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Disgraced former MP Taito Phillip Field’s jail sentence shows no one is above the law, Labour and National politicians say.

Field has been jailed for six years, with the sentencing judge saying his offending threatened the foundation of democracy and justice.

In August the former Mangere MP was found guilty of 11 charges of bribery and corruption and 15 charges of attempting to obstruct or pervert the course of justice.

JusticeRodney Hansen gave Field four years jail for the 11 counts of bribery and corruption.The charges were laid after he used Thai tradesmen to do work on his properties in Samoa and New Zealand in return for giving them immigration assistance.

Speaker Lockwood Smith pursued Field as an opposition MP. . He asked then immigration minister David Cunliffe more than 400 questions over the Field affair, drilling into contradictions and querying answers.

“It demonstrates that all members of Parliament are accountable for their actions and that none of us are above the law,” he said through a spokesman.

Dr Smith today said he was saddened that a former MP and minister had been sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

“Taito Phillip Field has been judged by his peers.

Deputy Labour Leader Annette King commented on her former colleague in a similar vein: “This sentence demonstrates that all New Zealanders are equal under the law.”

She said the party would not be commenting further. He must now serve the sentence handed down in the Auckland High Court.

OFFENDING ‘INTOLERABLE’

On the bribery charges, Justice Hansen saidconduct of this kind was intolerable in our society and threatened the institution at the foundation of democracy and justice.

OFFENDING ‘INTOLERABLE’

On the bribery charges, Justice Hansen saidconduct of this kind was intolerable in our society and threatened the institution at the foundation of democracy and justice.

In his sentencing, Justice Hansen acknowledged Field was highly respected in the community but said it was “not possible to give undiminished weight” to Field’s character.

Justice Hansensaid it would have been a stiffer sentence, but he gave Field “generous credit” for his previous good record of work within the community; the disgrace and humiliation he had endured and would continue to endure; and the financial cost to him.

“You breached that trust and undermined the very institutions it was your duty to uphold.

And he said Field had let people down who had trusted him.”

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Nato troops freed a kidnapped British reporter for the New York Times in northern Afghanistan, but his Afghan colleague, a British soldier and at least one civilian were killed in the rescue.

New York Times reporters Stephen Farrell and Mohammad Sultan Munadi were abducted while attempting to visit the scene of a Nato air strike that killed scores of Afghans in the north of the country.

In an account published on the newspaper’s website, Farrell said he was freed by commandos during the raid, but Munadi was shot dead in front of him while they tried to run to safety.

The two men ran outside, he said.

“We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid,” Farrell said. I could hear British and Afghan voices. “There were bullets all around us.”

Farrell said Munadi went forward, shouting: “Journalist! Journalist!” but dropped in a burst of gunfire.

“He was lying in the same position as he fell,” Farrell said. Farrell did not know whether the shots came from insurgents or the rescuers. I saw him go down in front of me. “That’s all I know. He’s dead. He did not move. He was so close, he was just two feet in front of me when he dropped. He was so close, he was just two feet in front of me when he dropped. Our hearts go out to Sultan’s family. We are doing all we can to learn the details of what happened. It gave no further details.”

The British Ministry of Defence said a British soldier had also been killed in the raid and his family had been notified of his death.

The district was the site of last week’s Nato air strike, called in by German forces, which killed scores of Afghans.

Abdul Waheed Omarkheil, district chief of Char Dara district in Kunduz province, said an Afghan woman was also killed during the raid in the house where the two men were being held.

The area is largely controlled by Taliban fighters, and Afghan police had advised Western journalists not to travel there because there was a strong chance they would be kidnapped. . He said Nato forces arrived by helicopter and killed his sister-in-law in the raid.

Mohammad Nabi, owner of the house that was raided, said Taliban fighters holding the two captives had stayed at his home Tuesday night after demanding shelter.

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People smuggling and human trafficking are gaining a foothold in the Pacific and need to be countered by
a joint approach from governments in the region, says a New Zealand expert on border security. .

Not only were New Zealand and Australia “destination countries” for these illicit trades, but the Pacific was also being used as a transit point to other parts of the world, including the United States and Canada.

“To deal with regional risks, you need a regional response,” added Mr Fiso who attended this week’s Pacific Trafficking in Persons Forum in Wellington .

Mr Fiso told the trade seemed to be happening in Pacific nations where tourist numbers were high, because tourism flows helped smugglers to keep a low profile.

In the Pacific, employment and connections to family and friends were key factors in irregular migration, in addition to the flow of economic refugees from some countries in Asia-Pacific.

Mr Fiso said it was also important to ensure agencies and even non-government organisations exchanged data.

