Kiwiblog

This week’s Dom Post politics quiz.

I was a bit lucky with the 9/10 as made two educated guesses and got them both right. Also made one blind luck guess and got it wrong.

About time! Reuters reports:

Ever forget your phone charger and no one around has the same kind of handset?

Have a drawer full of useless old phone chargers at home?

Breathe a sigh of relief.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations’ telecom arm, said on Thursday it had given its stamp of approval “to an energy-efficient one-charger-fits-all new mobile phone solution.

“Every mobile phone user will benefit from the new Universal Charging Solution (UCS), which enables the same charger to be used for all future handsets, regardless of make and model,” the ITU said in a statement.

I want one. In fact I want three – one for home, office and the car!

The Dominion Post has done a feature of several pages to evaluate the first year of the Key Government. Part of that is a ranking of the National Ministers. They have not ranked John Key (there’s a sort of automatic assumption that he would be top ranking) but have ranked Lockwood Smith, even though he is Speaker, not a Minister. The ratings are:

• 10/10 – Lockwood Smith
• 9.5/10 – Simon Power
• 9.0/10 – Steven Joyce
• 8.5/10 – Tony Ryall
• 8.0/10 – Judith Collins
• 7.5/10 – Chris Finlayson
• 7.0/10 – Bill English and Paula Bennett
• 6.5/10 – Nick Smith
• 6.0/10 – Gerry Brownlee, Murray McCully and Tim Groser
• 5.0/10 – Phil Heatley, Anne Tolley, Wayne Mapp, Nathan Guy
• 4.0/10 – Jonathan Coleman, Maurice Williamson and Georgina te Heuheu
• 3.0/10 – Kate Wilkinson, David Carter and John Carter
• 2.0/10 – Pansy Wong

The Dom Post refers to the top six rated as “the stars”, and I agree they have all handled their areas very well, even though of course I may disagree with some of the policy decisions. If it were not for the housing issue, I think Bill would have been there also.

These are of course the ratings of the Dominion Post gallery team.Not sure if the Herald will do their own ratings. In December I expect we will get the annual Trans-Tasman ratings of not just Ministers, but all 122 MPs.

Well since I blogged on Chris Carter’s deleted Mussolini blog post on Thursday night, the story got legs with it making One News last night, and the newspapers this morning. It even got Chris a bollocking from The Standard.

I don’t think there was anything wrong with Chris yelling out at John Key doing a photo op on a balcony, and joking that he looks like Mussolini at the Piazzo Navona. The problem is that Chris blogged it, or more to the point he blogged it in a way which didn’t convey much humour to it. Let’s start with the title:

Delusions of grandeur

That isn’t a very funny title. That looks like a snarky attack. Then we have his first line

Just saw the most awful sight.

Now again, that conveys that in fact Carter didn’t see it as much of a joke, but something awful. He then blogged the exchange, and Key’s response of “It worked”, and comments:

Says it all, really.

So Carter might have been able to pass it off as a funny exchange, except he didn’t. He turned it into a snide attack on Key. And even worse he took the time to upload an actual picture of Mussolini.

I have some experience of using humour and dictators, such as the wonderful anti-EFA billboards. What is the difference between those and what Carter did? Well firstly the number one difference is I’m an effing blogger, not the Shadow Foreign Minister. Seriously.

The second is we made the humour clear. We had the Commodore congratulating Helen on her “coup” with the EFA. We had Kim Il Sung congratulating Winston on being a great leader. We even had one (originally) with Mao praising Peter Dunne (originally an EFA supporter). We were not doing literal comparisons, but using humour and the dictators to make the case the the EFA was something you expect from an authoritarian Government. And you know the fact the Electoral Commission concluded it did have a chilling effect on political participation, and that Labour’s first post-election move was to apologise for it, and vote for its repeal, leaves me 100% comfortable with the campaign. Others may disagree, but I remind them the original EFB would have made it illegal for them to state their view in public on a policy issue, without signing multiple statutory declarations etc.

Anyway back to Mussolini. Here’s how I would have done it.

“Just saw John Key being forced onto his balcony to do a photo op. The things us politicans must endure. I joked to John that I thought the photo looked like Mussolini at the Piazzo Navona, and John joked back that at least it worked for Mussolini. Heh. Nice that he can take a joke and a hassle.”

