At 4.40pm on Friday the government announced their new appointments to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.  The Standard and even David Farrar has expressed some concerns about them. While some appointments to boards etc by governments of all hues will favour those who are supportive of them, there is normally some attempt to find people who have appropriate skills and knowledge in the area. I am really struggling to find that with the appointments, particularly of Brian Neeson (ex National MP), Ravi Musuku (ex National Candidate) and Ken Shirley (ex ACT MP).

In fact it is far worse than that.  I/S at No Right Turn has gone through Hansard and found some of Mr Neeson’s contributions on Human Rights matters, and one wonders if the agenda here is in fact to destroy the Human Rights Review Tribunal from within. He does not actually support some of the fundamental legislation on which the Tribunal is based. He is simply not appropriate to have on the Tribunal, and anyone headed towards the Tribunal needs to be aware of what will face them.

The timing of the announcement is a shocker also.  Simon Power is better than this, and the timing (last Friday before Christmas) looks like he knows this is not something to be proud of.