Two a penny

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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.6 million New Zealanders who voted (a 54 percent turnout), 88 percent said smacking children should not be a criminal offence.

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.

“What I am wanting to ensure,” Key said, “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. The “Yes” campaign attracted 12 percent of the vote.

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.”

Key said that although police had statutory independence from the government, cabinet had some options to direct them, which would be outlined tomorrow. He has repeatedly said he does not believe police are prosecuting parents unnecessarily and that he remained comfortable the law was working. . Key said that report would also show a similar result.

Four police reports had said the law change in 2007 has had “minimal impact on police activity” and another was due for release early this week.

Family First, which led the “Vote No” campaign, said the result was clear-cut and justified changing the law “so that good parents are not treated as breaking the law for light smacking”.

Sending the issue back to parliament would consume the country at a time when there were bigger issues to deal with, he said.

“The 87. It also wants the government to establish a Royal Commission into child abuse to identify and target the real causes.

“They are simply Kiwis who want to tackle the tougher issues of family breakdown, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, violence in our media, poverty and stress, and weak family ties.6% of New Zealanders who voted no are not people who are demanding the right to assault and beat children,” says Bob McCoskrie, national director of Family First.”

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New secondary school teachers could be in line for a serious sweetener $20,000 towards a house deposit under a union proposal designed to pull more teachers into schools and to keep them there longer.

Schools across New Zealand are struggling to attract enough quality teachers, and the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) says the incentive would encourage teachers to take jobs in hard-to-staff cities and isolated areas. A bonding system would ensure recipients continued teaching in New Zealand.

The PPTA, which has 18,000 members, is also moving to establish a credit union similar to that available to police, and is considering proposals from several banks.

The union is taking the plan to its annual conference next month, where it will have to pass a members’ vote before becoming part of the pay claims package put to the government at next year’s negotiations.5% below market rates. .

PPTA president Kate Gainsford said a third of new teachers were leaving within three years of starting the job, and many who trained in New Zealand were being lured to higher-paying jobs overseas. This is an attempt to listen to the young teachers and try and be creative and practical at the same time. “When we have worked with these young and new teachers, they have identified housing as a critical factor that acts as a disincentive.

The PPTA says the $20,000 would be paid as a lump sum to teachers in their first four years on the job.”

Most secondary teachers start on a salary of $45,000, making saving for a deposit difficult especially in the more expensive areas and at a time when many banks still demand 20% deposits.

The PPTA expected teachers would not claim the money until they had been working for three or four years, because they would need to add their own savings to the $20,000 for a realistic deposit. The teacher would then be bonded to continue teaching in New Zealand for another four years, or pay a portion of the $20,000 back if they quit. As teachers would then be bonded for a further four years, this system might keep them in the classroom for at least seven years. As teachers would then be bonded for a further four years, this system might keep them in the classroom for at least seven years.

The proposal would cost just $2500 more per teacher and hopefully keep teachers on for two or three years longer than the current bonding system, where new teachers receive a lump sum of $10,500 if they have stayed teaching in New Zealand for three years and another $3500 after each of the following two years. The money would have to be used as a deposit on the home the teacher planned to live in, but there were no plans to limit the value of the home, or its location.

. It is not linked to home-buying and has a narrower focus, being offered only to teachers in decile 1 schools, very isolated schools, or in subject areas that have severe teacher shortages

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Police have named a three-year-old girl who died after being found injured at a Palmerston North house on Wednesday.

She was Kash McKinnon.

Police hope autopsy results today will give them a better idea how she sustained her injuries.

Police found the girl with critical injuries at a Hulme St house after a visitor called an ambulance.

She died in Palmerston North Hospital at midday yesterday with her mother by her side.

It was too early to say whether the death was suspicious, he added. .

“The autopsy will hopefully give us a much better understanding of how the young girl died.”

A 21-year-old man, who was not the girl’s father, had been examining after her and three other children aged two, four and six, some of whom were her siblings, Mr Sheridan said.

“Even then, we will need to consult with medical professionals and interview the occupants of the house in detail before we can draw any real conclusions.

The family was co-operating fully with police, he said.

Police were interviewing the man, and the children with the aid of Child Youth and Family staff.

Another neighbour said the adults at the house were flatmates, and had about five children between them.

HAPPY ‘ALL THE TIME’

A neighbour says the three-year-old, along with several children who “seemed pretty happy all of the time”, had lived at the house for about six months.

– , with and The

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National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi has assured Prime Minister John Key he has not done anything wrong and Mr Key wants him to be treated like everyone else during an inquiry into immigration allegations.

The inquiry, involving list MP Mr Bakshi, is back on after police were provided with fresh information.

