The Herald editorial:

Busy people in high positions often pay lip service to the principle that their family comes first. John Key has demonstrated that he means it.

His decision to miss the funerals of the two soldiers killed in Afghanistan last Saturday so that he can be in the United States for a sporting event involving his son would have been a difficult one.

A Prime Minister who sends men into danger has an obligation to honour their service and represent the nation’s sympathy to their families when the worst happens. This will be the first time Mr Key has not attended the funeral of a soldier killed on active duty since he took office.

He has spoken to the families of Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone and it is to be hoped that in grieving for their sons they are able to understand the importance to him of his.

An under-17 baseball world series in the United States might not sound more important but Max Key is a member of the first team from New Zealand to qualify for it and his father knows what it means to him.

Only a Prime Minister’s family know how much his responsibilities intrude on their life, interrupting times together and disrupting plans they have made.

This time Mr Key knows where he should be. He was a father before he was a Prime Minister and he will be a father afterwards. It is important that he is a father now.

The Herald also has an article on the issue:

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei said she could understand the PM’s decision.”I think John Key has made the best decision he can for his family and children and I don’t underestimate the difficulties he had in making that particular decision.”

Political commentator Bryce Edwards called the decision “gutsy”, saying Mr Key had “followed his heart rather than his head”, but believed it could be slightly damaging for him.

“I found it refreshing in a sense that he didn’t feel straitjacketed by the need to go along with what’s expected of being the Prime Minister.”

Also kudos to Turei for her honesty.

Commentator Chris Trotter, who suspected the country was divided on the issue, said Mr Key was a “natural kind of a guy” and would have made a straightforward decision to go ahead with his plans. “I don’t think he’ll lose a hell of a lot of sleep over it.”

Political blogger Paul Buchanan was more scathing, slamming the decision as “a disgrace of the first order. This is a spit in the face of the [NZ Defence Force]. It is a dishonour to the fallen soldiers,” he wrote on his Kiwipolitico blog site.

New Zealanders reacting on social media sites and chat forums had mixed views, some decrying the call as “disgusting” and “despicable”.

Others backed Mr Key. One wrote on the TVNZ website: “Great to see we have a Prime Minister that is father first and foremost. That is his most important job in life and he obviously takes it seriously.”

I suspect reaction to the decision tends to be linked to whether people liked or disliked Key before this issue. However as Metiria Turei showed, that doesn’t apply to everyone.  I know that if a Labour PM had a similar choice, I would not bag them for doing the same.

The Dom Post editorial:

Labour leader David Shearer tells a good story. Unfortunately, the punchline is missing.

If he can deliver it, voters might start listening to Labour again, but till he does the story serves only to illustrate the paucity of critical thinking within his party.

The story goes like this: during the 2008 election campaign Mr Shearer knocked on a door in his Mt Albert electorate. “See that guy over there,” said the man who came to the door, gesturing to a neighbour’s house. “He’s on a sickness benefit, yet he’s up there painting the roof of his house … Do you guys support him?”

Mr Shearer recounted the encounter at a Grey Power meeting in Auckland this week. The answer to his constituent’s question, he told his audience, was no, Labour was not in favour of people receiving the sickness benefit when they were fit for work. Fairness was a core feature of the social contract. People who needed assistance should get it, but once they were back on their own feet they should pull their weight and contribute to society.

Regrettably, that was the beginning and end of the lesson.

Mr Shearer said the government’s role was to ensure the transition from welfare to work occurred through upskilling, educating and giving a “nudge” to those not honouring their side of the bargain. But he did not say how he proposed to persuade the sickness beneficiary to descend from his roof and seek paid employment.

Given that the last Labour government had nine years to upskill, educate and nudge, the public could be forgiven for assuming that under Mr Shearer Labour has nothing new to offer.

That is the real issue. I’ve got no problems with the story as an example of what shouldn’t be tolerated, and think the Labour activists condemning it are being rather precious.

The real issue is that Shearer said he was against this happening, but his party has opposed policies to prevent it – and offers nothing new.

Stuff reports:

Many councils are resisting Government pressure to introduce water meters because they know voters don’t like the idea, a new study says.

Wellington and Lower Hutt city councils were identified as the worst for considering alternative funding tools for providing drinking water to their residents.

Local Government New Zealand says it “definitely does not support the call for universal water meters”, and Napier City Council regards proposed reforms as a move to take control of water away from elected representatives.

