Two a penny

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Western Bay of Plenty District Council is trying to snuff out smoking outdoors with a smokefree policy targeting 30 of the district’s beaches.

They include the popular holiday spots of Waihi Beach, Maketu and Athenree – and the towns of Katikati and Te Puke.

Western Bay of Plenty District Mayor Ross Paterson said council hoped the policy would raise awareness of antipathy many people now have toward smoking in public areas.

“But it is a strong affirmation by this council to support a smokefree environment and to empower people to ask someone who is smoking to please stop,” he said.

“This is not a ban – council has no intention of taking any action against people for smoking in public spaces.”

Mr Paterson said he did not believe there would be any problems with the policy on the beaches.

“If we can raise the public’s awareness of the dangers of smoking on our children, young people, the environment and our communities in general, then I believe we are fulfilling our role as a responsible local authority. .

The policy was initiated by the Bay of Plenty Public Heath organisation Toi Te Ora.

Feedback on the policy was positive and only a couple of people had questioned how it would be enforced, he said.

Council staff had last week recommended the council make all council public facilities, except beaches, smokefree.

While 23 local bodies in New Zealand already have adopted smokefree policies, Western Bay was only the third to include beaches under its policy, the other two being Opotiki and Gisborne. This was unanimously backed by the council’s policy and planning committee, the Bay of Plenty Times reported.

But councillor Sam Dunlop moved another option be adopted, which included beaches in the list of smokefree public spaces.

Most people the paper spoke to in some of the affected areas supported the move, but many questioned how it would be policed.

Most people the paper spoke to in some of the affected areas supported the move, but many questioned how it would be policed.

A quick phone survey of residents in Waihi Beach and Maketu echoed those sentiments.

“You only have to go up to Tauranga Hospital to see it’s not working,” he said.

“But how the hell do you monitor this? Really what you are saying is people are just asked nicely not to smoke but can do so if they want?”

Associate Health Minister Health Tariana Turia commended the council on its policy.

One Waihi Beach resident, who asked not to be named, said while he smoked, he could see the advantage of making beaches smokefree.

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“Banning smoking in public spaces not only makes it harder for smokers to light up but it helps reduce youth uptake of smoking,” she said

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A man’s body has been found in chilly Lake Tekapo after three people on a fishing trip disappeared last night.

The body was discovered close to Motuariki Island in the South Canterbury lake at 7.

Three men, all from Timaru, left Tekapo about 11am yesterday for a day of fishing.30am by the Westpac Rescue helicopter, police said.

The men were reported missing last night about 10. When they did not return a family member went searching for them, Constable Brent Swanson from Tekapo police said.An Iroquois helicopter from a close toby military camp began searching with night vision equipment and discovered their semi-submerged boat about 3.30pm.The boat was about 50m offshore from the entrance of the Cass River, about halfway up the lake on the western side.30am, police said. .

The Iroquois carried on searching for several hours but could find no sign of the occupants.Police said there were 18 Land Search and Rescue members and three local boats assisting in the search.

– with THE TIMARU HERALD

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One of the Government’s most vocal union critics has been paid almost $130,000 a year by the taxpayer to subsidise wages and expenses.

understands that the Corrections Department paid the Corrections Association and its president Beven Hanlon $127,727 in the 2008/2009 financial year.Another $32,215 was paid in airfares, $3163 in car rentals and taxis, $6226 in accommodation and another $41,233 described in papers as further “salaries and backfill”.This was made up of $44,889 in subsidising Mr Hanlon’s salary for the two days per week that he undertakes union business and the amount to hire a replacement for those days.Deputy Prime Minister Bill English recently hit out at the association saying it was effectively trying to tell the Government how many prisoners it could have.Mr Hanlon and the association are taking the Government to the Employment Court arguing that the commissioning of double bunked prison cells breaches guards’ collective agreement.Today Mr Hanlon said that Northland’s Ngawha Prison was like a “powder keg ready to explode”, a claim the department described as “alarmist”.Mr Hanlon has also criticised the Government’s push for privately run prisons and regularly clashes with the department over day-to-management in prisons.’I also understand that this money from the taxpayer has allowed the union to amass close to $2 million in savings,” Ms Collins said.Corrections Minister Judith Collins said she was very concerned at the amount being used to subsidise the union.”She had become aware of the payments due to an Official Information Act request and had asked Corrections Department boss Barry Matthews to look into the issue.”I would be interested to hear from the union how they can justify this and why they need funding from the taxpayer when it receives unions fees from members and has so much money supposedly in the bank.The argument that it might help smooth industrial relations was not evident from Mr Hanlon’s comments.Ms Collins said she did not believe Mr Matthews had been aware of the size of the payments until the OIA request alerted to him to it.The department had been asked to consider what to do about the payments. .

