Collins and Reed.

Not quite the title of rebellion at first glance but what is Michael Reed doing by calling out the Minister of the Crown Judith Collins?

First of all who is Reed? A migrated Englishman, a pom by another name - arrived in New Zealand as seaman I seem to recall. Perhaps from memory settled here by romance. A man who ventured on to become Queens Counsel. One that might advise, fierce to his task - of the true and clear stones that build a bridge between what is right for both the throne to which he serves yet also to the people that make the throne and hold it aloft as their own Crown of truth and fairness.

So someone bold to his task, standing unflinching before Collins - looking directly into her eyes. It is the Queens Counsel who delivers the message to Collins that queen she is not even though deliberately absent from the Court she chose to be that day. But save a thought for Kristy McDonald who tells the Court during the recent discovery of documents hearing in the Auckland High Court - when explaining the Minister's role needing to be neutral, unbiased and so on, relating all the things the Minister should have done but which she didn't.

Then of course was the dramatic disclosure that there was not a 'shred of evidence' to support Reed's claim that the Minister had been biased or prejudiced against the application of David Bain for compensation. Clearly Ms McDonald had been listening to her 'tunes' on an I pod when Mr Reed read to the Court an email in which a personal secretary of the Minister, Ms Bowie. Where she described what steps should be taken to mislead Ian Binnie to ensure they had a window of opportunity to avoid Binnie 'going feral.'

None of us should not mistake, that email alone, as showing that the Minister was operating with bias against David Bain, let alone the 280 other communications that the Minister seeks to keep secret from David Bain. As the week finishes the country has seen a remarkable demonstration of Judith Collins not having the wit, or foresight to not walk into a haymaker. One tossed roundhouse at her and which she and her advisors must have known for weeks was on its way, because of the release of that particular document to the Defence and what the implications would surely mean.

I've written earlier that Judith Collins had no option but to take a pragmatic approach in settling both the Judicial Review and also the application for compensation because it is obvious the way she has acted in launching her campaign against Binnie, looking to destroy his credibility, using 'contacts' within the media to attack his report. A report that was initially distributed to over 30 different parties but not to the applicant. It's a sign of arrogance, or a type of 'power' madness that Collins could plot against Bain and Binnie in such a public manner and think that there would not only be no reaction from those parties, but also that the wider public would not be able to grasp the misuse of the Royal Prerogative as a weapon against the rights of Bain and ultimately the freedom of all NZers.

In a Country where politeness is considered normal and where Legal terminology is diluted to niceties and subtleness it was reassuring to hear Reed telling it like it was. For him to call out that not only did the self-assumed Queen have no clothes but there she was blissfully unaware as to her state of undress. Unknowing it seems that NZers have the ability to recognise 'Executive' arrogance and a bare naked butt when they see it. That's what it's become folks - farce from The Crown and an insult to due process, Natural Justice and the NZ Bill of Rights. Stood all over by jackboots, stood over arrogantly in full public view and sought to be placated by the unpalatable and untruthful claim by Kristy McDonald QC that there is not a 'shred of proof' of what most NZers, saw and heard. A Minister of the Crown taken upon her self Powers that should never be or have been misused. So thanks to Reed for voicing what many felt. Those who could see and understand what it might be like to have all their rights stolen from them, stolen just like 13 years of David Bain's life and who remain offended by a Government that won't make amends as a Minister mocks them from on high.