Two a penny

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A set of bills strengthening laws used against gangs sparked passionate debate in Parliament today before being passed into law.

The Gangs and Organised Crime Bill was divided into three bills: the Crimes Amendment Bill, Local Government Amendment Bill and the Sentencing Amendment Bill No 3.

The bills passed 108-14, opposed by the Maori Party and Greens.

Between them they will give police, courts and local authorities greater powers in terms of monitoring, disrupting and sentencing those who take part in organised criminal groups.

Gang and community engagement was more effective than “short term hysterics” such as putting offenders in jail and throwing away the key.

Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell said there were better ways to deal with gangs than ramping up enforcement and imprisonment.

Mr Flavell referred to a situation in the Bay of Plenty town of Murupara where two young people had allegedly been murdered in the past year.

Communities needed to be empowered so they could help deal with issues on their own terms.

Mr Flavell said he had no issue with criminals being punished, but called for a “balance between enforcement and restoration. .

“Stop calling them our people; they are not our people,” he said.”

Labour MP Shane Jones took offence to claims from the Maori Party that gang members were “our people”.

“They’re not our people.

“Our people don’t go to jail for killing teenage boys, our people don’t go to jail for raping, selling P and celebrating it as a mark of distinction and success. . In fact they are not people.they are the slaves that would have been despatched before Christianity without a sliver of doubt. .

It was important police were given the tools needed in their drive and keep on top of their offending, she said.”

National MP Sandra Goudie said gangs could be as savvy as anyone else in keeping up with technological advances and were much more sophisticated than they used to be.

The Sentencing Amendment Bill makes gang participation an aggravating factor at sentencing, and the Local Government Amendment Bill enables police and local authorities to seek removal orders against intimidating gang structures.

In its separate form, the Crimes Amendment Bill allows police to apply for an interception warrant to investigate participation in an organised criminal group and increases maximum sentences.

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In its initial form, the Gangs and Organised Crime Bill passed its first parliamentary reading in February

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Family and friends have so far failed to find the bodies of Timaru men Antony Haywood, 46, and Murray Green, 54, after their boat capsized on a fishing trip on Lake Tekapo last Wednesday.

Searchers recovered the body of the third crew member Mr Haywood’s father Alexander Haywood, 72, of Pleasant Point, close to Timaru, the day after the tragedy.

However, they had not yet found sign of their bodies, a Tekapo police spokesman said this afternoon.

Police called off the official search for the other two on Friday but relatives and friends continued looking for the men throughout the weekend.

Police believe that the fishing boat which had been recovered possibly hit a submerged object such as a tree at high speed about midday Wednesday flinging the men into the icy water. .

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Mr Haywood’s funeral will be held in Timaru tomorrow

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Militants have launched a string of attacks on police in Lahore in the Pakistani heartland and in the troubled northwest, killing 29 people after a week of violence in which more than 100 people died.

