Open government: "Insulting"

That's how Transparency International is describing National's "consultation" on its Open Government Partnership Midterm Self-Assessment Report:

Transparency International, the non-government body that promotes high ethical standards and openness by governments, described the 24 day consultation period as "insulting".

"If anything, [it] undermines the principle of open government," Transparency's New Zealand chairwoman, Suzanne Snively said.

Presumably Transparency's local patron, National Party grandee, former deputy prime minister and one-time Commonwealth secretary-general, Sir Don McKinnon, is happy to be associated with such uncharacteristic bluntness from an organisation that prides itself on a restrained and analytical approach.

Like the public consultation on the country's climate change targets, this is a consultation you have when you're really just going through the motions.

It doesn't square with the OGP 's requirement of member countries that they "consult the population with adequate forewarning" about the proposed national action plan and undertake "awareness raising activities to enhance public participation in the consultation".

But its worse than that, because we're breaking the OGP's rules with our shit consultation. So its entirely likely that the government's half-hearted involvement in the OGP will result in us getting a negative international reputation for doing so. Unfortunately, the deep state will likely try and blame this on transparency, rather than their lack of commitment to it.

The IPCA is a lie

On 29 December 2014, police arrested an alleged burglar in Mangere East. In the course of the arrest, one of the arresting officers violently and brutally stomped on the suspect's head. His fellow officers though that this was unjustified, and reported him. And today, the Independent Police Conduct Authority has formally found that it was an unjustified and excessive use of force. But don't get your hopes up - because while the IPCA thinks that this cop used force unlawfully, they don't think that that means they should be prosecuted:

Although there are variations in the descriptions of how Officer E acted, it involved, at a minimum, the violent application of force on at least two occasions, to gain compliance, which was not justified in the circumstances.

This conclusion has been reached on the civil standard of the ‘balance of probabilities’. This standard sets a lower threshold for proof than that required for criminal liability, the threshold for which requires evidence sufficient to demonstrate guilt ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. Therefore, the Authority’s finding does not necessarily mean that the threshold for criminal prosecution has been met in this case.

Which is just bullshit. To point out the obvious, the standard for prosecution is not the same as the standard for conviction. If the police had reached the conclusion on the balance of probabilities that you or I had violently applied force unlawfully, we would almost certainly be prosecuted. The police must hold their own to the same standard. Failing to do so simply makes it clear that they're nothing but a gang with different colours.

As for the IPCA, this is more evidence that they're just a PR exercise, there to excuse police misconduct rather than eliminate it. They are a scam to create consent, not just unable, but unwilling to promote higher standards. And that being the case, there is simply no reason for the organisation to exist. Give me a real IPCA, or give me nothing - but don't expect me to pay any attention to a lie.

Pillaging New Zealand

A couple of months ago we learned that miners were destroying Northland's wetlands to dig up kauri for export, possibly in violation of the law. So how big is this kauri rush? According to MPI, it has grown by 2500 percent in just five years:

The true extent of swamp kauri being sent overseas has been revealed - with exports jumping by more than 2500 per cent in five years.

[...]

In 2009, 173 cubic metres of swamp kauri was legally exported. That increased to 1150 cubic metres in 2013, before sky-rocketing to 4356 cubic metres last year.

About 800 cubic metres have been sent offshore so far this year.

One company, Silver Fern Resource Trading, sent 1810 cubic metres last year - all to China.

So, our wetlands are being devastated so rich Chinese businessmen can have a fancy table. Of course, its illegal - the Forests Act 1949 prohibits the export of unfinished timber, and the "carvings" and slabs they are exporting don't really qualify (seriously, just look at the photos in that article. Do you really think that that "carving" is for real, or is it just there to allow a raw log to be exported and re-milled into something else?) These vandals are simply pillaging New Zealand - and MPI needs to enforce the law and stop them, rather than turning a blind eye.

Stitching up refugees

Australia's refugee gulag has seen guards rape, murder, and torture those under their care. As if that wasn't enough, they've also started stitching them up for prosecution:

An Australian-paid guard at Nauru is accused of falsely claiming an asylum seeker violently assaulted him then perjuring himself in court, before confessing to the lie in a secret recording made by a colleague.

