highly of her work and the leadership she has shown, in particular her focus on working with the Parliamentary Service to achieve common goals in the service of Parliament and parliamentarians. Mary’s last day is on Thursday, and I understand that she will be spending some time after that cycling around Italy before returning to build a new home in Ōtaki Forks and to focus on honing her goal of becoming an expert fisher. I know that we all wish her well for retirement, and that we look forward to a booty of great smoked fish being delivered to Parliament and tabled when we can at the next opportunity.

The role of the Clerk is a key one in Parliament. They need to have the trust and respect of basically every MP. They are the most neutral of officials.

Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour): I am pleased, on behalf of the Labour Opposition, to support the Prime Minister’s motion on the retirement of Mary Harris, Clerk of the House. Thank you, Mary, for your years of service to our Parliament—28 of them, starting in 1987. Your experience, as the Prime Minister said, has been in most sections of the Office of the Clerk, from the Hansard Office to select committees to the Deputy Clerk of the House, and then 7 years as the Clerk. Some of us were here under the previous Clerk, Dave McGee, who was considered the foremost authority on the workings of a Westminster parliament. They were always going to be big shoes to fill, Mary, but you have filled those shoes, and perhaps your preparation for facing the googlies of this place came from the fact that you were in the 1982 Women’s Cricket World Cup, averaging 41 runs in that match against our old adversary Australia. I am told that Mary is a right-handed batswoman, and that is the only time that she has shown preference between the right and the left.

Mary is our first woman Clerk and our first non-lawyer as a Clerk, and she has led the House through a great period of change, particularly technological change, with the e-committees. Some of us are still getting to grips with those changes, Mary. She embraced change, but not at the expense of Parliament’s enduring values. She has shown a strong commitment to finding new ways for Parliament to be open and accessible to the people who elect it, and we are the better for it. With Mary’s guidance there have been some important changes in the procedures for the smooth running of the House, such as extended sittings. Under her leadership, the Office of the Clerk has been described as a “little gem”—I think that is probably a pretty good description of Mary herself, actually.

MPs have come to regard her as an impeccable and impartial source of advice, and, like her predecessor, she too is now widely respected in Parliaments around the world. For example, Westminster, the home of our type of parliament, sought her opinion on their governance arrangements earlier this year.

High praise.

Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future): I want to share the sentiments expressed by others in tribute to Mary for all that she has achieved as our Clerk over the last 8 years, and the 20-odd years beforehand that she was a servant of this Parliament. I have often thought that there are a couple of essential attributes that a good Clerk requires. One is an absolute poker-face—to be able to listen to all of the debates in this Chamber, absorb their content so that the Speaker can be advised to make appropriate rulings, but never, ever betray a hint of prejudice or interest one way or the other in the course that the debate is taking. Mary, over the years you have proved to be absolutely inscrutable in that regard, and I think it is a tribute to your professionalism, your impartiality, and your skill that at a time when passions have mounted greatly in this House you have been often the one calm voice of order amongst us, so thank you for that.

I would be a very bad Clerk as my facial expressions would give away what I thought of what MPs are saying!

The House has been served very well by its Clerks. I also wish Mary well. I hope she has forgiven me for the several hundred amendments I authored and delivered to the Table Office during the Employment Relations Bill committee stage in 2000 when she was the Clerk-Assistant there 🙂

Trans-Tasman reports:

Opposition parties thought they had found the perfect stick to beat up the Govt on social housing needs, after TV3’s The Nation disclosed Aust charity Horizon Housing could be in the market to buy up to 500 state houses. It had those elements (profits going overseas, privatising state assets, “ foreign” buyers for taxpayer-funded housing stock on the cheap) which politicians regard as hot-button issues for voters. But Govt Ministers batted away the attacks, pointing out the Aust charity would be subject to the community housing regulatory authority, and then coming up with a quote from the Deputy PM of Aust (when the Labor Govt was in office) declaring Horizon Housing to be “an amazing organisation” doing a great job in Queensland.