The attacks on police in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, and a car bomb in Kohat in the northwest, come ahead of an expected military offensive against the Taliban in their South Waziristan stronghold on the Afghan border. The cause was not immediately known.Later, a blast went off in a neighbourhood where government workers live in the northwestern city of Peshawar killing a child and wounding nine people, a rescue worker and media said.”First the (North West) Frontier province was on the front line, now they are playing their games in Punjab,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Geo television.The violence, just days after a daring raid on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, underscored the risk posed by militants to Punjab, Pakistan’s most economically important province and the country’s traditional seat of power.Nuclear-armed Pakistan is under US pressure to crack down on Islamic militancy as President Barack Obama considers a boost in troop numbers fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.The government says most attacks in the country are plotted in South Waziristan and carried out by Taliban, often with the help of allies from militant groups based in Punjab province.Seven people, including one gunman, were killed at a regional headquarters of the police’s Federal Investigation Agency.Ten gunmen, some of them teenagers, were killed in the attacks on three police centers in Lahore.A suicide car-bomber attacked the same building in March last year killing 21 people. One gunman escaped and one was captured, security officials said.Eleven police, six of them recruits, and four gunmen were killed at the Manawa training center, police said.Gunmen also attacked two police training centers, one a training school attacked this year and the other an elite police academy set in fields in the city outskirts.A policeman, a civilian and five gunmen were killed at the academy and media had reported hostages taken. Three of the black-clad attackers blew themselves up.Several hours after the attacks began, police said all three centers had been cleared and no hostages had been taken. Three gunmen blew themselves up and two, including one who was about 16, were shot by snipers, police said.Pakistan’s stock market slipped as the violence escalated at the start of the week, but the main index has since recouped the losses and rose 0.The attacks in Lahore spread fear and sirens from police and other emergency vehicles wailed over the city as hundreds of police and soldiers sealed off the three sites.”The market is sort of used to terror attacks,” said Mohammed Sohail, chief executive at brokers Topline Securities.4 percent on Thursday despite the latest bloodshed.” DRONE KILLS FOUR Shortly before the attacks in Lahore, a suicide car bomber set off his explosives outside a police station in Kohat killing 10 people, police and military officials said.”These high-profile targets are a concern, but investors are optimistic that eventually the Waziristan operation will take place and the terrorists will be attacked.There was no immediate claim for Thursday’s violence.There was no immediate claim for Thursday’s violence.The Taliban said it carried out the brazen assault on the army’s headquarters in Rawalpindi and some other attacks and vowed more in revenge for the killing of their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in a US missile strike in August.The government in June ordered the army to launch an offensive in South Waziristan. Since then the military has been conducting air and artillery strikes to soften up militant defenses.Aircraft flew several bombing sorties to attack the Makeen militant base in South Waziristan on Thursday, security officials said. .The government says the assault is imminent but it will be up to the army to decide when to send in ground troops.”Such barbaric, inhuman and un-Islamic terrorist acts only strengthen our resolve to fight terrorism with more vitality,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a statement.Separately, a US drone aircraft fired two missiles at a house in the North Waziristan region, killing four Afghan Taliban militants linked to a faction led by veteran militant commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, Pakistani officials said.The United States, struggling with an intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan and frustrated with Pakistan’s failure to eliminate Taliban sanctuaries on its side of the border, stepped up attacks by its drones in September last year.Hundreds of people, most of them militants but including some civilians, have been killed.

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New Zealand’s provincial rugby players have been itching to get behind a good cause, and it’s fair to say they’ve found one and it’s growing on them.

Beards are back – well they are on the Air NZ Cup scene anyway as the nation’s footy players go hirsute in the name of a cause they believe is worth a little discomfort for.

In case you’ve been wondering why there are so many bearded rugby players running round in the Air NZ Cup these days, well it’s all about raising awareness for the NZ Blood Service and the NZ Leukaemia and Blood Foundation.

McPhee had decided to go a bit old school and grow a beard for the season, and Stevenson suggested they should get a good cause behind it.

It started with an impromptu discussion between pioneer whiskers-grower Jack McPhee of North Harbour and Sky Television’s popular rugby colour man Scotty ‘Sumo’ Stevenson, and soon developed into a fully grown “Beards for Blood” campaign.

“The support’s been fantastic,” said Stevenson. With Harbour already having an association with the Blood Service, it was decided to get a bit of a national theme going to raise awareness in the area of blood donation and also to provide some support for the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation which deals with serious blood-related illnesses. “Just about all the teams in the competition have now got at least a player or two with a full beard on supporting the cause.

“What is impressive is how many boys have said ‘yep, we’re in’.”

The idea is that around the last week of the regular season the beards will get the chop, and hopefully some money, and awareness, will have been raised for the cause.

Northland and Manawatu have adopted the concept team-wide, but Stevenson said selected players from Harbour, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago had also got behind the concept. It shows how community minded they are, and how tuned in they are for something as important as this,” added Stevenson. .

Stevenson said the drive was about raising both awareness and money. That saves lives. That saves lives. Honourable mention also went to Cory Jane’s “pretty boy” effort at Wellington, while Stevenson felt the less said the better about what Northland’s Karl Haitana had come up with.”

