Latest news with #AlexanderRobertson
Otago Daily Times
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
'Censored': Youth MPs told to not criticise government
The event is organised by the Ministry for Youth Development. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson Some Youth MPs have been told by the event's organisers to remove criticisms of the government in their speeches. Labour says the move is out of step with the spirit of the Youth Parliament, and risks further discouraging young people from having their voices heard. The event is organised by the Ministry for Youth Development. RNZ has approached the ministry for comment. The Youth Parliament initiative is held every three years, and provides young New Zealanders with an opportunity to learn about Parliament and democracy. Every MP in Parliament selects a Youth MP, aged 16 to 18, with a Youth Press Gallery also involved. Youth MPs go through a four-month training programme before arriving at Parliament to participate in mock debates, Question Time and select committees. Previous Youth MPs who have gone on to become full-fledged MPs in the current Parliament include Chris Bishop, Ayesha Verrall, Tangi Utikere, Catherine Wedd, Tom Rutherford, Carl Bates and Camilla Belich. The 11th Youth Parliament formally gets underway on Tuesday with a general debate. RNZ has seen a copy of an email sent to a Youth MP, telling them changes had been made to their general debate speech to ensure it: remains politically neutral, focusing on the policy rather than the party does not breach defamation, copyright, privacy, or contempt of court laws, follows the principals of no naming, no blaming, no shaming, and does not make false assertions or claims which are not backed by facts. The Youth Parliament Project Team told the Youth MP the changes were recommended because some of their speech lacked political neutrality by criticising "this government". Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the whole point of Youth Parliament was to make sure young people who were "massively underheard" in Parliament had the opportunity to have their say. "I think any idea that they're being asked to submit their views in advance so they can be censored, so they can have critical comments about the government taken out of them, is just totally out of step with the spirit of Youth Parliament." Hipkins said he would understand if defamatory comments, or comments that opened a Youth MP up to legal risk, were taken out, but taking things out just because they were critical was too far. "My advice to Youth Members of Parliament is: this is your shot. This is your shot to ensure that young people actually have a voice in this place. Say what you think, and don't let anybody else tell you what you should think."
RNZ News
05-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Internal Affairs to have another go at modernising births, deaths and marriages registry
The department will hold a briefing to hear from companies what the options might be later this month. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson After spending $23m but failing to modernise the births, deaths and marriages registry, officials are having another go. The Department of Internal Affairs has written off $22.9m on the project abandoned last year, returned an unspent $58m to the Crown and remains locked in a dispute with the Australian company DWS over the contract it terminated in late 2023. "Although some of the work completed will be able to be used for a future civil registration system replacement project, from an accounting standards perspective, it [decided] should impair (write off) all capital costs incurred to date," DIA told RNZ. But it needs a replacement and is setting out again, tentatively, facing "uncertainty around funding and what a long-term replacement plan would look like". It also faced a "high risk" rating on the project, it said. "As part of the business case process the department would need to provide assurance of how risks could be sufficiently managed or mitigated," it said. The project to replace DIA's old unreliable tech with a new system to give people faster and more secure access to their identity data - among a total 80 million records - was central to a $150m phase of the department's $300m five-year Te Ara Manaaki project. This month the department will hold a briefing to hear from companies what the options might be, while working on a strategic assessment to go to Cabinet. Treasury last year imposed more checkgates that public sector projects must pass through, to try to prevent badly thought-out ones getting through. "We are in the early stages of a discovery phase," DIA said. This comes almost three years after it announced it was replacing its existing system and had chosen a vendor it was confident would deliver a robust system. "The new system will be more efficient, secure, and reliable," it said in August 2022. Some of the work done since 2022 would not be wasted, which should cut costs for a replacement, it said. This included work done on design, improving data quality, the data migration process and testing and delivery frameworks. The department offered reassurance that the existing system "while ageing, is stable and maintenance work continues to be undertaken to ensure secure, functional and legislative compliant systems remain in place while a new long-term replacement plan is progressed". It still had vendor support for the old system, DIA said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
07-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Pay Equity Amendment Bill passes under urgency
