Justice for Vilikesa Soko

In August 2014, Fijian police arrested Vilikesa Soko in connection with a robbery. They then beat and raped him to death. Yesterday, eight police officers and a solider were sentenced to between seven and nine years jail for that crime:

Eight police officers and a military officer convicted of rape, sexual assault and perverting the course of justice in Fiji have been given custodial sentences by the Lautoka High Court.

The nine men attacked two prisoners, one of whom, Vilikesa Soko, died of his injuries while in custody in Lautoka Hospital in August 2014.

But note what they weren't sentenced for: murder. Despite beating and raping him so badly that he died, charges of manslaughter were inexplicibly dropped. And it will be interesting to see whether these criminals will serve their sentences, or be pardoned by the regime (the solider is a former bodyguard to Frank Bainimarama).

Vilikesa Soko's death wasn't political. Fiji's police routinely beat and torture suspects, with the result that serious charges are frequently dropped due to the "confessions" being inadmissible. Hopefully these convictions will help change that pattern.

A gap in our defence policy

Last week, under cover of a major earthquake, the government announced it was spending $20 billion on new toys for the defence force. New frigates, new ASW aircraft for finding submarines (rather than lost fishermen), cyber-woo - all of it wasted money stolen from the mouths of the poor. And in the Herald today, Brian Rudman points out the obvious: that all of this spending mis aimed at the wrong target:

What is missing is a chapter, or even a page in either the White Paper or the shopping list, outlining plans for dealing with our most immediate and potentially deadly threat.

The vast majority of us were born after the deadly Napier earthquake. But three major shakes in the South Island in the last six years, have highlighted how the enemy we are most likely to have to front is the one within. "Bishop" Tamaki paints him as a scary homophobic Old Testament God. Science tells us we're at the mercy of tectonic plates rubbing against one another.

It's not an enemy we can fight. But it would be nice to think that some of the $20 billion Defence spend-up over the next 15 years, was being earmarked for disaster rescue, relief and reconstruction.

From NZDF's procurement plans, you'd think they were planning to refight the Battle of the Atlantic to protect Mother Britain, or a major tank battle on the North German plain against the forces of the (long dead) Soviet Union. Meanwhile, what actually threatens us is... earthquakes. They've shown how useful they can be in such situations (again, the Canterbury, basicly a Cook Strait ferry painted battleship grey, is our most useful defence asset). It would be nice if their future spending plans were focused on what they actually do and improving their capabilities towards actual threats.

Here's a suggestion: if the government is so concerned about the cost of 24/7 earthquake and tsunami warning, maybe they should take the money from the defence budget? Spending it that way would be far more effective in protecting our lives than buying toys for fantasy wars we will (and should) never fight.

A harmful subsidy

Our government subsidises bad employers by giving them easy access to cheap migrant labour, allowing them to escape the market requirement to pay more to attract workers. But this isn't just bad for the workers effectively replaced in this way - its also terrible for the economy in the long term, because it discourages investment:

While New Zealand's light labour market regulation assists people to move from one job to another and helps keep unemployment low, this regulatory environment is also discouraging firms from investing in developing their existing and future workers, [a Treasury] report suggests.

"Further work is required to understand how regulatory flexibility impacts New Zealand's ability to sustain and build both human and social capital, particularly as the nature of work continues to evolve.

"A key part of this response is encouraging employers to take responsibility for workforce planning rather than relying on migrant labour alone," the report says. "This approach to immigration provides employment opportunities for domestic workers, with higher wages or improved working conditions where appropriate, and incentivises greater capital intensity, innovation and productivity."

Basicly, employers don't need to invest in training people, or in productivity-improving capital investment, because they can just hire someone from overseas. Which looks great in the short-term, but if allowed to continue means you end up with a low-skill, low-wage economy with out-of-date business infrastructure. You know, sortof like the one we've had since 1990 when National started this whole low wages kick.

If we want to end this negative cycle, we need to raise wages and make it harder to just import workers. That's difficult to do in a country which values diversity and freedom of movement like we do, but requiring skill shortages to be genuine and cracking down on industries, like farming, which use immigrants because kiwis won't tolerate their poor working conditions would seem to be a good start.

