Stuff reports:

With a ventilator slowly inflating her lungs and forcing oxygen into a bloodstream moved through her body by an artificial heartbeat, Marlise Munoz is unaware that she has become the focus of yet another American debate over what it is to live and die, and over abortion.

Marlise, a paramedic, was 33 years old and 14 weeks pregnant when she collapsed in November, probably from a pulmonary embolism, a fatal blood clot in a lung.

Her husband Erick, a firefighter, found her slumped on the kitchen floor in the middle of the night and called for help even as he fought to resuscitate her.

At the John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, doctors used drugs and electric shocks to restart her heart. They were too late. Doctors discovered that though machines were able to artificially maintain some of the mechanical processes of her body, Marlise’s brain was silent. She was dead, clinically and legally.

The family gathered by her bedside in the hospital’s three-storey intensive care unit and prepared to farewell her. They were stunned when doctors refused to turn off the ventilator.

Having detected a foetal heartbeat hospital authorities said they were bound by a Texas law that prohibits doctors from withholding “life-sustaining treatment” from a pregnant woman.

Erick protested. He and Marlise had lived their professional lives close to life and death and had discussed circumstances like these. Marlise did not want such artificial medical intervention. Marlise’s extended family and Erick’s colleagues agreed.

Marlise’s mother, Lynne Machado, 60, told The New York Times: “It’s about a matter of our daughter’s wishes not being honoured by the state of Texas.” Her father, Ernest Machado, 60, a former police officer, told the Dallas News: “That poor foetus had the same lack of oxygen, the same electric shocks, the same chemicals that got her heart going again. For all we know, it’s in the same condition that Marlise is in. All we want is to let her rest, to let her go to sleep. What they’re [the hospital staff] doing serves no purpose.”

This shows the problems of legislating in an area, where doctors and families should have discretion.

Assuming the courts do not over-rule the hospital, then we have three broad possible outcomes:

1. The baby/feotus dies or is still-born, meaning Munoz was kept on life support for no reason for several months, causing huge anguish to her family.
2. The baby is born, but is severely brain damaged. Who then looks after him or her?
3. The baby is born and is healthy, and grows up learning that if his family had got their way, they would not have been born.

So whatever happens, the outcome looks to be pretty sad.

Andrea Vance at Stuff reports:

Here’s a heads-up to staff in Chris Finlayson’s office – he is passionate that they should not sloppily split infinitives, or use Oxford commas.

Ten pages of guidelines have emerged, setting out the language the culture minister expects officials to use in correspondence and briefing papers.

It is accompanied by speech-writing instructions, with a list of more than 20 banned expressions.

Staff are forbidden to use “heads-up” and should instead plump for “early” or “preliminary indication”.

Also out in his language jihad are “process”, “outcome”, “community”, “stakeholder” and “cutting edge”.

Excellent. All words that often mean nothing.

Mr Finlayson, who is also attorney-general, harbours a special dislike of Oxford commas, split infinitives and any extraneous uses of “that”.

“The minister has commented ‘commas hunt in pairs’. This would, for example, look like this’,” the memo instructs bureaucrats.

It is somewhat sad the Minister needs to point this out.

A two-page guide was also compiled for the Ministry of Culture and Heritage as “a list of pointers about things the minister does and does not like in his speeches”.

“Use plain English. Avoid waffle at all costs. Get to the point quickly. State the point. Move on,” it reads.

“I have always preferred the understatement,” Mr Finlayson admitted.

“People use passionate when they mean like, or unique when they mean vaguely fashionable.

“It’s like what happened in Rome when classical Roman broke down into vulgar Latin. The more intensive adjective or verb was always used over the classical one. And I have this objection to that happening to the English language. It’s just my little jihad.”

Entirely appropriate the Minister sets the style for his own speeches.

Paula Bennett announced:

Figures for the December 2013 quarter released today show over 17,000 fewer people are on benefit compared to December 2012. …

“The decrease includes over 8,000 sole parents who have gone off the benefit, a 9.4 per cent drop compared to the same time last year,” Mrs Bennett says. …

Over 19,800 people cancelled their benefit to go into work in the last quarter.

