Two a penny

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New Zealanders will have to pay more to get less under proposed ACC changes announced today.

An average worker will have to pay $300 a year more if the Government passes legislation to cut entitlements.

Employee levies are currently $1.

But if its amendment bill does not pass, the increase in levies advanced by ACC will be even higher. That will increase to $2.5110 per $100 of liable earnings.4889 if Parliament doesn’t accept it.1778 under the amendment or $2.47 per $100 (from $1.

Employers will face an increase of $1.89 if it does not.31) if the legislation passes or $1.28 a year in petrol tax and registration fees to $317.

The cost of owning a motor vehicle will increase by $30.28 without.28 with the legislative changes or $417.

The Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill includes a number of cuts in entitlements which ACC Minister Nick Smith said were necessary to reduce ACC’s liability.

The increases to the employer and employee level should be in force by April.

Many of the changes remove entitlements established by Labour last year.

The changes would apply to new claimants – current income compensation would not be cut, he said.

People, and their families, who commit suicide or acts of self-harm, will no longer be eligible for compensation.

Those included compensation for casual and part-time workers which would be calculated to reflect their earnings over the past year rather than past four weeks to prevent them earning more on ACC than when working, reducing compensation for loss of earnings for non-earners from 100 percent to 80 and holiday pay being taken as earnings and weekly ACC compensation not be paid simultaneously.

He would not say whether that was an incentive for people contemplating suicide.

Dr Smith said if someone with a family committed suicide the family could have been given almost $1 million in compensation over time. .

Suicide was tragic but not an accident, he said.

Compensation will also be automatically withdrawn for anyone who convicted of committing a serious crime and imprisoned.

Prisoners currently receive medical treatment and rehabilitation under ACC as part of their care.

Dr Smith said the changes were aimed at cutting ACC’s liabilities by $2 billion and would secure the long-term future of ACC.

“I’m actually reasonably confident that the package that we have announced today is what’s going to be required to fix it (ACC).”

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A jury in the long running Taito Phillip Field trial has found him guilty of most of the corruption and obstruction charges laid against him.

Field, former Mangere MP, was found guilty of 11 of 12 charges of bribery and corruption as an MP over having Thai nationals carry out work on his properties in return for immigration assistance between November 2002 and October 2005.

He was also found guilty of 15 of 23 charges of wilfully attempting to obstruct or pervert the course of justice, alleging he tried to derail investigations into the work on his homes.

Field was remanded on bail to be sentenced on October 6.

Field, who stood in the dock, remained calm as the verdict was read out, but his family in the public gallery were in tears and expressed anger outside the court.

”Those most directly affected by the verdicts could never complain they had not had a fair hearing,” he said.

Justice Rodney Hansen paid tribute to the ”expert” way in which the jury delivered its verdicts.

It had been a ”demanding” and ”gruelling” trial because of its length, sheer volume of information to absorb and pressure from the high public interest in the trial.

”You did so with total dedication.

”You’ve all had to endure major disruption to your personal lives, whilst discharging one of the most important duties as citizens,” Justice Hansen said.

”All I can do is thank you most sincerely. Your careful and deliberate consideration of the evidence and the way in which you’ve approached your deliberations is evident to all those present in court.

Outside court, Crown prosecutor Simon Moore said the jury had delivered ”utterly explicable” verdicts in the circumstances.”

All the jury members were excused from being called for a jury trial for the next five years.

”This has been a really important case, and bribery and corruption strikes very much at the heart of who we are as a people.

”This has been a really important case, and bribery and corruption strikes very much at the heart of who we are as a people.

”It gives you some kind of insight into what went into this trial, which is certainly the longest I’ve ever done.

The Crown and defence closing addresses took about three days each to deliver and the judge took more than a day to close the address, Mr Moore said.

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Thousands of Irish Catholics have flocked this week to a County Limerick
church to pray at the stump of a recently cut willow that many observers
say has the silhouette of the Virgin Mary.

The phenomenon at St Mary’s parish church in Rathkeale, population 3,000 or so, harkens back to decades when Catholic devotion and pilgrimages were the dominant feature of rural life in Ireland.