...with a stake through its heart

US President-Elect Donald Trump has announced that he will unsign the TPPA on his first day in office:

US President-elect Donald Trump has released a video laying out actions he'll take on his first day in office on January 20, including withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Good riddance. The TPP was a shit deal which gained us nothing. And now its dead and buried with a stake through its heart, maybe we can do something better - something without the odious subsidies and anti-democratic clauses that the US demanded, for example.

Meanwhile over on Pundit, Andrew Geddis looks at the legality of John Key's plan to try and bring the existing law into force without the USA. His assessment? It would be illegal. When Parliament said "this only comes into force when the TPPA does", it meant it. So if Key wants to try that, he'll either have to fight it in the courts, or convince Parliament to amend the bill to allow it to be brought into force in other circumstances - which in turn means convincing us that a regulatory subsidies for the US copyright mafia and Big Pharma are worth it when we're getting absolutely nothing in return.

An abuse of suppression

The Herald reports that National MP Chester Borrows is to stand trial for allegedly running over a protestor's foot. Which seems fair enough - people in cars have a duty to be careful using them, and it seems like there's at least a case to answer. But what's really surprising is this:

Borrows, who is also Parliament's deputy Speaker, had pleaded not guilty.

He appeared in the Whanganui District Court last month when the judge, on his own motion, suppressed all evidence and argument in relation to the charge.

Which invites the obvious question: what's the reason for this? Borrows isn't a minor, there's no significant privacy interest, the events have been widely reported on. Instead, it simply looks like the judge is trying to spare someone powerful, a former Minister for the Courts, from additional public embarrassment. But that's not what the court's suppression powers are for, and their abuse in this fashion undermines the social licence for suppression throughout the entire justice system.

Places to go, people to be

Nothing from me today - I'm (hopefully) off to Auckland to be other people at New Zealand's largest larp convention. Normal bloggage will resume on Tuesday.

"Controlling their own borders"

When UKanians voted for Brexit, a lot of them did it so the UK could "control its own borders". None of them seemed to have anticipated that Europe might want to do the same, to them. And now, thanks to Brexit, UKanians will have to pay a travel tax and apply for admission at the EU border:

British people will no longer be able to travel freely to Europe without paying a "travel tax" and being forced to fill out a form under plans unveiled by Brussels.

The US-style visa waiver scheme is one of the first concrete signs UK citizens will not be permitted the privileges they once had to move across European borders unhindered.

The EU Commission said the system of security checks is necessary to prevent terrorist entering the Schengen open-borders area, but UK Brexit critics warned it is further evidence of the hidden cost of quitting the Union.

The demise of borders and border controls has been one of the greatest benefits of Europe (its also one of the benefits of NZ's arrangements with Australia). But its not something the UK will get to keep if it leaves. And now no doubt those Brexit voters will get upset at being treated like non-members by the club they voted to leave...

And Aucklanders wonder why people hate them...

Why do people in the rest of New Zealand hate Aucklanders? Maybe we should ask Phil Goff:

Auckland's transport infrastructure funding nightmare will long-term eclipse even the costs of the Kaikoura earthquake, the city's mayor said.

During a Stuff.co.nz live chat on Wednesday, Phil Goff said Auckland shouldn't take a back seat on Government spending despite Kaikoura's 7.8 quake which has caused devastating damage including closing State Highway 1.

[...]

But Goff cited figures to argue Auckland's case, saying the city loses up to $3 billion per year in lost productivity from underdeveloped transport infrastructure.

"That's more in congestion in one year than the entire Kaikoura [earthquake] cost. Can we afford to say 'no, we're looking at somewhere else now ignoring Auckland?'"

In other words, the convenience of Aucklanders during their morning commute trumps the basic needs of people elsewhere in the country.

You can argue that trucking stuff from Auckland to Christchurch via the Picton Ferry isn't the greatest of ideas. But we're talking here about the basics: sewage, power, internet and road connectivity. And given the choice between that or saving rich pricks on the North Shore thirty seconds on their daily commute, the choice should be obvious to anyone with any sense of proportion.

(Sounds like time for another round of "Fuck Phil Goff"...)

