Kiwiblog

A lot of people have wondered if Mel Gibson’s motivation for Passion of the Christ, was to demonise Jews. For those not sure, a story from Winona Ryder about Mel Gibson:

I blame his father.

Michael Field in the Dom Post reports:

Muslims at New Zealand’s largest mosque claim its Pakistani imam taught jihad or holy war and preached on the need for men to make as many babies as they could with burqa-wearing women.

Muslims involved claim imam or mufti Abdul Qadir Siddiquei preached jihad against members of Islamic sects he did not approve of and ran a madrasa or school for boys on jihad at the mosque.

New Zealand is very fortunate that the NZ Muslim community has generally avoided the extremists that Europe (and even Australia) has.

This iman sounds like he is very much one of thopse hate filled extremists. What is pleasing, is that it is other members of the Muslim community who have take action against him. The moderates are the best solution to the extremists.

The allegations of preaching jihad and of the madrasa emerged in speeches and pamphlets as around 200 Muslims gathered in thewomen’s room at Auckland’s Jamia Musjid Al-Mustafa mosque on Thursday night.

Police intervened amid tense scenes as members fronted up to each other and at times wrestled and abused one another.

The extremist claims were based on four YouTube video recordings of speeches that are now removed from the website.

The mosque, which has more than a 1000 followers, has united various Sunni sects and Pakistani and Indo-Fijian Muslims, who combined to pay for the building.

Also known as the South Auckland Islamic Centre, it is the most influential mainstream mosque in New Zealand and Fiji.

However, many followers now refuse to attend there and one leading member, Abdul Abbas Karim, originally of Fiji, confirmed he had yesterday filed a police claim of assault and threatening to kill against members following Thursday’s meeting.

Disputes should not involve death threats.

Mufti Siddiquei had applied for New Zealand residency, supported by the mosque, though that support had been withdrawn and he now has to leave the country.

Good.

Elizabeth Binning in the Herald reports:

A 9-year-old girl found by police hiding in a wardrobe had suffered so much abuse that almost every part of her body was covered in injuries, including part of her scalp torn off her head as she was dragged down the hallway.

I find it hard to accept her parents are members of the same species as me. Sadly they are.

This is not the only case, sadly, of horrific child abuse. What is more unusual is that it was done to a nine year old – normally it tends to be very young children or infants.

The Weekend Herald understands the girl had been removed from her parents by Child Youth and Family not long after she was born, and was returned to them only two years ago.

Well that was a bad call.

Court documents allege the girl had suffered violent beatings since the beginning of 2009, some of which were with a stick.

In April this year, her mother allegedly repeatedly punched her in the face and hands but never sought any medical treatment for her afterwards. The Weekend Herald understands the mother did however go to the doctors herself after breaking bones in both of her own hands during the beating.

So the mother beat her child so hard, she broke bones in her own hands, yet only got treatment for herself, not her daughter.

In November the assaults intensified with her father allegedly beating her with a vacuum cleaner and a broomstick.

During the same period her mother also allegedly attacked her on an almost daily basis.

It is alleged that on November 10 she assaulted her daughter with a broomstick, repeatedly punched her in the face and body, lifted her toenail and bent it backwards and caused grievous bodily harm with a hammer.

How did no one at her school notice her bruising? Was CYF not checking up on her regularly?

It at times like this, that I do wish we had a biblical justsice system and the motehr got to get slammed by a hammer rpeatedly , and have her toenails torn off.

Of course when I clam down, I don’t want that. but you wonder how anyone could torture a nine year old girl like that.

Over the next two days she was also allegedly hit with a broomstick and a table leg, repeatedly punched in the face and body, and kicked in the groin while her mother was wearing steel-capped boots.

On November 14 her mother allegedly tore off her daughter’s toenail before pouring salt and then boiling hot water on to the bleeding wound.

Oh fuck it, I think this sort of stuff should be treated like murder, and life without parole should be an eligible sentence.

The following day abusive comments were written on her body in felt-tip pen. Also during November the mother allegedly put the girl in a hot bath and held her head under the water, starved her of food and forced her to stand in the corner for long periods of time, sometimes naked, without moving.

It is alleged one beating went from 9 o’clock one night until 2 the following morning.

Actually life without parole doesn’t even seem sufficient.

Detective Sergeant Megan Goldie said the girl’s injuries were so bad that police, and others associated with the inquiry, had all been affected.

And that would take a lot.

