Kiwiblog

Thank goodness, the Wellywood option got under 10% of the vote. eye of the Taniwha got around around 35% and Wellington Blown Away got 65%.

Like many would have been happy with no sign, but at least we have a sign that won’t make us cringe and is slightly funny.

Now hopefully the airport company can go back to, well, running the aiport.

Number one priority should be to change the security check area to where the cafe is, so the Koru Club is within the security zone. In Auckland you can be on board your flight within a minute of the boarding call, while in Wellington you often need to then spend 5 – 10 minutes in a security queue before boarding.

Of course a more sensible option would to to abolish the security checks all together for domestic flights, but that is a Government decision. You have to endure them for Wellington to Auckland but not Wellington to Hamilton. Just classify all our flights as provincial.

Guyon Espiner on Q+A asked Winston Peters three times whether his party will refuse to give confidence and supply to either of the main parties. Three times, Winston said that was correct. Now again, Winston could wriggle out of the most iron clad guarantee, but let’s for now take him at his word (yeah, stop laughing now).

If Peters is to be taken at his word, then a vote for NZ First is a vote for a new election, if NZ First makes it and holds the balance of power.

A Prime Minister needs to demonstrate to the Governor-General that they have the confidence of the House. Peters has said he will not give confidence to either National nor Labour. This means that neither John Key nor Phil Goff will be able to be sworn in as Prime Minister. The result will be that Key as caretaker Prime Minister would have to advise the Governor-General to call another election, as no Government can remain in office without the confidence of the House.

Some people think that a lack of confidence and supply would only become an issue once a Budget needs to be passed, but this is not the case. The Government needs to always have the confidence of the House – the formal votes on confidence and supply are just an expression of that. And there would be a confidence vote during the address in reply debate which occurs at the beginning of a new Parliament.

This would mean another election in ealy 2012, at a cost of $38m or so, and a caretaker Government that would have no authority to respond to any events in Europe.

The video is here.

Incredible. For the third time Goff is unable to answer the CGT question about in what year does it first bring in revenue.

You can see it in the video above, by Whale. After muffing it in The Press debate, and then muffing it on The Nation on yesterday, how on God’s earth did he not look up the policy. We all make mistakes, but to not be able to answer the question after two previous maulings is just idiotic.

Goff was also very unimpressive on other details. Couldn’t say how the Capital Gains tax would work, had no numbers around jobs, and in the finale refused (three times) to say whether or not he trusts Winston Peters – whom is his only lifeline to power.

Can you imagine a Labour-led Government with Phil Goff needing to get the Greens, Maori Party, NZ First and Mana to agree to every budget, and every law? It would have no stability and definitely no direction.

UPDATE: Transcript below:

GUYON Okay, the capital gains tax is part of a major tax switch, isn’t it, which includes the increase in the top tax rate, the GST off fruit and vegetables, etc. Under your plan, what is the first year you gain any additional revenue from your tax switch and how much do you get?

PHIL Well, from 2015, 16, we’re back into surplus, and by 2021, we’ve paid off the debt a year faster than National.

GUYON What is the first year that you gain any additional revenue from your tax switch and how much is it?

PHIL I think it’s about 2016, 17. Again, I don’t carry all those figures in my head.

GUYON Well, it’s 2018, 19. It’s a long way off.

As Guyon points out, that means it is two full terms of Parliament before their “tax switch” actually brings in additional revenue.

The left have spent all year claiming Mediaworks and TV3 are pro-National, which has been almost amusing to anyone who actually watches TV3.

The latest proof of this, is reported in the HoS:

TV 3 is to screen a major documentary next week promoting a key Labour Party policy as a way to end child poverty in New Zealand.

The screening of Inside Child Poverty on Tuesday is a provocative move, with viewers confronted by heart-rending scenes of children in squalid state houses. …

Bruce also speaks to the camera from the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial in Auckland, saying the former prime minister would be “deeply ashamed” that children in New Zealand suffer poverty-related diseases.

It is followed by an interview with an academic who says: “Labour builds them, maintains them reasonably well then National gets in … sells off stock.”

Bruce said he started making the documentary – with $105,000 of taxpayer money – last September and told TV3 he wanted it screened just before the election.

So the taxpayer has paid for this documentary. NZ on Air as funder should be in the gun for now insisting it doesn’t show during the election campaign, and TV3 should not be showing it the week of the election.

