The Herald editorial:

Many firms that practice tax avoidance probably do feel wretched about it. But they owe it to their shareholders to pay no more tax than their lawyers and accountants say they must, and they transfer the blame to the legislators who leave loopholes for them, or who set taxes too high or spend the revenue unwisely. With the company tax rate at 28 per cent in New Zealand, lower than the top personal income rate, it is hard to justify corporate avoidance here.

A NZX filing by APN which owns the Herald in 2013:

APN News & Media [ASX, NZX: APN] today announced an update in relation to a tax dispute following a report received today from the Adjudication Unit of the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department (‘IRD’).

As stated in the Company’s 2011 Annual Report and the 2012 Preliminary Final Report lodged yesterday, the Company is involved in a dispute with the IRD regarding certain financing transactions.

The Company is satisfied that its treatment of the financing transactions is consistent with all relevant legislation and that no tax will become payable.

The dispute involves tax of NZ$48 million for the period up to 31 December 2012. The IRD is seeking to impose penalties of 50% of the tax in dispute and interest in addition to the tax claimed. In the event the Company is unsuccessful in the dispute the Company has tax losses available to offset any amount of tax payable to the extent of NZ$32 million.

These wouldn’t be financing transactions that resulted in a lower tax bill and hence was tax avoidance?

So does the Herald feel wretched about its own tax avoidance?

Will they apply their own moral standards to themselves and pay up the $48 million they owe the taxpayers of New Zealand, according to the IRD?

I look forward to both RNZ Mediawatch and the Herald own’s media column highlighting this flagrant case of total hypocrisy.

The Herald reports:

The parents or guardians of young people before the courts could have bail conditions imposed on them as well as their children, such as not drinking alcohol and having to reside at a particular address, under a private members’ bill in the name of Northland MP Mike Sabin.

I’d be cautious about this.

In many cases of a wayward youth, the parents are a contributing factor. But equally, there are some kids who go off the tracks despite the best parenting and family support possible. Having parents share some liability for what their kids do could set a dangerous precedent.

The Children, Young Persons and Their Families (Parent’s and Guardian’s Responsibility) Amendment Bill would allow the Youth Court to set bail conditions for parents and guardians in a bid to prevent re-offending.

Mr Sabin believed at least half of the responsibility for youth offending was down to adults making sure their children were being properly supervised.

Mr Sabin’s bills have been approved by the National Party caucus for support at first reading should any be drawn from the ballot.

I think it is a worthy debate to have, and if it goes to select committee, would be a good forum for hearing that debate. But the possible precedent does concern me.

The Herald reports:

In a move with no precedent in recent French history, the socialist Government of President Francois Hollande last week secured approval in a top court to preventatively ban a show by a man it characterises as the “pedlar of hate”.

The target for the wrath is a so-called alternative comedian, Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, who specialises in crude jokes about Jews.

I love jokes about Jews – so long as the jokes are motivated by humour, not hatred. The intention is key.

He clearly hates Jews. He recently said that when he thinks of a prominent French Jewish radio journalist he thinks “Gas chambers … too bad”.

However trying to ban his shows is not the way to go It increases his fringe popularity. If he breaks the law he can be held accountable for that (and has been), but pro-active banning of a performance is a bad precedent.

The show that was outlawed had been in preview performances, where it included a sketch in which the comedian pretends to urinate against a wall, and then reveals it is the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism.

I’d just reflect that if he did a show which includes him urinating on The Koran, he would probably be dead by now.

The Herald reports:

Auckland Mayor Len Brown is lying low and refusing to say exactly when he will resume public duties after his sex scandal, undeclared hotel stays and censure by councillors before Christmas.

Mr Brown did not return calls yesterday and his team of spin doctors were giving little away about the movements of their boss, who has been on leave since December 21 – the day after councillors expressed their “profound disappointment and disapproval” of the mayor’s inappropriate behaviour and undeclared conflicts of interest.

Did the Herald try all six of them?

Having had friends suffer some horrific injuries while cycling, I’ve been reluctant to buy a bike for use around Wellington, as we have so few cycle lanes and pretty narrow roads.

