Two a penny

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New Zealanders will have to pay more to get less under proposed ACC changes announced today.

An average worker will have to pay $300 a year more if the Government passes legislation to cut entitlements.

Employee levies are currently $1.

But if its amendment bill does not pass, the increase in levies advanced by ACC will be even higher. That will increase to $2.5110 per $100 of liable earnings.4889 if Parliament doesn’t accept it.1778 under the amendment or $2.47 per $100 (from $1.

Employers will face an increase of $1.89 if it does not.31) if the legislation passes or $1.28 a year in petrol tax and registration fees to $317.

The cost of owning a motor vehicle will increase by $30.28 without.28 with the legislative changes or $417.

The Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill includes a number of cuts in entitlements which ACC Minister Nick Smith said were necessary to reduce ACC’s liability.

The increases to the employer and employee level should be in force by April.

Many of the changes remove entitlements established by Labour last year.

The changes would apply to new claimants – current income compensation would not be cut, he said.

People, and their families, who commit suicide or acts of self-harm, will no longer be eligible for compensation.

Those included compensation for casual and part-time workers which would be calculated to reflect their earnings over the past year rather than past four weeks to prevent them earning more on ACC than when working, reducing compensation for loss of earnings for non-earners from 100 percent to 80 and holiday pay being taken as earnings and weekly ACC compensation not be paid simultaneously.

He would not say whether that was an incentive for people contemplating suicide.

Dr Smith said if someone with a family committed suicide the family could have been given almost $1 million in compensation over time. .

Suicide was tragic but not an accident, he said.

Compensation will also be automatically withdrawn for anyone who convicted of committing a serious crime and imprisoned.

Prisoners currently receive medical treatment and rehabilitation under ACC as part of their care.

Dr Smith said the changes were aimed at cutting ACC’s liabilities by $2 billion and would secure the long-term future of ACC.

“I’m actually reasonably confident that the package that we have announced today is what’s going to be required to fix it (ACC).”

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Police are searching for any trace of a young Auckland student who mysteriously disappeared last week. .

When he failed to return home by 10pm family members called police.

When the missing man’s family heard of the discovery they visited the marina and uncovered further personal items, including Mr Rayadurgam’s backpack and some items of clothing.

Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty said a cyclist had discovered Mr Rayadurgam’s wallet close to Westhaven Marina, St Mary’s Bay, around 8am the next morning.

Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Joe Aumua said the disappearance was concerning as there was “nothing to suggest Mr Rayadurgam was unhappy or unwell”.

Police air sweeps and sea searches have failed to find any clues about the young man’s disappearance.

Anyone with information about the case or anyone who saw anything suspicious around the Curran St end – under the Harbour Bridge – of Westhaven Marina is asked to contact Police immediately.

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It will be fascinating to observe Luke McAlister, should he play well and the All Blacks beat Australia tomorrow night.

For now, limited gametime and patchy performances mean he does not exactly reek of confidence. And perhaps that will prove the opportunity he needs to recapture some spark, on and off the paddock.

But with Dan Carter now responsible for steering the team from first five-eighth, moving out to 12 means there is less pressure on McAlister. I can’t think, ‘oh, I haven’t really played much rugby’ otherwise I’ll go into the game with the wrong frame of mind,” he said.

“I’ve just got to go out there and believe in myself and have the self-confidence to do well with the boys. It’s great to be named in the starting XV.

“I’ve done all the training and everything, to give myself that confidence.”

McAlister described the chance to run more from second five-eighth as “one of the perks” of the job, while his strong right boot should complement Carter’s left-foot kicking game nicely. It definitely lifts you and lifts that motivation throughout the week, when you are starting.”

The All Blacks’ last outing, in Durban, where they lost 31-19 to South Africa was characterised by some crazy attempts to run the ball out of trouble.

“It’s the same as the Aussie boys [Matt Giteau and Berrick Barnes] and gives us another option and hopefully we’ll be able to get the ball and Dan will put me in a few holes, which would be nice.

