Submitted by Keith Locke on 13 August 2015 to the official review being conducted by Sir Michael Cullen and Dame Patsy Reddy
In this submission I will address the following Term of Reference in the Review.
Point 1. The legislative frameworks...
Why now, was the question many people asked when the Police announced that every front-line officer would soon have a taser. After all, our violent crime rate has been dropping.
The extra attention our Courts are now giving to Bill of Rights matters can help slow the erosion of our civil liberties which occurs when MPs play excessive attention to the “law and order” lobby.
As presently organised, our prisons are violent places, but it doesn’t have to be that way. One country with an enlightened prison policy is Norway, which has much less prison violence and a lower reoffending or recidivism rate.
By campaigning for a “Yes” vote Angela Merkel and her co-conspirators displayed arrogance, ineptitude, heartlessness, impracticality, and a hostility to the democratic process.
When I opened up my mailbox yesterday there was a NZ Post leaflet cheerily telling me that “The world is changing, so we’re changing with it.” Good news? Unfortunately not.