Posts by Graeme Edgeler
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But almost as important is the fact that the question did not explicitly seek such a repeal. It was ambiguous; it begged an opinion without actually proposing an action.
It would have been odd for the question to seek repeal. The question for the referendum and proceess for holding it started well before the law was passed.
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Legal Beagle: The Ray Avery case; or…, in reply to Rick Shera,
In relation the criminal side of things, I agree it's strange that s22 (criminal harm offence) doesn't have an express reference to NZBORA when it'll often be a more important consideration there than in the civil jurisdiction under s19.
I don't think its strange. Courts are always required to act consistently with the Bill of Rights. It's strange when they include it, as thought a Court doesn't have to act consistently with the Bill of Rights when it's considering a charge of offensive language! I considered that maybe it was explicitly included because of doubt that the approved agency might not be covered, as it doesn't really exercise any state powers.
As for defences, I agree we'll probably get there, and that Courts will allow a defence of publication in the public interest, but, for example, it strikes me as highly odd that to get civil relief you have to establish a breach of one of the communication principles in the act, but that doesn't apply to the criminal offence. If you intend to cause harm in which way which breaches none of the principles in the act, you can still be criminally liable, even though the victim could not obtain a take down order.
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Awfully nice of him to use FYI, but I suspect you'll be hearing from the government departments soon (if indeed you had such correspondence)
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Legal Beagle: A submission on the…, in reply to izogi,
Has any new party ever entered parliament under MMP without either a defecting MP or benevolent (but really strategic) help from a big party that's more interested in gaming the system?
Every successful new party has had an existing or former MP in it.
Benevolent help has never worked by itself.
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Legal Beagle: A Small Official…, in reply to FletcherB,
I understand that that's kind of what happened. The formal reply to the request was as tweeted, which was followed up by a call from someone in the media team saying that the information did not exist (which is a proper ground under the OIA to refuse to release information. The reply was apparently as it was as they "didn't want to set a precedent".
I'm not sure it would have, and am also aware of a time the Chief Justice responded to an OIA request.
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Legal Beagle: If Australia Jumped off a…, in reply to Craig Young,
I prefer a written constitution to referenda
If we ever get a written constitution, it will be voted in at a referendum :-)
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Legal Beagle: If Australia Jumped off a…, in reply to Craig Young,
Binding referenda are, as Graeme says, a waste of money and there are other, far graver public policy priorities for urgent expenditure
Please note that I am only saying that *non-binding* referendums are wastes of money.
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Legal Beagle: On citizen’s arrests; or…, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Is there perhaps some Law that states failure to prevent a crime from happening is in itself a crime????
Only very specific ones: failure to alert the authorities to treason; failure to protect a child or vulnerable adult (eg knowing of child abuse as a parent and doing nothing, or knowing of serious elder abuse in a rest home as a person working in that home and doing nothing.
There is no general legal obligation to report crimes, or to cooperate with police, etc.
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Legal Beagle: On citizen’s arrests; or…, in reply to izogi,
Could that ever amount to kidnapping under the Crimes Act or would it be more like a traffic offence?
I obviously have no idea what happened, but the basic requirements for kidnapping are detaining someone with the intent of them being confined.
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Legal Beagle: On citizen’s arrests; or…, in reply to EliotBlennerhassett,
Paragraph 3 seems to be truncated?
Do you mean paragraph 4, if so, I fixed it before you read it, but presumably not before you opened the tab :-)