News
I am angry!
reporter: Jonathan, 3.8.05
These are extracted from articles which were in the NZ Herald------------------------------------------------------------------
30.07.05
The Weekend Herald understands that neither Helen Clark nor Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton, who was also in the motorcade, will give evidence.
An application was made by at least one defence lawyer for certain witnesses to be called, but this was refused by Judge John Strettell and neither politician can be compelled to appear in court when Parliament is sitting.
01.08.05
The Prime Minister's motorcade had no legal right to be travelling at speeds over 140km an hour through Canterbury last July a court has heard.
02.08.05
The defendants had incorrectly interpreted the situation as "one of extreme urgency" and they had no legal right to travel in such a way.
The motorcade allegedly travelled the 205km from Waimate to Christchurch at an average of more than 128km/h to ensure that Helen Clark could catch a flight to get her to Wellington in time for a Bledisloe Cup rugby test.
02.08.05
A bus driver transporting high school students had to pull his vehicle to the roadside to avoid colliding with the Prime Minister's speeding motorcade, a court has heard.
03.08.05
Christchurch company director Warwick Wright told the Timaru District Court he called the *555 service to complain about the excessive speed and bad driving of two vehicles he saw on the outskirts of Christchurch on July 17 last year.
He said he provided the registration number of one of the cars to a police receptionist.
"I made the phone call because I was concerned about what I saw as a continual bad standard of driving.
"I was told that vehicle that I had complained about was the Prime Minister's car and [the receptionist] had no jurisdiction or ability to do anything about it."
Christchurch journalist Brent Fraser told the court he felt his family's lives were at risk when he had to swerve his car to the left to allow the motorcade past near the Mid-Canterbury township of Chertsey.
"They were all travelling down the middle of the road," Mr Fraser said of the three vehicles.
"It looked as though they were nose to bumper."
Mr Fraser said he believed the motorcade was travelling faster than 140km/h.
Timaru housewife Deborah Mitchell told the court she was in a Temuka dairy when she saw the motorcade go past in a 50km/h zone at a speed she estimated to be about 140km/h.
"I thought there must be some really horrible emergency. I spent the weekend worried about what had happened."
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I have just heard on the radio news that evidence has been given at the trial claiming that on arriving at the airport the PM and co had a 30 minute wait in the Koru lounge!
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This is a joke!
We have a Prime Minister who feels that her presence at a rugby test is more important than the safety dozens of road users and is quite happy to sit back and let 6 people go to court over something that, if she didn't initiate, she could have stopped!
This reminds me of the Paintergate scandal!
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Helen Clark,
You are our representitive leader.
You are not better than us neither are you more important.
You are not above the law.
Your power is given to you by us.
You have forgotten this, and I hope that you will be reminded when New Zealand remove you from power at the coming election.
Alas, but we are an unseeing nation, whose care and concern has been stripped from us by a government who knows everything infinitely better than we mere mortals ever will...
reporter -
Dan, at 10:20 pm, August 03, 2005