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Justice & Democracy

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Time for debate in NZ on discriminatory royal succession rules

Britain’s current dilemma over the discriminatory nature of royal succession will hopefully stimulate a similar debate in New Zealand. The timing is good, now that my Head of State Referenda Bill - to see whether Kiwis want to stay with the monarchy - has been picked from the Private Member’s Bill Ballot.

Rudman’s Dalai Lama piece a tad lame

I was a little disappointed to read Brian Rudman's column this week in the New Zealand Herald about the upcoming visit of the Dalai Lama. In Mr Rudman’s opinion our Prime Minister shouldn’t meet with the Dalai Lama when it could upset the Chinese Government.

Universities shouldn’t be schools for spies

It’s good to see the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) come out against lecturers being asked to spy on their students for the SIS.

NZ should assist boat people fleeing Sri Lanka

In 2001 the Clark Government stepped in and gave a helping hand to some people in pretty dire circumstances when we accepted a number of asylum seekers fleeing Afghanistan.

NZ should avoid bad US customs

Congratulations on Abraham Alawi for speaking out about being repeatedly singled out and searched by Customs when returning from overseas. This is a common complaint Read More

Green vote lifts in Germany

The German Greens are very happy with yesterday’s election result, with their vote rising from 8.1% in 2005 to 10.5%. Interesting, while the Green vote Read More

Secret agreement for SAS on Afghan prisoners?

According to Jon Stephenson in this morning’s Sunday Star-Times the SAS soldiers realise they are in for a tougher time in Afghanistan this time around. Read More

UN condemns attacks on Gaza

I welcome the report of the UN mission led by Richard Goldstone, presented yesterday to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The 574 page Read More

Unlock the camps

“Unlock the Camps” has been the call of Sri Lankan Tamils on demonstrations I attended in Auckland and Wellington recently. It is horrendous that 300,000 Tamils are still detained in camps in northern Sri Lanka. The response of the world community has been pathetic, given the scale of suffering.