Kiwiblog

I’ve added a link on the left to the NetGuide Awards. There is a section for blogs. That is one of the categories decided by judges, not public votes, so I don’t need to bribe the masses. However if you do like reading my blog, do feel free to nominate it, and say why in less than 25 words.

You should take the time to vote in the other 16 categories. Apart from having your opinion count, you can win prizes.

The NZ Herald has a NZPA story dated today (21 Sep) about an attack on a Jewish headstone in Wanganui.

Silent Running had the story and photo 17 days earlier on 4 September.

It makes you wonder how many other things we read in our daily newspapers actually happened weeks or even months e
arlier.

In a bout of factionalism literally unseen since the 1980s, two members of Labour’s “right” faction have pledged to resign their positions, if George Hawkins (from the same faction) is dropped from Cabinet.

Firsty it should be stated that Clayton Cosgrove threatening to resign if Hawkins is sacked, can only make a sacking far far more likely. Clayton is not at all well liked by his colleagues (or opponents).

But Tamihere threatening toi resign also, would be very destabilising for the Government. Therefore it is likely this blackmail will be sucessful and Hawkins will keep his job. But how demeaning to keep your job not due to the confidence of your colleagues, but because of blackmail from your mates.

Quite frankly Hawkins should go. He is a lazy and incompetent Minister. The paper trail in the Leaky Homes scandal showed he didn’t even read the letters from building industry experts warning him of the problem, and never once showed any sort of initiative.

His relationship with the Police is dysfunctional, as he interferes in minor matters like the colour of the paint for traffic safety cars. And the nonsense about the lowest crime stats in 20 years is debunked here.

The long expected reshuffle is looking more and more as a non event.

It’s game, set and match to the blogosphere as CBS has finally backed away from its alternate reality and admitted they can not authenticate the fake memos, and should not have used them.

CBS however still displays the arrogance which makes it so despised. Recall that it twice aggressively defended the memos, and a former executive even attacked bloggers who raased concerns stating “You couldn’t have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of check and balances [at '60 Minutes'] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.”

Indeed you can’t. Score one for pajamas.

CBS say they were mislead but acted in good faith. It is hard to give them even this much credit for three reasons. The first is they were warned by some of their own experts, prior to broadcast, that the documents could not be authenticated. The second is that as concerns were aired publicly they refused to back down and portrayed themselves as the vicitims of “powerful and well-financed” supporters of President Bush.

How paranoid do you have to be to regard the blogosphere as part of the vast right wing conspiracy? Also very liberal media outlets such as New York Times and Washington Post concurred with the blogs, as to the credibility problems.

But the third and most damning aspect is that the sources of the documents was not a source of unimpeachable quality as CBS claimed, but what No Right Turn calls a partisan wingnut.

Bill Burkett was a Democratric activist in Texas who loathed George Bush, had a history of making false allegations against him. To treat that man as a reliable source is simply outraegous.

It will be interesting to see whom CBS appoint to do the so called independent investigation of their actions. Regardless it will be a very long time until they have much credibility again.

I am sure I read in the media last week about a 42 year old public servant in Hamilton, being charged for a rape, dating back to 1982.

However I can not find any such reference online anywhere.

Am I imagining it? Can anyone locate it online or let me know where it appeared?

The High Court has rejected the Air NZ – Qantas merger, which is a great win for competition.

Against the merger had been almost every consumer and industry group, plus the Commerce Commissions in NZ and Australia. The only one in favour, apart from the airlines who wanted monopoly profits, was Dr Cullen it seems.

This is a great example of why Government should not own commercial competitive businesses. As the owner of Air NZ, the Labour Government just wanted to make lots of money and hence supported the merger. If it did not own Air NZ, it would of course never have supported a merger. In fact the reason Air NZ almost went broke is because the Government spent months blocking overseas airlines from buying into Air NZ.

Go on over to the new Dog Biting Men blog (MediaCow plus friends) and read all about how David and Ben met. One could make a film of it!

Also an amusing account of the ASPA awards, which sound like they were a good night.

There won’t be as much blogging as normal for a while, as the two days a week contracting has expanded to five days a week. This is on top of my almost full-time role running Curia so two full-time roles is not pretty.

And on top of the stuff I regard as my job, I also have a daunting and growing list of other things I need to do in the next few weeks. I have multiple board papers to read and write for both InternetNZ and .nz Registry Services. Am working on a couple of discussion papers, some training and some fund-raising (a quiz night) for National, and need to organise a seminar for the Classical Libs. Plus revising the web content for the Int Young Democrat Union, and also got work to do for the Republican Movement.

