A day on Waiheke
Had a lovely day and night on Waiheke Island on Thursday and Friday as the Business Roundtable kindly invited me to attend their emerging business leader’s Dunes Symposium.
By coincidence was on the same flight up as Bill English so poor Bill had to endure me raving on about the evils of the Electoral Finance Bill for an hour or so. Not that Bill needed educating – his speech against it at first reading was a classic.
Then on the ferry across to Waiheke again by coincidence Michelle Boag was on the same ferry, so had a nice catchup there and she kindly drove us to the venue.
The Thursday evening dinner was great fun and I didn’t leave until after midnight. As the audience was emerging business leaders, the audience were younger than usual for such events and met some great people. Also have to mention the wonderful staff from the BRT and Awaroa who shone.
Chris Trotter was at the dinner also, and shares his less sunny views in the SST. What I find amusing is that Chris has been at almost every BRT or similar event that I have been at in the last year. For someone who spends so long railing against the “ruling elite” he does enjoy their bar tab often 
Jonathan Ling, the chief executive of Fletcher Building, was the speaker at the dinner and gave a great treatise about leadership in business.
The next morning we heard from John Roskam of the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne.
An Australian commentator observed that in late 80s both NZ parties were to right of both Aust parties and that now one could suggest both are to the left of both Australian parties. John predicted Kevin Rudd would win in Australia but that it may be closer than people think. He also defended some of what Howard has done with workchoice, work for the dole (now supported by ALP) but lambasted him for a lack of overall reform, a growing of the state and turning into an anti-federalist where
He said that he believes Rudd is proud of the reforms of the former Labor Government and he may become a very good reforming Prime Minister, noting a reform Labor Govt with a generally supportive Opposition can be the best way to get reform. So he is optimistic about getting some future looking policies in Australia.
John also noted that in the late 80s both NZ parties were to right of both Australian parties and that now one could suggest both are to the left of both Australian parties. Personally I wouldn’t put NZNP to the left of the ALP but the ALP certainly is far far less ideologically fixated than NZ Labour when it comes to the economy, defence etc.
Labour MP Charles Chauvel also spoke to the conference and gave a well tailored good viewpoint of what he thinks should be done to help business through public policy and spoke about regulatory responsibility, sunset clauses in laws etc.
The final speaker was John Key and he spoke broadly about a number of areas where National sees far more private sector involvement than Labour and took many questions in a very unruffled way which went down very well with the group. Someone suggested to acclaim he should have twice as much time next year.
A picture from the villas where we stayed on Waiheke. A gorgeous setting helped by a nice sunny day.
And another view of the venue.
Many thanks to the BRT for the invite. It was purely by coincidence that I was up in Auckland anyway so could attend for no cost.
The whole concept of putting this on for emerging business leaders is excellent also. Public policy has a huge impact on business, so it is a great investment to make them aware of issues around economic management and other areas. And it isn’t the converted preaching to the converted. There was a pretty wide range of people and views in the room.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Shorter Trotter: Nationals popularity is all the fault of the horrible right wing media and nothing to do with the desparate mediocrity of the current government.
He might be right about one thing though – if John Keys dire performance on Agenda yesterday is anything to go by the National leader is not yet ready for primetime. Don Brash was also consistently unprepared for interviews and that seems like a lousy tradtition for Key to follow. Clarks government might be on the rocks but the Prime Minister is still an fearsome and dangerous opponent; Key is not going to make it through an election campaign on good looks and charm and the sooner he learns that the better.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:26 am
john key..on agenda..yesterday..
http://whoar.co.nz/2007/john-key-gets-his-first-real-interview/
phil(whoar.co.nz)
August 5th, 2007 at 9:29 am
“By coincidence was on the same flight up as Bill English so poor Bill had to endure me raving on about the evils of the Electoral Finance Bill for an hour or so. Not that Bill needed educating – his speech against it at first reading was a classic.”
Oh well, I once sat next to someone on a plane who was always name dropping. In this case I am sure Bill just sat back, smiled and nodded at the right places and thought of his next Disraelian sally in the House.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Thank you for another quality post Mr. Farrar. But why oh why did you need to reference that load of bigoted leftist codswallop from Trotter? I clicked on the link, foolishly read his worthless garbage (an illegal war of aggression FFS..!!!) and then kicked myself for being so stupid.
The Editor of the SST is of course fee to try and shove the bigotry of leftist dinosaurs like Trotter down our throats for as long as he wants. Its his newspaper. However, with the net we have freedom of choice, and we are nowadays able to read news and opinion free of the filtering of leftist journalists (so called) and editors. We have access to the writings of Steyn, Coulter, and so many other fresh and relevant commentators. We have sites like Newsbusters and Townhall and Free Republic and the Mudville Gazette. We have blogs like Kiwiblog and New Zeal and Crusader Rabbit.
