Poor Owen Glenn. He made his fortune overseas, and in recent years has spent a significant portion of it trying to improve New Zealand. His biggest desire was to spent $80 million on reducing child abuse. But of course, he must be dragged down because he has not led a life of perfection. The SST reports:

Millionaire businessman Sir Owen Glenn’s inquiry into domestic violence and child abuse is under further pressure with revelations he was accused of physically abusing a young woman in Hawaii in 2002.

Court documents seen by Fairfax Media show Glenn offered a plea of no contest when the case came before the courts in Hawaii in 2003. That plea means the charge was not contested or admitted. Glenn was put on probation, and the charge was dismissed in 2004 when the probationary period ended.

Court documents show Glenn was arrested in a Honolulu hotel in the early hours of September 10, 2002, and was charged with “abuse of family or household members”. …

Glenn yesterday said in a statement that there was no truth to the allegation.

“My regret now is that I didn’t take the matter to court, however after two years of dispute in the American court system and at the strong advice of my American lawyer I resolved the case in Hawaii to avoid further horrendous court costs, and to bring the matter to an end on an agreed basis which resulted in an order of dismissal.

“It saddens me that yet again it appears the New Zealand media is delving into my personal life to fill their pages while New Zealand is ranked the third highest country in the world for rape and this issue goes virtually unreported.”

Sadly I think this now kills off his inquiry. Sir Owen should focus his efforts in an area where he won’t be turned on and pilloried.

The HoS report:

Police fatally shot burglar Adam Morehu in the back, before hitting him over the head with a torch, his family says.

Details on the two bullet wounds have emerged after the Taranaki man’s body was returned to his family for burial, along with a preliminary pathologist’s report.

“I don’t know that I would grieve any less if he was shot in the front, but being shot in the back – that’s just wrong,” said Diane Richardson, the mother of his partner Kaly.

Even if the family are correct, surely the key issue is why were the Police shooting Morehu?

Police say Adam Te Rata Charles Morehu, 33, was first Tasered, then shot twice in the torso with a police-issue Glock handgun after he acted aggressively towards the officers, twice threatening to kill them and firing a shot from a rifle.

He not only threatened to kill the Police, but he fired his rifle. At that point he was doing suicide by cop. He refused to surrender to armed police, he threatened to kill them, and he fired his rifle.

But they have refused to confirm to the Herald on Sunday that he was shot in the back, saying only that the officer believed he heard Morehu reloading his rifle in the darkness.

I don’t care what the angle is. This is not some Western duel or gunfight. He fired his gun, and refused to surrender. You don’t give him a sporting chance to kill you. You fire.

Kaly had been angry at Morehu for going on the alleged burglary, Richardson said, but more angry still to discover that he need not have died.

Indeed. All he had to do was drop his gun and surrender. Her anger should all by at Morehu, and not at the poor cops who had to risk their lives being shot by him.

All 111 booths in the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election have reported in and Labour’s Meka Whaitiri has won by 1,761 votes.

Turnout was very low. Just 10,570 ordinary votes cast plus 1,620 special votes which equals 12,190 total votes. This compares to 18,732 votes in 2011, and as a turnout of people on the roll is around 35% only.

The main four candidates’ (with change from 2011 electorate vote in brackets) results are:

1. Meka Whaitiri (Labour) 41.5% (-19.2%)
2. Te Hāmua Nikora (Mana) 24.8% (+10.5%)
3. Na Rongowhakaata Raihania (Maori) 20.0% (-3.1%)
4. Marama Davidson (Green) 11.3% (no cand in 2011)

It’s a good victory for Labour, with a 16.7% margin (was 37.6%) over Mana, being 1,761 votes. Mana were obviously lying over their claims that Labour polling had them only 5% behind. Should help David Shearer’s leadership (which will make the Nats happy), but can’t be too complacent. The total vote share of 42% is less than Maori and Mana combined.

Mana did well to come second, and reports were they had a good activist base at work, plus an attractive candidate to youth.

The Maori Party lost votes from 2011. This should be a wake up call to them that they need to sort their leadership out, or they will struggle to retain support.

Davidson for the Greens did pretty well, with her vote being slightly above the Greens party vote in 2011. Sounds like she will get a reasonable list placing in 2014.

