Two a penny

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MPs are being bombarded with emails from angry voters as Prime Minister John Key resists a law change in the wake of an overwhelming vote in the smacking referendum.

He will today outline measures aimed at reassuring parents that they will not fall foul of authorities for giving their children a light smack.

A tired-looking John Key told Breakfast earlier today that a number of options would be discussed by Cabinet today.

But pro-smacking campaigners are demanding the Government change the law or risk a massive public backlash.

Though that would not involve a law change, it would give parents “a higher degree of comfort that the law as it’s passed .

Mr Key yesterday signalled changes to the way police and Child, Youth and Family staff dealt with smacking cases…. that good parents shouldn’t be criminalised for lightly smacking a child . is being adhered to”..

He said that telling every New Zealand parent that lightly smacked their child that they were guilty of abuse “would be the wrong message”.

Despite the overwhelming public support, any potential repeal of the law would still have to go through a select committee process.

“I’ve always said if the law doesn’t work I would change it, so its important we make sure that we can understand clearly and without bias whether the law is working or not,” Mr Key told NewstalkZB.

Mr Key said while there was a lot of emotion around the subject, police figures showed the law was working. They didn’t necessarily say they wanted the law changed.

“You can’t ignore when such a large number of New Zealanders express their view.

“There were 33 cases where there were complaints about smacking, one that almost led to a prosecution but was withdrawn – in the same time period 83,000 complaints about domestic or family violence.”

Statistics for the past year showed parents were not being prosecuted for light smacking, he said.”

Mr Key did not want Parliament’s time consumed relitigating the “explosive” smacking debate.

“I think we need to put it in perspective.”

Mr Key preferred putting in “additional safeguards”.

“You’d have to go through an enormous process that would completely derail Parliament. .

While changing the police operating guidelines might help, “there is still the fear that CYF will be knocking on your door for punishing your errant or misbehaving child.”

Kiwi Party leader Larry Baldock said Mr Key could not afford to ignore the results of the referendum, after between 1.4 million and 1.6 million voters ticked “no” to the question: “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?” That was 367,000 more votes than National won at the last election.

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Interest in rugby continues to wane according to a new survey aimed at charting the national game in the lead-up to the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.

Conducted by UMR Research and entitled “The All Blacks – Looking towards the World Cup”, the report surveyed 750 people, asking for views on the All Blacks’ World Cup strategies, support for coach Graham Henry and the likely players who would be involved in the tournament.

That was the lowest level recorded since UMR began tracking interest in rugby in 1993.

The results were released on Wednesday and showed that 60 percent were very or fairly interested in rugby at the moment.

Consequently the number of people surveyed who were “not that or not at all” interested in rugby hit a new high of 39 percent. It represents a 12 percent fall on last year and is significantly down on the high of 79 percent recorded during the 2003 World Cup. At 60 percent it was well above netball’s 49 percent, cricket’s 48 percent, rugby league’s 43 percent, rowing’s 41 percent and soccer’s 37 percent in terms of respondents being “very or fairly interested” in the respective sports.

But rugby’s place in the Kiwi sporting culture is still comparatively strong.

The telephone survey involving people over the age of 18 found that 53 percent want the All Blacks to win as many games as possible but 41 percent were comfortable with the All Blacks dropping a few tests if it meant building towards World Cup success.

The survey was conducted during the weekend when the All Blacks beat the Springboks in their Tri-Nations opener at Eden Park, might go some way to easing the pain of Henry’s side who have since lost consecutive tests to South Africa.

Henry’s support base had grown 3 percent since his initial reappointment in the wake of the 2007 World Cup disaster.

Henry’s popularity saw 64 percent of respondents comfortable with his recent reappointment through to the 2011 World Cup while 28 percent were opposed.

His aging squad will see several players aged 30 or more by the time the World Cup final rolls around. But with Henry having lost twice to the Springboks since the survey was conducted those figures might flatter the coach at the moment.

They were led by captain Richie McCaw 82 percent followed by Mils Muliaina 79 percent, Rodney So’oialo 69 percent, Keven Mealamu 61 percent, Conrad Smith 61 percent, Ali Williams 58 percent, Tony Woodcock 54 percent, Andrew Hore 53 percent, Jimmy Cowan 50 percent and Brad Thorn 50 percent. Respondents were asked to say who they thought would be in the team among the 30-somethings.

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A South Island man dying of cancer plans to end his life in the coming months using the controversial euthanasia drug Nembutal.

He is one of hundreds who have gathered over the past two weeks for Australian euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke’s workshops in Auckland, Christchurch, Nelson and Dunedin.

