New Zealand Conservative

The hearings process for Marriage Amendment Bill has highlighted that the Select Committee is not particularly objective, and their biases have predetermined the outcome. That level of democracy continues with another bill in front of a Select Committee to consider changes to the Family Court, and Men who wish to recount their personal stories are being refused to be heard, or told to cut their personal testimonies out (according to a story in today's SST, not yet online AFAIK) So if you are gay, and wish to make a personal testimony on how your life has been diminished by not being given equal rights to the word "marriage", you will get a lot of consideration from the Select Committee. The media has been covering such stories and the sympathy they have evoked from the Select Committee. Yet, if you are a father fighting to maintain some level of access to your children, your personal testimony counts for nothing. Even worse, a quote from one select committee memb...

I see that progress is very, very slow in the secular institutions that are still keen to hide offenders from the public eye, perhaps to shuffle offenders from one place to the next, and to use name suppression as a means to protect the accused, at the expense of the victims. Story 1: Dr has sex with rape victim Patients deserve to know the name of a Canterbury GP who had sex with a teenage patient 25 years ago, a Christchurch judge has ruled. A 16 year old girl had been RAPED by some-one, and this Doctor was asked to treat her. He used his position of authority and trust to initiate sex with her instead. At least twice, according to the report. Can we really believe that was all, and can we really believe there was only one case?  If there were no name suppression,  other victims may have stepped forward by now.  And who else knew? Perhaps colleagues and superiors knew something? And just to prove the secular system is tough on sex crimes - a mere $1,000 fin...

It's only the first reading of the bill, but it passed 388 to 1 in the Russian parliament: a bill to ban the promotion of homosexuality to children and to fine those who do. Of course, there was a small protest of 20 people. It looks like this will ban gay parades, promotion on TV and other media etc... The Duma passed the bill in the first of three readings by 388 votes to one, and applause rippled through the chamber. “We live in Russia, not Sodom and Gomorrah,” United Russia deputy Dmitry Sablin said before the vote. “Russia is a thousands-years-old country founded on its own traditional values – the protection of which is dearer to me than even oil and gas.” The law targets those who promote homosexuality to children, and is designed to bolster family values, according to the MPs who proposed it. Similar legislation has been passed in several Russian regions over the past two years, including the city of St Petersburg, and now the bill looks set to take hold nationwi...

Hawaii upholds marriage as being between one man and one woman – In a day when elected officials and activist judges in many states across America are maneuvering to undermine the traditional and legal meaning of marriage, the clear thinking of a federal court in Hawaii is as refreshing as an island breeze. On August 8, the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii upheld that state’s definition of marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman – supporting the will of the people over that of a small group of activists and a recalcitrant governor. Yeh, right on. At least one state in America truly gets it. “Throughout history and societies, marriage has been connected with procreation and childrearing,” the court said in its order. “It follows that it is not beyond rational speculation to conclude that fundamentally altering the definition of marriage to include same-sex unions might result in undermining the societal understanding of the link between marriage, pr...

This kind of works in with Lucia's post on morality this morning. I just read an article on Canada Free Press . It relates to ObamaCare, but also has important quotes (I think) from great thinkers of the past as to where law and morality come from. And what makes a good law or a bad law. The whole thing is worth reading, but here are some of the quotations by great thinkers of the past. Heinrich A. Rommen in The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy, describes Natural Law by using the great Hugo Grotius’ definition: The law of nature [ius naturale] is a dictate of right reason which points out that an act, according as it is or is not in conformity with rational [and social] nature, has in it a quality of moral baseness or moral necessity; and that, in consequence, such an act is either forbidden or enjoined by the author of nature, God. Russell Kirk in Roots Of American Order describes the pagan Cicero’s Stoic-influenced theory of law: Human laws ...

At first and second glance, I find myself in agreement with No Right Turn .  And WhaleOil .  That can't happen often, surely?  So why are we all worried about significant changes to Law and Order in the NZ Justice system? For my part, I have little faith in legislators making good legislation, and when efficiency is the driver, I have even less faith.  And I'm usually a guy with a fair bit of faith. Just not in National . The biggest issues in this for me are the abolition of juries for being judged on any crime under 3 years (currently three months) and also that the changes to the presumption of innocence and right to silence are all part and parcel of a rushed bill with a very weird " compromise " that is looking and quacking like a duck, but I'd also accept that it's a dog. And we are all just slow cooked frogs.

