Copyright © 1998 Brian Harmer
Odd things are happening at Akiko ... I sent out a descriptive bit with no news last week. It didn't propagate to the mailing list for reasons I still don't understand. I will try and send it again. And now this week's narrative:
It is said of Wellington, "if you don't like the climate, just wait twenty minutes, it will change." It isn't often quite so, but on Friday in the week just ending, the morning ride to work was bleak after a cold front had taken two days to pass through. Temperatures dropped to near zero, and driving Southerly rain and low cloud didn't offer much promise.
Emerging blinking from my lair at the end of the day I was stunned by the transformation ... it was a gold and blue afternoon with warm sunshine, while strong and silent in the North, the Tararuas had their first big dump of snow on the tops. The few tall buildings in the Hutt Valley stood out sharply against the clearly delineated bush of the Western Hills. Port Nicholson looked a picture with the Aratika steaming briskly towards the ferry terminal.
Regrettably, it changed again overnight
On with the news **************** All news items are reproduced by kind permission of copyright owner, IRN Ltd whose current news listing can be found at http://www.xtra.co.nz/news/.
The Department of Corrections has unveiled a new regime for prisoners in the maximum security wing at Auckland's Paremoremo prison. Those who behave well will retain their current privileges... but inmates who misbehave will be kept on a tighter rein. The worst behaved prisoners will be locked up for 15 hours each night... and banned from associating in groups of more than two inmates.
The government is extending the deployment of SAS troops in the Persian Gulf by a further three months. There are currently 24 soldiers in the Gulf, working with troops from Australia. They are to return home, but will be replaced with 11 SAS members. Prime Minister Jenny Shipley says New Zealand will keep troops in the Gulf while Iraq's compliance with UN Security Council measures continues to be tested.
(One has to wonder how grateful our allies will be for such an obviously symbolic contribution to the exercise - BH)
Firefighters are offering moral support to police officers who face an equally grim future... A leaked political memo has revealed hundreds of police jobs are due to be axed. The news comes hot on the heels of revelations every firefighter in the country is to be sacked, and asked to reapply for their jobs. A spokesman for the Professional Firefighters Union John Devereux, says firefighters know what police officers are going through. He says the Government's slash and burn philosophy is dangerous...and those in the business of saving lives are devastated. John Devereux says police officers must stick together and fight any changes that will affect the quality of their service.
The departure of the two top people at Brierley Investments has cost the company nearly five million dollars. B-I-L has confirmed paying $4 million in severance pay to departing chief executive Paul Collins. Former chairman Bob Matthew was given $750,000. New chairman Sir Roger Douglas says the board decided on the $4 million sum following independent advice from two sources.
Words of reassurance for Rotorua residents concerned by a sudden surge in geo-thermal activity. A large hole opened up in the front lawn of a Tarewa Street home late last week, neighbours now say their grass is dying off. They fear it is linked to the underground events. Seismologists say it is unlikely to be a precursor to a larger volcanic eruption and doubt it is connected to a recent string of earthquakes. Rotorua City Council spokesman Bill McKenna says the activity is at the centre of a review by the regional council but the draft report won't be released until the end of the month at the earliest.
(The eruption of a geyser in your front lawn is a good news/ bad news kind of thing. It is bad luck to have it on your property, but a matter for celebration that at least it chose the lawn and not under the hose for the big jet of scalding steam and water - BH)
The two units damaged by last weeks fatal landslip in Northland are expected to be demolished tomorrow. 75 year old Dargaville woman Mary Kirkby was killed when the bank behind her home unit collapsed. Investigations are now underway into what caused the tragedy. Earthquake Commission spokesman, Lance Dixon says it is hoped the damaged buildings can be demolished tomorrow.
An Air New Zealand Boeing 737 is still out of action, following American orders to suspend all passenger flights on all older-model 737s... The Federal Aviation Administration issued the order after finding a number of aircraft with damaged fuel-tank wiring. Air New Zealand spokesman Alastair Carthew says 17 domestic flights were cancelled yesterday, while all four of the airline's 737s were inspected. He says three are back in the air, but one which was found to have a minor problem remains on the ground. Alastair Carthew says the repair job is taking longer than expected, but it is a staffing rather than technical problem.
