Phil Taylor at NZ Herald reports:

Paul Holmes is retiring from broadcasting because of poor health, bringing to a close an acclaimed career that spanned five decades.

This year, he anchored TVNZ’s Sunday current affairs programme Q&A, but says he will not return as he makes his health his priority.

Last week, he announced he was also giving up his Saturday morning radio show on Newstalk ZB.

I’ve been doing political panels on Paul’s show for several years now, and will miss his presence greatly. He had a great knowledge and interest in politics both domestically and internationally – and also a great sense of humour.

As a broadcaster, his legacy is huge. He pioneered the 7 pm slot and made it his own.

Holmes has had “not a boring life” and maybe a charmed one considering his scrapes. He survived a car accident, aged 23, in which he fractured his neck and lost the sight in his right eye, and later, a fatal helicopter accident, and a light aircraft crash. “That’s why I’ve been keen to champion the Paralympics, because I know that I have got a bill to pay.”

By being open about his and his family’s battles, he helped to promote men’s health and the fight against the methamphetamine trade, a drug his daughter Millie became addicted to. Holmes stood and spoke in court on his daughter’s behalf.

“He is New Zealand’s best-known broadcaster. Today he was just a Dad,” said TVNZ reporter Haydn Jones. Said Holmes this week: “Oh, I love that line.”

Millie survived and father and daughter reconciled. Holmes fetches a leather-bound book of photos and messages from a surprise party last month at the SkyCity Grand Hotel to applaud him for his charity work. Millie wrote: “To the most amazing Dad on the planet. You have always been in my corner.”

And I suspect that means more to him that all the broadcasting honours.

The Dom Post editorial:

New Zealand Cricket has a talent for mimicry. Sadly it has chosen the wrong body to mimic. Instead of modelling itself on South Africa, India or another cricketing powerhouse, it has chosen the Labour Party. For David Shearer read Ross Taylor; for David Cunliffe read Brendon McCullum, the defeated contender in a two-horse race for the captaincy last year.

I think NZ Cricket should sue for defamation!

Vernon Small at Stuff reports:

Prime Minister John Key says Winston Peters’ dislike of him stands in the way of a deal between National and NZ First in 2014.

Mr Key said he expected Mr Peters to back a Labour government, despite his long-standing clashes with the Green party.

“I think that the argument that he really really dislikes the Greens, let’s put it politely, that’s all true . . . but he’s not overly enamoured with me,” Mr Key said.

He and Mr Peters had chatted during a trip to Samoa as part of a New Zealand delegation.

“I had a brief chat to him but realistically I think he will go with Labour . . . Even if we were prepared to change, and that would be a big if, he was always going with Labour . . . in 2008,” he said. “I think it’s just personal.”

My view is that Peters is strongly motivated for revenge on John Key for ruling him out in 2008.

There is an argument that if Peters holds the balance of power in 2014, the bigger revenge would be to keep National in Govt but reliant and subservient to Winston, rather than sacking him.

The factors at play, if Peters holds the balance of power (and assuming National does not rule him out as they did in 2008 and 2011) are:

• Biggest party – Peters has always said he would negotiate with the biggest party first. Note that does not mean conclude a deal.
• No of parties needed to form a Govt – better to be the No 2 party in Govt than the No 3 party.
• Policy alignment
• Relationships with leader and front-bench

The first two factors favour National, the last two favour Labour.

Vernon Small at Stuff reports:

David Shearer appears to be weighing up his options for deputy prime minister between Green co-leader Russel Norman and NZ First leader Winston Peters as he looks for ways to reward support partners without letting go of the key finance portfolio.

I have the solution. Make Russel and Winston co-deputy PMs!

When I saw Jason Chasland perform with the Beat Girls at Circa, I blogged:

So how do you beat the Beat Girls? Simple – you add in Jason (Jay) Chasland.

