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| The Seat of Government (Photo credit: Ewan-M) |
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| WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - NOVEMBER 29: Labour leader Phil Goff and Deputy Annette King speak to media at Parliament on November 29, 2011 in Wellington, New Zealand. Goff today announced that he, and his Deputy Annette King, will resign effective December 13 and a new party leader will be announced that day. The Labour party was defeated in Saturday's national election, losing nine seats in parliament. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) |
If the Labour Minister of Police at the time,
Annette King, and the Government knew nothing of the proposed raids in the
Ureweras, this would constitute police state action, regardless of what evidence they had.
NZ is a democracy that is governed by a government, not by its
police force. The Labour Cabinet should have been properly briefed before the raids went ahead; because it had the constitut
ional power to stop those raids. The police would later introduce evidence that would be refuted only on the basis it was illegally obtained. The evidence still exists, but can't be used against the suspects. Its actually a bit like the David Bain case - while David Bain was eventually declared not guilty in a retrial he couldn't be declared innocent. We will learn in due course whether he is entitled to compensation. So the Urewera suspects can never claim innocence, only the fact they are not guilty of terrorism charges, and four of them proven and sentenced on firearm charges.
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