Trumpistan

One of the hallmarks of the Soviet regime (continued under Putin, of course) was their political use of psychiatry to detain their critics as "mentally ill". Sadly, its already taking off in Trump's America:

A college professor who criticised online Donald Trump and his plans for America, said he was arrested and detained after campus police claimed he was a threat.

Kevin Allred, who teaches Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, New Jersey, said officers detained him after deciding his comments on the campus, and on Twitter, were dangerous. He said he was forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before before being released.

[...]

In one of his tweets he referred to a comment he made about the 2nd Amendment, the addition to the US constitution which gun rights activists says gives them the right to bear arms.

His actual "crime"? He talked about burning the American flag - constitutionally protected free speech - and asked if conservatives would care about the 2nd Amendment so much of guns killed more white people. This isn't "threatening" by any stretch of the imagination. But its clearly now politically unacceptable, and US police can see which way the wind is blowing.

If you're a liberal American, you should get out while you still can.

UK Tories are soft on the death penalty

Opposition to the death penalty has been a longstanding plank of UK foreign policy. But under the Conservative government, they seem to be going soft on it. First, they told the Foreign Office to stop talking about it. Now, they're openly advocating letting Turkey walk away from its international commitments not to murder people:

Boris Johnson stunned his EU foreign minister counterparts this afternoon by calling on the bloc to tone down its opposition to Turkey reintroducing the death penalty, it has been reported.

Diplomats present at the foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels said that Mr Johnson had warned against pushing Turkey “into a corner” over the issue.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan backed the return of the death penalty this summer after he purged over 100,000 potential political opponents from the country’s civil service and arrested opposition political parties.

The problem is that practicising state murder is now a fundamental barrier to EU membership - so if Turkey reinstates executions (and abrogates its commitments under both the ECHR and the second optional protocol to the ICCPR in the process), it can never join. Which might get in the way of arms sales or something. And OTOH, why the hell is the UK trying to dictate EU membership decisions anyway? After all, they're leaving; they shouldn't be allowed to fuck things up for everybody on the way out.

Meanwhile, you really have to wonder: if the UK is soft on executions internationally, do they want to reintroduce them at home? Again, its banned by their participation in the EU and ECHR - but Teresa May wants to get rid of both of those things in the name of "Britishness" (because human rights apparently aren't British - the Magna Carta and Thomas Paine aside). So, does Brexit mean British executions?

Justice for the Pacific solution?

For over a decade the Australian government has kidnapped refugees and rendered them to Pacific concentration camps to be mentally tortured in an effort to deter others. This use of torture as a tool of policy is a crime against humanity. And now, a group of human rights lawyers have petitioned the International Criminal Court to prosecute it:

Every Australian prime minister from John Howard onwards should be investigated for crimes against humanity in relation to the indefinite detention of asylum seekers, according to a group of international lawyers.

The group of seven British, American and Australian lawyers, which includes high-profile barrister and refugee advocate Julian Burnside, has petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate the treatment of asylum seekers by successive governments, beginning with John Howard's.

A 52-page communique names Mr Howard, Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, claiming they have knowingly breached the Rome Statute of the court.

"Those breaches involve the indefinite detention of asylum seekers who have committed no offence and regardless of their age or health or sex," the communique states. "The breaches also include forcible removal of asylum seekers to Pacific Island countries where they are detained and seriously mistreated, for the stated purpose of 'stopping the boats': that is, deterring people from seeking asylum in Australia."

It also names every Australian immigration minister back to the Howard era - and rightly so: they directed this policy, and they all need to be held accountable for it. As do their senior officials who planned and organised it, and the contractors who actually conducted the torture.

The question now is whether the ICC will investigate - or whether it proves the point of the African nations who are currently quitting it that its international law somehow applies only to brown people and never white ones.

Climate change: Leadership

While the New Zealand government has set itself a pathetic climate change target (and plans to meet it by cooking the books), the Germans are showing us how its done:

Germany’s coalition government has reached an agreement on a climate change action plan which involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 95% by 2050, a spokesperson said on Friday.

The plan, which will require German industry to reduce its CO2 emission by a fifth by 2030, and Germany’s energy sector to reduce emissions by almost a half, will be reviewed in 2018 with a view to its impact on jobs and society.