Chasland was a rock and roll star.  At first glance you might think he is an unlikely star being not very tall and slightly chubby. But my God he was a great performer. He sang and crooned the songs marvelously, and had a real charisma and presence about him. His Ray Charles parody was side sidesplittingly funny. Chasland alone would be worth going to see.

I got my wish. For 75 minutes last night at Bats Theatre Chasland did a solo show that was terrific.

Chasland has incredible vocal ability. He can sing in the style of pretty much everyone – from Elvis to Julie Andrews to Lady Gaga to Johnny Cash. We saw and heard all those and dozens more last night.

Not only does he sing as them, but he mimics them so well. His facial expressions are priceless, and he dives in and out of his six suitcases on stage to grabs wigs and clothes galore.

The audience was in near non stop laughter and applause, and as the end of the show he got a rare standing ovation. It really is a great show, and a fun night’s entertainment for almost anyone. He performs until 15 December.

While Chasland is the star and solo performer, I must mention also the excellent use of lighting, props and dry ice to create an excellent environment. The show came together so well.

Especially loved the Barbra Streisand act, as he came out in darkness, and at first all you could see was her nose as he started to sing.

Stuff reports:

A cyberbully who threatened to name and shame a woman who wanted posts removed from his website has had the tables turned on him.

Henricus Geradus Van Helmond, 52, of Woodville had asked for $2000 when the woman told him she had legal advice about deleting her posts, leading to him being charged with blackmail.

Justice Joe Williams in the High Court at Wellington told him there was a certain poetic justice in doing to him what he had threatened to do to the victim. …

Van Helmond threatened to report her lawyer to the law society and said he would name and shame her through the website with personal information unless they paid $1000 each to himself and another of the website’s administrators. …

Van Helmond has made headlines before when he claimed his Twitter account was hacked to send death threats to former MP Sue Bradford.

To put it mildly, Van Helmond has serious issues and problems.

Whale has more on this case.

Paul Harper at NZ Herald reports:

A New York newspaper’s front page photo of a man’s final moments before he was hit by a subway train has sparked outrage.

New York Post freelance photographer R Umar Abbasi captured Queens man Ki Suk Han, 58, desperately scrambling back on to the platform after a “deranged man” pushed him off the platform at Times Square.

The image took up the entirety of Tuesday’s New York Post front page with the headline “DOOMED” and the subhead “Pushed on the subway track this man is about to die”.

I thought the photo and story were appalling. This man has family. There is no news value in seeing a man be killed.

Abbasi told the Post he was using the flash of his camera to warn the driver, however the published photo has been widely condemned by the Post’s readers and other media.

I think that is bullshit. The photo is near perfectly focused and centered on the man.

However I think Abbasi bears the lesser blame. He may have been too far away to help, and a photographer’s instincts will kick in to record it. The decision I criticise more is the  newspaper editor who made the decision to publish it, especially in the way they did.

I understand Han was on the tracks for 22 seconds before the train came. It is appalling that he was not helped up by anyone. He may have survived. Arguably, he may have been better to lie flat on the track, but hard to think calmly in such a situation. Also I am unsure if all trains are high enough above the track that they can pass over a human. Anyone know?

Morgan Godfery blogs at Maui Street:

It’s worth remembering that the Kingitanga is not an expression of power or sovereignty. The movement is an expression of and tool for unity. Tuheitia, however, appears to treat his office as if it’s a cheap imitation of the worst aspects European Royal Protocol. …

Guests are also encouraged to refer to Tuheitia as “your majesty”. Odd. I find it strange that royal protocols exist at all – Te Atairangikaahu did not keep a protocol guide. Hell, when she travelled the country she would stay at the homes of her friends and whanau. No hotels and chauffeurs, thank you very much. After all, the Kingitanga isn’t about reverance and mana does not extend to those people with less having to act towards you with veneration. 