Don’t get me wrong, if the documentary was outside the campaign period, there would be little issue about it. But to have a taxpayer funded documentary which is clearly anti-Government show in the final week of an election, goes against the rules designed to have a fair contest.

And the quote from the so called academic is just sheer partisan hackery. The housing stock inherited by National was massively run down, and National has increased the housing stock, with the only sales (a few dozen) being to existing tenants, and the capital used to buy more houses. In fact the total number of state houses has increased by more than 1,000 under National. National has also renovated or upgraded 50,000 state houses.

I can’t wait to see who this academic is, and what their ranking is on Labour’s list.

Trevor Loudon blogs:

Thanks to the Tea Party, several radio interviews and a great plug from Glenn Beck, my book “Barack Obama and the Enemies Within” has jumped up to number 87 on Amazon (out of 600,000 titles).

Off to a good start. Hopefully we can maintain the momentum.

Making the top 100 on Amazon is a huge feat, especially for a Kiwi author. Of course the book is not on NZ politics, but US politics or specifically on Obama.

Having said that, I am very unenthused about the 2012 presidential election. I’d almost vote for Obama over Romney. Huntsman would be great, but he has little chance of winning the nomination.

iPredict have launched a new stock. It is will Labour’s party vote be 10% or greater than the Greens. They explain:

This contract pays $1 if the Labour party vote exceeds the Green party vote by at least 10% of the total party vote. For example, this contract will pay $1 if Labour and Greens receive 24% and 13% of the party vote, respectively, and will pay $0 if Labour and Greens receive 23% and 14% of the party vote, respectively.

Labour are down at 24.5% in the Roy Morgan poll and so the Greens only need another 1.5% for the stock to pay out $1.

They have also launched stocks on whether the gap will be over 12.5% and 15.0%.

I am staggered (but not surprised) that the SST devotes its front page to the results of the Horizon poll, despite the fact that its results are miles out of line with every other pollster, and that certain parties and activists openly recruit their supporters to sign up for the Horizon poll, as it is an Internet panel poll.

Even worse, the SST doesn’t even disclose that the Horizon poll is not a phone poll, but an Internet panel poll.

The spreadsheet above compares the Horizon poll to the weighted average of the five main pollsters. The differences are huge and massive. The SST would know this. Yet they still made this poll their front page, without even disclosing the difference in methodology.

Even worse the SST (at least online) doesn’t disclose the actual percentages for the big parties. I assume this is deliberate because they know if they said National is on 35% only, everyone would laugh.

Incidentially the HoS had a poll done this week over four days by Key Research. Their results are National 55.6%, Labour 26.2%, Green 11.3%, NZ First 3.6%. That is pretty close to the other five pollsters, but again shows how vastly different the Horizon results are.

Almost everyone is aware of The Press debate two weeks ago when Phil Goff couldn’t answer John Key’s question about how much revenue their proposed CGT will bring in the first year it starts, and what year that is. The result was a week of bad headlines for Goff, and serious damage to Labour’s economic credibility.

So after that fiasco, you would have thought that the first thing a semi-competent party leader would do is to make sure they can answer that question without hesitation. But amazingly Phil Goff couldn’t answer it for a second time!

On The Nation yesterday:

Duncan        One of the crucial questions that John Key asked you that night was around capital gains, and he asked you in your first year what sort of money do you raise in the first year, and you didn’t know.

Phil              Well the figures are out there, the figures are it’ll raise 26 billion in 16 years.  And what I said, let me finish this, it starts slowly, it starts with you know 20 – 50 million or whatever, it gets up to half a billion very quickly, gets up to a billion in about eight years, and then it hits about three billion.

Duncan        But do you know in the first year what it raises.

Phil              Yeah I’ve got it right here…

Duncan        No – do you know without looking?   It’s 68 billion (DPF: meant to be million)

So even after a week of ridicule over not knowing his numbers, Phil Goff still couldn’t answer, without looking it up, that Labour’s CGT will only bring in $68m in its first year.

Now of course no party leader will know every number, but again after what happened last week, this is one number that should have been tattooed.

But the problems for Goff don’t stop there. In a fit of loyalty Trevor Mallard in an online chat said that as campaign manager he takes full responsibility for Goff not being prepared for The Press debate. But the two Davids have told quite a different story to The Nation:

Here’s what David Cunliffe said:

N: Should he not have known those numbers for a debate like that?

