Two a penny

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The Government is giving people the chance to “kick the tyres” of the MMP electoral system although it is working well, Prime Minister John Key says.

Justice Minister Simon Power announced today there would be a referendum at the same time as the 2011 general election, asking voters whether they want to retain MMP.

If they don’t, they can tick one of several alternative voting systems that will be set out on the same paper.

It will be a run off between MMP and the alternative that was given the most votes in the first referendum.

A second referendum will be held at the same time as the 2014 general election if a majority want a change.

“But we promised New Zealanders on the campaign trail they would have an opportunity to kick the tyres.

“I think we’ve proved in close toly a year in government that the system is working well,” Mr Key told reporters.”

Mr Key said he didn’t believe voters would be likely to choose to go back to the old first-past-the-post system, which MMP replaced in 1996. .

Mr Power told there was a widespread expectation at the time MMP was introduced that there would be a chance for another say on the system.

If a majority of voters prefer the alternative voting system to MMP, the 2017 general election will be held under the chosen alternative.

Cabinet was yet to make decisions around wording of the questions and the alternate electoral systems to be offered.

It was also cheaper than other options, although holding two referenda would still cost $23 million.

Mr Power said holding a referendum alongside a general election ensured a good turnout, which was important if the referendum was to be legitimate.

Mr Power said the Government was determined to ensure there would be a strong public information campaign explaining the different alternatives.

Mr Power said the Government was determined to ensure there would be a strong public information campaign explaining the different alternatives.

“The Government wants to ensure New Zealanders have time to consider all the issues fully before making their decision.

“If a majority of voters opt for a change from MMP, there will be plenty of time for public discussion on the merits of MMP versus the preferred alternative voting system, before the second referendum,” he said. It would include the wording of questions and the options to be considered.”

Legislation to allow the first referendum would go to Parliament early next year.

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Input would be considered at the select committee stage

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Serena Williams’ US Open title defence ended in bizarre, ugly fashion, when she was docked a point on match point after yelling and shaking her racket in the direction of an official who called a foot fault.

Williams lost to unseeded, unranked Kim Clijsters 6-4, 7-5 in a taut semifinal that featured plenty of powerful groundstrokes by both women.

With Williams serving at 5-6, 15-30 in the second set, she faulted on her first serve. .

That made the score 15-40, putting Clijsters one point from victory. On the second serve, a line judge called a foot fault, making it a double-fault – a call rarely, if ever, seen at that stage of any match, let alone the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament.

Williams already had been give a code violation warning when she broke her racket after losing the first set.

Instead of stepping to the baseline to serve again, Williams went over and shouted and cursed at the line judge, pointing at her and shaking a ball at her.

“She was called for a foot fault, and a point later, she said something to a line umpire, and it was reported to the chair, and that resulted in a point penalty,” Earley explained. So the chair umpire now awarded a penalty point to Clijsters, ending the match. It was a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. “And it just happened that point penalty was match point.

“I used to have a real temper, and I’ve gotten a lot better,” Williams said in her postmatch news conference.”

When the ruling was announced, Williams walked around the net to the other end of the court to shake hands with a stunned Clijsters, who did not appear to understand what had happened. Yes, yes, indeed. “So I know you don’t believe me, but I used to be worse.

Clijsters hadn’t competed at the US Open since winning the 2005 championship.”

Lost in the theatrics was Clijsters’ significant accomplishment: In only her third tournament back after 2 1/2 years in retirement, the 26-year-old Belgian became the first mother to reach a Grand Slam final since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon 1980. 9 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-3, 6-3 in the other rain-delayed women’s semifinal. Now she will play for her second career major title against No.

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Simon Cowell has blasted The Beatles, claiming they would have failed auditions on The X Factor.

The music mogul – who once rejected the Spice Girls, the best-selling girl group of all time – says he would have kicked the iconic band off his British TV talent show unless they fired drummer Ringo Starr.’

