I’ve blogged at Curiablog the results of the latest 3 News Reid Research poll.

Note that the poll was done after the release of the Auditor-General report into the proposed Sky City convention centre.

Fenceline

EveryTrail – Find trail maps for California and beyond

An 8.5 km hike around the fenceline of the Karori Sanctuary, Zealandia. It has 460 metres of vertical elevation so is a good challenge. It is the same route as the annual gutbuster run.

We started at the Zealandia and climb up to the Brooklyn Wind Turbine. The odd flat piece, but mainly uphill.

From the wind turbine you continue along the fence towards Hawkins Hill but then veer back towards Karori. You think you do not have much more climbing to go, but actually the track drops down into a valley which then gives you another big climb up to Wrights Hill.

From Wrights Hill, it is mainly downhill. The track next to the fenceline is so steep at parts you are advised to use an alternate zigzag down, which we did.

Some great views, and a reasonable distance to go from Karori to Brooklyn and back.

Big ups to all the cyclists on the shared path. Everyone helpfully yells out that they are approaching you, what side of the path they are on, and how many of them there are.

If anyone knows what the berries are in one of the photos, feel free to comment.

News.com.au reports:

KEVIN Rudd would catapult Labor into an election-winning position if he was to be reinstalled as leader, according to a new Galaxy poll.

A comeback by the former prime minister would deliver a 14 per cent boost to Labor’s primary vote in Queensland, putting it in line to seize two-thirds of the state’s seats.

The poll of 800 Queenslanders, taken on the evenings of February 20 and 21, found that federal Labor’s support, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the helm, was stuck on 33 per cent – close to the primary vote Labor received at the last election.

This would see Tony Abbott lead the Coalition to victory by 55 per cent to 45 per cent on a two-party preferred basis in Queensland if preferences flowed as they did in 2010.

But Labor’s primary vote would soar to 47 per cent in Queensland if Mr Rudd returned to the leadership and faced off against Mr Abbott, the poll found.

Rudd is effectively campaigning full-time to gain the leadership back off Gillard. It will come to a head in March probably.

I’m not sure Rudd will win though. Generally MPs will vote for their own surivival, but a fair few Labor MPs would rather lose their seats than have Rudd back as Leader.

Rob Kidd at Stuff reports:

An online gamer is accused of killing his cyber-rival after losing a fantasy game where they were pitted against each other in battle.

The violent blurring of the virtual and real worlds came after the pair had spent several hours playing an online game, each in his own house kilometres apart.

The Sunday Star-Times cannot reveal the names of the accused killer nor his victim, where the homicide took place or when, because the details may prejudice an eventual trial.

However, police have confirmed they believe the most likely motive for the attack was the game which the pair played in the hours immediately before the attack. 

There may be a guilty plea of course, but if it goes to trial I think there will be international attention on it. Very sad for the families concerned.

The HoS reports:

High-profile lawyer Greg King, who died last year, has been cleared by the Ministry of Justice of wrong-doing after a prisoner accused him of over-billing for legal aid.

King, who defended Scott Guy-murder accused Ewen Macdonald in the most high-profile trial of 2012, died in November. His death was reported to the coroner.

A Rimutaka prisoner convicted of sexual offences had complained King had over-charged for his services by inaccurately putting in for hours worked by his wife, fellow lawyer Catherine Milnes-King.

But the ministry’s deputy secretary of legal and operational services, Nigel Fyfe, told the Herald on Sunday an investigation found nothing untoward on King’s part.

The allegations were the subject of newspaper inquiries by Fairfax staff to King just prior to his death. It is good he has been officially cleared.

Experts on suicide always stress there is never any one cause. But it will be interesting to read what the Coroner determines to have been the factors that contributed to the tragic decision King made to end his life.

Kathryn Powley in HoS reports:

Stephen Hovell, the principal of the school where confessed paedophile James Parker preyed on children has been sacked.

Stephen Hovell claims he has been made a scapegoat for Parker sexually abusing pupils at the primary school in the Far North. He plans to fight for his job.