As the All Blacks backs ran drills at training yesterday with assistant coach Wayne Smith, the pack was at the far end of the ground, working on its lineout repertoire.

While “saddened” that the kick has become king in rugby, McAlister said he and his team-mates had to accept it and take a more prudent approach to dealing with that aerial bombardment.

It was teapots all round and the slightly worrying sight of forwards coach Steve Hansen literally having to move players like building blocks to ensure they were standing in the right place. There was plenty of variation but one common theme the ball kept going astray.

Nonetheless, hooker Andrew Hore said he was relatively pleased with how things are progressing. It was hardly the authoritative display you would expect from an elite international team in its last serious hit-out before a test match. . “It always goes well at training, when you’ve got no-one jumping against you and stuff

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A jury in the long running Taito Phillip Field trial has found him guilty of most of the corruption and obstruction charges laid against him.

Field, former Mangere MP, was found guilty of 11 of 12 charges of bribery and corruption as an MP over having Thai nationals carry out work on his properties in return for immigration assistance between November 2002 and October 2005.

He was also found guilty of 15 of 23 charges of wilfully attempting to obstruct or pervert the course of justice, alleging he tried to derail investigations into the work on his homes.

Field was remanded on bail to be sentenced on October 6.

Field, who stood in the dock, remained calm as the verdict was read out, but his family in the public gallery were in tears and expressed anger outside the court.

”Those most directly affected by the verdicts could never complain they had not had a fair hearing,” he said.

Justice Rodney Hansen paid tribute to the ”expert” way in which the jury delivered its verdicts.

It had been a ”demanding” and ”gruelling” trial because of its length, sheer volume of information to absorb and pressure from the high public interest in the trial.

”You did so with total dedication.

”You’ve all had to endure major disruption to your personal lives, whilst discharging one of the most important duties as citizens,” Justice Hansen said.

”All I can do is thank you most sincerely. Your careful and deliberate consideration of the evidence and the way in which you’ve approached your deliberations is evident to all those present in court.

Outside court, Crown prosecutor Simon Moore said the jury had delivered ”utterly explicable” verdicts in the circumstances.”

All the jury members were excused from being called for a jury trial for the next five years.

”This has been a really important case, and bribery and corruption strikes very much at the heart of who we are as a people.

”This has been a really important case, and bribery and corruption strikes very much at the heart of who we are as a people.

”It gives you some kind of insight into what went into this trial, which is certainly the longest I’ve ever done.

The Crown and defence closing addresses took about three days each to deliver and the judge took more than a day to close the address, Mr Moore said.

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A “serious balls-up” by Christmas hamper company Chrisco needs to be investigated by the Government, a rival hamper company says.

Hampsta New Zealand Ltd has asked the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to investigate after Chrisco Hampers claimed money deposited by their customers went to an AAA rated bank.

The money however, was deposited in a bank with a AA rating – a less secure rating.

“They are misleading customers.

Consumer Institute chief executive Sue Chetwin said that action breached the Fair Trading Act.

Chrisco said in a statement today it had understood the bank it had deposited funds in was AAA, but had now been advised it was AA.”

A Commerce Commission spokeswoman confirmed today that the commission had an open investigation into Chrisco under the Fair Trading Act.

“Chrisco apologises if this inadvertent error has caused concern to any of its customers and will ensure any material is changed to reflect this,” the statement said.

“Now that someone has raised it, because it’s a serious offence, they just want to say sorry?

“What about the 50,000 people that have got money with them and potentially gave them money on that basis?”

Mr Alway said his firm would continue to push the ministry to investigate the company.

But Hampsta general manager Gary Alway said Chrisco had claimed the AAA rating for the last 16 years.

“It’s a serious balls-up,” he said.

He previously raised the issue with Chrisco and yesterday made a complaint to the ministry and government ministers. .

