HRRT hearing cancelled until further notice:

Just received, email from Human Rights Review Tribunal, cancelling hearing scheduled for tomorrow and Wednesday:

Dear Mr Mihaka, Ms Raue, Ms Cuncannon and Ms Shaw
As you know, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck New Zealand at 12.02am today.  As a consequence, all Ministry of Justice sites in Wellington have been closed until further notice while buildings are checked by engineers.  In addition members of the public have been asked to stay away from central Wellington until at least this evening.  No trains are running and there are no replacement bus services.

At the time of writing it is not known when these circumstances will change sufficiently to allow the resumption of hearings at the Tribunals Unit.

In these circumstances the Chairperson has directed that I give formal notification that the hearing scheduled to commence at 10am tomorrow, Tuesday 15 November 2016 is of necessity cancelled.

I hope to be in touch with you shortly to arrange a new date of hearing.

If you or your witnesses have availability issues between now and March 2017 please let me know by 5pm on Wednesday 16 November 2016.

Yours sincerely
Helen

 Which is just as well - the Office of Human Rights Proceedings are still, as of this morning, trying to claim that they haven't received our application for assistance, despite admitting that they HAVE received it, they just can't access it - still - because of the incompetence of their Information Technology department, who have admitted that they - still - can't access ten whole days worth of emails 'since they moved to the cloud' - incompetence is bad enough but blaming others is completely unacceptable!

We will be applying for a prerogative writ of certiorari to confirm that they HAVE received it!

Ken Shirley and other political cronies:

Brian Neeson
Ravi Musuku
Ken Shirley

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(L-R) Brian Neeson – Ken Shirley – Ravi Musuku

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All three men were appointed to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.  All three have connections to National, or in Ken Shirley’s case, to ACT, one of National’s coalition partners.
Brian Neeson
Party positions held:

• National Party MP 1990 – 2002

Government appointments:

• Appointed to Human Rights Review Tribunal by Justice Minister Simon Power, in December 2009.

The appointment was made by the Minister –  without being interviewed, as is the usual process,
““It is the chair’s view that without interviews by an appropriately selected interview panel, the process will not provide an opportunity to properly assess the candidates suitability,” advice to Power in July last year said.

“The required skills cannot be evaluated without interview. He [Mr Hindle] has also expressed concern that the suggested appointment of member without interview would be at odds with the practice of past years“.” – Source

Which was unfortunate, as Neeson has a shocking record for anti-gay/lesbian beliefs that can only be described as homophobic.  He consistently voted against including gays/lesbians in protective Human Rights legislation and voted against legislation to outlaw employment discrimination based on gender. (See ” National’s version of ‘human rights’ ” at Tumeke, for full details.)

It is difficult to understand how someone of Mr Neeson’s beliefs can contribute to human rights issues in NZ, unless his appointment is specifically designed to curtail human rights for women and minority groups?
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Ravi Musuku
Party positions held:

• National party candidate in Mt Albert Electorate in 2005 and 2008 general elections

Government appointments:

• Appointed to Human Rights Review Tribunal by Justice Minister Simon Power, in December 2009.

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Ken Shirley

Party positions held:

• Labour Party MP 1984- 1990
• Ranked third on ACT Party List for 1996 elections
• ACT Party MP 1996- 2006

Government appointments:

• Appointed to Human Rights Review Tribunal by Justice Minister Simon Power, in December 2009.

Statement on Maori:
“Graduation day at Te Wananga. Soon after the Labour Government came to office it started showering money on all things Maori. ” – NZ Herald

“Soon after the Labour Government came to office, ushering in its flagship ‘Closing the Gaps’ programmes. It started showering money on all things Maori. ” – Ibid

“Out of this Te Wananga o Aotearoa pocketed $5.8 million and said that would go a long way towards providing for its growth. ” – Ibid

“But the Government went further. Closing the Gaps demanded even more taxpayer money be thrown at Maori. ” – Ibid

“Despite its apparent concern, it has continued to shovel huge sums of taxpayer money to this institution – all in the name of the treaty. ” – Ibid

“The Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commissioners have foreshadowed that the decision to allow the Maori Land Court to hear iwi claims to the foreshore and seabed of the Marlborough Sounds opens the way for similar claims around the country” ACT New Zealand Deputy Leader Ken Shirley said today.

I now call upon Prime Minister Helen Clark to act consistently, and to declare such claims off limits -as she recently did in the case of the claim for oil and gas reserves. In this instance, it was made quite clear that oil, gas and mineral reserves were vested in the Crown by legislation in 1937.” – Press releases on Court of Appeal decision on foreshores and seabed, Recreation Access

“I am again calling on the Labour Government to act decisively. It must spell out the bounds to claims – in order to prevent undue anxiety for tens of thousands of New Zealanders, and to ensure that iwi don’t waste any more time and money pursuing claims that should be off limits.” – Ibid

Hopefully Mr Shirley’s anti-Treaty and knee-jerk anti-Maori  beliefs will not be carried over to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.

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.(Acknowledgement: Frank Macskasy, David M. and Tumeke)