Independent report damns EQC as they gang up with Her Majesty's Solicitor General and the Clown Law Orifice to persecute whistleblower:

Marc Krieger cast transparency over the 'work' of the Earthquake Commission (EQC), and provided an independent report into their activities , and was recently served with an application by Her Majesty's Solicitor General in respect of alleged contempt of Court for his efforts.  The application is astounding - and deeply concerning if it indicates the calibre of the writers and the focus of their efforts.

Wellington consultancy Martin Jenkins (MJ) and Associates and insurance expert Derek Scott were asked to conduct an independent review of EQC’s response to the Canterbury earthquakes.

They have reported that the Earthquake Commission planned poorly for a major catastrophe and therefore lacked the leadership and systems needed to cope with the Canterbury earthquakes.

The consultants interviewed 75 EQC staff and contractors late in 2011 and early 2012 and found:

• Only three of the theoretical list of 20 executive support people for EQC were available on September 4, 2010, the date of the first major earthquake.
• It took a year for EQC to appoint a general manager with the management capabilities to deal with a large scale disaster effort. 
• EQC’s poor response was determined by its pre-earthquake family culture – “nothing will happen until I retire.”
• People were tossed into the field which worked well where individuals were highly experienced and capable … But there were many cases “where initially we had no idea what we were doing.”
• iPads using Comet software were introduced with minimal cost benefit analysis and proved incompatible with EQC’s IBM claims software (ClaimCenter). The iPad application could deal with only one assessment per property and was therefore unsuitable for multiple events.
• Despite EQC having invested in a web-based, field orientated software system, it initially used paper data recording in the field.
•  Input staff did not fully understand ClaimCenter and by November 2011, ClaimCenter had 112,000 entries against which no activity had been entered. There was also a discrepancy of 40,000 building exposures between ClaimCenter data and Canterbury-sourced data.
•  Apportionment of damage between events was “largely subjective” despite best efforts.

EQC had a permanent staff of 22 and outsourced all core functions – call centres for claims lodgement, claims administration and processing (to Brisbane) and field operations.

“In the absence of overarching direction individual solutions were created on the spot with negative downstream consequences,” the report said.

It also criticised EQC for its lack of expertise on its systems capability. The expertise “needed to be at hand to constantly advise the management of realistic possibilities”.

“Without adequate reflection new challenges were often met with more resources or new teams rather than working smarter eg experienced staff claimed better use of the ClaimCenter system could have saved 100 staff.”

What happened was that a group of greedy public servants saw an opportunity to create a lot of overpaid jobs for their mates and because of a total lack of accountability in NZ at present regarding the public sector, they got away with it, to the cost of all NZ taxpayers, and the people of Christchurch and Seddon in particular.

EQC’s lack of planning and project management skills meant suppliers took advantage charging premium rates, the MJ report said. Hourly rates were set which were more costly than fixed-term contracts and the report gave the example of Datacom charging a scanning cost of $6 per page.

The Scott report said EQC found it difficult to maintain standards as leaders at its various field offices and imported assessors were inconsistent and the pods were all managed differently.

“The training function experienced difficulties in responding to continual changes in form and work processes made by individual field offices, whilst the Canterbury Events office frequently changed the names and functions of teams.”

Further thought also needed to be given to better prescribing jobs to the provider agencies.

“… A number of assessors provided by Verifact (Brisbane-based firm that supplied 210 Australian assessors) were either physically unsuitable for the job or lacked the necessary skills including those of basic numeracy. Many assessors and estimators appear to lack knowledge of EQC cover, the 1993 Act, building code or repair strategies even after induction and training,” the Scott report noted.

Unrest occurred when inexperienced and untrained staff were paid the same rates as personnel previously contracted to EQC.

Effective performance management did not appear to be part of EQC culture, Scott said, with the focus on quantity rather than quality.  Judge Noble said "I'm left with the uneasy impression that the understanding of accountability is blurred" regarding Crown accountability.

The NZ High Court sits on shaky ground records the application of Her Majesty's Solicitor General and the Clown Law Orifice, and Mr Krieger's response, and other reports show that lawyers and Judges are fiddling with themselves while New Zealand democracy and human rights go up in a puff of smoke and flames.

Corrupt Police prosecutors like Garry Wilson and Gregory Peters regularly conspire with Wilson's partner, Masterton Court registrar Liz Harpleton, and other Police, lawyers and Court staff, etc, to pervert the course of justice in the Masterton Court - they are incompetent and corrupt in the extreme. 

Complaints are routinely fobbed off and ignored, and the social and economic costs mount up - a dysfunctional legal system masquerading as a 'justice system' - used as a trough for pigs like Bryan Yeoman and the above mentioned police officers, ex police officers, lawyers, etc, and some of the highest rates of suicide in the world. 

