Two a penny

Get other General Politics hereTaken from the papers presented at the fourth Wellington Conference on World Affairs this collection of essays focuses on New Zealand’s role both in the Pacific and in a globalizing world. The chapters include a deconstruction of globalization an exploration of the role of diplomacy a discussion of security in Oceania in the post-September 11 era a survey of international politics with regard to nuclear testing by the French and an investigation of the differing worldviews held by Australia and New Zealand. Comments (0)

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Air New Zealand will slash its cheapest fares on regional routes, where it has a monopoly, by up to 23 percent from Monday.

Spokesman Bruce Parton said lower fares would stimulate travel and tourism as the economy recovered from recession. There will be no change to the cheapest fares between the main centres, which chief executive Rob Fyfe said were “at rock bottom”. The change was welcome.

Hamilton Mayor Bob Simcock said he had long argued that Air New Zealand fares out of Hamilton were significantly higher than main-route fares. Most people fly in and out to Wellington.

Marlborough Mayor Alistair Sowman also welcomed the discount, saying: “Woodbourne is a difficult airport for Air New Zealand.

“It costs about $150 for a very short one-way sector.”

Air New Zealand intends to battle budget rivals Pacific Blue and Jetstar for the lucrative business traveller between the main centres, by cutting the cheapest flexible fares by an average of 32 percent, and allowing free flight changes on the day of travel. The short journey is not reflected in the fares.

A Flexi-Plus fare between Auckland and Wellington falls from $319 to $199.

Its fare categories will be cut from three to two: Smart Saver, aimed at leisure travellers, and Flexi-Plus, at business travellers.

Air New Zealand appeared to be preparing for competition on the Wellington-Queenstown route, where the cheapest fare drops from $116 to $99.

House of Travel retail director Brent Thomas said Pacific Blue and Jetstar would probably respond by reducing top fares.

But Mr Thomas said the cuts were unlikely to last long as the market recovered and the airlines tried to recoup losses.

But Mr Thomas said the cuts were unlikely to last long as the market recovered and the airlines tried to recoup losses.

Reusable baggage tags will be introduced, allowing frequent travellers to pick up bags at regional airports as they step off planes rather than at a collection point.”

Air New Zealand cut fares by up to 30 percent early last year but clawed back an average of 13 percent as the price of fuel rose.

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Child Youth and Family staff at a regional office have been told they are Social Development Minister Paula Bennett’s servants who should not trouble their master with concerns about their work.

In an email dated August 13, supplied to by Labour Party deputy leader Annette King, Kaitaia CYF staff were told to show respect to the minister when she visited the next day.

“It is not appropriate for staff to pour their hearts and souls out to the minister,” a manager wrote. It’s a bit like the relationship between a servant and a master, i.

“This is a formal visit and she is not your `friend’. the servant knows their place.e. She should not be presented with the woes of the office, or lack of resources, or anything like that.

A anonymous person copied the email to the government, Labour and other political parties as well as the Children’s Commissioner.”

However the email said it was okay to state there were challenges that could be managed.

“This amounts to workplace bullying, and corruption within a public service department,” they wrote.

The person was “gobsmacked” by the email.

Ms King questioned the point of the minister’s visit in Parliament.

The author said it was shameful that in an area where there were many Maori communities the department was “trying to cover up the realities of our communities”.

“If staff are not allowed to talk to her (Ms Bennett) how can she really know what pressures staff are facing if reports to her have to be sanitised?”

Ms King later said she expected Ms Bennett to ensure staff felt they could speak out about work problems.

“If staff are not allowed to talk to her (Ms Bennett) how can she really know what pressures staff are facing if reports to her have to be sanitised?”

Ms King later said she expected Ms Bennett to ensure staff felt they could speak out about work problems.

“I would hope she would in fact encourage staff to talk to her.”

As a former minister Ms King said she learnt more from talking to staff than through department reports.

“I have visited a large number of offices and I have purposefully targeted visits to Work and Income and Child Youth and Family because I want to talk to staff and hear what is happening there,” she said.”

Ms Bennett said that she wanted staff to speak to her about concerns.”

Ms King said there were wider problems of the Government blocking information and communication and said she was frustrated by poor responses to written questions and Official Information Act requests.

“I very much value them and their opinions and I am disappointed in the manager’s email.

National’s Judith Collins in Parliament today said she had struggled to get access while in opposition and Labour had created a political environment. .

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Commuters in the capital faced a slow trek into work this morning with various train delays and heavy traffic on all routes into the city.

At 7.

Earlier, a mechanical fault on the Johnsonville line delayed trains by up to 15 minutes while services on the Melling line also faced delays.58am Tranz Metro announced all train services were delayed this morning due to a mechanical fault.30am.

Normal services were due to resume from 9.

EMPTY BUSES PASSED STRANDED PASSENGERS

On Friday, empty buses on contract to Tranz Metro drove past 400 stranded rail passengers on the Johnsonville commuter line.

Police said there was heavy traffic on both State Highway 1 and State Highway 2 into the city.

“We were called to Petone to transport passengers from the 8.