“With Ringo, I’m afraid, we would have said ‘bad news’.

The 49-year-old star said: “If The Beatles came on the show we would have said, ‘We’ll take those three – Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison – but probably lose the drummer. That’s what excites me.”

Speaking in a US television interview with his Britain’s Got Talent co-star Amanda Holden, Simon also revealed what drives him, saying: “I like winning, Amanda.

Her debut album is due for release in November, and is expected to shoot to the top of the charts in America and Britain.”

Simon is now focusing on the career of Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle, who will perform on the final of America’s Got Talent next week. .

* Would The Beatles succeed in today’s music world? below

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Well-known television host, author and clinical psychologist Nigel Latta says he only agreed to help review policies around the smacking issue if he was free to speak his mind about the conclusions.

Prime Minister John Key yesterday released the Terms of Reference for a review of policies and procedures used by Child, Youth and Family and the police when investigating smacking.

Mr Latta was opposed to the law change and voted no in the recent related referendum.

Mr Latta, Social Development Ministry chief executive Peter Hughes and Police Commissioner Howard Broad will conduct the review.

In a referendum the previous month, 87 percent of those who voted said no to the question: “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”

The review will look at procedures, including the referral process and identify any changes that are necessary or desirable.

The law as it stands bans smacking for the purposes of correction but the police have the discretion not to prosecute for inconsequential smacks.

Mr Latta said he did not believe that a parent smacking their child, in the common sense understanding of what that meant, should be subject to criminal investigation.

It will also “consider any other matters which, in the reviewers’ opinion, will assist in ensuring that parents are treated as Parliament intended”.

He intended to find out whether the law meant good parents were being subjected to investigations that were intrusive or traumatic.

The debate on the issue had become polarised with both sides reducing complex social and moral issues into simplistic extremes that had consumed time, energy and money, when everyone agreed children needed protection from abuse.

“I can understand that Mr Key wanted someone who believes (parents) should have the legal right to bring up their children using physical discipline,” she said on Radio New Zealand.

Green Party MP Sue Bradford, who drafted the law change that banned smacking, said she hoped Mr Latta would work with the team in a professional and unbiased way. .

“I do understand Mr Latta is a professional.

“Family First has been documenting substantive evidence of good families being investigated and prosecuted as a result of the law, and it is essential that Mr Latta meet these families and views the evidence,” said Family First’s national director Bob McCoskrie.”

The Family First organisation, which campaigned for parents’ right to smack their children, welcomed Mr Latta’s appointment but said it was concerned because he had said he was not going to meet any lobby groups.

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Police and Child Youth and Family officials will be warned to not prosecute parents for lightly smacking their children.

Prime Minister John Key told the Sunday Star-Times in Sydney yesterday he was planning to introduce “increased safeguards” to prevent parents who gave their children “minor” or “inconsequential” smacks from being either investigated or prosecuted.

Key’s move is designed to appease the “Vote No” campaigners, who were yesterday celebrating an overwhelming win in the citizens-initiated referendum asking: “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”

Of the more than 1. The “Yes” campaign attracted 12 percent of the vote.6 million New Zealanders who voted (a 54 percent turnout), 88 percent said smacking children should not be a criminal offence. “I agree and support their view there, I think it would be totally inappropriate for a New Zealand parent to be prosecuted for lightly smacking a child.

Mr Key also told TVNZ’s Q&A programme this morning that he agreed with the result.Mr Key said Cabinet would consider the issue tomorrow.

“What I am wanting to ensure,” Key told the Sunday Star-Times, “is that parents have a level of comfort that the police and Child Youth and Family follow the intent of parliament, and that they can feel comfortable that in bringing up their children they are not going to be dragged before the courts for a minor or inconsequential smack.

Key said that although police had statutory independence from the government, cabinet had some options to direct them. .”

I think there are some things that we can potentially do that don’t involve a law change but would involve ensuring that their level of comfort that the law is working is maintained.