Bottom line is that even with my ability to only sleep four hours a day, I haven’t got much time for blogging at the moment. Should get better in a week or so.

Oh yeah, also will be nice to have some time to keep in touch with old friends.

I was interested to see a headline on Scoop that read “Students Love Dick“.

Thinking it was a survey of some sort, I was disappointed but amused to find out the actual topic. Good to see student politicians have not lost their sense of humour.

The final election guide (well for today anyway!).

There are a massive 40 people after 11 spots. I have reviewed them all, and one piece of general advice is to almost always avoid health professionals emplyed by the Board as they are motiviated by issues relating to their area, rather than to the wider health sector. This isn’t meant as a criticism, but recognising that they have a conflict of interest. People should read the conflicts of interest declarations closely and again generally avoid those who are conflicted.

I will be ranking as follows:
(more…)

WRC has twelve members elected, being five from Wellington, three from Lower Hutt, two from Wairarapa, and one each from Kapiti Coast, Porirua and Upper Hutt.

My views on the Wellington candidates are again below:

Judith AItken – rank highly – former CEO, hard working and high profile.
Sally Baber – swapping from WCC to WRC, also worth ranking in top five, sensible.
Hugh Barr – having tramped many times from Makara to Island Bay, I support his work to upgrade and progress this trail.
Mike Gibson – independent, verging on maverick according to some, Michael is string on accountability which is worth supporting.
Fran Wilde – I’ll rank No 1. Fran has a proven track record of achievement and will be a huge asset to WRC. Could well become Chair.

They will be my top five. Turner and McDavitt look pretty good also. Laidlaw should be ranked bottom.

I follow local body politics quite closely, and also am fortunate to know many Mayors and Councillors personally. For those who may find my views useful, here’s my picks for Wellington City Council.

[Candidate's bios here]

Mayor

This is an easy one. Incumbent Kerry Prendergast deserves to be re-elected. Kerry has managed to significantly reduce much of the awful acrimony which surrounded the previous Council, by being able to work across ideological divides with most Crs. She leads well, has articulated a good strategy and is a very pleasant positive person so I will vote Kerry No 1.

Wellington is actually very fortunate to have had a string of very good Mayors during my lifetime. From Sir Michael Fowler to Kerry, the only bad one was Belich in the 1980s.

The only major issue I have disagreed with Kerry on is spending $500,000 on a stock exchange sign. She will, I predict, win more first preferences than her five rivals combined.

Northern Ward

Another easy choice. The reduction in council size from 19 to 14 (which is a good thing) means this wards goes from four to three and one can be finally rid of Helene Ritchie who is so destructive and unable to work with others she got sacked as Deputy Mayor in the 1980s by her own (then) Labour team. Has also tried to stand for NZ First, and for Mayor around seven times.

So I would rank Ritchie 9th of nine, and give the top three ranks to the 1-2-3 for North team of Ngaire Best, Robert Armstrong and Ian Hutchings who have worked hard and well for the ward and the city. And again, knowing them personally, a damn nice group of people.

Onslow-Western Ward

Another easy call. Incumbent Councilors Andy Foster, John Morrison and Judy Siers should be ranked in the top three, and Jack Ruben should be ranked 6th of six. Foster is very experienced and hard working. Morrison grandstanded a bit in the previous term but has settled down well this term.

Lambton Ward

This is my actual ward. My 1st preference will go to new candidate, Ian McKinnon. McKinnon is a very impressive figure who will I am sure be an excellent Councilor and may even be Mayor one day.

My 2nd preference is Alick Shaw. Alick has been a good Deputy Mayor, and takes a sensible stance on most issues. As a former Labour candidate pur polices are far from similar, but I find Alick a likeable competent guy.

My 3rd preference is Stephanie Cook from the Alliance. Again her politics are far from mine, but she takes her duties very seriously, works hard with community groups and doesn’t overly grandstand.

4th will probably go to Rosamund Averton. I know little about her, but I like what she says in her profile.

Eastern Ward

Number one should be my good friend David Major. David (and his family) is a lovely caring guy who is an ideal Councilor, as he combines a sensible attitude with real compassion, reflecting his years of community work for the Salvation Army and other groups.

Ray Ahipene-Mercer is pretty well regarded for the work he does, and worth supporting also.

I would rank bottom (6th) Mr Phil Sprey, who also stood for Council in 2001.

Southern Ward

This ward has only two councilors (the rest get three). Celia Wade-Brown and Sue Piper are both good Crs who can work as part of a team, and put a lot of energy into their roles.