Fairfax Media has obtained a copy of the alleged confession, in which the Wilson Security guard boasts about the incident and jokes about taking a "dive" – the sporting term for falling to the ground and faking an injury. The guard said he wanted the asylum seeker convicted so he would never be settled in Australia.

The asylum seeker is believed to be a young Iranian man. It is understood he spent one month in jail for the alleged assault and tried to kill himself at least three times after being falsely accused – once almost successfully hanging himself.

Wilson Security says there was not enough evidence to make a finding against the guard, despite the company's own investigators apparently recording his confession.

Wilson Security didn't bother to tell the Australian government, and its not even clear if they informed the Nauruan authorities - though the victim was acquitted. But you really have to wonder just how toxic an organisation they are when their staff think its appropriate to do this - and how often it has happened and not been detected.

New Fisk

Syria civil war: Civilians in Damascus pay the price for those in the provinces in conflict's balance of horror

It begins

When Parliament passed the Harmful Digital Communications Act, people (including me) warned that it would be abused to stifle political speech. And it has, with NZ First MP Tracey Martin accusing a political blogger (who supported a rival NZ First MP) of violating the Act:

NZ First MP Tracey Martin has claimed Curwen Rolinson is in breach of the Harmful Digital Communications Act, passed in July. In a blog post, Rolinson, former leader of the NZ First youth wing, accused Martin of undermining party MP Andrew Williams.

Speaking at the University of Otago last week, Martin suggested that Rolinson was in breach of the law as a result of a blog post written on 6 July, four days after the Act was officially made into law.

“I’ve been working on the Harmful Digital Communications bill and what Curwen [Rolinson] did, what Whaleoil [blogger Cameron Slater] does, that’s harmful digital communications,” said Martin.

The "breach"? Rolinson accused Martin of spreading rumours about NZ First MP Andrew Williams, who was competing with her for the position of deputy leader. In other words, a typical internal party spat. If this is what Martin thinks the law covers, then we should all be very afraid.

[Hat-tip: Offsetting Behaviour]

A united front against their members

Its been clear from the beginning that the UK Labour party's right wing is deeply uncomfortable with democracy. And now that Jeremy Corbyn has been denounced by Tony Blair, making him almost certain to win, they are plotting to cancel the leadership election:

Labour leadership hopeful Yvette Cooper has admitted that there have been behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings to persuade candidates to bow out of the race to prevent veteran leftwing MP Jeremy Corbyn from winning.

Against a backdrop of increasingly desperate interventions from senior party figures appealing for those registered to vote to back anyone but Corbyn, ballot papers are expected to start arriving through the letterboxes on Monday of the 450,000 people who have registered to take part – many in the wake of Corbyn’s breakthrough in the polls.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday night that former Labour cabinet minister Peter Mandelson attempted a “secret plot” to convince Corbyn’s three rival candidates – Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall – to pull out to annul the contest.

“I’ve not discussed this with Peter Mandelson,” said Cooper on Monday. “I gather there was some view that maybe the whole process should be stopped because so many people were joining at the last minute. I don’t think that’s right. I think it’s a good thing that people are joining the party.”

Cancelling elections because the "wrong" candidate is about to win is African dictatorship stuff. The fact that New Labour is actively trying to engineer it speaks volumes about their attitude to democracy, and their beliefs about who their party really belongs to.

New Fisk

Isis is using 'dreamology' to justify its nightmarish vision for the world

Australia waterboards refugees

Australia's treatment of refugees in its offshore gulags has already been found to amount to torture by the UN, and there have been occasional reports of specific incidents of torture as well. And now there's another one, with a former gulag worker telling the Senate inquiry into offshore detention that refugees are being waterboarded in the gulag:

A former security guard for Wilson Security on the island made the allegation in a submission to the Senate inquiry into circumstances and conditions at the Australian-run offshore detention centre.

The anonymous guard said he would give evidence to the committee about torture taking place on Nauru, including “waterboarding asylum seekers throughout the facility” though no further detail is given.

The Australians also have a nasty little technique they call "zipping": tying someone to a metal bed, then throwing it in the air - presumably to create injuries consistent with a fall rather than being beaten and drowned.

