Kiwiblog

I have had confirmed that the bill drawn from the ballot is John Boscawen’s bill to amend Section 59 in line with the Borrows amendment.

I would hope that both Labour and National would vote for this bill to go to select committee. The public have shown they are not happy with the current law, and the Boscawen/Borrows bill/amendment is a pragmatic option that would rule out the problems of the old law, but remove the rather silly differentiation between “correction” and “good parenting” and “preventing disruptive behaviour”.

The Government did not want this as an issue while it concentrates on the recession and economic issues, but private members bills are not subject to Government timetable, and the House has just two options at first reading- to vote it down despite the referendum result, or to vote for it to go to select committee and let the select committee consider how well the current law is working, and whether the Boscawen bill would be an improvement.

ACT are having a run of good luck with the VSM Bill and now this Bill. Good on them.

As I said, I hope Labour will back the bill to select committee also. That would not be turning their backs on the law they voted for. It is not about going back to the old law. It is about whether the amendments in the Boscawen bill are worth considering – and they are.

A copy of the Bill is here in word format.

UPDATE: To my surprise National will not even be supporting the bill at first reading. I thing this is a pretty huge mistake, and one they may regret over time.

Guests:

• ACT MP Sir Roger Douglas
• Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty
• Labour MP Iain Lees-Galloway
• National MP David Bennett.

Topics:

• The smacking referendum is back and voters say a smack as part of good parental correction should not be a criminal offence—so, what now?
• Should gay and lesbian couples be allowed to adopt children?

9.10 pm on TVNZ 7 or live at the Backbencher on Molesworth Street.

One space available and will be drawn at midday. The list of bills is:

Notices of intention have been received in respect of the following bills:

Would be good to see some more National bills in the ballot. It is harder when you are in Government, but am sure there can be more than two.

NZ First announced this week they have relaunched their website. They even have a section for “Young NZ First”. I presume this is for any members under the age of 70.

The NZ Herald has an informative profile on German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A good read.

The German election is on 27 September, and I will probably coverit  a few times.

There is probably going to be an International Young Democrat Union Freedom Forum in Berlin in November 2009 – on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not sure I will be able to make it – flying to Europe is a nightmare and not worth doing unless you are going to stay for a decent period. And November is not exactly summer in Germany. Temperatures normally range from 2°C to 7°C.

On the other hand I regard the collapse of the Berlin Wall as the most important world event in my lifetime, and marking the 20th anniversary in Berlin would be cool.

I was pleased to see Phil Goff decline to comment on any issues around National Party President, Peter Goodfellow, with the end of his marriage. Well done on resisting the temptation.

Also pleased to see in the Herald:

Labour leader Phil Goff supports the proposed Anzac rapid-response force, with the only caveat that New Zealand must retain deployment control. …

“Having a joint taskforce for the Pacific would have some sense and is worth investigating.”

And again good not to see opposition just for the sake of opposition. Would have been nice to have on Afghanistan also, but nevertheless good to see.

The NZ Herald states:

The new Auckland Super City Council will now have Maori seats only if ratepayers force a referendum approving them or a future council is sympathetic enough to create them of its own accord.

The story makes this sound like some desperate lowlife way to get Maori seats, but isn’t this actually the way it should be.

They are saying the Auckland Council will only get Maori seats if Auckland voters or the Auckland Council itself want them. So the decision will be made in Auckland, not Wellington.

Most readers will be aware of the power reforms introduced by Max Bradford in 1998. Labour and others would have you believe they are responsible for everything bad in the power sector, even though all they did was fairly sensibly bring in competition at the generator and retail level.

This chart of inflation adjusted prices dispels the myths that the Bradford reforms are what led to the price increases. Prices were increasing prior to the reforms. Immediately after the reforms both fixed and total charges decreased in real terms. And it was after 2003 that total prices rose faster than inflation. Interesting line charges are still cheaper in real terms today than in 1998.

Talking of power charges, had a very good experience with Powershop recently. They have no fixed daily charges – you buy your power in blocks, which has the effect of becoming much more aware of usage patterns, and cost.