John Armstring gives otu his awards in the NZ Herald:

• Politician of the Year – John Key
• Rising Star – Hekia Parata. Also mentioned – Amy Adams, Michael Woodhouse, David Parker, David Cunliffe, Brendon Burns
• Quiet Achiever – Tim Groser
• Best Speech – John Key on the day of the second explosion at Pike River
• Best Speech in Parliament – Amy Adams for her personal account of the Canterbury Earthquake
• Most extraordinary speech – Heather Roy’s “black swans” speech to the ACT conference
• Wrong speech – Jonathan Coleman
• Mission Impossible Award for Salesmanship – Bill English for getting GSt increased with hardly a murmur
• Mr Bean Award for Complete Absence of Salemanship – Gerry Brownlee for mining in National Parks
• Complete Lack of Political Bottle Award – Steven Joyce and John Key for not lowering teh blood-alcohol limit
• Gone but not forgotten – Jeanette Fitzsimons
• Gone and already forgotten – David Garrett
• Foot in Mouth Award – Phil Goff for calling Cunliffe Caygill
• Stunned Mullet Award – John Key for not reacting to Paul Henry’s comments on the Governor-General
• Kim Jong-il Award for Self-Glorification: Chris Carter.
• Tammy Wynette “Stand by your Man” Award: Pansy Wong for demonstrating what she thought of her role as Minister of Women’s Affairs by putting her husband, Sammy, first, her career second.
• Oscar for Worst Performance in a Supporting Role: The CTU for The Hobbit.

The NZ Herald reports:

Labour Party president Andrew Little says its next candidate in Te Atatu will have to repair damage done to it by ousted MP Chris Carter to stop the seat slipping into National’s hands.

The party will select its candidate today. After a threat from Mr Carter to stand against the party as an independent if his preferred candidate, Phil Twyford, does not win that selection, Mr Little said Mr Carter was now irrelevant and any remaining local support was “dwindling rapidly”.

How does Andrew than explain the letter from the Te Atatu LEC which said that they supported Chris Carter unamiously?

Mr Carter said he believed Mr Twyford had the best chance of keeping the seat out of National Party hands. Although not a local, Kingsland resident Mr Twyford had a profile from his work opposing the Super City. Mr Carter said if Mr Twyford was not chosen, he himself would consider standing again to keep the seat in centre-left hands.

Mr Twyford has the support of at least three unions with voting rights – the Service and Food Workers’ Union, the Maritime Union and the Amalgamated Workers Union.

Mr Little is standing aside from the selection panel because Mr McCracken was an EPMU organisere about five years ago. However, Mr Little said yesterday that the union had not endorsed any candidate.

With Chris Carter threatening to split the vote as an independent candidate if anyone but Twyford is selected, and with three unions behind him, and the EPMU neutral, even Phil should be able to clinch the nomination.

Mr Carter said he did not know what his political future held and he might leave politics before the election if a good job came along – forcing an unwelcome byelection for Labour.

And this is what will be his ultimate revenge. Twyford gets the nomination, then Carter suddenly picks up a job (maybe with the UN) and we have a by-election. And if Twyford wins the by-election, it brings Judith Tizard back into the Labour Caucus for seven months or so.

If you want a shocking example of a hideously biased article, try this one by Chris Barton in the NZ herald on VSM.

It does nothing but attack supporters of VSM, without even giving them a word in response, and uses propoganda exmaples from as many student associations as possible.

It paints the increase in the student services levy at Auckland university to $542 as due to VSM, and doesn’t even mention that on other campuses it has risen to $600 (plus a compulsory student association fee).

It lumps together National, ACT and the Business Roundtable together and ascribes motives to them – without again talking to a single person from them.

It fauls to mention the WSU vote to return to compulsion was scheduled by former UK Labour MP Bryan Gould to occur with no notice during study week, and hence a tiny number of students over-turned the results of three previous votes with much higher turnouts.

It quotes a legal opinion from former Labour PM Geoffrey Palmer that compulsory membership doesn’t breahc the international human right not to associate. It doesn’t mention the legal opinion submitted from a leading QC disagreeing with Palmer’s opinion.

The article would be fine as an op ed from NZUSA or the such – I have no problem with the media running anti-VSM views. But when it appears as a new story by an in house journalist, I’m amazed such a biased story appears.

Odddly the journalist is one I really rate – I just think this particular story is shiockingly bad.

Marty Sharpe at the Dom Post reports:

Police are advising drivers to pull over to the side of the road if they feel amorous after a couple rolled their car while attempting a kiss near Wairoa.