“The New Zealand public need to have confidence in statements made by companies about their money and it would seem Chrisco has stepped well over the line saying that their bank. . . .”

The commission spokeswoman said the issue relating to statements made about AAA rated banks formed part of the investigation in Chrisco.

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“It is important to note that anyone can take action under the Fair Trading Act and that only the courts can decide if the Act has been breached and set appropriate penalties,” she said

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A 75-year-old woman was the subject of a more than 160km police pursuit with a twist on Tuesday.

The Taiwanese woman, who was in Te Anau with a group of tourists, left a gift shop wearing a jacket allegedly without paying for it before boarding her tour bus.
Constable James Ure, of Te Anau, said the woman had been in Kowhai Gifts & Souvenirs in the town centre and allegedly walked out of the shop wearing the polar-fleece jacket about 3pm.
Mr Ure gave chase, trying to get the Queenstown-bound driver of the bus to pull over to no avail.
Police were called, but the woman had already left on her bus, he said.
Meanwhile, inquiries made by the Te Anau police station receptionist led to her tracking down a phone number for the driver, whom she rang and managed to get him to pull over at Jacks Point 17km from Queenstown, Mr Ure said. .
Language barriers proved to be a problem when it came to interviewing the woman, he said, but the woman said she believed her husband had paid for the jacket.
The woman was likely to be referred for police diversion, he said.
Her alleged offending, subsequent arrest and questioning in Te Anau had interrupted her tour and late yesterday her bus was believed to be in the Mackenzie Basin, Mr Ure said.
People of all ages were prone to attempt to steal goods, he said.
Kowhai Gifts & Souvenirs owner Yasu Omori, of Te Anau, said shoplifting by tourists was quite common at the shop, but it did have good systems in place to catch light-fingered customers.
“She just looked like a very nice American woman.
A 63-year-old American woman was caught ripping the store off late last year.”

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New Zealand law allows significant human rights failings and breaches of international treaties, a report by civil rights lawyers to the United Nations says.

The shadow report written by former Council for Civil Liberties chairman Tony Ellis and a team of lawyers was submitted to the United Nations last week.

The report called for:

The elimination of extended supervision orders (ESO);

The Government to repeal the preventive detention laws;

The Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act 2005 to be repealed.

It said New Zealand could do better in many areas of human rights law and that there were several deficiencies in respect of New Zealand’s international human rights obligations.

Two weeks ago, the Government sparked by possible lawsuits from high-risk sex offenders on ESOs rushed through a law change to patch a loophole in parole laws.

The report said ESOs, which monitor and restrict the movements of sex offenders, were inconsistent with the Bill of Rights due to issues of double jeopardy and unreasonable search and seizure.

“These prisoners have already served their prison sentence, they have done their time and in some cases are then retrospectively sentenced again,” Ellis said.

The law was passed despite a report from the attorney-general that warned the law change could not be justified under the Bill of Rights.

It also condemned the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act, which was passed to restrict prisoners gaining compensation for ill-treatment while behind bars unless the money was used as redress for victims.

The report also took issue with the sentence of preventive detention, saying it amounted to arbitrary detention.

“This legislation is a disgrace in any democratic society and plainly a breach of the covenant and numerous other international instruments.

The law denied people who had been ill-treated a remedy, adequate or otherwise, the report said.

The report also called for:

The Parole Board to be independent and impartial;

An independent prisons’ inspectorate be set up;

The Bill of Rights to be given supreme law status, and section 4 of the act (which allows the Government to pass laws contrary to the Bill of Rights) to be repealed;

Improving the care of mentally ill prisoners and addressing the over-representation of Maori in prisons.”

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Ellis said while treating prisoners decently may not be popular, to do so was the mark of a civilised society.

The most recent report, delivered in December 2007, is due for consideration by the UN in Geneva in July.

New Zealand is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and as such supplies the United Nations Human Rights Committee with a periodic report on the country’s human rights status.

Shadow reports are commonly filed by civil rights organisations from other countries, but it has been rarely done by New Zealand groups.