“Especially the sector targets, included in the climate protection plan, will be subject to a comprehensive impact assessment,” government spokesperson Georg Streiter said at a news conference. He said the government agreed that the reduction targets could be adjusted in 2018.

These are the sorts of cuts that are actually necessary to beat this problem. And the government committing to them will force the market to find solutions. The contrast with New Zealand's foot-dragging couldn't be greater.

A costly abuse of power

In October 2014 the police raided the home of political journalist Nicky Hager. The search was later ruled illegal, and now the police have been ordered to pay nearly a quarter of a million dollars as an interim payment of court costs:

Investigative journalist Nicky Hager has been awarded interim legal costs towards $475,082 spent suing police.

[...]

The High Court has yet to hear Hager's claim for damages from police for breaching his rights. In the meantime, his lawyers asked for police to pay Hager's legal costs of $475,082.78.

Alternatively, they asked for costs on a reduced scale of $232,672.78.

Justice Denis Clifford awarded the lower level of costs, further reduced to pay for two lawyers but not for the third who appeared in court for Hager. The judge did not put a figure on the amount of the reduction.

He said that questions of how police obtained the warrant, searched Hager's home and responded to the court case, would all affect the final costs decision.

The police's abuse of power and political favour to the National Party is now getting very expensive. And again, you have to wonder if the police officers who made the decision, lied to the judge, and violated Hager's human rights - and our trust in them - will be held accountable in any way for their abusive behaviour. But I think we all know what the answer to that will be...

Some good news on Nauru

The Australian government has reached a deal to send the refugees it is currently imprisoning on Nauru to the USA:

Refugees languishing on Manus Island and Nauru will be offered resettlement in the United States under a "one-off" arrangement announced by the Turnbull government.

The long-awaited breakthrough will see the 1800 detainees encouraged to return home, seek resettlement in the US or face an indefinite stay in the Nauruan community.

Getting people out of Australia's Pacific torture camps is the priority here, and its good to see that the USA has stepped in to help that happen. But note that this is a one-off arrangement - it doesn't end the Pacific solution, and future refugees Australia kidnaps at sea will still face rendition and indefinite detention without trial in violation of the Refugee Convention. In other words, don't start buying Australian just yet.

Dead and buried

It's official: the TPPA is dead and buried:

President Barack Obama’s trade office is largely suspending its effort to pass his signature Asian free-trade deal before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, saying on Friday that it was up to Republican leaders in Congress to decide on a vote.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office had been lobbying lawmakers for months to pass the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership deal in the post-election, lame-duck session of Congress. However, a stunning election that gave Trump the White House and retained Republican majorities in Congress has stymied those plans.

“We have worked closely with Congress to resolve outstanding issues and are ready to move forward, but this is a legislative process and it’s up to Congressional leaders as to whether and when this moves forward,” USTR spokesman Matt McAlvanah said in a statement.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would not take up TPP in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration and said its fate was now up to Trump. House Speaker Paul Ryan had earlier said he would not proceed with a lame-duck vote.

And that's that. Trump won't push it, so its dead and buried - as is the Trans-Atlantic Partnership, and probably TISA as well.

Meanwhile, our Parliament is pushing ahead with passing ratifying legislation. The good news is that the law - and its consequent changes to copyright terms and Pharmac - doesn't come into force unless the TPP does, so it'll just sit there as dead law. But you do have to wonder why they're wasting time on it.

As for the way forward, the TPPA began as a small trade deal between New Zealand, Chile, Brunei and Singapore. Efforts to gradually expand that to like-minded countries went wrong when the USA hijacked the party and ruined it, but we could still go back to that path and get some benefits without having to bend over for the copyright mafia. But I guess there's just no prestige in that for Ministers and MFAT deal-makers, so it'll never happen.

Freedom of information is a human right

While we were all freaking out about the US election, the European Court of Human Rights has quietly recognised that freedom of information is a human right:

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights today handed down judgment in the case of Magyar Helsinki Bizottság v. Hungary (application no. 18030/11). It held (15:2) that there is an Article 10 right to public access to information where access to the information is instrumental for the individual’s exercise of his or her right to freedom of expression.