Senior sergeant Tony Bates said the couple in their twenties from Hastings were driving south near Nuhaka, north of Wairoa, when the male driver leaned over to kiss his partner yesterday afternoon.

“The car appears to have veered slightly to the left, gone into a grass verge.

“He tried to gently steer out but started fish-tailing.

“He tried to correct but lost it and slid sideways into drain, where the car slid for some distance on its side before hitting a clump of toetoe and rolling, finishing up on its side. By the time help arrived they had righted the car,” Bates said.

The car, a white Hyundai Accent, was probably a write-off, he said.

The male was uninjured but the female received bruises and a possible broken collarbone.

As the Government has banned using a cellphone while driving, will they also ban kissing while driving?

Will the Herald on Sunday launch a campaign calling on drivers to have no more than two kisses while driving?

Will Family First call on kissing while driving to be discouraged, unless they are a married couple?

Will a Labour MP announce their support for no kissing while driving, and then have TV3 reveal they were filmed kissing in a car after the press gallery party?

Will a taxpayer funded lobby group emerge to publish shonky research on the costs to the taxpayer of kissing while driving?

A combination of a cold, the press gallery party and Backbenches last night has left me hoarse. So don’t call me today please. Well, unless you are Estonian.

Quiz is here. 12/15 in around one minute. Sure people can beat that.

Anna Leask at the Herald reported:

Staff at a North Island freezing works had their pay cut for the official two-minute silence to remember the 29 miners killed in the Pike River mine.

My reaction upon reading this first paragraph was to do a post lashing out at the employer as a bad employer who should be ashamed of themselves. Bad employers piss me off, because they make life hard for all the other employers.

But upon reading the full story, it is more nuanced. The employer is not without blame, but neitehr is the union. In fact the poor employees are the victims in a struggle between the two.

Staff at the Silver Fern Farms Te Aroha plant lost two cattle each from their daily quota – the equivalent of between 98c and $1.60 for each worker – after downing tools.

Staff are paid for each beast they process, and have a daily quota of 280 cattle.

It takes about 63 seconds to skin, gut and bone an animal.

Depending on their experience, workers are paid between 49c and 80c for each beast processed.

So my thought was why not just pay them for the two extra beasts, or alternatively just carry on working until 5.02 pm.

Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper said all workers were encouraged to observe the two-minute silence.

He said the local branch of the Meat Workers Union approached Silver Fern Farms in support of observing the memorial silence.

“As the meat workers are remunerated on the basis of throughput, Silver Fern Farms offered the union the opportunity for workers to process the missed two animals at the end of day as overtime.

“However the union declined the offer as a gesture of solidarity with Silver Fern Farms as an employer and in the spirit of comradeship with the West Coast workers.”

So the union refused to allow the workers to gain the money back.

When asked why Silver Fern Farms didn’t just pay the workers for the two cattle, a spokeswoman for Mr Cooper said it “just wasn’t an issue at the time”.

Well, it was still a dumb call. Yes you may be peeved at the union for refusing permission to work until 5.02 pm, but why not be a good employer and not punish the staff for doing the very decent thing of observing two minutes silence.

Union president Mike Nahu said the local union representative declined the overtime offer because the union did not want their tribute to the miners to be based on money.

He said workers had a clause in their contract saying they could have extra time at the end of a shift to process any remaining beasts.

“We chose not to make up the loss. It wasn’t about the money, it was about respect. They could have very well made it up, but that wasn’t the issue.”

He could not say if the local union representative explained the decision to all workers before the stoppage.

He said no one had approached the union to complain, but accepted some workers might not be happy with the decision to forgo the remaining beasts.

Basically both the union and the employer have crapped on the workers.  They have both put their desire not to give in to the other over doing the right thing.

However at the end of the day, Silver Fern should have done the right thing and paid them for two extra beasts. If I was on the board of Silver Fern, I’d want to know who made that decision, and hold them accountable for it.

Phil Goff has managed to not actually break the rule on accomodation funding, yet still manage to get himself seen as hypocritical, having broken his word, demonstrating a sense of entitlement, and inappropriately using taxpayer funded staff to do commercial business for him.

The issues are quite complicated, so let us start from the beginning.

At some stage in the 1990s Phil Goff purchased an apartment in Wellington, and lived in it. Parliamentary Service would have paid him an accomodation allowance up to the level of the interest on his mortgage.

Then he became a Minister and got provided with a ministerial house. So he moved into the Ministerial House (which by chance was two minutes from where I live) and rented out his apartment. Nothing too out of the ordinary here.

