Two a penny

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Women fired because they were pregnant

By KATHERINE NEWTON Thursday, 04 December 2008

/The
DAMAGES: Former Auckland bar manager Sophie Melrose, with son Lukus, was awarded nearly $36,000 in compensation and lost wages after being wrongfully dismissed.

Twoemployers have been ordered to pay thousands of dollars in compensation for wrongfully dismissing two employees after they became pregnant.
Ms Melrose was demoted from her job as general manager at The Vulcan bar in December 2007, a week after she told her employers she was pregnant.
Former Auckland bar manager Sophie Melrose was awarded nearly $36,000 in compensation and lost wages, and former waitress Doris Chiu was awarded more than $22,000, in two separate cases decided by the Employment Relations Authority.
She has since given birth to a healthy baby boy, but said the loss of her job marred her pregnancy. . It was very, very stressful for me and my partner. "I lost all my maternity leave."
She said she was relieved to have won her case.
"I found myself always having anxiety attacks – my midwife was constantly checking my blood pressure.
"I just felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders. "I always knew that what had happened was wrong, but to have that verified by a court was so good.
Her employers, Lina Megawaty and John White, claimed she had failed to provide proof of her entitlement to work in New Zealand, despite being a New Zealand resident."
Ms Chiu was fired from her job at the New Deli Cafe, Albany, in August 2007, a few weeks after she told her employers she was pregnant.
That information would have been discovered when Ms Chiu applied to Inland Revenue for maternity and parental leave.
However, Ms Chiu provided evidence that suggested her employers had dismissed her in an attempt to cover up the fact they had paid only one month of her PAYE tax to Inland Revenue.
"Her memory of the birth of her child will long be marred by what happened when she told her employers she was pregnant.
Authority member Alastair Dumbleton said Ms Chiu had been humiliated by being called "a liar and a fraud, and a fabricator of evidence". "We're being shown as people who discriminate against pregnant women, when we're not."
Mr White said yesterday that he was considering challenging the decision. "I can just imagine what it took for those women to have to go through all this while they were pregnant."
Maternity Services Consumer Council coordinator Lynda Williams said the cases made her despair.
Wellington employment lawyer Peter Cullen said firing a woman because she was pregnant was sexual discrimination and a breach of the Human Rights Act."
She hoped the cases would be a deterrent to employers who thought such behaviour was tolerable. "It's not often that people get discriminated against like that. "It's not often that people get discriminated against like that."

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Gun drama at Wellington bank

The Tuesday, 02 December 2008

The
CRIME SCENE: Police outside the Paper Plus outlet next to the Bay Rd Post Shop and Kiwibank that was held up by armed robbers this afternoon.

Armed robbers threatened to shoot a bank customer as he tried to flee a hold-up in the Wellington of Kilbirnie this afternoon.
Police are currently interviewing eyewitnesses after the attempted armed robbery.50pm.
It is understood two or three masked robbers entered the Post Shop and Kiwibank outlet on Bay Rd some time before 1.10pm. They had left the scene by 2.
One man waiting on the street told The his son was inside the branch during the incident and had called him from his cellphone with details. .
When his son saw the masked robbers enter, he made for the door but was told to get down on the ground with his hands behind his head.
There were quite a few people in the shop at the time and they were down on the ground, he said."
A man who only wanted to be known as Walt said he was sitting outside the shop in a parked car when he saw a man in the bank with a bag in one hand and a shot gun in the other.
Police spokeswoman Kaye Calder said the armed offender squad went to the scene following reports of an aggravated robbery.
A local resident, who did not want to be named, said three young men with balaclavas attempted to rob the shop but had run away.
By 2.
By 2.
Eyewitness Jason Pearson said armed police questioned him about what he saw and warned him to stay inside.
A cordon had been set up around the bank, and police were inside interviewing witnesses. 'Did you see two guys running by with black clothing?'"
He said police indicated one man was one armed with a shotgun.
"They asked if we saw someone.
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Christchurch pair die in crash

