Kiwiblog

It’s sad, even if it was inevitable, to read that the Auckland – Wellington train service is going to halt at the end of September.

I’ve taken that train several times. While no-where near as good as European train services, it is still a pleasant trip with some great scenery. I used to take a book and sit outside (there a small platform area where you can do this) enjoying the view and the weather.

I’m actually tempted to book a final trip on it, before it stops on 30 September. Could be fun.

As I said it was probably inevitable that a service which costs twice as much as travelling by plane would not be sustainable.

Sophia at Red Confectionary blogged over the weekend over the protest march re Israel/Lebanon.

There is a legitimate variety of views on whether Israel is or is not justified in responding to Hezbollah attacks, and the scale of their response. Reasonable people can disagree on that.

But as Sophia reports, the radicals on that march actually want Hezbollah, a terrorist organisation, to win and for Israel to be destroyed. Their chant was:

“Down, down, Israel”
“Victory to Hezbollah”
“Up, up Hezbollah”
“Burn down Israel”

And these are the so called peace movement!!

Trevor Loudon of course has a profile of one of the march organisers – Simon Oosterman.

Tony Hughes at The GeekZoner calculates that WAP access with Telecom costs $50,000 a GB.

Using a 7.32MB as a comparison, Tony calculates the costs of downloading it are:

(a) 4.2c on a 10GB ADSL plan with Xtra
(b) 39c with a a Vodafone data card
(c) $58.56 on a Windows Mobile Pocket PC at Telecoms casual access rate
(d) $374.78 on a Nokia 6265 using Telecom’s WAP rates

Source: Tony Hughes http://www.geekzone.co.nz/tonyhughes

Last week Ihug went up for sale. It will be fascinating who buys them, as they are generally regarded as being the third largest ISP in NZ. They are also my ISP.

And this week Woosh has purchased Quicksilver. An interesting merger between a traditional ISP and a wireless provider.

I suspect the mergers and purchases are going to continue for a while yet until there are around two dozen ISPs left.

Even though personally I fnd the right hand turn rule easy to use, I tend to support the AA’s call for it to be changed so that like in almost all other countries, traffic turning on the kerb can do so with right of way.

It would be a hassle during the transition period, but I do see all too often near misses as cars turn across a road as a left turning vehicle is giving way, and then the car behind which isn’t turning almost bowls them.

The rationale behind the rule I guess is to make it easier for cars turning across the traffic, to net get stuck for ages.

If this change is supported, I would hope they also look at allowing left turning drivers to do so on a red light, so long as it is safe.

Looking at the various media stories on the Kahui twins murder, I’m starting to suspect that the media believe it is the father.

I hasten to add that I have no first hand knowledge of the deaths, and my musinsg here are based on logical deductions from media stories, not from evidence or statements. Anyway having made those disclaimers, here’s why I’m starting to think it is the father:

1) The aunts have said it is a male

2) The aunts are related to the mother, which makes it more likely they would dob in someone not a blood relative

3) If the killer was anyone except a parent, then wouldn’t the parents be leaving no stone unturned finding out who killed their baby?

4) The grandmother has said the killer is female, which may be a tactic to divert attention from the father – who is her son.

5) After the aunts said it was a male, media reports referred to a no comment from the lawyer for the father. This is an old journalistic trick of pointing out who they think did it, without actually naming them.

So my pick is the media have concluded it is the father, and the statements to date seem to support this. I may be wrong of course – time will tell.

Someone on Trade Me (of course) is auctioning off a potato they claim looks like Helen Clark.

Can’t quite see the likeness myself!

As taxes and rates go up, Bob Clarkson finds out that it is costing $600 an hour to operate a weed-eater on a state highway.

The vigilant Bob was driving from Te Maunga to Welcome Bay on SH29 when he saw someone operating a weedeater clearing grass around power poles that were seven metres back from the curbside. Following the weedeater were two safety cone trucks and in front of it was a safety sign truck.

A few phone calls established safety cone trucks were $1500 per day, a sign truck $1200 per day. a weedeater operator costs $600 per day and you get a total of $4,800 a day or $600 per hour plus GST to operate a weedeater!!