Here’s the benefit levels compared to three years ago.

• Jobseeker – Work Ready – 20.3% lower
• Sole Parent Support (SPS) – 13.0% lower
• Supported Living Payment (SLP) – 0.7% higher
• Emergency Benefit (EB) – 14.6% lower
• Emergency Maintenance Allowance (EMA) – 13.2% lower
• Youth Payment/Young Parent Payment (YP/YPP) – 15.4% lower
• All Working Age Benefits – 8.7% lower

Good to see most heading in the right direction.

The Herald reports:

A replacement ferry brought in by Interislander has broken down less than a week into service.

Kiwi Rail confirmed this morning the Stena Alegra, which began sailings across Cook Strait on Monday, broke down earlier this morning in Wellington Harbour.

The ferry was ordered from Europe for the busy summer period after the Aratere lost a propeller over the Cook Strait in November.

Kiwi Rail said the ship suffered a partial loss of power when it was leaving Wellington about 5am for a freight-only trip.

The power loss affected some of the control systems for one of the propellers.

It was currently anchored at Wellington Harbour while staff investigated the fault.

Maybe Kiwirail should get their ferries from Bangladesh! More reliable.

From Slightly Viral:

Oh, gummy bears! They’re so tasty and delicious you can never eat just one. In fact most of us eat them by the handful.   And with diet season in full swing, some of us may be looking at the sugar-free alternative to help ease the gummy bear cravings.

But before you hop on Amazon to make a bulk purchase of the sugar-free variety, you just might want to read the safety warnings.  Or better yet, take a look at the user submitted reviews. We’ve compiled the best of the best for you here at Slightly Viral…

Go read the reviews. Priceless.

The Herald reports:

First-home buyers have snapped up a quarter of the vacant state houses put up for sale by the Government, some for under $100,000.

A person earning less than the average wage, who does not own property, can now buy unused state houses in provincial areas with the help of a Government subsidy, which covers up to $20,000 of the cost.

Under the FirstHome scheme, Housing New Zealand has put 99 properties on the block since October and 25 have sold.

The average price for the properties was $125,800.

Housing Minister Nick Smith said the scheme was meeting its target of 100 sales a year. A further 90 people had applied for the subsidy.

The largest number of sales had taken place in Invercargill, Dunedin, Levin and Foxton.

Great. Selling state houses in areas they are no longer needed frees up capital for other areas, and low income families get to go from being tenants to house owners. A win-win.

Of course Labour and Greens oppose it.

Katie Chapman at Stuff reports:

A central-city slowdown is looming for Wellington motorists as a 30kmh speed limit is considered for a further 64 streets.

Public feedback will be sought next month on a proposal to extend the 30kmh speed limit from the Golden Mile to the rest of the central business district, where the limit is now 50kmh.

The change would cost about $250,000, and include parts of The Terrace and Taranaki, Tory, Willis, Featherston, Ghuznee and Dixon streets. The harbour quays and Vivian St would not be included.

I’m not necessarily opposed to this.

I consistently say speed limits should reflect conditions. Some roads are safe to drive at 120 km/hr on, some open roads should not be driven at over 70 km/hr (such as to Makara), and within a city some roads are safe at 70 km/hr and some at 30 km/hr.

Wellington is a very compact city and with lots of pedestrians. Major access roads such as the harbour quays should have higher speed limits, but many of the short roads should not.

In the end decisions on speed limits should be based on data such as how many accidents occur on them, the length and straightness of the road, pedestrian use, and actual speeds traveled at the moment.

Stuff reports:

Would you rather smoke your way to an early grave, or knock $350,000 off your mortgage?

One of the most regularly trotted-out reasons for quitting smoking is that it’s expensive. Well, duh.

But cigarettes are about to get a whole lot dearer, and many nicotine junkies may not fully grasp what an enormous sum of money is going up in smoke. …

This month, the excise tax went up another 10 per cent, and that’s not the end of it.

There are another two 10 per cent hikes planned, which means that in 2016, a pack of 20 cigarettes will cost at least $20.

So how much is the lifetime cost of smoking?

We’ll use an interest rate of 5 per cent for our scenario, which is a reasonable after tax-return for a diversified portfolio of shares.