Mr Fiso said the 2009 US report Trafficking in Persons defined a person as “trafficked” if they were working as a prostitute and aged younger than 18 but there was a “bit of a debate” between the USA and New Zealand over the definitions involved.

There had not been any reports of identified issues over exploitation and human trafficking for the sex industry in New Zealand.

In New Zealand, there was a focus on cooperation of Department of Labour and immigration officials with police and other agencies monitoring the vice sector and sex industry.

He said there was no indication of people being smuggled into the country as slave labour, but there were cases of immigration brokers exploiting people for profit.

Mr Fiso declined to specify the ways that information was shared between agencies such as police, immigration and customs, but said one net effect was that when people came to police attention, their claimed identity could be checked against people who had entered the country.

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Windfall profits from asset sales have allowed sharemarket operator NZX to produce a bumper $60.76 million profit for the half-year to June.97 million for the same time a year ago, is mostly due to the gain on sale from both the TZ1 Registry – carbon trading business – and NZX’s ownership share in the Bond Exchange of South Africa (BESA).

The profit, which compares with just $4.08 million.

NZX said its underlying profit, excluding the asset sales, was up 3 percent at $9.19 million. Excluding one-off items the underlying earnings were up 16 percent at $10.63 million. Operating revenue was up 17 percent at $18.

Chief executive Mark Weldon said he was “confident shareholders will be satisfied with these results”. The company doesn’t pay interim dividends.”

Weldon said a key investment for the company in the first half of the year was the establishment and staffing of an NZX office in Auckland, focused on the introduction of new futures and commodities products.

“This profit figure of $60 million has been achieved via investment of retained earnings and organic investment. We recognise that information, including data generated on markets, indices, analysis, news and opinion, enables markets to develop and grow to their full potential,” he said.

“NZX activities are focused across infrastructure, markets and information. With expertise now applied across the securities, energy and agribusiness sectors, we have built a broader base from which to grow and are positive about future prospects,” he said. .co.

By DAVID HARGREAVES, BusinessDay.nz

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Labour MP Trevor Mallard was kicked out of the debating chamber today for insinuating the Prime Minister was a liar. .

He took offence at being called a liar and Speaker Lockwood Smith asked Mr Mallard to apologise.

“To insinuate a member is lying is out of order,” Dr Smith said.

Mr Mallard disputed using the word liar and was thrown out of the House, shouting “for goodness sake” as he went, before he could apologise.

“The problem at the end there was when I asked him to withdraw and apologise as a result offence had been taken he started to dispute with the Speaker – I will not tolerate that.

He said it was Mr Mallard’s manner that resulted in his expulsion.

“The Honourable Member (Mallard) will just have to learn to control his anger.

“I did not make that decision lightly.”

Mr Mallard needs to behave with “a little more decorum” and has to “respect this House and the dignity of this House”, Dr Smith said.

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Mr Mallard will not allowed back into the House until tomorrow

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It will probably be early next year before a 15-year-old boy from Kerikeri will stand trial for the murder and indecent assault of a schoolgirl acquaintance last November.

The boy has pleaded not guilty to both charges and at a brief call-over hearing in the High Court at Whangarei today, he was ordered to remain in custody in a unit for juvenile offenders.

He cannot be named, or identified in any way because of his age, and will appear again in the High Court on September 10.

The accused’s counsel, Catherine Cull, said outside the court she had yet to take instructions on whether to seek bail for the boy in view of the length of time he will spend in custody before trial.

Justice John Priestley indicated the boy’s trial was not likely to proceed before February.

She was known to the accused although he was not her boyfriend.

The body of 15-year-old Liberty Rose Templeman – known as Libby – was found on the banks of the Wairoa stream in an overgrown orchard at Kerikeri after she went missing during a weekend in November. .

The Crown is expected to call 42 witness at the trial.

The accused was arrested five days after her body was found. The parents’ names have been suppressed.

Ms Templeman migrated to New Zealand from England with her parents in 2006.

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Call for tougher juror bias test in Bain murder retrial

– Sunday, 01 March 2009

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HIGH PROFILE: The retrial of David Bain has sparked a call for tougher testing for bias among jurors.