“Dying slowly is a terrible situation, where you are trapped in a body and there’s no hope. .

Nembutal is illegal in New Zealand except when used by vets to euthanase animals. It’s just agony,” the retired businessman says. Nitschke says many New Zealanders have also bought Nembutal over the internet. Nitschke, head of euthanasia pressure group Exit International, promotes it as the euthanasia panacea, and more than 15 New Zealanders have travelled to Mexico to buy it legally and smuggle the drug home.

John says that a while back a bottle of Nembutal was left in his letterbox he believes it was “an act of kindness” from someone in the pro-euthanasia movement.

The drug has been implicated in at least one death here that of a Wellington woman who was not terminally ill but killed herself in 2006 after buying it in Mexico a year earlier. It’s not a choice he’s pleased to make.

John, a long-time Exit International member in his mid-60s, plans to use his bottle to end his life in the close to future.

“I’ve experienced a lot of suffering and a lot of struggling to survive.

As a youngster, he suffered life-threatening injuries in an accident and has had two previous bouts of cancer, but he has always fought hard for life as a result of hopes for recovery. I’ve been there before to the edge. I well understand the trauma of pain. People have said to me, `When you were so sick, why didn’t you opt to die?”‘

This time is different. It’s a very, very lonely place but I’ve always opted for life.

“I don’t hold any false hope of recovery. Doctors told him recently his cancer has spread to his lungs and he has about six months to live. I’m overrun with the cancer. It’s pretty much over now. “My wife and I are so close.”

Now, John’s focus is on mitigating the suffering of himself and his wife. That alone makes this hard. That alone makes this hard. But neither one of us wants for the other to go through protracted suffering.” He hates the thought of taking his own life without his wife present, but fears she will face charges for assisting his suicide if discovered.

“Why should she be prosecuted? It’s preposterous.”

So he plans to protect his wife by penning a suicide note to ensure people know he, and he alone, ended his life. Possible public vilification has also meant the couple haven’t told family or friends of John’s intentions.

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Special effects wizards Weta Digital have scored $5.8 million in Government funding for a research partnership.

“It’s about growing new products and processes for export.

Science and Technology Minister Wayne Mapp said Weta’s investment would be on a basis of at least two-for-one.

Over the past decade about 4500 New Zealand businesses have benefited from TechNZ support, but this is the first time the foundation has joined forces with a company in a long-term R&D programme. .

“Through the magic of the movies, billions of people throughout the world benefit from their expertise.

“Weta Digital has been at the forefront of positioning New Zealand as a creative and innovative country that can re-imagine reality on a global scale,” Dr Mapp said.”

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The Reserve Bank is leaving the Official Cash Rate unchanged at 2.50 percent, because of a “patchy” economic recovery and uncertain outlook. .

The central bank says official interest rates could still be cut further. The governor said the official cash rate could still move modestly lower over the coming quarters.

The expected recovery may not happen unless the currency comes down.” Dr Bollard said despite signs of a levelling off in economic activity, the economy remains weak.

“We continue to expect to keep the OCR at or below the current level through until the latter part of 2010.´ he said

“The outlook remains highly uncertain.

“We continue to expect to see a patchy recovery get underway toward the end of the year, but it will be some time before growth returns to healthy levels. New Zealand has not benefited to any significant extent from the rebound that has occurred recently in global hard commodity prices such as oil and minerals.” New Zealand’s exports are mainly in “soft commodities” like farm products.

But the New Zealand dollar and wholesale interest rates are higher than assumed in the central bank’s forecasts.

Economic growth was broadly in line with forecasts in the June Monetary Policy Statement as the low cash rate, tax cuts and greater government spending took effect.

“The forecast recovery is based on a further easing in financial conditions.

“The level of the dollar in particular, is not helping the sustainability of future growth, and brings with it additional economic risks,” Dr Bollard said. In these circumstances we would reassess policy settings. If this easing does not occur, the forecast recovery could be put at risk.

“We consider it appropriate to continue to provide substantial monetary policy stimulus to the economy.

Inflation was well within the target band and it is expected to track comfortably within it over the medium-term.

“We continue to expect the NZ dollar to be strong over the next year, which does reinforce the prospect of the RBNZ having to cut the OCR further,” he said.

ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said the statement signalled the Reserve Bank had increased its willingness to cut the OCR in response to the higher NZ dollar.

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Goldman Sachs JBWere New Zealand strategist Bernard Doyle said Dr Bollard’s statement contained an implicit threat that further dollar strength would be met with a rate cut

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Gisborne’s mayor says redundancies announced by several large employers in the past month could take the region some time to recover from.