The tired old SST and their like are becoming more irrelevant every day. The sooner they go broke and its editors and writers (like so many staff at TVNZ) are jobless, the sooner they’ll wake up I guess. I don’t care if they never wake up. The print and electronic media in this country jumped the shark a decade ago, and I need to read the tired old soviet style crap of Chris Trotter and the ceaseless left wing propaganda of the SST and the rest of NZ’s mainstream media like I need a hole in my head.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:59 am
gee.!
..old redbaiters’ woken up quite grumpy this morning..eh..?
(“..the writings of coulter’..heh-heh..!..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
August 5th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Oh Sean you’re a moron. I’ve known Bill for around 17 years and count him as a good mate. And in fact we didn’t chat on the plane so much as on the way to the city as he gave me a lift with him.
If you are going to try and be snarky, you need better than that.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:12 am
phil. if your assessment of Agenda is anything like your recent reporting of Question Time, I can be confident Mr Key did very well.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Danyl:
To be quite honest, I thought the really rather mediocre performances of Vernon and Tracey on Agenda was the real scandal. Sorry, but here’s Interviewing 101, repeating the same question over and over isn’t going to get you the answer you want to hear. Still, I think you’ve put your finger on something – Helen Clark may be a “fearsome and dangerous opponent”; so was Robert Muldoon, but the problem with personality cults is that when the idol loses its charms, what’s left?
August 5th, 2007 at 10:38 am
You do have a lot of coincidences, don’t you?
August 5th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Redbaiter, while sympathetic to your point of view, it would help if you could get some of the little facts right, then you might be trusted more on the bigger ones.
The editor of the SST is a woman, Cate Brett, a noted lefty but she has her supporters within Fairfax`at Wellington.
The MSM is losing many readers, the SST is part of this trend, with sales/ readership dropping 10% or so in two years.
But this only fuels cost cutting and weakens standards further as there are no or fewer checks and balances to ensure accuracy.
However, I will say this to the SST. Since the arrival of the Herald on Sunday, Fairfax has pumped in more resources to the SST to make it a better paper than it was several years ago, even though problems with bias remain. I always feel I’m reading the Guardian when I read the SST.
Many problems with the NZ media stem from a lack of competition. Markets are monoplistic with few other options available apart from the New Media. The publishers sometimes have a take it or leave it mentality.
Thus, since there is no other Sunday broadsheet , I am about to nip down the road for today’s SST, along with the herald On Sunday.
August 5th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
So the Business Roundtable is still alive? Isn’t it time somebody quietly exterminated them? Their exremeism has done far more harm than good to the the right wing, capitalist cause in this country.
[DPF: Always amazes me how some people can not handle a challenge of ideas and think getting rid of views they don't like is somehow a good thing]
August 5th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
good to know you are reading adolf..
and thanks for the plug..!
live-commentary starting again on tues 2 pm..and each and every questiontime..
(archives are available for those interested in what dicks politicians of all stripes make of themselves..
also interesting for a preview of how clark/cullen will ‘monster’ key/english in any public/election debates..
(now that you mention it adolf..)
but do see for yourselves..eh..?
for the agenda ‘embarrassment’..
and for the commentaries..
to have a good laugh..at them all..
(once again..thanks adolf..for the plug..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
August 5th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
‘good to know you are reading adolf..’
Just one of the 3 millon a week aye phule?
You got over that embarrassment quickly I must say. If I’d made a dick of myself like you did I’d hide out for a couple of months at least not just a couple of weeks like you did.
August 5th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Darren, thanks for your attempt to help, but I read your post a couple of times and couldn’t discover which of the “little facts” I had got wrong. Could you elucidate?
“The MSM is losing many readers, the SST is part of this trend, with sales/ readership dropping 10% or so in two years.”
Yes, precisely, but that is because they refuse to meet the market. Which is the point I tried to make. They insist on trying to push media troglodytes like Trotter down our throats when we’re bored to death with his socialist crapola. FOX News is booming in the US because they’ve broken the mould and are giving the viewers balance. Allowing right wing views the same platform as left wing views (and that’s of course why the left hate them so intensely)
All the old left wing media outlets are struggling in the US because like the NZ editors at the Herald, the SST, TV One, TV Three and most other mainstream media they insist on putting their ideology before the market. They even go so far as to continually and purposefully deny anyone who isn’t a socialist sycophant any opportunity to express their views. So fuck ‘em. Let them sink in their own excrement.
..and if you’re a print journalist, (as I think you are) then I’m sorry that you find yourself in a field of endeavour that looks like its time is over, but hell, its not as if these people haven’t been warned in the past. They only have their own ideological inflexibility to blame.
August 5th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
To be quite honest, I thought the really rather mediocre performances of Vernon and Tracey on Agenda was the real scandal..