Now I accidentally left a heater on when in the US in July. It was on temperature control, so no danger, but meant my daily unit consumption increased from 8 units a day to 15 or so. Then when I was overseas in Hawaii, I missed a meter reading so they did an estimate and the computer estimated I was using 35 units a day. And this was far too much – especially as I was overseas using almost none.

So when I got back, I did a meter reading and entered it in. However the reading was so far below what the system was expecting, the website would not accept it.

So far not good, but I filled in an online message and explained the reading was low as I had been overseas and was correct. The next day not only had the system accepted the reading, but I got a personal phone call to check I was now happy. Now that is good customer service.

The system is now estimating I used 6 units a day, which is too low. But once I do another reading (you can do them weekly if you want), it will get closer to the mark.

I’m actually looking forward to gaining a year’s worth of data, so I will be able to see how much extra the cost is in winter of sticking a heater on etc. Also I am getting a good idea of how much a unit of power costs in winter, spring and summer.

Not everyone likes doing their own power purchasing, but I much prefer it to just getting sent a bill every month. Also Powershop never threaten to disconnect you for paying late!

• Enrolled Voters: 3,002,068
• Votes Cast: 1,684,402 (56.1% of enrolled)
• Invalid Votes: 1,685 (0.1% of enrolled) – unreadable etc
• Valid Votes: 1,682,717
• Informal Votes: 10,421 (0.6% of valid votes) – no indication of vote
• Yes Votes: 201,541 (12.0% of valid votes)
• No Votes: 1,470,755 (87.4% of valid votes)

Incidentally I have run the results through my margin of error calculator as it it were a poll. If one assumes those who did not vote would vote the same as those who did vote, then the margin of error for the no vote was +/- 0.022%.

The Election Results Website usefully now has a useful excel spreadsheet of the votes per electorate.

Lowest Turnout

1. Tāmaki Makaurau 34.2%
2. Hauraki-Waikato 34.4%
3. Ikaroa-Rāwhiti 36.1%
4. Waiariki 36.6%
5. Te Tai Hauāuru 37.4%

Highest Turnout

1. Bay of Plenty 66.8%
2. Coromandel 66.2%
3. Rodney 66.1%
4. Waitaki 65.9%
5. Selwyn 65.2%

Highest Informal Votes

1. Wellington Central 2.02%
2. Rongotai 1.23%
3. Ohariu 1.15%
4. Dunedin North 1.12%
5. Auckland Central 1.10%

Highest Yes Votes

1. Wellington Central 36.0%
2. Rongotai 29.3%
3. Auckland Central 29.2%
4. Mt Albert 23.1%
5. Ohariu 19.9%

Highest No Votes

1. Waikato 92.54%
2. Taranaki-King Country 92.41%
3. Clutha-Southland 92.39%
4. Hunua 92.38%
5. Taupo 92.30%

Denis Welch talks about the NZ political blogs and the Tumeke ratings on Nine to Noon. Ten minutes of audio.

He covers the new Red Alert blog, and how “experts” such as Paul Buchanan and David Beatson (former Listener editor) are now blogging.

The 6th annual Ralph Hanan dinner is at the Wellington Club on Friday 11 September 2009. Starts at 6.30 pm. Tickets are $95. Guest Speaker is Dr Michael Bassett. Hosted by Chris Finlayson.

E-mail me if you are interested in attending.

Newswire report on a nice wee initiative:

RESIDENTS have pooled their knowledge of public fruit trees and wild foods from Aro Valley to Island Bay and pinpointed the locations on Google Maps.

The map directs to 22 locations of apples, plums, edible mushrooms, wild parsley, blackberries, and more.

Lisa Johnston, 27, a member of environmental group 42 Collective, started the project earlier in the year, and her page has now attracted more than 5000 views.

“If we’re not actually spending some time looking at what we’ve already got and using what we already have, then we’re kind of being neglectful and wasteful,” she says.

It is a work in progress and the idea is that people not only use it to find free food but add pointers to trees and herbs they know about.

Jacob Butler, 22, a student, says his dad told him about the map and he has already used it to gather rosemary and kawakawa that was growing around Newtown.

“I think it’s great, absolutely great, and the more people who get involved, it’s just going to get bigger and the web will grow. There will be more fruit sources and things like that.”

