Heather Roy's Diary - 25 May 2007
act-new-zealand
Fri May 25 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Heather Roy's Diary - 25 May 2007
Friday, 25 May 2007, 2:12 pm
Column: ACT New Zealand
Heather Roy's Diary - 25 May 2007
Selective Charges
After months of waiting for the results of a police investigation former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field, who is now an independent MP formally received the news this week that Police are seeking leave from the High Court to proceed with 14 charges of bribery by a Member of Parliament. Approval to lay the charges under Section 103 of the Crimes Act 1961 must come from a Judge of the High Court. It is expected that the formal application will be filed in the High Court in mid to late June 2007.
In light of the now long string of MPs who have been investigated by the police since Labour came to power I asked the following question in Parliament on Thursday:
Heather Roy: Is not the real reason the Prime Minister has changed her mind about Taito Phillip Field that he has fallen out of her favour and that a pattern is emerging in the use of police discretion when prosecuting MPs, as evidenced by the police not prosecuting the Prime Minister for art fraud, or dangerous driving through South Canterbury, assault on a minor by Minister Benson-Pope, assault by Minister Hodgson, breach of the Companies Act by Minister Parker, and electoral fraud by the Labour Party, as opposed to the charging of Shane Ardern for driving a tractor, Nick Smith for standing up for a constituent, Donna Awatere Huata for fraud, and Taito Phillip Field for bribery, and what is her part in this pattern?
Michael Cullen, answering on behalf of the Prime Minister was able only to provide an incoherent answer, in part because his Labour colleagues were making so much noise in the debating chamber it was hard to hear.
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Each case must be judged on its merits but regardless of Mr Field's innocence or guilt the pattern is hard to ignore. We cannot allow a situation to develop whereby the government's opponents are the only ones to face the long arm of the law. The separation of justice and government is fundamental to a free society.
Rolling strikes in hospitals
Doctors attempting to make a diagnosis are being harried at every turn by strikes amongst diagnostic workers. For several weeks radiation therapists and medical laboratory workers have had rolling strikes disrupting medical services throughout the country. Last weekend radiographers in the Wellington region were on strike until midnight Friday making it hard to get an X-ray. When they returned the laboratory workers went on strike.
Diagnostic precision doesn't seem to matter to Minister of Health, Pete Hodgson, who has resolutely ignored the issue. The burden of disease is not borne by policy makers and District Health Boards appear to enjoy the cost savings when workers strike.
There is a certain irony in that surgeons are filling their theatre lists with patients suffering from conditions that are low risk. Those with carpal tunnel syndrome and inguinal hernias and the like can be grateful to the strikers for their hike up the queue.
Tena koe Mike
I received the following e-mail from former Prime Minister Mike Moore in response to last week's piece on gangs:
"Thanks for the mention in dispatches however I think you will find it was Muldoon maybe Kirk who wanted to take the bikes away from bikies, not a bad idea except for a thing recently invented called cars."
Last week I mistakenly attributed Norman Kirk's promise to take the bikes off the bikies to Mike Moore. The Diary apologises to Mike for the mistaken quote and welcomes a reader of his mana.
Lest We Forget
This week marked the 66th anniversary of the Battle of Crete that began in late May 1941. The battle involved the New Zealand Division as part of a British force to fight alongside the Greek army and a scratch force of Cretan irregulars. It was the first airborne invasion in history involving an elite German parachute division. It was also the first time in the Second World War that there was a mass civilian rising against the invaders. It was a close run battle. The Germans won Crete but took such heavy casualties that Hitler ordered that there be no further paratrooper operations.
The New Zealand Division was evacuated by sea passing their ammunition on to resisting Cretans.
The Battle of Crete was just the beginning of the occupation of Crete, which lasted until 1944. In the first months of occupation thousands of Cretans were randomly executed in an attempt to stamp out resistance. Entire families were sent to concentration camps, villages were burned to the ground but Crete's civilian population never gave up.
ENDS
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