Luxon won’t intervene in prison case

Jailed Kiwi brothers subject to Thai process

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said there was “a process that needs to play out here”, regarding his decision not to intervene in the case of two Kiwi brothers imprisoned in Thailand.

Hamish and Oscar Day were arrested in Phuket last month while on holiday after fighting with a police officer and taking his gun.

He said the case was before the courts in Thailand.

Luxon spoke to media from Bangkok, where he touched down for the first dedicated visit to Thailand by a New Zealand Prime Minister since 2013.

He also again defended hosting Myanmar officials in New Zealand for an Asean conference, ahead of his meeting with his Thai counterpart.

Thailand has had many thousands of people fleeing from Myanmar cross the border since Myanmar’s Tatmadaw military carried out a coup in February 2021.

Luxon told reporters the government condemned outright the Myanmar coup and New Zealand was simply following the policy set by Asean.

He said the Asean position was to ensure no political leadership from Myanmar was involved in the conversations “but it is a belief that there is value in having constructive dialogue with officials in particular”, he said.

It was put to him that Australia had refused to allow Myanmar officials at similar Asean meetings.

“Yes, and that’s why I’m saying it’s different, the position within Asean is that the political leadership is not participating,” Luxon said.

He expected the coup and the effects on Thailand would be raised in his discussions with Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.

“As you know Thailand has a very long border with Myanmar, there’s hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people that have come into Thailand as a consequence of that. Thailand is managing what is a very difficult situation and I look forward to talking to the prime minister about that.”

Thailand is Southeast Asia’s second largest economy and a manufacturing powerhouse with plenty of opportunity for trade, and New Zealand’s 10th-largest trading partner.

Luxon is hoping to “raise the energy” and reboot an international relationship as part of his trade and tourism-focused charm offensive throughout the region.

— NZ Herald, RNZ

Vandalism of Rangitı¯kei’s Lake Alice water tower has prompted one survivor of the former psychiatric hospital to call for the “disturbing” behaviour to stop.

The water tower once supplied Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital — where young children were subjected to torture through electric shocks and numbing paraldehyde injections in the 1970s, under the charge of lead psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks.

The original hospital buildings have been destroyed and turned into farmland, with the remaining water tower now in private ownership.

A Lake Alice survivor said in recent months there had been groups visiting the water tower in the middle of the night. They had been doing burnouts, smashing windows and tagging the tower.

She had seen comments on social media that included people saying “there’s ghosts out there”.

Scott Phillips, who owns the water tower, suspected it was being targeted by people with an interest in “dark tourism”.

“Whether it’s kids thinking it’s a neat thing to do to hold a seance out there, or to write their names on it — I don’t know.

“I’d like to believe the people doing this have no concept of what actually took place there.”

The survivor said she found the behaviour “really upsetting and disturbing”.

“Every time I hear this, and the other survivors hear it, it’s upsetting that people are treating it like it’s some sort of joke.

“Just let it lie now.” Phillips said it was “disappointing”

Scott Phillips and Trudy Reeves own the former Lake Alice water tower which is being targeted by vandals, upsetting survivors of the psychiatric hospital.

because to access the tower people would have to climb over a barbedwire fence and it was clearly private property. Night-time visitors had left behind empty alcohol bottles and climbed to the top of the 23-metre tower, he said.

He has now boarded up the bottom windows of the tower to prevent people from breaking in.

The tower is still facing an uncertain future. Phillips and his wife Trudy Reeves have listed the land for private sale after declining a Government offer to purchase the tower.

Phillips is still hopeful a Government buyout could be arranged to turn the tower into a memorial.

In February, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists issued a public apology to survivors of Lake Alice, but it was seen as lacking by many survivors.