I doubt that would have got much attention (sure still a bit bad taste). But the original post wasn’t funny – it was snarky.

Personally I would have grabbed a photo myself and done a caption contest

The Dom Post reports:

It’s possible to be Kiwi, Muslim and an All Black fan, says MICHAEL FOX, but it’s not always an easy road.

Young Muslims in New Zealand have impressed their elders by integrating well through adopting a laid-back Kiwi attitude, supporting the All Blacks and embracing the local culture.

And integration over isolation is the key, in my opinion. Integration does not mean assimilation where everyone is the same, in some Borg like collective. The diversity of races, cultures and religions in New Zealand is a great thing, with integration and tolerance for others being the key.

As Muslims gather in Auckland this weekend for their first national convention, they will be reflecting on why young followers have avoided problems such as violent crime associated with disenfranchised youth in other countries.

Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand president Anwar-ul Ghani called the convention a hui.

“Our community is now getting quite a reasonable size and really once in a year we need to start to have a hui like this to reflect on things and get the grassroots involved.

“We need to strengthen our Islamic belief and way of life and yet identify ourselves as Kiwi Muslims.”

Even just little things such as calling their convention a hui, is quite cool – it is reflecting that Kiwi side.

There are now almost 50,000 Muslims in New Zealand.

Dr Ghani says young Muslims are leading the way in integration. He believes they are “Kiwianised”, with as much interest in New Zealand’s popular culture as their own.

He says this is in marked contrast with European countries where youths have felt like outsiders and rebelledthrough crime, riots and terrorism.

“I won’t say that it is not an issue [in New Zealand] but it is certainly less of an issue. We’re finding that the transition is reasonably smooth.”

I think in New Zealand we are remarkably blessed that the extremism and isolationist you get in the UK, much of Europe and even Australia is very rare here.

I think part of the credit goes to the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand themselves. While obviously I have different views on issues, they have always struck me as taking their leadership position responsibily. And the fact that they are led by an accountant with NZ Post, rather than a DVD distributing preacher, is helpful.

She said Muslims could remain strong in their faith while also identifying themselves as New Zealanders. “When people ask me where I’m from I don’t have any answer to them apart from New Zealand, although I don’t look like a typical Kiwi. I’m definitely Muslim and I’m definitely a New Zealander.”

Wellington’s Aneesa Adam, 27, who grew up in New Zealand with her Fiji Indian parents, said a clash between faith and Kiwi values occasionally posed problems. “As a teenager at times things were a little bit difficult, particularly with things like drinking. I basically had to choose who my friends were.”

Ms Adam didn’t wear a headscarf until she started university because she was self-conscious.

“As a teenager I was always too shy. As I got older it just became easier and I decided that I was ready to wear it.

“As soon as people see you wearing a scarf there’s immediately a barrier and an idea that they have about you. For younger people I think it’s harder, but as an adult it’s very easy and people are very good about it.”

She said Muslims could remain strong in their faith while also identifying themselves as New Zealanders. “When people ask me where I’m from I don’t have any answer to them apart from New Zealand, although I don’t look like a typical Kiwi. I’m definitely Muslim and I’m definitely a New Zealander.”

One of my favourite sayings is that the only thing I am intolerant of is intolerance. I’m not sure there is such a thing as a typical Kiwi, but I think diversity is a great thing.

The Dom Post reports:

A group of Otaki primary school pupils have been honoured by Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres for acting with dignity in dealing with criticism from Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws.

The pupils, aged 11 to 13, at Otaki School’s kura kaupapa unit, were upset with an angry reply from Mr Laws, whom they wrote to in August urging him to insert the letter “h” in Wanganui.

Mr de Bres presented the girls with certificates yesterday to honour their stance.

“Your message to stand up for yourself is clear. You acted with real dignity and calm and quietly stood up for what you thought when dealing with such rubbish from Wanganui’s mayor.

I didn’t know you can now get certificates for standing up to Michael Laws. In 1994 I announced his mock assassination, and I never got a certificate. All I got was to appear in court. So where the hell is my certificate???

Am in Taupo for four days to enjoy a relaxing long weekend, and catch up with some old friends who live up here.

This is a photo just taken of Lake Taupo from the place I am staying at. Looking to be a great day.

The Herald reports:

The new national standards will narrow educational opportunities for children, says the country’s largest teaching union.

