This is a  pic  fresh from the camera.  I’ve been in Yunnan and down to Xishuangbana- an area that contains a large reserve of tropical forests that are close to Laos.  There are a number of species (tigers, elephants) that migrate between the two countries.

It’s also one of the transit route for drugs coming out of the golden triangle. So, this elephant picture is actually from a recovery center in Xishuangbanna for elephants (closed off to the public).  This elephant is part of a small group that drug-smugglers were using to move drugs across the border.

“Melancholic Elephant”

Click for larger, higher res image

Got sent this video link a few days back. Pretty good production values, so someone is going to some trouble.

For my 2c, I think a change remains unlikely.

Happened to walk past Erin Brady, who happens to be the current Miss USA. She is a financial accountant, as well as a model.

Enjoying a drink in Times Square a few hours before the flight home.

Had a walk down by the Hudson River.

New Jersey on the other side.

I liked the colouring of this group of buildings.

This is a replica of El Galeón, a 17th century galleon.

Also on the Hudson was the USS Intrepid, which is now a museum.  On board they have several planes and the Space Shuttle Enterprise. Didn’t tour it, but looked interesting.

Had to laugh at this. A union has put up this giant rat opposite the office of John Catsimatidis, who is seeking the Republican mayoral nomination. He is coming second in polling at the moment, so may end up as the nominee.

Times Square is full of people dressed up (or not) in various costumes, hoping people will give them money for photos with them.

I love Times Square. It is so busy and intense. Love to do a New Years Eve there.

As far as I can tell, there are no houses in Manhattan. Only apartments.

This is at the Chelsea Markets. Some great shopping there.

Since the High Line opened, the Chelsea Markets have got more crowded.

In the background is the Freedom Tower of the new One World Trade Centre. It is 104 stories tall, and is the third tallest building in the world. The height of 1,776 feet is deliberate.

I liked this sign. They really don’t like parkers!

We had to catch a 3 pm train to New Jersey to fly out from there so had a final visit to Central Park. This is the memorial for John Lennon at Strawberry Fields.

Had a drink at the Loeb Boathouse.

Lots of people enjoying the lake.

I love Central Park. I achieved one of my goals, by getting up at 6.30 am and doing a run around the entire park, before it got too hot. It’s perimeter is over six miles long, and it stretches from 59th Street to 110th Street.

I did an okay time around the park, but noticed I was getting passed by a fair few people. Only at the end did I realise the NYC triathlon was on, and I was in the middle of it. Made me feel better about getting passed 🙂

Sadly am now back in New Zealand. Have run out of money, so won’t be doing any more overseas holidays for a while!

We drove over 4,000 miles in the RV, and passed through 20 states. Was a great road trip.

Read about One Nation candidate Stephanie Banister. She thinks:

• Islam is a country
• Thinks Jews worship Jesus Christ
• Praised the National Disability Insurance Scheme as “working at the moment” even though it doesn’t start until 2016

She may be an MP in a month! Probably not though.

The Herald reports:

Two police pursuits, one which resulted in the death of a 20-year-old fleeing driver, and another where four teenage girls were seriously injured, have been cleared as textbook responses by the police watchdog.

The pursuits did not result in any deaths. Unless it is the police car that spins out of control and hits some pedesterians, it is not the pursuit that results in a death. It is the drunk, stoned, dangerous fleeing driver.

In both cases, the IPCA concluded that police not only considered all relevant risk factors before commencing each pursuit but also fully complied with the law and police policy during the pursuits.

The Auckland incident resulted in serious bodily harm to four girls during a 53-second police pursuit in Kohimarama on the night of March 3, this year.

Earlier that evening, the 16-year-old driver of a stolen Subaru legacy and her three passengers had been involved in a number of altercations which were reported to police.

There had been reports they had attacked another group of youths – even attempting to run them over – and damaged property at a cafe on Tamaki Drive, Mission Bay.

In responding to the reports, police tracked the car down and signalled the driver to stop.

But the female driver accelerated and shortly after hit a concrete island while attempting to overtake another car.

The driver and her occupants crashed into a concrete block wall, with all four sustaining serious injuries.