DC: Well I’m sure he does, and did, but you never know the bounce of the ball on the day and what comes to mind but that’s really a question you should address to him

N: So , did he know the numbers did you know the numbers then?

DC: Well some of those questions were numbers that had been previously released by our tax package… but it’s sometimes it depends about how the question is framed at the time but I’m not going to second guess – Phil’s done a great job on this campaign….

So Cunliffe is saying that Goff did know and that basically he just stuffed up.

And Parker:

N: When was the fiscal strategy ready? When did you know it?

DP: Well it had been prepared in advance of our savings forum. Phil had determined we would release the strategy two days after debate.

N: Had he seen the numbers

N: Yes he was of course aware of the numbers, he was aware of the numbers when we made decision to increase kiwisaver compulsory — our fiscal numbers were worked out at that stage. The exact date of release was the Friday, the press debate was the prior Wednesday, the two day gap between that I don’t know there’s a lot in that.

Parker basically confirms that the numbers didn’t change in those two days, that Goff could have answered the question on the Wednesday if he had been on top of it.

I blogged earlier the 1,100 or so words banned by Pakistani authorities for use in text messages etc. I suggested

There should be a competition for who can write the best short-story that involves all 1,109 words!

Whale liked the idea, but added an extra condition:

He makes a suggestion that someone should have a competition for the best short story including as many of the banned words as possible.

So let’s have the competition…but I will add one more condition. That the short story also uses “Winston Peters” in it.

One reader has already responded, and submitted the story below. Well done David W who penned these 1,500 words and managed to use 129 of the banned words. A great effort.

Winston’s Animal farm: A night out with Winston, seeing inside his mind.

Winston was known by those who loved him as God. Year right said the rest of us, he’s a God dammed prick head. He always seemed to show his pub[l]ic face around election time. So lets follow him through a typical night.

Today he entered via the rear end of the building so he could sneak into the seedy joint that was know as the senior citizens hall to address his loyal followers who love[d] juice and other healthy food since they were seniors. It was his habit of cuming through the back door, that had lead to a short lived nick name, back door man.  It had recently come out[extra] that the average age was 69, younger than he thought. It was barely legal that young people these days could vote. What would they know about life. Enough of these musings he said to himself, he was never going to take the backseat when it came to politics. This hall was painted an off nude color, all the rage at the moment. He couldn’t have cared less. As long as he was here that was the main thing.          

After strap[ing] on his microphone he leapt onto the stage. Lets get it on – Showtime! Surveying the lowlife in front of him he noticed some of his loyal followers. There was Richard, known to friends as Dick, a horse lover [extra] Helen, who had on a beautify pearl necklace. She wasn’t a donkey lover, but people still called her ass. Sitting next to ass, monkey was nick name for Bull. Shit Winston thought he still owed him $58, never mind, spit out the negative thoughts on with the show. Least he wasn’t dressed in clothes from Kmart, like many in the hall.

There was a preening cock, Ben. Ben was all cocky as he thought he had laid out the hall in record time. KY was unable to make it tonight, but his low life mate queef had unfortunately made it. He was as worthless as a roach. Are well least it was a butt on a seat.

Also included in this motley bunch was Andrew, who believed that the government set dogs on him over the super city, so was known at Bitch. There was also the usual eclectic mix of mothers who loved to bone fish from their Butt[to] head. These mothers always had big butt but hey they voted for him, so he wasn’t going to point-out their big asses. Others who looked like pussy cat and some looked like they had come of suicide watch. He really was struggling to pull crowds these days.

Winston had prepared his normal speak full of banned words. But this time he was going to go even further, as he had declared whore on the current government. He opened his attack with withering attack on that retard John Key. Shit for brains John Key had molested the country for to long. He had to be shown up as the smart ass he really was. The idiot was like a hustler at a flea market, like a roach about to be swashed, he was a robber and a syphilitic cancer that needed removal. His penetration of the voting population was still staggeringly high even though Winston thought he was a wigger of lies and produced an orgy of policys that the population gullibly believed. Even if he was a killer, a murder people would still vote for him Winston lamented in his mind. He would love to kill John Key, but such killings wouldn’t be very good publicity. He wondered if he could setup his bastard brother in law to take the hit. Now this is a plan.