You shudder when you read reports of collisions between vehicles and bikes, because the vehicle driver merely gets a nasty shock while the cyclist can get broken bones, maimed or killed.

But some cyclists can do more to be safer. The Herald reports:

Cyclists accounted for 60 per cent of red-light runners surveyed at four Auckland intersections, the city’s transport authority has revealed.

Car drivers were responsible for 37 per cent of 360 red-light breaches observed by Auckland Transport, and buses, trucks and one motorcycle made up the balance.

The survey was taken nine months ago, and used by Auckland Transport to formulate safety messages aimed at encouraging all road users to obey red lights, but was not publicised at the time.

Cyclists are 2% of road users so making up 60% of red light runners is a massive over-representation.

She referred to a presentation by a senior Auckland Transport official which won an accolade at an engineering conference, noting many instances of red-light running by cyclists were left-hand turns or motivated by riders wanting to get a head-start on other vehicles for safety reasons.

“Overall, cyclists’ red-light running is a relatively infrequent and safe behaviour,” corridor and centre plans team leader Daniel Newcombe said in the presentation.

Among recommendations he made to the Institution of Professional Engineers’ transport group conference was for cyclists to be allowed to turn left on red lights, while treating the manoeuvre as a “give way” and assessing the risk to pedestrians.

The trouble with doing that is noted here:

Police believe John Tangiia, 37, was probably freewheeling down Parnell Rise on Tuesday before turning left into Stanley St and colliding with a truck which appeared to have a green light while crossing the intersection from The Strand.

Personally I think turn left on red if safe is worth investigating as a law change for all road users, not just cyclists.

Despite the concern about last week’s death, which remains under police investigation, he noted a 64 per cent reduction in serious cycling injuries in Auckland in 2012 compared with 2011 – from 51 to 18.

Always good to have some hard data. Wellington had 33 serious injuries which reinforces to me how cycle unfriendly most of Wellington is.

The Ministry of Transport has some interesting data on cycling injuries. In terms of Police reported crashes with injuries the numbers have been basically declining from a recent high of 895 in 2008 to 783 in 2011. The low point was 559 in 2000 and it increased most of the eight years in between. If we go further back it was 1054 in 1990 and declines for ten years in a row until 2000.

Of course the better data would be number of injuries per x hours spent cycling.

MOT reports that cyclists had fault in just 37% of crashes and primary fault in just 23%.

Joshua Drummond wrote a satirical anti-immunisation column (he is very much pro) and the comments are quite hilarious to read as some people did not realise it was satire.

Some highlights:

Vaccination is a lie. 

Plenty of people have tried to tell me different. But I know better.

When I was a child, I got measles and mumps. I’d been vaccinated for both. Oh, sure, some small, logical part of my brain tried to tell me that I’d probably recovered much faster from these illnesses than I would have had I not been vaccinated. But that’s the thing with logic. You can’t trust it. Science is based on logic and look where that’s got us. Genetically engineered centipedechickens from KFC. But I digress. You can’t trust logic. It’s intuition you have to trust. I have intuition coming out my ears. My aura is indigo. My mind is wide, wide open. Information pours in. Splash! Just between us: I’m a bit of a genius. I’ve got a real knack for medical knowledge. The sheeple need someone to free them. And I’ve spend enough time reading medical-sounding articles on various natural health forums to know I can be that person.

I would have thought pretty obvious at this point.

I first realised this when I discovered the Internet had a great deal of information on vaccines that they don’t want you to know. Who’s “they,” you ask? I’ll tell you. It’s them. Your nurse. Your family doctor. The National party. The Labour party. (Possibly not the Conservative party.) The Medical-Industrial-complex. The Great Vaccination Conspiracists. Unscrupulous electricity companies who generate power from the brains of autistic children. It’s all possible. Except for vaccination. Vaccination simply doesn’t work. Ignore the decades of scientific evidence. It’s all fraudulent. It’s all a lie. 

Sounds like the anti-fluoridation brigade!