Jacob says there is enough food that students will not pillage the spots but says his one fear is that people might go too far and add pointers to plants like cabbage trees and Nikau palms.

“The problem with harvesting these is that you have to kill the plant.”

Each marker includes a note about what time of year the food is ripe and, if it’s on private land, whether the owner must be asked first before gathering.

Urban hunters and gatherers can type “Edible Wellington – A Gatherer’s Guide” into maps.google.com to find free food and share their own spots.

Jacob Butler collecting rosemary growing in Newtown

The map points to 22 locations of apples, plums, edible mushrooms, wild parsley, blackberries, and more.

Lisa Johnston, 27, a member of environmental group 42 Collective, started the project earlier in the year, and her page has now attracted more than 5000 views. …

Each marker includes a note about what time of year the food is ripe and, if it’s on private land, whether the owner must be asked first before gathering.

Urban hunters and gatherers can type “Edible Wellington – A Gatherer’s Guide” into maps.google.com to find free food and share their own spots.

I’ ve tried it out, and it works well. There is so much great info one can add to Google Maps.

Hat Tip: Roar Prawn

Some readers may have followed the case of Liskula Cohen who was called a skank and “psychotic lying whore” on a blogger.com blog. Google owns these.

Cohen regarded this as defamatory and went to court to sue the author, and as part of that the court ordered Google to reveal the identity of the author.

Google complied and supplied the e-mail address used to register the blog. And this allowed Cohen to deduce that a Rosemary Port was the author.

Now to my mind, this is how it should be. If you defame someone anonymously, then your identity will be revealed.

Port, rather than apologise for her slander, is now saying she will sue Google for A$18 million for revealing her email address.

I think Port needs to get over herself and get a grip. Google was ordered by a court to reveal her address. I can’t see she has any chance of success.

The Dom Post report:

National Party president Peter Goodfellow has fronted up at Parliament with Prime Minister John Key and declared that he has the full confidence of the party and its board.

Mr Goodfellow, who has been under pressure over suggestions that some board members wanted him removed, said today that the end of his marriage was probably what lay behind the speculation. He wanted people to respect his personal life.

Many people involved in politics has messy splits.

“My personal life is my personal life and I don’t think there is anything in my personal life that affects my ability to be president.”

That is how it should be, but in politics the perception is often more important than the reality. Stories about one’s personal life can undermine effectiveness in a role.

Mr Goodfellow said Mr Key had been aware of matters concerning his personal life because he told him after he was elected party president.

It is easier to say this with hindsight, but it may have been prudent to have that discussion before the election for President. Even if you have done nothing wrong, the fact one is going through an acrimonious split that may result in bad publicity is a relevant factor.

Mr Key said Mr Goodfellow, who was at Parliament for National’s weekly caucus meeting, had the confidence of the board.

“Most people are guilty of making the odd mistake in their personal life. Most people are accepting of that. Peter has my full confidence… there is nothing I’ve ever seen or [been] aware of that would preclude him from being president of the National Party or an office holder of the National Party.”

Indeed, let he is without sin cast the first stone is the old saying. Few people act blamelessly in a relationship.

John Key announced yesterday three initiatives in response to the referendum. Taking each in turn:

The Police and Ministry of Social Development chief executive lead a review of Police and Child, Youth & Family policies and procedures, including the referral process between the two agencies, to identify any changes that are necessary or desirable to ensure good parents are treated as Parliament intended.  The Commissioner of Police and Ministry of Social Development chief executive will seek an independent person to assist in the conduct of the review and will report back by 1 December 2009.

I think this is useful and desirable. I’d guess that more parents are worried about over-zealous action by CYFS, than they are about actually being prosecuted and convicted for a light smack.

Bring forward the delivery of the report from the Ministry of Social Development chief executive on data and trends and the effect of the law change from the end of the year to late September/early October. The Minister of Social Development will table the report in the House.

As MSD are doing the review, I will be amazed if it amounts to much. But yes useful to have it done earlier.

Invite Police to continue to report on a six-monthly or annual basis for the next three years on the operation of the law, and invite Police to include data on cases where parents or caregivers say the force used on the child was reasonable in the circumstances.