Parker – Pamapuria’s former deputy principal – is in prison after pleading guilty in August to 49 child-sex offences, but is yet to plead on 23 other charges, including four of sexually violating male pupils.

This is going to court, so I’m not commenting on the legality of the sacking. But I will suggest that it is not quite a case of blaming someone for what happened on their watch, that they had no idea at all about.

The Northland Age commented:

The fact that Parker was hosting boys at his home was well known, even if what was going on there was not. The school administration does not seem to have been falling over itself to investigate allegations that swirled around the man, and, according to the report, it might have been the use of one word as opposed to two others in the Education Act 1989 that allowed him to continue offending for as long as he did. …

 Meanwhile the glaring omission from this 37-page report is input from Stephen Hovell. As principal at Pamapuria his role in this tragic story is pivotal, and the fact that he declined to be interviewed can lead to only one conclusion, one that is not favourable to Mr Hovell. …

There are degrees of culpability in this story, and some of it belongs to Stephen Hovell.

I really don’t see how you can say this is a case of scapegoating. Also if Hovell did refuse to co-operate with the inquiry then his position was clearly untenable.

The Herald also reported:

Parker’s closeness to some families and his mana as kapa haka leader made it hard for people to suspect or accuse him. Others felt their concerns would not be acted on because he was close to principal Stephen Hovell.

Before 2012, the closest Parker came to prosecution was in 2009 when a boy told his sister about the abuse. She told her mother, who went to police. Two other boys were named as victims. However, one said nothing had happened and the two others retracted their allegations.

Detective Dean Gorrie of Kaitaia CIB could not lay charges but wrote Mr Hovell a sternly worded letter about Parker’s sleepovers, saying they had to stop immediately.

It was not clear whether the letter was read in full to the school board of trustees, which was given only limited information by Mr Hovell.

To be honest I’m surprised he didn’t resign long ago. To refuse to co-operate with the inquiry and to then commence legal proceedings to keep your job suggests a focus on his own welfare continues to win out over the welfare of his charges.

Despite being just two and a half years old my laptop seems to be in need of replacing. I’m having to boot it up in safe mode half the time as it just won’t start up normally.

In the past I have not wanted to consider a non-Windows machine as the transition was going to be too much hassle, but this time I am open to a Macintosh, and in fact that is probably my preference. They just seem to last longer.

As with previous times, keen for feedback from readers as to what they would recommend. My ideal features are:

• Fast
• Long battery life
• Can be used for 12+ hours a day
• Relatively light
• Quick start up
• Can handle multiple apps open at same time
• Resilient
• 1 TB or more storage
• 16 GB or more RAM

The quiz is here. I think 10/10 in 34 seconds may be a record. No guesses!

Mike Watson at Dom Post reports:

The Taupo Ironman event is to go ahead after local iwi and organisers agreed to a confidential settlement.

Discussions were held all week after Lake Taupo owners Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board sought to charge a levy for Ironman New Zealand competitors to use the lake for the swim leg of the international triathlon, to be held next weekend.

The trust board was reported to be seeking a $40 levy for each entrant, which would have netted about $58,000.

Taupo Mayor Rick Cooper said he was sickened and saddened by yesterday’s announcement. “If a charge has been set for the use of the lake I would be extremely sad; in fact, I feel sick to hear it. …

Ngati Tuwharetoa, under a revised deed of settlement signed with the Crown in 2007, are considered legal owners of the lake bed and air space above it, and have the right to license commercial users of the lake.

I’m pretty appalled myself.

I can understand the agreement Labour made in 2007 as part of a settlement that commercial users may have to pay a fee. To my mind that was intended for activities which are primarily about making a profit – say a jet ski hire operation.

But sporting events should not be treated in the same way. Charging $40 a person for swimming in the lake just goes against the grain.

If any future agreements include use of lakes, it would be highly desirable for commercial use to exclude sporting events.

Simon Bridges has announced:

The Government’s focus on significantly lifting New Zealand’s workplace health and safety record is behind the establishment of a new, stand-alone agency, says Labour Minister Simon Bridges.