Bob also points out that there is probably more danger of a car hitting one of the three trucks than there is of one hitting the weedeater operator!

There truly is a website for everything. This is a website of Kitlers or Cats that look like Hitler!!

I wonder if they have a similar site for Stalin or Mao?

Hat Tip: Jeremy G-H

Oh yes we have a winner for quote of the week, even though it has just started:

“Ethical counselling from the Labour Party is like a parenting course from the Kahui family”

- Matthew Hooton on Nine to Noon yesterday.

Okay, if you are not currently a gym member (or been one in the last year) then you can join your local gym for 50%, if you sign up by the end of the month. This is a massive saving.

And even better, this is not some government subsidised scheme which you or I have to fund from our taxes. FitnessNZ, the association of health and fitness centres, is paying itself for the half price discounts.

Go to this page on their website and just click the region you live in. It will then show you a list of participating gyms for that area. Click on the gym you are interested in, and it shows you a range of prices for three, six and twelve months, along with the normal and discounted price.

I think this is a great initiative. The cost of membership for a gym can be significant, so this is a great way to start off cheaply – you can then evaluate it at the end of the period. And with our politicians obsessed with the obesity epidemic and promoting solutions such as more taxes, maximum sizes for easter eggs etc, it’s great to see the industry doing their bit by making exercising at a gym more cheaply available. I suspect this initiative could do more good than anything which the Select Committee comes up with!

Each gym has a limited number of subsidised places left (they are displayed on the website), so it might pay to move quickly. You can also purchase membership for friends and family so long as they are not current gym members also.

I already am a member at Bodyworks, so not eligible myself which is a pity. I would have saved $419 if this promotion was running when I joined up last year.

Was at Thorndon New World last night and as is sometimes the case, felt a trolley bump into me from behind. Turning around though, I find it is being propelled by a Labour Cabinet Minister!

However as it was Parekura Horomia, I am certain it was not deliberate as I don’t think I have ever met him. Incidentially he was looking a lot slimmer than in times past and had a very healthy selection of food.

At supermarkets I am a classic marketing subject. I will swap brands to save a few cents, and will buy things I don’t normally just because they are on special that week. I even spend time figuring out what size of a product is the cheapest per 100 gms! Yet the savings from doing so are so small compared to my income. Must be a good thrifty upbringing!

One of the newspaper editorials last week lamented the fact that despite his party’s name, Winston shows he is unable to put New Zealand first, instead continuing to make him and us a bit of a laughing stock.

He had everything set up for him for the trip to be a success. All he had to do was act like a rational intelligent human being. But no he puts his personal feuds above all else.

Frankly it is not just his cutting off of McCain that was offensive. Just as offensive is his refusal to even give the media an itiernary. They are our check on the job he is doing, and to have them following his car in a taxi is a disgraceful attempt to avoid scrutiny. He is on our payroll.

Clark is talking nonsense also when she says the media need to stop themselves becoming the story. The media hate being the story. I know the first hand from the time I went through the press gallery with a camera on my last day at Parliament. God, I was treated like someone with the Ebola virus as journalists dived under desks to avoid being snapped.

The media did nothing wrong except do their jobs after being invited to do so by John McCain. And talking of McCain – did anyone see the full recording of his words last night on Close Up? My God he was praising NZ to the hilt. What sort of moron cuts him off doing that? I mean seriously at least wait until he has finished speaking.

Peters is not going to be taken seriously anyway after this. Every Embassy in NZ will have added this incident to their file of him, and the first thing every foreign minister he meets with will read is how he is an unstable joke.

Bring on the day we have a Government with a serious Foreign Minister such as Tim Groser. A Foreign Minister who puts NZ’s interests ahead of his petty vanity.

The NZ Herald has coverage of yesterday’s press conference while the Dom Post focuses on how he has ignored Clark’s calls for him to calm down. They also point out this is a repition of his behaviour at APEC. Basically he comes across as a blustering bully who will have public temper tantrums if he doesn’t like the media questions.