It is only NZ Labour that has this strange hatred of the private sector. Other Labour parties focus on results and effectiveness. but NZ Labour instinctively think anything private sector has little or no role in providing Government funded services.

To rub it in the PM then cited comments from Labour’s housing spokesman Phil Twyford his party wanted to see a larger, more capable, empowered community housing sector. 

They want a larger community housing sector yet oppose all the policies designed to achieve that.

d

Stuff reports:

Delegates of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) voted in favour of a proposal to merge with the Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU).

EPMU national secretary Bill Newson said the discussions had been ongoing for quite some time and it was a milestone for the merger.

The new mega-union will have massive power in Labour. This one union will control 13% of the leadership electoral college.

The Herald reports:

Public figures such as Kiwi celebrity Jemaine Clement should seek the facts before sharing their opinions on the vaccine debate, an immunisation expert says.

Clement, best known as one of the Flight of the Concords duo, has posted messages on his Twitter feed backing Hollywood star Jim Carry’s anti-vaccination comments.

Carey’s own Twitter ravings to his millions of followers criticised the danger of immunisation, saying jabs poison children with mercury and aluminium.

In a series of tweets, Clement defended Carry’s right to make such observations, saying: “well I guess anti anti vaxxers are important too! My argument is about not closing down debate.”

But this has earned the oprobrium of Dr Nikki Turner, director of the immunisation advisory centre at the University of Auckland.

She said public figures had a lot of influence through their words and they should undertake some basic investigation before taking stances.

For example, in New Zealand, vaccinations no longer contained thiomersal, a neurotoxin Carry said he was against.

And in another story:

Dr Barham-Floreani insists that her position on vaccination is “pro-choice” rather than anti-vaxx. But the vaccination chapter in her book Well-Adjusted Babies (with which Miranda Kerr is apparently so enamoured) is heavy on anti-vaccination content, including:

She implies links between SIDS and vaccinations, quoting a “medical historian” who says, “there is absolutely no way a pathologist can tell the difference between crib death and death caused by vaccination.”

Carrey, Kerr and Clement are experts in acting. If you want to learn how to be a better actor, you should listen to them.

However taking the advice of celebrity actors on whether you should vaccinate your children is stupid and dangerous – it’s like getting medical advice from some bloke in a pub.

A very good open letter to Murray McCully by 28 NZ legal academics about the situation in Nauru. Some extracts:

As you know, in May and June 2014, five members of the Nauruan parliamentary opposition were suspended indefinitely from Parliament. For more than a year, five out of seven opposition MPs (in a 19 member Parliament) have received no funding or resources and have been unable to participate in parliamentary proceedings.

That’s almost the entire opposition nobbled.

During the course of 2014 and 2015, there have been a number of other significant incursions into the free speech of Nauruan citizens, including a 2014 direction from government to local media not to speak to members of the opposition, a May 2015 government directive to Nauru’s only internet service provider to block Nauruan citizens’ access to Facebook, and a May 2015 amendment to Nauru’s Criminal Code introducing a vaguely worded offence that punishes speech which has the “intent to stir up … political hatred”.

This is banana republic stuff. Stirring up political hatred is code for criticising the Government. And no Government should tell ISPs what to block, let alone Facebook.

The dismantling of an effective judicature together with the silencing of the media, opposition and even ordinary citizens on Facebook means that the government of Nauru is now virtually immune from scrutiny of its actions.

Yep.

The five suspended MPs have also had their passports cancelled so that they cannot travel outside of Nauru – a denial of the right to freedom of movement recognised at international law.

Appalling.

