Monday, July 04, 2005
Even so, the Bill removing the legal defence of "reasonable force" for parents punishing their children should be examined by a parliamentary committee rather than dismissed out of hand, Prime Minister Helen Clark says.
A worried mother has attacked the Christchurch City Council for not enforcing its prostitution bylaw after she complained about her own daughter's sex work. Robyn Ettles says her daughter has been operating a small suburban owner-operated brothel (soob), which are illegal under the council bylaws. Ettles said two of her grandchildren, aged six and seven, lived in the house with their mother, who took clients regularly. Council spokesman Bryn Somerville said it had to be careful about enforcing the bylaw until a ruling was made on legal action currently in the High Court. In another twist, Ettles said she had also approached Child Youth and Family (CYF) about her grandchildren, but was told prostitution was not illegal and that until the children were in danger the agency could not do anything.
Coincidentally, the new Care of Children Act came into force at the end of last week. Chief Family Court Judge Peter Boshier says judges will interpret the new Care of Children Act to give both parents "optimum good quality time" with their children when the parents separate. He said a wording change from "custody" to "day-to-day care" of children meant both parents were now expected to exercise more parental responsibility. "We have had too many parenting arrangements where one parent has not been parenting as much as they should," he said. [This is ironic, considering men's groups consistently claim it has been judges' rulings that have often made it hard for dads to get access to their children.]
Don't you just love how Telecom and NZ Post are spending the money they are milking from you! The pair have thrown their support behind the campaign for a new flag. The campaign by lobby group nzflag.com needs 270,000 signatures by October to force a referendum on the question "Should the design of the New Zealand flag be changed?" Despite the endorsements of a long list of well-known New Zealanders, only 100,000 people have signed the petition so far. Telecom confirmed last week that petition forms would be included with monthly accounts sent to customers in August, while NZ Post will provide freepost return envelopes. Telecom also helped produce a 30-second campaign ad starring rugby great Colin Meads, which debuted before the All Blacks-Lions test in Christchurch last weekend, and will be played again at Eden Park next weekend. The companies have defended themselves against suggestions they are seeking to influence a political debate, saying they merely want to assist New Zealanders in discussing the issue.
Tail-out: School officials in Victoria, Australia, say it's too hard for students to calculate equations using the constant 9.8 meters/second/second -- the acceleration of gravity at Earth's surface - so it's changing the Year 12 physics exam for the Victorian Certificate of Education to use a rounded-off figure of 10 m/s/s. Close enough? No: "The difference could cause a parachutist or bungie jumper to plummet into the ground, or the launching of a rocket to fail," say people who actually understand physics. After hearing the criticism the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority announced that it would not penalize students who used the correct figure.