Meka is now an MP. On paper she looks like she could be one of the better Labour MPs. Congratulations to her on her election.

John Armstrong writes in the NZ Herald:

National’s decision – very much John Key’s decision – to bite the bullet and set a 2020 start for building the $2.9 billion Auckland City Rail Link is a political masterstroke.

Once again. Key has trumped National’s opponents and neutralised the political advantage they had held by jumping across the political divide and setting up camp in their territory.

He first did it with nuclear ship visits when he became National’s leader in 2006. He simply used his honeymoon in the job to declare the anti-nuclear law would remain intact under his leadership. And that was that. It may not have greatly impressed the Americans. But in an instant, a political millstone had been removed from National’s neck.

On numerous occasions since, Key has likewise swallowed hard and taken positions which do not sit that comfortably with National ideology but which spike the guns of the party’s enemies and leave them with nowhere to go.

Regardless of the merits of the City Rail Link (and I actually think it does have merits), one can look at this in a very calculating way.

The Government has said it will fund it by 2020. It is unlikely this Government will actually be in power in 2020, so the actual funding for it will be an issue for the future. The announcement though gives certainity.

If they had not announced future funding for it, well what is the probability that there will not be a change of Government before 2020? Very very low. Even Labour can’t get stuffing up for that long. And if a change of Government means it would then be getting built anyway, well what is the point in holding out?

But there are other advantages. By agreeing to it now, it removes the ability of Labour and Greens to sabotage the Puhoi to Wellsford motorway extension which they were promising to scrap to fund the CRL. Are they now going to keep campaigning on scraping what they call the holiday highway? I doubt it.

So yes, a masterstroke – and one that doesn’t really impact the books long-term as it was inevitable it would be built anyway when there was a change of Government. Instead, it now happens on a more affordable time-frame.

With yesterday’s confirmation of a tunnel as the second harbour crossing plus sundry motorway extensions and developments, Key has mapped out National’s vision for Auckland transport and, perhaps more importantly, laid out the stages by which that vision will be achieved.

In one swoop, he has taken the steam out of what, after housing affordability, is the thorniest issue in the country’s biggest city – traffic congestion – and one on which, according to opinion polls, National’s management has less than impressed the public.

In particular, Key has now marginalised Labour and the Greens in the one aspect of public policy where those parties thought they safely had it all over National – public transport.

Armstrong also points out:

Apart from shoring up National’s support in Auckland, the go-ahead is intended to remind the rest of New Zealand that National – unlike its opponents – looks at the big picture and gets things done whereas they are consumed by the relatively trivial, such as the fate of Peter Dunne and his parliamentary allowances.

And their obsession with the GCSB. Don’t get me wrong – the GCSB is of importance, but it seems the opposition have talked about nothing else for the last few weeks or months. The average family really does not care that much about the GCSB. They care about having a job, a growing economy, better schools and better healthcare.

Fran O’Sullivan also writes:

John Key’s lip-smacking munificence has been writ large as he moves into agenda-setting mode in Auckland and Christchurch, the two cities that will decide next year’s election.

Key’s spreading plenty of pixie dust about, promising multi-billion-dollar transport projects in Auckland – including the City Rail Link which his transport ministers have seriously dissed – and big-ticket projects in earthquake-savaged Christchurch, like a new convention centre.

I joked on Twitter that John Key has spent more in one week than Rob Muldoon spent in nine years on Think Big!

But the comparison, even joking, is unfair. The transport projects are not (generally) being funded by taxpayers. They tend to get funded out of the national land transport fund which is basically user pays funding through petrol tax and road user charges.

Labour’s Auckland issues spokesman, Phil Twyford, was yesterday reduced to carping about the cost of the city’s transport projects and complaining that the timing for some of the construction was still vague.

Which they are, but they allow the planning to begin such as route protection for the harbour crossing.

But he later confined himself to telling journalists it could come from various sources, including (take that, Labour!) the Future Investment Fund, into which his Government is tucking the proceeds of its partial privatisation programme; the Land Transport Fund, which holds the proceeds of petrol excise tax and road-user charges; taxpayers through the Consolidated Fund and even the private sector through some nifty public/private sector partnerships (PPPs).

I think using the proceeds of asset sales to help fund the CRL would be wonderful! Labour then has to argue that shares in a power company are more valuable than the CRL!