Then Labour lost the election, and Goff lost his ministerial house. At this stage he had a choice. He could move back into his apartment, or he could rent out a new apartment at taxpayer expense and continue to rent out his apartment.

By this stage it is almost inevitable that the mortgage has been paid off. So if Goff moved back into his own apartment, he would not get a taxpayer funded accomodation allowance.

Goff has claimed he could not move back into his apartment as it had tenants. This is a red herring. S51(1)(a) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 states that only 42 days notice is needed to terminate a tenancy if the owner wishes to live there. With the election loss in early November, the apartment could have been free by the end of December.

But Goff chose the route which is of maximum benefit to himself. Now he is far far alone in doing so. In 2008 such arrangements were still secret as john Key and Lockwood Smith had not opened the arrangements up to public scrutiny. So I don’t judge harshly MP’s decisions in the pre-transparency era.

But then we had the transparency and Labour ripped into Bill English for his accomodation allowance use. Note that Bill English was actually found by three Speakers and the Auditor-General to be entitled to a Wellington accomodation allowance.

At that time Phil Goff was asked about his situation where he claims an accomodation allowance, and gains rental income from his property in Wellington. Goff could have defended his right to do so, but instead he pledged “The flat is currently tenanted and I plan to sell it”, as reported by TV3.

That was a very clear indication that he planned to sell it, no later than when the tenants moved out. He could incidentially have sold it at any time the tenants were there – in fact it is probably easier to sell with tenants in it. He had 18 montsh to live up to his word and sell it, and quite simply has just not bothered to do so.

You might expect such a mistake from a junior MP, but from the Leader of the Opposition it is worse. If you make a public commitment, and in a time of such scrutiny on these things, you should follow through on it.

But worse the current tenants moved out, and Goff doesn’t sell the place as promised. He advertises for new tenants. And worse he gets a member of his taxpayer funded staff to be listed as the contact person, and on four occassions show people around the apartment – during work hours.

This is a breach of the rules. That is using taxpayer resources to help Phil Goff make private money. It is in fact the exact thing they hounded Pansy Wong for.

It staggers me that the Leader of the Opposition would agree to having one of his staff be listed as the contact person for his private investment property. That is massively bad judgement. Of course Goff may not have time to do it himself – but there are specialist property managers such as Quinovic who will do it for a fee. Basically Goff chose to use a free taxpayer funded staffer, rather than pay for a professional.

Then to compound his already multiple misjudgements, he defends his renting it out as “it’s my superannuation”.

Can you think of a phrase more likely to piss off the voters? Because Phil Goff is one of those rare MP on the old gold plated parliamenary super scheme. After 30 years in Parliament he will leave with a massive superannuation payout – well into seven figures.

Then Goff blunders again on TV3. He defends his staffer working on renting out his apartment as doing it as a friend, not as a staffer and not in paid time. But this is clearly untrue – at least two of the interviews were done during the day.

I’ve worked for a political party leader, and yes they can be yogur friend as well as a boss. I’ve gone around to their place to fix their home PC (which you could argue anyway is needed for work). But when doing this, always on a Saturday.

Having a staffer find tenants for your investment property is an appalling error of judgement for the man who wants to be Prime Minister.

And in the media today, Goff carries on saying that he was entitled to do what he did, as it was within the rules. Has he learnt nothing from the last 18 months – that the public hate hearing those words “within the rules”. If he was smart, he would apologise for not keeping his word and most of all for using taxpayer funded staff to find tenants for his residential investment property.

Thought we’d try a 3 for 1 deal this morning  It’s a stitched photo of a sea eagle in flight.

Click for larger, higher res version

Hope you all have a good day today. You can presume that coffee will be an ever present feature of mine

A reminder that the final episode of Backbenches for 2010 is being filmed tonight. It will air next Wednesday.

The episode starts filimg at 8 pm. Come along for a year end drink if you are free. The show is a year in review with Bomber Bradbury from Tumeke/Citizen A, Jess Mutch from TVNZ, myself and Mark Unsworth on the panel.

Find out who our picks are for:

• Best backbencher
• Best maverick
• Best rising star
• Biggest loser
• Biggest waste of space
• Biggest surprise
• Best Minister
• Who should be dropped from the list

Plus we’ll talk about the best and worst of 2010 and what to look out for in 2011.