Add to that a verbal incident that the Waikato Times reported in 2010. Apparently, in a meeting about Tania Martin and Te Kauhanganui, Tuheitia let rip against a kaumatua and Tame Iti’s sister. The King is reported to have asked the kaumatua whether he can “fucking read” and, when called on it, he told Iti if she doesn’t like it she can “fuck off”. Not the qualities you would expect of any leader, let alone the Maori King. 

Waikato-Tainui members are also asking whether this is part of a continuing campaign for more power and money. In January this year Tuheitia first voiced his desire to “take control of the tribe’s parliament” and Chris Webster reports that the Office of the King has received millions in tribal funding from 2009. Earlier this year Tuheitia penned a plea in the tribal magazine, Te Hookioi, for further funding. You have to ask whether the King’s latest reach for power, read the first and the most recent open letters, are part of a pattern.

Another cause for worry is the King’s cartel of advisors. The King maintains a large office, in comparison to his mother at least, including Rangi Wallace who admitted to beating his step-daughter and her mother, Helen Kotua. Further to that, Wallace also owed $250,000 to IRD in 2011 and Kotua owed Baycorp over $3000. Kotua, I should mention, is the author of the protocols above.  …

In one sense, the behaviour of the Maori King is simply a matter for Tainui. It is up to them. However the former Maori Queen was held in high regard by many New Zealanders and widely mourned when she died. It is a shame to see her successor act so differently.

I’m not a great fan of royalty and hereditary succession – for New Zealand, or elsewhere. However, it can work reasonably well when the monarch merely reigns rather than rules.

King Tuheitia obviously desires to rule Tainui, with his proposal that he be given the authority to both veto and dissolve the tribal parliament. Now that is a matter for Tainui, but I make the general point from history that monarchs who try to rule, not reign, generally end up serving themselves – not their people.

IrishBill at The Standard blogs:

Word is that a senior Labour MP (who will go unnamed) has been lobbying National Council to put rules in place for party members who participate in the blogosphere. It appears they don’t like the idea that members might voice their concerns about the way their party is run. I can only assume that there would have to be some kind of a process whereby members who broke these rules would face a loss of membership or some other form of censure.

Ironic, as for a couple of years the Labour blog that did the most damage to Labour was the caucus Red Alert blog 🙂

To be fair, in the last year they seem to have sorted their stuff out, and Red Alert has been mainly SMOG free.

A cynic might feel compelled to point out the hypocrisy of such a policy. Especially when John Tamihere has compared the party to the head-hunters on national TV and then had the party leader intervene to get his membership approved. Double especially when Shane Jones gets to attack the Green Party on matters he holds no portfolio for and yet faces no censure. And that’s not even talking about the way caucus members themselves have brought the party into disrepute with their online antics.

Don’t forget the attack on the Mad Butcher.

Isaac Davison at NZ Herald reports:

Taxpayer-funded prisons should be ranked in league tables so the performance of private and public prisons can be accurately compared, the Labour Party says.

I agree. If only Labour could be consistent on league tables.

Justice spokesman Charles Chauvel said it was difficult to understand how well private prison operator Serco was performing in its management of Mt Eden Correctional Facility because it was not known how it measured up against public prisons.

He felt the public needed a better measure of the company’s achievements, especially given the cost of the Government’s contract with Serco – $300 million over six years.

The Department of Corrections published the overall performance of its 19 prisons, but did not divide up the results by facility. Serco’s report cards were released every three months.

Mr Chauvel’s comments came after Corrections deputy chief executive Christine Stevenson revealed Serco had vastly improved its performance at the 966-bed Mt Eden prison in 2012.

She said the British-based Serco had a “tough” first year in charge of the facility, failing nearly half of its targets. But it had turned itself around in its second year and was meeting 95 per cent of its targets.

Excellent. It is good to see a prison operator have clear targets to meet, be reported against, and be held accountable for.

Mr Chauvel said this claim was hard to evaluate without knowing the percentage of targets that taxpayer-funded prisons were passing.