Vaccination was, supposedly, first performed by Edward Jenner in the 18th century and further developed by Louis Pasteur, who discovered cures for smallpox and rabies, respectively (although I personally find this about as likely as the idea that humans walked on the moon.) Some hail these men as heroes, and their work as saving the lives of millions. The truth is that these men are mass-murderers. Want to know who else used vaccines? The Nazis. They also used fluoride to keep their prisoners docile. I bet the Nazis even fluoridated their vaccines. The banality of evil. 

At this stage, anyone who hasn’t twigged is very gullible!

Scenic Highway 163, Monument Valley, USA

I love visiting the USA and am always blown away by the amazing photo opportunities this incredible country offers.

If you have ever been to Monument Valley then you will know how immense this landscape is. This photograph was taken early one morning along Sate Highway 163 as I looked for an alternative view of the famous spires.

Click on the image for a larger view of this photograph.

Free Wallpaper – Desktop or iPad

You can download it as a free Desktop Wallpaper HERE  – Last weeks photo ‘Delicate Arch’ is also available – please share with your friends.

Cheers

Richard [richardhume.com]

The Waikato Times reports:

The two Hamilton electorates – Hamilton East and Hamilton West – had in the past acted as “swing seats”, changing hands between Labour and National many times. David Bennett has been incumbent in Hamilton East since 2005, while fellow National MP Tim Macindoe has held Hamilton West since 2008.

Mr Macindoe comfortably saw off a challenge from Labour list MP Sue Moroney in the 2011 election, and a rematch looks likely.

Hamilton East is no longer a swing seat and I’m not sure Hamilton West is either.

In 2005 David Bennett won Hamilton East with a 5,298 majority. In 2008 it increased to 8,820 and in 2011 was 8,275. That’s not marginal or swinging.

Tim Macindoe won Hamilton West in 2008 with a 1,618 majority which is marginal. You normally lose votes when in Government, but his majority in 2011 increased to 4,418. I’d be surprised to see any change there.

Some electorates in the wider Waikato and surrounding regions could prove pivotal, particularly Rotorua, Taupo and East Coast, which had also been home to alternating Labour and National MPs in recent years.

Majorities are 7,357, 14,115 and 4,774 respectively. Also not very marginal.

However others, like Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Taranaki-King Country and Tauranga are seen as safe National seats.

Majorities of 17.760, 14,198, 15,089 and 17,264 respectively. Also Coromandel on 12,740.

The reality is that the Waikato Region is not a very competitive one in terms of electorates. National holds every single seat and is likely to continue to do so.

An op-ed in The Guardian by NZ Minister Chris Tremain and UK Minister Francis Maude on digital services:

At the Open Government Partnership (OGP) summit in London in November 2013, New Zealand became the 61st member of a rapidly expanding global movement.

The OGP is all about making governments more transparent, accountable and responsive to citizens. International co-operation and the exchange of ideas are essential to embedding openness and transparency across the world. In different ways Britain and New Zealand are already world leaders in transparency. They have a great deal to learn from one another. And we are already partners in the digital revolution that is helping to make open government an everyday reality for citizens. …

Both our countries have taken significant steps towards a new digital world. After the election in May 2010, the UK established the Government Digital Service (GDS) to drive a new “digital-by-default” agenda through Whitehall. In 2013, the New Zealand government launched a new ICT strategy and action plan focused on using technology to deliver better services. Whether in Britain or New Zealand, the cornerstone of digital transformation is a user-friendly domain for government information.

Until our governments embarked on a new digital push, neither country had a digital portal which met the acid test of really meeting users’ needs. Directgov in the UK was an entry point into a confusing maze of additional sites. It was hard to navigate, duplicated information and had confusing design, presentation and language. User research in New Zealand showed that the newzealand.govt.nz portal could also do a much better job of meeting the needs of users.

I didn’t even know we had such a portal!

New Zealand’s project to replace their portal is called Govt.nz. The site is now in beta stage, for public testing with real users at beta.govt.nz. As was the case with the groundbreaking GOV.UK, Govt.nz is being built through an iterated, user-tested design.

GOV.UK was built for sharing. Most of its code is open source so other countries can use it, rather than having to develop their own. The New Zealand team adapted GOV.UK’s basic design elements, saving time, money and resources.