You can vote in the six categories in the sidebar. The nominees, based on those who got the most nominations are:

MP of the Year – a choice between PM John Key, Police & Corrections Minister Judith Collins and Health Minister Tony Ryall

Labour MP of the Year – the four most popular nominees were David Cunliffe, Phil Goff, Trevor Mallard an newbie Grant Robertson

National MP of the Year – a choice between four ministers – Judith Collins, Steven Joyce, Tony Ryall and new Minister Hekia Parata

Minor Party MP of the Year – a diverse range with United Future’s Peter Dunne, Green co-leader Metiria Turei and Rodney Hide and John Boscawen from ACT

Press Gallery Journalist of the Year – it’s a two way contest between the two TV political editors – One’s Guyon Espiner v Three’s Duncan Garner

Public Servant of the Year – Law Commission President Sir Geoffrey Palmer competes with Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker and Auditor-General Lyn Provost

The Press ran this op ed from John Holm, brother of Dee Jordan who was killed by a driver fleeing the Police:

My big sister and her aerobics partner, Norman Fitt, were killed instantly at 8.10pm on August 26, just 10 minutes after I had travelled through the same set of lights on Fitzgerald Ave, Christchurch.

She did not have time to say goodbye to her frail 87-year-old mum, her soulmate and loyal husband for over four decades, two beautiful daughters, her younger sister, two brothers, relatives and hundreds of friends.

I have never had the need to write to the editor before but I, and other members of our family, am absolutely stressed by correspondents who see it as their right to form an opinion about the police’s role as this tragic event unfolded, without any knowledge of the background, let alone the facts.

The blame the Police lynchmob.

The individual who killed two beautiful people in the prime of their lives had offended against the law previously and been jailed. While under the care of his extended family following his release from jail, he got into an unregistered and unwarranted car while drunk and disqualified. He broke the law on several counts – the worst, killing two people

He drove from Akaroa to Christchurch and was “noticed” shortly after arrival by the police, who within a matter of 400 metres had the driver pulling into the kerbside as requested. When the car was virtually at a standstill, the driver had a “brain explosion”, sped off through three green-light intersections at a speed up to 90-100kmh in a 50kmh zone.

Sadly and fatally the fourth intersection had a red light and he had covered a total distance of only 500m since running the police stop and fleeing the police.

The police had not even passed through the first set of green lights, and the time elapsed was less than a minute, when my sister and the driver of the vehicle she was in were killed.

I can’t see how anyone can blame the Police, rather than the killer, for this.

So who killed my sister?

Bad parenting killed my sister and to a lesser extent the education system, with the latter not equipped with the tools or resources (or time for that matter) to educate this young man when his parents failed.

We have to have social rules and when people fail to abide by those rules as a consequence of bad parenting through their formative years, we have to have laws.

The laws have to have teeth, and be upheld, for without this we have anarchy.

The police are an easy target as they are “dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t”.

To all you police bashers out there, let the police use their best human judgment as they continue to “protect the public”, whilst at the same time society demands and reminds those who bring children into the world that they are equally guilty and should also be held accountable.

The public seem to forget that the police have husbands and wives, family and friends, so give them a break.

These two officers had to watch powerlessly as two people got killed right in front of their eyes. Have any of you been through that trauma?

My guess is no.

Very moving. It must indeed be horrific for the officers concerned.

Just watched the Comedy Central roast of Mike King. I was worried it would be a tamed down version of the US ones, which are horrifically offensive and crude.

Fortunately the Kiwi comedians did not let us down. It wasn’t as crude as Pamela Anderson’s, nor as witty as William Shatner’s, but it was easily as good as some of the other roasts done by Comedy Central.

Stuff reports:

McDonald’s will serve up free wi-fi from 132 of its fast-food outlets from today.

Managing director Mark Hawthorne said the company had decided to make the “bold move” to offer the free internet service as an extra convenience to customers and to “modernise the McDonald’s experience”.

“Free wi-fi is the perfect service for the growing number of people who use their mobiles to access social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Customers with iPhones, iPads and the like will find free wi-fi a welcome way to stay connected socially.”

There will be no time restriction, but customers will be limited to downloading 50 megabytes of data per session.

The cost of providing this service will be matched by pretty much one extra customer a day. It’s a good business move.

When in Auckland I’ll sometimes go to Starbucks, because they always have wifi, and I use them as a mobile office for a couple of hours. This may even see me trying McCafe out!

Tracy Watkins at the Dom Post reports:

It ended less fractiously than in many years – though there were still plenty of insults to mark the final day of Parliament.