“This was a pursuit which lasted 53 seconds and covered approximately 1.4km prior to the crash,” IPCA chairman Judge Sir David Carruthers said.

“Police complied with the law and policy throughout the pursuit and the communication, especially in relation to risk, was excellent.”

The Authority found that the main factors causing the crash were the driver’s excess speed and blood alcohol level.

There are obviously some circumstances where a pursuit should be abandoned. But you need to be careful about the incentives you create. If drivers know that the faster they flee, the more likely it is the Police will not follow them – well it provides an incentive to flee as fast as possible.

Back in April 2011, Kiwiblog and Red Alert did co-ordinated posts on the use of urgency in Parliament.

But it is in the area of bills passed without going through a select committee, that National should attract the most criticism. In 2009 and 2010 it passed 10 bills without giving the public the chance to submit on the bills at select committee stage. Sometimes there may be a good reasons to do so (Canterbury Earthquake etc), but the total level is far too high. The power to bypass select committees should happen very very rarely – it was only 1 – 2 times a year under Labour.

People unhappy with the level of bypassing select committees, should let their local National MPs know. Note that in 2008 National also passed seven bills into law without select committee – now again some of these could be justified as implementing clear election promises or a simple repeal – but 17 bills bypassing select committee in just over two years is frankly an outrageous level. National needs to not just look at these bills in isolation, but about the collective total and the message it sends. 

The joint posts gained a significant level of publicity, and not coincidentally the Government massively reduced the use of urgency shortly thereafter. I also blogged a recommendation:

That standing orders be amended to distinguish between “extended sitting hours” which would merely extend the sitting hours on Wednesday and/or Thursday and full urgency (where you specify particular bills, and the House keeps going until they are disposed of)

In the review of standing orders later that year, Parliament agreed to do just that.  I give Labour considerable credit in agreeing to this change, because it allows the Government to progress more legislation through Parliament, without having to resort to urgency (and the associated bad publicity around it). Of course it will benefit them also one day when they are in Government.

Extending sittings means extra sitting hours, but no bypassing select committees, no displacing other business, and no skipping of question times.

As it has been a couple of years since my original post. I thought it would be useful to do an update on the use of urgency and extending sitting since and including 2011. My thanks to Trevor Mallard for providing the updated data.

2013 data is for a half year to 30 June. So what does this show.

• The total number of sitting hours is high, which is as expected with extending sittings now available.
• The use of urgency dropped off in the second half of 2011, was almost absent in 2012, but has started to be used again in 2013
• The data on bills bypassing select cmte is not included for post 2010 as I need to check if the prior data included bills that always bypass select committees (appropriations, statute amendments). The focus is on legislation that would normally go to a select committee. As far as I can tell there was no bypassing in 2012, but three bills bypassed in 2013. One was non-controversial regarding the Public Trust, and two were controversial – on mining and on caregiver payments. This is the area where I think we need to be most vigilant and discourage Governments doing this unless it is essential.
• The average number of sitting hours per week has increased, with the use of extending sittings
• In 2012 and 2013, there has been a question time almost every sitting day – which is good. Even if the house is in urgency, the Govt normally gives leave for question time to continue – which is a good thing.
• The number of bills being passed is lower than the historical average. This might be because they are more complex and have longer committee stages, or might be that there is more opposition filibustering.

So overall things are much better than a couple of years ago. 2012 especially was an excellent year, with almost no use of urgency at all. There has been a significant increase in use in the first half of 2013. Hopefully there will be no more urgency this year, and the House can make progress by using extending sittings only.

A vivid Nor’ west sunset silhouettes a pine shelter belt somewhere in Canterbury New Zealand.  Photography by Todd Sisson

This is another image pulled from our new photography eBook  Living Landscapes which, I am relieved to report, is selling well and garnering some great reviews now that it is out in the wild.

I have been writing some regular ‘how to’ posts over at the publisher’s website that may interest the photographers amongst you:

• Dynamic Landscape composition
• Tips for shooting vertical landscape images
• A three step approach to great landscape images

I think DPF has been reading this stuff somewhere – his travel photography is getting quite impressive, I’ll have to up my game!

See you next week.