“It all adds up to teaching to a very narrow focus and ultimately narrowing educational opportunities for children,” said New Zealand Educational Institute president Frances Nelson.

The union has been opposed to standards since National announced their introduction.

The standards were part of National policy before the party was elected to Government. Despite almost a year of talks, the Government has failed to reach an amicable agreement with the teaching unions.

NZEI – which represents about 45,000 people in the education sector – did not attend yesterday’s formal launch.

The union is holding a forum next month to work out how the standards will sit alongside “everything else we do in terms of teaching and learning and getting the best results for students”.

Ms Nelson said the national standards were causing upheaval and the main issue for the forum was to “ensure a focus on improved student achievement across the broader school curriculum not just in literacy and numeracy”.

I am genuinely confused here. If a pupil can not read or write or count, then what are these other areas of achievement they may be doing well in, that don’t need basic literacy or numeracy?

Ms Tolley said it was hard to understand how teaching reading, writing and maths would narrow education opportunities.

“If they cannot do these basics, that is when opportunities are closed off.”

Indeed.

John Armstrong writes:

It is not that long ago – only a matter of months – that the loss of 500 jobs in a crucial branch of the state sector would have been the major news story of the day. …

The same could not be said about this week’s announcement that the axe will fall on close to 500 positions in the Ministry of Health and across the country’s 21 district health boards over the next 18 months.

The media reaction was very ho-hum despite the layoffs actually being closer to 700 once 200 vacant positions in the Ministry of Health which will not be filled were included in the tally. …

Increasingly, the feeling is that the public has – to borrow from Helen Clark – moved on from the days when it could get outraged by the merest hint of slash-and-burn spending cuts or privatisation. The assumption was that National won last year’s election through John Key positioning his party more to the centre. It is clear now that a large portion of the electorate had already shifted to the right.

John is partly right here, but only partly. The public mood has shifted, but I would not call it a shift to the right. It is the same shift we have seen in the UK, where most of the public now support spending cuts.

It is not a change in political views, but a reaction to the recession. Part of it is a feeling of shared belt-tightening. If businesses and households can tighten their belts, so can the Government. And it is partly that people do understand huge deficits and massive borrowing is not sustainable.

The other aspect I would point out is that it is hard to call what Ryall is doing as slash and burn spending cuts. He has promised that Vote Health will not decrease, but the gains from the bureaucracy reduction will be transferred into frontline services. This changes things considerably.

Incredible. Norway publishes both the income and the wealth of every Norwegian taxpayer. That would put the NBR Rich List out of circulation when you can get it straight from the IRD!

Many media outlets use the tax records to produce their own searchable online databases. In the database of national broadcaster NRK, you can type a subject’s name, hit search and within moments get information on what that person made last year, what was paid in taxes and total wealth.

It also compares those figures with Norway’s national averages for men and women, and that person’s city of residence. Defenders of the system say it enhances transparency, deemed essential for an open democracy.

“Isn’t this how a social democracy ought to work, with openness, transparency and social equality as ideals?” columnist Jan Omdahl wrote in the tabloid Dagbladet.

But he acknowledged that many treat the list like “tax porno” – furtively checking the income of neighbours or co-workers.

Critics say the list is actually a threat to society.

“What each Norwegian earns and what you have in wealth is a private matter between the taxpayer and the government,” said Jon Stordrange, director of the Norwegian Taxpayers Association.

Besides providing criminals with a useful tool to find prime targets, he said the list generates playground taunts of my-dad-is-richer-than-your-dad.

“The children of people with low wages are being teased about it in the schools,” Stordrange said.

“People with low salaries are being met with comments at the grocery store, ‘How can you live on these low wages?”‘

The information had been available to media until 2004, when a more conservative government banned the publication of tax records. Three years later, a new, more liberal government reversed the legislation and made it possible for media to obtain tax information digitally and disseminate it online.

I can’t see a party campaigning on such a policy here!

This week’s column:

A quick sell

One can make a quick and near guaranteed sell with OBAMA.DISAP.4NOV. You can sell for 4c, which is not much. But it will pay out in just two weeks time so a 4.1% return over two weeks is equal to around 105% return on an annualized basis.

And it is almost risk free as it will be judged on the Real Clear Politics average of the poll on the 4th of November. Now they average the last eight polls, which tend to be over a fortnight or so. So some of the polls just published will count towards that average and they are showing Obama 8% to 10% ahead.