The applicant, Magyar Helsinki Bizottság (Hungarian Helsinki Committee), is an NGO based in Budapest. In pursuit of a survey on the quality of defence provided by public defenders, it requested from a number of police departments the names of the public defenders selected by them in 2008 and the number of appointments per lawyer involved.

[...]

The Grand Chamber considered that Article 10(1) of the Convention could be interpreted as including, in the circumstances of the case, a right of access to information, specifying that where the access to information was decisive for the exercise of the right to receive and communicate information, to refuse that access could amount to an interference with the enjoyment of this right.

[...]

By denying it access to the requested information, which was ready and available, the domestic authorities had impaired the applicant NGO’s exercise of its freedom to receive and impart information, in a manner striking at the very substance of its Article 10 rights.

[Article 10 is the ECHR's freedom of expression clause, similar to the NZ BORA's Article 14].

There's a little bit more to it - basicly, the applicant has to be a media organisation or NGO engaged in public interest work, and the information has to exist - but its a useful decision. And given the way which European human rights law is influential on NZ decisions, it'll probably be recognised in NZ law if there's a similar case. Though NZ agencies should really be considering requesters' article 14 right to impart information when making OIA decisions anyway...

The end of Ruataniwha?

October's local body elections saw a shift in power on the Hawkes' Bay Regional Council against the Ruataniwha dam. One of the first acts of the council was to put a moratorium on advancing the project. And now they've put it under review:

Applause sounded in a packed Hawke's Bay Regional Council chamber yesterday, when it was unanimously agreed a review would be conducted on the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme.

While the atmosphere in the first ordinary council meeting grew tense at times - all councillors stated they welcomed the review.

Among other recommendations, they agreed to commission an independent review of key contractual, legal, financial, economic, and environmental elements of the RWSS, including the impacts and consequences of implementing plan change six with, and without it, as well as withdrawal from the scheme.

Returning Councillor Neil Kirton - who called a moratorium on action relating to the dam on election day - said this was an "important step for this incoming council".

The review will take up the five months. But when its done, hopefully we'll see this plan for environmental destruction killed off for good.

New Fisk

It's not Donald Trump who matters now in the Middle East – it's Putin

A good catch

Ever since Chloe Swarbrick energised Auckland voters and came third in the mayoral election, people have been wondering which political party she'd find a home with for 2017. And now we know: the Greens, of course:

Auckland's youngest mayoral candidate has announced her bid for Parliament on Facebook.

Chloe Swarbrick, 22, announced on Facebook this morning she will stand for the Green Party in next year's general election.

Swarbrick said her mayoralty campaign this year taught her there was "a tide for change" and "a tide for progressive inclusive compassionate and empathetic politics".

Swarbrick also subtly drew on the US presidential election of Donald Trump, and said people were, "dissatisfied with the establishment and the status quo".

[...]

"So today I'm announcing that I'm joining the Green Party and I'm intending to run with them in the next general election.

Swarbrick still has to get elected to the party's list (because the Greens are a democratic party, unlike the others), but she's a great catch for them. And hopefully we'll see her in Parliament in 2017.

A bad sign

Yesterday, Donald Trump won the US presidency. Today, there are large protests in major American cities in response.

Post-election protests of this scale simply don't happen in civilised democracies. The reason they don't happen is because such countries have transparently fair electoral systems where voters can accept the outcome. They do happen in corrupt, third-world kleptocracies where the electoral systems are obviously rigged. I guess the USA now fits into that second category.

And with good reason. Quite apart from the absurdity of the electoral college - an anti-democratic measure designed by C18th aristocrats specifically to thwart democratic outcomes - there's the whole US package of widespread gerrymandering, roll purges, and voter suppression that is part and parcel of the US's politicised electoral administration. The natural suspicion with any US result now is that it is a better reflection of the winning party's ability to manipulate the system to its advantage and keep opposing voters away from the polls than of the will of the people. And from the size of the protests, it looks like a large number of Americans have broken through their "we're the bestest" bullshit to finally recognise that.

In a civilised democracy, this would lead to change. Public trust in the electoral system is just not something you can afford to get wrong. But in the US, with the Republicans in charge of 30+ states and all arms of the federal government? Not a hope. Which means people will either give up on the rigged game of politics, or seek change by other means. Either way, its not good.