Stevenson felt early contenders for most impressive beards in the competition included McPhee’s Ned Kelly-inspired look, some fairly lush growth from Doug Tietjens of Manawatu and a typically solid effort from Canterbury’s Corey Flynn.

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Seven years after starting work as a furniture mover for a US bedding company, Gary Nisbet was joined by a new colleague, Randy Joubert, who looked so much like him that customers asked if they were brothers.

“We thought they were just trying to razz us,” Joubert said. They really are brothers – and the attention they got after finding each other has alsoturned up a sister. .

“This kid could have been anywhere in the world, and here I am riding in a Dow furniture truck with him,” Joubert said.

The two men were given up for adoption as babies about 35 years ago, then attended rival high schools and even lived in neighbouring towns on the Maine coast before working together at Dow’s Sleep Centre in tiny Waldoboro and uncovering their relationship. She said he knew from a young age he was adopted and she wasn’t surprised he would try to find his biological siblings when he grew up.

Joubert’s adoptive mother, Jacqueline, said she and her late husband raised him with four sisters.

“But when he said he was driving a furniture truck with him, that really surprised me,” she said.

She said she always thought he had a brother because a social worker at the time of his adoption had mentioned it.”

Dow’s hired Randy Joubert on July 7, and soon afterward co-workers began commenting on how similar he and Nisbet looked. “I think it’s great. Their goatees and curled-brim baseball caps add to the effect. Both are light-haired, wear glasses and have stocky builds. He started taking the comments more seriously when people also took notice while he and Nisbet, 35, were out making deliveries.

Joubert, 36, laughed off the commentary but admits he noticed the similarities himself, even mentioning them to his fiancee. “Then my brain started heading that way.

“Customers would ask if we were brothers more often than not,” he said.

With further help from statistics officials, he also learned that he had a brother – and his brother’s original name.”

Joubert had already taken advantage of a new state law allowing adoptees to see their original birth certificates and found out the names of his biological parents, who had died by then.

FAMILY CONNECTION

Well-armed with details, Joubert posed a few questions to Nisbet while the two were making deliveries about three weeks ago. Joubert and Nisbet had been removed from their birth parents’ home because the couple could not properly care for them.

Nisbet gave him a strange look and answered, yes, he was adopted.

“I said, ‘Gary, I’m going to ask you a strange question: Are you adopted?”‘ Joubert recalled.

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The recession ended in the June quarter, with the economy growing by the barest of margins, up just 0.1 per cent, according to official figures.

Most economists and the Reserve Bank expected a slight fall in the June quarter, but that growth would return in the September quarter.

Economist said yesterday that a better than expected result for the economy could see the kiwi dollar continue to rise against the US dollar. The recession began at the start of 2008.06c, its highest level since August 4, 2008 after the release of the GDP data.

The New Zealand dollar rose as high as US73.

Economic activity, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), was up less than 0.

This growth in economic activity follows five quarters of contraction in the New Zealand economy.1 per cent in the June 2009 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said.5 per cent in the June 2009 quarter, mainly driven by forestry and logging (up 8.

Activity in the primary industries was up 1.

The increase in forestry and logging production was related to an increase in exports of logs to the People’s Republic of China.0 per cent).

Activity in the goods-producing industries contracted 0.

Activity in the goods-producing industries contracted 0.3 per cent) and construction (down 1.

The manufacturing (down 1. A 5.9 per cent) industries both declined.

Activity in the services industries was flat this quarter.9 per cent increase in electricity, gas and water partly offset these declines.5 per cent) and communications (up 1. Service industries that increased were real estate and business services (up 1.

Offsetting these increases were declines in wholesale trade (down 2.7 per cent).3 per cent), and government administration and defence (down 0.3 per cent), and government administration and defence (down 0.4 per cent).

The expenditure measure of GDP, released concurrently with the production measure, was up 0.4 percent in the June 2009 quarter.

Household consumption expenditure, which measures the volume of spending by New Zealand households, was up 0.4 per cent.

This increase in household spending was driven by non-durables (mainly motor fuel) and services. Household spending on durable items fell.

Export volumes were up 4.7 per cent in the June 2009 quarter, with exports of dairy and wood products the main contributors.

