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Rankin Case – Leased Executives – Homicide Inquiry – Fiji Murders – Quality Of Life

RANKIN CASE: Christine Rankin has upped her compensation claim to over $1 million, as the Employment Court hearing winds up and the Judge considers his verdict. The judge says he isn’t sure how long he will take to reach a verdict. One News reporter guessed two to three weeks. Mrs Rankin says she feels free now she can go home and hide away. She thanked her thousands of supporters. She is now unemployed. Prime Minister Helen Clark said she didn’t grieve this particular soap opera coming to an end. Some legal experts say the case comes down to whether Mrs Rankin was treated fairly, and earrings and hemlines are merely a salacious sidebar. Others say the case comes down to whether someone on a fixed term contract can expect it to be renewed.

LEASED EXECUTIVES: State Services Minister Trevor Mallard today released a report on Government departmental use of leased executives. Nearly half of the 97 leased executives were employed by the Department of Work and Income.

HOMICIDE INQUIRY: Police have launched a homicide inquiry in the Bay of Plenty after the discovery of a body in a lake north of Taupo. Police say the dead man appears to have been in his thirties.

FIJI MURDERS: The family of Gregory Scrivener, the New Zealand man who was murdered in Fiji with his lover John Scott, say there is more to the case than police are admitting. They say the men were tortured before they were killed. The family is also angry about scandalous claims about the couple’s alleged sex practices, paedophilia and drug use. The family insist that the killings were political. Police have ruled out political motivation, and have launched an inquiry into the couple’s private life. The 22-year-old man accused of killing the pair, who is alleged to have been molested by the pair since he was in school, has undergone a psychiatric assessment.

QUALITY OF LIFE: A survey has ranked Australia as the second best place in the world to live, just behind Norway. New Zealand came in at number 19. A Meanwhile, a New Zealand survey has found the elderly in this country are better off than workers.

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