His impassioned, delirious and repetitive speech rolled on and on into the night. Eventually cuming to an end, with a finale of emotion, banging his fists against the podium. That will wake the dickheads he thought.  .

Afterward there were nibbles. Quite a spread, sticky, creamy buns, glazed donuts, tropical fruit and even some kumquat or nicely arranged around jugs of orange juice.  The chocolate cake was crying eat me, so he did.  Winston talked about his athletes foot, some wondered if it was because he was a foot licker, because he was not foot star. Or was he trying to be flasher than the others who claimed to undertake exercise.

Some just thought of Winston as a slime ball. But these people never came to his meetings any more. Definitely a good thing he thought. Also a good thing is that none of the attendees had had a stroke tonight. One happened the other week, ambulances and medical staff was a bit queer in a politics meeting!

As the crowd thinned, Dick handed him a whiskey. Good man, Winston thought so said “Cheers for the whiskey Dick”. That’s weird thought Dick, never mind, least he wasn’t white trash like most of the other attendees including monkey. Monkey loved to drink the terrible Australian beer XXXX, more like triple X thought Dick. Those Australians are all yellow-man [men] and had no balls [extra] and where a bunch of piss heads. As his thoughts continued he mulled over that XXX could actually be just piss. Even Budweiser was better. Enough of the gutter thoughts he said inside his head[?], no getting drunk tonight. The last time he was drunk with Winston it had ended in a drunken brawl about who could do the best fart and they had continued to drink until they blacked out.

Winston chucked the whiskey deep throat[ed] burning made its way down to his stomach. Smack the monkey he almost said out loud. What kind of moonshine is this? Made by the devil and called sixsixsix? Are well least it wasn’t some nasty cocktail. Last time he had a cocktail it has some nasty jiz juice and some milk from a lactate[ing] cow. How horrid, made him barf all night and gave him wicked flatulence the next day.

He got into his car for the drive home, he managed to avoid the wet spot caused by the rain. Must bung [that] hole so it doesn’t get worse. The hole had started as a small crack and had gotten much bigger over the last week. Still it was a solid Ford, non of this jap crap for him. Those slant eye imports, how dare they cum into the country, no better than slime or make that sleaze balls. He hated them along with niggers and homos. If he had his way they would go deeper than a shag could dive, deeper than a whale could swim, with lead weight around their feet and never to resurface. The KKK did a great service to their communities, maybe he could set up a clan here in NZ. Gosh even inter-racial marriages where common place now.

He felt a prick on this finger. The stitching was cuming off the wheel. Mary Jane was getting very slack in her maintenance. I’ll have to smack her verbally when I get home he mussed. Will have to make sure she had taken in the car for its annual lube job. He wondered if she had ever checked the oil with the dip stick. Well could be worse he continued to mull, she could be a man hater or Satan incarnate. He wondered if his working like a Trojan to keep himself in the spot light every election was ever going to get him back into parliament. Are well if it doesn’t the skum bags down in Wellington can rot. Opps just ran a red light. Lucky for him no one was around.

After his long evening he could feel snot building up in his navel cavity. Not very upcoming for the playboy he envisioned himself as being. He hadn’t even had a play girl this month, wait, even this year. Things were getting bad he thought. Maybe he could pick up a prostitute on the way home. A prostitute with sexy a nipple ring and camel toe would do the trick. Where the fuck did that thought come from, he thought! Things like that destroyed politicians in this country. He would just have to go home for some cyber sex. It was much harder these days to attract luscious babes to his harem. Who am I kidding, I never had a harem let alone a erection.

As he pulled into his drive way a dog startled by headlights  ran into the bush [extra]. Fuckit he hoped that the dog hadn’t been harassing the chicks in his hen house. He drove past the hen house, no damage, and no fairy’s at the bottom of the garden tonight. He sighed as he parked his car and realized there would be no nookie tonight and likely never again as he was long past the age of needing Viagra.

As he climbed into the cold bed, he noticed dust on the rag that he kept for those special alone times and wondered if he was doomed to live out his remaining years in obscurity.

Roy Morgan have just released their latest poll. Labour drop to a record low of 24.5%, National stay at 53% and NZ First drops to 3.0%.