I am a big fan of water meters. Partly because it is user pays, which is fair. Why should the grandmother who uses very little water pay the same as the family of four with swimming pool for their water?

But they are also environmentally sound, as they promote water conservation. A win-win.

Some may have seen this already, but the NZ broadband test by REANNZ is a bit more sophisticated than other tests – it asks you what plan you are on so it can compare ISPs and plans.

I’ve got 1 Mb/s up and 9.2 Mb/s down which isn’t too bad.

Room 15 at Tawa Intermediate did a submission to the Education & Science Select Committee for their Inquiry into 21st century learning environments and digital literacy.

Four of the students now have to appear to give their oral submission, and as this is obviously not something they have experience in doing, they got some expert advice:

Yesterday the student submitters had a very exciting visit from a lobbyist called Mark Unsworth. He came to help us with our verbal submission to the education and science select committee.

Mark’s firm works with a lot of big businesses like Air NZ, Coca Cola and Telecom. Usually clients would have to pay but Mark was very kind and gave us some advice for free. Mark told us about what it is like to go in front of the committee of MPs and helped us with our speeches. He also asked some questions that the MPs might ask, so we were ready for anything they might throw at us. 

Mark was very helpful and we are very thankful for his help and the free pens.

I helped out their teacher in contact with Mark. I just love the fact that the inquiry actually has students submitting to it, as well as teachers, other education professionals and many from the ICT sector. But really great to see students wanting to prepare for their submission, so they can be as effective as possible. If I was at intermediate school, I’d be a bit freaked about appearing before a group of MPs. But it is so vital those setting policy do hear from students, as well as adults. I think we forget how perceptive students can be. I recall at school that we all knew who were the good and the bad teachers – what methods worked to inspire us, and which turned us to sleep.

The Herald editorial:

According to Waikato University education professor Martin Thrupp, schools will use tricks to portray themselves in the best possible light in National Standards results that will be published next month. He is probably right. The opportunity for varnishing has been apparent since the Government decided late in the piece to allow schools to set their own goals and measure their pupils against them. That was a major mistake which has resulted in information from primary and intermediate schools that the Education Minister describes as “variable” and the Prime Minister as “ropey”. It is not, however, as Professor Thrupp believes, a reason to withhold the data.

Most parents want their children in schools where they have the best chance of achieving well. Whatever its flaws, the information to be provided on the Government’s Education Counts website will be keenly read and of some use. The site will not rank schools in league-table fashion, but will show achievement data in regions and how individual schools are performing against National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics in each region and nationally.

I’ve said this before – the answer to poor data, is better data – not some sort of totalitarian supression of public information.

Almost all data has flaws. GDP data is often revised in later quarters. Does that mean we should ban GDP data?

GDP is measured slightly differently by other countries. Should league tables of GDP growth be banned?

Opinion polls can have different methodologies. Should all polls be banned?

Unemployment data is based on a survey of 30,000 households and has a some quality issues with it. Let’s ban releasing unemployment data shall we?

NCEA results are not consistent data, due to internal assessment. Some say NCEA data should also be supressed by the state.

I’ve highlighted how some universities rort their PBRF data. But the answer to that was improving the PBRF data, not banning publication of the information.

Let us not treat parents as moronic simpletons who can not be trusted to make decisions about their children’s education. Parents, like all of us, will take the national standards data as one of many inputs into their decision.

Vernon Small at Stuff reports:

Prime Minister John Key will miss the commemorative service for the two soldiers killed in Afghanistan, opting to go ahead instead with a trip to the United States to support his son at a baseball tournament.

Mr Key said yesterday it was a hard call. “I have got to let somebody down. But my son makes huge sacrifices for me and my job and in the final analysis I thought it was the right thing to do.”

Mr Key visited the families of Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone, who were killed in a clash with insurgents in Bamiyan province on Saturday, to explain why he would not be at the service.

His son, Max, is a member of the New Zealand under-17 baseball team. It is the first time a Kiwi team has been represented at the Senior League World Series, held in Bangor, Maine.

Bill English, as acting prime minister, would represent the Government at the service at Burnham Military Camp, near Christchurch, starting at 1pm tomorrow.

Labour leader David Shearer said he would attend, but declined to comment on Mr Key’s choice. “It’s a decision for the prime minister.”