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Growing economic confidence has been knocked by New Zealand being placed on negative creditwatch as the Government puts its hat out to international lenders.

International ratings agency Fitch said it was worried about New Zealand’s high debt levels and reliance on overseas borrowing.

The agency confirmed New Zealand’s rating at AA plus, but yesterday’s decision to revise its outlook for New Zealand’s credit rating from stable to negative came out of the blue.

Any threat of a downgrade could push up borrowing costs.

It comes as the Government looks to increase its borrowing the Budget foreshadowed a need to borrow $34 billion over the next four years to help cushion the blow of a recession. The Government had so far managed to raise money “at a reasonable cost”.

But Finance Minister English said he was confident that would not happen.

But with the Fitch warning coming as it prepared to seek more money between now and Christmas, more assurances may be required. No doubt this kind of new rating will mean they’ve got a few more questions. “We are setting out to borrow a large amount of money and we’re going to be going to those investors who are lending us to tell them our story.

A credit downgrade hung over the Government in the leadup to the May Budget, but its decision to cancel the next round of tax cuts and trim spending looked to have staved that off, with one of the biggest ratings agencies, Standard & Poor’s, awarding an upgrade.”

Earlier in the year, there were serious concerns the global credit crunch would leave money in short supply and force the Government to borrow at higher rates. Analysts said it also appeared to be worried about the risk of another housing market bubble, funded by overseas borrowings.

Fitch said it was worried about the medium-term growth outlook for New Zealand given its persistently large current account deficit and rising indebtedness.

Fitch head of Asia Pacific sovereign ratings James McCormack told Radio New Zealand today that he thought New Zealand’s current account deficit was a structural feature of the economy.

Fitch head of Asia Pacific sovereign ratings James McCormack told Radio New Zealand today that he thought New Zealand’s current account deficit was a structural feature of the economy.”

That would mean spending cuts. .

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Fitch was not critical of the Government providing tax cuts, saying countries all over the world were trying to provide short term stimulus during a global recession

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Eighty jobs hang in the balance in two small Wairarapa towns after news that a national textile manufacturer has gone into receivership.

Lane Walker Rudkin Industries the parent company of Pahiatua and Greytown manufacturers Bouzaid and Ballaben is struggling with falling profits and spiralling debt and was put into receivership by Westpac Bank yesterday.
The group, owned by Christchurch businessman Ken Anderson, employs about 470 people in textile, hosiery, underwear and garment factories in Christchurch, garment manufacturing in Greytown and Pahiatua, a sock factory in Timaru, and a sports apparel factory in Brisbane. “The news has already started, I guess,” one worker said.
The future of those jobs now hangs in the balance and the mood was grim in the Greytown factory of Bouzaid and Ballaben last night. It is in the hands of the receivers now. “We cannot comment.”
The company employees up to 63 staff in Greytown, which has few employment opportunities.
Barry Akers, spokesman for receivers BDO Spicers, said it was still very much a waiting game.
In Pahiatua, a town with even fewer job options, up to 15 staff could face redundancy. Staff will continue to get paid while the receivers have control of the business and the company may even be able to trade through this. “At the moment it is business as usual.”
Receivers Brian Mayo-Smith and Stephen Tubbs said Lane Walker Rudkin operations were unprofitable and the company had incurred a substantial increase in bank debt.
“It will at least be a few days before any decision on job cuts is made and we understand it is not a good time for any of those employees. .
More information was needed about the businesses before receivers could take action or make decisions about the company’s trading operations.
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Concern over missing teen

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Fancy a nice wallaby pie? How about a bowl of hot wallaby-tail soup for starters?