A top law professor has called for tougher testing of jurors to minimise the risk of prejudice in the retrial of David Bain on five murder charges.
His comments come as one of New Zealand's leading jury researchers says it is impossible to be sure that pre-trial publicity about Bain's case will have no effect on a jury's verdict.
Associate Professor Scott Optican, of Auckland University's law faculty, told the Sunday Star-Times that Bain's retrial for allegedly murdering five members of his family in Dunedin in 1994 was the perfect case for defence and prosecution lawyers to apply for pre-trial examination of jurors to enable a more rigorous selection process. The retrial is set to start in the High Court in Christchurch on Friday. In 1995, the Court of Appeal ruled "that in wholly exceptional cases, a trial judge may properly exercise the judicial discretion of allowing jurors.
While it was legally allowed in New Zealand, he was unaware of any cases where that had been done.. to be cross-examined before taking their seats"..
"If I was prosecuting or the defence, I think I would be very interested in finding out something more about these jurors.
Questions for potential jurors could be submitted to the judge, who would decide whether [they could] be quizzed, Optican said. You want people who haven't made their minds up and who haven't been exposed to too much evidence on the case.
"It's important to understand anything that the jurors know or whether they bring any biases about the case."
An example could be weeding out jurors who had read books on the Bain case or had closely followed media coverage, he said."
An example could be weeding out jurors who had read books on the Bain case or had closely followed media coverage, he said. ."
In America, grilling potential jurors was standard and commonly called "voir dire", French for "look say". He doubted it would add much time to the trial but would help ensure it was fair. He said another way was by finding out more about potential jurors' views to eliminate unsuitable people.
The research examined 48 trials in 1998, with about a quarter being high profile and complex cases.
While New Zealand's sole major research into criminal trial juries found pre-trial publicity had minimal impact on verdicts, co-author Dr Yvette Tinsley, a Victoria University senior law lecturer, admitted Bain's case was hard to assess. I think it's still possible for a jury to be conscientious, regardless, in the face of publicity.
"I couldn't say confidently the pre-trial publicity won't have any effect [on Bain's case] but you feel the group dynamics will minimise that.
Meanwhile, Bain's ex-lawyer, Michael Guest, said jury selection had been an easy task for his client's first trial in 1995, when he faced charges of murdering all five members of his family."
The research, published in 1999, showed some jurors were affected by pre-trial media publicity but were kept in line by the rest of the panel. He could have been anyone's son, anyone's brother. He could have been anyone's son, anyone's brother. Most of your clients look like criminals but David didn't, so it wasn't a problem."
At the end of the three-week trial, the 12 jurors – seven men and five women -found Bain guilty of murdering his parents, two sisters and brother in Dunedin on June 20, 1994. He was sentenced to life in jail with a 16-year non-parole period and spent 13 years behind bars until the Privy Council found a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred and quashed his convictions in May 2007. A retrial was ordered and Bain was bailed five days later.
Guest said the plethora of publicity on Bain's case plus increasingly complex trials -the retrial was expected to last three months – made jury selection more challenging.
A key was examining for people who stood by the concept of proving someone's guilt beyond reasonable doubt, rather than caring whether the person was guilty or not.
He said jurors with technical minds, including university lecturers, teachers or engineers, might also be useful in considering complex evidence, such as about DNA.
"Also, if you thought that the police evidence was strong or stronger, you might look for people you could swing into a sympathy defence. For example, some people who might not be as quick-witted as some other people."
In New Zealand, defence lawyers get the list of potential jurors' names, occupations and addresses just days before a trial, although the Crown or police usually have their details for longer. Under the amended Juries Act, either side can challenge four people each for any reason for a jury seat and can also turn away an unlimited number if they had links to the case.
Guest, a Dunedin city councillor, said he would closely watch the retrial. "There are five people in the graveyard in East Taieri cemetery who were clearly killed by someone else. The question is who. We may never get that answered."

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Sacked lawyer drops claim against Collins

Saturday, 28 February 2009

Claims that Solicitor-General David Collins "aided and abetted" the sacking of a Conservation Department lawyer over an alleged conflict of interest have been withdrawn.
The move came at an Employment Relations Authority hearing this week into the sacking of lawyer Sue Grey.
Three hours into the Nelson hearing after authority member Paul Montgomery said Ms Grey faced a high threshold to prove her case Dr Collins made an unexpected offer. She was seeking damages against Dr Collins, reinstatement and compensation from the department. After a short adjournment Ms Grey's lawyer, Moka Ritchie, accepted the offer.
If Ms Grey withdrew her allegations, he would not pursue her for legal costs.
Within hours of the damages part of her employment case collapsing, police said they would no longer investigate a "parallel .
Ms Grey dropped the damages claim against Dr Collins but still wants compensation and her job back…
The police complaint was laid by Ms Grey's partner, former Green MP Ian Ewen-Street. criminal complaint" alleging that Dr Collins attempted to pervert the course of justice.
She lost her job in September, three weeks after Dr Collins telephoned DOC director-general Al Morrison to say she had a conflict of interest.
The Employment Relations Authority is now expected to consider further written evidence and then rule on Ms Grey's claim.
Ms Grey acted for the growers, who won the first round of the case, but then lost in the Court of Appeal.
While working for DOC, Ms Grey was also acting in the "Saxmere" case, a legal action taken by a group of wool growers against the Wool Board, challenging how payouts were made.
The case, to be heard in the Supreme Court next month, now centres on whether Justice Wilson fully disclosed his joint ownership of a multimillion-dollar racehorse stud with barrister Alan Galbraith, QC.
Last year the focus of the case switched to argument about whether one of the Court of Appeal judges, Justice Bill Wilson, had a potential conflict of interest regarding the lawyer acting for the Wool Board.
Justice Wilson has since been appointed to the Supreme Court.
Ms Grey's clients subsequently tried unfavourably to join the attorney-general to the Supreme Court proceedings.
At this week's employment hearing, Ms Grey claimed Dr Collins had abetted the Conservation Department in breaching her employment contract which had included an agreement she could continue with the Saxmere case, which she had started working on before being hired by the department. Dr Collins advises the Government on judicial appointments.
She said Dr Collins' "gratuitous" legal advice to Mr Morrison was given when the solicitor-general was acting for the attorney-general, who had a potential interest in the Saxmere case. .
Dr Collins said he would have been remiss if he had not alerted Mr Morrison to the conflict and "it was for Al to sort out".
Dr Collins said he would have been remiss if he had not alerted Mr Morrison to the conflict and "it was for Al to sort out".