Over the past 18 months, you have expressed publicly on several occasions your concern about these developments and have undertaken to raise various issues with the Nauruan government. Nothing has come of this “softly softly” approach and the time for a more forceful approach has arrived. As you have previously acknowledged in relation to Nauru, there is a close connection between democracy and the rule of law, and the effective operation of the justice system. It is not tenable for New Zealand to continue in its role of principal funder of Nauru’s justice sector while democracy and the rule of law are in such disarray and while so many basic human rights are being denied. As well, given our historical ties to Nauru and our position as a Pacific neighbour, New Zealand owes it to the citizens of Nauru to do everything it can to encourage its government to restore democracy and the rule of law.

And it is in our sphere of influence.

1.    Make urgent representations to the government of Nauru in respect of its persistent breaches of human rights and its disregard for the rule of law and parliamentary democracy;

2.    Persuade the government of Nauru to:

• revoke its decision to cancel the passports of opposition MPs;
• lift the suspension of opposition MPs;
• restore freedom of expression and other civil and political rights;
• and refrain from further interferences with the operation of the justice system;

3.    If Nauru does not move swiftly to take remedial action, withdraw New Zealand funding from Nauru’s Department of Justice and Border Control.

The time for talk is past. Give them three months otherwise the funding stops. We should not prop up authoritarian governments.

UPDATE: McCully is seeking a meeting with the Nauru Government. Good, but we need more than a meeting.

Greece has defaulted on it IMF payments. So have three other countries. Know which they are?

Zimbabwe (2001), Somalia (1987) and Sudan (1984).

For an OECD member and fully developed economy to be in the company of those three countries say a lot about how monumentally badly their country has been managed.

Stuff has the speech here. Major aspects are:

• A Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill.  The most directive powers under the current legislation will either expire or be amended to provide explicit roles for councils and, in certain cases, Ngai Tahu. The new legislation will apply to a much smaller area and some core provisions will be updated.  It will expire in five years.
• CERA to go by April. Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will provide overall coordination, monitoring and advice on future use of the red zone. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will lead the residential rebuild, procurement and oversight of the public sector rebuild.The Ministry of Health and Land Information New Zealand will pick up other operational functions.
• A new entity, which we propose to call Regenerate Christchurch. The Earthquake Recovery Minister will work closely with the Mayor, the City Council and officials on how this new organisation will operate. We expect it will work along the lines of an urban development authority. It will deliver on both the Government’s and City Council’s objectives for the central city. We will work together to establish its objectives, functions, funding and powers – along with the appointment of a board.

Looks like more power going to back to the City Council, CERA to go, and a new urban development agency.

Also announced:

So today I can also confirm that Fletcher Residential has been selected as the Government’s preferred development partner for a new $800 million residential precinct in central Christchurch.

The East and North Frame Residential Precinct will provide around 940 new townhouses and apartments to accommodate up to 2,200 residents.

And there will be space for small-scale commercial activities to support the residential community.

For its part, the Government will sell seven hectares of land between Manchester and Madras Streets, from the river down to Lichfield Street, along with a small block in the North Frame.

Fletchers will progressively purchase blocks of land as the residential development is constructed and sold.

Construction will be spread over eight or nine years, and we expect the first homes to be completed within 18 months of a development agreement being signed.

We anticipate that will happen by the end of November this year.

Fletchers will be responsible for designing, building and selling the completed development, subject to minimum requirements agreed with the Government.

The townhouses and apartments are likely to be priced at between $400,000 and $900,000, but this will be for Fletchers to determine.

Christchurch’s centre was dying even before the earthquake. Getting a vibrant inner city going as a place to live, not just work, is crucial.

The Guardian reports:

These are challenging times for Europe’s centre-left parties.

Since last year’s European parliament elections, where the centre-right European People’s party (EPP) emerged as the largest bloc, there have been 13 parliamentary and presidential elections in the EU. Of these, the centre-left has won only one – in Sweden.

Following the ousting of Denmark’s centre-left government last Thursday, only a third of the EU’s population of 503 million is now led by a centre-left head of government or state. Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Malta, Slovakia and Sweden are the only EU members that are on the centre-left.

France won’t be for long. Hollande is toast.

Stats NZ has published accounts for all of local government for 2014.