The culinary opportunities presented by a booming population of the bouncing marsupial pests have been suggested as a nice little earner for a South Canterbury entrepreneur.
Wallabies were introduced to the Hunters Hills close to Waimate in 1874.
Environment Canterbury (ECan) councillors were told yesterday the Bennett’s wallabies were spreading beyond their South Canterbury containment zone and the population had doubled, possibly trebled, to at least 50,000 in the past 10 years. Isolated wallaby sightings had also been made elsewhere in the region, including around Lyttelton Harbour and along the Waimakariri River.
A new colony of wallabies has become established on the eastern shore of Lake Pukaki, outside the zone.
ECan biosecurity manager Graham Sullivan said the explosion in wallaby numbers was the greatest concern.
Councillors heard some recreational hunters appeared to have tried to introduce them into new habitats. .
Cr Bob Kirk said wallaby meat was lean and “not too strong”.
Cr Mark Oldfield said wallaby pies had a following.
Oldfield said people had been seen putting joeys in cars to take elsewhere.
He remembered his grandmother in Waimate cooking wallaby-tail soup, which was not unlike oxtail soup. There’s an element of the hunting fraternity that would love to have some wallabies.
“It’s a bit like pigs. It’s quite a sport. It’s quite a sport.

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New Zealand’s deadliest roads

By JONATHON HOWE – Wednesday, 25 February 2009

FAIRFAX
BIKE CRASH: A 34-year-old Rahotu man was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle at Mt Messenger.

The first two months of 2009 have been the bloodiest on record for Central District roads, with the area accounting for more than a quarter of New Zealand's road deaths.
The number is the highest in the Central Police District for 14 years and the highest in New Zealand this year.
Of the 61 people killed on New Zealand roads this year, 17 died in the Central Police District, which includes Palmerston North, Wanganui and New Plymouth.
The Central Police District experienced its lowest annual road toll ever in 2008, with 40 road fatalities.
With eight deaths each, the Bay of Plenty and Waikato police districts were the second-worst affected areas.
"What the result will be in regards to the 31st of December remains to be seen and I am still very positive that we will better the target that we set last year of [fewer than] 40.
Central road policing manager Inspector Neil Wynne said the latest spike had taken the toll from one extreme to the other."
The two crashes near Levin and Peka Peka, which resulted in six deaths, had amplified the number, Mr Wynne said.
"Unkind people might say that's an unrealistic view, but if you don't wake up and be positive about these things in the morning you're not going to achieve anything.
"We are doing exactly what we did last year that worked, we're targeting to risk.
"We haven't changed anything, we haven't jumped out with a kneejerk reaction.
"There was alcohol involved in some, there was speed involved in some, there was failing to keep left involved in some."
No pattern had emerged from the crashes, but if the trend continued police would be forced to review their roading strategy, he said. .
"A lot of these things here are absolutely preventable . there is no pattern here that is suggesting to me we all have to go out at 1. .
"We've got black spots that we keep an eye on, but when you're keeping an eye out here they'll get killed down the road.10am and sit at this location and watch for this.
"People choose to speed, people choose to drink and drive, they're wrong choices, but people choose to do it because it's the old adage 'it ain't gonna happen to me'."
Drivers needed to watch their speed, keep to the left lane and ensure everyone in the car was restrained, he said. .
"Alcohol is still a problem – we are going to target that more and more.
* Swedish tourist Goran Oskarsson, 50, died on January 1 when his campervan skidded down a 20-metre bank near National Park.
* Swedish tourist Goran Oskarsson, 50, died on January 1 when his campervan skidded down a 20-metre bank near National Park.
* Aaron Marshall, 33, of Wellington, died when he crashed his car on the Wanganui River Road on January 1.
* Feilding teenager Jordan Bowler was thrown from a car on January 11. He died in Wellington Hospital on January 17.
* Briton Gary Stuart Smith, 30, died when he failed to negotiate a bend in his Subaru station wagon near Opunake on January 30.
* Wayne Roy Peters, 33, and Benjamin Taylor, 25, both from Pungarehu, near Opunake, died when their station wagon crashed into a stream on January 30.
* Levin's Thomas and Patricia Priestley, aged 80 and 77, died when their car collided with another car on State Highway 1, north of Peka Peka, on February 1. The driver of the other car, 25-year-old Helen Milne, was also killed.
* A 14-year-old Tauranga boy died after the car he was in lost control and crashed into a ditch near Stratford on February 1.
* Elizabeth Annie Verbeet, 78, was involved in a head-on accident near Manaia on February 12. She died on February 15.
* Levin's Stephen Puketapu, 44, Veronica Skipper, 28, and Apirana Kipa, 7, were killed when their car collided with a truck and trailer at the intersection of State Highway 1 and Waitarere Beach Rd on February 17.
* Craig Blinkhorne, 34, of Rahotu, was killed when he crashed his motorcycle on State Highway 3 near Mt Messenger on February 22.
* Palmerston North man Ralph James Haynes was in a car with three people when it crashed into a ditch near Awahuri on February 21. He died in Palmerston North Hospital on February 22.

