CTV engineers at fault

Today, the NZ Herald reported:

Under-fire CTV Building designer Dr Alan Reay is the victim of an "agenda'' by royal commission lawyers out to personally lampoon him, an inquiry was told today.

Lawyer Hugh Rennie QC said his client has been unfairly treated during the eight-week hearing into the Christchurch office block's catastrophic collapse during last February's earthquake, which claimed 115 lives.

Stephen Mills QC, counsel assisting the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission, claimed yesterday that design errors by Dr Reay's firm, Alan Reay Consultants Ltd stood out as the "primary cause'' for the disaster.

And today he went further, saying Dr Reay had turned a "Nelsonian blind eye'' to critical structural weaknesses identified in his office block 20 years before it collapsed.

Unfortunately it's not only in Nelson where people are turning a blind eye to badly designed and constructed buildings. New Zealand has a major problem of unenforced building codes whereby councils, designers and construction companies are all in cahoots to build as cheaply and as fast as possible. The end result is inferior buildings that endanger people's lives.

Alan Reay Consultants are obviously at fault here. Not only should they have declined to undertake the job using such inexperienced engineers, they allowed a design with numerous defects to go ahead knowing that it would be unsafe. This in my opinion is tantamount to manslaughter.

Good dog

Rightwing agenda increasing youth suicide

Yesterday, Stuff reported:

As more youth and Maori are claiming their own lives, it has also been revealed that a young boy under the age of 10 has recently committed suicide.

The boy was one of 547 people who killed themselves in the last year.

Chief coroner Judge Neil MacLean released the annual suicide statistics today, which cover the period from July 2011 to June 2012.

Today, the NZ Herald reported (not online yet) the amount of suicides for 2010-11 was 558.

The number of youths taking their own lives has surged by more than 40 per cent, and the suicide of a child under 9 has been recorded for the first time.

Which completely contradicts what Radio NZ reported on 15 August:

Latest statistics show a small increase in suicide for adults and a very slight decrease in youth suicide.

In 2010, 522 people took their own lives, up from 510 deaths in 2009.

There was one less youth suicide, with 113 teenagers dying in 2010.

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne says the suicide rate is lower than the peak in 1998 when 577 people died by suicide.

Could it be that politicians are ensuring these stats are massaged to not reflect badly on them? But more importantly why are more youth committing suicide than ever before?

The simple answer is that they've lost hope because of adverse social conditions impacting on their young lives. Many of these detrimental influences are caused by the government's economic mismanagement and biased decision making that favours the baby boomers over younger generations.

There's no doubt that National's negative policy direction is partly to blame... In particular increasing inequality has disproportionately affected the young who often bear the brunt when things go wrong.  The further entrenchment of user pays has been detrimental to youth who simply don't have the funds available to pay for things. They are therefore alienated from their communities. A lack of job prospects and inflation far outstripping wage increases has also disproportionately affected the young.

Just like the poverty issue, National is wasting time gathering reports on the reasons for youth suicide before they decide to act or not, knowing all the while it's their repressive policy direction that's partly to blame for increasing youth suicide in the first place. New Zealand has the highest rate of Youth suicide in the OECD.

The solution is pretty simple, National needs to throw away the out-dated neoliberal agenda and wake up from their ideological stupor. They need to ensure the young are not treated as slaves, are able to find their place in society and have support services through proper funding. Only then can New Zealand progress into a brighter future where people do not feel suicide is a viable option. Only then will young people think they have a future in New Zealand at all.

Senility is never pretty

Raoul Neave - Asshole of the Week

Today, the NZ Herald reported:

In Auckland District Court yesterday, Judge Raoul Neave criticised the media for referring to the offence as a hit-and-run, saying Hallwright was driving "away" from the situation, which had been escalated in seriousness by Mr Kim banging on the bonnet.

"What I know of your character ... I consider it highly unlikely you would have driven at him," Judge Neave told Hallwright.

He said describing the incident as a hit-and-run was "irresponsible and inappropriate".