At the same time, ideas and information are flowing back to the UK. Research in New Zealand corroborated similar studies in the UK which highlighted the need to simplify website design. The Govt.nz team routinely shares the results of its research with its counterparts in the UK, so they can learn from it as well. We know that there’s greater scope for co-operation as independent research and user testing often throws up the same challenges. We look forward to working together ever more closely.

After testing and feedback from the beta site, New Zealand expects the new Govt.nz site to go live in 2014, and by 2017 wants all new government services to be digital-by-default.

Sounds excellent, and good to see the two countries learning from each other rather than operating in silos.

Rodney Hide writes in the Hos:

Good and loyal friends have suggested that I put my name forward to be Act’s candidate in Epsom.

They have supported me over many years and therefore I have given their advice serious consideration.

It’s a crucial role. But for Act’s success in Epsom in 2008, Helen Clark would have remained Prime Minister. And its success in 2011 also kept Labour out of power.

That’s why the attacks on John Banks are so intense and sustained. Act’s success has proved the difference between a National-led Government and a Labour-Green one.

Very true. Without ACT both times, the Maori Party would have held the balance of power and may well have gone with Labour and the Greens.

Act provides a much-needed political counterweight to the other parties calling always for more government spending and ever-more regulation.

We need a champion for individual freedom and personal responsibility. Act is that champion.

Sadly, much bruised.

And now the position of Act candidate for Epsom is open again. I am very pleased Act has excellent candidates in prospect. I have concluded it can’t be me.

I now don’t have the necessary passion and enthusiasm to do the job well. Yes, I loved it and I gave it everything I had. And then some. But it’s gone now. I am not sure why that is. It just is.

There was a time when Winston Peters could rattle an entire government, bringing ministers to their knees. Now, even junior ministers get the better of him.

I think it’s sad. Peters appears like some aged rock star who has partied way too hard and is now up on stage trying to relive the glory days. Or perhaps a champion boxer who has stayed too long in the ring. I wouldn’t want that.

I thought the worst thing for Peters was getting dumped in 2008. No. The worst thing for Peters was getting back in 2011.

New MPs snigger at him. There was a time he would have swatted them down like flies.

Knowing when to go is important in politics.

I have a project under way in Christchurch. We have a third baby due in July. I have new and different challenges ahead.

Plus if Rodney stood again for Epsom, we’d lost him as a great columnist!

In a related story, Cameron Brewer (again) rules himself out for Epsom, but Matthew Hooton is listed as considering throwing his name in the ring saying ACT needs a generational change.

After eight years in a coma, Ariel Sharon has mercifully died.

The Herald has a good biography of his life from the Associated Press. His life and legacy are complex. He has been a war hero, but also a disgraced leader over the 1982 massacres. He ultimately became Prime Minister and turned away from his previous hardline views and did what no other Israeli PM has done – withdrawing settlements from disputed territories. He left Likud to form the centrist Kadima and it became Israel’s most popular party.

While unlikely, it is possible we may have got some sort of peace settlement if he had not had his stroke just before the elections. Israelis seem more prepared to accept a peace settlement if it is pushed by a politician who has a strong military background – I guess they are seen as acting from a position of strength, not weakness.

His legacy is mixed, and we’ll never know what may have happened if his stroke had not occurred. But I am glad he finally has his rest after eight years in a coma.

The HoS reports:

Companies are cracking down on office romances, with bosses increasingly being asked to sign contracts promising not to have sex with staff – or if they do, they must declare the liaison to avoid conflicts.

 

Air New Zealand confirmed it has introduced a formal code for its 80 senior executives. Another company has banned senior staff from sexual relationships with co-workers, even if both parties are single. 

That reminds me of the policy I drew up many years ago for Curia, soon after we established. It basically said we don’t care who you sleep with so long as it doesn’t interfere with the job, with the exception of two named staffers. The joke, being they were brother and sister.

Another amusing incident was when one of my managers confessed to me at a staff party that she had a big crush on one of the staff, but she couldn’t do anything about it, as he reported to her. She was delighted when I said that actually they could go out, so long as I’m aware of the relationship and hence if ever there were employment issues, I’d handle them. They, umm, got together that night and have been together for around two years now!