BY , JO MCKENZIE-MCLEAN and FAIRFAX – Saturday, 29 November 2008

Two Christchurch engineers with young families and a former Christchurch air inspector are among the seven dead in the Air New Zealand Airbus crash off southern France.
Noel Marsh, 35, a supervisor at the Christchurch engineering base, had two young boys, and his wife, Tracy, is expecting their third child.
Jeremy Cook, in his late 50s, was married with children.
Michael Gyles, 49, was also married with two boys, one 13 and the other slightly younger. . He grew up in Christchurch and worked for the Christchurch engine centre before joining the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as an air inspector three years ago.
The jet was in about 40m of freezing water several kilometres off the coast.
The plane was making its final approach to Perpignan Airport when it crashed.
The tragedy happened on the 29th anniversary of the Air New Zealand DC10 crash on Antarctica's Mount Erebus, killing all 257 on board.
About 60 divers went down to the aircraft last night (New Zealand time) to search for the remaining bodies and the black-box flight recorders, which could provide crucial clues on why the plane crashed.
Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe, who was on his way to France last night with New Zealand air-crash investigators, spoke to the partners of the missing men.
Families of those victims yesterday expressed sympathy for those with relatives in the French tragedy.
Southland-raised pilot Brian Horrell, 52, Auckland engineer Murray White, 37, and Civil Aviation Authority inspector Jeremy Cook, formerly of Christchurch but later based in Wellington, also died, along with the two German pilots.
He said it was "an unbelievably difficult time for the families".
Marsh's family members said last night they were deeply saddened but still retained some hope he would be found alive.
Shocked family, friends, colleagues and neighbours of Marsh and Gyles last night spoke of the men's dedication to their jobs and families. "He loves his job and as a family we are extremely proud of him.
They said he relished the opportunity to travel to Europe to be involved in the acceptance process for the A320.
Marsh had been with Air New Zealand for six years."
The family thanked the support of friends, Air New Zealand and French search teams.
"He was a good family man.
Warren Amos, a friend who worked with Marsh in the air force and for Air New Zealand, said he felt stunned.
The workers who Marsh supervised at the Christchurch base were sent home yesterday. Everybody is quite shocked because he was a hell of a nice guy," Amos said.
She said Gyles, who had a 30-year career with Air New Zealand, was quiet but would "always says `hi' and that sort of thing".
She said Gyles, who had a 30-year career with Air New Zealand, was quiet but would "always says `hi' and that sort of thing".
"His two young boys are so lovely, really polite. We have lived here close toly 11 years and seen them grow up," she said.
"We hardly hear from them except for the lovely noise of happiness when they are all playing together outside. (Gyles and his wife) are lovely with them.
"I could not think of the family without their father. They are that type of family.
"The boys will be hit hard. I am really devastated and feel so sorry for them. He will be so missed."
Horrell's wife, Shelley, and children Olivia, 19, and Logan, 17, were being supported by friends at their home in Howick, Auckland, yesterday.
His parents and brothers were mourning the senior pilot, with 22 years service to the national carrier, in their hometown of Tuatapere, Southland, last night.
They said he learnt to fly a hang-glider, eventually representing New Zealand at the world championships.
He also worked for Water Wings in Te Anau before joining Air New Zealand, based in Christchurch and flying Friendship planes.
His family said he had a "very loud and infectious laugh".
"He had an interest in flying from an early age. He worked really hard to get where he was," brother Nicol Horrell said.
Cook worked as a maintenance engineer in Christchurch.
He also worked in Papua New Guinea before joining the CAA as an airworthiness inspector in 2005.
The authority said Horrell was an aviation enthusiast with a long career dedicated to enchancing safety standards.

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Nelson man carried 100m in raging torrent

By HELEN MURDOCH – Wednesday, 26 November 2008

HELEN MURDOCH/
SWAMPED: A car belonging to retired school principal Rod McKenzie lies stuck on the edge of a weir in the Collins River, north of Nelson, yesterday.

