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Saturday, February 02, 2013

National stacking the Human Rights Commission

Crusher Collins angry. Crusher Collins smash HRC.

National have taken to the Human Rights Commission with a very tight noose. The Human Rights Commission have enormous power in relation to most Departments, the Human Rights Review Tribunal has the power to force Government to accept their rulings. When the right have such vast transformation in mind with corporate gulags using forced prison labour and private companies being paid bonuses to disqualify beneficiaries from welfare, making sure the Government have stacked one of the few avenues for citizens to complain to is vital.

It's part of a very obvious campaign by the Government to turn our watchdogs into lapdogs by underfunding them or by appointing right wing flunkies to their governance.

Turning our watchdogs into lapdogs is a neat trick, but the long term impacts don't bode well for our liberal democratic aspirations.

Public Broadcasting is supposed to be a watchdog, but by re-defining talent shows as public broadcasting (because it's broadcast to the public) we mutilate the concept into cheap entertainment to numb and distract rather than engage and challenge. Combine this redefined Circus Maximus content equation to cutting back on public broadcasting funding and the political appointment of John Key's electorate chair onto NZ on Air into the mix, and we have a public broadcasting watchdog that has been neutered and muzzled.

John Armstrong (hardly someone you would call a woolly socialist) pointed out what underfunding the Ombudsman is doing to slow unchecked political power. Slowing our Ombudsman watchdog to a snail's pace could be considered an oversight, but when linked to the exact same resourcing problem at the Office of the Judicial Conduct Commissioner and we get a picture of two of our highest placed watchdogs so squeezed for funding that they can't afford to bark.

These examples pale when you compare them with what National have done to the HRC. Appointing right wing ideologues like ACT MP Ken Shirley or the Reverend Ravi Musuku (who was explaining one election that all Prisoners needed was the word of Jesus to help them along) to the HRC Tribunal is bad enough, but appointing a homophobic bigot like Brian Neeson who has spent his entire political career trying to stop homosexuals gaining any rights is human rights vandalism.

What made all threes appointment to the HRC Tribunal even more difficult to swallow was the underhand methods National used to get them appointed in the first place... "As Justice Minister, Simon Power agreed to a process where candidates for appointment to the Tribunal were interviewed. This happened for a number of candidates, but it is clear from the papers that have been released that Brian Neeson, Ken Shirley, Ravi Musuku, Wendy Gilchrist and Gavin Cook were suggested as members by Ministers late in the process, and did not go through the same process as others who had been nominated," Grant Robertson said. "It is not unusual for Ministers to suggest nominees, but in this case it goes directly against the advice of the Chair of the Tribunal Royden Hindle. The papers note his view that "without interviews by an appropriately selected interview panel the process will not provide an opportunity to properly assess the candidates suitability and thus will fail to provide sufficient security that conflicts of interest and any other potentially adverse issues are identified."

So on top of off of this we now see Judith Collins appointing her mate to the Human Rights Commission. Over riding official recommendations and then trying to keep your relationship with the person you are appointing secret isn't a good look and you know this is serious because Judith's favorite attack dog/pet, Cameron Slater, immediately went to attacking David Fisher the journalist who broke the story with a mock column in the Truth.

Our watchdogs have been defanged and leashed right when major Government social policy is aiming to disqualify thousands from welfare while pushing forced labour camps.

I don't think Seven Sharp will be covering this on Monday night.

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4 Comments:

At 3/2/13 8:37 am, Blogger Phil said...

A few days ago I heard on RNZ that the case against the directors of Blue Chip had been dropped by the SFO ? because of insufficient funds to proceed!!! I lol ed for a fool minute! Government agencies can't act because they are underfunded!? Never stopped the USA going to war,why should it stop our regulators!! HA HA HA.Just checked online, Appears that it is a legal firm that has insufficient funds to pursue the directors and not a government agency. Just where is the Government agencies on this? Away on holiday, or willfully blind. Just saying. Just another example of the LA of the jungle we live in. The small, and increasingly large, are prey to huge government and corporate power

 
At 3/2/13 10:19 am, Blogger countryboy said...

And I'm absolutely certain that the sack of muppet fluff that is the Labour Party won't be going near it either .

This all just begs for a witty , sharp , fearsome and formidable Labour Party mind to attack , attack , attack in the name of basic humanity but there isn't one .
Clearly , the Labour Party has been purged of it's best people by a system the National Party scum are deploying against our safety-net organizations like the HRC .
Unabashed neoliberal , Pro Corporate Politics is becoming ever more emboldened and it should not only worry us all but terrify us all . If you take a moment to extrapolate this current trend you can see a ' Brave New World ' or a ' THX1138' scenario coming at us like a bull on P .

' Evil prevails when good men ( and women ) fail to act . '

' There is no greater Evil than when the common man has been convinced he has nothing worthwhile to contribute .'

' It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes . They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you , for it was the illusion they loved . ' W.Somerset Maugham .

' I don't think you want too much sincerity in society . It would be like an iron girder in a house of cards ' . W.Somerset Maugham .

A UK doctor of brain things critisized the findings of an Otago University study suggesting smoking pot by youth reduced their IQ . He said it was instead environmental conditions like poverty and the product of rooting your sister that did it .

He noted that ' education ' once applied to the same study group actually increased their IQ's but their IQ's dropped the moment that educational process was halted .

So , to make dumb people dumber yet more useful , just deprive them of worthwhile information and replace it with a constant stream of vile gibberish and the Americans do vile gibberish better than virtually anyone else , certainly on this planet .

Again , W.Somerset Maugham ;
' Americans , who are the most efficient people on Earth ... have invented so wide a range of pithy and hackneyed phrases that they can carry on an amusing and animated conversation without giving a moment's reflection to what they are saying and so leave their minds free to consider the more important matters of Big Business and fornication . '

 
At 3/2/13 5:09 pm, Blogger frances jane said...

Prison rehabilitation? Looks like it's a plot by the clothing industry: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2272011/Pussy-Riots-Nadezhda-Tolokonnikova-hospitalised-shes-forced-sew-320-jackets-A-DAY-Russian-prison.html#axzz2JftbLBzN

 
At 3/2/13 8:51 pm, Blogger countryboy said...

@ Francis Jane .

In the immortal words of Rowan Atkinson .... welcome to Hell .

I've heard it argued that Earth wasn't created by God . It was built by the Devil .

The most appalling things are Mans creations .

My heart goes out to you for feeling for these girls .

And it means nothing that Putin is a strutting little bantam rooster with a , man with a small cock syndrome .

I hope the little fuck rots in this Hell .

Just for you xx

 

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