Did you hear the one about the judge who let a child sex abuser walk free? She did it for a laugh. No seriously, she did.  She dismissed without conviction because "he makes people laugh" She also decided to maintain the name suppression order, even though he was guilty. Maybe she thought it might make his jokes less funny. But only when he isn't kidding around. I guess there were extenuating circumstances.  Like the crime wasn't more than 50 years old, and name suppression is hardly the same as "covering things up". And the Judge's final word on child sex abuse: Judge Cunningham said the consequences of a conviction would outweigh the gravity of the offence. NZ Herald: Judges can be funny too My earlier post on Name Suppression: It's time we had a point scoring system Lucia wondering back in March if sex offending is not being taken seriously in NZ : Key Words: Comedian, Entertainer, Sex Abuse, Blame it on drinking, No Justic...

You've really got to wonder about the discretion of whoever decides whether or not to prosecute a case. This foster mother case for instance, where an elderly lady who had fostered more than 50 children was prosecuted for not ensuring her 13 year old foster child stayed in school, shows a complete lack of judgement and empathy by whoever gave the go-ahead for it. Wellington District Court judge Tom Broadmore said the woman did not deserve a conviction and questioned whether she should have been prosecuted. ''It is not easy to see how anyone could have tried harder and over a longer period of time as a parent to get her to school,'' he said. ''It does make one wonder whether the prosecution was initiated without full consideration of the consequences.'' The judge said the woman, whose has raised over 50 foster children, had taken on the girl when she was two, after her adopted daughter all but abandoned her. He said the woman had tried to ge...

Justice Minister Simon Power is fast tracking new legislation creating some new offenses through Parliament. The changes were originally intended to fall under a wider reform of the Crimes Act, but Power said he did not want to wait . Why? One of the new offenses is to sexually groom a constable posing as a young person Can you imagine trying to explain what this offense is to a world war 2 veteran just back from overseas? And when he had digested why this law was deemed necessary he may have thought,"is this the really world I was helping to create as I fought my way up through the mud of Italian Peninsula". Actually I am a tad uncomfortable with this new offense - I know there are scuzzbags who use social media to try and seduce young people but having constables posing as a young person in order to catch these scuzzbags smells of entrapment. My guess is most young people are way too smart to be taken in by these creeps and most of the conversations are creep t...

Boy Racers. Mostly annoying and often dangerous, but I say that in largely stereotypical fashion, because the species is wide and varied. A couple of years on Judith Collins is reporting the success of her car crushing policy. At first glance, an 18% decrease seems to be a success. It depends how we define success though. I'm sure Stalin often had great reports on how the population was behaving themselves following 20 years of incentivising good behaviour. We shouldn't crow too loudly on how easy it is to solve complex social issues, because for 8 cents and a pine box per problem, we could be publishing PowerPoint Graphs that the department of Statistics would simply gush over. On the other hand , the policy seems to have a whole pile of caveats and exceptions, with the smell of hundreds of extra hours of valuable court time and piles of extra tax dollars spent to make sure we don't actually crush a car if it's going to cause extreme hardship, such as (in this...

A 14 year old has just been pulled over for drink driving . He was three times the legal youth limit. Three times!! This sounds serious. I think we are going to have to get tough on him and take away his license to drive, and raise the drinking age so he can't get drunk, and lower the youth limit so that he is at least 4 times over the limit. That will sort the issue. Perhaps we should crush the car. That will teach the person he stole it from for not keeping it secure.

This is what David Garrett fought for. We aren't talking about a punch up in a nightclub where you defend yourself from a bully, and we aren't talking about forging a passport: Matthew John McLennan, 18, admitted in Masterton District Court yesterday that he abducted a 14-year-old Carterton schoolgirl with the intention of sexual connection and attempted to abduct an 11-year-old girl. He told police that when he saw the 14-year-old, he became aroused and wanted to take her to a quiet place for sex – so he grabbed her and forced her into his car. The girl screamed, repeatedly pleading with McLennan to let her go, but he refused to stop the car. In desperation, the kidnapped girl leapt from the moving vehicle, tumbling on to the road. She broke her wrist, was left covered in bruises and needed seven stitches in her head. McLennan also admitted that he attempted to abduct an 11-year-old girl in Carterton last April. This is clearly a first strike offence, and the strike is...