Spent most of the afternoon in Christchurch Koru Club. Almost had to feel sorry for Judith Tizard who was sitting in a corner intently reading a book, as 95% of the rest of the club were National Party MPs and officials. Her worst nightmare came to life.

Also amusing was Duncan Garner having to be summoned onto his flight over the PA by name – not once but twice!! That boy does like the limelight!

Don Brash has just finished his key-note speech to National’s Annual Conference. Went down very well – didn’t try to cover all bases with a 45 minute speech as has been the norm for past speeches, but was a pithy 20 – 25 minute speech which focused on leadership and values.

By coincidence today is the 1,000th day since Brash became leader.

The full speech is over the fold. Some key quotes are highlighted below:

After nine long years, New Zealanders will have to confront the reality that the average after-tax wage across the Tasman, which in 1999 was 20% ahead of the average after-tax wage in New Zealand, will be around 40% ahead.

After nine long years, and billions of dollars in extra health spending, the number of elective operations will have changed hardly at all from what we achieved in the late nineties, and the waiting list will still hover uncomfortably close to the 200,000 mark.

National can’t simply wait for Labour to self-destruct or run out of ideas. Rather, we must strive to meet the high hopes and expectations voters rightly have of us as the party that’s the alternative government of New Zealand.

Shortly after the election we all became aware of the most flagrant breach of the electoral law by Labour grossly over-spending its legal limit, and using taxpayers’ money to fund their infamous Pledgecard in clear breach of the Parliamentary rules to boot.

Just this week we’ve had the latest chapter in the Taito Phillip Field saga.I don’t intend to dwell on this today.

I simply make the point that New Zealand politics has been free of corruption for many decades – in a way that’s almost unique in the world. And now we have a Prime Minister who’ll turn a blind eye to allegations of serious corruption – who’ll actually contrive to ensure that allegations of corruption against a member of her Government are not investigated because holding the baubles of office has become more important to her than the preservation of the integrity of public life in this country.

A leader is someone who celebrates the fact the team has bench strength at every level. A leader is not intimidated by the fact that others will one day have the ability and drive to assume the top mantle.

A leader is not someone whose first port of call in a storm is to find some defenceless bureaucrat or police officer to blame, and then abandons them to carry the can.

We will likewise have a strong policy on the environment to make it crystal clear that, though National is strongly committed to increasing our growth rate, we will never do that at the expense of our environment.

Ladies and gentlemen, New Zealand currently has a Government that thinks that this is as good as it gets.

The next government of New Zealand, the next National Government, will be committed to doing much better.

One of my favourite quotes comes from an American called the Rev. William Boetker. It’s so good it’s often mistakenly attributed to Abraham Lincoln.I want to quote it because it sums up National’s philosophy:

“ You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
“ You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage-payer.
“ You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
“ You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.
“ You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

I’m confident that, were Mr Boetker alive today, he would want to extend his comments to include women as well, and were he a New Zealander he would be a member of the National Party!

(more…)

“Labour didn’t win the youth vote at the last election, they bought it”
- Young Nationals President Michael Mabbett in his address to conference

As expected, Judy Kirk was re-elected President by the nine person board of directors this morning. Kirk came into office in late 2002, so is now entering her fifth term as President.

In what is a minor upset, Peter Goodfellow has defeated incumbent Alan Towers for the third spot on National’s board. Judy Kirk and Roger Bridge were re-elected.

Peter has waged a fairly active campaign, and there was some focus on the fact Alan and fellow board member Scott Simpson were both from the same electorate – Epsom!

Peter has served on the board previously, as a co-optee.

Last night was not what one calls a good night. First of all I cut myself shaving just below the lip at around five pm. And it kept bleeding, and bleeding and bleeding. An hour later when having dinner at the Noodle House it was still going. And I had ordered chicken noodle soup. Now it turned into chicken noodle blood soup, which really was as unappetising as it looked.

Then went into the movies. However around 10 minutes intop the movie, I start to feel ill. Seriously ill (probably all the blood in my stomach). So I have to head home, abandoning Accident Girl in the movie theatre.