Many years ago I did work for an organisation there the CEO and the 2ic were having a secret relationship (both were single) and it did cause problems as you felt reluctant to talk to the CEO about issues with the 2ic, knowing they were together (we discovered the relationship through their 3 am mobile phone calls to each other!).

Generally it is silly to try and ban workplace romances, but if they involve direct reports that can cause problems. The key is to have a policy that discloses them, so decisions can be taken on a case by case basis.

Also reminds me of how many years ago a friend of mine was hauled before a disciplinary committee of partners in her accounting/law firm for her relationships with clients. I jokingly suggested to her that she says that if it is inappropriate for a lawyer to sleep with a client, then she expects them to also crack down on partners sleeping with their secretaries. By pure coincidence, it turns out the chair of the disciplinary committee was sleeping with his secretary, and they took no action as they thought she knew about the affair. In fact it was just a lucky guess that at least one of them would be 🙂

Paul Matthews blogs:

In terms of Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), the debate is actually around intensity; the evidence is clear that high strength EMFs – massively higher than wifi signal strength – can be harmful to people. But what is high and low, and can prolonged exposure to very low levels of EMFs also be harmful?

This low vs high intensity question is the same in many other radiation contexts as well. For example, exposure to sunlight in moderation is not considered harmful, however too much of it can cause burning and lead to skin cancer. So where does wifi sit on that spectrum?

Let’s first consider just how strong a signal we’re talking about here. Jonathan Brewer’s Inside Telecommunications blog has a great summary of EMFs and electromagnetic radiation, including the following table (Hat tip @shiftygeek):

	Type of Radiation	Power Level
	Potential to be Harmful (heat can be felt)	200W/kg
	Maximum Permitted in New Zealand	4.00W/kg
	Highest Radiation Cell Phones (Avg of 20)	1.43W/kg
	50 Watt Cell Phone Transmitter at 10m distance	0.365W/kg
	Lowest Radiation Cell Phones (Avg of 20)	0.32W/kg
	Wi-Fi Device Average between 0.5 and 2m distance	0.0057W/kg

Have a look at those numbers. WiFi is at one 35,000th of the level where it has the potential to be harmful.

The Te Horo School should be ashamed for giving in to hysteria. Matthew concludes:

In short, the science is clear and credible. Following very comprehensive and ongoing research,there is absolutely no evidence of a link between exposure to wifi transmission and adverse health effects. It would appear to make no more sense banning wifi in schools as banning electricity, and neither is supported by the evidence.

Maybe the school should also ban the dangerous dihydrogen monooxide.

The Herald reports:

Visitors to the Bay of Islands this week were handed leaflets on the wharf at Paihia urging them not to take the famed trip to the Hole in the Rock at Motu Kokako, Piercy Island. The Motu Kokako Ahu Whenua Trust complains that the boat operators are not telling tourists the correct history of the island and its significance to Ngapuhi.

That is a legitimate complaint.

The trust also wants a payment for the attraction.

That isn’t.

Our mana is being trampled on by these operators,” said chairman Rau Hoskins.

But $3 a trip will heal that mana.

If the three companies running boats through the Hole in the Rock do not enter negotiations, the trust says, it will block the entrance in some way. “The idea that anyone can claim ownership of a natural waterway is foreign to most people in New Zealand and to its law. But it is not foreign to Maori custom, as was evident in the foreshore and seabed claim and the challenge to the sale of hydro-power companies. It is an issue the country needs to resolve once and for all.

You can’t legislate away a difference of opinion. The legal status is clear however.

When Fullers had the attraction to itself, it agreed to pay a portion of each fare to the trust. When competition arrived, Fullers made common cause with the trust and took a rival operator to court on a claim of trespass. The case failed, the High Court ruling that access to open sea could not be impeded under maritime law. Fullers then stopped paying the trust.

Fair enough.