Cheers – Todd

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:   Password = wwp

Thanks for your support!

Cheers – Todd [www.sisson.co.nz] 

The Herald reports:

A bill banning gang insignia in places owned by the Crown or local authorities has passed into law tonight.

Police would be given the power to seize gang patches and official colours within a few days. Offenders could be faced with a $2000 fine.

The Prohibition of Gang Insignia Government Premises Bill’s sponsor MP Mark Mitchell said he did not expect an escalation in tension between police and gang members as a result of the changes.

He believed the law change would act as a deterrent and would not generate a greater workload for police officers responding to complaints about gang members in public spaces.

The law change will apply to 34 gangs identified in the legislation, but also allows the Minister of Police to identify an organisation as a gang.

Labour opposed the bill because they felt it did not address the underlying cause of gang activity, such as poverty, alienation and youth disillusionment.

Of course. Maybe Labour were worried they might end up classified as a gang 🙂

The Herald reports:

Air New Zealand is a supplier to New Zealand’s America’s Cup arch-rivals Oracle.

The airline is listed on the United States yachting syndicate’s website as a supplier with 28 other companies, some of them international firms but most from America.

Why wouldn’t they be? I expect Air NZ to supply services to anyone willing to pay.

Emirates Team New Zealand are on course to race Oracle for the Auld Mug and support for a rival outfit by the airline – which is mainly taxpayer-owned – is puzzling an avid fan of New Zealand’s challenge.

“It’s strange to think that the national carrier of New Zealand is helping the competition, let alone the New Zealand Government holding a majority stake in the company,” said supporter Kurt Bennett.

So we have a story based on one fan’s puzzlement?

Air NZ is not helping the competition. They are not training the crew up. they are providing seats on planes.

The Government also owns about 73 per cent of Air NZ, which because of exclusivity arrangements would be prevented from joining Emirates in backing the New Zealand challenge.

Exactly. So how is this a story?

Mr Bennett said he understood that but did not think it was appropriate for a company such as Air NZ to support another country, let alone the direct competition to Team NZ.

They are not supporting another country. They are providing a service.

Air NZ said it was not a sponsor of Oracle, just a supplier, but did not provide details of the nature of the deal. “It’s worth noting that Emirates Team NZ and Oracle are both users of Air NZ services. Oracle and Emirates have people based in New Zealand and Air NZ is the only carrier to offer direct services between New Zealand and San Francisco,” a spokeswoman said.

Maybe Mr Bennett thinks Air NZ should ban all foreigners from their flights, in case any of them are sportsmen or sportswomen who compete against NZ atheletes?

The Waikato Times reports:

With just nine days to go until nominations close, the race for the Hamilton mayoralty has cranked into life, with veteran councillor Dave Macpherson putting his hand up for the job.

Macpherson is a former Alliance candidate. His candidacy is no surprise. In March he attacked the Mayor for holding public forums with ratepayers!

And, true to form, the outspoken Mr Macpherson has opened his campaign with a barrage of criticism directed at incumbent Julie Hardaker’s leadership.

He reckoned the councillors had become “rubber-stampers” under Ms Hardaker, and lawyers and managers were now running the city – claims Ms Hardaker said she “absolutely rejected”.

That is hilarious. Macpherson is one of the Councillors who rubber-stamped the V*s fiasco and cost Hamilton tens of millions of dollars. Hardaker has been the Mayor having to clean up teh problems inherited from Macpherson and the old Council.

“I absolutely reject the description we are rubber-stamping,” she said. “This current council has introduced disciplines and procedures that prevent rubber-stamping, which is exactly what happened on the last council when we got into the mess with the V8s.”

Ms Hardaker would not be drawn on whether she believed Mr Macpherson was personally lax in not knowing the facts before voting for the failed V8 event, which cost ratepayers more than $38 million.

Hardaker may not be willing to say Macpherson was lax, but local businessman Ray Stark is:

Hamilton businessman Ray Stark has delivered a clear message to five city councillors: “Please don’t stand again.”
Crs Angela O’Leary, Gordon Chesterman, Roger Hennebry, Dave Macpherson and Ewan Wilson were among the 10 present councillors who were in charge when the Hamilton City Council’s debt skyrocketed during the V8 Supercars era.