Colin Simpson, owner of Titahi Bay Tours and Charters, said buses from his fleet were called out to ferry passengers between Petone and Wellington railway stations on Friday morning. Renovations are being done at the station there,” he said.02 train to Wellington because long trains are not allowed to stop at Petone.

“We had buses working for Tranz Metro in the area at the time but no-one rang us.

After dropping the Petone passengers in Wellington, he and drivers from his company’s fleet drove past passengers streaming from the Johnsonville train.

“Why did Tranz Metro not ring us? They knew we were in the area at the time. We all drove past the Johnsonville line problem on the way back to the depot in Titahi Bay.”

Mr Simpson said he was saddened to learn from Hutt Rd office workers and stranded passengers that no buses had turned up to collect the Johnsonville line passengers until about 10am on Friday. If I’d stopped and picked the passengers up I’d have been doing it out of the goodness of my heart because they would not have paid me for it. “We could have shuttled people down Thorndon Quay to the station.

With better communication from train control, his company could have provided 150 bus seats soon after 9am.”

Tranz Metro’s decision to force 400 passengers to walk on the Johnsonville line railway tracks to Hutt Rd was “highly illegal”, he said. We were surprised not to get the call. People get arrested and fined for that sort of thing.

“Walking on the railway tracks is a big no-no.

“People should never have been allowed to get off the train in this situation.

“People should never have been allowed to get off the train in this situation. It’s unreasonable to expect older people to climb off a train down a ladder in this fashion. .”

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A 32-year-old man found dead with a gunshot wound in Palmerston North yesterday afternoon has been named as Jamie Martin Faulkner who lived in the city. . Area enquiries are also still continuing.

The road has also now re-opened and all residents are back in their homes, but a small area is still sealed off and the full scene examination is expected to take another two days.

That man is being questioned by police.

The victim was reportedly involved in an altercation with another man at a close toby flat shortly before his death, police said.

“We are also examining to get a better understanding of the relationship between the two men.

“We’re examining at that altercation and the extent that that is relevant to his death,” Detective Sergeant Craig Sheridan said this morning.”

The death is not being treating as a homicide at this stage and no arrests have been made, he said. These enquiries are likely to take some days.

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LATEST:
One of the pilots killed after a small plane clipped a helicopter over New York is reportedly a New Zealander.

One News reported that Jeremy Clark was flying the helicopter that hit the plane, both plunging into the Hudson River killing nine people. According to the New York Times Mr Clark lived in Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey.

TV1 said Mr Clark’s parents were at Auckland airport this evening preparing to fly to New York. Three bodies had been recovered by nightfall and officials held out no hope of finding survivors.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there were five Italian tourists and a pilot aboard the helicopter and three people on the plane including the pilot and a child. “There’s not going to be a happy ending.

“This has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission,” Bloomberg said. The weather was clear and mild.”

Search and rescue craft rushed in vain to the crash area in the vicinity of West 14th Street in Lower Manhattan immediately after the collision at noon EDT (4am NZT).

The helicopter was operated by Liberty Helicopter, the largest sightseeing helicopter operator in the US Northeast.

Bloomberg said the plane, a Piper Saratoga, appeared to hit the back of the helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350, which immediately broke up and fell into the river.

The NTSB’s 10-member investigation team suspended operations at nightfall and would resume the search on Sunday at 7am (11pm NZT), Hersman said.

Debbie Hersman, the chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said in a briefing the helicopter had been located and marked with buoys and investigators were using side-scanning radar to try to locate the aircraft.

While the NTSB does not expect to find recording equipment in the wreckage because small aircraft are not required to carry them, Hersman said investigators expected to be able to determine the cause of the crash by interviewing air traffic controllers and reviewing air traffic control and radar data. She said the team hoped to be able to remove the debris from the river on Sunday. “He saw a small single-engine aircraft approaching from behind (the helicopter). . . . He stated that he saw the right wing of the aircraft impact the helicopter.. Others reported hearing a loud boom.”

An eyewitness told the NY1 local TV station he saw a wing come off the plane and the helicopter “fell like a stone” into the river.

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Prime Minister John Key has ordered a review of the rules that cover ministerial housing, saying they are arcane and don’t deliver the best results.

He is, however, still backing members of his cabinet who have been under scrutiny for their accommodation claims and says he doesn’t believe any have taken advantage of their circumstances.

“We can go out there and persecute cabinet ministers but I’m sorry, they’re actually doing a very important function and you expect them to do that at a good level,” Mr Key said at his post-cabinet press conference today.

Questions have been raised since details of MPs’ travel and accommodation expenses were released last week, particularly about the taxpayer contribution of close toly $1000 a week for Deputy Prime Minister Bill English to live in his million-dollar Wellington home.”

He said if Mr English wasn’t an MP he would be living in Dipton.

“And I expect them to be able to keep their marriages and families intact.

“He is staying in a property that is cheaper for the taxpayer than if he went out and rented something else.

“He has a house in Wellington and a family in Wellington because that’s where his job is.

“Ministerial Services’ rules look arcane to me.”

Mr Key said problems with the rules weren’t new.