Rather than seeking rent from the resource, they could be running tours themselves. If none of the existing operators are giving visitors the island’s authentic story in the trust’s view, the trust has a golden opportunity. Not all tourists want an indigenous cultural experience but many do. The trust could obtain a suitable vessel and offer a trip clearly different from its competitors.

That is a good idea.

Stuff reports:

The woman said she had been at a close friend’s tangi out of town with her son on Tuesday – his ninth birthday.

They returned home in the afternoon and he went to play with friends across the road while she prepared dinner.

She said she had no idea that he had taken off to the skate park, about a kilometre away.

She understood a woman, aged in her mid-20s, gave her son the alcohol at the park.

“I don’t know her. I know of her,” she said. “I think they thought it would be funny.”

Police said he consumed eight pre-mixed bourbon and cola cans and two liqueur shots.

He came home about 6pm stinking of Lynx deodorant and behaving strangely.

“We were like, ‘Oh my god, he’s drunk’. Then we sorted him out and put him to lie down and that’s when the police turned up.”

She co-operated with police and has ongoing support from Child Youth and Family.

She said the young man who claimed to be the boy’s “big brother” in the video, and said it was “all good” that he was drunk, had since apologised to her.

She said she rarely drank alcohol and had never given it to her son, but would educate him about its dangers.

If she has never given alcohol to her son, then it is unfair to hold her directly responsible and she does seem genuinely shocked.

A reservation I have though is that I highly doubt that is the first time the nine year old has drunk alcohol. He had something like 18 standard drinks. If you’ve never drunk alcohol before and you weigh only around 30 kgs, then you’d be vomiting and passing out after just a few standard drinks.

So while I hope this is something that happened as a once off and with no family involvement, I am a bit cynical.

UPDATE: The Herald reports on a photo showing two more of her children with alcohol. The cynicism may be justified.

A book I’ll definitely be buying is Duty by Robert Gates. Gates was rated by the Washington Post as the best Defence Secretary since WWII, and had served numerous Presidents (he is a Republican) over the decades. Some of his roles include:

• CIA staffer in Nixon presidency
• NSC staffer in Ford presidency
• senior CIA director in Carter presidency
• DDI and DDCI in Reagan presidency
• Deputy NSA in Bush 41 presidency
• CIA Director in Bush 41 presidency
• Secretary of Defence in Bush 43 presidency
• Secretary of Defence in Obama presidency

The Wall Street Journal has the top 10 excerpts from his memoirs. They include:

• Mr. Gates expresses open disdain for Congress and the way lawmakers treated him when he testified at hearings. “I saw most of Congress as uncivil, incompetent at fulfilling their basic constitutional responsibilities (such as timely appropriations), micromanagerial, parochial, hypocritical, egotistical, thin-skinned and prone to put self (and re-election) before country.”
• Mr. Gates expresses particular dissatisfaction with Vice President Joe Biden. He describes Mr. Biden as a “man of integrity” who “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
• Mr. Gates writes. “His [Obama] White House was by far the most centralized and controlling in national security of any I had seen since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger ruled the roost” in the 1970s.
• “The controlling nature of the Obama White House, and its determination to take credit for every good thing that happened while giving none to the career folks in the trenches who had actually done the work, offended Secretary Clinton as much as it did me,” Mr Gates writes. In one meeting, Mr. Gates says that he challenged Mr. Biden and Thomas Donilon, then Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, when they tried to pass orders to him on behalf of the president. “The last time I checked, neither of you are in the chain of command,” Mr. Gates says he told the two men.

A good analysis of the book is from John Dickerson at Slate.

Eric Crampton writes:

A few years ago, Jerry Hausman showed that Wal-Mart does a lot to benefit even consumers who don’t shop there. When a Wal-Mart opens, competitor local supermarkets cut their prices to keep customers. And poor customers reap most of the benefits. 

Figlio and Hart, in the latest AEJ: Applied Economics, show a similar effect with school vouchers. An ungated version is here.

Suppose your worry about school vouchers is that low social capital parents’ stick with a local underperforming school while kids whose parents have better social capital all flee with their vouchers to the better private schools. And suppose further that you care way more about the potential losses to the former than about the gains for the latter. You might then oppose voucher systems.