This is useful, as it may lead to a situation where a conclusion can be reached on whether the law is working or not. Now that I think that is the correct test, but it is the test laid down by the PM.

“Cabinet has agreed that if future Police data indicates a worrying trend, the law will be changed to ensure that good New Zealand parents are not criminalised for lightly smacking,” says Mr Key.

I regard “criminalised” as meaning are in breach of the law, not merely that they are not charged or convicted. And the law is very specific that smacking for correctional purposes is absolutely illegal.

The problem we have is that the Government’s test of “Is the law working” is not the test, that many others have. Their test is “Is this a good law”.

So why is the Government, or more specifically the PM, applying the “Is the law working” test? Why doesn’t he just agree to change the law?

Well the simple answer is he does not want to break his word, and that is not a bad thing. Since the compromise the test he promised was “Is the law working” and while I think that is the wrong test, that is what he promised.

So the PM has to balance up keeping his word, with responding to a clear public vote they do not like the law.

If the public are unhappy with no law change, there are a number of ways this could show itself. National could lose support to ACT who want the law changed. This is not a concern to National. Most of the smart people in National want ACT to be higher in the polls than 1%. Losing support to ACT doesn’t change the Government.

It is hard to see Labour picking up support from National on this issue. Labour are still blamed by most for the law, and Labour have little relevance at the moment for most people.

The nightmare scenario is Winston. His caucus had a conscience vote on this issue and Peters voted against. Could Winston use this to campaign in 2011 that National and Labour are the same, and if he gets back in he will force whomever is in Government to scrap the law. In those circumstances Phil Goff would scrap the law to have Winston make him PM.

Colin Espiner blogs on this issue, and he implores John Key to “hold the line”. I suspect Colin’s view is that of almost the entire gallery. I really do wish someone from the gallery could tell me what the problem is with the Borrows amendment. After all Colin says:

I’ve smacked my child, and I don’t want to be prosecuted for it. But I like the law, because it stops child beaters who bash their kids with lengths of hose pipe from getting away with it.

The Borrows amendment would mean Colin is not breaking the law when he smacked his child (assuming it was for correctional purposes) and it would also stop someone hitting their kid with a length of hose pipe.

Is Colin aware that the current law does not explicitly forbid hitting your kid with a length of hose pipe? If done for non-correctional purposes, it may be found to be reasonable force. While the Borrows amendment would rule that out in all circumstances.

It seems to me (and I admit I have a position on this subject) that what most Kiwis are telling the Government is that they don’t want to be told how to discipline their kids.

Yet they are. The Bradford law is explicit. It says you can not use any force at all for correctional purposes. It says you can use undefined reasonable force for good parenting, for preventing disruptive behaviour but not for correction. And that is exactly telling parents how to discipline their kids.

David Beatson blogs at Pundit and concludes:

Third, he should be prepared to consider an amendment to section 59 that might satisfy all parties – one stating clearly that legal parental correction does not include the use of force that results in a child suffering any form of physical injury or sustained distress.

That is basically the Borrows amendment. But despite it giving children greater protection in most areas, it is not acceptable to the 12%. You can not get a compromise that everyone will accept – there is too much gulf between the 88% and the 12%.

The Press reports:

Over half of male university students make themselves vomit after bingeing on alcohol.

New research by Canterbury University psychologist Natalie Blackmore found 57.58 per cent of men and 42.26 per cent of women students reported self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol.

I thought at first the figures would be even higher! But then I realised they are talking about having a voluntary chuck so you can carry on drinking or have less of a hangover, rather than the more traditional involuntary chuck.

If we are talking about a voluntary or self-induced chunder, those figures do seem very high.

The findings, in Blackmore’s master of science thesis, also showed many who self-induced vomiting believed it was acceptable, especially among men.

My experience is far from being acceptable, having a chunder would gain you days of hassling. But again that was for involuntary ones. I really can’t recall many people at all who self-induced.

BNZ is running a campaign called Closed for Good. No, they’re not closing down permanently, they’re closing their branches and offices just for the day on Wednesday, November 4, so almost all of their 5,000 staff can work on community projects.