The Australian government has denied these claims. But they've denied everything bad that happens in the gulag, and their denials have consistently been proven to be false. They are not interested in running a humane detention facility; in fact, inhumanity is the point - the camps are designed to make refugees suffer so they "choose" to go home rather than continue to be tortured. Given what we know, escalation into waterboarding isn't beyond possibility. And if it has happened, those responsible - which includes the policymakers who established an environment of torture and a culture of impunity - need to be held to account. And if Australia won't do it, we should.

Exiting thermal

I got back from Auckland to the news that the Otahuhu B gas-fired power station would be shutting down at the end of September and would be replaced with renewables. Its quite a shocking decision - the plant was expected to last 25 years, not 15, and to be replaced by another gas-fired generator. But with Southdown and Huntly also closing down and Genesis cancelling its plans to build at Rodney, it looks like we're seeing a large-scale exit from thermal generation in New Zealand. How large? In the last 6 months, three of the five largest thermal power-plants have announced they are closing permanently, and the only two major thermal projects in the pipeline have been cancelled. Which will leave just two major thermal power stations: Stratford and Huntly 5. And Stratford is older than Otahuhu B and expected to reach the end of its life in 2024 or so...

This shift isn't due to any government policy - National has been trying to subsidise these polluters for as long as they can - but simply because wind and geothermal are now cheaper. Which makes you wonder where we'd be if we'd had a functioning ETS from the start, rather than one gutted and stuffed with subsidies and hot air...

The other interesting thing is that the shutdowns seem to be following the path of the "Tiwai exit" scenario in MBIE's Electricity Demand and Generation scenarios. So while a deal has been cut to keep Tiwai open, clearly the electricity industry doesn't think it will last and are planning accordingly.

Places to go, people to be

Nothing from me today, as I'm off to Chimera, New Zealand's biggst larp convention. Over the weekend I expect to be (in no particular order) murdered, mutilated, hunted, turned into a piece of furniture, and destroyed with the entire universe. And I'll have fun while doing so.

Normal bloggage should resume Tuesday.

Drawn

A ballot for three member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn:

• Affordable Healthcare Bill (Barbara Stewart)
  
• Keep Kiwibank Bill (Clayton Cosgrove)
  
• Electricity Industry (Small-Scale Renewable Distributed Generation) Amendment Bill (Gareth Hughes)
  

The latter is the first Green member's bill drawn in almost three years. The days of the "Green ballot mojo" appear to be long over.

Help end TPP secrecy

The government's strategy on the Trans Pacific Partnership is to keep everything secret, even documents they've provided to other parties. The result is that the public are kept in the dark and locked out of the decision-making process about significant policy changes, some of which could have serious effects on human lives. The government has even refused to release documents under the OIA, sweeping everything under the carpet of "international relations".

But last week, a group of seven NGOs - Consumer NZ, Ngati Kahungunu, the Tertiary Education Union, Oxfam, Greenpeace, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation - joined Jane Kelsey in challenging that secrecy in court by seeking a judicial review of the Ombudsman's decision that withholding documents was proper. Its a good move, and one which will set precedent for future use of the OIA (in particular around the government's ability to purportedly contract out of the law by promising its negotiating partners to keep its own material secret). But judicial review is expensive, and they'll need help paying for it. If you'd like to chip in, there's a GiveALittle campaign here.

Is the GCSB obeying the law? They don't know

Section 23 of the GCSB Act imposes an obligation on them to destroy irrelevant records obtained by interception as soon as practicable. So if for example they are spying on someone under a warrant and intercept them looking at a food website for a lasagna recipe, that's irrelevant to security and has to be destroyed. So are they obeying this part of the law? I used the OIA to ask them, and the answer is that they just don't know

GCSB destroys irrelevant communications, and copies and records of these under s 23 of the GCSB Act in different ways depending on the system that collected them. Records of such destruction are not kept for all systems.

Where GCSB's systems hold specific records of destruction, GCSB can confirm records of seven instances of disposal between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2015.

I'm assuming that those instances cover the disposal of multiple records, but even so, with over sixty interception warrants and access authorisations issued last year, plus Cthulhu-knows how many warrantless interceptions under s16, it seems... low. I'd suggest that the current spy review look at this, except we all know that its a rubber-stamp which is likely to respond by removing the requirement to destroy irrelevant records, rather than making the spies obey the law. Because that's how spying works in this country: they piss on the law, and face no consequences for doing so.