In my opinion Hardaker has done a good job as Mayor of Hamilton, and the last thing Hamilton needs is a Mayor who was one of the Councillors responsible for the V8 fiasco.

The Herald reports:

Meridian Energy has resolved its negotiations with Rio Tinto subsidiary New Zealand Aluminium Smelters locking in the Tiwai smelter until at least January 2017 – with the help of a $30 million subsidy from the New Zealand government.

The deal, which has been a year in the making, will help clear the way for Meridian’s $5 billion float on the stock exchange – expected to go ahead before the end of the year.

Resolution of the negotiations has been viewed as essential for the Government to get a good sales price for Meridian because the smelter is a key customer of Meridian.

It also makes up around 13 per cent of New Zealand electricity demand and closure of the plant would have impacted power prices across the board.

Meridian chief executive Mark Binns said in an announcement just released that it had reached a deal that was commercially acceptable to both parties and provided a greater level of certainty for Meridian.

The agreement includes Meridian cutting its electricity charges from July 1 2013 and allowing NZ Aluminium Smelters to reduce it contracted volume from 572 MW to 400 MW from 2015.

I’ve got no problem with the pricing agreement between Meridian and Rio Tinto, as that is a commercial contract.

But bloody annoyed they screwed $30 million from the taxpayers as a subsidy. I think the Government shouldn’t have given them a cent. If the smelter closes, so be it. It is not the job of taxpayers to subsidise unprofitable industries.

I guess the risk of losing so many jobs in Southland was too much for the Government. But if they had called Rio Tinto’s bluff, I don’t think they would have closed the smelter. Their strategy is to wait for the global price to recover and then sell it.

Just as taxpayers shouldn’t have to bail out Solid Energy, we also shouldn’t be subsidising Tiwai Point. The best jobs are those that are sustainable without taxpayer funding. The rare exceptions are attracting globally mobile ventures (such as films) to NZ, but that is quite different to subsidising a struggling or failing firm or industry.

Kate Chapman at Stuff reports:

One-way doors from 1am and shutting bars from 3am is the best to curb alcohol problems in Wellington, police say.

Why stop at 1 am and 3 am? How about 11 pm? or we could bring back 6 pm closing – I mean that worked so well in the past.

In 1929 New York constructed a 13 mile elevated train line, which was used to remove freight trains from 105 street level crossings (which had awful fatality records), so the trains could run above the streets.

As freight traffic dropped off, parts of the line closed in the 1960s, and the entire line closed in 1980. It became overgrown and an eyesore and locals demanded it be demolished. Two guys set up a group to lobby for it to be turned into a high line park instead, and in 2004 they got new Mayor Michael Bloomberg to agree, and the High Line was born.

It’s currently a one mile long walk, scores of metres above the city, so you get elevated views, and some lovely scenery. It has become one of the most popular features of New York City, and was a visionary idea to turn the lines into a park – rather than demolish them.

You can still see the original rail lines, with the gardens planted over them.

At some stages you walk on the old lines themselves.

The high line is near the Hudson River, down by around 12th Street.

You get some good views of the streets.

A lot of flowers nad plants growing up there.

All along the High Line, they have chairs, stools, sun beds etc that you can sit or lie on. Also a fair number of food and drink stalls.

A statue of Colin Powell. Many artworks up there also.

Some sections have lawn to sit on.

Is a very cool experience to be walking so high up through a mile long park. It opened in 2009, and a second section opened in 2011 and a third and final section including the old railyards is under design at the moment.

Simon Bridges has announced:

The most significant reform of New Zealand’s workplace health and safety system in 20 years has been announced today by Labour Minister Simon Bridges.

“The Working Safer package represents a major step change in New Zealand’s approach to meet our target of reducing the workplace injury and death toll by 25 percent by 2020,” says Mr Bridges.

“The reforms recalibrate our approach so we are working smarter, targeting risk and working together to improve performance in workplace health and safety.

“This is the legacy we owe to the Pike River families, the families of the 75 people who are killed each year in New Zealand workplaces, and the estimated 600 to 900 who die annually from the long-term effects of occupational disease.”