And Christchurch mayoral challenger and Labour MP Lianne Dalziel was reduced to complaining from the sidelines as Key and Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee cosied up publicly with Parker to announce agreement had been reached on $4.8 billion of investment in Christchurch – $2.9 billion of it coming from the Crown and $1.9 billion committed by the Christchurch City Council – so that projects like the new stadium and a convention centre can proceed.

Key couldn’t resist having a flick at Labour during yesterday’s stand-up, telling reporters he could understand why the public wasn’t warming to Labour because it was “too negative”.

Labour need to learn that endless negativity is not appealing.

The big question is how much further the PM will drive the knife in; particularly as speculation has now been sewn that Labour leader David Shearer has been given two months to turn his party’s dismal poll showing around or face questions over his leadership.

The parallels with Australian Labor leader Julia Gillard are obvious. Their respective publics warmed to neither of them.

The posturing was obvious at the US Embassy’s Independence Day festivities (celebrated early) in Wellington on Wednesday night.

Shearer and two potential leadership pretenders – Grant Robertson and David Cunliffe – maintained a studious distance from each other.

Tick tock, tick tock …

Now 65 days until the September deadline a Labour MP told TV3 Shearer had to improve his performance.

Hamish Rutherford at Stuff reports:

Yesterday Shearer dismissed the talk of a leadership battle.

“There is going to be me leading Labour into the election in 2014,” he said.

“I can absolutely and utterly assure you of that. It’s a very united caucus.”

Really? You look desperate when you say such nonsense. When Charles Chauvel departed in February he pleaded for an end to internal witchhunts, called for a purge of those responsible for the last campaign failure, and asked for those in the wrong faction to stop being shut out of the shadow Cabinet. How is that a united caucus?

This morning iPredict, the forecasting website owned by Victoria University of Wellington, pointed to a 40 per cent chance that Shearer would depart as Labour leader in 2013, with the possibility climbing in recent weeks.

I think Shearer has problems, but they are not yet terminal. In fact I have a bit of money on iPredict that he won’t be rolled in 2013. However I may change my position as events unfold in the next few weeks.

Former Green MP Sue Kedgley wrote an article about MPs in the UK taking money to ask questions on behalf of various groups. She said that this could happen here.

I was going to fisk her article, but Andrew Geddis has helpfully done it for us. He points out that while there is not a document called a code of ethics, such an action would probably be a contempt of Parliament under standing  orders, and also corruption under the Crimes Act.

Geddis concludes:

So I’m not necessary saying that Sue Kedgley is wrong to call for greater regulation of lobbying activities in New Zealand. But any concern that there is nothing in place to stop New Zealand’s parliamentarians replicating the worst excesses of their British counterparts is misplaced. 

Kedgley wrote the bill that Holly Walker introduced last year about regulation of lobbyists. It was so incompetently drafted that its impact on free speech would be monumental. If I responded to a tweet fron an MP on a copyright issue, then I could face a large fine if I didn’t notify the Auditor-General of that tweet!

I think there would be benefits in having a register of lobbyists and clients. This can of course be done without legislation, either voluntarily or through Standing Orders.

Kedgley’s bill is so over-reaching that for it to proceed, it would need such drastic surgery as to effectively be a new bill.

Tracy Watkins at Stuff reports:

The journalist who was leaked a sensitive report on the nation’s foreign spy network had her movements tracked by a government inquiry.

The MP forced to resign over the leak, Peter Dunne, said inquiry head David Henry detailed to him the movements of Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance in and out of the parliamentary precinct.

The conversation related to Vance’s movements the day before the leaked report was published and appeared to be based on Henry having access to records of when she entered and left the building using her security swipe card.

Parliamentary Service confirmed last night it released ”metadata” and other security records to Henry for his inquiry but said only after it was satisfied ”that ministers had agreed to cooperate with the investigation”.

It said it would be expected that all swipe cards were reviewed ”if there is a security incident”.

Fairfax can confirm that Vance did not give her permission to hand over her records to the inquiry.

Group executive editor Paul Thompson said last night it would be worrying if the movements of journalists and MPs were being tracked through a security system that was supposed to protect people working within the building, not be used to watch over them.

I think this was the wrong decision by The Parliamentary Service.

