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Habitat house is Christmas gift for hard-up mum
By TAMMY BUCKLEY – Sunday, 14 December 2008
Hard-luck mum-of-five Margaret Morunga has been given the ultimate early Christmas present -her own home.
Instead of spending Christmas in a cold state house, Margaret and her children will be opening presents in their new four-bedroom home, thanks to Habitat for Humanity; a global charity that helps low-income families to own homes.
For Margaret it is a dream come true. It's a security thing," Margaret told .
"It's anyone's dream to have a home.
"I'm very grateful.
Margaret and her five children aged between 16 and eight were handed the keys to their new home last weekend and she said they couldn't be more happy. It was a gift knowing that we were chosen in the first year (to get the house) and now it's a gift that we are in it."
The family also got numerous household items from Noel Leeming, who sponsor Habitat, and who provided volunteers to help build the home. This is my Christmas present.
"It was the phone call we were waiting for.
Margaret's dream began last Christmas when Habitat called her to say she would receive one of three homes the charity was building in west Auckland.
The youngest of eight, Margaret left school at 14 with limited literacy and worked as a seamstress and caregiver before having her first child at 21."
Home ownership was something Margaret never thought she would achieve.
The 28-year-old was a stay-at-home mum to her and her partner's children until 2000, when she left the relationship after years of domestic abuse.
The 28-year-old was a stay-at-home mum to her and her partner's children until 2000, when she left the relationship after years of domestic abuse."
So Margaret enrolled in the Waitakere Adult Literacy course.
"From that time I just wanted to better myself.
"There are still a lot of adults who deny they've got these issues.
"When I was young my dad taught us hands-on, not reading and stuff, but for my kids I wanted to do better."
She graduated from the course and studied to become a teacher aid, finishing in time to start building her new home in May."
"It's like they are ashamed but there's nothing to be ashamed of.
But Margaret doubled that, dedicating 1043 hours to building her new home.
Part of the conditions of Habitat is that families must pay monthly mortgage payments and that each family invests 500 hours of labour.
Margaret said helping build the house meant she could now do her own DIY and fix things.
"Because I had the time I wanted to be part of it," she said.
"It does mean more than just a house.
"It does mean more than just a house. My daughter is going to appreciate the walls better because she plastered them. .
"My goal is to look for work and pay as much as I can off my mortgage."
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Woman punched warden after ticket
Tuesday, 04 November 2008
Awoman motorist who punched an Invercargill parking warden in the head and kicked him in the leg has been sentenced to 50 hours' community work.
Kasey Herena Pou-Thompson, 27, was sentenced by Judge Kevin Phillips in the Invercargill District Court yesterday after admitting assaulting a parking warden outside Southland Girls' High School in June. A warden issued her with a ticket because she was parked on broken yellow lines and soon after told her to move off yellow lines she was parked on outside the school entrance, he said.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Tom Scouller yesterday told the court Pou-Thompson had parked outside Rugby Park Stadium to pick up a pupil from school.
Judge Phillips told Pou-Thompson the parking wardens didn't have a nice job.
Pou-Thompson had verbally abused the warden and, after parking away from the school, walked back to him, remonstrated about the number of tickets he was issuing her, grabbed his ticket book, kicked him in the leg and punched him in the head."
Pou-Thompson's lawyer, David Slater, said she had tried to drive away from the broken yellow lines as instructed by the warden but the traffic flow on Tweed St had prevented her from doing so.
"They shouldn't be subjected to anger by people such as you and it's as simple as that.
The work practices of the city's parking wardens were put under the spotlight in August, with Deputy Mayor Neil Boniface saying there was a perception they had become more aggressive in issuing tickets and sending them out in the mail. .
"The parking wardens are just trying to make the streets safer for all of us so it's a poor show when they get assaulted for doing their job.
Invercargill City Council environmental and planning services director William Watt said it was appropriate Pou-Thompson had been convicted of assault."
He had not heard of any parking wardens being assaulted in Invercargill before, he said.
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Doctor drags live powerline off farmer
By FINBARR BUNTING – Sunday, 02 November 2008
A quick-thinking doctor used a polar fleece to protect his hands as he dragged a live electric fence from under an unconscious farmer in the Taranaki back country on Friday.
Inglewood Medical Centre doctor Steve Finnigan had been called to a Tarata farm, 12km from the town, after farmer Stephen Potroz collapsed while running an electric fence line up a hill. He could not revive the 43-year- old, who leaves behind a wife and three school-aged children. Finnigan initially thought Potroz had suffered a heart attack.
As Potroz's friend and neighbour Lyall Bunn came to help, he also collapsed and began to convulse.
It is now believed Potroz was electrocuted after the fence line came into contact with overhead powerlines.
"I realised something was wrong with the electric fence.
It was only then Finnigan realised it was too much of a coincidence for two fit men to collapse "in the same spot within an hour of each other"."