Mr Bridges says Working Safer addresses the recommendations of the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety which provided Government with a solid foundation to work from.

The details are:

• an overhaul of the law, supported by clear, consistent guidelines and information for business on their requirements
• more funding for WorkSafe New Zealand to strengthen enforcement and education and implement the changes
• a focus on high risk areas
• stronger focus on occupational harm and hazardous substances
• better coordination between government agencies
• improved worker participation
• stronger penalties, enforcement tools and court powers.

The CTU has praised the package:

The CTU welcomes moves today to strengthen our health and safety system.

Helen Kelly, CTU President said “the announcements today acknowledge that our health and safety system is in need of an overhaul, and we welcome the direction taken by the Government with these proposed changes.”

“Moves to strengthen worker participation at the workplace are particularly positive and will help keep Kiwi workers safer at work. The inclusion of a general duty to involve and consult with workers on health and safety matters, and strengthen the role of H&S representatives will give workers a voice in how health and safety is handled in their workplace”. …

“The Government’s response today is, in general loyal to the recommendations of both the Pike River Inquiry and its Taskforce recommendations and that is exactly as it should be. 

Their only real complaint is they don’t get to appoint a board member:

However to choke on the strong consensus recommendation from the Taskforce (that included business and government representation) that tripartism is an essential element that should be evident throughout the system, and to not have worker representation on the Board is both short-sighted and a badly missed opportunity which is unfair to the working people of this country”

Business NZ has also welcomed the package:

BusinessNZ has welcomed today’s announcement today of new health and safety legislation to be administered by the recently established Worksafe New Zealand.

BusinessNZ Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly said it was a significant step in the right direction.

“Moving to a principles-based regime in which health and safety responses are tailored to the business rather than the current one-size-fits-all approach will be a real help to many businesses, as will a simpler approach to levy setting and other costs.

Pretty good work to have both Business NZ and the CTU praising the package.

Stats NZ has released:

The labour market is showing signs of improvement, Statistics New Zealand said today. Employment is growing slowly and unemployment is down from a year ago, but up slightly since the start of the year. Wage inflation continues to be restrained.

This is the first time Statistics NZ has released the full suite of quarterly labour market statistics on the same day. This is to give a more complete picture of the labour market.

It’s useful to have all three surveys out at the same time, so we do indeed get a more complete picture.

Employment continued to rise in the June 2013 quarter, following a positive March 2013 quarter. Over the June 2013 year, the number of people employed rose 0.7 percent in the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), while demand for workers from established businesses rose 1.9 percent in the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES).

And in the last quarter:

• The number of people employed rose 0.4 percent, while filled jobs rose by 0.8 percent, after adjusting for usual seasonal patterns.
• The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.4 percent, up from 6.2 percent in the March 2013 quarter. 
• Annual wage inflation was 1.7 percent.
• Average hourly ordinary time earnings were up 0.2 percent over the quarter.

The latest quarter saw 8,000 more people in work, but also 5,000 more unemployed, as the labour force grew by 13,000.

Book of Mormon tickets are sold out almost up to a year in advance, unless you pay around US$450 a ticket for premium tickets. On our first day in New York we checked the theatre out and by chance they were having their daily lottery, where for half an hour you enter into a draw and 11 sets of 2 tickets are drawn out, which you can buy for $32 only. There’s over 200 people queued up, so your chances are around 5%, and we didn’t win.

We saw Chicago instead, which was really good. But didn’t give up on seeing Book of Mormon, and so I headed down early Saturday morning to queue up and see if any tickets were available from overnight cancellations. Jackpot – there were. I managed to get two tickets in the very middle of the theatre just six rows from the front. Perfect. And the tickets were at a more affordable price, so all go.

The show was the funniest show I have ever been to in my life, and probably ever will go to. I can’t undersell how great it was – not just the humour, but the sets, the costumes, the script, the acting, the music. At the end of the show, all 1,100 in the audience gave a huge standing ovation.

The musical won nine Tony awards, and was called the best musical of this century by a New York Times reviewer. It is by far the hardest show on Broadway to get tickets for.