For simplicity we’ll run the numbers for a diehard, pack-a-day smoker. $20 a day is $140 a week, $600 a month and $7200 a year.

Now we introduce the magic of compounding interest. It starts off slowly. In the first year, compounding monthly, you would have earned an extra $200 on top of the up-front cash savings.

By the 10th year, you’d be earning a staggering $4400 worth of extra income each and every year simply by giving ciggies the flick.

After 20 years, you’d have a tidy quarter of a million bucks saved, almost half of which would be investment returns. …

With our adjusted interest rate, you’d save a whopping $350,000 on your mortgage by channelling all your cigarette money into paying it off.

A huge saving. Another way of looking at it, is that you could use that $350,000 to do $8,500 overseas holidays twice a year.

Take the example of Southland woman, Liz, who’s beating the tax hikes by growing her own.

Friends and family members have also successfully grown their own baccy – which is reportedly not too bad, especially when mixed with a pouch of commercial stuff.

This is an issue, in that if you price a product too high, then the hardcore will turn to the black market or grow their own.

Most smokers are from lower income families. Stopping smoking is a great way to increase your disposable income. Easier said than done, but worth doing.

Vernon Small at Stuff reports:

Business NZ today broke its silence on the issue, with a press release quoting its chief executive, Phil O’Reilly.

“For the record, Business NZ utterly rejects mistaken allegations made by lobbyist Jordan Williams since repeated by the ACC minister,” O’Reilly said.

“The BusinessNZ family’s involvement has been completely ethical at all times, and I am confident that this is also the case with the involvement of the CTU and Impac Services.”

The CTU has also strongly rejected the criticisms by Collins and Williams.

O’Reilly said it was “unfortunate that important debate on workplace safety has been undermined by intemperate media comment”. …

O’Reilly said claims about the training scheme had been “regrettable and BusinessNZ had so far refrained from commenting on them because it has not been possible to have constructive dialogue in the context of overblown media comment”.

“Key issues are that New Zealand’s health and safety has just been changed and more stringent focus is needed on the goals of improving workplace safety,” O’Reilly said.

“The ACC and the Government are central to this goal, and BusinessNZ and the CTU as the largest representatives of people in the workplace also have a critical role to play.

BusinessNZ does have a role to play. That role should be representing the interests of businesses to ACC. When it sticks its hand out for effective taxpayer (or levy payer) funding, it becomes hopelessly compromised. How can it advocate for (for example) a reduction in levies when those levies help fund it?

Instead we have BusinessNZ defending ACC, themselves and the CTU, rather than sticking up for its members who I am sure the vast majority would like to see ACC more cost effective.

The goals and outcomes of the ACC courses appeared to have been misunderstood, O’Reilly said.

“The training part-funded by ACC is being run according to the brief set by ACC and is achieving the outcomes it was set up for. The objectives include ensuring that health and safety reps are able to reduce and remove workplace hazards, co-develop safety plans for their workplace, promote safety management among their co-workers, and train others to do the same.

“The course objectives are clearly specified and are being successfully delivered according to specifications.”

Contrary to claims by Williams, who is the spokesman for the anti-waste lobby group the Taxpayers’ Union, the training objective was not set in terms of reducing the number of workplace accidents in New Zealand, O’Reilly said.

But that’s the point. They should be.

What BusinessNZ and the CTU both overlook (because of course they get funded from the status quo) is the opportunity cost of the $19 million they have received. No one is saying what they have done is of no value. But think what could have been achieved if that $19 million had been spent on (for example) a campaign to reduce forestry accidents, or a campaign focusing on the five most dangerous industries.

I expect the CTU to not really grasp the reality that money doesn’t grow on trees, and that ACC should prioritise its limited budget to areas where it gets the best value for money. But I would have hoped Business NZ would realise this, especially as it is primarily their own members who fund ACC. This again show how hopelessly conflicted they have become on this issue, by allowing themselves to become part of the system they are meant to be a watchdog over.