Import volumes decreased 3.8 percent in the same period, with the largest declines in intermediate goods, and machinery and plant equipment.

The combination of higher exports, lower imports, and a decline in manufacturing led to a large, $1. .

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Robin Bain’s brother has broken his silence to insist Robin was a “loyal, peaceful and thoughtful” man and “no killer”.

In an article published in this week’s Listener, Michael Bain, of Wellington, wrote of how the good names of David Bain’s parents Robin and Margaret, two sisters Arawa and Laniet, and brother Stephen were vilified during David Bain’s retrial, The Otago Daily Times reported.He said the extended family found the retrial difficult to accept because none of those against whom the “hearsay” allegations were levelled were alive to rebut them.

But Bain campaigner Joe Karam said Michael Bain did not know his dead brother, Robin, well enough to say publicly he was not a killer.

Bain, 37, was cleared of murder the five members of his family in June after a retrial in the High Court in Christchurch.”It is nice that he loves his brother but I think he is in denial, really.Mr Karam said Michael Bain had seen his brother less than six times in more than 20 years before the killings.”The evidence was very clear he (Robin) was in a seriously declining mental condition.

Bain had spent 13 years in prison after originally being convicted in 1995 of the killings in the family’s Every Street home in Dunedin a year earlier.”Mr Karam led the battle to take the case to the Privy Council in England which led to the retrial and not guilty verdicts for David Bain.”We, his family, knew him to be a man of integrity and a good and faithful husband to Margaret and an excellent father to his children.Michael Bain said the family rejected the allegations levelled at members of the Dunedin family, particularly Robin Bain, as “totally out of character, speculative and disbelieved”.”He was a calm, loyal, peaceful and thoughtful man who deserved to grow old surrounded by the love of his family.”Robin was no killer.”I remain honoured to be his brother.”I remain honoured to be his brother.Little attention had been paid to the others killed, whose futures were also “brutally and tragically snatched from them”.Since the Every St killings, much “media hype” had focused on David Bain, including attempts to divert attention from him to Robin Bain.”David is able to enjoy his new-found freedom, but we haven’t forgotten those who were never given a chance and now are unable to defend their reputations, or to enjoy any future at all.”For us, their loving brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins, the end for each remains as unimaginable and horrifying today as when we first heard the news.

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A prominent Nelson oral health expert is calling for the region to lead New Zealand in banning soft drinks in schools and making them a sugar-free zone.

Dr Roby Beaglehole last week released a book he co-wrote on the worldwide state of oral health to mark today’s World Oral Health Day.

Schools needed to ban soft-drink vending machines and sugary drinks from tuckshops and Nelson parents needed to mobilise and demand headmasters act, in an effort to improve the entire country’s oral health, obesity and diabetes statistics, he said.

Published by the World Dental Federation, The Oral Health Atlas is aimed at policy-makers and governments in an effort to encourage prevention of dental decay, rather than treatment. However, schools say they are still sticking to the guidelines.

In February, the Government scrapped the school food guidelines, a move Dr Beaglehole described as a “retrograde step”.

Principals Federation president Ernie Buutveld said schools made “quite large strides” when the guidelines originally came into force.

Waimea College, Motueka High School and Nayland College all said they had healthy food policies that banned sugary drinks and lollies.

“There hasn’t been a step backward, and nobody is reimposing unhealthy options.

“Since that’s changed we’re not aware of any schools that have said `whoopee’ and have gone back to what they were doing previously,” he said.

They would have to balance that pressure with what their local community expected, he said.”

He said schools needed to be aware of the danger of succumbing to pressure from food manufacturers.

“In New Zealand schools touch wood there aren’t many that have that type of distribution mechanism.

“I wouldn’t like to encourage them to bend to the will of a company who’s marketing vending machines.

“If we’re going to improve the quality of the food our children eat we’re going to need to do it across New Zealand, not just in pockets where schools have taken the initiative,” she said. .

“Often when a teenager turns up for a checkup I take X-rays and I can tell they drink a lot of sugary drinks straight away,” Dr Beaglehole said.