Finally start to feel better around 2 am when I get to sleep. However have to wake up at 5 am to make a 6.50 am flight to Christchurch. At least cut has stopped bleeding.

Okay it took far too many hours, but I have now extracted from the Ingram Inquiry report, all the sections which show Field as having demonstrated very poor (to put it mildly) behaviour. I defy anyone to state that his behaviour comes anywhere near the level needed to be an MP. Not only did he have numerous immigrants he had helped gained residency working massively under market rates (maybe under legal rates) on his properties, the evidence of Field and his close associates to the Ingram inquiry was on many occasions not credible and not believed by Ingram.

I won’t go as far as Justice Mahon, and call it an orchestrated litany of lies but as you read the report and see how witnesses refuse to testify, do testify and when their evidence is found to be false – clam up, how stories become synchronised – even Mr Ingram notes at one point the testimony was manufactured.

Some of the more damning facts revealed by the investigation:

1. Field denies mentioning the work needed on his house to Siriwan at his initial meeting, yet evidence contradicts this

2. Field claims he was trying to help Siriwan, because he had a NZ born child, but the child was now living overseas with his mother who had been deported and was ineligible to return for at least five years.

3. Siriwan was a thoroughly undeserving case, having claimed to only speak Pali (the equivalent of someone claiming they only speak Latin), and a fake refugee application which was deemed “abusive”. He had overstayed eight years, on his one week visitors permit

4. Damien O’Connor was told by Field that he wanted to reunite Siriwan with his child, and failed to mention the child had been living in Thailand since February 2005.

5. Field managed to get his colleague to grant a visa, despite an immigrant consultant earlier advising that Mr Siriwan’s case was hopeless.

6. The second meeting held to discuss Siriwan working on his Samoan residence was held at Field’s home, not his office (highly unusual)

7. The two air tickets for Samoa were booked by Field’s ministerial office!!!

8. At least one of the air tickets was funded by Field’s Qantas airpoints (which if earned on parliamentary business was a breach of rules). There is a dispute over who paid for Siriwan’s. If the inquiry had been given any powers it would be able to find out from the airline, which could prove or disprove of Field told the truth.

9. Field is criticized by Ingram for not informing O’Connor Siriwan was working on his property

10. Field is also criticized for allowing Siriwan to work on his property, regardless of disputed evidence about whether he arranged it or not.

11. And again Field is criticized for allowing Siriwan to work unpaid on his property

12. Four further Thai immigrants flew to Samoa in May and June 2005. Field denied knowing they were there together, but his wife says he actually met with them while there.

13. A fifth Thai was paid $5,200 by Field. His evidence to the inquiry was deemed not credible (ie he lied)

14. The other four Thais all refused to testify.

15. The inquiry lists numerous reasons why it believes they did work on Field’s house, but says it would be necessary for an authority with appropriate powers of investigation to inquire further.

16. With regard to painting of 51 Church Street, Field resorts to the can not recall defence, to the great frustration of Mr Ingram

17. Field then claimed a Ms Thaivichit had arranged the painting. She helped establish the Thai branch of the Labour Party and was not seen as an independent witness

18. Thaivichit never mentioned the painting in question at her interview, and only after Field said she arranged it, did she mention it. Mr Ingram found her testimony unconvincing.

19. The testimony of the person whom Thaivichit claimed to have painted the house was found to be “rehearsed”

20. Field offered over time four different possibilities of who arranged the painting of the house – evidence called unsatisfactory.

21. Field even claims to be unsure as to whether he may have helped with the painting of 51 Church Street – a confusion Mr Ingram labels difficult to understand

22. A further painting of 51 Church Street was said by Field to be necessary due to damage and so that a bond can be repaid. The Department of Housing has no record of any bond for that property.

