Suncorp stadium to host two rugby games this week...

Suncorp Stadium to host two rugby games this week...

Suncorp Stadium to host two top-level rugby games this week...

Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia is to host two top level rugby games this week.



On Wednesday Queensland's Maroons and New South Wale's Blues fight out the rugby league State of Origin decider - one each with one to go. Will it be the Maroons winning Series 6, or the Blues winning Series 1 for the first time in six years? My pick: Queensland by 12 and Under



So to Suncorp in the weekend: The minor Super 15 premiers, the Queensland Reds up against every Cantabrian and Christchurchite living. Earthquake ravaged Christchurch needs something to feel good about after the worst few months in the history of the South Island. The Crusaders have a habit of getting to top form at the right time. If they win this week, it will be their eighth title. The Queensland Reds have yet to win a title in any Super rugby competition. After what the did to the Stormers last week in Capetown, the Crusaders could win by 13 and over. But it is the grand final and all sorts of strange things can happen in finals. The Crusaders will win this game for their hometown.

Travelling hasn't been a problem for this team without a home stadium this year. AMI Stadium (Lancaster Park is the grass) will be assessed in a few days and its future decided. Even with a thumbs - up, it would take a couple of years to repair the stadium and relay a new turf. If its thumbs down, a new stadium will be built somewhere else in the greater Christchurch area.

I was born and raised in Christchurch, and competed there as a secondary school athlete. Shirley Boys High, terribly damaged in the February earthquake, finished third in a 4 x 100 yard relay final back in 1958. I would be heartbroken along with 400,000 others in the greater Christchurch region, if the stadium had to be demolished. Cross-fingers for this week's decision! Now its in the hands of the rugby gods!

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Giant Kiwi rugby prop saves her life but cracks her rib in the process...

Giant Kiwi rugby prop saves her life but cracks her rib in the process...

Giant Kiwi rugby prop saves here life and cracks her rib in the process...



One Dunedin diner credits Highlanders skipper Jamie Mackintosh with saving her life, though he cracked her rib in the process.



Wendy Knight started choking on a piece of steak when she was having dinner with her family at the Dunedin Lone Star restaurant.



"I thought I was going to die ... I really did," the 44-year-old told the New Zealand Herald.



"It was totally my fault. It got caught in the back of throat and I couldn't get it to go down or bring it back up again."



Unable to breathe, she felt someone behind her perform the Heimlich manoeuvre, which dislodged the offending piece of meat.




It turned out to be Mackintosh, who was dining with fellow Highlanders Tony Brown, Jimmy Cowan, Aaron Smith and Jarrad Hoeata at the time.



She then vomited.



"I didn't know who it was. I didn't know where they came from ... I didn't even get a chance to say thanks."



Though she didn’t know who Mackintosh was before the incident, she said she was now "his number one fan".



"He probably saved my life."



Mackintosh told the Herald he had never had any medical training, but knew what to do in the event of someone choking.



"I obviously buggered it up if I cracked her rib," he said. Jamie Mackintosh is a former All Black, born and bred in the deep south of New Zealand's Southland Province, and a member of the Highlanders Super Rugby franchise for a number of years.



Acknowledgements. NZ Herald/ Msn Sports


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Vandalised St Matthews billboard accuses Anglican Church of discrimination...

Vandalised St Matthews  billboard accuses Anglican Church of discrimination...

A billboard designed to challenge the Anglican Church's view on gay and lesbian priests has already been vandalised.



Auckland Anglican Church has put up a billboard outside its church, displaying a "Gay-Dar" meter that shows "Straight" on one side and "Gay" on the other and suggests the Anglican Church uses this to assess potential priests.



The church, which offers same-sex blessings among its services, has courted controversy with previous billboards, including one that depicted Mary and Joseph in bed with the caption: "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow."



The latest "Gay-Dar" billboard had been vandalised by midday today with the cross ripped off it.



Reverend Clay Nelson said the damage appeared to be sabotage, which was frustrating.