Celia is a Green and Sue a former PSA official, so again politics differ, but I try to support the best people, regardless of party, at a local level. Celia is a former Councilor of InternetNZ, and is well informed on Internet issues (we have WCC to thank for Citylink).

I would rank Langi Sipeli highly also. Langi is active in community activities, and would contribute a lot.

That magical last and eighth spot should be reserved for Bryan Pepperell.

Do make sure you vote. It only takes a few minutes to fill out the ballot paper.

Elections for VUWSA start on Monday.

Salient has the bios of the candidates.

VUWSA has not had a good year last year with revelations that $130,000 has gone missing from Ngai Tauira which is fully funded by VUWSA out of compulsory membership fees. Student associations have a high incidence rate of fraud, partly because with compulsory membership one feels less protective of funds, when no matter hopw lax you are with them, no-one can resign in protest and/or stop paying.

I know quite a few of the candidates, and I urge any students who want a more accountable VUWSA to vote for:

President: Michael Collins

Women’s Rights Officer: Kerry O’Connor

Council Representative: Michael “seal” Mabbett

General Exec: Brendan Jarvis, David Cassidy and Hannah Collings

Unlike Nigel, I am delighted Nick Kelly is unoppossed for Welfare VP. The more people see of Nick, the more the future of capitalism is assured.

I just read on Scoop that the CTU is supporting industrial action at Reading Cinemas in Wellington.

Firstly can I congratulate the CTU on protesting by handing out free popcorn. This is an excellent idea. I look forward to them handing out free cheeseburgers at McDonalds and free chicken at KFC also.

More seriously I wonder what the level of these “minimal wages” are at Reading. In my experience a lot of people like to work at cinemas as the hours are flexible, and you get to see lots of free movies. The job is almost totally unskilled (main requirement is a good attitude) so one doesn’t expect huge wages.

Anyway anyone out there know what Reading staff are paid?

It was great to read in the SST that Clark faction of Labour thinks that poor Lianne Dalziel has suffered enough for the minor minor sin of (being caught) deliberately lying to the public, and wants her back in Cabinet.

I strongly encourage this. Few moves could better confirm that the Government is arrogant and dishonest.

Wairaraapa MP Georgina Beyer seems to be proving that she made the correct decision when she decided to become a woman.

Because she can’t make her mind up!!

In the SST today, I was stunned to read she is thinking of standing for Parliament again. She has twice already said she is retiring from national politics. Her credibility is not going to be good if she changes her mind again.

David Irving has had her photo stunt and tried to board a plane to NZ, and been refused. The media of course couldn’t resist photos and stories, even though everone knew it was just a stunt – Irving didn’t even bring luggage with him.

Iriving is a racist, a bigot and a very nasty piece of work. However by banning him from visiting NZ, the Government has given him far far more publicity both in NZ, and world-wide, than if he had visited.

If he had visited he would have been a two day wonder, and he probably would have been humuliated as people could have questioned him about his views, which do not stand up to scrutiny.

Kiwi Pundit is very upset that Helen Clark has admitted that someone is banned from NZ, because of their views.

No Right Turn mades the very valid point that freedom of speech is not there to protect people with popular views.

New blogger Rich disagrees.

It is almost beyond dispute that the CBS memos are fakes. They were sourced from a man called Bill Burkett, who has a long history of attacking Bush.

Burkett, to be blunt, is a raving nutter. He had some issue with the Texas Guard not helping him with a medical problem, and decide to personally blame the then State Governor, Gweorge W Bush. Now as a former Prime Ministerial staffer I have had a lot of experience with individuals who have some gripe with Government (which is fair enough) who blame the head of the government personally for their situation (which is stupid) for something decided around ten levels below them. Almost without exception, these people are unbalanced at best or outright mad.

Burkett hates Bush, has compared him to Hitler, has had a number of nervous breakdowns, and is a pathological liar. And this is the source CBS relied on!!!!

Now CBS and some of their local cheerleaders, including No Right Turn and Hard News have tried to push the “fake but true” line. That the documents are forgeries but they reflected the situation accurately.

I’d love to hear Russell interview someone on Media Watch who tried to push that. You see this the intellectual equivalent of a police officer saying “I knew Arthur Allan Thomas was guilty, so I just manufactured some evidence to prove it”.

I also love NRT claiming that they were proved false by not by “partisan wingnuts” but by Killian’s secretary. Ummn do you think that anyone would talked to Killian’s secretary if it were not for the bloggers?

In fact all those who care about media ethics should thank the blogosphere. It will hopefully be a long time before a corrupt arrogant news organisation like CBS can get away with such a poorly verified story.