The creation of a stand-alone Crown agent was a key recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy.

“The new agency will have a dedicated focus on health and safety and underlines the Government’s strong commitment to addressing New Zealand’s workplace fatality and serious injury rates,” says Mr Bridges.

“We have a firm target of a 25 per cent reduction of these rates by 2020.

This was a key recommendation of the Royal Commission, and you expect the Government to implement all the recommendations unless there is a very good reason not to. The Pike River tragedy is a good example of what happens when there is an inadequate focus on health and safety.

Of course no workplace can be made free from risk, and nor should it be. Health and safety is always a balancing act. Otherwise we would engineer cars to not drive faster than 30 km/hr.

Stuff has a story on the former singing career of Gerry Brownlee.

Gerry is still a good singer. I’ve heard him at various karaoke parties over the years. My favourite is when he does the Helen Reddy song “I am woman, hear me roar” 🙂

I blogged on Thursday how the Herald ran a blog post from James Dann that was both factually incorrect and also failed to disclose Dann stood for Labour for the Christchurch City Council.

Well again on Friday they have run a blog post by Dann (of course attacking the Government again). Once again they do not mention that he is a Labour Party candidate.

How can the Herald justify not telling its readers that the blogger whose work they reprint, who constantly attacks the Government, is in fact a political party candidate?

Matt Stewart at Stuff reports:

Carterton balloon crash pilot Lance Hopping should not have been flying the day he and 10 passengers died, a damning report by the Civil Aviation Authority reveals.

The health and safety report shows Mr Hopping’s medical certificate had expired about six weeks before the fatal flight. He should not have been piloting a commercial aircraft.

At 7.22am on January 7 last year, the balloon burst into flames after hitting a power line, then crashed into a paddock just north of Carterton, killing Mr Hopping and his 10 passengers, including two who jumped or fell from the basket.

It has not been revealed how many other flights he piloted after his medical certificate lapsed. The six weeks covered Christmas and New Year, which are usually busy times for ballooning.

That’s very bad, especially considering Hopping was the current of former President of Ballooning industry body.

In May, an interim report by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission showed toxicology tests on Mr Hopping’s body four days after the crash proved positive for cannabis.

The CAA report says Mr Hopping had time to activate the safety valve at the top of the balloon, which allows for a quick but controlled descent, but did not do so. It finds that he failed to meet his obligations under the Health and Safety in Employment Act, and those failures contributed to the accident.

“The balloon had on-board safety features, including a rapid deflation system and a parachute valve, but there was no evidence that the passengers were ever briefed on their use, and in the event, they were never deployed,” CAA director Graeme Harris said this week.

“Insufficient communication between the balloon and the ground crew, particularly during the landing phase of the flight, was also cited as a contributing factor.”

I initially though the accident was a freak unavoidable event. Sadly it seems it was not.

The CAA website is horrific for finding info. I’m not sure if the report is online or not. Can anyone locate it?

Had a stunning day on Friday at the Gibbs Farm by Kaipara Harbour.

It was organised by the Wellington Sculpture Trust, and around 120 – 150 people flew up from Wellington for it. I doubt anyone regretted it. The farm is outstanding in three ways.

• The views
• The animals
• The sculptures

Together they create an experience that people literally travel to New Zealand to see. The Farm has an open day once a month. I highly recommend you try and attend at some stage. Allow a good three hours to get around everything.

This stag had a cry like a foghorn. You could hear him on the other side of the farm.

There is a statue of a giraffe but also three actual giraffes on the farm. I prefers giraffes not to be in captivity but they have such a large space to roam around in they seemed pretty happy.

This is a close up of A Fold in the Field with a mower making its way up over one of the folds.

This is called 88.50 ARCx8. The yaks at the bottom give you an idea of how large it is.

The Green and White Fence runs for 3.2 kms.

This is me inside the iconic Dismemberment, Site 1.
d

And Jordan W sliding out the far end.

The end is 25 metres tall.

Horizons

Red Cloud confrontation in Landscape

Another view of Dismemberment. The people by it give you some idea of its size. It is 85 metres long.