The cross would probably be replaced, he told Radio New Zealand.



Vicar Glynn Cardy said St Matthew's had endured enough of New Zealand's Anglican bishops refusing to consider a candidate for ordination if they were gay or lesbian and in a committed relationship.



The congregation voted unanimously at a recent general meeting to send a letter to their bishop respectfully asking him to end this discrimination in their diocese.



"We see this as an issue of discrimination that harms not only the gay and lesbian community, but society and ultimately the church as well," Mr Cardy said.



The church had initiated a petition in the parish and online asking people to support their call for all the New Zealand bishops to end what they believed was an unjust practice, he said.



He invited people to sign the petition and follow the debate on its website and Facebook page.



The New Zealand Anglican Church had been debating the issue of ordaining gays and lesbians since the 1990s.



Mr Cardy said some bishops in New Zealand had in the past ordained gay and lesbian candidates.



``However, following the international furore around the 2004 consecration of Gene Robinson -- an American priest who is gay and in a committed relationship -- New Zealand's bishops have seemed more concerned to promote unity with the majority rather than uphold justice for a minority.''



Bishop Philip Richardson of Taranaki said the stumbling block was that the Anglican Church had not yet agreed as a whole to whether or not ``sexual orientation towards those of one's own gender is a consequence of wilful human sinfulness, or an expression of God-given diversity''.



Rev Nelson, priest associate of St Matthew's, said he was amazed that ``in this day and age, with all the information and science available to us that `the church' can still argue that sexual orientation is a matter of wilfulness''.



It appeared that justice was being held hostage by ignorance and the bishops must enlighten the church and end the discrimination, Rev Nelson said.


Acknowledgements: - with NZPA

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All Blacks may never play at AMI - the end of Lancaster Park as an international sports facility...

All Blacks may never play at AMI Stadium again - shocking revelation...

The New Zealand Rugby Union has conceded that the All Blacks may never play at Christchurch's AMI Stadium again.



Earthquake damage to the ground on 22 February meant the city's World Cup games were transferred elsewhere while the Crusaders had to play all their Super 15 matches away from the city.



NZRU chief executive Steve Tew says what will happen to the ground, which opened in 1881 as Lancaster Park and hosted its first All Blacks test in 1913, will be up to the Christchurch community and the government.



Mr Tew says the NZRU's considering re-developing Rugby Park and Rugby League Park in Christchurch but says the Crusaders may again have to play all of of their Super rugby matches outside of Christchurch next year as well.



He says they simply don't know what the future holds for the ground with the possibility it could be back operating again next year to never at all.



Mr Tew says they have an All Blacks test pencilled in for Christchurch next year but an alternative venue is also being arranged.



He says the venue is being regularly assessed in the wake of aftershocks.

KR: This  revelation really shocked me, somebody born in Christchurch and brought up following rugby and cricket on the historical Lancaster Park. I competed on this park as a schoolboy and, in my latter years,  have learned that it may be the end of this ground as an international sports  facility. So very sad. Nature can be so very cruel!





Acknowledgements:  © 2011, Radio New Zealand

Hone Harawira wins Te Tai Tokerau by-election...

Mana Party leader, Hone Harawira, has won the Te Tai Tokerau by-election.

The former Maori Party MP forced the by-election when he left Parliament to form his new party.



Mr Harawira has 5611 votes, a lead of 867 over Labour's Kelvin Davis.



The Maori Party candidate Solomon Tipene is a distant third with 1026 votes.



Kelvyn Alp from the OurNZ Party received 63 votes and Maki Herbert from the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party received 126 votes.



The electorate stretches from the top of Northland down to west Auckland.




Acknowledgements:  © 2011, Radio New Zealand

NZ PM Key puts pressure on Australian social security provisions...

NZ PM Key puts pressure on Australian social security law provisions for Kiwis living in Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key talk after PM Key addressed the House at Parliament, Canberra.



Prime Minister John Key has increased pressure on the Australian Government to change a social security law denying welfare payments to thousands of New Zealanders living there, reports say.



