The Sunday Newspaper Brunch Club

On the Sunday Newspaper Brunch Club today at 11am, Sky Digital 65, with Bomber from Alt, Wallace Chapman from Kiwi FM breakfast show and Ben Thomas from the NBR

News that caught my eye –
1: Only 35pc of attackers identified
Only 35 per cent of recorded sexual crimes in New Zealand result in the attacker being identified, according to government statistics. The figures for rape may be even lower, with only 9 per cent of rapes being reported and only 15 per cent of these resulting in a court case. In light of the Ropati case and their threat to take a personal prosecution against their rape complainant and the handling of last years rape complaints against Schollum, Shipton and Rickards, one wonders if we have ended up making an environment that makes it even more difficult for women to come to the Police with rape allegations.

2: Cleaning up the monsters
Indonesian activists held a protest in central Jakarta to protest against calls to make former president Suharto a national hero, a week after the death of the leader who ruled with an iron fist for 32 years. What is it with evil people getting nice epitaphs? Suharto was responsible for Billions stolen from his country and half a million lives – I’ve noticed the same myth making for Reagan in the American elections – how can a man responsible for 300 000 deaths in South America, and responsible for turning down the Soviet offer of dismantling ALL nukes ever get that sort of historical handjob?

3: Kettle and pot throwing stones in glass houses
Telecommunications company Kordia should have told the Government it was doing business in Myanmar, but the lapse was understandable, State Owned Enterprise Minister Trevor Mallard said this week. Burma okay to criticize and okay to do business with? Is that hypocracy or is it the pot calling the kettle black coming from the Dark Lord of the Sith, Murray McCully. Interestingly enough, in a Freakonomics kinda way, once mobile phone use reaches 15% of a population it is very difficult for dictatorships to keep control of a population as the transfer of independent news and information cancels out the power of state created media.

4: Primary principals seek more real men
Many primary school principals believe male primary teachers should be heterosexual, rugby-playing "real men" if they want to be good role models, new research has found. Isn’t it the macho male stereotype that is killing men off in this country? We forget that homphobia is still alive and kicking in NZ.

5: Deal on foreshore law
The Government and the East Coast tribe of Ngati Porou will today unveil at Parliament the agreement for redress reached in negotiations under the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This was confiscation by legislation and the ‘deal’ cut by Ngati Porou (which coincidentally aids Horemea in his fight against the Maori Party) gives them ‘rights’ that were already given to them under existing legislation in different acts – the bullshit attempt by the Labour Party to make this confiscation look palatable will not dampen down speculation that the Maori Party will cut a deal with the National Party if the National Party revoke the Foreshore and Seabed legislation while guaranteeing ‘public access’ a win/win for the Nats and Maori Party.

6: Pepper Spraying the mentally ill – 4 dead, is it a good idea?

7: What are we doing in Afghanistan again?


STORY 1 – Hostage pilot slams plane security - SST
A former Air New Zealand pilot who was held hostage on board his aircraft by a drug-crazed man armed with a knife has accused officials of playing down incidents such as Friday's attempted hijacking as "one-offs" and says it is time security measures were implemented to protect passengers and crew. Chris Payne, who was held at knife point for an hour by a man who boarded his commercial aircraft at Nelson airport after the passengers had disembarked on January 22, 1997, said regional airport security had not improved since a Sunday Star-Times expose more than three years ago revealed how easy it was to take weapons on board. His comments come as the Somalian woman accused of stabbing two pilots and a passenger on an Air NZ flight from Blenheim to Christchurch on Friday appeared in court.

Do we really need to overreact to a poorly planned hijack from a woman with some obvious issues with even more pointless security panhandling at airports? As NZers would we allow anyone to really hijack a plane we were on?

Peters: NZ seen as 'soft touch' - hos
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says the woman charged with hijacking a plane should never have been allowed into New Zealand as a refugee. Asha Ali Abdille appeared in Christchurch District Court yesterday on a number of wounding charges, and became the first person in New Zealand to be charged with attempting to take control of an aircraft. Peters raised questions about Abdille in 1994, then under Parliamentary privilege 10 years later, when he said she had a "police record a mile long" with convictions that would "make Al Capone proud".