Winston fading

MP.PETERS.2011 peaked in September at 42c. For the last month it has been constant at 30c, but in the last week has dropped to between 22c and 26c. His “tsunami of immigrants” speech failed to generate any movements in the polls, and also attracted little media coverage as the other parties have realized now the trick is to ignore Peters, not respond to him. Hence the market has started to mark down his chances of pulling off a comeback.

Going Going …

Four new stocks this week on whether the National and Labour Leaders and Deputy Leaders will lose their jobs by the end of 2010.

DEP.KEY.2010 is floated at 10c and has reduced to 5c by late yesterday. This is effectively at 0c, as investors know a 5% return over 14 months is less than they could get in a bank.

DEP.ENGLISH.2010 also floated at 10c and didn’t have a single trader yesterday and only one trade today at 10.6c. Traders don’t see a lot of money to be made here.

DEP.GOFF.2010 floated at 12c and early buyers have made a good profit with the price rising to 30c. This seems about right to me, and I’d start selling if it goes much higher.

DEP.KING.2010 also floated at 12c and one buyer (was it Shane Jones?) pushed it up to 74c but now has stabilized at 34c. I think this stock is undervalued and may go a bit higher. Why? King like Goff entered Parliament in the 1980s. While both experienced politicians, if the pressure comes on for fresher faces, it is easier to change the Deputy than the Leader.

Highest Trading Stocks

Kiwis like their petrol price stocks. A whopping $30,000 has been traded in the last week on what the price of petrol will be at the end of October.

Next most traded is OCR.NC.29OCT as people get in last minute trades on whether Bollard will change the official cash rate.

Cheers,

David

Disclosure

David’s current iPredict positions are:

BROWN.RESIGN Short, DEP.GOFF.2010 Short, DEP.KING.2010 Short, DL.KING.09 Short, FASA04.REPEAL Short, GST.UP.JULY10 Short, LEAD.GOFF.09 Short, MAYOR.BROWN Long, MIN.DEPART2.09 Short, MP.ANDERTON Short, MP.PETERS.2011 Short, NAT.MAORI.09 Short, OBAMA.DISAP.4NOV Short, OCR.INCR.APR10 Short, OCR.INCR.JAN10 Short, PETERS.LEADER Long, PM.2011.NATIONAL Long, UK2010.CON.ABS Long, UK2010.CON.MAJ Short, ZIM.MUGABE Short

I’ve not yet had time to read the Search Surveillance Bill, but have added it to my weekend reading, after viewing this story:

Sweeping powers to spy, bug conversations and hack into private computers could be given to a web of state agencies as diverse as Inland Revenue and the Meat Board.

The Human Rights Commission yesterday warned Parliament of the “chilling” implications of a proposed law that would see the intrusive powers usually only available to the police extended to all agencies with enforcement responsibilities.

It said that under the law, council dog control officers would be able to enter homes to install a surveillance device and the Commerce Commission would be able to detain people.

Inland Revenue would get the powers to assist its tax investigations, while the Meat Board would get them to enforce breaches of export rules.

The Human Rights Commission chief commissioner, Rosslyn Noonan, said the Search Surveillance Bill was giving the powers away to a “grab-bag of every possible agency”.

This summary sounds very bad:

WHAT’S IN THE BILL

THE POWERS:

Video surveillance, watching private activity on private property, installing tracking devices, detaining people during a search, power to stop vehicles without a warrant for a search, warrantless seizure of “items in plain view”, power to hack into computers remotely, power to detain anyone at scene of search.

WHO WILL GET THEM:

Every agency with enforcement responsibilities, such as: Inland Revenue, Meat Board, local councils, Overseas Investment Office, Accident Compensation Corporation, Environment Risk Management Authority, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Pork Industry Board.

I feel bad I haven’t been more up to date on this issue. At first glance it looks pretty horrific. Select Committee submissions have already closed but if the Select Committee doesn’t pare back the range of agencies and powers, then amendments can be done at the Committee of the Whole stage.

In Hamilton with Jadis and her five year old. I asked Master Five whether his mum was older than me or not (in fact I am eight years older) and my glee could not be contained when he said that his daddy was the oldest (who is six years younger than me), then his mum and then I was the youngest.