Some are tying the fervor for Rathkeale’s “Holy Stump” to Ireland’s stunning economic decline over the past year. And this is all good for the soul,” said Noel White, who has been overseeing a church project to cut down trees dangerously overhanging the neighboring school playground. .” One worker cut through the stump at a near-vertical angle, revealing a wooden relief that inspires some to see the Virgin Mary.

When one willow was felled near the church entrance Monday, he said, a major branch cracked off and made “a funny shape.

“One lad beside the one who’d made the cut immediately saw the outline of Our Lady and blessed himself. Every one of us could see it,” he said. It really is unreal.

“I see it as the grain of a tree myself,” he said.

The workman who made the cut, Anthony Reddin, said he doesn’t see the Virgin Mary. Numbers swelled to several hundred the next night.

Nonetheless, word of mouth brought about 100 to inspect and pray at the stump that first night. By Wednesday, more than a thousand came and went as a makeshift shrine of candles, rosaries and miniature statues of Mary grew. By Wednesday, more than a thousand came and went as a makeshift shrine of candles, rosaries and miniature statues of Mary grew. His summer replacement, the Rev.

The parish priest is away on vacation. He says locals are letting their imagination run wild and threatening to violate the commandment, “Thou shalt not worship a false God. Willie Russell, is not impressed. You don’t worship a tree,” Russell said.”

“It’s just a tree. “I don’t believe in idolatry.

The priest said he saw no harm in saying Hail Mary prayers at the spot – so long as the faithful don’t actually find themselves praying to the stump itself.

The County Limerick diocese of the church said it viewed the stump with “great skepticism. That would be the danger,” he said.

White said he didn’t understand the church’s distinction between its age-old love of statues and this natural discovery.

White said he didn’t understand the church’s distinction between its age-old love of statues and this natural discovery.

“We pray in front of statues which are marble and chalk. What’s the difference if it’s timber?” he said.

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A businessman has pleaded guilty to using his cellphone to take hundreds of images with views up women’s skirts.

Judge Geoff Rea, in Hastings District Court yesterday, said the 48-year-old, from Hastings, had filmed “dozens, if not hundreds” of women. The man, a father-of-three, pleaded guilty to two charges of making the intimate recordings of unsuspecting victims.
The man, in court with his wife, was caught after using his cellphone to take a photo of a woman in The Warehouse in Hastings on February 13. He has been granted interim name suppression. The court was told the man bent over behind her, held his phone under her mini skirt and took a photo. The woman was bending over to look at cushions. .
An analysis of the man’s computer hard-drive, seized from his home, revealed he had taken hundreds of video and still images up women’s skirts. He was chased by an off-duty police officer who noticed him frantically pushing buttons on the cellphone.
He had only one previous conviction, 25 years ago. His lawyer, Bill Calver, told the court his client had a fetish for women’s underwear. Police opposed name suppression.
Mr Calver said the man was depressed and he sought name suppression on the strength of a psychiatrist’s report that said publication of his name may heighten his suicide risk.
Judge Rea said: “The overwhelming public interest and concern in something like this would normally mean your name would be published almost as of right.
Judge Rea said: “The overwhelming public interest and concern in something like this would normally mean your name would be published almost as of right.

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The man was sentenced to 400 hours’ community work

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A 75-year-old woman was the subject of a more than 160km police pursuit with a twist on Tuesday.

The Taiwanese woman, who was in Te Anau with a group of tourists, left a gift shop wearing a jacket allegedly without paying for it before boarding her tour bus.
Constable James Ure, of Te Anau, said the woman had been in Kowhai Gifts & Souvenirs in the town centre and allegedly walked out of the shop wearing the polar-fleece jacket about 3pm.
Mr Ure gave chase, trying to get the Queenstown-bound driver of the bus to pull over to no avail.
Police were called, but the woman had already left on her bus, he said.
Meanwhile, inquiries made by the Te Anau police station receptionist led to her tracking down a phone number for the driver, whom she rang and managed to get him to pull over at Jacks Point 17km from Queenstown, Mr Ure said. .
Language barriers proved to be a problem when it came to interviewing the woman, he said, but the woman said she believed her husband had paid for the jacket.
The woman was likely to be referred for police diversion, he said.
Her alleged offending, subsequent arrest and questioning in Te Anau had interrupted her tour and late yesterday her bus was believed to be in the Mackenzie Basin, Mr Ure said.
People of all ages were prone to attempt to steal goods, he said.
Kowhai Gifts & Souvenirs owner Yasu Omori, of Te Anau, said shoplifting by tourists was quite common at the shop, but it did have good systems in place to catch light-fingered customers.
“She just looked like a very nice American woman.
A 63-year-old American woman was caught ripping the store off late last year.”