Dr Beaglehole, who works at Advanced Dental and for Nelson Hospital, said he noticed a big difference in tooth decay rates, particularly in teenagers, when he moved to Nelson from Wellington two years ago.

. Soft drink companies had “open slather”, he said, and there were no restrictions on them

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Market vendors and a pet food abattoir in Auckland are under investigation by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority after a television news investigation alleged horse meat was being sold illegally for human consumption.

The abattoir was approved to process horse meat as pet food only, but TVNZ’s Close Up found its products were being sold by some Otahuhu and Mangere market vendors, who were apparently telling people it was okay to eat. One product on sale was loi hoosi, a Tongan dish which features horse meat.

However, the footage from TVNZ revealed the market vendors had been telling customers that the horse meat was actually fit to be eaten by humans – which Mr Allen said was misrepresentation, and breaking the law.

The markets had come under investigation two months ago and it was found the horse meat was correctly labelled as being unfit for human consumption, NZFSA director of compliance and investigation Geoff Allen said. .

“What we couldn’t really do was listen in on the conversations, what the people that were selling this stuff were saying to the customers.”

Mr Allen said the meat sold by the abattoir was acceptable to be used for pet food, but humans consuming it would be same as putting 95 octane petrol into an aeroplane.”

The NZFSA expected to receive the footage from TVNZ today before the beginning the investigation.

“They’re both petrol, but the aviation gas is produced to a much greater, more exacting set of standards.

“Because we hold the view that there are food safety issues here and people could be hurt or damaged or made sick by this, we would classify this as one of our priorities.

Mr Allen said while it was not yet known how long the investigation would take, it would be a matter of some urgency.”

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LATEST:
Wanganui authorities already disagree over the enforcement of a new ban on gang patches, as gang members prepare to march the city’s streets in protest.

Wanganui District Council banned gang insignia from the city at its meeting yesterday, and the bylaw came into force at midnight.

Black Power was planning a mass ride through Wanganui around lunchtime today to protest the bylaw.

The bylaw gives police powers to fine patchwearers $2000 and to take their gang insignia from them.

Acting area commander Inspector Greg Hudson said any arrests today would “depend on the circumstances”.

Member and rally organiser Denis O’Reilly told 3 News the council’s issues with gangs had nothing to do with their patches.

“In each case, we’re going to police it with a commonsense approach.

Police would take a commonsense approach and enforce the bylaw on a case-by-case basis, he said.”

But Mayor Michael Laws told Radio New Zealand gang members who wore their gang patches in protest today would be arrested. To us, it’s no different – it’s business as usual – to a liquor ban.

“Honestly, Wanganui is going to become a very, very uncomfortable place if you’re a gang member or gang associate from now on.

“If there is [a protest] and they’re wearing their gang patches, we’d be delighted to arrest them. . And we’re delighted it’s going to be. uncomfortable for them. .

Wanganui’s gang situation was no worse than anywhere else in New Zealand but the city’s residents had “chosen to, in effect, have a dress code which does not include gang insignia”, he said.”

Meanwhile, Mr Hudson said police would appreciate if the public reported gang members wearing insignia in public.”

He said the bylaw was to protect the majority of residents, and the minority affected by the ban – the gang members – could test the bylaw in court.

“I think it’s the feeling of the community and like any democratic country, anything that makes the community feel safe and enhances their wellbeing has got to be of benefit.

Mr Laws said it was “extraordinarily” rare for Parliament to give a council such power.

BYLAW A ‘TRIUMPH’

Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws has described the bylaw as “a triumph for decency and democracy”.

“It removes gangs’ most powerful and intimidatory weapon.

“To ban gang patches and gang insignia will give a real fillip to Wanganui police and to Wanganui citizens,” he said.

Councillor Rob Vinsen called the move a publicity stunt and unnecessary.

Councillor Rob Vinsen called the move a publicity stunt and unnecessary.

“We haven’t got a gang problem in Wanganui,” Mr Vinsen said.

“The police said there were two incidents in 2009 and there were five incidents last year. . This is a publicity-seeking stunt from mayor Michael Laws, I’m afraid,” he told Newstalk ZB.