It reports considerable advances in human rights, including key judgments by the Supreme Court, the passing of the Civil Unions act, the creation of an action plan for human rights and the creation of the Families Commission.

Justice Minister Simon Power said New Zealand was presenting its report under the UN’s convention against torture this month, and then the ICCPR report in July.

Ellis said that was partly due to funding his report was prepared pro bono and partly due to ignorance that such reports could be written.

Power noted the Human Rights Commission’s 2004 review found New Zealand met international human rights standards in many respects and often surpassed them.

Both included many positive developments in the protection of human rights in New Zealand, he said, including the establishment of the Supreme Court, the repeal of seditious offences, and reviews of laws governing policing and corrections.

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A Timaru teenager held up a dairy to raise the money he needed to get out of the Mongrel Mob.

Rhys Nasologa Senelale, 17, disguised himself and held up the elderly owner of Timaru’s Hill Top Dairy in July last year.

The two offences had occurred only months apart.

Senelale was appearing for sentence on a charge of aggravated robbery and a charge of injuring with intent when he appeared before Judge Brian Callaghan in the Timaru District Court yesterday.

Counsel Teresa Lawrence said Senelale had committed the robbery as he was in debt to the gang.

Senelale was 16 when he took a large knife into the dairy shortly after dark one winter’s night, holding up the owner, and taking $300 cash. He has since left.

He was attempting to get out of the Mongrel Mob and needed the cash to pay the gang so he could leave. Instead, he needed a structured, tailored sentence which would help Senelale and the community.

Miss Lawrence told the court prison was not a good option for the youth as he would mix with those he should be avoiding. .

Senelale was attending the Opihi Services Academy and the academy’s director considered he had real leadership potential, she told the court.

The injuring charge arose out of an incident in Temuka last October in which Senelale had punched the ex-boyfriend of an associate, breaking the youth’s jaw.

Miss Lawrence agreed it would have been easier for the court to consider a community-based sentence if there had been only one charge.

The victim spent three nights in hospital, had to have his jaw wired, and was forced to feed through a straw for a month.

When the victim fell to the ground Senelale kicked him about the body a couple of times.

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The assault had involved serious violence, with the king-hit punch leaving the youth with a broken jaw and lying on the ground unconscious.

Craig O’Connor, for the Crown, told the court the planning and premeditation involved in the burglary were aggravating factors, as was the fact Senelale had set up a possible alibi of having rugby practice at a close toby park.

He halved that after taking into account the offender’s age and early guilty pleas.

Judge Callaghan considered the starting point for the offending was a four-year prison term for the aggravated robbery and 2 1/2 years for the assault. There was the possibility he could become a successful member of society.

There had been quite a turnaround in Senelale’s approach to life, and the judge noted he did not appear to be an habitual offender. He said home detention was not an easy sentence to comply with.

The judge was willing to reduce the sentence further to enable Senelale to be sentenced to home detention.

He was ordered to pay $300 reparation to the dairy owner and $1000 reparation for emotional harm to the assault victim.

He was ordered to pay $300 reparation to the dairy owner and $1000 reparation for emotional harm to the assault victim.

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Veitch set to sue radio star