“I think the rules drive perverse outcomes. They don’t necessarily drive the best outcomes for either the taxpayer or the minister,” he said. . . .I want to make sure the taxpayer gets as fair a deal as possible which genuinely reflects the increased demand (placed on ministers).

“I don’t expect them to take advantage of the goodwill of the taxpayers and I don’t believe they are, but I’m quite happy to have new rules out there that reflect that.

“Most New Zealanders, I believe, would support me in my desire to see the marriages of my cabinet ministers and the happiness of their families remain intact,” he said.

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Mr Key said terms of reference for the review would be made public, probably in a few days, and he expected changes to result from the review

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Another challenge, another chapter in the 52-year tear-jerker of a tale that is Otago’s Ranfurly Shield heartbreak.

That was one side of the story in Wellington tonight as the shield-holding Lions dug their way out of a deep hole to prevail 23-19 and retain the famous Log o’ Wood via this Air NZ Cup season-opening victory over the southern challengers.

In the end there was probably an element of both as the Lions did just enough to hang on to provincial rugby’s most prized possession; yet Otago will head south knowing that once again they let a royal chance to lift the Log for the first time since 1957 pass them by.

The other was a magnificent Wellington response in yet another shield classic as the southern men hit them with the kitchen sink through the first 40, but then saw the holders find the answers they had to under the most intense of pressure. In the end they paid for a poor final 20 as they took their eye off the ball at just the wrong time.

Steve Martin’s challengers certainly had their chances if they were good enough. At that stage grown men must have been close to weeping into their Speight’s down in Dunedin.

The challengers led 11-3 at the break after 40 pretty dominant minutes, then retained that eight-point edge into the final quarter with a 14-6 advantage. The response.

But then came the Lions’ roar.

Stunned, Otago had no answer to the black tide that was swamping them, substitute first five Fa’atonu Fili extending the advantage to nine a half-dozen minutes from time with a snappily taken dropped goal.

Reserve lock Daniel Ramsay, who had a superb match off the pine, scored a 63rd-minute try to get the holders back to within a point and seven minutes later classy wing Hosea Gear added a second seven-pointer to take Wellington into a 20-14 lead.

The Lions defence held just long enough.

To their credit the southern men mounted one last response, camping inside the Wellington 22 for the final three minutes as Chris Noakes slipped through to set up two parries at the line.

Fabulous match. . Never mind the result. And who says this is a second-rate feeder competition? Even good old Kees Meeuws, back in the famous blue jersey after a long spell up north, had to admit it had been a brilliant occasion to mark his return.

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Otago signalled that they’d come to the capital intent on another good shake at the elusive shield with a strong first 40 minutes that saw the visitors take an 11-3 lead into the sheds

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A 21-year-old man who tried to pick up and carry away a seven-year-old girl from a suburban Wellington street
has changed his plea to guilty in Wellington District Court.

Benjamin Mangirane, a Rwandan-born unemployed man, admitted today three charges of committing an indecent act and one charge each of indecent assault on a female under 12, kidnapping and trespass.

The crown summary of facts read before the court said on March 28, Mangirane came up behind a seven-year-old girl who was waiting at a set of suburban traffic lights.

He changed his plea after a court-ordered psychiatric assessment found he was fit to stand trial.

The screaming child attracted the attention of other people who came to her aid on the Berhampore street. He picked her up, put her over his shoulder and tried to carry her away.

In the preceding weeks, Mangirane approached another seven-year-old girl, who was playing in a school playground. Mangirane then fled, the Crown said. The girl then ran away, fearing she was about to be raped, the police summary of facts read.

He asked her several questions, before unfastening his trousers.

She fled.

The indecency charges related to an incident when Mangirane walked up to a woman on a street, and put his hands into his trousers and began masturbating. Mangirane responded by again putting his hands into his trousers and masturbating, the Crown said. .

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Mangirane was remanded in custody until August 28 for sentencing

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A 10th person has died of swine flu, the Ministry of Health says.

The latest death was a Gisborne man in his 40s with serious underlying medical conditions. Both also had underlying health conditions.

The two previous deaths were a 56-year-old man in Wellington and a 79-year-old woman in the Hutt Valley last week.

Overseas, pregnant women had been suffering severe cases of the virus and they were at greater risk of complications, including pneumonia.

The ministry today said pregnant women with flu symptoms should call their GP or Healthline on 0800 611 116.

The doctor would assess the risks of prescribing Tamiflu or Relenza on an individual basis, and may need to seek advice from an infectious diseases specialist or obstetrician.

Deputy director of public health Darren Hunt said pregnant women should not take any antiviral medication without consulting their doctor.

The Ministry of Health said the actual number of cases would be significantly higher as only a small proportion of people were being tested, as most people were able to recover at home without medical treatment.

The total number of confirmed cases of swine flu in New Zealand has risen, with the ministry recording 2107 cases, up from 2025 yesterday.

The World Health Organisation is no longer issuing tables with confirmed numbers of cases for all countries as a result of difficulties testing the increasing number of cases.

On Tuesday, a total of 113 people were in hospital with swine flu or complications stemming from the virus, with 23 of them in intensive care.