Normally there is a week delay between a RM poll ending and the release of results. However this one goes right up until yesterday. It covers a 12 days period so around half is before and after the tape incident.

In the sidebar is the latest weighted average of the public polls (only counting the latest poll per pollster). National is projected to be on 65 seats and Labour 34. That means their caucus reducing by a quarter. Their average poll rating is 26.5% so really for Labour a good result now would be 30%.

NZ First on the five polls is 3.2%, but people will be looking for the first poll done entirely after his showboating.

For now I have assumed that ACT wins Epsom. The latest One News poll had Banks 11% behind Goldsmith but I am reminded that no public poll has ever shown ACT winning Epsom and they have won it twice before. However if you assume ACT do not make it, then National and the Greens will gain one seat each.

Most New Zealanders will know Kevin Milne. He was the front for Fair Go for 20 years. In dealing with the various crroks etc they exposed, Fair Go would push right to the edge of what they could do, in order to tell a story.

Kevin Milne spoke on ZB today about the secret tape. When a journalist of his standing decries the media behaviour, that surely is a sign that collectively they got it wrong. A rough transcript:

“I’ve been surprised (to say the least) that speculation over what was recorded in the so-called “teacups” conversation this week has taken precedence over questions about the way the recording was obtained and how its been subsequently used.

The freelance cameraman is reported as saying he didn’t intentionally record the conversation. Perhaps that is correct. Perhaps. I don’t believe it, but perhaps. But my knowledge of the filming process is that while you might unintentionally leave a microphone in the proximity of where a private conversation is about to be held, as you continue to video from outside you would be aware that sound was also being recorded.

But lets say I’m even wrong about that and the cameraman didn’t intentionally record that private conversation, doesn’t his innocence in the matter evaporate when he passes on the tapes to the Herald on Sunday and TV3 presumably for money?

I think its a gross breach of privacy to record a conversation between two people who are unaware they’re being recorded and then release the contents of it. It makes me embarrassed Paul to have been once part of the same line of work. If its allowed to go unchecked where does it end? For example, camera operators and sound recordists sometimes use extremely sophisticated and powerful directional microphones. You can pick up conversations from about 100 metres away. 

Are we soon to see these freelance guys drifting around parliament grounds seeing what they can pick up on tape – conversations between politicians standing on the steps of parliament for example? And while they’re at it such freelance cameramen could randomly listen in on private conversations between press gallery journalists and their partners lunching on the chairs in the sun.

I’m not soft, Paul, when it comes to investigative journalism. On “Fair Go” we often took our filming right to the edge in an attempt to show a scam was taking place and not everyone would agree with the tactics that we used. But never would we record a couple of public figures in private conversation then use knowledge of what was on those recordings to put pressure on them to publicly reveal details of what they’d been talking about. In my mind that’s appalling. I don’t care whether the victims are politicians, whether its election time, whether the “cup of tea” meeting was a staged piece of political nonsense or whether in the course of that conversation one or both parties said something they wouldn’t want made public.

The whole thing remains a gross breach of privacy in my mind. The heat ought to be on the media involved here not John Key or John Banks.” …

“I think that the media have misunderstood the public” …

“I’m surprised that there have been no other journalists who have taken the position that I have. I’m embarrassed.”

Whale has the audio also, embedded below.

NewstalkZb – Paul Holmes and Kevin Milne talk about the tea tapes by whaleoil

On The Nation today:

Duncan        So looking at the asset sales, if you were to get into government and not sell those assets, how would you control power prices?  Because that has been a major issue over the last ten years, and National one of their big attacks in office has been that under your leadership, when I say leadership I talk about the Labour government, power prices went up 70-80% over ten years.  What will you do?  What reassurance can you give to voters that you’ll control power prices.

Phil              Oh the power prices are gonna fluctuate depending on how much extra you build in terms of generation.  No but what you can assure them is this.  That you don’t have an outside foreign investor coming in, wanting a really big return on their investment, because you know, and you know from Contact Energy that this happened, that your power prices will go up if you privatise.  Contact Energy was charging 500 bucks a year more for an average family of four, than any of the SOEs.

As Garner pointed out power prices went up massively under Labour, and the increases under National have been much lower. But the big fib is on Contact Energy charging an average family $500 a year more.

First of all, even if true it would not be a big issue, as people can swap providers and hundreds of thousands have and do. But it is not true.

