Kiwiblog

The media always focus on the one worst case example, in this case a $250,000 student loan.

I presume they must be studying medicine or denistry. I would be interested to know how many years of study were involved to get a loan so large.

What is less attention grabbing is that the median loan balance is only $10,206.

I caused scenes of mild panic on Lambton Quay yesterday afternoon. A friend of mine (Megs) has been in Australia with her husband and baby boy. Hubbie had to fly back to Auckland for some work so as Megs doesn’t drive I was due to pick her and baby up at midnight and get them home to Paraparaumu.

However one needs a car baby seat to transport young Master Finlay so before they left they had left her one at AMP where hubbie works, so I could pick it up.

I duly picked it up, and then walked up Lambton Quay to the flight centre. Upon the way I managed to run into no less than a dozen people I knew, all of whom reacted with looks ranging from horror to amusement at the sight of me walking along holding a baby carrier.

The highlight was walking into the Flight Centre with the baby carrier and having Tina, my travel agent, exclaim “Oh my God, is that why you went to China?”.

I then decided not to risk walking home past Parliament, and got a taxi for the rest of the walk home!

Picture below of Finlay this morning, happy to be home.

Now look I don’t mind NBR taking the piss out of me every week. I can handle the derision, the jeers, the not at all subtle piss-takes, but when they claim I am from Wainuiomata – well that is just a step too far. Next they’ll be calling me Chloe!

Ignoring minor conventions like copyright, I present below this week’s effort:
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Oh dear. There must be some mistake. I just want to help people out.

Rodney casually mentions in a post about his Dunedin visit that a student in the audience, two former teachers, a taxi driver and an electrician have all confirmed the stories about David Benson-Pope.

Nevertheless I don’t expect the Police will lay charges. Just like Paintergate they will find that prima facae a case exists but not in the public interest to lay charges (never mind they pursued Shane Ardern over such a trivial issue). The Government will then try to spin that this means he has been cleared.

Likewise I suspect the Speaker will try and delay the case going to Privileges on the grounds of the Police investigation.

Tv One had the story tonight of how police stuff-ups probably led to people drowning unnecessarily. Rodney Hide has a summary of the audio transcript of what happened. This really is awful stuff.

How the Government can get away with saying the service is world class is beyond me. There is no way it should take two hours to decide whether to launch a helicopter.

Sir Humphrey has the full transcript.

Well done Rod – I approve.

I thought former Queenstown Mayor was a bit too much hands on when he started chopping down trees because the Council was too slow to do it. However we have one better with the Carterton Mayor.

Mayor Gary McPhee was questioned by the Police after the Mayor received a complaint about a flat. He promptly went down there, forced his way inside and confronted the residents.

Who needs noise control officers!

Hmmn I appear on Holmes, and a couple of days later they say it is moving timeslots. I hope they are not related

Marian Hobbs ‘challenged’ Mark to state where he stands on the public service, as reported on Jordan’s blog.

To be consistent I should include the response Mark has released where he rejecting the US-style pork barrel politics of Labour.

BLUMSKY REJECTS US-STYLE PORK BARREL POLITICS

The National Party’s Wellington Central candidate, Mark Blumsky is rejecting the US-style pork barrel politics espoused by Labour’s Marian Hobbs.

Ms Hobbs seems to be saying that unnecessary jobs should be retained, purely because they are in her (current) electorate. This is the worst aspect of US system, where politicians put their own interests ahead of the national interest.

“I am ambitious for Wellington Central. Certainly we want a strong public service, and the majority of public servants are doing a very valuable job.

“But I want a city which also has a vibrant private sector, a vibrant culture, decent roads and a voice for Wellington,” says Mark Blumsky.

Craccum (Auckland Uni student newspaper) auctioned off its front page on Trade Me. The smart Wellington people at Salient saw an opportunity bid for it, and won it for $2,500. Their cover is below:

The reference to the former VC of Vic, and current VC of Auckland, is quite funny.

The Dominion Post reports there may be further sex abuse charges laid against the former Leader of the Christian Heritage Party, Graham Capill.

I have to agree with the quote highlighted by Russell Brown, that “the more public the moralistic display, the greater the private demons. People who have true family values live by them, while deviant phonies incessantly talk about them.”

Not true in every case, but all too true for some.

The Press hits back at recent spin from the 9th floor in their editorial.

The Government has done a total u-turn on Tim Grosser. From calling him a traitor, and demanding he stop all WTO work immediately, they are now saying they will resource him to carry on as chair of the WTO Agriculture Negotiating Group until nominations day.

Normally u-turns are because they have polled on an issue, but this one was so fast they must have worked some things out for themselves.

I suspect their thought process was:

1) We should have never called him a traitor out loud as that looks bad. We should have suggested it to friendly media instead.

2) There will now be lots of attention as to whether he stays on or not. Media may start asking other countries if they want him to remain. And most will say yes.

3) A replacement Chair has to have unanimous support, so any move to oust him could well fail.

4) So he is likely to carry on, yet with no support from NZ Government he will be having to crash on the couch at the Aussie’s place, finance his own expenses, and work without pay for several months.

5) He will become a national hero working unpaid to serve NZ, and the Government will look like a nasty piece of work putting politics ahead of the national interest.

6) Reverse decision Mr Sutton

If you have not done so already, check out Rodney’s blog where he details how a caller to National Radio was praising Labour’s budget. And then it was revealed she is the wife of the head of the PM’s Communications Unit.

Priceless.

NBR have started a blog. This is a great idea for a weekly publication to stay current. Blogs run by media can do very well. One of my favourite US ones is NRO’s Corner (see under overseas links).

