Bob, re. this link:

http://www.year2000.co.nz/y2krnz01.htm

Concerning the withdrawal of consultants from projects due to liability issues.

Will this bring the NZ Gov. to a halt.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), December 14, 1998

Answers

Richard:

What's the fallout over your government's advice to stockup? I read that the advice was then retracted, similar to the Alliant retraction.

-- Lisa (colonialcousin@overhere.com), December 14, 1998.

Damn lawyers are going to kill thousands if not millions. Anybody know if the so-called "Good Samaritan Law" covers American geeks?

Hallux

"The terrible thing about the quest for truth is that you find it." (Remy de Gourmont, 1858-1915)

-- Hallyx (Hallyx@aol.con), December 14, 1998.

Hi Richard,

No. The issue is over insurance protection offered to consultants testing systems for compliance. This issue will not bring NZ Govt to a halt.

But In my view the only thing that will bring NZ Govt to a halt from Y2K problems will be failure to ensure revenue supply.

That could come about in several ways: Tax is collected through PAYE (income tax paid as you earn) collected by employers. If enough employers fail to remediate their systems then this tax will not be collected.

Tax is also collected through Goods and Services Tax (GST is 12.5% on all transactions). This tax is collected by every person providing goods or services. That means every business/organisation must remediate their systems for dealing with GST. Since these are the most important sources of revenue, and government becomes irrelevant without revenue, people on this forum will now appreciate why. for me, community preparedness is the central issue.

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), December 14, 1998.

Thanks Bob, grrr 12.5% GST, you're lucky!

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), December 15, 1998.

Bob,

I saw this article and thought you might be interested. Seems like New Zealanders are slowly losing their rights, just like we are here in the US:

http://www.scmp.com/news/template/Asia- Template.idc?artid=19981216140214064&top=asia&template=Default.htx&max fieldsize=1556

"Secret agents to be granted break-in right"

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), December 16, 1998.

This search proposal confirms what has been practice for 20 years.

The people who drafted the original laws left a loophole which was shown up in a recent court case.

We have a number of major world events happening next year and on into Y2K and 1 or 2 of the people arriving have little regard for social niceties.

Most Kiwis are unhappy about the recent provision which allows designated foreign nationals to carry weapons in our streets. From our perspective this change addresses some of the related concerns.

New Zealanders have always been allowed by Law to take such steps as are necessary to protect life and property. While in the rural areas I always had firearms for vermin eradication. There have been cases brought to trial in which defendants have been released without conviction following firearms charges in defence of property/life.

The reality is that with Coke comes lots of other stuff, not all of it good.

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), December 16, 1998.