Gerry Brownlee labelled Trevor Mallard the “poor man’s David Farrar” – a reference to Mr Mallard’s new-found penchant for blogging. Labour leader Phil Goff threw back Free Willy and Whale Rider insults to Mr Brownlee.

I think Trevor laughed more at the description that I did. I commented that a more inflammatory line might be to call Trevor “Labour’s answer to Cameron Slater”. In fact I noticed Trevor stole talking points from Whale Oil this week.

Then the MPs left Parliament’s debating chamber for a glorious seven-week break, though many took a diversion to the annual Press Gallery shindig downstairs on their way out.

Many thanks to the gallery for their fine hospitality. They literally do work shifts serving behind the bar, cooking the food etc.

Derek Cheng writes in the Herald:

North Shore MP Wayne Mapp has surprised his colleagues by saying he will leave politics after this parliamentary term.

The Cabinet minister’s decision opens up a fourth safe National Party seat for new blood next year.

As well as his North Shore seat there is Northland, where John Carter is stepping down; Rodney, where Speaker Lockwood Smith will move to the party list; and Botany, vacated by Pansy Wong.

On top of those four, there may be a further announcement or two in the near future. Plus you have Epsom where the nomination might be keenly sought, as they are likely to have a winnable list place.

I remarked last night to a journalist that it was ironic that it is the party on 55% in the polls that is rejuvenating, while the party at 31% is not so much.

Anyway aspiring candidates in Auckland have Northland, Rodney, North Shore and Botany to consider. The most marginal of those seats has a 10,054 majority and the safest a 15,635 majority. In other words, those who win the nominations should have a long parliamentary career ahead of them.

I’ve left it late this year, but nominations are now open for the following awards. The top nominees will be voted on next week:

• 2010 MP of the Year
• 2010 Labour MP of the Year
• 2010 National MP of the Year
• 2010 Minor Party MP of the Year
• 2010 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year
• 2010 Public Servant of the Year

I needed to get a copy of some old tax summaries from the IRD. I was dreading spending half my day doing so, but had a very pleasant surprise.

My first call had the robot tell me that I could hold on, or have someone call me back (at my place in the queue). This would have been a great thing to do if the wait was ages. As it happened, they said the wait was only 2 -4 minutes, so I held on and I got to a human within three minutes.

The staffer understood what I needed and told me I could either request them by post (which takes ages) or get myself a login and retirieve them myself. I already had a business login, but not a persomal one. I decided to give the personal login a go, but was nervous that it would again takes ages.

Went to the website, filled in the forms in around 90 seconds. Then phoned the validation phone number and they asked me some questions. In well under five minutes my account is operative.

I login to IRD, and locate the tax summaries I need, save them as pdfs and e-mail them to my bank. Total time is less than 10 minutes.

I am seriously impressed with that sort of service. Well done IRD.

Defence Minister Wayne Mapp has announced his retirement from Parliament at the next election. Wayne has been MP for North Shore since 1996.

I think it is highly commendable that Wayne has chosen to get out when on top – he is in the Cabinet, and most would say he was highly likely to do a second term, if National is re-elected.

But rejuvenation is essential for a politicial party, and Wayne’s decision helps National achieve that. One of Labour’s key mistakes was that their second and third term ministries looked very similiar to their first term ministries.

Wayne is a former regional policy chair for the party, and in caucus served as policy convenor for several years.

Wayne is one of the class of 1996, and I recal him and Gerry often used to compare their majorities. Wayne’s 14,574 pips Gerry at 11,893. Of course Gerry always insists his seat is close to marginal

In hindsight 1996 was a tough year to enter Parliament. Conventional wisdom has it that the best year to enter Parliament is your final term in Opposition. That gives you a reasonable chance of making Cabinet in just three years – as Coleman, Guy and Wilkinson have done.

The worst year to enter is your final term in Government. You won’t make Cabinet in your first term, and then you have up to nine years in Opposition.

The class of 1996 were the first ones who entered Parliament after I started working there. They were a good bunch of people.

Not too many of the class of 1996 remain. Gerry is there. Pansy has just gone. Richard Worth went in 2009. Bob Simcock lost his seat in 2002, as did Belinda Vernon. Gavan Herlihy went in 2002 also. Georgina te Heuheu is still there as a List MP. Arthur Anae went in 1999, came back in 2000 and left again in 2002.

Anyway I wish Wayne well in his retirement at the end of next year. I’ve always enjoyed debating policy with him over the years – Wayne was also the first National MP to comment on the old Usenet Internet newsgroups. He’d be a very good appointment to institutions such as the Law Commission in future.