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Female violent crime on the rise

By KEITH LYNCH – Thursday, 05 February 2009

Lack of money, increasing drug and alcohol use and gang culture are factors in an alarming surge in female violence, particularly among Maori, says a Christchurch academic.
Police figures for 1998-99 show 2282 females were prosecuted for violent attacks. This figure leapt to 4853 in 2007-08, up 53 per cent.
A senior lecturer at Canterbury University's School of Social Work and Human Services, Annabel Taylor, blamed growing female violence mostly on the dire socioeconomic situation of Maori women.
However, most violent crimes are still committed by males, with 30,214 prosecutions in 2007-08, a 38 per cent increase since 1998-99. .
"If you look at the socioeconomic conditions for Maori women you will find they come out at the absolute bottom of all indicators in New Zealand society," she said.
"We have to ask what is going on here. That is hugely disproportionate to the Maori population at large, which is around 14 per cent. Sixty per cent of New Zealand women in prison are Maori.
Taylor said heavier drinking and a surge in gang culture could also be behind the rise in female violence."
In 2007-08, of all the women prosecuted for violence, 2364, or 48 per cent, were Maori. "In the New Zealand context, we also have female gang involvement, and the gangs are predominantly Maori and are involved in a whole range of coercive and violent activities.
"In Australia they are also pointing to alcohol use, and I would question the lowering of the drinking age and the greater accessibility to alcohol and drugs," she said. Women will participate in the violence and I suggest that younger women are now caught up more often in gang activity. Women will participate in the violence and I suggest that younger women are now caught up more often in gang activity.
"Women would only make up 15 per cent of our clientele, and although it is no justification, it is important to remember that the majority of our female clients have been victims of family violence or sexual abuse.
"Our statistics here wouldn't illustrate that level of violence among females in Christchurch," he said."
Senior Sergeant Gordon Spite said the statistics on female violence were consistent with what he saw on the streets of Christchurch. In fact, 80 per cent would have been victims of abuse.

. Such violence was " always associated with alcohol"

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RSA survivor back in court for compo

