January 2010

It is with sadness that I note the passing earlier this week of J.D. Salinger, one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated authors.

Born Jerome David Salinger in 1919 he shot to fame in 1951 with the publication of his seminal novel The Catcher in the Rye. Alarmed by this sudden celebrity Salinger retired from public life in 1953 and lived out his days in a small New Hampshire town, fiercely guarding his privacy, publishing his last work in 1965 and giving his last interview in 1980.

I always enjoy a visit to Waiouru Military Camp. Not only does it bring back (mostly) good memories of my ‘in uniform’ time there but I now enjoy getting out and seeing what our Army is doing – training, day to day activities and often some pre-deployment training. It’s good to have a chance to talk to the soldiers and sometimes join them in their day’s activities.

Yesterday, following breakfast with the new CO at Waiouru I visited the recruits on the latest Territorial Force Commissioning Course (officer recruits) who were about to set off on a navigation exercise for the day followed by one of my favourite training activities, night navigation. Despite being in the field since the weekend and having little weather experiences other than rain they were looking pretty cheerful and looking forward to the day. They had all got their individual courses for the day plotted on their maps and seemed confident about their abilities to get to the right points.

Online reports, attributed to Reuters, claim that Somali pirates have been paid a record ransom of between $5.5m and $7m for the release of the oil tanker Maran Centaurus, which was seized on 29 Nov 2009. As an exporting nation that relies on safe shipping lanes for its livelihood, NZ must concern itself with the instability that piracy represents. There's no doubt that the area the Somali pirates prey upon is vast and is a challenge to any conventional maritime force to patrol. However, if you consider the relative sophistication of these criminals compared to the U-boat threat to Allied merchant shipping in WWII, you have to wonder why merchant ships are not sailing through these waters in convoys, escorted by warships, as was done to protect the Russian Arctic convoys in the early 1940s.

One of the great opportunities you have as a Minister is meeting with counterparts from other countries. Today I met with the Singaporean Minister of State for Defence, Professor Koo Tsai Kee, and Chairman of the Defence and Foreign Affairs Government Parliamentary Committee, Michael Palmer MP who are on a brief visit to New Zealand.

Tomorrow I will join the Singaporean party in a visit to their troops who are on exercise in Waiouru. Each year for several years the Singaporean Armed Forces have come to Waiouru to undertake artillery training. New Zealand values the bilateral defence relationship with Singapore and this annual visit is important to both countries.

Included in my Waiouru visit will be a 'drop-in' to the Territorial Force Commissioning Course recruits who are on their own exercise in the field. I’m looking forward to catching up with their activities before seeing them again when I will be Reviewing Officer at their Graduation Parade in mid February.

Today I was the guest of the Royal New Zealand Navy at their annual Fleet Divisions Review. I watched as Devonport's Ngataringa Bay Sports Field was awash in a sea of crisp white uniforms as His Excellency the Governor-General Honourable Sir Anand Satyanand reviewed around 1200 Navy personnel on parade.

'Divisions' provides an opportunity to acknowledge the work of the Navy and the achievements of individual sailors through the presentation of awards – the Monowai Trophy for Operational Excellence; the CDR WLJ Smith Trophy for Support Force Excellence; the Chatham Rose Bowl for the most efficient fleet unit overall; the Naval Support Command Efficiency Trophy; the Naval Support Command Customer Service Trophy; the Warrant Officer Sugar Rice Memorial Cup for the Best Ships Galley and Team; the Sailor of the Year Award; and a clasp to the Armed Forces Award.

Yesterday I took the opportunity to visit Ministry of Consumer Affairs' Measurement and Product Safety Service (MAPSS) office in Panmure. Similar to the Petone MAPPS office I visited in June, the Panmure office is the only one in New Zealand that includes the type approval function for weighing and measuring instruments and fuel quality monitoring.

Type approval involves testing, weighing and measuring instruments to ensure they don't facilitate fraud and that they operate properly when exposed to outside influences. For example: this testing makes sure that cellphone use in a supermarket doesn't affect the scales behind the counter. Most type approvals are done through checking overseas test reports.

Italy was the birthplace of the Renaissance, is home to the famed Venice Biennale, and now an art event - thought to be the biggest ever held in Italy - will be taking place at Cassino from 15-29 May this year to commemorate New Zealand’s involvement there in 1944.

Today marks a great victory in ACT's battle to keep law-abiding New Zealanders safe from violent criminals. This afternoon ACT Leader Rodney Hide announced with the Prime Minister and Corrections Minister Judith Collins that ACT's 'Three Strikes' policy will be incorporated into the Government's Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill and will become law.

Initially drafted by ACT Justice Spokesman David Garrett, 'Three Strikes' is core ACT policy - one on which ACT campaigned strongly during the 2008 election and was previously proposed by former ACT MP Stephen Franks. Designed to make our homes and communities safe once more, 'Three Strikes' sends a powerful message that the New Zealand Government - and society - does not and will not tolerate repeat violent offending.