The central lake and fountain.

The Mermaid. Just next to it is a water polo lake

As we were driving out, we encountered this ostrich happily sitting down on the road blocking it. He wouldn’t move even with the bus in front of him. Someone had to get out and lead him away.

The animals are all very tame, and basically treat the farm as belonging to them, and are very nonplussed by the visitors.

Again a great day. Big thanks to Alan Gibbs for his generosity in making it available to the public, and for his talk to us. Also to the Wellington Sculpture Trust for organizing the day.

Stuff reports:

The Recording Industry Association is not admitting to any disappointment over the size of awards handed down by the Copyright Tribunal against people caught illegally sharing music.

The tribunal has released its third “Skynet” ruling, awarding $797.17 against a CallPlus customer who was caught pirating Elton John and Coldplay tracks.

The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (Rianz), which represents major music labels, had asked for a $3931 penalty.

However, the tribunal instead ordered $7.17 in direct compensation, the repayment of $250 in fees Rianz had paid to get the case to the tribunal and a deterrent of $180 for each of the three “strikes”.

Now there are three cases decided, we are getting a good idea of the likely penalties.

In all three cases they have got stung for $250 of fees plus the trivial cost of the actual songs.

What has varied is the deterrent penalty which has ranged from $100 to $180 per song. This case had it at $180 and that is because the respondent didn’t file any claim at all,  This is probably the maximum deterrent that will be charged.

The $100 is for now the minimum. However in some cases they may go even lower. None of the respondents to date have had particularly strong excuses. If someone comes forward with a defence that they did take several steps to stop any file-sharing (put a password on the wireless etc) then their deterrent fee may be reduced even further.

“There are 20 legal services in New Zealand, many of them completely free, that give people the opportunity to access music online.

“The cost of the fine would have bought the person five years’ worth of access to Spotify premium, giving them access to more than 20 million tracks playable on multiple devices.”

A reasonable point.

I’m a big believer that youth wings of political parties should from time to time disagree with their parties. They are not doing their job if they do not. Their role isn’t just to sell their party to young people, but to represent the views of young people to their party. Sycophancy does neither side a favour.

So I was pleased to see the Young Nationals come out this week with this release:

The Young Nats oppose the Government’s assault on freedom and responsibility as it moves to introduce plain packaging.

“This is just plain populism and nanny state interference all over again. We can’t see how this will actually reduce the harm of smoking” says Young Nats Policy Officer, Megan Hands.

The Young Nats champion individual freedom and personal responsibility.

“All companies should have the right to package their goods as they choose. Buyers should also have the right to exercise their power of consumer choice and absorb the responsibilities that come with such choices” says Hands.

Plain packaging sends a message that it’s acceptable for the Government to interfere wherever and whenever they like.

The Young Nats urge the Government in the strongest terms to consider the values of our party before blindly supporting nanny state antics.

Again, this is a good thing – not a bad thing. Of course, you don’t want your youth wing disagreeing with the parliamentary party constantly – that then becomes destabilising and marginalises you. But sycophancy is just as unhelpful.

So well done Young Nats on speaking up. I don’t agree with everything that have said, but it is good to see them prepared to criticise the Government when they think it has made a wrong decision.

Young Labour are having to bribe people with the chance of a week’s worth of cash, to join the Labour Party.

Oh dear. I didn’t realise things were that bad.

But an interesting contrast considering how often Labour goes on about the evils of gambling and pokie machines and the like – and they use a gambling device as a recruitment device.

Hamish Fletcher at NZ Herald reports:

The Government says it will not set aside any spectrum for Maori when it auctions it off later this year.

In third quarter of this year the Government hopes to allocate parts of the radio spectrum, which will become available after the switchover to digital television.

The allocation of this spectrum will allow telecommunications companies to build fourth generation (4G) mobile networks that provide much faster mobile broadband speeds.

“Indications are that by using the spectrum for 4G mobile networks, we can expect economic benefits for New Zealand of up to $2.4 billion over the next twenty years,” Minister for Communications and Information Technology Amy Adams said today.