There have also been allegations about attempts to silence witnesses.

Mr Bakshi has denied allegations he accepted money for false job offers to bolster Indian immigrant applications.

“I’ve directly and personally asked him whether there’s any truth to the allegations, he’s given me a personal assurance there is not.

Mr Key, in Australia for meetings with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, said Mr Bakshi should be “treated like any other New Zealand citizen”, Radio New Zealand reported.

Acting Prime Minister Bill English said yesterday Mr Bakshi was “quite clear he hasn’t done anything wrong”.

“If there is grounds for investigation then the authorities should conduct those investigations and they’ll get full support from the Government if it’s required,”

Mr Bakshi would be “called to account” if there was a case to answer, Mr Key said.

It has now provided police with further information on the allegations after interviewing a new informant. Immigration New Zealand started an inquiry last year but closed it in March because of a lack of evidence.

Police said they were looking at the role of former immigration consultant Darshan Singh Bains, who took job offers from Mr Bakshi and gave them to Indians to use as part of their applications to migrate to New Zealand.

The service also provided police with a sworn statement, obtained by Labour MP Pete Hodgson from another new informant, which said complainants were encouraged by people in India to drop the matter; “because he was going to be the first Sikh MP in New Zealand”. .

Mr Bakshi said he knew nothing about the police investigation, and had not had any contact with Immigration since its file was closed.

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The mayor of a small US town has defended the town council’s decision to fire its city manager after officials learned his wife is an adult film actress.

Fort Myers Beach mayor Larry Kiker insistedthat Scott Janke’s termination had nothing to do with his spouse’s job, but that the Florida town was merely trying to maintain order.

Janke married Anabela Mota Janke, who goes by the stage name Jazella Moore, in October.

“What we were addressing was a situation where we weren’t going to be able to govern the town with all the disruption and interruption,” Kiker said. He began working for the town in March 2008.

“I’ve done over 30 interviews (with media) .

The plan appears to have backfired.. I’ve gotten hundreds of emails, we’re getting threatened,” Kiker said.. . “Nobody is getting any work done around here.”

However, the mayor also noted: “It was not his job performance.

“We didn’t fire him because his wife was a porn star,” Kiker griped, adding that the decision wasn’t a “knee-jerk reaction. We all liked Scott . We all liked Scott . He’s a good guy.. He said he then spoke to Janke, who agreed “this was going to be a big disruption for the town and he was not going to be able to do his job well”.”

Kiker said he learned of Janke’s wife’s job after receiving a telephone call from a reporter on Tuesday.

Councilman Tom Babcock said at a council meetingthat Janke was fired because his wife’s profession brought an inaccurate image to Fort Myers Beach, the News-Press of Fort Myers reported.

Within a few hours, Kiker had called an emergency town council meeting, and the group voted 5-0 to exercise a “no-cause” clause in Janke’s contract, effectively firing him.

Janke said on Wednesday night that he and his wife had their “heads held high.

“When you become a public figure you are held to a different level of scrutiny and ethics,” Babcock said at the meeting. We’ve done nothing wrong,” Janke said.”

“We have done nothing to be embarrassed about.

He will get a severance package worth six months’ salary, which comes to about US$50,000(NZ$76,453) plus health benefits.

He will get a severance package worth six months’ salary, which comes to about US$50,000(NZ$76,453) plus health benefits.

Dan Miller, editor at the AVN Media Network, which covers the adult industry, said he had not heard of a similar case, but noted the adult film industry is “not necessarily widely accepted” in mainstream American politics.

Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry, said the firing could present legal problems for the town.

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Convicted double murderer John Barlow has lost his final bid to have his convictions overturned, as the Privy Council in London ruled against his appeal today.

The five law lords that heard Barlow’s appeal tonight announced that while he had an arguable case, on the evidence he was properly convicted by the jury. ….that, while the introduction of the misleading evidence..Barlow’s lawyer Greg King appealed to the council in February to have the murder convictions quashed.was indeed a miscarriage, no substantial miscarriage of justice actually occured,” the judgement said.The Privy Council said while the introduction of the “misleading evidence” was a miscarriage “no substantial miscarriage of justice actually occurred”.Mr King rubbished FBI forensic evidence that led a jury to send his client to prison.Mr King’s first victory was for the law lords to hear the petition for special leave to appeal, and to consider evidence the New Zealand Court of Appeal would not hear when it denied Barlow an appeal in March last year.After twice going through trials that ended in hung juries, Barlow was jailed for the murder of Wellington father and son Eugene and Gene Thomas, who were killed in 1994.Mr King told the law lords that crucial evidence relating to the weapon and bullets that killed the Thomas’ had been falsely linked to Barlow, a former antiques dealer, who is serving 14 years in Upper Hutt’s Rimutaka Prison.Mr King told the law lords that crucial evidence relating to the weapon and bullets that killed the Thomas’ had been falsely linked to Barlow, a former antiques dealer, who is serving 14 years in Upper Hutt’s Rimutaka Prison.The Crown case in all three trials hinged on proving that Barlow’s CZ27 pistol, and related bullets and a silencer, was the murder weapon.The tests have since been discredited worldwide for providing a high number of false matches.