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New Zealand law allows significant human rights failings and breaches of international treaties, a report by civil rights lawyers to the United Nations says.

The shadow report written by former Council for Civil Liberties chairman Tony Ellis and a team of lawyers was submitted to the United Nations last week.

The report called for:

The elimination of extended supervision orders (ESO);

The Government to repeal the preventive detention laws;

The Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act 2005 to be repealed.

It said New Zealand could do better in many areas of human rights law and that there were several deficiencies in respect of New Zealand’s international human rights obligations.

Two weeks ago, the Government sparked by possible lawsuits from high-risk sex offenders on ESOs rushed through a law change to patch a loophole in parole laws.

The report said ESOs, which monitor and restrict the movements of sex offenders, were inconsistent with the Bill of Rights due to issues of double jeopardy and unreasonable search and seizure.

“These prisoners have already served their prison sentence, they have done their time and in some cases are then retrospectively sentenced again,” Ellis said.

The law was passed despite a report from the attorney-general that warned the law change could not be justified under the Bill of Rights.

It also condemned the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act, which was passed to restrict prisoners gaining compensation for ill-treatment while behind bars unless the money was used as redress for victims.

The report also took issue with the sentence of preventive detention, saying it amounted to arbitrary detention.

“This legislation is a disgrace in any democratic society and plainly a breach of the covenant and numerous other international instruments.

The law denied people who had been ill-treated a remedy, adequate or otherwise, the report said.

The report also called for:

The Parole Board to be independent and impartial;

An independent prisons’ inspectorate be set up;

The Bill of Rights to be given supreme law status, and section 4 of the act (which allows the Government to pass laws contrary to the Bill of Rights) to be repealed;

Improving the care of mentally ill prisoners and addressing the over-representation of Maori in prisons.”

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Ellis said while treating prisoners decently may not be popular, to do so was the mark of a civilised society.

The most recent report, delivered in December 2007, is due for consideration by the UN in Geneva in July.

New Zealand is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and as such supplies the United Nations Human Rights Committee with a periodic report on the country’s human rights status.

Shadow reports are commonly filed by civil rights organisations from other countries, but it has been rarely done by New Zealand groups.

It reports considerable advances in human rights, including key judgments by the Supreme Court, the passing of the Civil Unions act, the creation of an action plan for human rights and the creation of the Families Commission.

Justice Minister Simon Power said New Zealand was presenting its report under the UN’s convention against torture this month, and then the ICCPR report in July.

Ellis said that was partly due to funding his report was prepared pro bono and partly due to ignorance that such reports could be written.

Power noted the Human Rights Commission’s 2004 review found New Zealand met international human rights standards in many respects and often surpassed them.

Both included many positive developments in the protection of human rights in New Zealand, he said, including the establishment of the Supreme Court, the repeal of seditious offences, and reviews of laws governing policing and corrections.

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Unconscious skydiver lands on his face

By ALICE COWDREY Monday, 16 February 2009

A Swedish man who became unconscious during a skydive in Motueka is in a serious but stable condition at Hutt Hospital with serious facial injuries.
The 26-year-old was attempting his first solo skydive on Sunday morning as part of his training with Skydive Abel Tasman in Motueka.
St John Ambulance team manager Jon Leach said the man became unconscious during the descent and landed on his face.
Skydive Abel Tasman owner and chief safety officer Stuart Bean said the man's free-fall went well and, after opening his parachute, he had initially responded to radio communication which was part of his training. .
He was found conscious on the side of a hill in some bush south of the Motueka Airport. Subsequent contact was unsuccessful and the man landed about one kilometre from where he was supposed to.
Mr Bean said the business had investigated the incident on Sunday, going over the man's paperwork, talking through what happened and discussing if there was anything they could have done differently. Mr Bean, who has been an instructor since 1985, said he had never seen anything like it.
He said the man was young and fit and healthy and as far as he could see, there was no reason to have had any concerns for his safety.
Mr Leach said it was not common for St John to attend skydiving accidents as safety was always well controlled in the industry.
He said the incident would be reported to the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association."

