Posts by Rich of Observationz
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Hard News: John Banks: The volunteer did…, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Although, one could, if minded, donate to ACT, via the electoral commission, $27423 or something similar. Easy for the recipient to decode.
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Hard News: John Banks: The volunteer did…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Banks would have been thoroughly nailed if he'd tried it for a general election
Well, the texts of the two acts are very similar:
Local Electoral Act - 134 / False return
(1)Every candidate commits an offence who transmits a return of electoral expenses knowing that it is false in any material particular, and is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to a fine not exceeding $10,000
(2)Every candidate commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 who transmits a return of electoral expenses that is false in any material particular unless the candidate proves—
(a)that he or she had no intention to mis-state or conceal the facts; and
(b)that he or she took all reasonable steps to ensure that the information was accurate.Electoral Act s205N
(2)A candidate who files a return under section 205K that is false in any material particular is guilty of—
(a)**a corrupt practice** if he or she filed the return knowing it to be false in any material particular; or
(b)**an illegal practice** in any other case unless the candidate proves that—
(i)he or she had no intention to misstate or conceal the facts; and
(ii)he or she took all reasonable steps in the circumstances to ensure that the information was accurate.The only differences I can parse from that is that:
- the less serious offence (not having personal knowledge of the falsehood) carries a larger fine for national elections
- the time limit is three years for national, six months for localAs far as I can see, if Banks had behaved the same way in the Epsom election, he would have been fined up to $40k (I'm sure one of his backers would have met the bill) but could still have stayed in his seat. s224 (2)
Interestingly, I can find nothing in either act that deals with a case where the delay in an offence becoming apparent is due to a candidate's concealment of that offence.
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Field Theory: Olympics-eve, in reply to JackElder,
The men's road cycling race is going to be a cracker
Assuming plod don't get confused and kettle them. That's two Olympic sports that are illegal outside the games now. Wonder when they'll ban archery? Or javelin?
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My interesting factoid is that the 1948 Olympics cost GBP600k = GBP17 million in todays money. This one is $9bln (not including aircraft carriers).
234% inflation.
What do we get for all the extra money?
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Hard News: It's not funny because it's…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
I wouldn't buy (retail) internet service from anyone other than Telstra/Telecom (or Woosh, back in the day). Everyone I know who's done otherwise has had either:
- finger pointing exercises between the network provider and reseller
- crap customer service, because the way the reseller competes is to cut costs below the alternativesIf there were some wonderful technology in the network layer that only X had, then there could be real competition, but they're all running the same imported hardware and software, just at different settings.
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John Key:
"The minister has always given an assurance that he's complied with the law, and I believe that's been confirmed by the police today."
Is breaking the law, but getting away with it due to a time limit, the same as 'complying with the law'?
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Ok, so I goofed on the form. But I assume the local election one doesn't say: "here, make a rough guess at your election expenses. Don't bother being accurate, we won't hold you to it. And make sure anyone who's thrown you a big bung stays onside for the next six months"
That is not what courts do.
What about the UK system? They have an election court, anyone can file a petition and the court decides.
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Do similar laws apply to tax returns?
If I get an assistant to raise, file and bank my invoices, never look at a bank statement, and then have another assistant produce a tax return that says I made $25k last year, is that ok?
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an exclusive partnership arrangement between the provider of the physical layer and the provider of the services layers
That would be the efficient way to do it. Have a single community/workforce owned provider with responsibility for the whole stack and a license imposing minimum service standards as a backstop. They can't screw the customer because they're owned by the customer.
But utterly opposed to the ideology of neo-liberalism and pseudo-markets for natural monopoly services.
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I think we know who the police work for.
This is the form Banks filled out. Doesn't have a statement anywhere disclaiming the candidate's responsibility. IANAL, but I thought that when one signed an official form, one was taking responsibility for that being a true account?
Normally, a candidate is accountable to the people who vote for them as well as the law, but in the case, it isn't just a corrupt candidate, it's a corrupt electorate.