File photo. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson The Pay Equity Amendment Bill has passed through all stages in Parliament, after being rushed through under urgency. The controversial legislation raises the threshold for proving work has been historically undervalued when making a pay equity claim. Opponents say it will make it harder for women in female dominated industries to make a claim. The Workplace Relations Minister announced the move, expected to save the government billions of dollars, on Tuesday morning. The legislation passed about 7.45pm, with the support of government parties. All opposition parties opposed it. Thirty-three current claims - representing thousands of workers - will be dropped and must be started again. ... More to come
RNZ News
23-04-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Ex-LG staff plead guilty to obstructing commerce investigation
The Commerce Commission inquiry began in 2020. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson A former New Zealand country manager for global electronics giant LG and two staff members have pleaded guilty to criminal charges of obstructing a Commerce Commission investigation nearly four years ago. The historic case has just come to light after name suppression lapsed for two of the trio. The three were discharged without conviction after assessments of their individual circumstances. The case dated back to a 2020 investigation into possible anti-competitive conduct in the supply and pricing of televisions, which might have restricted the ability of retailers to set their own prices. LG's then- country manager, Dowan Kim, admitted telling a key account manager, Nicholas Clarke, and another staff member, who has permanent name suppression, to delete any messages with customers that might possibly be an "issue" in the investigation. Kim said it was done at the instruction of an overseas manager, which LG denied. The Commerce Commission queried why it had not been given all the information required, including instant messages, after being tipped off by a whistleblower about the message deletions. Commission Chairperson John Small said it was a blatant attempt to obstruct the investigation. "We will take action against parties who attempt to obstruct our investigations," Small said. "In this particular case, given the conduct occurred after a direction from the most senior New Zealand manager of a large global electronics supplier, we considered the conduct to be sufficiently serious for the charges to be filed under the Crimes Act." The Commission recovered some of the deleted messages, which did not reveal any breaches of the Commerce Act. The result of the investigation was a compliance letter to LG about potential wrong conduct, and a warning to Panasonic. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Reuters
29-01-2025
- Reuters
Exposed utility wires may have contributed to LA's Eaton Fire, law firm says
NEW YORK, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A law firm representing victims of the Eaton Fire in Los Angeles has submitted photos with a legal filing on Wednesday that appear to show exposed wire at the base of a Southern California Edison tower that the firm alleges may have contributed to the deadly blaze. The Eaton Fire was among the biggest of multiple wildfires that erupted on Jan. 7 and spread quickly in powerful Santa Ana Winds across the Los Angeles area. The wildfires are potentially the most costly disaster in U.S. history. Photographs and video show sparks or flames near the utility's transmission equipment have already been submitted in court cases against SCE, but the new images may be the first to show burnt and exposed, or unburied, wire. During potential arcing at the transmission towers, the exposed wires leading up to the bottom of the infrastructure may have heated to the point of igniting nearby vegetation, said plaintiff's attorney Alexander Robertson. The arcing could have sent a shower of sparks and molten metal down to the ground, triggering a fire, the law firm said. "The exposed grounding wire is charred on the photos and likely acted like a wick on a candle to ignite the brush at the base of the tower," attorney Robertson said. "We don't yet know if this was the sole or contributing ignition source, but the physical evidence suggests it was at least a contributing cause," said Robertson. The fire's cause is still under investigation, including by official government agencies and Southern California Edison. An SCE spokesperson criticized law firms for sharing details, such as potential evidence, with the media "when they should be sharing the information with authorities." "Our investigation into all possible involvement of SCE's equipment continues," Southern California Edison spokesperson Kathleen Dunleavy said. Robertson and experts with his firm captured the images of SCE's equipment by hiking to SCE towers along the ridge of foothills near Altadena and deploying drones earlier this month. Earlier in the week, SCE said a preliminary review of its data for transmission lines that run through towers, including the one scrutinized by Robertson, showed no indication of faults on the lines until more than an hour after the reported start time of the blaze. Electrical faults can sometimes lead to arcing, which is essentially a spark that jumps between two conductors. The Robertson and Associates' images were captured near the ARCO station where surveillance footage showed two short arcs at the top of an SCE tower. That surveillance video was reported earlier in the week by the New York Times and other news outlets and has since been cited in legal filings. SCE said in a statement on Monday that it was reviewing the footage.