Actual employees of a parliamentary agency have no expectation of privacy in their swipe card use. But MPs and journalists are not employees. They are part of the democratic process, and their swipe card data should not be released externally, unless it is under warrant or judicial demand.

Parliamentary Service has said it is expected to review swipe cards if there is a security incident. To look at this claim, we need to differentiate between two types of security incidents.

If the security incident is related to Parliament itself in a physical way, then yes Parliamentary Service should look at swipe cards records. Examples might be if something is stolen from an office, or if there is vandalism to a painting.

But this was about the leaking of government information. It was just an inquiry under the authority of the SSC and DPMC – not a fully empowered ministerial inquiry or commission of inquiry which has the powers to demand evidence.

The Henry inquiry had no power to get that data. It was entirely appropriate for David Henry to ask for it, as it would help his investgation. Parliamentary Service asked Peter Dunne if they could release his swipe card details. He agreed, so they did. They should have also asked Andrea Vance, and only done so if she agreed.

If that wasn’t acceptable to the Henry inquiry, then they would have the option of seeking more powers to demand the data. but Parliamentary Service should not have just handed it over without the permission of the journalist.

Ngāpuhi write:

The historic Ngāpuhi Treaty settlement journey is gaining momentum, with the Government calling for submissions on the Tūhoronuku Deed of Mandate.

In a letter received from the Crown today, Tūhoronuku have been advised that the Crown will be advertising their mandate for public submissions in early July.

Ngāpuhi is by far the biggest Iwi in Aotearoa with an estimated 140,000 members. The Ngāpuhi settlement will be the last of the big Treaty settlements, and Iwi leaders and Government predict it will have a transformative effect on the struggling Northland economy

In September 2011, Ngāpuhi overwhelmingly gave their mandate to Te Rōpū o Tūhoronuku (Tūhoronuku) to represent them in negotiations on settlement of all Crown breaches and grievances against Ngāpuhi and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Since then Tūhoronuku has worked to strengthen the Deed of Mandate, giving hapū a greater voice and regional representation.

Once the Government recognise the Tuhoronuku mandate, the Tuhoronuku Independent Mandated Authority (Tuhoronuku IMA) comes into existence, holding elections for new representatives during the latter part of this year.

Settlement negotiations with the Government are expected to begin early in 2014, with the Government saying it hopes the process will be concluded by year end.

This is the last major historical Treaty settlement. Having the Crown recognise the mandate of Tuhoronuku to negotiate the settlement is key. It is often the most tricky part of the negotiations – ensuring that the negotiators have a widely recognised and supported mandate from the Iwi and hapu. Once you get that sorted out, the actual negotiations around the settlement are less complex (but still far from simple).

If there is a Ngāpuhi settlement by the end of 2014, then all the major settlements will be concluded. And I unashamedly say that is a good thing. Even though some doubt they will be enduring, what is their solution? To just stop the settlement halfway through and say no more settlements? Think if the Government did that in Christchurch? Those who have their insurance claim already done are okay, but those who have not yet had it processed miss out entirely – tough biscuits for them.

Claire Trevett at NZ Herald writes:

If polling tracks were Roads of National Significance, then National is in a people-mover on the Waikato Expressway, occasionally zooming up and down gentle inclines but confronting little that has yet forced it to alter its speed.

Labour, meanwhile, is clinging to a battered rickshaw rattling along pothole-ridden, precipitous back roads hoping like hell to hit a flat stretch. Alongside are the outriders of the Greens and NZ First, trying to pop the rickshaw’s tyres so they can purloin its passengers for themselves.

Heh, that is  a great analogy.

The PM has announced three major long-term transport projects for Auckland, at a cost of around $10 billion. They are:

• The City rail link, with construction to start in 2020, or earlier if central city employment grows by 25% or in the year rail patronage is forecast to hit 20 million trips (if before 2020)
• A second harbour crossing, with a tunnel  planned for around 2025, with route protection to start this year
• Speeding up the  combined Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI) and East-West Link project

They are also looking to bring forward three smaller projects –  to complete a motorway-to-motorway link between the Upper Harbour Highway and the Northern Motorway at Constellation Drive, widen the Southern Motorway between Manukau and Papakura, and upgrade State Highway 20A link to the airport to motorway standard.

