North & South Magazine - October Issue

One man’s mission to clean up the NZ Police Force

From perjury and planting evidence in the Crewe murder investigation to the dodgy jailhouse confessions used in the David Tamihere case, and the ill-advised Urewera terror raids – a former top cop explains why police culture in New Zealand needs to change.

In the October issue of North & South, on sale Monday, former police inspector and MP Ross Meurant argues the NZ Police remains blighted by a “sanctimonious type of corruption” – a zealousness that condones breaking the law to put someone behind bars because of the belief within their ranks that they know what is best for society. He claims the police place preservation of the police above preservation of the rule of law – and lays out the significant reforms he believes must be made to the way police operate in New Zealand.

Plus: the dubious justice of jailhouse confessions

Prison informants should be considered the most untrustworthy of all witnesses, but New Zealand police and prosecutors still resort to them when things are desperate. Mike White speaks to some of those impacted by this type of “evidence”, including two of the fathers at the centre of the Scott Watson trial, as he examines the murky world of snitches and cellmate confessions.

Highway robbery: is the government playing fair with home owners?
Also in North & South: when the government wants to take your house for roading, who’s right and what are your rights? What do you do if there’s a $100,000 difference in your valuation and the government’s? Donna Chisholm asks if the NZ Transport Agency is playing fair with home owners whose properties face the wrecker’s ball.

Doing it for the kids

A new report claiming one in four children in New Zealand lives in relative poverty is old news to KidsCan founder Julie Helson. She talks to Joanna Wane about harnessing the link between child abuse and animal cruelty, weathering the Telethon scandal and why people should give money to Kiwi kids when children are dying of famine in Africa.

“The Needle” gets pointed on the Rugby World Cup

We share an audience with Sir Fred “The Needle” Allen and, as we head in to the Rugby World Cup, get some cold, hard truths from our most fearsome (but never beaten in a test match) All Blacks coach.

It’s all in the October edition of North & South, Canon Magazine of the Year 2011, on newsstands from Monday, 12 September.