I’m pleased to see this decision. It is stretching credibility to say that the electromagnetic spectrum was what people had in mind as a taonga when the Treaty was signed in 1840.

Equally difficult to claim there was customary usage of it under the common law!

Shane Cowlishaw at Stuff reports:

Gareth Morgan has shown his claws in a public catfight with an SPCA board member.

The philanthropist and economist held a public meeting in the Wellington suburb if Karori last night, where he put his case for creating the first “confined cat” suburb, to protect native birds in the Zealandia sanctuary.

As part of his presentation, he produced a “Wanted” poster naming Wellington SPCA board members, accusing them of being ill-equipped to deal with the cat catastrophe.

But one of the wanted men was in the audience, and took issue with Dr Morgan.

Emanuel Kalafatelis said he had been prepared to listen until things got personal. He pleaded: “For God’s sake, let’s not jump into this. Let’s at least get all the facts. Let’s get New Zealand-based facts. Not global facts.”

Dr Morgan responded: “I’m not going to support any organisation which in effect is attacking New Zealand’s wildlife . . . these people have no ethical compass.

Pathetic and puerile. Also a degree of bullying.

He stressed he was not campaigning for the eradication of all cats, but simply restrictions on where they could roam.

“This is not an assault on indoor cats. I don’t care how many confined cats you have – what I care about is where they wander.”

But that is not true. His website is called “Cats to Go“. It has a section on how nice NZ would be with no cats at all. He advocates no one has a cat at all, rather than just keep them inside.

There is room to debate the SPCA policy on cat colonies. There is also room to have an education campaign on keeping cats indoor, putting a bell on them etc. A debate on those issues would be good.

But you can’t both have a sober sensible debate on that, and also be the hysterical person launching websites calling for all cats to go, and personally vilifying SPCA board members.

You can choose the option that gets lots of publicity for yourself, and achieves nothing but pisses people off. Or you can choose the harder option of trying to have a sensible sober debate on responsible cat ownership. It is a shame Morgan has chosen the former and goes for headlines over effectiveness.

The Economist reports:

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, a Democratic senator from Missouri, is perhaps best known for beating Todd Akin, a Republican with a bizarre theory about pregnancy and rape, at the 2012 election. That may soon change. If Ms McCaskill succeeds in her latest quest, she stands a chance of becoming a patron saint of business travellers for getting the ban on using in-flight portable electronic devices lifted.

Ms McCaskill, a member of the Senate’s transportation committee, is fed up with the slow pace of change at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). She has warned the agency in a letter that she is “prepared to pursue legislative solutions should progress be made too slowly” on allowing the use of electronic devices throughout a flight. The FAA, which has given various evasive explanations for the ban, is under the jurisdiction of the committee and so has reason to take this seriously.

There is no evidence that electronic devices such as phones and iPads cause a problem on aeroplanes. If there were, they would be banned on board. In any case, many people leave their phones on, or simply defy the rules. According to a recent survey cited in The Week,around 40% of passengers said they never turn off their phones during a flight, and a small number knowingly break the regulations by using their phones to talk or text.

The restrictions are silly. There is no technical necessity to switch an iPad off during take off, or even to have it in flight mode during the trip.

Labour Party official “Mickey Savage” blogs:

The Green’s increase in support is significant and is having a fundamental effect on Labour.  Many of those changing their allegiance are activists and/or well resourced, the sorts of people who you want not only as voters but also as supporters and members.

 To get over the line Labour/Greens/Mana will need to further improve their collective support.  The only alternative is to countenance a coalition with New Zealand First.

The events of the past few months ought to have put Labour and the Greens completely off such a proposition.  New Zealand First has been conclusively shown, if conclusive proof had ever been required, to be a one man band, a personality cult based around the prodigious personality that is Winston Peters.  All the other MPs that are there are just there for padding.

Taking a short break from annoying the odd NGO ahead of CITES, here’s a pic of one of our local predators 🙂

Click for larger, higher res image

Fwiw, this has had the magnification boosted to a high enough level that the shot hasn’t needed any cropping.