Here's the situation: Forty-five people have been convicted of a serious violent offences since the "three strikes" legislation came into effect this year. Under the new law, which came into effect on June 1, 40 [types of] violent offences attract a strike upon conviction. After a third strike, a maximum sentence with no parole will be handed down. Police Minister Judith Collins said today that 45 people had been convicted of a first-strike offence, of whom five had been sentenced. There had been no convictions for second-or third-strike offences. So 45 people found guilty in a court of law of a violent offence, and this is the headline: 'Three strikes' law claims first victims Victims? I wonder if they can get compo for that? More to the point, what an abuse of the word victim. I'm traumatised following the vicious assault that the New Zealand Herald has inflicted upon me. If they continue to beat me over the head with mis-used words I will ...

I never knew this, but according to tonight's One News , if you're serving on a jury, the accused has access to your name, occupation, and address; and until 2008, the accused was allowed to take that list away with them (though not anymore; they're only allowed to look at it under supervision now). This was exposed when accused  George Baker wrote a letter to a juror who it looks like he fancied. It's alleged Baker contacted a woman juror after getting her details from jurors' list, exposing a loophole in the system. Under the law, the accused can view a list of jurors' names. People representing themselves get to see the list in more detail. Halfway through the trial the juror contacted police after a letter signed by Baker was sent to her home. [...] ONE News understands the letter wasn't intimidating, but in it Baker introduces himself and makes romantic overtures to the married, middle-aged woman I have to ask - why? Why aren't the names, addres...

"Dear old Agatha Christie had 'A' murder 'B' because 'A' was having an affair, and thought 'B' would tell. Now, of course, people write about their affairs in the Sunday newspapers." -- Crime writer P D James on the problems of coming up with motives for murder in the 21st century How about senseless violence for no apparent reason ? My heart goes out to Scott Guy's pregnant wife, his child, and his other family members. Also today, two police officers down and a police dog killed in the line of duty. Apparently, over a cannabis find? A grim reminder of the realities of policing, and a terrible day for the families. I feel for the dog handler too who will be crushed with the death of his dog, Gage. I wonder if we will learn if a taser could have helped in this situation?

Caught by the police for driving whilst disqualified from driving 35 times. " How on earth did you spot me officer? " Maybe it was just pure chance, each and every time?

"today we are taking an unprecedented step. Based on the belief that it is people, not policymakers, who know best, we are asking the people of Britain to tell us how you want to see your freedom restored. We are calling for your ideas on how to protect our hard won liberties and repeal unnecessary laws. And we want to know how best to scale back excessive regulation that denies businesses the space to innovate. We’re hoping for virtual mailbags full of suggestions. Every single one will be read, with the best put to Parliament" What a concept. Wouldn't it be interesting if they actually listed them all, bill by bill, statute by statute, with votes and comments attributable to each, nicely grouped and organised by a multitude of categories for cross referencing. Probably couldn't possibly read them all in a single life time, but between the entire population, they might get a good run through on some of them. Love to see that happen in NZ. See Liberty Scott...

The United Nations consider tasers a form of torture , and urge NZ Police not to use them on violent people not responding to the command to "stop". The thing is that Police have a right to self defence and safety in their job, and I'd hazard a guess that violent people are not going to respect the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in their interaction with the law at that juncture. It's not that such people can plead ignorance of the concept of human rights. Once arrested, they seem to understand them chapter and verse.

Police have announced they have saved 20% more lives by cracking down on speeding. This figure is based on a comparison from last years death toll . I wouldn't mind more analysis than a one-to-one correlation. What were the figures the year before? Well, 10, which were the "worst figures in 13 years". So that could be an aberration, rather than the norm. What were the figures the year before that? Three. See what I mean?

The recent "zero tolerance" on speeding is having little effect, and police suggest they may need to enter a new phase in order to save lives and reduce the carnage on the road. This long holiday weekend the police issued 15,235 tickets in the first 4 hours of the holiday weekend to motorists found going over the speed limit by even 4 kph. "We are ticketing people as fast as they can back out of the drive way", said Officer Paymore, "but the message doesn't seem to be sinking in. We've already had three speed related fatalities.