Justice & Democracy Archive

  • Catherine Delahunty

    Public Education under attack - by Catherine Delahunty



    This has been a week of disturbing announcements by the National Government although the leader of the pack was actually John Banks – the lone ACT MP. Before final sign off and maybe as a way to keep the pressure on, John announced that Catherine Isaac (number 3 on the ACT list and rumoured to [...] read more
    February 3, 2012 5:42 pm - 16 Comments
  • Kennedy Graham

    Syria: The Litmus Test for Palestine - by Kennedy Graham



    This week the UN Security Council is meeting to discuss the situation in Syria. The Council has the opportunity, along with the obligation, to lead in the international community’s call for respect for human rights and political freedoms in this latest country to enjoy the warmth of the Arab Spring. Manoeuvring delicately within the grey [...] read more
    February 2, 2012 5:09 pm - 3 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    More problems with Skynet - by Gareth Hughes



    It is becoming more apparent every day that providing legal alternatives to file-sharing would have been more effective, easier and cheaper than the cumbersome, complex and ultimately futile Skynet Law. read more
    January 10, 2012 2:40 pm - 11 Comments
  • Jan Logie

    First impressions of a different world - by Jan Logie



    I’m strangely sensitised to gender at the moment Most of my life has lots of women in it. I think I might just be a woman’s woman. I have many good women friends, many of my campaign team were women and most of the places I’ve worked have had lots of women. It’s something I [...] read more
    December 22, 2011 12:23 pm - 51 Comments
  • frog

    The Christmas story: Russel Norman’s Address in Reply speech - by frog



    “These are the values that help to lay down the essential nature of what it means to be human and guide us to live a ‘good’ life – good to ourselves, good to one another, and good to the world in which we make our livelihoods.” – Russel Norman. Address in Reply speeches are long, [...] read more
    December 21, 2011 9:48 pm - 8 Comments
  • Kennedy Graham

    National Loyalty and the Global Interest - by Kennedy Graham



    Yesterday I was sworn in, for the second time, to the NZ Parliament – a solemn and significant moment in any person’s life. The Oath (Affirmation) I took was to the Head of State of my country.  I solemnly, sincerely and truly declared to be: “…faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth [...] read more
    December 21, 2011 12:24 pm - 8 Comments
  • Jan Logie

    LGBTI Rights Recognised as Human Rights! - by Jan Logie



    Today the United Nations released its first report into ‘Discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity’. It is available online now. As spokesperson for Human Rights and Co-spokesperson for Rainbow Issues I am very pleased to see this report. In 2000 I was on [...] read more
    December 16, 2011 3:07 pm - 9 Comments
  • Kennedy Graham

    Disarmament as a Separate Green Portfolio - by Kennedy Graham



    There has been concern expressed over the folding of disarmament into the Global Affairs portfolio which was created by the Green caucus earlier this week. In response, we have agreed to retain disarmament as a separate portfolio. The intention was not to downplay disarmament as a political priority.  The aim was to develop some clarity [...] read more
    December 16, 2011 2:36 pm - 385 Comments
  • Kennedy Graham

    The Global Affairs Portfolio: Setting the Foreign Policy Agenda - by Kennedy Graham



    Following the Greens’ new caucus retreat this week, the list of MP portfolios was announced.  I have relinquished the Musterer’s role and the Justice and Energy portfolios and taken on, inter alia, the new Global Affairs portfolio. This is a new development that builds upon, and refines, the previous foreign affairs portfolio.  It focuses on [...] read more
    December 15, 2011 9:08 am - 19 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Patents, Pacific Partnerships, and (com)puters - by Gareth Hughes



    Have a read of this interesting opinion piece on NBR about the ramifications the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will have for software patents in New Zealand. I think the most interesting part that Paul Matthews hits on is that by signing the TPPA, New Zealand law could be overridden. New Zealand recently completed a [...] read more
    December 14, 2011 4:11 pm - 3 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Survey shows we can turn around low voter turnout - by Gareth Hughes