The response from Business NZ is one of the reasons so many people have been supportive of the Taxpayers’ Union. Many people have complained to me that it has been some time since there has been a strong voice sticking up for those who fund the Government. Once upon a time Business NZ may have been that strong voice, but now it seems they’re about taking money from the Government, instead of demanding less wasteful spending on behalf of those who fund the Government.

Andrew Geddis blogs at Pundit on why he thinks Graeme McCready may not suceed in getting a private prosecution vs Len Brown. The bottom line is that unless you have witnesses coming forward to allege some link between the free hotel rooms at Sky, and his support for their conference centre bid, then there is no proof.

I concur it is unlikely to go anywhere.

The Herald also reports that McCready is considering a private prosecution against Brown’s wife, Shan Inglis:

Mr McCready said he would be in Auckland on Monday to file briefs of evidence in that matter and would also seek legal advice about whether there was enough evidence to lay charges against the Mayor’s wife Shan Inglis.

Mr McCready alleged gifts in her name were a “laundering exercise” to avoid Mr Brown having to declare them on the register of interests. …

Mr McCready said he would prepare two charging documents against Ms Inglis anyway.

“There’s no doubt that there’s culpability. It sends a message to all of these spouses,” Mr McCready said.

“By accepting these freebies, Ms Inglis became a party to her husband’s alleged offending and in the interest of justice she ought to be made accountable.”

Oh for God’s sake, leave the poor woman alone. Hasn’t she suffered enough. Going after family like this is deplorable, unless they have done something wrong and there is no evidence at all she has.

The Herald reports:

Kiwis can expect cheaper flights and more choices as a result of a deal between Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines, which is also expected to boost local tourism.

The deal announced yesterday, which is subject to regulatory approval, will enable Air NZ to resume flights to Singapore for the first time in eight years.

It will also have access to the Singaporean carrier’s huge regional market and much of its worldwide network.

It will take more than half of the flights operated by Singapore Airlines to New Zealand and revenue would be shared between the airlines from all flights on the route.

Singapore Airlines will operate its larger Airbus A380 on flights to New Zealand for the first time.

A good agreement for both airlines. It is noticeable that Air New Zealand is doing so well, while Qantas is struggling so badly that it is looking at selling its airpoints scheme.

In 2008 and 2011 John Key ruled out a coalition or confidence and supply deal with Winston Peters. I believe he should do the same again for 2014.

I say this aware that it means that if NZ First hold the balance of power, it will probably mean that they put Labour/Greens into Government. I think that would be a terrible thing for New Zealand in the short-term, but it will be worse for National in the long-term if they do do a deal with Winston.

Many people say you should never advocate opposition over government. You enter politics to get into Government, so you can implement the policies you think will be best for New Zealand. Jim Anderton once said that the worst day in government is better than the best day in opposition. He had a point.

However I still think that refusing to do a deal with Winston is the best way to be in government long-term.

Let’s look at the two major possibilities if Peters does hold the balance of power. National does a deal with him, or we get a Labour/Green/NZ First (and maybe Mana) Government.

If National does a deal with him, they get a third term. That’s great, but does anyone think it will be a Government that can achieve much? Does anyone think that Peters will be committed to making the Government a success, rather than humiliating Key. It is well known Peters wants utu on Key, and the two ways to achieve that is either to sack him, or make him subservient to you. I think subservience is worse than sacking.

A third term Government is tough at the best of time, let alone with Peters in it. Can anyone see National having a chance of a fourth term? No. The reality is that National will probably lose office with a vote share down in the mid 30s. NZ First will probably fall apart again, or dip below 5% as being in Government has never worked for them before. So what you’ll face is National in opposition, with no potential coalition partners and needing over 45% to get back into Government. That means probably nine years of opposition. You don’t go from say 34% to 46% in one term.

But now let us look at the alternative. Say National gets 44%, Labour 32%, Greens 11% and NZ First 5%.

NZ First has the balance of power, and as National won’t cut a deal with them, they put a Labour/Greens/NZ First and maybe Mana Government into power.

Now that Government is going to be bad for New Zealand. They’ll effectively nationalise the energy sector, set up state owned building companies, insurance companies, hike taxes, drive up debt, and put spending back onto an unsustainable path. But there is also a very good chance that government will be very unstable. Peters and Turei and Norman in the same Government will be full of loathing. Peters has boasted he has never put the Greens into power, and doesn’t intend to. However he’ll have no choice but to back them if National won’t deal with him, and hence we’ll get a Government that will not do well.