My glee was shortlived though when Jadis asked him why he thought I was the youngest and he explained that Dad was the tallest so he must be the oldest, and then Mum and then me. In other words he thinks I am the youngest because I am the shortest.

My half minute of gloating has now ended with Jadis being incredibly smug and me sulking.

This is what Chris Carter blogged on the Labour Parliamentary Blog earlier today. He deleted it soon afterwards, but Kiwiblog readers retained copies and sent them in!

Delusions of grandeur <http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2009/10/22/delusions-of-grandeur/>

via Red Alert <http://blog.labour.org.nz>  by Chris Carter on 10/21/09

Just saw the most awful sight.

John Key was posing outside on the 9th Floor Beehive balcony for a photo op.

He looked just like Mussolini at the Piazzo Navona. I couldn’t resist leaning out my window and calling out to John that he resembled Mussolini.

He responded “IT WORKED!”

Says it all, really.

So Chris Carter saw the “most awful sight”. No it wasn’t landing at Wellington Airport but the PM doing a photo op. And so of course he thought of Mussolini.

Not content with having those thoughts, he felt the need to share with the world how “most awful” it was that he though the PM looked like Mussolini doing a photo op.

He even took the time to upload a photo of Mussolini to the Labour blog.

And Labour wonders why they are 33% behind in the polls. Obviously some of Chris’ colleagues got the post yanked down as soon as possible, but they should learn that this is the Internet!

Simon Power has introduced the Electoral (Administration) Amendment Bill which merges together the Chief Electoral Officer and the Electoral Commission. After the 2011 election, they will also add in the Chief Registrar of Electors.

The new Commission will come into force on 1 October 2010. It will have three Commissioners appointed by the GG on the recommendation of the Minister of Justice. One Commissioner will be the Chairperson. Another will be the Chief Electoral Officer and Chief Executive of the Commission. There can also be a Deputy Chairperson.

The bill provides for the Minister to consult with the parliamentary leaders of all parties in Parliament, before recommending/making appointments.

I don’t regard this as satisfactory. While the current Minister I am sure would not appoint someone objected to by the other parties, the former Government often ignored objections by other parties with regards to their appointments.

I actually believe the three Commissions should be appointed directly by Parliament, and that the Commission should be an “Office of Parliament” not a crown entity.  The preamble states this was considered but rejected as not fitting the criteria. I plan to ask under the OIA for documents about why this was so.

I don’t think the Government of the Day should be able to appoint the Electoral Commissioners. The Bill even allows for the possibility that a Member of Parliament could be appointed to the Electoral Commission (which would vacate their seat).

I think the merger is a long overdue idea, and the Bill should 100% go to select committee. But I do hope serious consideration is given to making the appointment of the Electoral Commissioners more independent from the Government of the Day. Either they should be officially appointed by Parliament itself, or there should be a requirement or the Minister to obtain written consent to a recommendation from Leaders representing both 75% of the parties in Parliament, and representing at least 75% of MPs.

It’s great to be reminded how fruit loopy the far left are. John Minto blogs:

It was dispiriting to see a group of secondary schoolboys hounded by media as they entered the Auckland War Memorial Museum to apologise for their behaviour at a school outing earlier this year when they paid mock homage to the swastika. …

They weren’t intending disrespect to the Jews, gypsies, communists and homosexuals who all faced Nazi extermination efforts. Surely we need to lighten up a bit here.

The same applies to the Lincoln University students who dressed up as Nazis and Nazi victims for a fancy dress party a few weeks back. There were howls of rage and profuse apologies all round and disciplinary action followed.

Was the same action taken against those who dressed up as Osama bin Laden, Idi Amin or George Bush? All of these figures could rightly be condemned for war crimes and genocide.

Yes of course dressing up as George Bush is the same as dressing up as Nazis. I mean, after all, they are all guilty of genocide.

I just love it that there really are people who equate Bush with Hitler. Even after Bush retired from office in accordance with the constitution. They spent years darkly warning of how Bush would become a military dictator supported by the industrial-military complex. Yet somehow we now have Obama as President and a Democratic House and Senate.

Jenna Raeburn blogs:

It utterly irritates me that the provocation debate has been almost entirely subsumed by the Weatherston case. There are three massive problems with this.

The Weatherston case has been the catalyst for change, but for my own part I have been supportive of a law change for some years since the McNee case.