New Fisk

Syrians fear Army Colonel murdered during traffic altercation in Latakia will not get justice as suspect is son of President Assad's first cousin

Member's Day

Today is a member's day, and now the second-reading logjam is done we're finally getting some progress. First up is a private bill, then its straight on to David Parker's Minimum Wage (Contractor Remuneration) Amendment Bill. This hinges on the vote of Peter Dunne, and it'll be interesting to see if he votes for fair employment laws or not.

After that its Stuart Nash's Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill, which would restore the requirement that local body amalgamations be approved by a referendum in every affected area. Then there's Matt Doocey's Public Collections and Solicitations (Disclosure of Payment) Bill, which should be non-controversial and whizz through. Finally the House will make a start on Chris Bishop's BORA-infringing Financial Assistance for Live Organ Donors Bill.

There should be a ballot for three bills tomorrow.

Freedom of the press wins in Germany

Two weeks ago we learned that the German government was investigating news website Netzpolitik.org on treason charges for publising stories exposing government surveillance plans. But now it has been made public, the chief prosecutor has been fired and the investigation has been terminated:

On Monday the federal prosecutor’s office said it was closing the case because it believed the leaked documents on which the website’s reports were based were not a “state secret”, and that other conditions for treason charges had not been met.

The inquiry, which was opened after a criminal complaint filed by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, also targeted the unidentified source of the leaked documents. Monday’s statement said investigating the source would now be a matter for lower-ranking local prosecutors.

Beckedahl suggested the decision to drop the inquiry was not enough. “We want to know precisely whether we were subject to surveillance measures during the almost three-month investigation,” he said. Beckedahl said he hoped the case would motivate authorities to improve protection for whistleblowers in Germany.

Good. But its not enough. Apart from the questions of surveillance, the BfV needs to be held responsible for laying the complaint as well. Germany's spies need to learn that journalism and holding them to account is not treason.

Is the health minister in the dark on the TPP?

The Trans Pacific Partnership is a major international trade deal currently under engotiation by the government. It is expected to significantly increase the prices of pharmaceuticals in New Zealand while limiting Pharmac's ability to negotiate with drug companies - changes which will result in people dying. In other words, it will have a significant impact on the health portfolio. So you'd expect the Minister of Health, Jonathan Coleman, to be talking to the Minister for Trade about it to find out what those impacts will be, right?

Wrong. According to a request lodged through FYI, the public OIA request system, Coleman has not had any correspondence with the Minister of Trade about the TPP in the last year.

There are really two possibilities here. The first is that Coleman is utterly derelict in his duty (or rather, Groser is derelict in his, as he has a constitutional duty to consult his Cabinet colleagues on significant decisions affecting their portfolios). The second is that Coleman is being a dick with the OIA, and interpreting "correspondence" narrowly. But neither is really acceptable, and both are signs of a dysfunctional government.

New Fisk

David Cameron is failing to PR himself in the Middle East. Maybe he should start looking closer to home

Return of the bill of the living dead III

Over ten years ago, Parliament decriminalised prostitution. It was a bold step forward, which ensured that prostitutes could work safely and were protected by the law, rather than existing in a legal twilight zone where they could be abused with impunity by pimps and police. But the Christians weren't happy, and tried to re-criminalise prostitution (with far more draconian penalties) via a local bill. That failed. So they tried again. After four years in front of a select committee, which roundly rejected their "evidence" that the "harm" of street prostitution could only be managed by banning it, that failed too. The only party in support of it? New Zealand First.

But being voted down twice hasn't deterred them, so they're back for another go. This time they are at least being honest about their intentions - rather than being framed as a local measure to allow a council to deal with an environmental nuisance, they're outright trying to ban street prostitution entirely. Doing so will of course force street workers back into that legal twilight zone and expose them to abuse - but NZ First doesn't seem to care about that, any more than they did in 2003, 2006, or 2015. Prostitution wasn't allowed 50 years ago when their supporters were young, so it shouldn't be allowed now. And if women are the casualties, well, NZ First has never cared about them anyway.