Consumer has price info for various areas. I picked Auckland to start, as our most populous area. The current prices:

• Genesis $2,096
• Mercury $2,083
• Meridian $1,971
• Contact $1,918

So in Auckland Contact is cheaper than the three SOEs. The total opposite to what Goff claimed. They are in fact $178 cheaper than the most expensive SOE, not $500 more expensive.

Why is no one in the media fact checking these claims?

I decided to check all four major cities. Christchurch is

• Meridian $2,055
• Mercury $1,893
• Contact $1,833
• Genesis $1,763

Contact is cheaper than two of the SOEs.

Wellington is

• Contact $2,093
• Mercury $2,080
• Genesis $2,042
• Meridian $1,945

In Wellington they are more expensive, but by only $13 to $148.

Dunedin is

• Meridian $1,929
• Mercury $1,967
• Contact $1,908
• Genesis $1,756

Again Contact is cheaper than two of the SOEs.

This billboard is up on display in Mana. It is not photoshopped.

The Guardian reports:

Guardians of linguistic purity have long warned against the pernicious impact that text messaging may have on the young, but Pakistan officials have taken such concerns to a new extreme by demanding that mobile phone operators block all text messages using offensive words.

With a creativity and dedication to the task unusual for local officialdom, the country’s telecoms regulator has issued a list of more than 1000 words and phrases which will be banned.

After serious deliberation and consultation, officials from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) have come up with more than 50 phrases using the word “fuck” and 17 involving “butt”.

The list includes several apparently innocuous words and phrases, including “flatulence”, “deposit” and “fondle”. Others would likely only make sense to frustrated teenagers.

Among the more printable terms are “strap-on”, “beat your meat”, “crotch rot”, “love pistol”, “pocket pool” and “quickie”.

The officials’ flair for the task was apparent, with prohibition embracing more figurative language, such as “flogging the dolphin”, and 51 terms with the suffix “ass” – although only one variation of the word ‘arse’. There were 17 variants on “tit” and 33 on “cock”, with officials managing to produce eight obscenities involving the word “foot”.

I’ve managed to get hold of a full list of the 1,109 words or phrases banned in Pakistan. They are included over the break.

Would be fun having a job where you have to know all the dirty words so you can ban them.

There should be a competition for who can write the best short-story that involves all 1,109 words!

(more…)

Phil Goff claimed today that Labour is not directed by any unions. It is of course just a coincidence that the CTU wrote their workplace relations policy which gives them pretty much everything they asked for.

Only 7% of private sector workers are in a union, yet they dominate Labour. Whale has a list of the backgrounds of the Labour List.

80% of their top 10 have a union background, and 70% of their top 20.

The current average of the public polls has Labour projected to get 35 MPs. Of those 35, 22 or 63% would have a union background.

I’m all in favour of unions helping out employees who chose to join. I’m not in favour of them controlling the Government.

And no I’m not in favour of business controlling the Government either. And in the last three years business organisations have been significantly critical of many Government decisions such as keeping WFF and interest-free student loans.

I want a Government that governs in the national interest, not in the interest of the powerful groups that constitute their party.

Could you imagine the outcry if National allowed (for example) the Regional Chambers of Commerce to actually join the National Party, get seats on selection committees, have votes at conferences where their vote counts for much more than individual members, vote on party policy with their weighted numbers and gets a seat on the ruling Board?

When will someone in Labour be brave enough to reform the party, so it is one (natural) person, one vote? Parties should be comprised of individuals, not of corporate entities.

The Electoral Commission has announced:

On 18 November 2011, the Electoral Commission referred Jolyon White to the Police for sticker advertisements attached to National Party billboards.

It is the Electoral Commission’s view that the publication of each of these advertisements constitutes a breach of sections 204F of the Electoral Act 1993 because they are election advertisements that do not contain a valid promoter statement.

Paul Holmes writes:

I don’t join lynch mobs and I don’t intend to now. For that’s what it’s been this week, a sanctimonious, high and mighty news media lynch mob baying for John Key’s blood. …

And I’m not blind. This is not happy politics for John Key. He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. But it never ceases to amaze and disgust me how so few in the news media understand how much the public detests the newspapers and other media ganging up and demanding blood, in this case, because of a few words said in a tape recording of a private meeting, a tape recording that was in itself a dirty trick. People hate this.