It’s good to have certainty over the harbour crossing. These things need huge lead times, and you don’t want to be debating whether to have one, where it will be, and is it a bridge or tunnel just a few years before you badly need it.

It will be interesting to see the funding details over time. Will they all be funded from the National Land Transport Fund or will taxpayers make a contributions (NLTF is funded by petrol tax and road charges – not general taxation) or will PPPs play a role?

Waldo Kuipers at Microsoft blogs:

In preparation for Māori Language Week 2013, Microsoft has announced today that the choice to use te reo Māori in Windows 8, Office 2013, Outlook.com, and Internet Explorer 10 is available now. …

“We are thrilled to continue our support for te reo Māori,” says Paul Muckleston, Managing Director of Microsoft New Zealand Limited. “We are grateful for the hard work that so many people have done to make it possible to weave this taonga into the very latest of tablet, smartphone, PC, and cloud technologies.”

“We are also announcing our support for a new initiative that can bring free te reo Māori translations to the Internet with the Microsoft Translator Hub in the future,” says Muckleston.

That would be very useful. Online translation tools, while imperfect, have made a huge difference hen dealing with documents in different languages.

All of these te reo Māori options are available today at no extra cost, through a simple change in the Language Settings (Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10, Outlook.com, and Windows Phone 8), or with a free download (Office 2013 from http://aka.ms/Office2013inTeReo). You can see screenshots of how it looks once the language packs are installed here: http://sdrv.ms/14aZVLE

More choice and flexibility is good.

The Press reports:

Christchurch will have $4.8 billion invested in its rebuild – $2.9b from the Crown and $1.9b from the city council.

There are many things that my taxes get spent on that I resent having to fund. But rebuilding Christchurch is not one of them.

Repair to horizontal infrastructure:  The council has committed $1.1b to the costs of repairing and rebuilding Christchurch’s earthquake-damaged roads and underground pipes. The Crown’s share of $1.8b is based on agreed subsidies of 83 per cent for roading and 60 per cent for sewer, water and stormwater.

Anchor projects: The council’s contribution for the Anchor projects – the frame, the convention centre precinct, the stadium, car parking, the metro sports facility, the town hall-performing arts precinct, the earthquake memorial, Central Library, Avon River Park, Cathedral Square, the transport interchange and transport plan – is $782.9m, including escalations. The Crown will pay $1.1b.

Convention centre: The Crown will lead the convention centre rebuild. It is hoping to secure private sector investment but has allocated $284m to the precinct. There is no council funding towards this in the form of capital or operating costs.

The frame: The Crown is funding this project at a cost of $481m and when completed will transfer the public areas back to the council.

The stadium: The proposal is for a 35,000-seat covered stadium for sport and entertainment events over three city blocks between Hereford and Tuam streets, bounded by Madras and Barbadoes streets. This agreement caps the council contribution at $253m – the amount the council allowed for rebuilding the original AMI Stadium at Lancaster Park. The Crown will contribute $37m.

Metro sports facility: The Crown will lead this project, but the council will have final approval of the design and scope for the project. The council is contributing $147m of the total cost of the facility, which includes a competition pool, an indoor sports stadium and a movement centre. The Crown will pay $70m.

Transport interchange: The project includes a new central-city bus interchange, two central-city super-stops in Manchester St and at Christchurch Hospital, the Riccarton and Northlands malls suburban interchanges and Riccarton Rd bus priority measures. The Crown is seeking private sector investment to build and operate the transport interchange, but if this is not successful, the fallback position is that the council will own and operate the interchange.
The council will pay $40m and the Crown $51m.

Avon River precinct: The Crown is leading this project, with the council’s contribution being $6.4m. The Crown’s contribution is $89m.

Cathedral Square: The Crown and the council will work together on a joint project to enhance Cathedral Square, with the council contributing $4.6m, an amount the Crown will equal.

Performing Arts precinct: Given its determination to save one of the city’s landmarks, the Town Hall, the council will consider several options before August 31. These include saving all or part of the Town Hall and developing a cultural arts precinct adjacent to the Theatre Royal. The council has budgeted $158m, including the Town Hall rebuild, for this project. The Crown will pay $8m.