Everyone has forgotten about the better, more philosophical justifications for removing the defence. In my mind the biggest issue is the assumption that, given a high enough degree of provocation, any ordinary person might resort to homicidal violence. This is a fundamentally flawed conception of human nature and is no basis for distinguishing levels of culpability.

Bravo. And then she addresses those who argue just for a change:

The second major issue is that the defence is inherently discriminatory. It does not provide protection to those who are not considered to have an “ordinary” level of self-control. Worse, it provides homophobes, misogynists, racists and other bigots with an excuse to murder the subjects of their hatred. This is exacerbated by the fact that the legal tests are such a complicated mix of objective and subjective factors that juries never understand it. None of this can be fixed simply by “changing” the defence – these are inherent issues, so it has to be scrapped entirely.

And then the cases before Weatherston:

We have also forgotten about the other many victims who have been defamed by murderers pleading provocation, and the many cases where the defence has absurdly been successful. Why didn’t the Ambach case cause the same outrage as Weatherston? It was barely reported, and yet it is twenty times as outrageous because Ambach was actually successful. The McNee case was very similar, and is also largely forgotten despite having more publicity.

Those interested in more info on these other cases could read a good article at Salient by Conrad Reyners on this.

I think the McNee case was outraegous. Even if his killer Edwards was heterosexual, that would be no reason for him to kill McNee, but Edwards frequently slept with men for sex – in fact he tried to blackmail several of them. This violent thug just conned the jury and got manslaughter instead of murder. The problem with the provocation partial defence is it encourages people to try and defame their victim.

People are calling the abolition of provocation a knee-jerk reaction to the Weatherston case. I cannot believe the sheer numbers of people I have noted expressing this belief over the last couple of days as this has all made the news again. This is the one and only thing that inspired me to write a post about what essentially ought to be a non-issue. It ought to have been so since Rongonui at least. A change has been on the cards for years, especially since the Law Commission report in 2007. Anyone who believes this is all about Clayton Weatherston should read it.

I think the Weatherston case has been a catalyst for MPs. It has meant the law change has happened quicker than otherwise would have been the case. But again I agree that the need to change the law has been apparent for many years.

The Herald reports:

A detailed membership list for the far-right British National Party has been leaked, revealing that the white supremacist party’s influence reaches as far as New Zealand.

The list, which contains 16,000 names, many with contact details, was published on the website Wikileaks. Three New Zealanders appeared on the list.

xxxxx  from Glenfield, said he had been a member of BNP for six years and was not fazed by his details being made public.

The leadership of the BNP are nasty pieces of work, but I don’t approve of publishing the names and addresses of members of the BNP. People may have joined up on the spot many years ago after attending a meeting before getting to know more about them. Or yes they may fully back the BNP as one gentleman quoted does. But regardless political party membership is essentially a private matter and I think it is regrettable that people have ben hounded over their membership.

It is a slippery slope between that, and revealing who people voted for in an election.

The Dom Post reports:

As a packed courtroom erupted at the news that Alan Gundry would walk free after shooting dead one of his best mates in self-defence, the young Auckland father simply sank in the dock and cradled his head in his hands. …

After deliberating for eight hours, a jury unanimously found Mr Gundry not guilty of murder and, by a majority of 11-1, not guilty of manslaughter. His lawyer, Graeme Newell, said there would be no celebration at the rare verdict – just relief.

Is that the first 11-1 verdict? Vindicates the law change I think as no way he would have been found guilty but it avoids a retrial.

Mr Gundry and Mr Atkins were friends for years and had spent January 12 eating and drinking at Mr Gundry’s home.

But during the evening Mr Atkins became upset with his girlfriend. They went home and he threw her belongings out of his house. She then fled to Mr Gundry’s house, and Mr Atkins followed.

Mr Atkins had a violent history, including several assaults on his girlfriend and a road-rage incident, the court was told. When he died, he was awaiting trial charged with slashing a man’s face at an Auckland nightclub.

On the night of the killing, he rampaged through Mr Gundry’s home, attacking five others, leaving another party-goer semi-conscious in a pool of blood and assaulting Mr Gundry’s partner, Nicole MacDonald.

It was right to bring it to trial, but the verdict is absolutely the right one, from the media reports.