(The minor problem was some scuffing on the insulation of some of the wire. Th aircraft was returned to operations the same day - BH)
Auckland retailers are optimistic of a courtroom win against Mercury Energy now a Wellington solicitor has decided to take up their case. Donna Hall was approached by the retailers last week and today says she is satisfied Mercury has a case to answer over February's power crisis. Power for the People spokesman Reg Newcombe says the next task will be confirming how many Auckland businesses want to go ahead with the legal action against Mercury. He says some businesses have already opted for a compensation deal offered by Mercury, but he is hopeful up to 500 will get behind the law suit. Meanwhile, it will be two weeks before Auckland city's power supply is back to recent levels. Parts of the central city were thrown into darkness for three quarters of an hour last night when an oil cable broke down. Mercury Energy spokesman Matthew Bolland says while the cable is being fixed, there is enough power supply to meet the city's needs. But he admits if there is another failure then more outages are likely.
Alliance leader Jim Anderton has publicised a letter from the Business Round Table, which he says links the Round Table with Fire Service Commissioner, Roger Estall. Mr Estall has already been accused in Parliament of having a conflict of interest between his current job and his role acting for an insurance broker. Some MPs have alleged that the firm advised clients how to cut down on Fire Service levies. Jim Anderton says the letter, written to Internal Affairs Minister Jack Elder, recommends Roger Estall's appointment. The Business Round Table says it is routine to write to Ministers on matters of appointment. Internal Affairs Minister Jack Elder has slammed opposition parties for what he calls a "personal vendetta" against Fire Commission head Roger Estall. However Jack Elder says those allegations are "baseless". Mr Elder says all of the allegations made by opposition parties in recent days have been made before... and answered before. He says Labour, United and the Alliance should stop parroting personal allegations which have already been discredited.
The Auckland City Mission is predicting tragedy ahead if things are made even tougher for those already living in poverty. City Missioner Diane Robertson fears the worst for beneficiaries in tomorrow's budget. She says a freeze on benefits to bring them all in line is just one part of the budget expected to target beneficiaries Ms Robertson says if the food-bank's clientele is anything to go by....things are getting tougher. She says in the last month more than 15 per cent of people who came to the mission for food parcels were in low paid employment.
Auckland Regional Prison manager Kevin White has announced his resignation after 32 years of service with Corrections. Mr White is leaving New Zealand to manage a private prison in Brisbane. A spokesman for Public Prisons says Kevin White has been instrumental in making significant changes to the way Auckland's Paremoremo prison is managed. News of Mr White's resignation comes just days after details of a strict new regime at Paremoremo were announced. The new security measures involve giving well behaved inmates more privileges, while those who misbehave will be locked in their cells for 15 hours a night and prevented from gathering in groups of more than two.
Serial rapist Malcolm Rewa has thrown court procedure out the window and is challenging the Crown's questions at every corner. Rewa has pleaded guilty to six rapes in which DNA evidence linked him to the attacks, but he has denied 20 others, including the rape and murder of Susan Burdett. He has spent more time asking the prosecution questions than answering any himself. He has repeatedly told Paul Davison QC that he has already pleaded guilty to six rapes and that should be sufficient. He won't recall any details of those attacks, and when questioned about his victims' testimony, he says he has not really been paying attention.
It is going to be cold in the Capital tomorrow with Metservice forecasters predicting it will be the chilliest dy of the year so far. Forecaster Bob McDavitt says a cold blast of southerly wind tonight and tomorrow should bring near-zero wind chill temperatures to Wellington. Mr McDavitt says a sprinkle of snow is likely over the eastern ranges of the South Island tonight with snow flurries expected on parts of the Desert Road tomorrow. He says the cold blast should last for just one day and is reasonably typical for mid-May.
(It was! - BH)
The coalition government's signalled a raft of changes in its second Budget. The price of cigarettes will increase by 50 cents a packet from midnight tonight... And both petrol and LPG are likely to jump by around two cents a litre after increases in the government levy. And more pressure is going on beneficiaries to find work.... with sickness beneficiaries being included in the work-for-the-dole scheme. However some of the changes are more subtle. Bulk funding has been made a more attractive option for schools... with the government dangling a $222 million carrot for schools which agree to become fully bulk funded. And ACC is being opened up to large-scale competition from private insurance companies.