Ms Stevenson confirmed the department was collecting performance measures for individual prisons and would publish report cards next year.

Good – the comparison will be interesting.

But she warned the information could present a misleading picture.

“It’s quite a tricky thing to do. Our prisons … are all a bit different. You have Rolleston Prison, which is low-security, doesn’t have a fence, through to Auckland [Prison], which is maximum security.”

Which is not a reason to not have the individual data, but to possibly have categories within the table

Damn those flesh-eating zombies and demonic hell beasts.

Mathew Dearnaley at NZ Herald reports:

Motor industry lobbyists are citing “huge” regional variations in the ages of vehicles on New Zealand roads in their campaign against any loosening of the existing warrant of fitness system.

Although the average age of the national fleet is 13.03 years, Government statistics reveal a wide range from 10.3 years in central Auckland to 16.8 years in Waimate in south Canterbury.

Which is a red herring.

That has prompted the Motor Trade Association, representing repair workshops and service stations, to warn policy-makers to think twice before changing the existing requirement for six-monthly warrants of fitness for any vehicle more than six years old to be allowed to stay on the road.

The MTA own VTNZ whose main source of income is WOF checks. I’m surprise they do not advocate the checks should be weekly.

The warning comes as the Government is expected to choose in the next fortnight from four potential alternatives, such as annual inspections for the first 12 years of a vehicle’s life, as favoured by the Automobile Association and about 70 per cent of its members.

That sounds more reasonable.

Although Australian university researchers believe that could save motorists up to $250 million a year, the MTA warns it could be at the cost of 80 more annual road deaths.

Oh, absolute bullshit.

The road toll last year was 282, so the MTA is claiming the number of road deaths will increase 28% if cars between six and twelve years old are checked annually instead of every six months.

That is strongly disputed by the AA, which says mechanical defects are implicated in only 2.5 per cent of vehicle crashes and are the sole cause of just 0.4 per cent.

So of 282 deaths, around seven are due to mechanical defects in part and one in full.

So in fact the MTA is claiming the number of crashes causing deaths from mechanical defects will increase by over 1000% due to going from six monthly to twelve monthly WOF checks.

I don’t mind industry groups trying to do what is good for their industry. But when they resort to such unadulterated bullshit, and scare-mongering, they do their industry a dis-service. It also means they will have diminished credibility on any other issues going forward.

Hamish McNeilly at the ODT reports:

Former Dunedin mayoral aspirant Olivier Lequeux was surprised to learn he had been declared bankrupt yesterday.

“I am not aware of that. Really?” the 45-year-old told the Otago Daily Times last night.

When told he was declared bankrupt in the High Court at Dunedin yesterday over an unpaid debt to Wests NZ Ltd, Mr Lequeux said he was “quite shocked”.

“What do I do, bankrupt? I should tell my lawyer.”

He acknowledged he had a disagreement with the company’s owner, and “he did it because I could not be bothered; I am probably an arrogant Frenchman”. …

The French-born New Zealander said despite the latest setback he remained committed to his adopted city, where he ran for mayor in 2007 and 2010.

A creditor, who declined to be named, said his business had been paid only a deposit by Mr Lequeux and had spent a year trying to get payment for an undisclosed debt.

“He didn’t want to pay, so this is the conclusion.”

I can’t say I am surprised as Me Lequeux is, to date, the only bad debt Curia has had to write off. I did polling for him for his 2007 Mayoral bid (which was published in the ODT and was very close to the actual result) and despite numerous requests over 24 months, he never paid his bill. I eventually wrote the debt off.

My policy now is to do what Wests have just done, and apply to court for a liquidation or bankruptcy order for bad debts. There has only been one other bad debt in eight and a half years of trading. Note these are not debts that are disputed in any way. In neither case was there any dissatisfaction at all. They just kept saying they would pay – and simply never did.

