Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Clemson University. AP photo / John Bazemore
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Clemson University. AP photo / John Bazemore
Opinion
Listen to Larry Williams now on Larry Williams Drive, Newstalk ZB, 4pm to 7pm. Today the show looks at the US elections, the buy-a-beach campaign and the three-strikes law.
The relentless US primaries roll on and Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders trounced opponents in New Hampshire.
Sanders beat up Hillary Clinton rather badly, but Clinton still walked away with more delegates to take to the Democratic national convention. Tell me that's not a little dodgy.
The Clinton machine willeventually destroy Sanders. Socialist Sanders spending proposals won't help - $US18 trillion over 10 years - which is extreme and reckless. It's not going to happen for Bernie.
Trump is on a roll. No question now he could get the Republican nomination. Considering Trump was considered a joke a few months ago, this is an extraordinary thing. The anti-Trumps, and there are a lot of them, are having palpitations.
The Gift Abel Tasman Beach campaign is close to its target of $2 million, however I suspect the owner might want more than this.
Gareth Morgan's offer to pay the difference in return for exclusive use didn't go down well. It was perceived as buying the beach at a huge discount. I think Morgan had the right intentions. He wanted to preserve public access, but for whatever reasons there's an anti-Morgan thing going on out there.
I don't see the chunk of land and sand as anything special. We have that stuff all over the country with riparian rights attached. However, if people want to buy it - all power to them.
Manifestly unjust ruling
Judge Edwin Wylie's decision to refuse to send Turei Rawiri Kingi to life without parole for the brutal murder of 76-year-old Jacques Donker was yet another example of judges abdicating their responsibility.
Kingi bottled the old man while he was sitting on the toilet. The label off the whiskey bottle was embedded in the old man's skull when they found him. A random, unprovoked, brutal, callous attack.
The judge had the option under the three strikes law to lock Kingi up for life. He came up with the "manifestly unjust" out. He didn't even believe such a brutal killing was a "high degree" murder. Exactly what then is a brutal high degree murder?
Judges look like they're using the "manifestly unjust" clause in the law to avoid sending serious criminals to jail for life without parole. This surely wasn't the intention of the law passed by Parliament.
Looks and smells like judicial activism to me.
Still on three strikes, yesterday the Greens blocked ACT's David Seymour's Three Strikes for Burglary Bill. The Bill made sense - mandatory three years in jail for three convictions for burglary.
You see, fewer than 10 per cent of burglaries are resolved and the burglars know this. They know the chances of getting nicked and sent to jail are remote. There is no deterrent factor and that is why Seymour's Bill made sense.
The Greens chalked one up for the burglars yesterday.