National will be in opposition yes, but they will enter opposition on 44%, not 34%. They’ll only need to pick up 3% to get back into Government. If a Labour/Greens/NZ First Government doesn’t shed at least 3% after a term, I’d be amazed. In fact, they may not even last a full term. So yes National will go into opposition, but only for one term, not three.

So its a tough call John Key has to make. One can argue that for NZ’s sake, he should do whatever he can to stop Labour/Greens gaining power in 2014. But I argue that it would be in National’s long-term interest not to do a deal, as being in Government with Winston will be just too damaging. NZ First without Winston would be fine to deal with, but I don’t see any significant possibility of a third term with him in Government being conducive to good Government.

So my hope is that Winston isn’t the last cab off the rank, but he isn’t on the rank at all.

Readers will be aware that Australia is facing huge deficits, despite the promise of the previous Government to get into surplus.

As a response to this, the Centre for Independent Studies has proposed some fiscal rules to bind future Governments. They are:

1. require the federal fiscal balance to be maintained within a range of +2% to -2% of GDP on both an actual and forecast basis
2. limit the net debt to GDP ratio to 10%
3. cap the federal revenue and expenditure shares of GDP to 25%
4. capping real growth in federal spending at 2% per annum

Fiscal rules are not new for Australia. The Labor Hawke/Keating Government set rules being:

1. Not to raise tax revenue as a share of GDP
2. Not to raise government expenditure as a share of GDP
3. To reduce the budget deficit in absolute terms and relative to GDP

Anyway what I like most of all is their mechanism to encourage Governments to keep to the fiscal limits or rules. They propose:

This would involve cutting federal politicians’ overall remuneration by 1% for every percentage point breach of each fiscal rule for the
duration of the breach.

Now that appeals!

ACT President John Boscawen has just announced he will seek te ACT leadership and also the nomination for Epsom. John is a tireless worker for ACT, and highly respected. He may be seen as not enough of a break from the past, but will be seen as a very safe pair of hands who doesn’t play games.

Paul Bennett announced:

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has welcomed the latest valuation of the welfare system showing a significant reduction in the liability.

The June 2013 valuation shows the current lifetime liability[i] is $76.5 billion.

“Of the $10.3 billion reduction in liability[ii], $4.4 billion is due to Work and Income actively exceeding expectations by getting more people off benefit for longer, and less people coming onto benefit,” says Mrs Bennett.

Excellent.

“This translates to benefit payments being $180 million lower than expected for the year.”

Just over $1 billion of the $10.3 billion liability decrease is due to more sole parents going off benefit and fewer going on during the year.

“I hear from sole parents every week who say they’re really grateful for the support from Work and Income case managers; who are often the first to ask them what they want to do with their lives and then help them find work.”

“We provide childcare assistance, training, assistance with CVs, handling job interviews and help with the actual work search,” says Mrs Bennett.

The value in investing close to half a billion dollars in welfare reforms over the last two Budgets is evident in the results.

This is key. The Government did not just change laws around work testing and the like. They have invested hundreds of millions into training, childcare assistance and job placement to help people move from welfare into work.

The June 2013 valuation shows 62% of 30-39 year olds currently receiving benefits; first went on welfare as young people and constitute almost 80% of the total liability for this group because they’re long-term dependent.

“What’s really interesting; is that two thirds of people who went on benefit aged 16 or 17 also came to the attention of Child, Youth and Family as children and 90% lived in benefit dependent homes as children.”

A cycle of dependency.

1. Don’t have Whale Oil release the strategy for you
2. Don’t have people find out that those media types who have been saying such nice things about you, are on the payroll
3. Don’t have as your proposed central strategy a policy to bribe an entire electorate by giving them free Internet
4. Consider reading electoral law before you announce a party to launch your party, so you don’t have to cancel it at the last moment.

This has been the political equivalent of the launch of Wheedle!