Winston of course is now making racially charged comments about this refugee (you know it’s election year) – isn’t this an issue about the lack of support we have for refugees in this country, Asha Ali Abdille was raped repeatedly by soldiers after being ripped away from her family and left to languish in a refugee camp, how many NZers have walked in her shoes? Aren’t we about compassion in NZ or work productivity of the worker drones? Is Winston seriously saying “We only want the unbroken refugees please”.


STORY 2 – You may pay terror bill - hos
The Tuhoe tribe is planning to seek taxpayer money to fund a class action suit against the Government over "heavy-handed" tactics police employed during the so-called anti-terror raids. Up to 30 iwi representatives are looking at lodging legal aid applications with the Legal Services Agency in the hope of mounting what could be a multimillion-dollar suit demanding redress over the October raids.

I love the title ‘YOU may pay terror bill’, why not just print ‘More-darky-malarkey-for-poor-white-NZers-to-have-to-pay-out-of-their- hard-earned-dollars-already-low-because-Helen-steals-it-all-for-tax-to-fund-prosecuting-parents-who-rightfully-smack-their-kids’. Why shouldn’t Tuhoe seek legal aid to redress police action they felt overstepped the mark – having seen the on-line evidence against those being monitored you can understand the Police concerns, but the manner in which the Police moved into land as steeped in historical injustice as Tuhoe suggests either gross incompetence on the part of the police or a gross over-reaction, there must have been a better way to bring in those they wanted to question other than the aggressive Ninja Police tactics.


STORY 3 – Bail expected in tagger killing case - hos
The Auckland businessman accused of fatally stabbing a teenage tagger is expected to be released from prison this week. Bruce William Emery, 50, will make his second appearance in the Manukau District Court on Friday. Lawyer Chris Comeskey confirmed bail would be sought. Emery has been charged with murdering 15-year-old Pihema Clifford Cameron in Manurewa on January 26.

I find that the level of sympathy and understanding directed at this 50 year old businessman odd, not because we shouldn’t wish to keep people out of the corrosive environment of prison but because this level of sympathy has been totally missing towards any of the other killers so far this year, especially when you consider the pre-meditated nature of the attack, this man took a knife to a confrontation outside his home and chased – chased, the tagger, this kid had his back to the businessman for most of this and the businessman catches him and stabs the kid to death.


STORY 4 - Prison weddings divorced from reality, say critics - sst
Tougher sentencing campaigners are outraged that 18 criminals, including some of New Zealand's most violent offenders, have married in prison in the past three years. Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said New Zealand prisons had "lost the plot". "They are putting the criminal's rights ahead of the victims' rights... prison has to be a place for punishment, not for warm fuzzies. There are some women, for whatever reason, who are attracted to these guys."

Outrage? Really? There are a lot of things to be outraged about in our prison system, paroling dangerous people who commit worse crimes just to free up prison beds and the 5% bailed who commit serious crime, those are things to be outraged about – but Prison Marriages? The couple have to pay all the expenses and positive relationships can do more for prisoners than the none existent rehabilitation. And isn’t Garth’s solution a large tent prison along the desert road?


STORY 5 - STORY 5 – McCain challenges Democratic rivals on Iraq - sst
Senator John McCain, his victory as Republican nominee for the US presidency virtually assured, has turned his sights on his Democratic challengers, saying they were weak on national security and their Iraq stance would hand al Qaeda victory.
McCain's remarks, and the response from Democratic presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, pushed Iraq war policy back to centre stage in the presidential race after weeks of focus on the faltering US economy.

McCain wants to ‘stay in Iraq for 100 years’, Hillary wants a drawdown, Obama wants to meet with the Iranians and Syrians – which plan can work and who can see it through – which race is the most important – Democrat or Republican?


FINAL WORD – If you are watching this on sky – 5.30am UKTV Sky 6, Yes Prime Minister – Oh and 8.30pm Tuesday – ‘Let’s be Frank’ Alt Tv’s new current affairs show hosted by Oliver Driver, this week leader of the opposition – John Key.