The show was created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker of Southpark fan. However it is definitely not a musical version of Southpark. It is about two Mormon missionaries – the charismatic one with the huge future and the nerdy overweight one. Elder Price (The former one) is sure he is going to be posted to Orlando (his dream location) but instead gets Uganda with Elder Cunningham.

Their attempts to get the locals interested in the Book of Mormon, are hilarious. A highlight is when they are telling the locals how God cursed the Lamanites with black skin so they would not be so enticing to the Nephites (which is in the Book of Mormon). As their all black audience stares at them, they stutter and suggest they skip that part.

The villagers are more worried about AIDs, a local warlord that wants to circumcise all the women in the village, famine and poverty. Their way of coping with such gloom is to sing and chant “Hasa Diga Eebowai”. The mormon elders join in until they ask what it means and get told “Eebowai” means “God and “Hasa Diga” means “Fuck you”.

But don’t think this is an anti-mormon, or even anti-religious show. While it does mock and lampoon some of the proclamations in the Book of Mormon, it portrays Mormons as very kind well-intentioned people, and at the end of the show you have the villagers saying that they understand the book is about parables and metaphors, and not to be taken literally – so they should follow the intent, if not the the literal word.

The LDS Church has not condoned or condemned the show, and even advertise in the show programme suggesting people try the actual book, as being even better than the musical. It is a rare thing to hilariously lampoon a religion, but to do so in a way that is funny, not nasty, and even respectful in an obtuse way.

As I said, the show was beyond first class. If you plan to be in New York at any stage, then book tickets as far in advance as you can.

The guy on the left is Matt Doyle who played Elder Price. He has a hilarious dream scene where he thinks he gets sent to hell due to his sins, and there he meets Jeffrey Dahlmer, a very gay leather clad Adolph Hitler, Genghis Khan and amusingly famed defence lawyer Johnnie Cochran.

It’s great the stars come out after the show to do autographs and photos.

This is Cody Jamison Strand, who played Elder Cunningham. He succeeds where no-one else does, in converting the whole village to Mormonism. However he is a pathological liar, and having not read the Book of Mormon, he just invented his own. All goes well, until the LDS President visits to congratulate them, and the local village puts on a performance of their own based on Elder Cunningham’s teachings, without him knowing they planned to do this.

All I’ll say is I’ll never look on frogs the same again!

If Book of Mormon ever tours to New Zealand, I’ll be going again. Hell if I’m in New York again, I’ll try to go again. It really is the musical of the century.

Stuff reports:

A group protesting at the Government Communications Security Bureau bill have taken their fight to the Wellington home of United Future MP Peter Dunne, prompting him to call them “irresponsible scum”.

Eight protesters were outside his home in Khandallah yesterday afternoon, calling on him to cross the floor and vote against the bill.

Mr Dunne, who was not home at the time of the protest, said the “hardcore group” were at his house with a loudhailer on Sunday, past 11pm on Monday night, and also yesterday morning at 7am.

MPs have electorate office swhere people can protest. To target someone’s home, and at 11 pm at night, is a very unclassy look. In fact, pretty scummy.

Protester Ariana Paretutanganui-Tamati said they were at Mr Dunne’s home “to give him a taste of what it feels like to have your privacy intruded on”.

I think Peter already has a fair idea!

Ariana Paretutanganui-Tamati is a Mana Party activist. She doesn’t seem to play well with others, as you can read on this blog post. She’s so disruptive the other protesters think John Key has paid her to infiltrate and disrupt them 🙂

Labour has just released the final draft of their policy platform, for adoption by their annual conference.

It is meant to be a high level document that sets out their principles, and the manifesto must be consistent with it. Despite, this they have managed to make it 60 pages long!

There’s a lot in there I can and will comment on, over time. But the part which I think is the most newsworthy is their policy platform on equality which reads:

Labour believes that social justice means that all people should have equal access to social, economic, cultural, political, and legal spheres regardless of wealth, gender, ethnicity, or social position. Labour says that no matter the circumstances of our birth, we are each accorded equal opportunity to achieve our full potential in life. We believe in more than just equal opportunities—we believe in equality of outcomes.