Many opposition leaders would have used this tragedy, to take a cheap swipe. I think it speaks well of Shearer’s basic decency that he has not.

The PM had a scheduling clash he has no control over. Being there for your teenage son while he represents New Zealand in an international tournament is at the heart of what being a parent is about.

By meeting the families of the dead soldiers, Key had paid his respects in a more direct and personal way than attendance at the funeral. And there are other ministers who can attend – but being a father is not something you can delegate.

I blogged earlier this week on David Shearer using the example of a guy on a sickness benefit painting his roof, and how it wasn’t fair, and how Shearer won’t tolerate people who don’t pull their weight. I commented:

Almost sounds like a speech from a National MP. How often do Labour MPs talk about welfare fraud?

A few of the left blogs have complained about it, saying how does Shearer  know that the sickness beneficiary didn’t have a mental health problem. I think they missed this part:

Last year before the election, I was chatting to a guy in my electorate who had just got home from work. In the middle of the conversation, he stopped and pointed across the road to his neighbour.

He said: “see that guy over there, he’s on a sickness benefit, yet he’s up there painting the roof of his house. That’s not bloody fair. Do you guys support him?”

I think we can assume that the neighbour knew enough about the situation to know he was being a bludger. He wouldn’t know the guy was on a sickness benefit, unless he had been told by the beneficiary – and presumably why he was on it.  So I think people are unfairly attacking Shearer for making a valid point.

But one comment was notable, based on who it was from on Shearer’s Facebook page:

Joan Caulfield Unhappy you chose to take a cheap shot at a sickness beneficiary. 

Do you know what his illness is? Maybe he has a mental illness and cannot hold down a job. Passing the test set by Work and Income is very difficult and requires a medical certificate. Sickness beneficiaries I know live in poverty and need support from families to survive. 

I expect a comment like that to come from the Nats.

Joan Caulfield is the former electorate agent for Mt Albert, when Helen Clark was the MP. To have a staff for the former leader and MP severely criticise the current leader and current MP for Mt Albert is a very rare thing.

My Herald column yesterday:

Today is John Key’s birthday, and as he turns 51 he’ll be reflecting that this has been a good week politically for the Government – something of a rarity this year.

I conclude:

However as Aristotle said in 325BC in his Nicomachean Ethics, “one swallow does not make a summer”. One good week for the Government, is at best a building block. Their challenge is to turn a good week into a good month, and even a good quarter. That is the challenge for their political management.

Two pics today because they really belong as a paired set.  They’re of the NZ scaup or papango, one of our smallest duck species and a very adept diver.  The male is darker, and both sexes have a distinct yellow eye.

As always, clicking the image will bring up the larger, higher resolution pic.

Stuff ran a poll on who would be the best leader for Labour. Hilariously, “Someone else” beat the six listed candidates. Not at all scientific, but interesting that Cunliffe is at twice Shearer.

An Olympic Post Mortem. What went right — what went wrong in London.
1. Sports Minister Murray McCully (Who has just returned from London)
2. Panel with Dick Quax (Silver Medal, 5000 m, Montreal); Moss Burmester (Fourth, 200m Butterfly, Beijing) and Phil Gifford (Sunday Star Times sports columnist, Radio Sports host, currently writing biography of Valerie Adams)
3. University debating — highlights from the NZ Initiative Social Issues debate series between Universities of Auckland and Otago: “That Chinese Investment in New Zealand Farms should be banned”.
4. Professor Zhu Feng, the Victoria University of Wellington’s Strategic Studies Centre Kippenberger fellow from the University of Peking in Beijing and one of the world’s leading authorities on Chinese foreign policy and his country’s relationship with the USA on the overall direction of Chinese policy in our part of the world.

Broadcast on Saturday 9.30 am, repeated on Sunday 8 am on TV 3

Whale blogged:

Firstly kudos to Damien for raising a daughter who does indeed think for herself, and even better is willing to disagree with her dad in public.

Bridgette’s comments just reinforce for me, that this is just not an issue for hardly anyone under 35, and in fact many younger kiwis just can’t understand how some people are opposed.

Shane Cowlishaw at Dom Post reports:

The air force’s fleet of Skyhawks have been collecting dust since they were grounded more than 10 years ago.

It was announced in November that United States company JDI Holdings had signed a bargain deal worth $7.9 million for the eight remaining aircraft that have not already been given to museums.