NZ High Court sitting on shaky ground:

While the people of Christchurch wait in vain for their earthquake damage claims to be dealt with, Marc Krieger has been served with an application for a Court declaration against him for "Contempt" for informing them of the reasons for the delay, which are, basically, incompetence and corruption on a massive scale.

On the day after fellow journalist and publisher Vince Siemer was ordered to go to jail for publishing the outrageous decision of Winkelmann J on his website Kiwisfirst, to deny the Urewera defendants a jury trial - as enshrined in the cornerstone of justice for centuries, the Magna Carta.   Her Majesty's Solicitor General has decided to waste taxpayers' time and money in an utterly futile and unsound application designed to impugn the reputation and destroy the quality of life of yet another unfortunate person who simply sought to expose injustice and corruption, and help the people of Christchurch to understand why their claims have been mismanaged and rejected.

The Crown's application is based on the assertion that "unknown defendants" published a spreadsheet containing information which the Crown claims was "confidential" and the property of the Earthquake Commission (EQC).  The spreadsheet was compiled by a subsidiary of Fletcher Construction, "Fletcher EQC", and it contained the details of 83,000 claims being processed by EQC.

An initial Court order prohibiting the disclosure of the spreadsheet "until further order of the Court", against "unnamed defendants", was served on an anonymous email address on about 10 April 2013.  On 10 July an application was made by Her Majesty's Solicitor General for a Declaration of (alleged) Contempt of Court.  The application declares that the Solicitor General will apply to the Court on 1 August for orders that Mr Krieger be held in contempt and "for such sanction" . . . "that the Court in its inherent jurisdiction considers appropriate" as well as an order for costs.  One of the more ironic statements in this application is at the end; after serving the "unnamed defendants" at the anonymous hushmail address, the Solicitor General has the cheek to say "Note:  the service of documents may not be effected by email or fax . . . "

On 30 June Mr Krieger filed a "Motion to Strike Out EQC's Frivolous Claims" against himself and these "unknown defendants", stating that apart from the request to dismiss the proceedings brought by the Solicitor General he politely declines to participate in the proceedings or to dignify this frivolous action by paying a single cent in filing fees (- and I don't blame him!)  Mr Krieger continues "Furthermore,  I wish to prevent the vexatious plaintiff and its counsel from further depleting what little remains in the EQC fund to pursue this ridiculous vendetta."  Mr Krieger's motion cites section 15.1 of the High Court Rules which allow the Court to strike out a pleading if it discloses no reasonably arguable course of action, is likely to cause prejudice or delay, is frivolous or vexatious or is otherwise an abuse of the process of the Court.

In the interests of justice, and the public interest, Mr Krieger's motion is embedded below in its entirety, because it's well worth the read:





This post will be updated with news of this frivolous folly - this is how your taxes are being spent - trying to shut up people who expose corruption.

High Court Appeal successful, 18 December 2012:

Today the High Court heard my appeal against conviction and sentence on a charge of trespass at the Mobil garage in Carterton, Smith Hare and Christison.  The appeal was granted and the conviction quashed by Williams J.

The Crown submissions, which I didn't get to see until after the hearing had finished, was an orchestrated litany of lies, deliberately intended to mislead the Court and pervert the course of justice - at the taxpayer's expense - what a travesty of justice!

For example, the Crown submissions contain the following whoppers (after waffling on for three pages regarding various case precedents narrowing the options on technicalities, etc): 

"The matter took almost a year to be heard, due in no small measure to the appellant failing to appear and warrants for her arrest being issued."  - What utter LIES!  The police prosecutor and deputy registrar in Masterton are a de facto couple and they like to have my matters set down for 9:15 instead of 10:00 - they know I don't have a car, rely on public transport and can't get there till ten o'clock, they just like to obtain the warrant because they know that if they can get a certain number of warrants it increases their opportunities to detain me for nothing in the future and inflict more of their sadistic unnecessary taxpayer funded cruelty, and make me look like some kind of criminal or something just because I'm reliant on public transport, so they set the matter down for 9:15 every time and then obtain the warrant purely in order to pervert the course of justice - knowing full well that I'll be there shortly after ten o'clock - except if they've moved the Court across town and not informed anyone! 

The delays were caused by police failing to provide disclosure, etc, and the prosecutor's conflict of interest on the ACTUAL date of the first fixture, which was July 4th.  They regularly issue the warrant at 9:45 and I arrive at ten and the matter proceeds, they are just trying to establish a case against me for not turning up to Court and nothing could be further from the truth - it's the POLICE who fail to turn up - regularly!  - If I arrive at Court they either don't show up or try and get an adjournment in the hope that I won't turn up next time - because they only way they can get convictions against me is either have then set down before corrupt Judges, or hold the hearing in my absence!