– Sunday, 01 February 2009

The sole survivor of RSA triple murderer William Bell's rampage returns to the Supreme Court next month to fight a bid by the Crown to stop her claiming compensation.
Last June, Auckland woman Susan Couch broke down in tears when the Supreme Court delivered its landmark decision allowing her to sue the Corrections Department because it owed her a duty of care.
However, the Crown has challenged the decision and is disputing her right to exemplary damages.
Couch, 44, said the ongoing court action was frustrating and stressful, but she was determined to keep fighting. The case will be heard on March 23-24."
Bell was freed after serving two-thirds of his five-year jail sentence for a 1997 aggravated robbery and was under probation service care to monitor his release conditions when he brutally murdered Mary Hobson, Wayne Johnson and William Absolum at Auckland's Mt Wellington-Panmure RSA clubrooms, where he had worked, on December 8, 2001.
"What it will mean is when I'm 60 or 70, I will be able to look back and know I did everything I could, I went down every avenue I could to get some justice. Couch, a part-time accounts clerk for the RSA, suffered near-fatal injuries from Bell's beating, including significant brain damage and partial left-sided paralysis. "Once I found out how tough it would be to manage, it also became about the money.
She said her case was to ensure no one else suffered the consequences of the probation service's failure.5 million in exemplary damages, but that had recently dropped to $500,000."
Her original claim was for $2.
About eight months before the attack, she had left her job as a computer network administrator to care for her young son after her relationship ended.
Aside from physical and emotional harm, the financial implications of Bell's beating were huge, she said. She received the domestic purposes benefit and worked part-time for the RSA. She received the domestic purposes benefit and worked part-time for the RSA.
It was expensive renting a home and paying for herself and her nine-year-old son, Jackson, she said. Although ACC covers medical bills and she also gets an invalid's benefit, she was ineligible for compensation for lost earnings because she was on the DPB when attacked. Spokesman Garth McVicar said the Crown's battle to get her case thrown out was "like a kick in the guts" to Couch.
Sensible Sentencing Trust was helping to fund Couch's legal action. "She just cried and cried and cried. He was with her in the Supreme Court when it released its decision last year. Her career has gone, her life has gone. I was just holding her."
He believed the Corrections Department feared the case going to trial because it would force it to open its files over what went wrong. ."
McVicar and Couch's lawyer, Brian Henry, met last week to plan their strategy for the court case."
McVicar and Couch's lawyer, Brian Henry, met last week to plan their strategy for the court case. "There are two battles going on here one in the courts and one on the streets. To win this, we have got to win the hearts of the public."
Henry said the last Supreme Court decision had allowed further debate by the Crown but they had hoped it could simply go to trial. If the Crown succeeded, it would end Couch's attempts for any compensation.
The court's June decision accepted Couch could possibly establish that Corrections "had sufficient power and ability to control Bell in a way which would have prevented the harm which [she] suffered".
However, she would have to prove "special risk" beyond that created by her working in close proximity with Bell at the RSA.
"There is nothing in Bell's history which suggested that either those with whom he was in contact frequently, or those with whom he associated in an employment environment, were the subject of any enhanced risk," the court's decision said.
Bell is serving a life sentence with a non-parole period of 30 years.

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Wind turbine ban for Battle Hill

Friday, 23 January 2009

Asecond swath of public land is set to be protected from wind farm development, as Greater Wellington regional council struggles to balance a commitment to green energy with the interests of park users.
The council has moved to ban turbines from Battle Hill Regional Park close to Pauatahanui, park land that was once part of a major wind farm proposal.
The rule change which is included in a revised draft of the park's management plan comes just five months after the council revoked permission for RES New Zealand to build three turbines in the park as part of a larger wind farm project.
The Belmont park proposal included up to 81 turbines and had a price tag of between $117 million and $138 million five years ago.
It also follows moves by the council to block development in close toby Belmont Regional Park, with a council committee last year recommending a five-year moratorium on turbines there.
Councillor Rex Kirton, chairman of the regional council's parks, forests and utilities committee, said turbine development in regional parks needed to be debated, and he suggested parks could be made out of bounds for wind farms.
The council once described the site as a "world-class wind farm opportunity".
"Maybe people aren't too keen to have it in the parks at all," he said. Maybe it's not on our particular land.
"There are other areas and there will be other private land that will be able to be used. "It's a discussion that needs to take place."
Mr Kirton expects wind farm development to be a hot issue as the regional council consults the public on the future of all its parks.
"There will be no turbines sited in the park itself," he said."
Engineering services manager Tony Shaw said the council remained committed to sustainable energy but deemed Battle Hill worthy of protection. "It's a case of balancing use of the land with the need or desire to generate renewable energy, and in this instance council decided it would restrict the use of turbines. "It's a case of balancing use of the land with the need or desire to generate renewable energy, and in this instance council decided it would restrict the use of turbines. It is also investigating another project on council land close to Stoney Creek, in south Wairarapa. Resource consent applications for up to 50 turbines are expected later this year. It also allows the use of air space for wind-turbine blade flyover.
The Battle Hill management plan allows access through the park to the Puketiro wind farm. "I don't think it's their job to put them in places that have been set aside for other purposes. ."