I have been amazed at how thuggish the media reaction has been, where they have tried to turn the victim of an alleged crime into the wrong-doer.

Many in the media have argued that because this was a discussion between two politicians with media just outside, that there was no expectation of privacy and the law doesn’t apply. Those who argue that miss the point. If the media honestly thought there is no right to privacy in that conversation, they should have refused to leave the café. They should have said “No this is a public political discussion, and we are leaving our tape recorders behind”. That is an acceptable response. What is unacceptable, and I believe illegal, is to leave a recorder behind concealed and secretly recording.

And any person who argues that the reason it was turned on, yet inside in bag, wasn’t so that it wouldn’t be noticed is either incredibly gullible or dishonest.  Numerous other cameramen have said you never leave a recorder on while in a bag, as it drains the battery, and it interferes with the quality. Anyone who seriously argues this was not a deliberate bugging is naïve at best.

It saddens me greatly when our media makes the UK media look honourable by comparison. Some may resile at my strong language, and say the secret recording is not in the same league as the News of the World. I agree, it is not. But the difference is the rest of the media in the UK has condemned the News of the World, while in NZ the media are all but condoning the tactics involved in the secret recording, and instead expressing outrage that a complaint was laid with the Police. I’m sorry, but isn’t that what you are meant to do when you believe the law has been broken? The media are not above the law, and do not get to decide which laws apply to them, and which do not.

The Herald reports:

A welfare fraudster who travelled the world for two years courtesy of the taxpayer has taunted Social Development Minister Paula Bennett in an online video. …

Freedom left for Australia in April 2009, but his benefit payments were not stopped until last January, allowing him to visit Europe, the Balkans, Britain, Africa and Asia.

He received nearly $28,000 in benefit payments over two years.

He contacted the Weekend Herald by email, drawing attention to the video. He said he was in the Netherlands, and would return to New Zealand eventually.

He was “indifferent” to prosecution.

I’m not indifferent to it. I’m all in favour.

He says that when he first claimed the $90-a-week benefit while living in Hawera, it was not enough to live on.

If he is claiming it is $90/week, he is again lying. If you are aged over 25 it is $201.40 net a week or $225.03 gross.

In the video, Freedom admits he fraudulently filled out a tenancy agreement to claim a greater benefit of $290 a week, but claims it was only in exasperation with Work and Income.

I admit I punched Mr Freedom in the face 27 times, but it was only in exasperation with him being a doofus.

Ms Bennett said it was the National Government’s Future Focus reforms – which required all who had been on the dole for a year to reapply – which cut Freedom’s payments.

One of the many reforms Labour fought against.

The Dom Post reports:

Mr Robertson also suggested that in contrast to Auckland Central’s “battle of the babes”, Wellington Central could be described as hosting a “battle of the bulge”.

This was met with mock outcry from the other candidates.

Heh, that’s very witty.

Stuff reports:

Piri Norris and Justin Elder will make history today when they tie the knot in the first civil ceremony at Parliament.

Their lips were sealed as to which MPs, one of whom is a minister, were attending the lavish event.

The Wellington men’s whirlwind romance began a little over a year ago after they first laid eyes on each other at the gym.

“I was too shy to talk to him, then he finally plucked up the courage to come up to me and say something,” said Mr Norris, 24, who is a law student and works part-time for the Social Development Ministry. …

The pair approached former Wellington mayor Kerry Prendergast to be their celebrant for the historic occasion as she officiated the first civil union in the country six years ago.

Having the ceremony at the place people had fought for gay rights was symbolic for the pair.

Mr Elder, 28, who is an executive assistant to National MP Sandra Goudie, was granted permission by the Speaker of the House to hold the civil union in the Legislative Council Chamber.

Only current MPs or parliamentary staff can get married or hold a civil union at Parliament.

The men both “came out” when they were 19 after knowing for years they were “different”.

Best wishes to Justin and Piri for their big day.

There have been 2486 civil unions since Wellington men Des Smith, 71, and John Jolliff, 82, became the first same-sex couple in New Zealand to have their relationship legally acknowledged in April 2005.

That’s 5,000 New Zealanders who have been able to have their relationship legally recognised, who could not have been previously. That’s a good thing.

There were three polls out last night and this morning. The table below shows the date and time weighted average of the polls.