23. Despite Field denying he was responsible, the inquiry finds he did arrange for the second painting of Church Street

24. Field paid $1,500 to yet another immigrant he had helped for a job valued at four times that amount

25. Field denied knowing the painter, yet this is contradicted by his advocacy on his behalf to NZIS where he testified as to the genuineness of their marriage,

26. Further painting jobs were done below market rates by an immigrant he had helped.

27. Many of these jobs were paid as cash, arguably illegally

28. Ingram cast doubts of the authenticity of some of the documents “produced” by Field’s friend Thaivichit. Attempts to verify were refused.

29. In relation to a further house painting, Ingram once again finds it “difficult to accept” testimony from Field.

30. Once the allegations went public, Field had a meeting to try and identify the source of the information. Most of the people who attended that damage control meeting have refused to co-operate with the inquiry.

31. Field at first denied the meeting, and then said he can not recall specific discussions at it.

32. Ingram says due to the lies and refusal to co-operate he can’t verify what happened at that meeting, but says some other authority may be able to.

33. Information given to the SFO says that Field named the person he believed leaked the info at that meeting, and that he would have to move out of his house. The person has since moved out of his house.

34. Field purchased a house off constituents who came to him in his capacity as an MP

35. He claimed they asked him to buy it. They deny this.

36. He claimed after he purchased it, they stayed on and did not pay rent. The records show they did pay rent. Ingram says he does not understand Field’s difficulty in recalling this.

37. Field phoned up the father of the family he brought the house off and told him to tell his son to “back off”.

38. Field also said he was sending someone around with a form for the father to sign, saying Field had done nothing wrong. The father is elderly and with Parkinsons.

39. Field did send around 20 letters to local schools asking them to enrol children illegally, as they were not NZ residents.

40. Field’s wife was paid money for working in his office, through another staffer. Such payments broke parliamentary funding rules.

41. Field’s ministerial secretary sent an e-mail asking for Mrs Field to be paid under the table, and on the grounds that the other staffer was not fluent in English.

42. The electorate secretary emailed back saying that Ms Lilo (the worker) was very fluent, and will be the one doing all the work. The reply from Field’s ministerial secretary was “It’s as requested by MP”.

43. The electorate secretary refused to co-operate with the investigation.

44. David Benson-Pope as Whip “tidied” the matter up, and clarified that the Ministerial Secretary made a “mistake” in sending the emails.

Labour should be ashamed that they defend an MP who has acted in such a way. There can also be little doubt that if the inquiry had been given any powers at all, it would have been able to unravel the lies. They are rewarding behaviour that is in the interests of all MPs and NZers to condemn.

Quite frankly the testimony of Field and associates to the inquiry resembles a mafia cover-up – witnesses changing testimony, some witnesses disappearing, others being coached as to their testimony, fake documents produced etc etc. It will be an outrage if Field gets away with claiming he did nothing wrong and the report exonerates him.

First up was Bill English. Bill doesn’t do speech notes, so I have no summary of the speech, but will observe how good he is at truly connecting with an audience, and speaking such common sense. I recall even Brian Easton in The Listener saying he may not agree with all of Bill’s policies but would send his kids to any school where Bill was principal. It’s because people know he is dedicated and sincere about improving the system.

Then the final pre lunch speaker was Katherine Rich.

On the topic of SOEs being encouraged to expand their wings she noted:

The Government’s most bizarre reason for state owned enterprises embarking on this new journey was a desire to make SOEs less boring, less predictable places for their staff to work in.

This was concerning news to Kiwis who actually like their mail service and electricity supply to be relatively boring and predictable. No other shareholder or business owner in the country overseeing $2 billion worth of assets would embark on new business investments just to keep staff from getting bored.

She also had a nice line about how Trevor Mallard keeps mentioning Dr Cullen’s age so “to create the impression that pureed food and zimmerframes are the next logical step for the retiring finance man.”

And finally regarding the Government’s regulatory review:

What’s most concerning about the Dalziel review is that Labour has handicapped it from day one by excluding the big issues concerning business like tax, ACC, the Resource Management Act and labour laws.

As a business columnist in The Listener recently noted: that’s like your doctor doing a health check but refusing to examine any major organs.

John Key’s speech went down well. My favourite line was “we don’t have a debt problem, we have a growth problem”.