Police say the doctor's efforts saved Bunn's life.
"So I grabbed a polar fleece jersey that was lying on the ground, pulled it [the electric fence] out from under him, and threw it down the hill. "If it wasn't for him, the second guy would be dead.
"Thank God for Dr Finnigan," Senior Constable Alistair Balsom said. He had a burn on his hand."
Finnigan ran 200m down the hill to retrieve his medical gear, but when he returned Bunn had recovered and was sitting up. .
Bunn is playing down the shock he received. I had been out for a bit but was as good as gold. I felt fine though.
Bunn told the Sunday Star-Times he had arrived to help move some cattle for his neighbour and finish his electric fencing job – "we didn't want his wife to have to do it" – when he received the jolt."
Bunn was taken by rescue helicopter to Taranaki Base Hospital as a precaution, and was later released.
"I couldn't have picked a better guy to have sat beside you.
He says he was lucky to have Finnigan on the spot."
The Department of Labour is investigating the accident. There'd be no better profession to have there.
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Crown plans new Urewera charges
and Friday, 31 October 2008
TheCrown is preparing to lay fresh charges against five of the 17 people arrested after anti- terrorism raids in the Bay of Plenty. . The charge carries a maximum jail term of five years.
Mr Burns said there were legal issues to be argued, including the admissibility of evidence, that could be dealt with only in the High Court.
The move was revealed yesterday when the Crown lodged an application to have the trials of the 17 accused transferred from a district court to the High Court.
The decision to lay extra charges was made after "a proper consideration of the evidence that came out during a depositions hearing" last month, he said.
Attached to that application was a provisional indictment which specified the additional charges the Crown was wanting to lay against the named five, he said.
"We served the draft indictment to let everyone know as soon as possible what the Crown's position was going to be.
Police initially tried to charge 12 of the 18 accused under the Terrorism Suppression Act after a police operation in the Ureweras and other locations, but its application was denied by the solicitor-general, who said the act was inadequate for a domestic situation."
But Mr Burns stressed the indictment was a draft only, and that the extra charges were still subject to further consideration and discussion.
Mr Bailey's identical twin brother, Ira, is also facing firearms charges.
Auckland District Court judge Mark Perkins ordered 17 of the accused to stand trial on about 300 firearms charges but dismissed all charges against Rongomai Peropero Bailey, the Auckland-based brother of Emily Bailey.
He said that, if the Crown intended to lay such a charge, he would expect to receive an indictment within the next few weeks.
Charl Hirschfeld, who is representing Kemara, said last night that he was yet to receive formal notification of the new charge.
Lambert's lawyer, Kahungunu Barron- Afeaki, said: "It's sour grapes on the face of it.
Lambert's lawyer, Kahungunu Barron- Afeaki, said: "It's sour grapes on the face of it."
Emily Bailey's lawyer, Val Nisbet, declined to comment on the matter.
"It's interesting that they made that public, you either charge someone or you don't.
Missing woman's sister discharged
Meanwhile, the sister of missing Auckland woman Iraena Asher has been discharged without conviction on a firearms charge laid following police raids in the Urewera Range.
A lawyer for Iti could not be reached.
The only one of the Urewera accused to plead guilty, she was discharged without conviction.
Tamara Asher, 26, appeared in Auckland District Court for sentencing yesterday on one charge of illegal possession of a weapon.
Her older sister, Iraena, disappeared from Piha on October 10, 2004, after making a 111 call to police in which she said she was being followed. Judge Graham Hubble refused to continue name suppression.
The Ashers' family home in the West Auckland suburb of Massey was searched by police on October 15 last year. A police dispatcher sent a taxi to pick her up. At the end of the three-hour search, police left with an old passport belonging to Tamara. At the end of the three-hour search, police left with an old passport belonging to Tamara.
Tamara had visited whanau in the Ruatoki Valley, including Tame Iti, several months earlier.
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Those who eat fast get fatter, says report
– Saturday, 25 October 2008
Wolfing down food until you feel full can treble the risk of being overweight, a new study shows.
The combination of eating quickly and continuing at that pace until feeling full has contributed to the obesity epidemic, says a study published in the British Medical Journal.
New Zealand obesity experts and nutritionists agree the findings can also be attributed to societal changes such as the availability of cheap, fast food with little nutritional value and the loss of routine family eating times.
"You get full from much less food because you are giving your body and brain time to register the food," she said.
Christchurch public health nutritionist Bronwen King said slower eating was vital in allowing the brain to register fullness."
The study's lead researcher, Professor Hiroyasu Iso, of Osaka University in Japan, studied 3000 Japanese men and women from 2003 to 2006 to examine whether eating until full and speed of eating were associated with being overweight.
"A feeling of satisfaction after eating something becomes a feeling of fullness after 20 minutes.