(For full details see http://www.treasury.govt.nz/pubs/bmb/budgets/1998/toc_bud.htm - BH)
Unions believe today's court decision on redundancy is the latest in a series of rulings that have gone against workers' rights. The Court of Appeal says workers who are laid off aren't entitled to redundancy unless provision is made for it in their employment contract. That overturns a decision by the Employment Court, which ordered a Christchurch company to pay redundancy to a man it laid off in 1995. Angela Foulkes of the CTU says the Court of Appeal is making a consistent set of decisions that undermine the already minimalist rights that workers have.
(Old song: it's the same the whole word over, it's the poor wot gets the blame... it's the rich wot gets the pleasure ... ain't it all a bleedin' shame ... [to be sung in a nasal pseudo cockney accent] - BH)
DPB CHALLENGE FOR COALITION MPs
Labour MP Phil Goff has challenged Coalition members to put themselves in the place of sickness beneficiaries whose payments are about to be slashed. From July this year anyone going on the sickness benefit will be paid the same amount as the dole, which is substantially lower. Parliament's still debating legislation which reduces the benefit, and brings in work-testing. Mr Goff says it is ridiculous that Ministers, who earn about 2500 dollars a week, are asking 18 to 24 year olds to live on 122 dollars a week. He says no-one in the House could live on that amount, so it is not fair to ask someone else to whose life has been traumatised by sickness to live on it.
More fallout from the blanket removal of tariffs on imported cars.... Two hundred workers at Nissan New Zealand's South Auckland plant will lose their jobs in July, when the plant closes. The company had planned to wind up operations in October, but will now close in July as the Government's original tariff reduction plan has been brought forward and included in this week's budget. Manufacturers of automobile components say they've been left high and dry by the removal. A spokesman for the Automotive Component Manufacturers Federation, Dave Tibby, says the overseas owned car assembly businesses are getting a better deal than the New Zealand owned componentry businesses. Meanwhile another car company is reducing its prices following the removal of import duties on most vehicles. The distributors of BMW and Rover have cut up to eight thousand dollars off the price of some models. But the company warns the drop may not last long, because of the impact of the devalued New Zealand dollar.
Air New Zealand is confident it will meet the worldwide deadline for inspections of Boeing 737s following an American-ordered safety probe. The Federal Aviation Administration has widened its inspection orders of 737s to include newer models, after more problems were detected with the aircraft's fuel tank wiring. Originally, only older-model planes were required to complete the checks. Air New Zealand spokesman Cameron Hill says two of the airline's newer models are due to undergo testing. He says the FAA's set a deadline of 45 days, and he is confident the checks will be completed in time. Cameron Hill says flights won't be affected by the inspections.
Hundreds of university students caused traffic problems in Dunedin this afternoon, staging a sit-in outside the local offices of the national party. Around 400 people took part in the post-Budget demonstration, which saw traffic prevented from going through part of George Street just after midday. Police say the students moved on after about 20 minutes.
(There was more of a punch-up in Wellington's civic square with a number of arrests after a noisy confrontation with police - BH)
The Russian seamen onboard five fishing boats in Lyttelton Harbour are sceptical about promises of being paid when they return home. The Minister of Fisheries has agreed to sell the seized vessels back to their Russian owner for 100 thousand dollar apiece. John Luxton says he has been given an assurance that the 44 remaining crew will be paid once they are back in Russia. But the lawyer for the seamen, Roger Fraser, says his clients aren't keen on that idea.
Date: 14 May 1998 Brian Dooley
Wellington New Zealand
CURRENCIES
The currency codes given below conform to ISO 4217, which
can be found at http://www.xe.net/currency/iso_4217.htm.
The rates given are for telegraphic transfer and are
as given in the Wellington Evening Post today.
To Buy NZD 1.00
USD 0.5393
AUD 0.8537
GBP 0.3304
JPY 72.55
CAD 0.7789
FRF 3.2262
DEM 0.9620
HKD 4.1887
SGD 0.8976
ZAR 2.7488
CHF 0.8009
INTEREST RATES (%)
Call : 8.70
90 Day: 9.19
See you next time.
Brian Harmer
"Our luck is even better than I expected Don Quixote exclaimed ... I'm
going
to attack those mighty giants and slay them in their tracks" - Cervantes
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~bharmer/
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