Lequeux is, or was, a Labour Party member who stood for the Dunedin South nomination in 2008. I joked at the time I wrote his debt off that I’ll never take a Labour party member as a client again 🙂

I was kidding. Curia has and does polling for people across the political spectrum – subject to conflict of interest ethics. You can’t work for direct competitors so if for example you poll for a political party at a national level, you couldn’t do work for another political party at that level. But at local body level, you are only conflicted if people are standing in the same race – so I’ve polled for candidates who are Labour Party members, Alliance members, National members and of course those not members of a political party at all.

I’m a bit sad for Olivier. A warm guy, who is passionate about Dunedin. Never nice to see anyone bankrupted. But paying your bills should not be seen as an optional activity.

Some interesting results from a You Gov poll in the UK:

•  48% support tax reductions for businesses with 33% opposed
• Only 19% support tax reductions for high earners
• Only 3% support the planned 5% increase in the EU budget
• 57% support a referendum being held on UK membership of EU
• 49% would vote to leave the Eu and only 32% would vote to stay
• 46% want the UK in an EU that is a free trade area only, 19% want the EU as it is, and 26% want the UK completely out of the EU
• 63% say prisoners should not be able to vote, and only 17% say those serving sentences of less than four years should be eligible to vote
• 78% say the Church of England should allow female Bishops, with 10% against only

A few weeks ago I sent an OIA request to the Office of Treaty Settlements asking for the following information for each historic grievance negotiation and settlement.

While I (like most people) are not overly impressed by modern claims such as the Maori Council for ownership of water, I do believe that it is very important to have fair, full and final settlements over the historic grievances of the 1800s.  Getting these settled will allow most Iwi to focus on the future, rather than past grievances. Ngai Tahi is a great example of that.

I believe it is a win-win getting these settled faster (so long as full and final), rather than slower, as it is good for the Iwi and also good for the country to get them behind us.

There are five main steps in each treaty settlement. They are:

• Terms of Negotiation agreed. This is not a particularly significant step. It is basically just saying this is who we are negotiating with, and what the issues are
• Agreement in Principle.  This is arguably the most difficult step. It is the basis of the final settlement, and includes the quantum of reparation (note that is not always the most difficult issue though).
• Initialling of draft deed of settlement. This is a near automatic step after the agreement in principle, and it is after this step that negotiators go back to Iwi members for ratification
• Signing of final deed of settlement. This is also a very important step. At this stage, the agreement is final, subject to legislation.
• Enabling legislation. This is near automatic also, and is just a matter of finding time on the legislative calendar normally.

Now we’ve had five Treaty Negotiations Ministers. I’ve colour coded the table below to show them. They are:

• Doug Graham 1991 – 1999 in light blue.
• Margaret Wilson 2000 – 2004 in red
• Mark Burton 2005 – 2007 in light brown
• Michael Cullen in 2008 in dark brown
• Chris Finlayson from 2009 – 2012 in darker blue

Oral Questions 2.00 pm -3.00 pm

Questions to Ministers.

In today’s questions, National MPs are asking five, Labour four, the Greens two, and New Zealand First one. Labour are asking about education, the deficit, the TPP and conflicts of interest. The Greens are asking about the TPP and foreign aid. New Zealand First are asking about PSA.

Patsy of the day goes to Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga for question number 8; What recent update has he received on Transpower’s North Island Grid Upgrade?

Government Bills 3 pm – 6 pm

1. Alchol Reform Bill – Committee stage (continued)
2. Appropriation (2011/12 Financial Review) Bill – second reading
3. Human Rights Amendment Bill – Interrupted debate on first reading

The Alcohol Reform Bill was introduced by Simon Power in 2010, as the then Minister of Justice. The bill implements the Government’s decisions on the reform of alcohol legislation; decisions made in response to the Law Commission’s 2010 report on alcohol.

The Appropriation (2011/12 Financial Review) Bill was read a first time on Tuesday, introduced to the House last month by Minister of Finance Bill English. The purpose of this bill is to confirm and validate financial matters relating to the 2011/12 financial year.