They show taxation revenue up from $4.81 billion to $5.11 billion – a 6.2% increase – way beyond inflation. That’s an extra $300 million taken out of NZers pockets.

My proposal:

1. Have Stats NZ calculate the inflation cost for Local Government (LGI)
2. Pass a law saying no Council can increase their overall rates income by more than the LGI per capita
3. If 10% of residents petition for a referendum, then a referendum can approve a rates increase higher than the above

If you wish to be able to pay someone for the content you consume, and were reliant on global mode, here’s a few alternatives.

1. UnoTelly has a one month free trial for NZers
2. Hola – takes 30 seconds to install
3. Fast VPN
4. Hotspot Shield
5. Unblockus

I use Hola – it is great, and free.

UPDATE: Read comments below about Hola. May be worth avoiding.

Flicks has run a survey of NZers over which films are their favourites. The top 10 are:

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. The Godfather
4. Pulp Fiction
5. The Fellowship of the Ring
6. The Dark Knight
7. Forrest Gump
8. Star Wars
9. The Matrix
10. Goodfellas

Seen all but No 10. Happened to just rewatch The Empire Strikes Back last weekend. The best of the six.

The Shawshank Redemption is my favourite film and have viewed it a dozen or more times.

I’d have Kill Bill Vol I in the top 10. It didn’t even make their top 100!

They also have the 10 most hated films. They are:

1. Battlefield Earth
2. Sharknado
3. Twilight
4. Batman & Robin
5. The Room
6. The Last Airbender
7. Jack and Jill
8. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
9. Movie 43
10. Disaster Movie

Luckily not seen most of them. Actually loved Sharknado – but only because it was so over the top bad it was funny.

Mark Textor writes in the AFR:

Even outside of partisan party politics, enhanced by media megaphones, a shouting match is going on between a very few. Like many fights, most decent people are silently walking away to avoid it.

Most want the false and divisive constructs of politics to go away: Christian versus non-Christian, middle class versus others, country versus city, indigenous versus non-indigenous, bosses versus workers.

Promoting these suit the shock jocks on the right and outrage merchants on the left looking for micro audience-based sales. I find that this is leading many decent-minded conservative centrists to question their beliefs.

A modern alternative affirmation of conservatism is needed for those who have walked away from the shouting. Here’s a new one for them:

Textor’s statements are:

1. We respect the continuity, strength and certainty that the rule of law and our constitution brings.
2.  Conservatism is about resisting gratuitous change, but not resistance for its own sake.
3. Our economy must be managed according to the principles of a fair, competitive and open market, but the end point is not the economy itself but a better life.
4. If you are a citizen of this country, you have equal rights and, yes, equal responsibilities to other citizens and the country.
5. We will not tolerate the intolerant.
6. Those who obtain the privilege of leadership; be parental in nature: respectful and aware of true needs of those under your care, but be clear and consistent in your actions.
7. Work and enterprise brings dignity and the opportunity and vibrancy.
8. Conservatives conserve important things.

Not a bad list.

It says something about the culture of NZ First, that they seem to regard the identity of their deputy leader as a confidential secret.

Stuff reports:

Winston Peters says questions about New Zealand First’s deputy will soon be made clear, urging reporters to “be patient”.

Since Ron Mark returned to Parliament in 2014 there has been speculation that he may replace Tracey Martin as deputy, with talk mounting that a challenge had taken place this week.

This is like the days of the former USSR, where leadership changes were only announced some months after someone had died!

UPDATE: I understand that Mark did defeat Martin by one vote for the Deputy Leadership, after Richard Prosser swapped camps. We’ll find out tomorrow if this is correct, but heard from a parliamentary source.

It seems that Mark blames the Martins for his low list ranking last election, as he was seen as a threat – so this is a delayed utu.

If correct a shame for Tracy Martin, who I’ve found to be a decent MP. But the bigger issue is this is really all about who will succeed Winston Peters as leader. My money is still on Shane Jones.