Today, WPI International told 65 staff at their Prime Sawmill in Gisborne it would be closed, after a downturn in international prices and a continued high New Zealand dollar.

This followed Gisborne food processor Cedenco confirming at the weekend it was closing one of its factories, resulting in at least 125 seasonal workers losing their jobs.

In June the Pernod Ricard winery announced it would cut some of its Gisborne growers and a substantial amount of grapes.

A WPI shift worker said the company was closing the mill down over the next four weeks.

“Job opportunities aren’t the greatest, so any redundancy in our business sector is serious.

Mayor Meng Foon said the losses were “quite serious” for a small region in this economic climate.

“We’ve had three bombshells in the last month.”

Mr Foon, who was attending the local government conference in Christchurch, planned to facilitate a meeting on Friday for those who lost their jobs, or feared they may be redundant.

“Gisborne is generally slow to react to the international recessionary cold, but it has certainly caught up with us now and it will take a while for us to get back on top of things.

“(The goal) is to give people a bunch of information that will hopefully make it easier to cope. .”

The Wood Processors Association today said layoffs at the sawmill showed how tough the market had become.

“Some have never been to Work and Income before and it’s pretty foreign to them – so just to give them that support is saying `this is what’s available’.

“The point needs to be made very clearly that this is not a marginal milling operation.

“The point needs to be made very clearly that this is not a marginal milling operation.

“While the immediate impact is felt by the 65 mill staff, the wider community of contractors, loggers, truckies and many others who rely on the sawmill for their livelihoods will also hurt. This is a worrying development for the industry and shows how deep currency instability can cut,” chief executive Peter Bodeker said.”

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Former immigration chief Mary Anne Thompson’s doctorate thesis disappeared “in a black hole” after being sent to the London School of Economics, her lawyer said today.

Defence counsel Robert Lithgow was questioning the school’s academic registrar, Simeon Underwood, via video link at a depositions hearing in Wellington District Court.

Mr Underwood had not met Thompson and, under questioning, relied on the school’s records.

Thompson faces three fraud charges after applying for public service jobs in 1989, 1998 and 2004, claiming she had achieved her doctorate in philosophy.

Mr Underwood said the record “seems to be full up to the point where Ms Thompson submitted her thesis”.

Mr Lithgow suggested he was attempting to put together a jigsaw which had some pieces missing.

Mr Underwood today told the court he did not know where the documents were now.

Prosecutor Grant Burston said yesterday the thesis had been sent for examination in 1990 but no degree was confirmed as Thompson had not undertaken the oral examination.

“I wouldn’t share that judgment,” Mr Underwood said.

Mr Lithgow asked if it would be reasonable to describe the loss of a top level student’s thesis as an embarrassment.”

He said there may be an explanation which was not made clear in the school’s paperwork.

“Because the pieces of the jigsaw – as you said at the start – are missing. He asked whether there were circumstances under which the exam could be waived on extreme compassionate grounds.

Mr Lithgow said Thompson would have had to travel from New Zealand to England for the oral exam.

He said there had been correspondence over whether Thompson could do her oral exam in Australia as her supervisor was due to visit Queensland.

Mr Underwood had only heard of this being done once, “and that was posthumously”.

Two more witnesses from the school were due to give evidence via video link this week, with court sessions beginning early to accommodate the time difference. .

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Sarah Walker, who turned 21 this month, definitely came of age when she claimed the UCI BMX World Championship in Adelaide tonight.

Walker totally dominated the opposition, winning all three qualifying motos, her semifinal and the final in a brilliant display to complete her set of world championship medals.

She won the silver in 2007 in Canada and the bronze last year in China and she was never threatened in one of the most convincing victories in recent years.

“That’s by far the best I have ever ridden,” Walker said. . I have probably had the skill and ability to win in the past but I have not believed enough in myself. “It’s the first time that I have believed that I could do it.

“I’ve trained really hard for the last few months, and have been really strong in the gym. I just had confidence that I had the ability and I had done the work. As soon as I rode the track I was feeling my bike and was at one with it.

“I absolutely nailed it.”

Walker was delighted with her form not only in the final but throughout the day’s five rides. You have got to be happy with that. I won every lap today and was faster than anyone else in every round.”

Her only disappointment was that last year’s champion Shanaze Reade and Beijing silver medallist Laetiita Le Corguille were missing with injury.”

Her only disappointment was that last year’s champion Shanaze Reade and Beijing silver medallist Laetiita Le Corguille were missing with injury.