Central Library: The council will lead this project to build a flagship Central Library fronting Cathedral Square. The council has budgeted $60m for this project, with a further $29m from the Crown and philanthropic sources.

Car parking: The council will work with the Christchurch Central Development Unit and the private sector on central-city parking. At this stage there is a need for three central-city parking buildings. The council has budgeted $70m, which will be funded by repair funds and insurance proceeds from the Manchester, Lichfield, Crossing, Farmers and Crown Plaza car parks. The Crown will not contribute.

Earthquake memorial: The Ministry of Culture and Heritage is leading this project on behalf of the Crown, which is also funding the memorial. The council may be required to maintain the memorial.

Transport plan: The council is providing $27m towards changes to the layout of the central-city transport network and the Crown will pay $44m.

Great to have the all important issue of who pays for what, and how much sorted. This means the focus is more and more on implementing the rebuild rather than debating it.

Stuff reports:

Domain names considered racist toward Maori can not be removed by the body that manages them unless they are ordered to by a court.

One domain name, unemployed.maori.nz, links straight to the Work and Income New Zealand website.

Another, called kai.maori.nz, redirects to the KFC website.

Auckland University of Technology lecturer Steve Elders it was part of a growing trend of “online Maori bashing”.

The Domain Names Commission (DNC) should de-register them, he told Radio New Zealand.

I’m a member of the Domain Name Commission. I don’t speak for them on this issue. I’m just commenting on the wider policy issue.

I’m really not sure that people want the Domain Name Commission made judge, jury and executioner as to which websites are acceptable, and which are not. Call me old fashioned but I think it is up to Parliament to decide on what content is legal or illegal, and for the courts to decide if something is in breach.

As fun as it would be for me, and four others, to have the power to unilaterally remove websites and domain names from the Internet purely because we don’t like it, I’m really not sure that is good for the Internet or for New Zealand.

But the commission can not take down domain names unless a court orders the body to, its  communications adviser Patrick Watson told Fairfax Media.

“It’s not in the Domain Name Commission’s mandate to investigate anything to do with content, so we don’t comment on any material published online,” he said.

“With these sorts of issues, people who have concerns about the actual content, they have to follow alternative routes with lawyers or the Commerce Commission, or the Human Rights Commission.”

The commission had an open registration process and names were taken on a “first-come, first-served” basis.

But  the commission received a court order, it would  make sure the order was complied with.

A domain name is just an identifier on the Internet. What people do with it – good, bad or neutral, is up to them. If they break the law with it they face consequences. If a court orders a domain name removed (which does happen sometimes), then the court order is complied with.

New Plymouth’s Brett Healy, the registrar of the domain unemployed.maori.nz, said offence was “taken, not given”, and he had not publicised the domain in any way.

“Claims like Mr Elders seem to be over-dramatic, the other domains referenced don’t appear to have page ranks on Google or have any sites dedicated to directing users to go there,” he said.

That is the interesting thing. As far as I can tell a number of these domain names were registered by people who participate in GP Forums – known for pranks like this. Some of the domains were registered over a decade ago, and some around a year ago. They had never been picked up in Google or anything. They were basically a private joke that no one would stumble over unless they went looking for them. Ironically it is the complaint from the academic which has made them well known.

The other issue with this is that removing a domain name should be a last resort. A domain name is not the same as a website. A domain name can enable numerous services such as e-mail. If there is an issue with a particular website, it is preferable to target the website, not the domain name – there can be significant collateral damage – often to innocent parties, when domain names are targeted.

The other thing to also remember with domain names, is that anyone who manages a domain name can create a sub-domain. If you (for example) registered unemployed.com you could create a sub-domain of maori.unemployed.com and redirect that to the WINZ website also.  So trying to exert censorship through the domain name system will almost inevitably fail.

This is not to condone the antics of those involved. If people don’t like what they have done, then they can complain to the Human Rights Commission, or more preferably express their disquiet directly to the individuals that registered the names, and are using them in that way. Unlike some other TLDs, .nz does not allow registrants to conceal their identities. That means the registrant of a .nz domain name is publicly contactable.

Again, note these are my personal views.

Stuff reports:

Bain’s lawyer Michael Reed is calling on Key to issue his client an immediate pardon after new information came to light, and to deal with his compensation claim ahead of other legal matters.

That’s outrageous hypocrisy.