Other good extracts:

It might be useful, before looking 25 years into the future, to take an equivalent step back into the past and see how things have changed since then. I’m aware when I dabble in history that this is, of course, the previous occupation of Michael Cullen. I’m sure, however, that Michael will forgive me straying into his former area of expertise, history, just as I forgive his occasional amateur forays into the areas I know about, namely business and finance.

If the New Zealand economy grows at 3% a year, then in 25 years it will have slightly more than doubled. If it grows at 4% a year, the economy will be well over two-and-a-half times as big in 25 years. The difference is substantial.

In 1950, for example, Japan had a standard of living, measured in terms of GDP per capita, that was about the same as Turkey, Portugal and Greece. Now, Japan is one of the richer countries in the OECD and Turkey is by far the poorest.

Then President Judy Kirk delivered her annual address. She made a useful reference to how Don Brash came within a whisker of becoming Prime Minister after just three years in Parliament. The comparisons are:

Sir Keith Holyoake 26 years
Norman Kirk 15 years
Sir Rob Muldoon 15 years
David Lange 8 years
Jim Bolger 18 years
Helen Clark 18 years.

She summed up with “Labour deserve to be in Opposition, and it is our job to make sure they get what they deserve”

The welfare presentation was very interesting. Instead of just a speech from the Spokesperson, they had the four Spokespersons (Judith Collins, Paula Bennett, Anne Tolley and Chester Borrows) talk about their families and experiences. It all combined to try and dispel the image that National sees families only as Mum, Dad and kids living together. Chester spoke quite emotionally about some the child abuse he saw as a cop also. The main focus was on child abuse, and it was noted that the incidence reporting rate has doubled since 2001.

At the end of the presentation, during the break they had the screen rotate through a series of photos of MPs with their children. It was I suspect a subtle way to make the message that National MPs know first hand about raising families – it is not just an academic exercise.

A small faux pas before the morning tea. A presentation was made to Geoff Thompson for all his work as Chair of the Rules Committee. Unfortunately after the speech, and asking him to come up for a presentation, it turned out he had not yet arrived at conference!

I’m attending the 70th National Party Conference as media, or more specifically as a blogger. First one in around 20 years I have not been a delegate!

In a very smart move they got Jenny Shipley to do the opening speech, as it is on her old home patch of Canterbury. Was slightly surreal though seeing her badge list her as “Jenny Shipley, Epsom” – as she does now of course live there. Mrs SHipley gave a very well received address on how important it is to take a stand, and especially praised Wayne Mapp’s bill as an example of this.

Then the conference had Gerry Brownlee up, who had a hilarious start – talking about how he was going to wear a beanie to show how cool he is. Brownlee then got serious and referred to Labour’s tactics to change the spin rather than change the policies, and how the key question is “Are we better off now”. He uses the MSD Living Standards Report to answer this in the negative, noting despite $950 million on closing the gaps, the number of Maori in severe hardship rose by 150%.

Language can be all important in debates, and the certain environmental groups have done very well at protraying themselves as pro-environment and anyone who disagrees with them as anti-enviornment.

However in reality most New Zealanders are envrionmentalists, and the professional activist environental groups no more represent the only pro-environment viewpoint that Destiny Church represent the only Christian viewpoint.

Therefore when Charlie Pederson attacked environmentalists, he was not attacking the environment, but what he no doubt sees as the equivalent of the Destiny Chuch. And in fact the comparison is not unfair, as Pederson calls them “Missionaries who despise mankind”.

Pederson says the solution to environmental challenges is to “encourage innovation, science and our own good scientists to uncover the solutions to our problems” and not “a road that will lead to the capping of food producers’ productive capacity.”

My major gripe with some of the environmental groups in NZ is that they are more into preservation than conservation. They want to freeze NZ in a time-warp. Every new dam is oppossed. In fact every new source of energy is oppossed, as if somehow this will force us to use less and revert to pre-industrial times. Every mine is oppossed. Every major RMA consent is pushed out so it takes year not months.

True environmentalism is about sustainable development. With rare exceptions, too many environmental groups have forgotten about the second word.