Key got himself into an awkward political position on the issue after cutting a deal in 2007 with then Prime Minister Helen Clark to ban the use of force as a “corrective” measure.

Given the referendum results, campaigners are baying for the law to be changed back or at least amended, allowing parents to use an open hand to smack their children on the bottom or hand. He has repeatedly said he does not believe police are prosecuting parents unnecessarily and that he remained comfortable the law was working. He has repeatedly said he does not believe police are prosecuting parents unnecessarily and that he remained comfortable the law was working.

Sending the issue back to parliament would consume the country at a time when there were bigger issues to deal with, he said. Key said that report would also show a similar result.

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Tongan ferry Princess Ashika was leaking hours before it capsized, with crew using buckets to bail out water because pumps failed to work, it is claimed. .

Two people have been confirmed dead.

The claims came as navy divers from New Zealand and Australia battled the odds to try and find the wreck and the 93 bodies understood to be still trapped inside the ferry’s cabins.

He said the hull was holed and welds over thin steel plates were not holding.

Mr Uata, whose company runs rival ferry MV Pulupaki, said he had inspected Princess Ashika while it was drydocked in Suva, Fiji, just before it went to Tonga.

He also believes the ship was not suited to sea journeys. Workers had filled the holes with cement, he said. “I believed they had pumps but the pumps did not work properly. “It is a very awful ship, it is designed to operate on smooth water,” Mr Uata said.. The water started to fill up the cargo deck . They used buckets to try and get the water out …. To me as a ship owner, this was not an accident.

“They [the crew] should have come back immediately as soon as they found there was a leak, or go to the nearest port. When a distress call was made Pulupaki turned around and plucked most of the surviving passengers from the sea.”

Pulupaki left Nuku’alofa an hour before Princess Ashika on the night it sank.

Mr Uata’s son Thomas said Princess Ashika was certified to sail by the Tongan Government which owned it. Mr Uata said sea conditions were normal.

“When we rescued the crew they told us there the ship had been leaking when it left port and they used buckets to get the water out. It could only sail in Tongan, Samoan and Fijian waters as it did not meet international standards, he said. Thomas Uata believes the captain was under pressure to get the cargo north. Thomas Uata believes the captain was under pressure to get the cargo north.

“There was a shift in the cargo inside,” he said. “We really think this is what happened.”

FERRY ‘UNSEAWORTHY’ – SKIPPER

The allegations follow claims by the skipper of the Princess Ashika, who said the ferry was unseaworthy and the Tongan government knew there were problems with it.

But the claims of captain Maka Tuputupu and others about the ferry’s seaworthiness have been denied by Tonga’s Transport Minister Paul Karalus.

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Only one in seven New Zealanders – 13.1 percent – have healthy lifestyles, says a new compilation of statistics related to the nation’s sustainability.