Rod McKenzie has covered a 100m section of Nelson's flooded Collins River in record time in his car.
"One minute I was on the road; the next I was in the river," he said.
McKenzie, a retired primary school principal, was driving to Nelson from his Okiwi Bay home in torrential rain on Monday when he aquaplaned over an 8m bank into the normally slow-flowing river.
He estimated he was carried another 100m by the swollen waters.
McKenzie was tossed down the "raging, roaring torrent" for about 100m before he fled his car. The worst part was trying to grab the blackberry bushes and clamber out, the river was moving so fast," he said.
"It was only when I got out that I thought I may be in trouble. .
Picked up by a farmer who took him home for a hot shower and a change of clothes, McKenzie then continued his journey to Nelson to collect his wife and take her to the airport.
"I suspect if I had stayed with it something bad would have happened.
"I've been told it continued down the river and got jammed under a bridge for a while before it popped out," he said.
The heavy rain also trapped three Tasman District Council hydrologists in the Upper Lee Valley on Monday night and caused flooding in Golden Bay and Nelson City."
McKenzie escaped with only scratches but faces an unpleasant aftermath police yesterday told him they were considering charging him with dangerous driving and he has to figure a way to get his car out of the river.
The trio bunked down for the night in a council ute, dined on a few biscuits and watched the Upper Lee River flood over a bridge, said Doyle.
Hydrologist Martin Doyle and two of his colleagues were measuring flood and sediment flows at the proposed Upper Lee Valley dam site when the heavy rain made the ford crossings impassable.
The ranges between Takaka and Collingwood were lashed by 328mm of rain in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday.
The persistent rain was pushed into the hills above Nelson and Golden Bay by strong northerly winds, dumping 136mm above the city and 257mm above Upper Takaka. Some schools closed early, while shops and homes were sandbagged to prevent flooding as water flowed down Takaka's main street.
In Golden Bay, roads were closed, stock were rescued from low-lying areas and the army ferried stranded motorists. "We were lucky to get away without major flooding.
"People haven't seen that sort of water across the road for some time," said Golden Bay Senior Constable Crispin Lee, of the East Takaka area.30pm high tide."
Nelson came within 30 minutes of a major flood when the rain stopped just before Monday's 8.
"We were concerned about the high tide, but the rain stopped about an hour before it came in," he said.
"We were concerned about the high tide, but the rain stopped about an hour before it came in," he said.

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Brother, sister talk to police after attempted kidnapping

By JARED MORGAN – Tuesday, 25 November 2008

A brother and sister at the centre of an attempted kidnapping in Invercargill will be spoken to today by police and a psychologist specially trained in interviewing children.
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Bowman, of Invercargill CIB, said the children would be interviewed to gain extra insight into the attempted abduction, which happened in daylight on Sunday.
A man tried to grab the four-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy as they played at the rugby league grounds on the corner of Ness and Ettrick streets about 3pm.
The man then grabbed the boy, but the pair managed to escape when the man went to open the van door.
He attempted to pull the girl by her arm into a white van but the boy held her other arm.
"It's certainly not something we've had for a long time here and of course one (attempted kidnapping) is too many," he said.
The incident and its timing was of concern to police, Bowman said.
THe officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Fred Shandley, said police planned to interview the boy today while his sister, because of her age, would be spoken to by a psychologist.

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Man charged over McCahon theft

Thursday, 20 November 2008

DEVELOPMENT: Police have today charged a 60-year-old Wanganui man with theft of this Colin McCahon sculpture.

Police have today charged a 60-year-old Wanganui man with theft of a Colin McCahon sculpture, which was later bought at auction for $25,000 by a prominent Wellington millionaire.
The iron cross sculpture was purchased by Lloyd Morrison in 2006 during an auction at Dunbar Sloane, but seized from his Wellington home in February this year after a complaint to police. .
The cross had been given to Wanganui artist Joanna Paul, a former student of McCahon's who died in 2003, then stored by relatives in a Wanganui building, from where they claim it later disappeared before being put up for auction.