Fascinated by the dinner they arranged with Rodney Hide and John Tamihere. Perhaps John is going to be the ACT candidate for Tamaki instead of Banksie?

I’m in transit in Hong Kong, but a helpful text message from Ali Mau said that the segment on blogging was going to run on Holmes tonight. How did it go? If anyone in Wellington taped it, would be nice to watch when back.

The Press editorial says that the Government would be cutting off the nose to spite the face, if it insists on having Tim Grosser resign his WTO role. They ask whether our trade interests are best served by Groser retaining his chairmanship of such an important WTO committee and that the only answer to that question is a resounding “yes”.

It is useful to contrast the different approach taken by Labour and National to actign in the best interests of our trade policy. We have seen with Labour a fit of petulance and sulking which has been staggering. To have a Minister label a civil servant as a traitor is awful.

Now not that long ago a Labour MP, and former Leader, sought to be Director-General of the WTO. Despite having led two election campaigns against National, despite having said many awful things about National over the years, and despite the fact that having him as a disgruntled Labour backbencher was politically useful, the National Government endorsed him to be Director-General of the WTO. And they funded much of his campaign, provided staff support etc and eventually got him elected.

Why? Because it was in NZ’s best interests. A lesson Labour could swallow some pride on, and follow.

Alas it looks unlikely.

Owen McShane has a good column in the NZ Herald called “Planners mired in an irrelevant past” dealing with how when regulators have tried to protect mainstreet shopping, they have actually devastated the retailing sector.

Helen is looking for people to blame over the fact the budget was a fizzer. And has decided it is the media’s fault.

You see Helen says that Labour President Mike Williams never said “There’s something in the Budget that is referred to as the deep, dark secret”. Helen says that Mr Williams had the words ‘deep dark secret’ put to him by the NZ Herald and then attributed to him.

Helen has really developed a bad track record when it comes to her view of events vs the media view. And this time they have kept the tapes. And what do the tapes say:

In the taped interview on the threshold issue, Mr Williams told the Herald: “I haven’t heard any discussion about it at all. I mean there is some deep, dark secret in the Budget which keeps getting referred to as the deep, dark secret. Whether that’s it I just don’t know.”

The tape confirms the Herald reporter never used the phrase.

So the PM was either misled by Mr Williams, or told a(nother) porkie.

Sunday was a great day. I climbed the Great Wall of China. Now when I say climbed, I mean climbed, not walked. The section we went to goes to 1,000 metres elevation. There are a couple of hundred steps between each watch tower, and by steps I don’t mean like in a building, but ones which almost come up to your knee. Fucking painful, let me say.

I took lots of photos, and will blog them when home. Forgot the download cable! Here are some other photos of the Badaling section which I was on.

I was one of the less than 2% who claimed to the very top, through all 15 watch towers. The view at the top watch tower was pretty amazing. The wall stretched as far as the eye could see, over ranges of mountains and hills.

Personally I don’t know why they built the fucking thing. Any invader who could get his hordes up the mountain, would not be daunted by a little wall to climb over. I suppose it was useful for lookouts and to move guards along.

The climb up was really tiring, and only the clinically insane do it without rest breaks. However going down was almost worse, in a different way. You’re struggling to keep your balance, yet moving quite a bit faster. It was not so tiring, but really pounds the legs. When I got to the bottom my legs were almost jelly. I seriously couldn’t take a normal step larger than a shuffle. Even 24 hours later it is still painful to walk, but no regrets.

It was one of those days you just remember for ever. The climb, the views, the people you meet on the way and the sense of tranquillity and achievement at the top. If only I could have stayed up there

Yesterday had my wallet, including all my cash and credit cards stolen. It was pilfered from my shoulder bag while visiting the Forbidden City where the Emperors used to live. Normally I always have my wallet physically on me, but after a sweltering day in jeans on Sunday, I was in shorts so stuck it in my bag.

I retraced my steps in case it had been thrown away after being emptied, as I also had several receipts needed for expense claims in there. Tried to talk to Police but language difficulties make it pointless.

Anyway my first challenge was how to get back to my hotel, with no cash at all. In the best traditions of the developing world I begged! Like a professional I eyed up various potential targets, chose a nice looking elderly American couple and asked them to give me some money. And they did! Of course as I was only asking for US 30c that may have helped.
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I have to admit that there are two aspects to the Chinese culture which do not sit well with me. The first is the unbending attitude to rules against common sense.

The best example I can give of this is the insistence at the hotel pool that I had to purchase a bathing cap, to use the swimming pool. Now anyone who has met me, would be aware that I of all people don’t need a bathing cap. In NZ they would laugh and ignore the rule, but here the rules are unbending, and staff are not trained to use judgement.
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Philip Temple proposes in the NZ Herald that the election date in NZ should be fixed, like it is in Germany and the US.

I agree with Philip, for a number of reasons.

The first is that I love the idea of replacing the negative no confidence motions with the requirement for parties to propose and get majority support for an alternative government. This would be especially welcome to flush out parties like NZ First who are great at opposing everything under the sun, but far less partial to declaring what they will support.

Another positive aspect is that it would do away with the insane situation where candidates have a 90 day spending limit, yet an election can be called with only 23 days notice so hence they may be two thirds of the way through their spending period without knowing it.

Also beneficial would be an end to the mindless speculation on election dates.

And last but not least it would mean no more winter election campaigns

Rodney has done a nice wee comparison on his blog. He’s worked out that government expenditure is forecast to increase 38% in the next five years, while GDO is only forecast to increase by 26%.

That means expenditure growth will outstrip GDP by 45%.

Labour with a large surplus is somewhat akin to an alcoholic in charge of a brewery.