The claim is stalled, because Mr Reed has filed a judicial review. He actually asked the Government to stop consideration, at threat of injunction if they did not.

If Mr Reed wants the claim dealt with quickly, then he should drop the judicial review.  Don’t blame others for your own actions.

As for the ridiculous demand that the Government should issue an immediate pardon because of a TV show, well let’s just replace the Supreme Court with Judge Judy!

The evidence around the marks on Robin Bain’s finger thumb is helpful to David Bain’s case. But it is far from conclusive, and it is just one of 20 or so pieces of strong evidence.

Martin van Beynen, a journalist who sat through every day of the second trial, has written a must read column on this latest evidence, and especially on how the story was given exclusively to Bain friendly media.

I’ve love to see this concluded quickly. Here’s how it can be:

1. Bain drops his judicial review
2. Cabinet appoints a three person panel to review his guilt or innocence on balance of probabilities
3. If they find he is innocent on balance of probabilities, then Cabinet grants compensation

Also worth reading this story, which quotes the Police:

Assistant Commissioner Malcolm Burgess said police yesterday did a preliminary examination of fingerprints taken from Robin Bain after his death.

The marks cited as crucial new evidence were likely to be cuts to the thumb as there were no prints in the same place as the dark marks in the photograph.

”Our fingerprint experts advise that this is consistent with someone sustaining cuts or damage to the fingers prior to prints being taken, which would then affect the print image,” Burgess said.

”Had these been powder marks or smudges as claimed, we would expect to see a complete fingerprint image.”

Police would take another look at the show’s theory, and re-examine the photograph.

”However, I am mindful that this theory has been put forward through a programme whose makers chose not to seek comment from police prior to broadcast, and who also refused to provide details about their story when approached by police on Tuesday.

”Had they done so then we would have pointed out that fingerprints had been presented in evidence and have always been available through the court to help them decide if their story stacked up.”

I’m not saying the Police are necessarily correct in saying the marks re cuts. But what is wrong is that 3rd degree didn’t seek any opinions that didn’t fit with their story. Their show was advocacy, was objective journalism.

Someone made a very good point yesterday regarding Kevin Rudd, is that the timing of his coup means he doesn’t have to do any governing – just campaigning.

That is possibly not coincidence. There is a huge amount of testimony that he was an incompetent Prime Minister. But he is a very good campaigner.

You have to laugh at the gall, in this story:

New Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has used his first address to Parliament to call on MPs to be a ”little kinder and gentler with each other”.

Hours after he was sworn by Governor-General Quentin Bryce, Mr Rudd used his first official comments as Prime Minister to acknowledge the contributions of former prime minister Julia Gillard and former treasurer Wayne Swan, while talking of the difficulties of political life.

”As we all know in this place, political life is a very hard life. A very hard life indeed … But let us all remember particularly on days like this that in this Parliament and in this place we are all human beings,” he said.

Incredible. He spends three years undermining Gillard, and then once he has dispatched her he asks for people to be kinder and gentler.

The Dom Post editorial notes:

Mr Rudd, a Machiavellian schemer who has devoted the past three years to undermining the woman who ousted him as prime minister, is not someone about whom as many nice things can be said. The challenge for the rival Liberal Party, poring over quotes from current and former colleagues, was not what to include in its first anti-Rudd advertisement but what to leave out.

That is so true. Their first advertisement is below and it consists purely of quotes from his own Labor MPs,

Mr Rudd’s newfound friends do not expect him to win the coming election but they hope that, with him at the helm, fewer of them will lose their seats.

Their calculations mirror those that led Helen Clark and other Labour Party notables to persuade Sir Geoffrey Palmer to make way for Mike Moore as New Zealand prime minister eight weeks before the 1990 election.

But will they keep him on as opposition leader? He might be ALP leader for just three months?

The kaka demonstrating that it can find a perch almost anywhere…

click for larger, higher res image

Patrick Gower at 3 News reports:

Labour leader David Shearer has been put on two months’ notice by his own MPs – if the poll ratings don’t improve, his leadership will be challenged.

A Labour MP told 3 News today that Mr Shearer had until spring – two months away – to pick up his and Labour’s performance.