“I won every race easily and my times were pretty fantastic throughout the day. I would have loved to have had them here because I was riding that well I believe I would have still won and won really well.

Walker said she chose the inside lane so she only had one side to contend with physically, and while she did not get the same snap from the start, she nailed her first big jump.”

She was delighted with her sub-32 second time for the final, her best of the day. Then I just had to concentrate and not make a mistake from then on.

“I still had some track room in that lane and I knew once I really hit that first jump that I was in a good place.

He also praised the efforts of BikeNZ head coach, Canadian Ken Cools in his first world championship campaign with the team.”

BikeNZ High Performance Director Mark Elliott said it was an outstanding display by Walker, and reiterated that she came to the championships with a new attitude and belief in her abilities.

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“Ken has always said that Sarah is the most gifted BMX rider in the world,” Elliott said

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More than 550 Ministry of Social Development (MSD) staff have been told their positions are being axed, chief executive Peter Hughes said today.

All up, 558 jobs would be disestablished but a further 335 new roles had been created.

“The worst case scenario is 200 redundancies but I’m confident that we will do better than this,” Mr Hughes said. As well, the ministry already had some vacancies it hoped affected staff would fill.”

All those whose positions were affected had been spoken to in the past few days, and all ministry staff were told of final structure changes today.

“Final numbers won’t be known until we’ve completed the process over the next month or so of re-confirming people into roles and re-assigning people to new but similar jobs.

“We are focusing on moving our people into roles in the ministry that will achieve our overall goal of boosting the frontline and streamlining our operations,” Mr Hughes said. All changes were expected to be completed by early August.

However, CYF head Ray Smith said 12 new social worker positions to support foster families had been created, and new centralised administration roles established.

The 558 jobs include 80 positions at Child Youth and Family (CYF), with 12 administration service centres to be closed and a team of 18 child abuse education social workers to be cut.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett assured the public there would be more frontline social workers than previously, despite the cuts. The 12 new positions were included in the 335.

“We’ve got vacancies in Child Youth and Family right now.

“I think where we’re at is we want everyone out there talking about child abuse and we’re moving that across a range of roles,” she said.

“I think we’re going to be having more social workers on the front line. .

“I can absolutely assure them that the concentration is on frontline staff, on social workers that are working with those people that need it most, and that’s where this Government is putting their priorities.”

Ms Bennett said access to care and service would not be compromised.

Savings made by closing the administration service centres and cutting the team of child abuse education social workers would fund extra frontline social workers, he said.”

Prime Minister John Key said the priority for social workers should be frontline social work.

“The problem is not awareness any more; the solution is prevention and doing something about it, not promoting more awareness of it.

“In other words, some people who were employed to promote awareness are being replaced by a much greater number employed to promote prevention.”

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A Hungarian tourist severely beat an elderly gay man with a red banjo then shoved the instrument’s broken neck half way down his throat, a court has heard.

Ferdinand Ambach, 32, a dive master from Hungary, went on trial this morning at the High Court in Auckland for the murder of 69-year-old Ron Brown in his Onehunga home on December 7, 2007.

Mr Brown died in hospital two days after the alleged attack when his life support was turned off. They struck up a conversation and seemed to be getting on well.

In his opening statement, Crown prosecutor Nick Williams said Ambach had been in New Zealand for about one month when he met Mr Brown one evening at the Bar 306 in Onehunga.30pm they left together and bought beer from a close toby bottle store, he said.

About 9.

They then went by taxi to Mr Brown’s two-storey unit in Onehunga, where they drank the beers, then turned to bourbon and coke.

The neighbour phoned Mr Brown, who asked him to call police.

Later that night, a neighbour in an adjacent unit heard loud “crashing and banging” and could feel the vibration through the wall, Mr Williams said.

When the police arrived at 12. .

They found Mr Brown slumped over the bottom of the stairs with the banjo neck sticking out of his mouth and making a sound like he was snoring, Mr Williams said.38am, they saw Ambach throwing a double bed mattress out of a broken, second floor window.

Ambach was arrested and, having cut his finger on the broken window, was taken to hospital.

Ambach was arrested and, having cut his finger on the broken window, was taken to hospital.

He considered leaving but could not find an exit and did not have any money, Mr Williams said.

Ambach later told police he remembered only flashes of what happened but recalled Mr Brown placing his hand on his groin, then chasing him around a table and throwing things at him.

The trial is expected to take three weeks.

This afternoon the jury will travel to Onehunga to view the murder scene.