Letters: Macindoe's parole condition proposal is deeply flawed

Tim McIndoe's "location of remains" parole restriction bill may be too flawed to fly.

MP Tim Macindoe (January 6) promises a bill to make it compulsory to refuse parole to convicted murderers who don't reveal the location of their victims' bodies.

This idea has so many problems it is unlikely to pass legislative scrutiny.

He considers that, where a convicted murderer's victim is found, they can be considered for parole — but where a victim's body cannot be found, those mostly convicted on circumstantial evidence are not?

He claims his bill would not see wrongfully convicted prisoners locked away for life, "because it will not be mandatory for parole boards to deny parole".

But it's the function of appellant courts to decide on the merits of a conviction, not a parole board.

If it's not actually going to be compulsory, why not just include it in sentencing guidelines?

This bill will not put "victims in the heart of the justice system".

It's just disingenuous "tough on criminals" trumpery to give this MP a moment in the news over Parliament's holiday break.

H. NORTON
Kaitoke

Street names

Re New Zealanders of Māori descent and street names: Two things disturbed me after reading this article (Chronicle, December 17).

Both relate to the belief of New Zealanders of Māori descent that they have an absolute right to expect things go their way when they suggest or want them.

From the Chronicle article: "Expecting the name to be endorsed, Mair said that, to his disbelief, another name had been presented — that of Joan Morrell, a local artist". And ... "What was most troubling about the meeting, Mair said, was that some councillors seemed to strongly believe that the developer should have the final say, rather than iwi".

Both comments reek of a sense of entitlement just because they have some Māori ancestry. This over-inflated sense of entitlement is not just in Whanganui but NZ-wide. I can just imagine the unadulterated revisionist rubbish that will be taught in schools when NZ history is made compulsory.

What is more, politicians of all persuasions are scared to say no to anything Māori and let the bloated and nepotistic UN call some of the shots in New Zealand's legislation with regard to such. One such example is the word indigenous. New Zealanders of Māori descent lobbied the UN hard for this title.

Māori are not indigenous. They arrived by boat like everyone else. There was a race/culture here before Māori arrived, as Māori oral tradition tells us. Ken will know this. Why this particular tradition is not well reported beggars belief.

GRAHAM HANSEN
Auckland

Democracy

Memo to Stan Hood re your letter of January 3. The Whanganui District Council is not a democracy — despite "ALL of Wanganui" insisting. You may have missed the fact that the mayor is asking the chairs of all council committees to have Māori representatives on their respective committees. These representatives will have full speaking and voting rights.

How many representatives will there be? When the subject of a Māori ward was raised, Tūpoho stated (in summary) that they didn't want a Māori ward as no other iwi could properly represent the views of Tūpoho. This is a fair statement but raises the question of how far down the iwi, hapu, whanau tree will this representation extend?

The mayor is typical of all politicians: Sow the seeds but don't admit responsibility for the harvest.

To Paul Baber (also January 3): The most cited source of your quote is Winston Churchill after he had been rejected as Prime Minister of Great Britain and dates from 1947.

G.J. MOLES
Castlecliff

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