Incidentially I personally believe Bush did slack off to a fair degree in his service. The war was ending or over, and it is pretty obvious he did the minimum possible in the latter years. You didn’t need to forge documents to make that point.

Whether it matters to people or not is another issue. I think most people know Bush was a slacker in his 20s and 30s. In fact his gumption in excusing everything he did up until 40 as youthfull foolishness, appeals greatly to me, having just turned 37!

Bush has never campaigned significantly (like Kerry does) on his war time service. He has been President for four years, and it is on that record he will be judged.

The irony of the CBS scandal is that they have ironically made Bush almost bullet proof. When all the other dirt tries to come out such as cocaine use, abortions etc, people are just going to assume it is about as credible as the CBS News – ie not at all.

Incidentially people should not assume from my blogging I am a huge Bush fan. I will blog my views on Bush vs Kerry soon, and they may surprise some.

Banskie certainly inspires huge loyalty from his staff. I can only admire my former colleagues Cameron and Trish as they exercise their civic rights.

Having heckled many Labour MPs over the years, including at several Leader’s debates, I fully back the right of staff employed by taxpayers or ratepayers to participate in the democratic process. The 2002 Leaders’s debates were especially fun as Paul Holmes threatened me with evicition from the studio for heckling Helen over burning her forged paintings etc.

It is interesting though that Banskie’s staff are out there supporting their boss, while Hubbard’s staff are not, presumably as they are too busy stopworking and/or striking!

The Press reports from down south about a lovely chap called Toby Rikihana who at a select committee hearing told MPs they are “dummies”, “immigrants”, and “monkeys”.

Now I’m prepared to take a risk, and state that I will take bets at 10:1 odds that Mr Rikihana dervives 95% or more of his income from the taxpayer either directly or indirectly.

So if he thinks that all non Maori are “merely immigrants” then perhaps he would like to return all the taxes us mere immigrants have paid to him.

I also note a submission from the Action, Resource and Education Network of Aotearoa. It has been my experience that many of these groups are in fact a handful of people who think they sound more important with a title.

In fact a mate and I in the mid 90s wanted to put a press release out on some issue, and we realised that being from David and Mike won’t get carried by any media. So we brainstromed a name (I think it was the Campaign for Human Rights) invented a letterhaed and half an hour late did a press release. It got quite good coverage also.

Hmmn perhaps it is time to set up some new groups. Hopefully something more original than the “Horror Brigade of the Islamic Secret Army”.

I’ve not yet decided whether the proposed workplace superannuation scheme is overall good or bad.

It is certainly true we do need to lift NZ’s saving rates. The demographics for future superannuation and health costs are incredibly scary, and people should not rely on the state to be able to maintain what we have today.

One of the biggest negatives of the Cullen Fund is that it has conned people into thinking it means superannuation levels and ages can stay the same for when my generation retires. Hence, people have stopped saving at the very time they should be saving more. The Cullen Fund will only cover around 14% of future superannuation.

The proposal will mean more compliance costs for employers, but doing collections through PAYE might minimise that. The proposal by economist Rosanna Wozniak that one could do a trade off by cutting the corporate tax rate, in exchange for employer contributions is an interesting one. However often corporate tax is a withholing tax only, so it effectively mean more costs for business owners. If one cuts company and personal tax rates then one might be talking, plus people would actually have more money to save!

I can’t beleive that Phillip Edwards has got only nine years for killing David McNee.

This means he will be out in less than five years unless he kills some more people in jail. He should have been found guilty of murder – he bludgeoned McNee over 30 times and calmy looted his house and stole his car.

Just searched for his name on Google and the number one hit for Philip Edwards is the Sensible Sentencing Trust Database. What a useful resource.

In related news the District Court Judge who was previously burlgled by McNee, is suing the NZ Herald for defamation. No doubt Winston would be included if he was not protected by parliamentary privilege.

The Police have also made a statement as to why they did not prosecute for the earlier burglary. Seems fair enough to me.

I just saw a man on Tv One claiming to be an MP called Ross Robertson. I can name every NZ MP since 1984 and have never heard or seen this man before so he is obviously an imposter. He purports to be a long serving Labour MP from Auckland, first elected 18 years ago in 1987.

Google returns zero hits for him, so he is obviously not real.

Can anyone cast light on who this alleged MP is?

Maybe this is why MediaCow is no more? It was a balloonist!

I can’t beleive the courts don’t have better things to do than rule on low flying balloons.

After having carefully studied all the issues, I have been persuaded by the protester in this story on Stuff that it would be wrong to ban hunting.

It is so nice to see a protester who is both cute and right wing.