Read this article on the NZ Herald website
The Government may well have acted beyond the law in cancelling the passports of New Zealanders intending to join rebel groups fighting the Assad regime.
Under Section 18 of the New Zealand Bill...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority’s criticism of Police for tasering a non-aggressive man in his own home reinforce the fears we had when tasers were introduced.
There’s too much grumping about the “coat-tailing” provision of MMP, whereby a smaller (lower-voting) party can bring in extra MPs (in proportion to their party vote) if they win an electorate seat.
The less accountable a public agency is, the more likely it is to become a law unto itself. This is true for the Security Intelligence Service. Only the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security is empowered to check what the SIS actually does, and to date it has been a pretty toothless watchdog.
I sighed when I read the Sunday Star-Times front page headline: “People-smugglers bid to sail first boat to NZ”. Here we go again, I thought. Another scare story playing to racists and those among us who are prejudiced against asylum seekers.
You would think there is a strong enough argument for an independent international inquiry. But not for our Foreign Minister Murray McCully. While visiting Auckland this month, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister GL Peiris made a point of thanking Mr McCully for refusing to co-sponsor the UN Human Rights Council resolution.
A lot of official Japanese communications must be picked up by Waihopai’s dishes, given the communications satellites Waihopai targets are geostationary over the Pacific equator near Japan. When passed on to the NSA this Japanese information would be used to serve US interests, not New Zealand’s.
It’s been a long time coming. Electrifying Auckland suburban rail has been talked about ever since Christchurch (1929-1970) and Wellington (1939 to the present) electrified their suburban rail.