Judgement Daze by Trevor Plumbly
On the ropes I’ve always held the view that NZ has an almost benign attitude towards blokey-type violence, but now it’s official! Statistics show we’re right up there with the major players when it comes to domestic punch-ups. That’s pretty amazing really, maybe we should add home bullying to the list of ‘we’re just a small country’ plaudits that we roll out for sporting success. Along with Women’s Refuge, Shine and Rape Crisis there must be dozens of underfunded semi-official agencies operating purely as a safety net for those desperate or brave… Read More
Someone to Watch Over Me by Trevor Plumbly
Checks and Balances The killing of children anywhere is always hard to come to terms with, but it gets tougher when it happens in your own home town. There’s little doubt now that Edward Livingstone was a troubled soul, with a history of sexual violence against his partner Katherine, which culminated in her being granted a protection order in May 2013. For some strange reason, this order wasn’t finalised till August of that year. Later, during a supervised visit to their two children aged 6 and 9, Livingstone presented the children with… Read More
Sparring Partners by Trevor Plumbly
It’s that time again. You know, when all those government paid statisticians release their findings on what improved and what didn’t in the past year. It’s always seemed to me to represent a lot of effort for very little direct good. Ministers either crow about the results or promise that the problem will be addressed, but of course political survival demands that bad bits have as short a shelf life as possible, so the placebos are doled out to us and life goes on as usual. Don’t get me wrong, I love… Read More
verbalberbal 