Posts by Graeme Edgeler
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I am not sure why your post is titled "Hillary marches fourth"
A subtle distinction - but it was Hillary Marches fourth - the upper-case M pointing to the date March 4th - when Texas and Ohio hold their primaries (both pretty much must wins for Clinton).
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though of course what is average is a matter of debate, skewed by the fact that many in New Zealand effectively pay no tax whatsoever
I assume we're talking about people who pay tax but get support like working for families which outweighs this. Such people aren't effectively paying no tax, they're paying negative tax, and tax cuts can and would provide them benefit - they'd end up with a more negative tax burden.
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Snowy (Milo in the French)
I thought Milou...
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Which was roughly the point of Frewen's column. He's always bagging the gallery for ignoring the actual legislative process...
I've heard or read some of these, but it never quite seemed to stack up with Today in Parliament, which is mostly - sometimes exclusively - about question time.
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The number of people I've seen getting hurt (receiving 'bodily harm') whilst being expelled from bars is quite a lot, but I've seldom heard of any prosecutions. Is that because defence of land quickly turns into defence of the person when the person being removed fights the 'reasonable force', and the bar for reasonableness is lowered?
One reason might be that people don't often complain to the police :-)
And those who do, and then have bouncers questioned might just have flat denials backed up by other bouncers and insufficient evidence to prosecute.
You're largely right about the latter effect too. If you fear for your safety, or the safety of others the level of force that is deemed reasonable is raised.
On to other 'fun' defences:
60 Discipline on ship or aircraft
(1) The master or officer in command of a ship on a voyage or the pilot in command of an aircraft on a flight is justified in using and ordering the use of force for the purpose of maintaining good order and discipline on board his ship or aircraft if he believes on reasonable grounds that the use of force is necessary, and if the force used is reasonable in the circumstances.
Cue horror that children face less discipline from their parents than passengers or ships or aircraft do from masters of ship on voyage, and pilots of aircraft in flight...
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Steven - I'm pretty sure it's still there :-)
**56 Defence of land or building**
Every one in peaceable possession of any land or building, and every one lawfully assisting him or acting by his authority, is justified in using reasonable force to prevent any person from trespassing on the land or building or to remove him therefrom, if he does not strike or do bodily harm to that person.
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Its not as if the last consul wasn't a partner in a large NZ law firm as well as a National Party MP while holding that post. At least this guy actually lives there part of the year round.
You've got it backward, I'm afraid.
Richard Worth is the Consul for Monaco, to New Zealand (and he used to be Consul for Colombia).
Owen Glenn is being consider for the post of Consul to Monaco, for New Zealand.
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Have penalties for wilful damage kept pace with inflation?
Largely. The fine was $1000 in 1981 when enacted, and this was increased to $2000 from 1998.
I would note that the penalty for the new tagging offence is lower than the maximum penalty for wilful damage. The penalty for wilful damage under the Summary Offences Act is a fine of $2000 or 3 months imprisonment, the proposed penalty for tagging is a fine of $2000 or a community sentence.
The penalty for Billsticking, defacing, etc (which includes spraying any structure) is $200 (increased from $100 from 1998).
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current information is "angry man stabs youth. youth dies".
even if the verdict is watered down, it's murder in my books.
What if the story is, man hears people (more than one) vandalising his property, goes out to confront them and get them to stop. Fearing being attacked when he does - he's middle-aged, they're presumably young; he's alone, they're at least two - he grabs something from the kitchen. He's not intending to use it, not even in self defence, just to stop it getting that far because they'll think setting on him's not worth the risk. He tells them to clear off, they don't, things get heated, some shoving or something, he fears for his safety if not his life, someone gets stabbed.
Still murder? Manslaughter? Self-defence (i.e. nothing)?
You can't use much force to defend your property, but you can use it to defend yourself when you fear for yourself because you're protecting your property. It's a fine line - let's not jump to conclusions either way.
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It took a while for Labor to catch up with John Howard, but they did it in the end.
Good evening. My name is John Howard and I’m speaking to you from Sydney, Australia, host-city of the year 2000 Olympic Games. At this important time and in an atmosphere of international goodwill and national pride, we here in Australia, all of us, would like to make a statement before all nations.
Australia, like many countries in the New World, is intensely proud of what it has achieved in the past 200 years. We have a vibrant and resourceful people. We share a freedom born in the abundance of nature, the richness of the earth, the bounty of the sea. We are the world’s biggest island. We have the world’s longest coastline. We have more animal species than any other country. Two-thirds of the world’s birds species are native to Australia. We are one of the few countries on earth with our own sky. We are a fabric woven of many colours and it’s this that gives us our strength.
However, these achievements have come at great cost.
We have been here for 200 years, but before that there was a people living here.
For over 40,000 years they lived in perfect balance with the land. There were many Aboriginal nations, just as there were many Indian nations in North America and across Canada, as there were many Maori tribes in New Zealand, and Incan and Mayan peoples in South America.
These indigenous Australians lived in areas as different from one another as Scotland is from Ethiopia. They lived in an area the size of Western Europe. They didn’t even share a common language. Yet, they had their own laws, their own beliefs, their own ways of understanding.
We destroyed this world.
We often didn’t mean to do it. Our forebears, fighting to establish themselves in what they saw as a harsh environment, were creating a national economy. But the Aboriginal world was decimated. A pattern of disease and dispossession was established. Alcohol was introduced. Social and racial differences were allowed to become fault-lines. Aboriginal families were broken up. Sadly, Aboriginal health and education are responsibilities we have yet to address successfully.
I speak for all Australians in expressing a profound sorrow to the Aboriginal people. I am sorry. We are sorry.
Let the world know and understand that it is with this sorrow, that we as a nation will grow and seek a better, a fairer and a wiser future. Thank you.