TVNZ have announced they will now be showing the Grammys live, at which Lorde will perform and at the age of 17 she has made the cover of Rolling Stone.

I have to say I’m a huge fan of Ella Yelich-O’Connor, but not just for musical reasons.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Royals, and listen to it jogging a lot. But that isn’t what I find so appealing about her.

It is her obvious intelligence, substance and maturity which stands in such huge contrast to many other musicians, especially those who also had success at a relatively young age.

Her interview with Tavi Gevinson at Rookie is a great example of that. She just seems so real and such a great role model that you can be successful at a young age, without compromising who you are. I love the fact she dresses the way she wants to, rather than conform to what others might expect or want.

So often you see 16 and 17 year olds portrayed in such a negative light. They’ve treated as children, and juveniles. The fact they may drink is seen as appalling. It overlooks that young adults are often brimming with such huge potential and often have an intelligence which can be compelling.

Tavi puts it well herself in that interview:

I remember when people started paying attention to what I was doing, and it was like, “She should be getting knocked up like all the other kids her age!” It’s like, you complain when you think teenagers are stupid, and then when they try to do something, you’re all, “Oh, they’re growing up too fast, they don’t know what’s good for them.”

And she’s never done media training:

I have never done media training. I feel like I probably should have, because then I could’ve better identified some of that baiting in the beginning. Now I’m really good at it. But I think people don’t realize how weird it is to go from being a teenager or being just a human being who has opinions and freely discusses them with other people, to having everything you say scrutinized and taken out of context. In the space of three months, going from never having done an interview to being in Rolling Stone, being in Interview, and not really realizing how that whole thing works. That stuff was so weird. But now I’ve kind of got a handle on it. Now when people are like, “Tell me what you think of Miley!” I’ll say, “What doyou think of Miley?” and they like flounder and say, “Well, I think she’s really talented…” and I’m like, there you go.

And the power of relating to other people her age:

The biggest one for me is the total reward of having people our age be like, “I see what you did there, and I really like it and I can relate to it.” I have the “Ask” feature on my Tumblr enabled so people with a Tumblr account can send me a message. To me that’s a really useful tool, because I get to hear what people are thinking about what I’m doing, which is—for the most part—super redeeming. I actually have this folder on my computer of really lovely things that people have said to me on Tumblr, and whenever I’m in a super low, terrible mood, I’m like,Remember these wonderful souls who said incredible things to you and who have told you that what you do is worth it! Sorry, this sounds so “I LOVE YOU GUYS!! CATLUVR69, THANK YOU!”

I love that. Is catluvr69 a real one, or did you just make that up?

I just pulled that out. I love adding 69 to faux internet usernames.

So anyway, I will be looking forward to viewing the Grammys live, and hope that 2014 is as good a year for Ella Yelich-O’Connor as 2013 was.

The Heritage Foundation has released the 2014 economic freedom index. The top 10 are:

1. Hong Kong 90.1 (+0.8)
2. Singapore 78.4 (+1.4)
3. Australia 82.0 (-0.6)
4. Switzerland 81.6 (+0.6)
5. New Zealand 81.2 (-0.2)
6. Canada 80.2 (+0.8)
7. Chile 78.7 (-0.3)
8. Mauritius 76.5 (-0.4)
9. Ireland 76.2 (+0.5)
10. Denmark 76.1 (nc)

Only six countries are ranked free (above 80), 27 are mainly free (70 – 80), 56 moderately free (60 to 70), 61 mostly unfree (50 to 60) and 27 repressed (under 50).

The bottom five are:

1. North Korea 1.0
2. Cuba 28.7
3. Zimbabwe 35.5
4. Venezuela 36.3
5. Eritrea 38.5

NZ’s rankings are below

Read more about New Zealand Economy.
See more from the 2014 Index.

The level of government spending is the only area in which we score really badly. They state:

The overall tax burden equals 31.7 percent of gross domestic income. Government spending equates to about 47.5 percent of GDP, and public debt is steady at 38 percent of GDP.

All need to drop down.

The Herald editorial:

The local boat-building industry says it is outraged that it was not awarded a government contract to build a ferry which will link the New Zealand territory of Tokelau to Samoa. On almost every level, its anger is odd.