Mr King said he would make a comment after reading the full court ruling.Mr King would not comment on the Privy Council’s verdict tonight.

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The future of Michael Jackson’s children was thrown into question Thursday when his ex-wife emerged and won a delay in a custody hearing while she decides whether she wants to raise her two offspring.

It was the first legal move from Deborah Rowe since the entertainer’s death. Jackson’s will asks for his mother, Katherine, to get permanent custody of all three of his children. She is the mother of his two oldest children and received US$8.

Rowe, who met Jackson as a receptionist in the office of his dermatologist, has characterised their relationship as strictly for the purpose of birthing Jackson children. His youngest child was conceived with a surrogate.5 million in their divorce, according to court records.

She has spent very little time with her son Michael Joseph Jr, known as Prince Michael, 12; and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11.

Rowe’s attorney, Eric M George, said Thursday she had not decided whether to seek custody. But Rowe also has opposed the idea of Katherine Jackson getting custody of her children when it came up in the past.

The identity of the surrogate mother of the singer’s youngest child, 7-year-old son Prince Michael II, has never been revealed.

Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff rescheduled a guardianship hearing for July 13 at the request of attorneys for Rowe and for Katherine Jackson, 79, who has temporary guardianship of her son’s children.

Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, which owns the Staples Center and was Jackson’s promoter, said tickets would be free.

Jackson’s public memorial was set for 10 am Tuesday at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, according to a press release from the office of the Jackson family’s publicist. . He was not sure how they would be distributed.

“If you can imagine 100,000 people show up and you have 20,000 capacity (at the Staples Center), there is not sufficient room. A week after the singer’s death, the location for a memorial has not been finalized and the cash-strapped city doesn’t have the money to pay police overtime. With the July Fourth holiday weekend “it’s the worst time . Now you have a crowd-control problem,” he said…”

. to work something out

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Police have stepped up uniformed patrols in Levin and Foxton to clamp down on violence sparked by a gang power struggle in the wake of the death of Nomads gang leader Dennis “Mossie” Hines.

Molotov cocktails were thrown through a window of a rental house in Levin on Monday night.

Police said the blaze was linked to the shooting of Hines’ stepson, Nomads gang associate Tony Cootes, on the day of the gang leader’s tangi.

Police said there had been five violent incidents, including an assault and a firearms incident, since the death in prison of Hines, the founder of the Nomads in Horowhenua and Otaki.

Mr Cootes was wounded in the leg while attending the funeral of Hines in Foxton on Thursday.

Police stepped up patrols to curb any more violence and there were no further reports of unrest overnight.

About a dozen gang members were believed to be involved.

Hines’ intention was that upon his death the gang was to disband. .

Violence was the result of a leadership struggle and conflict between junior and senior gang members, Detective Senior Sergeant Marc Hercock said.

However, they were “rigorously” investigating incidents and were taking a zero tolerance to criminal activity, he said. Police had received no formal complaint over anything apart from the arson.

“It’s within the one gang and it’s been limited to gang members against gang members.

Mr Hercock said there was no explicit threat to public safety.

“There’s no indication that any members of the public are any greater threat than they ordinarily would be.

“There’s no indication that any members of the public are any greater threat than they ordinarily would be.

Mr Stevens’ family was not home at the time of the arson.30pm on Monday.

“We heard a big smash, smelled smoke, looked out and saw the flames,” one woman said.

Terrified neighbours say they fear reprisal attacks and some are vowing to move out. It was scary.

“It only took a matter of seconds before most of the house was engulfed. It’s the kids I feel sorry for the babies. I’m packing up, moving out.

A Levin supermarket owner said gang members marched into another local supermarket the day before the tangi, grabbed armfuls of meat and walked out again without paying.”

The incident has revived memories of Wanganui toddler Jhia Te Tua, who died when shot in the chest during a gang-related drive-by shooting in May 2007.

“He was a leader.

“He was a leader. The trouble will stop if the person who takes his position commands the same respect.”

Police are still investigating the shooting, which family members believe was self-inflicted.

Detective Senior Sergeant Marc Hercock urged the community to come forward with information.