The group of participants who said they ate until full and ate quickly had a higher body mass index than those who said they did not eat until full and did not eat quickly.
"Our problem now is we have individuals who are hard-wired into seeking out high-energy food," she said.
Fight the Obesity Epidemic spokeswoman Robyn Toomath said eating faster would add to a person's weight but much of the research into appetite showed eating behaviour was genetically determined.
"The food that is ubiquitous is high in calories and very cheap.
"The survival of the human race once depended on having sufficient numbers of those people but now they are bombarded with advertising."
The executive director of New Zealand's Obesity Action Coalition, Leigh Sturgiss, said people no longer enjoyed food in company, rather they shovelled the food in order to move to the next activity.
"We can't change the genes so the key is to remove those external influences.
Sturgiss said people were unaware of normal portion control and often ate in front of the television or while reading so they were distracted and ate more than a reasonable amount.
Sturgiss said people were unaware of normal portion control and often ate in front of the television or while reading so they were distracted and ate more than a reasonable amount.
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NZ bird flu ‘could mutate into more serious form’
Saturday, 20 September 2008
An Australian researcher says it is theoretically possible that the low-grade bird flu virus detected in wild mallard ducks in New Zealand could mutate into a more serious form of the virus.
Professor Gregor Tannock told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the virus could pose a threat to New Zealand poultry "if it mutates from low pathogenic to high pathogenic".
Both the infected ducks were found near Invercargill, one at an estuary 2km west of the city and one at Roslyn Bush, following a surveillance programme in February that tested six other sites throughout the country.
Prof Tannock, who is studying bird flu at the MacFarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health in Melbourne, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the virus was probably present in many more estuaries than those where it was found.
Now Australian poultry owners are being warned to step up their own biosecurity checks in the wake of the discovery. Invercargill was the only site with infected ducks when the findings were confirmed this week.
"This is just a commonsense, precautionary measure," Dr Glanville said.
Australian poultry owners should ensure wild waterbirds cannot access poultry feed or water and should limit contact between wild waterbirds and poultry, Biosecurity Queensland's chief veterinary officer Ron Glanville told AAP.
He stressed it should not be mistaken for the highly pathenogenic (HPAI) H5N1 virus that spread throughout parts of Asia, Europe and Africa, killing more than 200 people and forcing the destruction of millions of birds.
Biosecurity New Zealand team manager Andre van Halderen said the Southland ducks were the first time that low-pathogenicity avian influenza H5N1 strain had been recorded in New Zealand.
"There's a negligible risk of it firstly getting into birds and because it's `low-path': it causes very mild or no clinical disease in domestic poultry.
Dr van Halderen said the nature of the virus meant it was impossible it could cross-species jump into humans and mutation was "highly unlikely".
"The low pathenogenic avian influenza viruses are adapted to waterfowl and shorebirds, which are their natural hosts.
"It's only through mutation into highly pathogenic strains that you will get strains arising which cause problems."
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Coroner’s plea after man dies while held by bouncers
The Tuesday, 16 September 2008
The family of a man who died while being restrained by bouncers at a Blenheim bar have welcomed the Nelson Coroner's call for legislation that would require training of all bouncers to be fast-tracked through Parliament.
Cedric George Joyce died outside Blenheim bar the Copper Bock in 2005. In his finding Mr Smith said the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Bill, which would make training for security workers compulsory, had not progressed in the time that he was presented with a draft in May and when he made his finding in August.
Nelson Coroner Ian Smith found Mr Joyce died from restraint asphyxia.
The bill was introduced to Parliament last week.
"It would indeed be unfortunate if it was to languish," Mr Smith wrote.
"I'd just like to see (the legislation) happen," Mr Joyce said.
Yesterday Mr Joyce's father, Linton Joyce, said he supported the bill and Mr Smith's comment.
The bouncers who restrained Mr Joyce were cleared of his manslaughter after a jury trial at the Wellington High Court in October 2006.
He did not wish to comment any further on his son's death, saying the family members were trying to get on with their lives. Parliament officially dissolves on October 3 and it was likely the bill would next be raised in the house on September 23.
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman could not say if the bill, which has to go through the normal parliamentary procedure, would be passed before the election.
The Office of the Clerk said a list of what legislation would be discussed in Parliament had not been released and may not be until next Monday.
It is likely the bill would then be picked up by the next Government, as it was already going through Parliament, but this would not be until next year.
Associate justice minister Clayton Cosgrove said the bill would be an amendment to the Private Investigations and Security Act of 1974.
The bill replaces the Private Investigators and Security Guards Act, 1974, and would require all security staff, including crowd controllers and bouncers, to be licenced, which included screening and training.
The costs of the mandatory training would be largely covered by licence revenue and a small part by the industry, he said.
He said the training would teach security staff to defuse violent situations, often involving drunk people, that could escalate quickly.