There is a very long history of police failing to turn up to Court, and of them withdrawing charges, and of my being acquitted.  There is also a long history of local police LYING about me.

Then there's the matter of Judge Barry's "Minute" of 1 February 2012 which makes it quite clear that I was illegally imprisoned in February 2010 after Police and Court staff tried to conspire to manipulate the Court process but were caught out by Judge Behrens, and then corruptly obtained a warrant by lying to the Court, telling the Court that I failed to appear - when the fixture was a figment of their imagination and a purely a result of their own incompetence!  Back to Williams J, and the continuing, deliberate, misleading fiction from the Crown prosecutor, Mr Murray:

"The first fixture was set down for 16 July.  Ms Raue did not appear and the case was adjourned until 12 September 2012.  Again she did not appear and the matter proceeded by way of formal proof."  

What nonsense!  The matter was set down for a formal proof hearing on July 4th 2012 - NOT July 16th!

I arrived at the Court at the appointed time for the formal proof hearing on July 4th, Court was being held in the Frank Cody Lounge in Masterton, having previously been held in a variety of venues including a caravan.

The police prosecutor, Sgt Lawrence, disclosed a conflict of interest to Judge Hobbs, who adjourned the hearing accordingly.  So that was the fault of the police, not me, they should have sorted that out before the matter was called (which was about 11:30), they should have had another prosecutor available, but as usual, they couldn't organise a picnic in the park never mind a proper Court hearing - the manner in which the Masterton District Court operates is an insult to justice and an utter travesty.  Evidence of this point is contained in the Court record, which states (scan will be posted soon):

"04 July 2012 - P A H Hobbs, District Court Judge: RAL [remanded at large] to 16/7/2012 - 9:15 am nominal date to set new fixture date.  Sergeant Lawrence the prosecutor knows Mrs Raue - prosecutor feels uncomfortable in those circumstances.  Mrs Raue regards the prosecutor as a good friend and does not want her prosecuting in those circumstances.  No other prosecutor available.  - Mrs Raue's attendance excused on that date, Mr Hard to advise of new date."

Sgt Warwick Burr seems to be responsible for that particular debacle - he was present in the Court and appeared to be trying to bully Sgt Lawrence to proceed regardless of the conflict of interest and regardless of the fact that he knew perfectly well that the charge was corruptly laid and the information the prosecutor was being told to present to the Court was a litany of lies!  The Court record makes it clear that the delays were NOT caused by me they were caused by the police and the lawyers! 

The Masterton Police have a habit of wasting Court time and taxpayers money on this sort of malicious vexatious vendetta, going right back to the charge of Bill Sticking they laid against me - police were forced to apologise to me for dragging the matter out for about two years and then not turning up in Court on the day of the hearing after it became obvious to everyone that they were never going to win the case and were likely to be pinned down in cross examination in a most incriminating manner regarding the fraud at the former Carterton Community Centre and the involvement of the local constable's girlfriend in the serious fraud going on there, and the refusal of the police to investigate those matters and others.

The decision of Williams J notes two points from my submissions, the first being that Mr Hard advised me of the new date and I advised him that I couldn't attend on that date because I was house sitting and managing two rental properties hundreds of miles away at that time.  There was also the fact that the Court moved on 14th August from the Frank Cody Lounge to the Shop Rite Supermarket site (I kid you not) - there was an armed 'stand off' the day they opened there, it is horrible and dangerous.  Nobody advised me - or any of the other defendants by the look of it - that the Court had moved.

The other point Williams J noted was that there was very strong and indisputable evidence which contradicted Constable Dallinger's claim that he served me with a trespass notice on 4th March as he claimed, and I explained to the honourable Williams J why I could prove beyond reasonable doubt on the basis of three different pieces of evidence - one of which was actually POLICE evidence, that Dallinger's claim was not true. 

Dallinger corruptly refused to investigate the fraud that has been occuring on a regular basis at the local Mobil station, with certain staff taking customers' EFTPOS cards and then telling them that "the EFTPOS machine is out of order, we'll have to do a 'manual transaction'" - what the customers don't realise is that the staff involved are stealing the card details and using them to defraud their bank accounts.  Be warned, check your receipt AND your bank statement carefully if you do business at the Mobil station in Carterton, and keep checking the statements - the fraudulent transaction from my account occured several weeks after the card details were stolen.

I have a huge amount of other evidence and witnesses regarding this matter, the charge has been corruptly laid.  We will be cross examining Constable Dallinger about his malicious vendetta and how he and Constable Pope kicked in the bedroom door of a fourteen year old girl during another malicious incident of corrupt bullying, when he tried to charge me for theft of a bicycle which wasn't stolen, so he kicked in the door and arrested me for allegedly swearing at him.  I told Williams J that he is a rogue officer (they seem to gravitate toward the Wairarapa where they know corruption and incompetence are par for the course).