Johnson vows ‘openness’ for UK entry
Kiwis seeking access to the United Kingdom should in future have a regime ‘‘at least as attractive’’ as the current one, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says.
Speaking at a press conference in Wellington yesterday, after talks with Prime Minister Bill English and Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee, Johnson sought to downplay concerns Kiwis on their ‘‘OE’’ could be worse off after Brexit and amid moves to tighten immigration into the UK.
‘‘So on the ancestry visas, the overseas experience, and stuff like that we will want to maintain a regime that is at least as attractive as the current regime and we will want to maintain a policy of openness and engagement,’’ he said.
He said with Brexit ’’it wasn’t that people were hostile to immigrants, they weren’t hostile to people with talent and energy coming to the UK. They just wanted to feel the British Government had a handle on it and that’s what we are going to do.’’
Brownlee later told reporters that on the New Zealand side there was hope for even better access. ’’We think there might be some chances of getting better access, particularly for our young people.’’
New Zealanders staying in the UK for more than six months have to pay a surcharge to access the National Health Service (NHS) of £150 ($326) for New Zealanders on the Youth Mobility Scheme or student visas, and £200 ($435) for New Zealanders on other visas for more than six months.
Out of more than 150,000 New Zealanders who travelled to the UK in 2015, about 8000 were on visas allowing them to stay longer than six months.
Brownlee said the message he took away from the talks with Johnson was that Brexit did not mean the end of the strong relationship with the UK.
Johnson reiterated to reporters that Brexit was not about Britain turning away from the world.
He said New Zealand would be ‘‘at or near the front of the queue’’ for future free trade talks.
Brownlee said the UK had to formally exit the EU before it could enter into those talks.
The two had also discussed security issues, including Isis and North Korea’s missile launches and what Johnson called the ‘‘nuclear adventurism of that regime’’.
Mum gave girl drugs
A Napier woman accused of being a party to the alleged rape of her 15-year-old daughter is no longer facing the charge, but has admitted supplying methamphetamine to the girl. The woman had been on trial in the Napier District Court this week, along with a man who is accused of raping and stupefying the girl in December 2004. But the trial ended abruptly yesterday morning when the woman pleaded guilty to the charge of supplying methamphetamine to her daughter. After her admission, Judge Tony Adeane granted an application from the woman’s lawyer for a discharge on the count of being a party to rape. She will be sentenced on the drug supply in September, while the man faces a new trial later this year on the rape and stupefying charges. Discharging the jury, Judge Adeane told them the woman’s guilty plea ‘‘dramatically changes the landscape’’ of the trial they had been hearing. He said the woman’s change of plea meant the jury had heard evidence on Monday that was now not admissible in the case against the man, so a new trial was required. The names of the man and woman are suppressed.
Selling Viagra charge
A man allegedly caught with 1188 Viagra tablets could face up to six months in jail after being accused of trying to sell them. Hastings man Elijah Nuku, 27, was allegedly caught with the pills on January 5. He is charged under the Medicines Act with possessing prescription medicine for sale. The charge carries a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment or a $40,000 fine. Nuku faces a raft of other charges, including possession of methamphetamine. He appeared in the Hastings District Court yesterday. He did not enter pleas and will appear again next month. Viagra is used to treat erectile dysfunction. It retails for between $9.50 and $11.80 per pill.
Euthanasia trial shifted
The case of the Hutt Valley woman charged with assisting a suicide has been shifted to the High Court. Susan Dale Austen, a retired teacher, 66, appeared in court in Wellington yesterday. She faces one charge of aiding Annemarie Niesje Treadwell to commit suicide and two charges of importing pentobarbitone, a sedative that could be used for euthanasia. Treadwell died in Wellington in June 2016, aged 77. Austen’s appearances since her arrest in October 2016 have been in the Wellington District Court but last week the case was shifted to the High Court in part because a trial could be held there sooner. The court offered a possible trial date in October but Austen’s lawyer, Donald Stevens, QC, said that was not possible. The alternative was a trial starting on February 12, 2018, lasting for two or three weeks. Stevens indicated there may be issues that have to be decided in court before the trial could be held. Justice Robert Dobson remanded Austen on bail until September 19 when progress would be monitored.