And though the proportion of Pakeha taking care of themselves with healthy diets and exercise was not too flash at 15. .7 percent, the proportion of Maori and Pacific Islanders hitting the same targets was lagging badly around only a third of that level.These behaviours – non-smoking, safe drinking, eating adequate amounts of fruit and vegetables, and maintaining a healthy weight – have been combined into a measure of a healthy lifestyle in the Statistics New Zealand overview of New Zealand’s social, economic and environmental sustainability.4 percent) and one in 25 Pacific Islanders (4 percent) engaged in the five “healthy behaviours” used as a measure.Government Statistician Geoff Bascand said today the five key behaviours mitigated the risk of dying from non-infectious diseases.Mr Bascand said 85 indicators were used to illustrate progress over the past two decades in four key areas – how well people live, how fairly resources are distributed, how efficiently resources are used and what New Zealanders are leaving for future generations.Coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and various cancers cause 63 percent of the nation’s deaths.Though he said the figures showed a general increase in living standards with people likely to live longer without needing daily support, rising incomes, and lower death rates from crime, Mr Bascand noted the higher incomes had not been shared evenly, with a widening gap between high income and low income homes.The report was the culmination of two years’ work built on feedback from the original effort six years ago.”Critical aspects of the natural environment, in the form of water quality, net greenhouse gases and biodiversity appear to be moving away from sustainable development,” he said.There were “mixed results” in terms of the resources left to future generations.The $276,000 report is the nation’s first official set of sustainable development indicators and provides a benchmark for the future, though it was developed in the wake of a study done in 2002.The $276,000 report is the nation’s first official set of sustainable development indicators and provides a benchmark for the future, though it was developed in the wake of a study done in 2002.Rather than saying whether any critical threshold had been crossed, the report measured movements which gave a basis for setting such targets.People put different values on separate aspects of development, but in the long term, development could only be sustainable if economic development was accompanied by healthy ecosystems and well-educated people, and environmental progress needed to be matched by economic health. His position is independent of political interference, and the data produced by his statisticians underpins $50 billion worth of decisions on government spending, as well as a lot of decision-making by local government and the private sector.”It is for others to comment on what the statistics we produce mean,” Mr Bascand said.The new report relied less than the 2002 study on real gross domestic product (GDP) to provide context – this year the researchers dropped GDP per head, balance of trade in goods and services, and the national current account and international investment positions as indicators of economic activity.The main value of today’s report lay in its longterm focus and integrated viewpoint – rather than simply focusing on the environmental cost of household consumption, the report also looked at economic and social benefits, such as the link between rising consumption levels and the standard of living. –

.”GDP, while essential, doesn’t tell us about well-being or whether growth is resulting in excessive resource depletion, or how we are investing in our future,” Mr Bascand said

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LATEST:
One person is dead after a bus carrying 13 passengers rolled on the Milford Highway close to Te Anau.

Inspector Olaf Jensen, of Invercargill, said the bus rolled close to Te Anau Downs on State Highway 94.

St John Ambulance spokeswoman Alena Lynch confirmed one passenger had died.

Helicopters were dispatched from Te Anau, Queenstown and Dunedin.A further two patients had serious injuries and one had moderate injuries. The other patient with serious injuries was flown to Dunedin Hospital, Ms Lynch said.

Two patients, one with serious injuries and one with moderate injuries have been flown to Southland Hospital.

Other passengers were being checked at the Te Anau Medical Centre.

It is understood it was a tourist bus heading into Milford Sound.

Emergency services had been hampered by icy roads and low cloud in responding the crash scene, police said.30am.

Ms Lynch said St John received a call about the bus at around 8.

“This is pretty fluid at the moment,” Ms Lynch said.

A fire communications spokesman said twelve passengers had been freed with one still trapped inside.

The Te Anau Downs Rd had been closed 30km north of Te Anau.

The Te Anau Downs Rd had been closed 30km north of Te Anau. .

Ms Lynch said that at around 8.

Also, a van carrying six passengers had crashed on the Te Anau–Mossburn Highway with one passenger sustaining moderate injuries.

Two passengers sustained minor injuries and were expected to be taken to Queenstown Hospital to be treated.

A Te Anau police spokeswoman said conditions in the area were extremely hazardous.

The patient was likely to be transported to Queenstown Hospital.

– with SAM MCKNIGHT,

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“There’s a lot of crashes around our area this morning,” she said, adding that the large amount of sheet ice on the roads was a major factor

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Australia’s former Federation Cup captain, John Alexander, is appalled by the decision of the All England Club to take the physical appearance of women into consideration when planning their schedule for Centre Court matches at Wimbledon.

“That is an extraordinary thing to do,” Alexander told the Sydney Morning Herald last night in response to a reported admission by the club that attractiveness was helping determine which players received the privilege of playing on the most famous court in the world.

“It is absolutely and totally inappropriate. It is absolutely absurd and I cannot believe it is the case,” he said. We are talking about Wimbledon, the holiest place there is in tennis.