The MP, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “The caucus is just really flat. It’s not panic or anxiety just yet, but a couple more bad polls and it will be. David’s got a couple more months. A change in leadership cannot be ruled out before the end of the year.

Will Cunliffe do a Rudd?

The MP who spoke to 3 News is not a loyal supporter of leadership rival David Cunliffe. That makes the comments more significant as it shows there are broader concerns in the caucus about Mr Shearer’s performance

That does make it more significant.

This weekend there will be two editions of “The Nation”.

On Saturday at 9:30 we will run a shorter half hour edition featuring interviews with Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee and former Fiji coup leader Lt Col Sitiveni Rabuka.

On Sunday at 8:00 we will run our usual hour-long programme and we will have full coverage of the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election including results, analysis and reaction from candidates and party leaders.

We will also repeat the Brownlee and Rabuka interviews.

The Herald reports:

A new app aims to help Kiwis find the closest, cheapest taxi and rates individual drivers, but industry watchdogs say they are wary of the tool.

Cab Chooze began in Auckland yesterday and developers say it will find consumers the best deal and generate extra business for drivers.

The idea was developed by Youchooze IT, a family business run by West Aucklanders BK Sharma, his son Arjun and wife Payal.

Project manager Mr Sharma said the idea came in 2011 when Arjun was unable to hail a taxi late at night.

“It took him hours to get a cab and the price was so high that he was really quite shocked, which made him come up with the idea of ‘why can’t cabs be available to the consumer conveniently?’

“Cab Chooze means the consumer has the choice to pick their cab based on its rating, how quickly it can come to them and on the fare.”

That’s a great idea. It’s appalling that you can’t even go to one website for a city and see a list of all the taxi firms and their fare schedules.

But I’ve long advocated a GPS app for taxis, where you can signal your location, and they respond. What I think would be key is that you the customer also can see the GPS location of your taxi, once confirmed. That means if you are in a bar or restaurant, you know once the taxi has arrived.

Foreign Policy reports:

India’s ruling Congress Party was stunned by the magnitude of recent public protests. For the first time in recent history, India’s normally docile middle class and its youth are speaking up over everything from the country’s recent rape tragedy to the Congress Party’s corruption. Social media and technology have empowered these segments of society in new ways. The digital world has enabled similar rebellions in China and the Middle East.

Information used to be more localized. People were barely aware of the affairs of their own villages let alone in nearby towns or the rest of the country. Governments had the power to feed their citizens whatever propaganda they wanted them to know.

The first global communications revolution began with cell phones. Over a 10-year period the number of cellular subscriptions jumped from a few million to nearly 6 billion (or 87 percent of the world’s population, according to The International Telecommunication Union). These made it possible for families to stay in touch when breadwinners travelled to cities and for workers to connect with employers. They allowed populations to discuss what was happening in different parts of the country and to exchange political views. And they allowed the disenchanted to organize demonstrations via text messages. 

The next step in this revolution is cheap tablets. India recently launched the Aakash tablet, which provides all the features of more expensive tablets. It has a processer as powerful as the first iPad, twice as much RAM, and an LCD touch screen. One hundred thousand of these devices have been purchased by the Indian government from a company called Datawind for $40 and are being provided to teachers and school children for a subsidized price of $20. Meanwhile, Datawind has sold 1 million of these commercially at a price of $60. CyberMedia Research says that within two quarters of its introduction, the Aakash tablet has leaped ahead of Apple in terms of market share in India.

Trevor Mallard answers 12 questions in the NZ Herald.

3. Do you believe yesterday’s polls, which had Labour and David Shearer losing points against National?

Umm, well, polls are polls. They go up and down all over the place and they have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 or 4 per cent. On the basis of one individual poll I accept the volatility that moves them around. Having said that, I have been door-knocking in the Ikaroa- Rawhiti electorate for much of the past week and I’d be surprised if our candidate doesn’t get double the votes of the next person behind her.

That’s a ballsy prediction. Having said that, I don’t know anyone who thinks the Labour candidate won’t win. Mana are pushing a rumour that Labour polling has then only 5% behind but I doubt Labour shares its polling with Mana!

7. What’s your best door-knocking story?

During the Mana byelection a mother took me into her son’s room to enrol him and we found him playing some interactive porn game – with a joystick in each hand.

LOL, now that is funny. Poor bastard.