I thought Tracy did well, but the difference between Watkins, Small and Key is that Key wants to become the Prime Minister and the other two don’t.
Sorry, but here’s Interviewing 101, repeating the same question over and over isn’t going to get you the answer you want to hear.
If a journalist repeatedly asks a party leader a very basic question like ‘what are your policies’ and the leader is unwilling or unable to answer then I would suggest the fault lies with the leader not the person asking the question.
August 5th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Oh, I suddenly twigged what you’re on about Darren, and that is that the SST editor is a ’she’ not a ‘he’. Ok, fairenuff. Haven’t bought one for years, and wouldn’t know that of course. I don’t watch TV news (apart from FOX), I don’t buy newspapers and I don’t listen to the radio (apart from Leighton Smith, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin now and again). Who needs all that bigoted leftist crap put out by braindead commie sycophants? As I have said so often, the MM jumped the shark years ago. They have no information or anything to say that might be of interest to me.
August 5th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
chicken little said…
“..just one of the 3 millon a week aye phule?..”
no chicky..not 3 million..yet..
but if you are referring to the 1,576,922 page-views i had in july..?
thanks for giving me the opportunity to bring that up..
would you and adolf like to get together and work on publicising whoar..?
you both seem eminintly suited for the job..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
August 5th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
So Trotter’s only compliant about John Key is that he would of pledge support for the Iraq war…
Just like Helen Clark….
And don’t forget Afghanistan where ex anti-war protesters will all too willing to cuddle up to a VC winner.
Must make the moronic left puke up their lentil soup
August 5th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
better to be an ex anti war protestor than a draft dodger (Cheney) or awol in TXANG like Bush
August 5th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Danyl sez:
If a journalist repeatedly asks a party leader a very basic question like ‘what are your policies’ and the leader is unwilling or unable to answer then…
Danyl, sorry but that’s balls – that’s as silly as bitching that Michael Cullen is rather ungraciously declining to start talking about the ‘08 Budget (and don’t tell me that there’s not work in train on that as we speak), or Clark isn’t quite ready to spill campaign strategy/policies quite yet. If I had fifteen minutes of clear airtime with Clark, I guess flogging that dead horse wouldn’t be too big a priority.
And I’d actually like to see National NOT repeat the farce of the “20 hours free” debacle – which is a fine case study in why you have a carefully thought out and soundly costed policy before you write the press release.
August 5th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Redbaiter says: “I don’t watch TV news (apart from FOX), I don’t buy newspapers and I don’t listen to the radio (apart from Leighton Smith, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin now and again). Who needs all that bigoted leftist crap put out by braindead commie sycophants?”
Mate, if that’s the case, how do you know it is all put out by braindead comsymps?
August 5th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
“how do you know it is all put out by braindead comsymps?”
I don’t have to swim in the sea to know its a big wet thing. Anymore braindead questions bimbo?
August 5th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
I wonder if that chap who owns his own beach (married to a crab) was there?
jh
August 5th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
“If you are going to try and be snarky, you need better than that.”
I’ll do my best.
August 5th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
“As I have said so often, the MM jumped the shark years ago. They have no information or anything to say that might be of interest to me.” Finally, something Red and I can agree on.
Like Red (although I suspect for way different sort of core reasons) I’ve become increasingly despondent with the quality of the media – not just locally but also globally. I harvest news from all around the globe and from fora like this. It’s the only way, really, to not be steered down some crappy human interest dimension or the peculiar political or religious biases of the media owner. Everyone reporter carries some degree of bias so it’s important to background the issue as best you can from a variety of perspectives. The web is really helping by increasingly enabling people to go directly to the source information for themselves.
And, finally, imagine Red digging on a hip phrase like “jumped the shark”. Fantastic. There may be hope for you yet, Red.
August 5th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
While Redbaiter is busy working himself up to a stroke, I’ll just observe that Trotter’s finest hour as Sunday Star Times commentator was when he cheerfully opined that any flat out electoral fraud was A-OK, as long as it kept the nasty Tories off the Treasury benches.
Personally, I’d consider an endorsement from that kind of person a kiss of death to be dodged at all costs.
August 6th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Cheers RedBaiter, you got it. I was referring to the sex of the SST editor.
But you are right about the MSM not meeting the market.
If you pump out too much left wing politics, as is the case here, you will lose readers.
Yes, I am a print journalist and I live in interesting and frustrating times.
Publications are battling for survival as the new media takes their readers and advertising dollars.
Some publications inevitably move into the new media itself or have a foot in both camps.
This ’structural change’ in the media, bias and other issues , will be matters I will look into and explain over at No Minister.
But certainly a publication, or a programme has to be in touch with its readers/ viewers to keep them.
Certain newspapers have lost heavily because they have failed to do this.
The same can be said for TV1 News.