The Legislation Bill was introduced in October last year by Simon Power. This bill enables the establishment of a full-time Disability Rights Commissioner within the Human Rights Commission, and makes changes to the role and structure of the Commission.

The Herald reported:

Auckland has maintained its position as the world’s third most liveable city according to the annual Mercer Quality of Living survey.

The City of Sails ranks behind only Vienna and Zurich, and ahead of Sydney (10th), Wellington (13th), Melbourne (17th) and Perth (21st).

I love Vienna. I’d put it first also.

The results means Auckland is in the top 10 in all three major international quality of life surveys, coming 9th in the Monocle magazine list and 10th in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s.

Auckland has a lot of positives. They just need more land, so house prices can come down.

[DPF: Note that this post was preset to appear at 2 pm, before the tornado struck this afternoon]

The Herald reports:

Three people have been killed after severe weather – including an apparent tornado – hit west Auckland this afternoon.

Police sources have just confirmed that three had died in the west Auckland storm.

Fire services communications manager Peter Stevenson said two people had been killed when a slab of concrete fell onto a truck at the St Georges Rd intersection

At least seven people are being rushed to hospital, TV3 is reporting.

A tornado reportedly hit Hobsonville, tearing down trees and ripping panels from the motorway.

Fire, police and ambulance are racing to multiple callouts in Hobsonville and Upper Harbour and it is understood a number of people may have been injured as a result.

The military are also believed to have been called in to assist.

Air Force personnel are going door to door in Hobsonville to check if people are safe.

Emergency services are trying to clear roads that are blocked by trees.

Thought with all those impacted in Auckland. The full force of nature is both awesome and often deadly.

Watch this video at TVNZ. It is terrifying to see the force on the windows and trees. You would not want to be outside in it. I understand Aucklanders are being advised to stay inside for at least the next couple of hours.

The Herald reported:

Stephen Colbert is devoting a full week of his internationally syndicated showThe Colbert Report to The Hobbit.

Colbert, a US comedian, is a rabid JRR Tolkien fan who recently won a cameo role in one of The Hobbit films from director Peter Jackson.

He is taking his commitment to Middle-earth to the next level starting today by celebrating “Hobbit week” on The Colbert Report, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis – who play Gandalf, Bilbo and Gollum – and Jackson will all guest on the show.

McKellen is reportedly first in line to be interviewed.

Colbert visited the set of The Hobbit trilogy during filming.

He reportedly beat film producer and Tolkien expert Philippa Boyens in a Hobbit quiz.

Jackson called him the biggest “Tolkien geek” he had ever met.

Beating Boyens is an impressive feat. We should arrange a play off against Judge David Harvey who won both NZ Mastermind in 1980 and Mastermind International in 1981 on the subject of Lord of the Rings. The questions and answers that were put to him are here.

The Colbert Report gets a million or so viewers. Having The Hobbit and NZ feature on it for a week is great free publicity.

NZ Herald reports:

An online Christmas Cracker promotion has landed Air New Zealand in trouble, with some accusing the company of transphobia.

The controversial campaign, run through the airline’s Grabaseat website, gave people the chance to win prizes and those who failed received a consolation joke instead.

One of these jokes read: “What large heavy ball was responsible for Valerie Adams’ gold medal? The Belarusian’s left testicle.” …

“This joke is unbelievably offensive, transphobic and just plain unnecessary. Really poor form,” wrote one Twitter user.

Another said she would like to see an “immediate apology” and a donation to a Lesbian Bisexual Gay Transgender programme.

Oh, lighten up. Let’s just ban humour. And please can we not have stories that just quote “one Twitter user” and “another”. Would you run a story quoting an unnamed talkback caller?

Here’s my views on this sort of humour. If someone has a characteristic they have no control over, then it can be pretty mean to mock them for it. So you don’t mock people for their race, sex, height, weight, sexual orientation, appearance etc (unless they are mates, and it is good natured).

