From: cctr123@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Alan Murray, CSC Operations, Uni of Canty)
Subject: NZ news to 14 Nov
Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:29:15 GMT

News for the week ended Saturday November 14

500 sexual abuse claims a week
As many as 500 people a week are filing claims with the 
Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Corporation 
for sexual abuse. The claims, many of them for abuse several 
years ago, had been running at that level for about four 
months, said a corporation spokesman, Mr David Hutton. He said 
the claims reflected people's greater awareness and greater 
willingness to talk about sexual abuse, rather than a rise in 
the incidence of abuse. "Most people assume that sexual abuse 
cases are those where the police have been involved and there 
has been court action. But that is not necessarily the case," 
he said. Many of the cases were "historical" - relating to 
abuse that may have happened years ago.

Rise in convictions 'reflects awareness'
There are probably more convictions for child abuse in schools 
than before the Tomorrow's Schools reforms, says the head of 
the Ministry of Education, Dr Maris O'Rourke. She said this 
was because there was a greater general awareness of the 
problem, and schools were closely following their guidelines 
in dealing with the issue. She said she was concerned that 
parents now feared for the safety of their children in early-
childhood centres after recent publicity of alleged sex abuse 
cases. Early-childhood centres have only recently been drawn 
together under a framework of common policies with the Before 
Five reforms. Dr O'Rourke is sending an open letter to parents 
this week that will be posted in early-childhood centres, 
assuring parents of the work being done to prevent abuse.

Bid to outlaw sexual barrier
A move to ban discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation 
will be sponsored by an Associate Minister of Health, Mrs 
O'Regan, and include a no-escape clause for the police. The 
move confirms speculation that the Government caucus was not 
prepared to include these grounds in its pending human rights 
legislation. Instead, it has sectioned off the controversial 
issues into a private member's initiative. Mrs O'Regan's move, 
which will succeed, fail, or be amended on a conscience vote in 
Parliament, has the support of the Minister of Health, Mr 
Upton, the Associate Minister of Health, Mr Williamson and the 
Minister of Women's Affairs, Mrs Shipley. Mrs O'Regan will be 
basing her argument on health grounds.
"The fear of discrimination in employment and housing has 
stopped some homosexual and bisexual men from seeking medical 
advice and tests that can determine their health status," she 
said. "In doing so they put themselves and others at risk."
Her proposal, which will not exempt the police or armed 
forces, which have both opposed allowing homosexuals in their 
ranks, is likely to be among the most sharply contested in 
Parliament. The Minister of Police, Mr Banks, has been a 
vociferous critic of change.

Student's penalty may start a trend
Courtrooms may increasingly be the place where playground 
violence is punished, says the Secondary Principals' 
Association president, Brother Pat Lynch. He said the 
precedent set when an Ashburton College student was sentenced 
to 100 hours community work for an attack on another student, 
was likely to start a trend in schools. "I hear principals 
saying that in incidents like this, the first thing parents 
are saying is they are going to press charges." Brother Lynch 
said a second court case relating to playground violence was 
proceeding in the North Island.

Fight looms over power scheme
Conservationists have vowed to fight the proposed $450 million 
Ngakawau hydro-electric scheme which would flood 2000ha of 
native forest in Buller. The project, a joint venture between 
Downer and Company and Buller Electricity, would bring the 
construction of a 250-megawatt power station on the Ngakawau 
River by 1999. Downers, a Brierly Investments subsidiary, is 
also planning a $200 million, 108mW hydro station on the 
Whangaehu River near Mount Ruapehu, in conjunction with King 
Country Energy and Midwestern Power. The Buller dam would be 
120m high and have 35km of water division tunnels. The power 
station, near the Ngakawau township, north of Westport, would 
be the largest in the region. About 500 jobs would be created 
during the scheme's four-year construction period, in a region 
where unemployment is 14 per cent.
Large portions of the proposed Ngakawau and Orikaka Ecological 
Areas, containing virgin mixed podocarp forests, would be 
clear-felled and flooded to form a storage lake. Both areas 
were allocated to conservation purposes in the 1986 West Coast 
Forest Accord, but have not yet been gazetted as such. The 
scheme, which is based on land administered by the Department 
of Conservation, depends on the department's approval.

Caning plan 'medieval brutality'
Allowing schools to reintroduce corporal punishment would be a 
return to "medieval brutality", the Commissioner for Children, 
Dr Ian Hassall, said. The Government member of Parliament for 
Bay of Islands, Mr John Carter, introduced a private member's 
Bill to Parliament giving parents the right to reintroduce 
corporal punishment to schools. Mr Carter said that "this 
democratic right was taken away by the Labour Government 
without any public consultation or opportunity to express their 
views on this issue." He claimed his Bill was merely an 
extension of Government policy on the issue of school 
management - allowing people the right to choose. It had the 
backing of a group of Auckland Christian school principals.
Dr Hassall said reintroducing corporal punishment would be a 
retrograde step. Research in New Zealand and throughout the 
world had proved many times that violence on children was no 
solution. Such a Bill as that proposed by Mr Carter was against 
United Nations conventions on the right of the child.

Contacts approved
Eight out of ten people experienced no pay cut after moving on 
to an employment contract, according to details of new research 
that were slipped into Parliament question time by the Minister 
of Labour, Mr Birch. He gave details of a Heylen poll conducted 
for an Auckland consultancy firm, Teesdale Meuli, which he said 
showed that "at least 81 per cent of employees report that they 
have either maintained or increased take home pay as a result of 
negotiating new contracts since the (Employment Contracts) Act 
came into effect. The same survey found that 74 per cent of 
employees were either satisfied or very satisfied with the 
terms and conditions of their new contracts," he said.

Electricorp 'not prepared'
Electricorp has yet to improve its arrangements for emergency 
generation if another crisis hits next winter, the Auckland 
Electric Power Board said. In its submissions to the Government 
appointed review into the winter electricity shortage, the 
board's chief executive, Mr Peter Cebalo, questioned 
Electricorp's sale last year of stockpiled fuel for running 
emergency power stations. He also questioned the decision to 
mothball the Marsden A power station, which had to be 
recommissioned as the crisis worsened. However, the inquiry 
chairman, Sir Ronald Davidson, suggested the "appalling 
corrosion" and asbestos problems at the plant had justified the 
move.

Tougher drink law
Drivers aged 20 to 25 years will face a tougher blood-alcohol 
limit after select committee changes to the Transport Safety 
Bill. The controversial Bill was reported back to the House 
from the communications and road select committee with a two-
tier limit based on age. All those under the age of 25 years 
with a full licence would have a blood-alcohol limit of 30mgs 
and a breath level of 150mcgs. Those over 25 years would 
continue to have the existing limits of 80mg and 400mcgs.
Originally the Bill proposed that people under 20 years be 
subject to the lower levels, with those aged 20 to 25 years 
having a slightly higher limit of 50mg. The Minister of 
Transport, Mr Storey, said the simplification would allow 
better enforcement.

Electricorp: savings not needed
Electricorp admitted that the fine-tuning of its computer model 
for managing the power system could have delayed voluntary 
power savings by up to five weeks during the winter power 
crisis. It also said for the first time that the voluntary 
savings had turned out to be unnecessary, raising the question 
of whether the crisis was really a crisis at all. Senior 
corporation executives insisted, however, that they had done 
all they could before the crisis hit to ensure their management 
systems were running well. The savings had been a prudent 
response to a worsening situation, with no guaranteed end.

Alan Murray
CSC Operations
University of Canterbury
a.murray@csc.canterbury.ac.nz