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Another fatal drug bungle

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

A secondhospital death after a medication mix-up has been highlighted by a coroner.
A report by Hastings coroner Chris Devonport into the death of a 76-year-old man at Hawke's Bay Hospital found he had been wrongly given a second dose of blood-thinning medication and died of a large brain haemorrhage.
Mr Taylor was admitted to Wanganui Hospital with heart and kidney problems five days before his death.
This follows a report by Wellington coroner Ian Smith that found a mix-up at Wanganui Hospital contributed to the death of 62-year-old Canadian John Peter Taylor in 2006.
In the other case, the Hastings man arrived at Hawke's Bay Hospital on January 3 this year after suffering intermittent chest pains for three weeks. His health deteriorated after a nurse gave him another patient's heart medication.
Twenty minutes later the man's gums began bleeding and the medication was stopped.
Emergency department staff administered a dose of anticoagulant medication Enoxaparin after diagnosing him with angina, but half an hour later the on-call acute medical team diagnosed him as having suffered a heart attack and started administering a course of the anticoagulant heparin intravenously. He died at 3am the next day.
Shortly before 9pm a CT scan showed that the man had suffered a very large brain haemorrhage. .
A review for the Hastings coroner by cardiologist Keith Dyson found that the change in diagnosis should have prompted staff to consider what medication had already been administered.
Mr Devonport found there "there was a clear lack of awareness of medical staff as to the levels of drugs administered to [the patient]" and made several recommendations concerning training, record-keeping and communication.
Dr Dyson found there had been a lack of communication between staff, a delay in seeking advice from the medical registrar and a failure to recognise the significance of an ECG test that lead staff to reach the diagnosis of angina.

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Hawke's Bay DHB acting chief executive officer Win Bennett said the man's death had prompted an extensive review and systems had been improved, including the use of a checklist identifying appropriate medication if a diagnosis changed

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Rape accused fails to get video

Saturday, 13 September 2008

A judge has refused to give an accused rapist a copy of his alleged victim's videotaped police interview – but a new law may force such evidence to be handed over in future.
Police fear tapes of victims discussing what happened to them, which are regularly made by police, could be posted on the Internet for the sexual gratification of other offenders if they fell into the wrong hands.
Police also sent a copy of the videotaped interview to his local police station for him and his lawyer Andru Isac to view as often as they wanted, and offered to bring it to Mr Isac's offices.
A 21-year-old man, who has denied raping a woman at a Wellington party last year, was given a full transcript of the woman's police interview.
Police opposed the application and told the court if they were forced to release such tapes, victims could refuse to be interviewed or report a crime.
But Mr Isac then went to court seeking his and his client's own copy to prepare for the trial.
"In my view there are real and genuine concerns that the disclosed videotape could be misused in a number of potential ways," the judge said.
However, this week Wellington District Court judge Bruce Davidson refused the accused rapist's request.
The Government drafted an amendment to the Evidence Act 2006 late last year to block the release of such tapes intended to be used as court evidence, after The revealed fears tapes that child victims could become "trophies" for offenders.
Despite the ruling, the future security of such tapes remains unclear.
The Criminal Disclosure Act 2008, which has been passed but has yet to take effect, could force the courts to release tapes not intended as evidence in court but this remains untested.
The proposed law change has since been withdrawn as it needed more work.
As the Evidence Act amendment languishes, copies of child interviews have already been released by courts to accused abusers.
Police told the court they intended to lobby to change both laws.
Police say the process allows a victim free recall of the event.
Videotaping adult sexual assault interviews began as a pilot project in Wellington more than two years ago and is now being used in more stations nationwide.
The accused and their lawyers can view them at the station, or police will take them to a lawyer's office, but they remain in police possession at all times.
At the moment, the tapes are kept locked up in police stations. "We have always been very concerned about protecting victims' rights and the potential misuse of this type of information," he said.
Wellington District crime manager Detective Inspector Mike Arnerich welcomed the court's decision.