"[Mr Kim] has gone under the wheels of your car, you've driven over him before carrying on with your manoeuvre [of pulling back on to the road]," Judge Neave said.

He told Hallwright he was a contributor to society with a "spotless reputation" and "impeccable character" but he did not want it to be thought that he was overlooking the "very serious" effects on Mr Kim.

"[It caused] very significant and severe injuries to Mr Kim ... though it goes without saying you never sought out to cause those injuries."

Judge Neave said the reparation represented Hallwright's remorse and was not a loophole of the legal system that allowed rich people to buy their way out of more serious sentences.

Hallwright's employer, Forsyth Barr, felt he had brought the company into disrepute as a result of media coverage of the trial, and the judge criticised the media's "prurient" interest in the case as "vulgar in the extreme".

The media had "seized upon and reported for no reason other than a desire to take an unhealthy degree of glee" from someone of Hallwright's esteem being on trial in a criminal court. "The Germans have a word for it: schadenfreude."

Balderdash! Guy Hallwright was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard and should have been punished appropriately. The maximum sentence for this crime is up to 14 years imprisonment. Just because Hallwright is a wealthy businessman doesn't mean he should be let off with a slap on the wrist.

Obviously Hallwright did intend to cause injury by accelerating forward while Kim was under the vehicle. He was after all found guilty of doing so for gods sake. To second guess that judgement and conviction just goes to show how factually baseless Raoul Neave is.

Neave's biased reasoning and lame excuses for such a pathetic sentence are completely unacceptable. Criticizing the media's coverage because he wanted Hallwright's crime kept out of the limelight shows him to be a complete asshole that should not be in a position of power.

Unfortunately this kind of corrupt judgement makes people lose all faith in the justice system as it clearly shows there's one law for the rich and another for the rest of us. Despicable!

Dopey PM is a disgrace!

Today, the NZ Herald reported:

The expert advisory group brought together by Children's Commissioner Dr Russell Wills to find solutions to child poverty released its recommendations yesterday.

Its members include AUT accounting expert James Prescott, Major Campbell Roberts of the Salvation Army, Professor Ritchie Poulton of the Dunedin School of Medicine and Philippa Howden-Chapman, a public health expert.

Among its recommendations for the longer term was a universal child payment for under-6s.

The payment would be highest while the child was a baby, when costs were high, and would decline through childhood.

Co-chair Dr Tracey McIntosh said the payment was about ensuring children had the best start in life. "Investment in the early years has a particularly strong link to better outcomes for disadvantaged children."

Mr Key said yesterday he welcomed the report but ruled out reinstating universal child payments, which were ended in the 1990s, or tax breaks for parents, another recommendation.

He called a return to a universal child payment a "dopey" idea.

"We went away from that some years ago in New Zealand - we have a very targeted system through Working for Families - it's highly proportional to your income; so we make much larger payments to lower income families."

The only one being dopey around here is the Prime Minister. Key doesn't seem to understand that Working for Families doesn't apply to the majority of children living in poverty, namely those from welfare dependent families. The scheme is therefore not proportional as it seeks to disadvantage those in the most need.

National is of course opposing the Greens bill (PDF) to make the scheme fairer, mainly because they want a certain amount of the community to live in hardship to keep wages low.

The best they can muster as an argument to oppose Catherine Delahunty's changes is that extending Working for Families' tax credits to beneficiaries shouldn't happen because beneficiaries aren't working.

Clearly this is a juvenile point of view from the rightwing who simply doesn't have any solutions. It's not the name that's important; it's the effectiveness of the scheme to ensure a reduction in the amount of children living in poverty that matters.

Key also seems to be arguing that the current measures to reduce child poverty are adequate. He's therefore completely failing to acknowledge the dramatic increase in inequality under National's governance. New Zealand now officially has 270,000 children living in poverty. That's a quarter of all Kiwi kids growing up impoverished and in need.

Inequality has increased in New Zealand the fastest of all OECD countries since National gained power in 2008. In a developed democracy with ample resources, this is a complete disgrace! Any Prime Minister who allows this to happen on their watch is a bloody disgrace as well.