Well almost the entire health sector seem to be united behind the changes announced by Tony Ryall. This degree of unanimity is very rare. In fact I think the last time it happened was in the early 90s when the Young Nats proposed selling off all 23 CHEs to the private sector (on the basis of there being a funder/provider split, and ownership of providers did not matter), and we got condemned by every health group and political party there was – including National’s own Minister and Under-Secretary

Getting widespread support in favour, rather than against, what you are doing is harder but here is reaction yesterday:

NZMA:

The New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) today welcomed the announcement by the Government of substantial changes to the health system.

“It makes great sense to rationalise the backroom services of the District Health Boards (DHBs) and to provide much greater coordination of national services and we support the decision to place the National Health Board within the Ministry of Health,” said NZMA Chair Dr Peter Foley.

NZNO:

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) supports announcements made today by the Minister of Health, Hon Tony Ryall, which will see greater collaboration in health across New Zealand’s 21 District Health Boards (DHBs).

“We are pleased that the Government and the Minister have taken heed of the submissions made in response to the Ministerial Review Group report ‘Meeting the Challenge’. We welcome any additional resources to workers at the front line of the health service,” said NZNO President Nano Tunnicliff.

“The changes signalled are a sensible continuation towards a more nationally integrated health service,” Tunnicliff said.

ASMS:

“We are chuffed that the government has listened to advice from us and others on the health proposed by the Ministerial Review Group (Horn Report),” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.

“The Horn Report recommended creating a new bureaucracy, the National Health Board, as a separate, less accountable crown entity, in addition to the Ministry of Health. This would have involved major restructuring, and risked increasing bureaucratic wastage and generating paralysis in decision-making. We supported the functions proposed for the National Health Board but not the recommended structure.”

“We have worked hard lobbying government not to go down this path. Instead we recommended that the functions be allocated to a specific enhanced unit within the Ministry of Health. This is exactly what Health Minister has announced today and we are delighted. It is a relatively novel experience of a government listening to us in such a specific way.

And even the Health Cuts Hurt lobby group:

“Health Cuts Hurt supports the principles behind the Government’s decisions about the public health system announced today but is concerned that the devil is in the so far undelivered detail,”

“How can you oppose more consolidation of the administrative functions like purchasing in bulk and more regional cooperation in service delivery along with returning savings from these things into more operations or hospital beds,” said Heather Carter.

Oh I am sure Labour can, if they try hard enough

HFANZ:

Efficiency gains expected as a result of changes to the public health system announced by the Government today have been welcomed by the Health Funds Association (HFANZ).

Tony Ryall really is doing well with what is traditionally a very dangerous portfolio. If only, the same could be said across the entire Government!

The Herald reports:

The Government is reviewing personal grievance claims procedures to make them less onerous on employers.

John Key told the Council of Trade Unions the personal grievance process needed to be more coherent and easier.

“Substance-over-form issues are the area of concern – where someone has genuinely done something that warrants dismissal but because [the employers] haven’t followed the rules absolutely perfectly, they lose. It can be very expensive for small companies.”

Well overdue. Even large companies with scores of lawyers often fail to follow perfect process, and have to pay out money no matter how justified the dismissal is. For small companies, it is far worse, as they do not have access to in house legal advice, and often they just have to carry on with someone who is not up to the job, for fear of having to do a big pay out if they take action.

Quite like the gall of John Key in announcing the changes at the CTU conference, along with this report:

John Key laid down a challenge to teachers yesterday – sacrifice part of a pay rise so school support staff can have one.

Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions’ conference, the Prime Minister was challenged by Frances Guy from the teachers’ and support staff union, the NZ Educational Institute, over the nil pay increase offered to support staff. …

Mr Key said the staff were in a difficult position in their negotiations because of the fiscally restrained environment.

“Maybe one option is you guys ought to go and talk to your fellow unions and say, ‘Let’s have teachers taking less of a pay rise so it can be put toward education support staff’. See if they support you.”

Oh that is wonderful. What a cunning response. Of course Labour is outraged:

Labour’s education spokesman, Trevor Mallard, said it was “outrageous” to propose setting the education groups against each other.

Outrageous Fortune perhaps

So anyone tried it out yet?

My laptop is near death but I have been putting off getting a new one, as I didn’t want to have to get Vista. Good old XP has been doing the job.

If Windows 7 is pretty good, I’ll probably buy myself a new laptop for Xmas, even though that also means trading in Office 2003 for Office 2007 (I do not like its layout). If not, then maybe I’ll go for a Mac!