The Herald reports:

The chaos caused by the new car registration system has led to it being labeled the “Novapay of transport” by Labour.

The party’s ACC spokeswoman Sue Moroney said minister Nikki Kaye needed to scrap the entire system after errors emerged in the lead up to its launch today.

The new system links each car model and make to a “risk rating” then adds a fee to the cost of car registration that is between $68.46 for the safest vehicles and $158.46 for lower ranked models. Previously, all motorists paid $198.65.

The system has caused frustration with motorists after computer errors impacting about 9000 motorists.

It’s not acceptable that there were errors, but let’s put this in context. Around 9,000 motorists were affected. There are over 3.5 million motor vehicles registered in NZ. That is a 0.25% error rate.

The individual ranking of each make and model fluctuates against a database of accident data at Monash University, an Australasian safety ranking system based on laboratory tests and information from the insurance industry.

Excellent – data based costings.

The idea of linking the cost of registration to risk rating was hoped to encourage motorists towards safer cars – a premise Ms Moroney said was flawed.

“It’s not a perfect science. The minister has implemented a system that pretends it is a perfect science and it will change behaviour.”

No one has claimed perfect science. What is being claimed is that it is sensible to have a higher levy for less safe vehicles, just as less safe industries have higher ACC premiums.

The Herald reports:

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant jihadists have beheaded two women in Syria for sorcery, an extension of the punishment which is normally reserved for men.

Well I guess that is a form of gender equality!

Many refugees say Isil’s strict rule was welcomed initially as a counter-measure to widespread corruption and banditry as Syria fell apart, but that it is increasingly resented.

A number of people, including teenage boys, have been “crucified” – suspended by their wrists in public but not to death – for failing to observe the Ramadan fast, which began earlier in June.

They really are not into this concept of separation of church and state are they.

The Herald reports:

A charities lawyer says charities can now speak out on political issues without fear after a landmark High Court judgment overturning the deregistration of the lobby group Family First.

Sue Barker of Wellington law firm Sue Barker Charities Law said “hundreds” of charities would be affected by the judgment, which follows on from an earlier Supreme Court judgment last August ordering the Charities Board to reconsider its deregistration of Greenpeace.

Both organisations were deregistered on the grounds that their purposes were primarily “political” rather than “charitable”.

Deregistration means that they cannot claim tax exemptions for their donations, and usually means that the Inland Revenue Department will no longer allow donors to claim tax rebates for donating money to them.

A majority of the Supreme Court in the Greenpeace case ruled that an organisation with charitable purposes could also have political purposes, depending on the objectives being advocated and the means used to promote those objectives.

It held that the objectives did not have to be generally accepted and could be “controversial”, and ordered the Charities Board to reconsider Greenpeace’s application for registration.

A Greenpeace spokesman said today that Greenpeace was about to resubmit its application “in the next few days”.

High Court Justice David Collins has now ordered the board to reconsider Family First’s case too. He said Family First would still need to show that its role was “of benefit to the public” by analogy to other cases, but he warned against applying that test too narrowly by comparing Family First only with existing charities.

I’m pleased for Family First that they have been treated the same way as Greenpeace. If Greenpeace are eligible, then Family First should be also.

However my view is that the definition of charity and charitable purpose under the law needs to be reviewed. I certainly think charities should be able to do advocacy that is related to their charitable work. But if an organisation primarily exists to lobby for law and policy changes, then they should no more be eligible to be a charity, than a political party would be.

The Telegraph reports:

The ‘Greek bailout fund’ campaign was started by 29-year-old London-based Thom Feeney, who says Greece would be better letting “the people” decide its fate rather than European ministers.

It has attracted funds from almost 8,000 investors – and is rising by the minute.

“The European Union is home to 503 million people, if we all just chip in a few Euro then we can get Greece sorted and hopefully get them back on track soon. Easy,” he writes on crowdfunding website Indiegogo.