. "You get the odd smashed ankle, so this was quite out of the ordinary

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Unconscious skydiver lands on his face

By ALICE COWDREY Monday, 16 February 2009

A Swedish man who became unconscious during a skydive in Motueka is in a serious but stable condition at Hutt Hospital with serious facial injuries.
The 26-year-old was attempting his first solo skydive on Sunday morning as part of his training with Skydive Abel Tasman in Motueka.
St John Ambulance team manager Jon Leach said the man became unconscious during the descent and landed on his face.
Skydive Abel Tasman owner and chief safety officer Stuart Bean said the man's free-fall went well and, after opening his parachute, he had initially responded to radio communication which was part of his training. .
He was found conscious on the side of a hill in some bush south of the Motueka Airport. Subsequent contact was unsuccessful and the man landed about one kilometre from where he was supposed to.
Mr Bean said the business had investigated the incident on Sunday, going over the man's paperwork, talking through what happened and discussing if there was anything they could have done differently. Mr Bean, who has been an instructor since 1985, said he had never seen anything like it.
He said the man was young and fit and healthy and as far as he could see, there was no reason to have had any concerns for his safety.
Mr Leach said it was not common for St John to attend skydiving accidents as safety was always well controlled in the industry.
He said the incident would be reported to the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association."

. "You get the odd smashed ankle, so this was quite out of the ordinary

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Fraudster’s Star Wars Lego spree

The Saturday, 07 February 2009

A student who fraudulently used credit cards to buy collectible Star Wars Lego at astronomical prices found the force of police with him.
Yiu Fung Cheng, 24, has been sentenced in Wellington District Court after earlier admitting five charges of deception and using a computer for dishonest purposes at his parents' home in Churton Park last year.
After police searched Cheng's home in November, further items were found, which the court was told could lead to more charges being laid. This is understood to cover the cost of other items identified by police during the search.
Cheng's parents were in court where a cheque for $11,540 in reparation was offered.
Police said Cheng admitted the offending and in explanation stated that he was feeling depressed.
Cheng used other people's credit card details between July and August to buy Lego items online, including limited edition Star Wars sets two Imperial Destroyers worth $965, two Death Stars at $1679 and a Ultimate Collectors Millennium Falcon for $1000 and a combine harvester.
Judge Bruce Davidson said that, having read Cheng's psychiatric report, there were "deep-seated psychiatric causes" for his offending. .
In addition to the $11,540 reparation, he was ordered to carry out 140 hours' community work

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Tributes flow for Manning

Saturday, 27 December 2008

The partner of murdered Christchurch prostitute Mellory Manning says he is "just hanging in there" a week after her death.
The man, who did not want to be named, said the murder of his partner of nine years had left him distraught, particularly as she was getting her life on track.
He said Manning was working in Manchester Street for the first time "in ages" on the night she was killed.
He had received support from Christian organisations and had been contacted by the Prostitutes Collective.
Other tributes have flowed in for the 27-year-old.
She was a kind and sweet person, he said.co.
One old friend wrote on press. She was dear to us .nz: "This is a shock to all who knew her, loved her, cared for her.. .
"As a child she liked the water and spent many a summer swimming in Southbridge at the local pool and river She was a beautiful-looking girl with soft curls that enveloped her sweet face. and was a sweet girl. She adored flowers and plants but most of all she adored her younger brother Robin and her sister Jasmine.
"She spoke softly mostly and had an attraction to all things spiritual.
"She got bored with life in Southbridge and moved on to the big smoke Christchurch. They were extremely close and a pleasure to all who met them."
Manning's partner said some media reports about her history, particularly that she had used a syringe in a robbery, were wrong.
"Christchurch hasn't been kind to her, it's as simple as that.
"The important thing is that they get caught," he said.
Manning was on the methadone programme and was overcoming her drug problem.

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A reduced police team worked over the holiday period, searching for Manning's killer