They are hardly household names, but have one thing in common – they’re easy on the eye.

The following women have all played on Wimbeldon’s hallowed Centre Court in the past week: Maria Sharapova (unseeded, ranked 60th in the world), Gisela Dulko (unseeded), Victoria Azarenka (8th seed), Sorana Cirstea (27th), Caroline Wozniacki, (9th) and Maria Kirilenko (unseeded, ranked 59). Major champions Svetlana Kuznetsova, who won the French Open and is seeded No. 2, have been pushed to outside courts. 5, and Serena Williams, No. ‘It’s not a coincidence that those [on Centre Court] are attractive.

A spokesman from the All England Club, Johnny Perkins, was quoted in the Daily Mail newspaper in London: “Good looks are a factor.

“Looks per se are not taken into account,” Mr Perkins told the SMH.”

Mr Perkins later denied this. However, he acknowledged “box office appeal” was one of 28 points considered when courts were allocated. However, he acknowledged “box office appeal” was one of 28 points considered when courts were allocated.

Asked if she was bothered by being relegated to court two for an early round match, two-time champion Serena Williams said she was not bothered.

“You had a former champion against an up and coming player,” he said.

Alexander said such things would not happen in Australia. “It’s a really nice court,” said Williams, who was six minutes late for her third round match because, unlike players on Centre Court and court one, she was not told her match was about to start and escorted there by an official.

“I would suggest that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

“I can absolutely swear that at the Australian Open, it has only ever been done on the quality of the tennis,” he said. Anything else is appalling, a repulsive suggestion. I would also suggest that Serena Williams would hold a lot of appeal as a brilliant tennis player to all people who watch the sport.

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Riot police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes with protestors ahead of a NATO summit in France.

About 200 youths were arrested and police say they fear there could be much more violence over the next two days both in France and nearby Germany, which are co-hosting 60th anniversary celebrations for the military alliance.

More than 500 demonstrators tried to converge on the centre of the French city of Strasbourg in a spontaneous protest during the afternoon, their numbers swelled by disaffected youths from the surrounding suburbs.

At one point, rioters charged a military vehicle that happened to cross their path, with a masked youth hurling a pole through the windscreen.

They smashed windows, vandalised cars and barricaded a street before being pushed back out of the city by police.

Organisers of the anti-NATO movement, which has set up camp just outside Strasbourg, condemned the violence.

One of the occupants, who was in uniform, drew his gun and pointed it towards the sky, giving the driver time to speed off.

“We have no sympathy for the vandalising,” Reiner Braun, one of the group leaders, told .

Protest groups have said they want to bring chaos to the NATO summit and police warn that clashes at the G20 meeting in London earlier this week have fuelled tensions.

reporters said there was a fierce confrontation near the camp in the evening, with youths hurling stones at security forces who responded with a barrage of tear gas and rubber shot, forcing them back into their tented village.

G20 DEATH FUELS ANGER

About 100 people staged a peaceful demonstration in Baden Baden, calling on nations to spend less on defence and more on fighting poverty.

US President Barack Obama is due to arrive in France on Friday morning and will take part in two events in Strasbourg before travelling to Baden Baden, just across the German border.

German police said they feared violent confrontations on Friday when the NATO meeting formally begins in Baden Baden, Some 20,000 protesters are expected. .

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Rainer Wendt, head of German police trade union DPolG, said the situation had grown more tense following the death of a man at protests in London on Wednesday night against the G20 summit.

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Rainer Wendt, head of German police trade union DPolG, said the situation had grown more tense following the death of a man at protests in London on Wednesday night against the G20 summit.

British police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death, saying only that the man collapsed in the street and was found unconscious. People wind each other up,” he told . “Stop repression in London and Strasbourg,” read one banner on Thursday.

Youths defying police in Strasbourg had all heard about the death.

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