By JOHN MATHESON – Sunday, 22 February 2009

Veitch basks in limelight back on screen

Face-off may be avoided in Veitch trial

Controversialbroadcaster Willie Jackson is refusing to make a personal apology to Tony Veitch over allegedly defamatory comments he made about the TV star last week.
And despite the threat of legal action against him and employers Radio Live, Jackson last night refused to back down from his statement Veitch should never have been allowed to appear on a TV sports show last week.
Veitch is accused of six counts of assault on a female and one of injuring former girlfriend Kristin Dunne-Powell with reckless disregard.
On Wednesday he made his first television appearance since July last year when he was a guest on Sky's Deaker on Sport.
The alleged incidents, which cost him his high-profile TV and radio jobs, took place between March 2002 and January 2006.
Jackson made a number of comments relating to the charges Veitch faces and then said: "I don't want to see the mongrel on television.
Jackson afternoon host on Radio Live with former political bad-boy John Tamihere potentially derailed Veitch's comeback. I don't want to see the mongrel get any work. Stuff him.
"I just want to destroy his career right now."
understands Veitch has instructed lawyers to take action against Jackson and Radio Live. It's my mission to destroy him.
"I apologised on air within half an hour of saying what I said but if he wants to carry on (with legal action) it's not my problem," Jackson said.
Jackson last night said while some of what he said was "silly" he wouldn't back down from his stand that Veitch shouldn't be back on TV until his court case is over.
"What's the problem? I made a comment, I apologised.
"What's the problem? I made a comment, I apologised.
"But I stand by what I said about him not being on Sky TV. I said a couple of silly things about destroying him and I shouldn't have said that. But he should have to go through the (court) process first.
"Not that I don't believe in redemption.
"Tony was absolutely devastated," a close friend said."
was told Veitch was listening to Radio Live when Jackson made his comments. Willie also said that Tony admitted to all of this, which again, is not true.
"People were taking Willie's comment on board as fact. And angry enough to want to take legal action. .
understands once Veitch deals with the assault charges his legal team will pursue Jackson and other media outlets.
understands once Veitch deals with the assault charges his legal team will pursue Jackson and other media outlets.
"Matters in relation to media organisations who have proffered these false statements, including the ones that he booted her in the head, threw her down the stairs and left her unconscious for six hours will be looked at later," said Veitch's PR manager Glenda Hughes.
"We are aware that Willie apologised for threatening to destroy Tony but never once did he retract or apologise for the many false and wildly exaggerated statements he made."
Media experts said the comments could amount to defamation if Radio Live was unable to prove what Jackson said was true.
Radio Live boss Mitch Harris said he wasn't concerned by Veitch's threat of legal action and said he was confident Jackson didn't break the law.
"If they want to go and sue us then they can go ahead," he said.
Hughes said there there was "major concern" over how comments like Jackson's could affect Veitch's right to a fair trial.
"Readers and listeners, who are potential jurors, could be influenced by these wildly exaggerated and totally false statements," she said.
Meanwhile those close to Veitch contine to monitor him closely.
Last month emergency services discovered the former star in a "distressed state" when he was holidaying at the popular Coromandel beach resort of Pauanui.
Veitch had been with wife Zoe Halford before he went missing on the night of January 2 and was rushed to Thames Hospital following a tablet overdose.
In September he was airlifted to hospital following an earlier suicide bid at Mangawhai, north of Auckland.

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Unconscious skydiver lands on his face

By ALICE COWDREY Monday, 16 February 2009

A Swedish man who became unconscious during a skydive in Motueka is in a serious but stable condition at Hutt Hospital with serious facial injuries.
The 26-year-old was attempting his first solo skydive on Sunday morning as part of his training with Skydive Abel Tasman in Motueka.
St John Ambulance team manager Jon Leach said the man became unconscious during the descent and landed on his face.
Skydive Abel Tasman owner and chief safety officer Stuart Bean said the man's free-fall went well and, after opening his parachute, he had initially responded to radio communication which was part of his training. .
He was found conscious on the side of a hill in some bush south of the Motueka Airport. Subsequent contact was unsuccessful and the man landed about one kilometre from where he was supposed to.
Mr Bean said the business had investigated the incident on Sunday, going over the man's paperwork, talking through what happened and discussing if there was anything they could have done differently. Mr Bean, who has been an instructor since 1985, said he had never seen anything like it.
He said the man was young and fit and healthy and as far as he could see, there was no reason to have had any concerns for his safety.
Mr Leach said it was not common for St John to attend skydiving accidents as safety was always well controlled in the industry.
He said the incident would be reported to the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association."

. "You get the odd smashed ankle, so this was quite out of the ordinary