WAITANGI TREATY IRRELEVANT?

The Treaty of Waitangi is holding NZ back was the topic up for debate yesterday on TVNZ's Marae.

It was an interesting debate. And it came to the conclusion that the Treaty is not holding NZ back.

Marae is well worth a watch if you want to keep up with Maori politics and views. This debate was well structured and the best prepared speeches came from Matthew Hooton and Stephen Franks. However Hana O'Regan came into her own in the free for all. Shane Taurima is a broadcaster to watch. He was the perfect ringmaster for this intellectual circus. The audience, were a good mix.

Anyway for those who missed it - it is definitely worth a sit down look see.

IS THE WILD WEST ABOUT TO BE TAMED?

Maybe, there was an interesting yarn on Stuff today about a model, Liskula Cohen using the court get google to out a blogger who was defaming her.

It was a pretty ugly blog incident.

Stephen Franks, has a considered piece on the issue.

We reckon it is only a matter of time that defamation proceedings are bought against a blogger.

FRANKS GETS DIRTBAGS WHO VANDALISED HOARDINGS

This just in from the Stephen Franks Wellington electoral team

A guy has been arrested by the Police after our team videoed him smashing a sign in Newtown last night. They followed him until he was arrested.

Well done Jordan and the teams of Young Nats who have been staying up all night to guard signs all over Wellington.

Excellent work - They need to feel the force of the law. And we bet the lilly livered little shit will squeal on his mates

Wellington Central candidate Franks - pulls no punches

Stephen Franks lawyer par excellence takes a wack at the privileges committee



The Privileges Committee is pathetic. If it was ever composed of fearsome interrrogators determined to uphold the integrity of Parliament, across party lines, they’d gone by the time I got there.
I sat on it considering a complaint against Peters. Matt Robson in the chair was scared of him. So were the rest of the committee. They would not ask the elementary questions I proposed to get at the truth. Instead they looked desperately for ways to let it go away.
It did.
Janet Mackey, who laid the complaint with the unanimous support of our committee, had warned me I’d be on my own if I did not go along with pretending Peter’s breaches did not matter. She was deeply cynical about the competence of her own side, and mine, but even more about their courage and determination.
I criticised the Committee whenever I got the chance while in Parliament. See for example this criticism is in Hansard.
So I was sorry for Simon Power in the Chair last night. However well he performed the process was not going to let him make the hearing uplifting. The middle of a proceeding where the ruling clique want the process to fail is no time to try to develop robust new processes.
At least they did not have Peter Williams battering away with his non-sequiturs, though perhaps it helped Peters too for him not to speak. No honest lawyer member needs a criminal QC to help him to tell the truth to a committee of his own club where nearly half the committee members are desperately on his side
The Committee should look to the US Senate Committee procedure. They should hire an experienced lawyer to do the examination, in consultation with the members on the questions they want answered. The committee members would then sit in effect as the jury. They should allow enough time.
Last night Peters just had to bluster for an hour. It would have faded if he’d had to maintain consistent lying for 4 hours.
The Committee is laughable. It did not ask obvious questions. It meekly accepted his refusal to give a source for his claim that Glenn’s lawyer had manufactured ("coached") Glenn’s evidence. That allegation alone is so serious they should be vigorously investigating it.
Mercifully I have not seen recently the media cliche references to the "Parliament’s almighty Privileges Committee". It has been seen for what it is - a toothless old tabby to its insiders, though it can still bully outsiders.