    The final election results were released over the weekend bringing with them some good news and some bad news. The good news: the Greens achieved a record result, including our bonus 14th MP Mojo Mathers. The bad news: official voter turnout was only 74.21%, the lowest in over 100 years. This record low voter turnout [...] read more
    December 12, 2011 5:37 pm - 16 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    New report on ‘New Media’ - by Gareth Hughes



    The Law Commission have today called for submissions on their latest issue paper The News Media Meets ‘New Media’. The paper is a thorough look at the state of how media, blogs, social media, and such are currently regulated, what the loopholes are, and it gives suggestions for where the Government may want to change [...] read more
    December 12, 2011 12:38 pm - 2 Comments
  • Jan Logie

    Political window dressing is not an appropriate response to abuse - by Jan Logie



    The appalling and heart-wrenching situation for the woman in Invercargill whose rapist moved in next door highlights several areas for legislative review and policy & funding change. This woman has an indefinite protection order in place but this does nothing to prevent her abuser moving in next door. The police have been for a ‘chat’ and [...] read more
    December 10, 2011 2:53 pm - 5 Comments
  • Kennedy Graham

    There ain’t no party like an ICC State Party: Vanuatu joins the Court - by Kennedy Graham



    “A treaty is not a law imposed by a superior authority on its subordinates [but] only a contract whose signatories cannot decree penalties against themselves since there would be no one to implement them. The only reasonable guarantee should lie in the creation of international jurisdiction with the necessary power to compel obedience”. Prophetic words [...] read more
    December 9, 2011 10:31 am - No Comments
  • Kennedy Graham

    Judicially Empowering the Africans: The New ICC Prosecutor - by Kennedy Graham



    Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) had arguably the toughest single job in the world. Mrs Fatou Bensouda, Ocampo’s Deputy since 2004, has just won the right to succeed her boss. Bensouda, a former attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and head of the Prosecutions Division of the [...] read more
    December 5, 2011 2:22 pm - 2 Comments
  • frog

    A broken promise by National before a Government is even formed - by frog



    Here’s the National Party’s Minister of Conservation, in response to Green MP Kevin Hague’s question in Parliament a couple of months ago: Kevin Hague: Does the Minister agree with the resource consent commissioners when they said “it is abundantly clear that large scale mining is poised to invade the entire Denniston Plateau coal reserves which [...] read more
    November 30, 2011 6:38 pm - 18 Comments
  • Kennedy Graham

    Shooting at One’s Feet (US Style) on Palestine - by Kennedy Graham



    On Tuesday I welcomed the decision by the UNESCO General Assembly to recognise Palestine as an independent state. That decision reflects the majority international view that the Palestinian people deserve to be represented as a state at the international level. Murray McCully is yet to give a credible explanation for NZ’s abstention from the vote. [...] read more
    November 4, 2011 12:58 pm - 14 Comments
  • Keith Locke

    Chogm fails to challenge Sri Lanka on human rights - by Keith Locke



    Human rights was the loser at this year’s Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference (GHOGM). Endorsing Sri Lanka to host the next (2013) conference was a slap in the face for those calling for an independent international investigation into the 2009 massacre in northern Sri Lanka and an end to the ongoing persecution of the Tamils. To [...] read more
    October 31, 2011 12:17 pm - 5 Comments
  • Keith Locke

    Citizen engagement at Occupy Auckland - by Keith Locke



    I got a buzz out of visiting the Occupy Auckland camp again this sunny afternoon. Seventy tents have mushroomed on the grass in Aotea Square  right next to the Town Hall. Hopefully the Auckland Council will continue to tolerate the camp as a venue for citizen engagement with politics. It’s not just the ‘occupiers’ discussing [...] read more
    October 25, 2011 4:43 pm - 17 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    Murder in West Papua - by Catherine Delahunty



    The events of the past two weeks in West Papua have been a savage reminder that our neighbours just to the north are not free. First there was the attack on striking miners at Freeport McMoran, possibly the world’s most disastrous gold mining area, and the competition for that title is huge. The workforce was [...] read more
    October 25, 2011 1:43 pm - 3 Comments
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