The 43-metre vessel will be built in Bangladesh for $8 million. According to this country’s Marine Industry Association, the cheapest price for building it here would have been $14 million to $15 million. Awarding the contract to a New Zealand company would, therefore, have involved what amounts to a substantial handout to that boat-builder. In such circumstances, it is puzzling that the local industry feels even the slightest bit annoyed.

Yet Labour is also outraged that taxpayers did not pay three times as much for the boat.

Clearly, the Government was mindful of the pluses that would come from building the ferry locally. It indicated there was some room for manoeuvre by telling a Nelson boat-builder that its quote would need to be in the region of $9.5 million to $10 million. But the lowest bid from a New Zealand company, according to the Government, was about $23 million. That is almost three times the price of building the ferry in Bangladesh. For all the talk of the gains from buying New Zealand-made and of a new Government procurement policy that aims to create more incentives for local manufacturers, this was simply too wide a gap.

You go local when the prices are close to each other, not when one is three times the other.

Other criticisms of the awarding of the contract are similarly misplaced. Chief among these is the perception that any ferry built in Bangladesh will not be up to the task of making the often dangerous voyage across the Pacific. This disregards the fact that Bangladesh has a long tradition of boat-building. While best known more recently for breaking up ships, it has now become a major constructor of small ocean-going vessels as Asia’s traditional builders, such as South Korea and China, focus on larger container ships and tankers.

Western Marine Shipyard, which will construct the Tokelau ferry, is one of its most successful ship-builders.

I think the editorial is right that there was an inherent belief by some people that a Bangladeshi company can’t possibly be any good.

I was in Africa a couple of years ago, and spent nine days in parks like Kruger. While you are with guides, and in jeeps, the above video is a good reminder that these are wild animals.

Quite amazing they lived. They should have reversed out of there the moment the elephant started flapping its ears.

The Dom Post editorial:

Taxes are what we pay for a civilised society, according to the great American Supreme Court judge Oliver Wendell Holmes.

If that is so, then aggressive tax avoidance is an offence against civilisation.

I’d love to know what the Dom Post defines as aggressive tax avoidance. I presume it means tax avoidance done by other companies, but not by ourselves.

Google, for instance, whose slogan used to be “Don’t be evil”, in 2012 paid a mere $165,000 in tax in New Zealand. Amazon paid $1.6m tax on sales of $46.5m. And Apple paid $2.5m on sales of $571m. Does anyone think these companies are paying their fair share?

I’ve got a much better example. Fairfax Australia (owns the Dom Post) paid no tax at all last year on revenue of A$2.01 billion. That’s outrageous I’m sure the Dom Post agrees, and I look forward to them joining with the NZ Herald to campaign on their owners paying more tax. The fact it means they may have to sack a few editorial staff to afford their increased tax bills I’m sure is not what is preventing them from not being total hypocrites.

Or maybe the Dom Post will say you can’t compare them to Google and Apple because tax is paid on profits, not revenue. Well yes they are, so why the hell did the editorial not mention that actual profits made by Google and Apple in New Zealand? They made a conscious decision not to tell their readers that essential piece of information.

For the record I’m all for the IRD taking court action against tax avoidance that is artificial, as defined in the Tax Act. They do this on a regular basis. For example, they are battling APN (NZ Herald) for $48 million.

Some will argue that companies are entitled to minimise their taxes. Tax avoidance, after all, is legal, unlike tax evasion. Some even say that companies owe their loyalty only to shareholders, not the taxpayer, the government or their fellow citizens.

This is plainly wrong. Taxes provide the schools, hospitals, infrastructure and social services on which we all depend. Corporations benefit directly from state-funded education, research, roads, courts and public health programmes. So they should contribute to “the cost of civilisation”.

I agree people should pay their taxes. Fairfax has paid no income tax in the last year. This means they are not contributing to the cost of civilisation. According to their editorial it doesn’t matter what their taxable profit is, as that may have been minimised by accountants. Amazon paid tax equal to 3% of their revenue. As the Dom Post seems to think you should pay tax on revenue, I think Fairfax should pay A$60 million immediately as their contribution to the cost of civilisation.