However you can mock people for choices they make. If someone chooses to be a Scientologist I’ll mock them for that. If someone chooses to dye their hair blue I’ll mock them for that.

Now if Ostapchuk had been born looking very masculine with high levels of testosterone  then it would be rather cruel to mock her for it. She can’t control her genes. But she CHOOSE to take the steroid metenolone, in order to beat Valerie Adams. Metenolone mimics testosterone and gives those taking it male characteristics such as more muscle, deeper voices, and hirsutism.

So I’m sorry but if you take metenolone, then you are fair game for jokes about testicles. That’s the price of trying to cheat and making a bad choice. The situation is not the same as someone who is born with masculine features but is a woman.

Again the principle is very simple – don’t mock people for what they can’t control – but if someone chooses to take steroids to cheat at sports – they are fair game.

Vernon Small at Stuff reports:

Sacked NZ First MP Brendan Horan is defending his use of a parliamentary phone to ring a TAB bet line, saying it was personal use that was allowed.

But his former leader Winston Peters says that is “humbug” and such use was outside the rules.

Records seen by The Dominion Post show Mr Horan used his taxpayer-funded parliamentary mobile phone to call a TAB phonebet number 12 times in the space of about four hours on Saturday afternoon, April 28.

In the records, which covered a less than one month period, he called the bet line on nine other occasions.

Mr Horan said he was entitled to call who he wanted but did not deny the calls to the TAB.

He has strongly denied having a gambling problem, and has also rejected allegations he took money from his dying mother.

He said he did not have his phone records so had no way of confirming it. “Look up the rules; people can use their phones for anything.

“There is fringe benefit and people can use their phones for a certain amount of private business. Whatever I use my phone for is my private business.”

But Mr Peters yesterday said that was “humbug”.

“That’s not private business is it? If you’re ringing up your husband or your wife or your children, that’s understood to be legit, that’s private business. How could that be?”

The issue of Horan using his mobile phone is a red herring. You don’t sack an MP from your party because of some calls to the TAB from his mobile. Horan is correct that there is no restriction on what numbers MPs can call from their phones. It is interesting that Peters is releasing what is normally private information on Horan to discredit him.

Meanwhile, respected New Plymouth horse trainer John Wheeler yesterday said Mr Horan would ring him maybe five or six times a year, often to check on weather conditions when he was planning to dive for crayfish, and would ask about how certain horses were going.

“He did not strike me as a guy with a [gambling] problem.”

He had never seen Mr Horan put a bet on and from their conversation had struck him as “a $5 each way kind of bloke”.

He had not seemed obsessed, though he knew his horses well.

“Either he had a good memory or he did a lot of study.”

He did not think ringing the betting line 12 times in one day was out of the ordinary.

Wheeler would himself place small bets and may call six times on one day.

For my 2c, I think 12 calls in four hours does indicate a potential gambling problem. But that is not even the issue. The issue is whether he took money from his mother’s bank account without permission to gamble with.

On 3 News last night Patrick Gower said Horan “doesn’t deny ringing the TAB or putting a few bets on with his mother“.

So I think what we have is that bank records will show Horan took money from his mother’s account and gambled it at the TAB. However his defence will be that they were bets either on behalf of his mother or joint bets with his mother.

I don’t see that there is an easy way to prove or disprove whether or not his mother authorised the bets, but here’s what Id be looking for.

• Did she have a history of gambling at the TAB herself?
• When there were winnings from a race, who got them – just Horan or did some go back to his mum?
• Do phone records show frequent calls between Horan and his mum, which might indicate they were discussing bets?

If Horan can show some history of his mum being an active gambler herself, then his defence may have credibility. However I would still make the point that if, as indicated, her wealth dropped by almost $100,000 over a couple of years – it is not exactly a good look to have enabled this.