Today's announcement means that, once the Bill passes into law, a range of violent crimes - including sexual violation, murder, indecent assault, manslaughter, etc - will be 'Strike' offences.

Anticipation was in the air today as hundreds of people gathered on Lambton Quay to see Prince William arrive at the new Supreme Court.

While most of the crowd had gathered to catch a glimpse of the future king, there was also - as expected - a number of groups onhand to protest. Most vocal of those were around 30 members of the New Zealand Public Service Association who have been protesting for some time outside the Wellington District Court in a pay dispute with the Ministry of Justice.

Although vocal while awaiting the Prince, the protestors were quiet upon his arrival - either that or they were simply drowned out by the cheers of the crowd.

Once the formalities are out of the way inside the Supreme Court which he is officially opening, Prince William will spend some time meeting the public before attending a barbecue hosted by Prime Minister John Key at Premier House and visiting the Wellington Children's Hospital, Karori Wildlife Sanctuary and Kapiti Island.

NZPA today reports about international Internet scammers hitting New Zealanders -
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/3235088/Internet-scammers-hit-Kiwis -
most recently over accommodation offers.

As I’ve frequently commented with my Consumer Affairs hat on, scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated so it is harder to determine what is likely to be a legitimate offer and what is a scam. There are some basic rules that can be applied, but consumers have to be vigilant and particularly when buying over the internet the old saying “If it seems to good to be true it probably is” should always be employed.

When buying from the internet check that the ‘seller’ has a physical address and landline phone number for their business. When only a PO Box or cell phone number is listed, take care. Phone the number to check the business really exists.

Another new initiative for Royters, beginning this week, will be the occasional Book Club post. Loosely based on my own reading I will be sharing with Royters readers any book I find particularly compelling. The first is “Highest Duty” by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow, a Christmas present I read over the holidays.

Captain Sullenberger (better known now as 'Sully') piloted an Airbus that crashed into the Hudson river in New York in January 2009. His aircraft lost both its engines due to bird-strike shortly after departing La Guardia airport and Captain Sullenberger found himself flying what was essentially a 70 tonne glider over a densely populated metropolis.

The most exciting part of the book is the detailed account of the take-off and crash landing of Flight 1549. When their engines failed they were only at 3,000 feet. It was only going to be another three and a half minutes until the plane crash landed - although Sullenberger did not know that at the time.

It is with great sadness that I was informed today of the death of one of our Air Force Pilots. Squadron Leader Nick Cree died tragically while flying this morning. He was one of the Red Checkers display team - the Royal New Zealand Air Force aerobatic team - and was practicing aerial display manoeuvres in a CT-4 Airtrainer.

Squadron Leader Cree was a highly experienced Air Force pilot and a flying instructor. He served in two overseas missions to Timor Leste and another to the Solomon Islands.

There is always an element of danger with flying and it is timely to remember that our defence force personnel put their lives on the line in the course of duty both when serving at home and when on deployment overseas.

My thoughts and sympathies are with Squadron Leader Cree’s family. He will be sorely missed also by his Air Force colleagues and friends.

With the Special Education Review in train I read yesterday with interest and concern about the study conducted by Dr Julia Rucklidge from Canterbury University titled Criminal Offending and Learning Disabilities in New Zealand Youth. Sixty young people from two youth prisons participated in the study which investigated the prevalence of learning disabilities among youth offenders. In addition, the study followed the participants investigating the relationship between reading comprehension and recidivism in the subsequent four years following release from prison.

Beginning this week I will be inviting a Guest Columnist to contribute a piece for Royters each week.

My first Guest is Richard Prebble who will be well known to Royters readers.
Richard's piece is on ACT's Regulatory Responsibility Bill and will be the next Royters post.

I am excited about this new development for Royters and I hope it will stimulate some lively debate.

It must be murder being a fashion designer sometimes. When people chose and pay for their own clothing labels there isn’t a problem. But the moment they try designing a uniform that fits all sizes, heights, body shapesm and tastes and that the company pays for, well, it becomes a quagmire.

Trelise Cooper must be wondering why she wanted to even contemplate designing the new Air New Zealand uniforms. The candy-floss pink hasn’t exactly captured the support of the Air New Zealand flight attendants or the public for that matter. There have been the Mardi Gras comparisons, the Barbie look-alike comments and the talk of “ugly”. Suddenly everyone is a fashion critic.

Zambesi had the same thing a few years back when they designed the current uniforms. Then, the colours were described as drab and the cabin crew complained that every spillage stained the fabric. Now people are asking why the need for change?

It is several years since I’ve driven around the South Island but this holiday period my family and I have been covering many miles by car. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the improvements in the quality of the roads – many alignments of accident areas and the addition of many passing lanes in particular.

Each Christmas the issue of tightening up on alcohol laws is raised as a silver bullet for lowering the road toll. The official Christmas/New Year period finished at 6am this morning with a road toll over the festive season of twelve. Twenty five people died on our roads in the corresponding period a year ago.