“The people in this gang are mainly born and bred in Horowhenua and are not likely to be going anywhere anytime soon.

“If anyone has information we urge them to come forward.”

– with

– Next Crime story: –
Two more arrests over Hamilton murder

– National Homepage -

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Just two hours before police took Tony Veitch back to Hamilton’s central police station for treatment yesterday after his latest suicide bid, the shamed broadcaster sent a desperate text message to .

“I am done,” Veitch said in the text to sports editor John Matheson at 1.01pm.

“I can’t do this anymore.

“This has now totally destroyed me.

A family friend told last night Veitch had been left distraught that many commentators and talkback callers had questioned his levels of remorse since his Auckland District Court appearance on Thursday.”

Veitch begged to publish an email he had sent to Kristin Dunne-Powell in November 2006 which stated his desire for his ex-partner to have a happy and successful life.

He pleaded guilty to assault with reckless disregard resulting in injury, and was sentenced to 300 hours’ community service and fined $10,000.

Veitch wanted the email which he refers to in the text as “my final statement” published in full by . Six other assault charges were dropped.

She said she wanted Veitch to say sorry.

On Thursday night Dunne-Powell told TV3 Veitch hadn’t shown any remorse after he attacked her in January 2006.

It all became too much for him at about 12. Veitch contends as per the November 2006 email he has apologised.30pm yesterday when he left his Remuera, Auckland, home in his car.30pm yesterday when he left his Remuera, Auckland, home in his car.

“The family were very concerned about his state.

“He went into a panic attack and disappeared.”

Police sources last night said that at 1. We called the police to find him and he was found about four hours later at Ngaruawahia.

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Half a dozen police cars were sent to the area to search for him.42pm officers picked up a Vodafone signal from his phone at Brownlee Avenue in Ngaruawahia.

By about 3. .

He was pulled over and taken to Hamilton Police Station.15 a drowsy Veitch was spotted driving in the opposite direction of a police unit.

Last night, Veitch’s distraught wife Zoe issued a plea for the media and public to “back off” her husband.

Last night, Veitch’s distraught wife Zoe issued a plea for the media and public to “back off” her husband.

“The inordinate amount of stress on Tony would devastate anybody, let alone someone who is suffering from extreme depression and suicidal thoughts,” she said.

“It has now reached a level where it is intolerable and now I am begging that both the media and the public back off.

“Enough is enough. Please let us at least attempt to move on and get Tony well.”

Veitch was last night in the care of family.

Yesterday’s suicide attempt is the third known time Veitch has tried to take his life.

In a letter to the judge overseeing his case, Zoe said there were at least another five times when she feared for his life.

The first attempt came in September last year when reported Veitch was rushed by helicopter from a remote Northland farm to Auckland Hospital after police were forced to smash into his car to free him.

And then in January this year, he was rushed to Thames Hospital after going missing late at night in Pauanui on the Coromandel coast.

Police discovered the ex-broadcaster in a “distressed state” among sand dunes and a paramedic found he had taken an overdose of tablets.

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A call for mass public protest is going out today to Aucklanders unhappy with the Government’s supercity plans.

Around 300 Maori and civic leaders are meeting at Auckland’s Orakei Marae on Bastion Point to plan protest action.

He says many Aucklanders simply don’t understand the consequences of the supercity proposal.

Ngati Whatua is organising the meeting but spokesperson Grant Hawke says they want to reach out to all Aucklanders – other ethnic groups and Pakeha.

What has been lost is adequate local representation. He says it is all about business, such as organising retailing of water.

The Royal Commission report on Auckland governance, compiled after extensive consultation over 17 months, recommended two elected Maori seats on the new super city council and one appointed seat from local Maori or mana whenua. .

“They have set us loose on the waka without a paddle,” says Mr Hawke.

But the Government overturned those proposals for Maori seats.

Other groups also feel disenfranchised and Maori hope to be a rallying point and pull protest together.

But it is not solely a Maori issue, he says.

He says protest is needed because “protest makes a point.

“This is about trying to use our mana within the city,” he says.”

And he points to today’s meeting occuring at Bastion Point – land that shows passive protest can work to bring changes. Otherwise we just sit down and do nothing and the Government thinks we don’t care.

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Mr Hawke has ruled out a hikoi to Wellington however as a result of time constraints.

He wants to see marches through Auckland and letter writing campaigns to sway the Government.

Also attending today’s meeting is Pita Sharples of the Maori Party which is angered at the scrapping of the three Maori seats.

The Government is fast-tracking legislation to start the supercity and Mr Hawke says protest action of ‘magnitude’ is needed by April 26 for the first reading of legislation.