People need to reflect on just how extreme this is. They are saying that New Zealand must have equality of outcomes. Everyone earning the same, working the same, maybe even weighing the same.

There is a philosophy that proposes equality of outcomes. It has been trialed in numerous countries, and failed in all of them. Without being melodramatic – it is communism. Their basic principle was that a doctor should be paid the same as a street cleaner.

This is the fundamental divide between centre-right and well hard left. Equality of opportunity is goal that almost everyone agrees with and aspires to. Equality of outcome is, well nuts. Name one country that has equality of outcomes – unless it is equal misery.

Their explicit commitment to equality of outcomes, is significant for what they see as the role of the state – which is basically unlimited. If you believe in equality of outcomes, then every single policy that involves state intervention can be justified so long as it leads to more equal outcomes.  A party which has said that their binding policy goal is equality of outcomes, sees no or little room for choice. If people make bad choices, then that leads to unequal outcomes – so they must be protected from those bad choices.

I think it is great that Labour have come out and said that they do not believe in equality of opportunity alone. It is another step to the hard left, that helps make them unelectable. New Zealanders do not believe in equality of outcomes. They believe in people being able to get ahead by hard work, and dedication. I can’t wait for the election debates when David Shearer has to get up and say that Labour’s core belief is equality of outcome, not just equality of opportunity.

And while this is a draft, this is a draft signed off by Grant Robertson and the Labour Party Policy Council. Under Labour’s rules it will, if adopted, be binding on the Labour Party. Caucus will not be able to come up with policy inconsistent with it. This shows the same sort of thinking as came up with the man ban – a classic example of Labour’s fixation with equality of outcome, over opportunity.

John Armstrong writes at NZ Herald:

Unlike its management of some ongoing and by comparison trivial matters of state – such as the accessing of Peter Dunne’s emails – the Government’s handling of the Fonterra infant formula contamination scare is difficult to fault … so far.

That assessment may yet change when the various official inquiries start examining the regulatory role of the Ministry of Primary Industries in the dairy industry.

For now, however, John Key, Tim Groser, Steven Joyce and other Cabinet ministers have provided a textbook example of how to handle a crisis. Their competence has been further highlighted by Fonterra’s gaffes and atrocious public relations.

The Government immediately realised the gravity of the situation, identifying the priorities for action and showing no compunction about exercising what in other circumstances might be deemed heavy-handed intervention.

When even Labour is saying they have no criticism of the Government’s actions to date, you know they have handled it pretty well. Considering how many portfolios and Ministers are involved – food safety, primary industries, health, trade etc, that is no mean feat. The biggest challenge is often just making sure it is clear who is in charge, what needs to be done, who is doing it, and everyone speaks consistently.

When election day rolls around in November next year, National’s ability to win enough seats to stay in power will hinge on voters’ impressions of how it has handled the things that matter to the average punter – things like preserving our dairy export markets. Not Dunne’s emails.

I don’t think one wants to politicise things at this stage, but it is a fair point that (in my opinion) on the really big stuff like responding to the Global Financial Crisis, the Pike River tragedy, the Christchurch earthquakes and now this – the Government performs as the public expect and want them to – one reasons why almost five years on, National still polls just below 50%.

The Herald reports:

Peter Capaldi is going from spin doctor to Doctor Who. The BBC yesterday announced that the Scottish actor, best known as venom-spitting political fixer Malcolm Tucker in the sitcom The Thick of It and its film spin-off, In the Loop, is the new star of Doctor Who, the famed science fiction series soon to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The identity of the new Doctor had been the subject of frantic speculation, and the revelation was made with fanfare befitting one of Britain’s best-known programmes – during a live television broadcast.

Capaldi is the 12th actor to play the Doctor, a galaxy-hopping Time Lord who travels in the Tardis, a time machine shaped like an old-fashioned British police telephone booth. At age 55, he’s also the oldest since the first Doctor, William Hartnell.

Doctors seem to last three to four years so probably around 2020, it will either be the end of Dr Who, or they will find a loophole for the only 12 regenerations rule!

Capaldi was awesome as Malcolm Tucker. I look forward to seeing him as the Doctor.