Figlio and Hart show that public schools facing competitive pressure from private schools under a new voucher system provided stronger student score improvements. All that concern about kids left behind as the private schools cream off the best voucher kids? Not much of an issue if the public schools facing the competitive pressures perform better as consequence. They find the biggest positive effects in public schools facing strong financial incentives to retain low-income students.

There has also been studies showing that charter schools not only improve the performance of students at those schools, but neighbouring public schools improve their performance also.

For some strange reason, this is seen as a bad thing because it clashes with an ideology that competition is bad.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

 Ministers have been accused of “social engineering” over their plans to mark the centenary of the First World War, by downplaying the role of Australian and New Zealand soldiers in favour of the contribution from New Commonwealth nations. …

The latest row follows a briefing to Australian journalists by Whitehall officials that no events were being planned to mark their country’s contribution and that internal discussions on the plans do not mention Australia or New Zealand. The briefing disclosed, instead, that officials were concentrating on promoting the role played by so-called New Commonwealth countries, those which achieved independence since 1945.

The countries singled out for promotion were India, Bangladesh and Nigeria, along with other west African nations. The reports state that this is to promote “community cohesion” in the UK.

The government source said: “There has been no mention of old Commonwealth Allies like Australia or New Zealand but more interest in celebrating the role from New Commonwealth countries. I think it’s fair to say Commonwealth ties are being frayed a little on this one.”

How sad.

Off memory New Zealand had the highest ratio of soliders killed per capita among the Commonwealth nations. You’d think that would merit being singled out.

Pete George blogs:

Dunedin City councillor Jinty MacTavish suggests oil and gas is unethical, and she wants council guidelines that rule out using staff time or resources on anything deemed to be unethical.

Her exact words are:

Working to attract unethical industry to our city (and expending ratepayers’ resource to do so) feels to me a highly dubious activity for Council to be engaged in. I would very much hope we wouldn’t do it for cigarettes or munitions – what’s the difference with oil and gas, when science tells us the fruits of that industry will also erode the livelihoods of, and cause misery for, millions of people?

I can only presume that Cr McTavish lives up to her noble principles and not only does she refuse to smoke or own guns, but she also refuses to travel on any vehicle that uses oil, and go to any house that uses gas.

It’s one thing to oppose a specific project, but McTavish says the entire oil and gas industry is akin to munitions and causes misery. Surely then she is not such a hypocrite that she allows herself to benefit from them?

This road safety ad by the NZ Transport Agency has gone viral with almost three million views. An excellent ad, and much better use of resources than their billboard campaign to remind people that they share the road with others.

It’s had 2.9 million views online in less than a week, so has obviously struck a chord.

News.com.au reports:

When her mind is clear, Gong Qifeng can recall how she begged for mercy. Several people pinned her head, arms, knees and ankles to a hospital bed before driving a syringe of labour-inducing drugs into her stomach.

She was seven months pregnant with what would have been her second boy. The drugs caused her to have a stillborn baby after 35 hours of excruciating pain. She was forced to have the abortion by officials in China’s southern province of Hunan in the name of complying with national limits on family size.

“It was the pain of my lifetime, worse than the pain of delivering a child. You cannot describe it,” Ms Gong, 25, said in a recent interview in Beijing. “And it has become a mental pain. I feel like a walking corpse.”

Since the abortion more than two years ago, Ms Gong has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. She travelled with her husband to the capital to demand help paying for her treatment, but she ended up being hauled away in her pajamas by police, a detention recorded on video by The Associated Press.

Forced abortions are considered an acceptable way of enforcing China’s population limits, but they are banned when the woman is more than five months pregnant. Yet no one has been held accountable for Ms Gong’s late-term abortion, and other women in similar cases also struggle to get justice and compensation.

The issue isn’t compensation, or when a forced abortion happens. The issue is that it is forced. No state should have the power to force a woman to abort. It is barbaric.

Although China in November announced an easing of its “one-child” policy to allow more couples to have a second child, the overall system remains in place and local governments are still required to keep to population quotas.

I don’t support population quotas or the euphemism that some parties use, of having a population policy.