Now the cool thing is they have not unilaterally decided what projects to work on. They want local communities to suggest projects to them. You can do this through their Closed for Good website. Some examples are helping at the local SPCA, cleaning up a beach or stream etc.

BNZ’s guidelines are they’d rather do projects that help local communities, match the number of people they have in the area, and have an organiser present on the day. They’d like to avoid political projects, projects that benefit commercial organisations, and projects that would normally be the job of local or central government.

You can submit your ideas for Closed for Good up until 27th of September. You can also follow them on Twitter @ ClosedforGood. Plus you will see ads promoting Closed for Good on this blog and some other sites.

While BNZ branches will be closed on the 4th of November, Internet and telephone banking will still be operating of course. If you’re anything like me, you visit your branch around once a year and do online banking several times a week, so won’t even notice the day that they’re closed!

If you do submit an idea for a good project to Closed for Good, feel free to comment here with a summary of what it is.

The Herald reports:

Telecommunications engineers continued their strike against a division of Telecom yesterday as the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) called on the Government to halt negotiations over broadband with the company.

I’m not exactly what you call a cheerleader for Telecom, and I’m not saying who has the better case in this dispute with the EPMU and engineers. But I am firmly against any suggestion the Government intervenes in the dispute by trying to heavy Telecom re broadband.

The Government should make decisions around the fibre to the home project purely on what will achieve the best result. Now personally I think lines companies have a lot to offer as well as telcos, but I want it decided on best return for investment – not intervening in an industrial dispute.

No idea why yesterday’s general debate post did not appear!

The Herald reports on a survey by the Familes Commission:

A national survey reported today by the Families Commission has found that one in every seven Kiwi men say their partners get angry if they speak to other women, compared with only 9 per cent of women who say the same about their male partners.

Men are also more likely than women to say their partners stop them seeing friends and relatives, and keep track of them “in a controlling or frightening way”.

Overall, 23 per cent of men – compared with 19 per cent of women – report at least one of the six kinds of “psychological abuse”, which range from being put down or abused to the children being harmed.

That’s fascinating findings. In terms of physical abuse:

Long-term studies of people born in Christchurch and Dunedin in the 1970s have also found similar proportions of men and women being assaulted by their partners, but crime and health statistics show men are responsible for the vast majority of serious violence.

That makes sense.

While the Herald focused on more men than women suffering psychological abuse, the Dom Post takes a different approach:

Almost a third of Kiwi women and one in five men will experience violence and abuse at the hands of their partners.

I never like it when a story groups together two things – violence and abuse. I don;’t know whether abuse means violent abuse or psychological abuse such as detailed above. While both are bad, there is a difference between hitting someone and calling them a name.

I went to the Families Commission website to try and read the report for myself so I could work out what the actual stats means. Sadly they have not even out teh report online. This is basic stuff – always have the full report available on your website frontpage the day it will appear in the media.

If any journalist has a copy of the full report, I’d appreciate a copy if possible.

From Kevin Rudd’s Flickr account. John Key would have been a relieved man at the whistle.

Just got a paper copy of the Dom Post. On the front page they have a list of the top five electorates that voted yes and no in the referendum. what the vote % was and what party holds the seat.

Their numbers are correct, but unfortunately they claim Waikato and Taupo are Labour seats.

I think Lindsay Tisch and Louise Upston would disagree with that!

A reader alerted me to this article:

Though not necessarily heralded as a hotbed of technological innovation, the City of Boston is plunging headlong into what may be the future of civic engagement by debuting an iPhone app connecting residents to city hall. The app, known as Citizen Connect, is the brainchild of a handful of mayoral aides and will allow residents to file complaints with the city by snapping a photo of a problem–a pothole, a fallen tree limb, a neighbor’s overgrown lawn–and sending it to city hall, complete with a geo-tag so city officials can find and fix the problem.

Now that is a great idea.

The new Auckland Council could be a leader on this!

FitnessNZ has its normal annual half price gym memberships promotion. These are for people who are not current gym members who want to join.

The number of places is limited. There seem to be around 700 places left, and you can click down by region to see the number of places per gym. For example 177 places left in Wellington, and nine of them for Bodyworks Thorndon.

Much better for obesity prevention than banning certain foods and adverts etc. And best fo all entirely private sector funded.