The first set of figures is averaging the results of the last polls by every public pollsters – One News, 3 News, NZ Herald, Fairfax, Roy Morgan.

The second set of figures is the average just for the three polls released last night or this morning, being One News, 3 News and the NZ Herald.

On this average, you need 62 seats to govern.

In my Stuff column on Tuesday I labelled the secret tape saga a distraction Labour doesn’t need. A few people scoffed at me but as both the TV polls have shown Labour dropping by over 2%, I think it reinforces my point. Sure it has been messy for National, but it has also knocked Labour out of the media all week.

Today the Herald reports:

Labour leader Phil Goff says he is “sick to death” the teapot tapes are diverting attention away from key issues including asset sales, the cost of living and young New Zealanders’ job prospects, as the country heads into the last and “most important” week of the election campaign. …

“In seven days time our assets go on the block, that’s something we need to be debating.”

My advice to Goff was:

So when Phil Goff was asked for comment yesterday on the tape, his response should have been “I don’t care at all what John Key said to John Banks over coffee, what I care about is why National and ACT plan to sell our assets. This issue is a distraction from the real issues that matter to New Zealanders such as the increased power prices that will eventuate from selling shares in our power companies.”

Where do I send the bill?

Goff should have taken the advice earlier in the week though.

Labour have released their open government policy. Readers may recall I attended one of their open meetings discussing what could go into the policy.

There is quite a lot of good stuff in the policy, but first I need to point out the huge wriggle room they have left. The policy is more a “we may do this” than “we will do this”:

The draft principles set out above are an ideal-world and ambitious charter for driving change in the practices of government at all levels.

Implementing policy that gives effect to such principles can only happen incrementally over time.

Even so, Labour acknowledges that the changes this policy sets out are challenging to some parts of government, and to the existing operational approach of the public sector.

That is why a carefully considered implementation is important, with ample time for public debate on the principles, and consultation and reflection before any changes are made.

I thought the consultation and public debate had already happened. Wasn’t that the point of the exercise?

Labour will produce a comprehensive “Open Government Charter”, based on the draft principles set out above, and seek public consultation and discussion to inform future decisions about how to open up government.

The Charter will include as matters for consultation the following specific suggestions, most of which emerged from the OpenLabourNZ process

So all the suggestions, remain just that – suggestions. Would it have been that difficult to at least commit to a couple of them?

Now having a “we might do it” policy is better than no policy at all, so I do still think it is a good thing they have this policy, and I hope the next Government, regardless of which party is in power, looks to implement the good policy proposals there, such as:

Establish as default practice Ministers and government agencies releasing all Cabinet papers and other relevant papers onto a dedicated website, in line with the Official Information Act (the Act), once a decision is announced by government. Exceptions will apply for security or commercially sensitive information and other areas already set out in the Act, with the usual request and appeal processes continuing to apply where the
government does not release papers by default.

This is one I have personally championed. What I see is a www.oia.govt.nz website where all Cabinet level information is placed automatically, and also all OIA requests of any nature are placed. At present lots of information is released, but only to the requester, which means others can not benefit from it.

Work towards publishing or broadcasting all public Parliamentary proceedings (such as Select Committees) over the Internet and digital television.

Would be great to be able to see MPs at their best, rather than merely in the House where often it is at their worst.

Develop a trial of online voting in local government and general elections.

Hopefully there will be a trial for the 2013 local body elections, if the bureaucrats don’t manage to suffocate the process.

There’s also some good stuff on open data and software.

UPDATE: No Right Turn blogs:

The big criticism? It doesn’t go far enough, especially in the latter. For example, there’s no suggestion of bringing Parliament under the OIA, to allow proper transparency around MPs expenses (or indeed, a public right to access its proceedings and oversee its administration). Despite the high degree of public input, this is still an open government policy written by and in the interests of politicians, who benefit from secrecy in these areas. Still, it is much better than anything else on offer in this area, and deserves our support (while of course demanding more).

I am in favour of the expenses part of the The Parliamentary Service being subject to the OIA. I don’t think the entire PS can come in under the OIA as MPs and their staff need to be able to have private conversations and e-mails, but the aspects relating to the use of public money certainly could be.

The alternative is my suggestion that all Government agencies must list on a searchable website all payments over a minimal amount.