The Family and Community Services Legislation Amendment (New Zealand Citizens) Bill 2001

categorises New Zealanders who arrived in Australia after February 26, 2001 as non-protected visa holders.



That makes them ineligible for many social security benefits.



More than 175,000 people - or 47 per cent of the New Zealanders living in Australia - are thought to be affected by the law, which has been labelled "discriminatory" by campaigners.



It was recently used to cut off disaster recovery payments to thousands of Kiwis caught up in the Queensland floods and Cyclone Yasi.



A report in The Australian said Mr Key had raised concerns about the law during recent meetings with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.



The topic was an area of "mutual concern and interest" and would be discussed, a spokeswoman from the Prime Minister said.



Foreign Minister Murray McCully has also confirmed the New Zealand High Commission in Canberra was raising "discrepancies" caused by the law with Australian federal authorities.



In a letter to Christel Broederlow, a New Zealander living in Australia, he said it was also encouraging to see cases had also been brought before Australian state governments over New Zealanders being denied employment opportunities and services.



He earlier told the Herald he was "concerned" about New Zealanders being denied social security payments.



There was no similar non-protected visa status for Australian immigrants in New Zealand, he said.

"No doubt this is a matter we will discuss with our Australian colleagues in due course."



Campaigner David Faulkner welcomed political pressure over the law he believes is discriminatory and "racist".



He was hopeful it would add impetus to his campaign to change the way New Zealanders are assessed for social security in Australia.



"It's not every day that the New Zealand Government officially complains that its citizens are being discriminated against."



Mr Faulkner has won a race discrimination complaint against an insurance company which denied him cover on the basis he was a non-protected Visa holder.



He is also supporting an anti-discrimination suit lodged against the Queenland Government by the Toowoomba-based Campbell family.



They are suing over its decision to deny disability support to 19-year-old Hannah Campbell, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and needs 24-hour care.



Australian social security rules:



Protected visa holders: Kiwis who have been living in Australia since before February 2001 or who lived there for a year in the two years prior to that date qualify for protected Visa status. They are allowed to claim social security.



Non-protected visa holders: New Zealanders who were not in Australia on February 26, 2001, or who did not live there for a year in the two years prior to that date , are issued a 'non-protected' Visa. They are ineligible for many social security and disability support payments, along with services such as public housing. They are not able to become Australian citizens unless they are granted a permanent Visa.



Acknowledgements: NZ Herald

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Fijian military officer trying to enter NZ...

LT Colonel Mara...

























Fijian military officer trying to enter NZ...











Fijian military officer, LT Colonel, Ratu Tevita Mara, who fled Fiji, trying to enter NZ...

A pro-democracy for Fiji group based in Auckland is lobbying the Government not to allow a former Fijian military officer into the country.

The Coalition for Democracy in Fiji group has drafted a letter which they will send to the Government today.



Lieutenant-Colonel Ratu Tevita Mara escaped to Tonga last month after being charged with sedition.



Yesterday he arrived in Australia and his next intention is to come to New Zealand – hoping to speak with supporters and New Zealand government officials.



The coalition believes Mr Mara should not be allowed to enter the country due to existing sanctions which don't allow Fijian military personnel to travel here.



Speaking to Radio New Zealand this morning, coalition spokesman Nik Naidu said Mr Mara has only recently been part of the Fijian military.



“We should give him the benefit of the doubt, but that in itself is irrelevant,” said Mr Naidu.



Mr Naidu described Mr Mara as "the worst kind of [Fijian] officer" – one who lead arrests, illegal detentions and tortures. He believed Mara was guilty of this for four years before "sour grapes" made him leave, not the decision to change his ways in favour of democracy.



Mr Naidu would like to see Mr Mara be put before a court.



“How can we entertain a person who is perpetrator of heinous crimes?” asked Mr Naidu.



The letter questions if the Government will relax their sanctions on members of the Fijian military, and if so, when.



Acknowledgements: TV 3 News


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