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Watchdog backs police using Tasers

The Thursday, 19 February 2009

The police watchdog is throwing its weight behind issuing officers with 50,000-volt Tasers, saying there has been no complaints since the weapons were first tested and the policy is "very sound".
Police are rolling out the stun guns across the country, after a year-long trial from September 2006 in the Wellington and Auckland districts.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority's chairwoman, Justice Lowell Goddard, told MPs yesterday that it had monitored the Taser trial and found the policy for their use "very sound"..
"I see the Taser as one of a number of options for a frontline officer . I don't think the IPCA would take issue with the policy that stands," Justice Goddard told Parliament's law and order select committee..
Cameras attached to the new-model Tasers which filmed the target were an impressive safeguard against the weapon being abused.. "It's a huge built-in safeguard . and it ought to expedite any inquiry.. Both complaints were dismissed by the authority because the Taser's use was considered justified, he said."
The authority's investigations manager, Allan Galbraith, told MPs there were two complaints from the Taser trial, where the weapons did not have a camera fitted. There had been no complaints since the Tasers were reintroduced to armed offenders squads in Wellington and Auckland before Christmas. .
Justice Goddard said there may be cases where it was appropriate to use the weapon against someone in custody but any complaints would be thoroughly investigated. He was worried they could be used against people who were already in police custody. They could be used in police cells only if there were "extenuating circumstances".
A police national headquarters spokesman said Tasers, like guns, would never be used to make arrested people more compliant or to calm them down.
Frontline police in Auckland and Wellington are being trained to use them and they may be introduced in other areas after June.
Police say officers will need permission from a supervisor before to taking a Taser to an incident.

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Controls over Canty water found lacking

By DAVID WILLIAMS – Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Water governance in Canterbury is inadequate, a Crown research institute says.
A Landcare Research-commissioned report, released yesterday, says the Canterbury regional plan and the resource consent process are incapable of constraining water takes or ensuring appropriate allocation.
The report author, Professor Neil Gunningham, of the Australian National University, said from Canberra that it was appropriate for regional councils to manage water allocation, but the Government should set consistent national standards.
"Both of these hierarchical instruments are seriously flawed," the report says. .
"There are some things you can't appropriately devolve.
Gunningham said he was referring to previous councillors.
The report says Environment Canterbury (ECan) is "dominated [politically] by rural interests" and had no enthusiasm for a regional plan until shortly before a shift in the council's political composition.
"The regional council has little knowledge of how much a consent-holder is using in practice or whether their allocation under a consent is far in excess of their requirements," the report says.
He said ECan was operating "with one arm tied behind its back", but the fault lay with the Resource Management Act (RMA), which did not adequately prevent the over-allocation of water.
A new method of water management is needed, the report says, including water charging and monitoring, freezing consents in at-risk catchments and providing broader public access to resource consent processes.
The situation will not be reversed even when ECan's regional plan is implemented because it cannot claw back water allocated under existing consents, it says.
"We think there is value in being able to get the overall strategy correct instead of continually processing consents as information is gathered," he said.
ECan chief executive Bryan Jenkins, who had input into the report, said his council had suggested to the Government halting the granting of further consents in at-risk catchments.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman, who last year called for an urgent moratorium on water allocation in Canterbury, said there should be a freeze on new consents in the region. He said the RMA was inadequately written to deal with water issues in Canterbury. "They get it for free.
There should be a "price signal" for water use, he said."
Minister of Regulatory Reform Rodney Hide said a review of the RMA was under way. The public should get some benefit from them using it.