But the deal, including spare parts and engines, relied on approval from the US State Department. A previous deal with US aviation training provider Tactical Air Services fell through late in 2010 because of a delay in similar approval.

Draken International, an operating arm of JDI Holdings, confirmed it had received approval to buy not only the Skyhawks but also nine of New Zealand’s Aermacchi jet training aircraft.

$8 million is better than nothing. But what have they cost to store?

Figures provided under the Official Information Act show the air combat force has cost the New Zealand Defence Force $37.4m to maintain and operate since it was disbanded in 2001.

Money down the drain.

I’m still quite angry over the killing off of the combat wing – mainly because there was no election mandate for it, and it is one of those changes when once made, is almost impossible to reverse.

Guyon Espiner has done a profile on Jacinda Ardern for The Listener. I was one of those he interviewed for it:

Presumably Ardern will do that, too, if she wants to go all the way to the top. Blogger David Farrar believes that is possible. Yes, he’s a National supporter and National’s pollster, but he would “far rather have her leading the country than a lot of the others!” He has some words of caution, though. He believes her first-term record did not justify a No 4 placing – equivalent to Steven Joyce’s on the National benches. Farrar says if Ardern doesn’t get pushed too far too fast, she could be deputy prime minister or even prime minister one day. He chuckles at her leading the International Union of Socialist Youth because it’s so far removed from his politics. But he certainly doesn’t belittle the job. “You don’t get elected to a position like that if you are stupid – that is a seriously testing role with a lot of people involved.” Farrar says that given most of her experience has been in the state sector, she needs to broaden her horizons, be more pragmatic and learn that not all good ideas come from your own side. “If you don’t have it before you are an MP, you have to recognise your weaknesses and work hard to address that.”

All views and advice I stand by.

Ardern’s CV reads as if she has spent a lot of time thinking about a political career, although she insists she hasn’t. She worked for Helen Clark and cites the former prime minister as a major inspiration. Their early lives do share similarities. Like Clark, Ardern grew up in a small town with conservative parents. 

Ardern is like Clark in many respects.

Ardern rates Labour’s chances of regaining power in 2014 as 10 out of 10. “Look at the coalition possibilities for Labour – if we had an election tomorrow a Green-Labour coalition is a very strong prospect. 

I think this is unwise. Trevor Mallard has also said he expects Labour to win in 2014, 2017 and 2020. Claiming you are a dead cert to win can come over as arrogance.

There is every sign Ardern will one day do that. She has an honesty, a humanity and an engaging manner absent in most politicians. There is a freshness to her speech. Even when she’s grinding through the policy options on serious subjects like welfare reform or child poverty, the hint of a smile is there. This doesn’t undermine her credibility, but it lightens and lifts her above the hectoring bores who chew up time on digital recorders. It is late afternoon now. The cafe is preparing for the evening crowd and the quiet spot in the corner is under threat. It’s time to go.

Final question: how would she like to be remembered when her political career is over? “Can I say two things?” she says, not waiting for an answer. There’s a long list of policy goals. “I won’t bore you with all of them but broadly they are around wellbeing of kids and families. But ultimately I think I would just like to be remembered as someone who has integrity.” Wherever the journey takes her, it seems certain she will achieve that.

Time will tell. If Grant becomes leader, most people assume she will become the deputy to her former PM’s Office colleague. Clark staffers would be Leader, Deputy and Chief Whip!

I heard on the radio the Beast of Blenheim is appealing against his supervision terms. Here’s what he wanted and what he got, from Stuff:

 The man known as the Beast of Blenheim wanted to travel around New Zealand in a campervan after being freed from prison on September 1.

Can you imagine anything less appropriate. I hope “Over our dead body” is an allowable response from Corrections.

However, the board has imposed 17 special conditions on his release, including one that will make him the first child sex offender to be tracked by a global positioning system (GPS) on parole.

He will be forced to live in a $70,000 relocated state house on Whanganui Prison property, which is yet to be moved. Resource consent for the two-bedroom house is expected to be ready in time for his release.

Whanganui was chosen because it is one of only a few towns in New Zealand where Wilson would not be close to any of his victims.

You do have to feel sorry for the locals. It is like the reverse of winning Lotto. At least he is very recognisable, so kids and women can be warned about him. Hopefully any farm animals will kick him in the nads if he tries anything with them.

“We think the decision to locate him here on prison grounds almost 10km from the perimeter of the nearest population base, it just kind of made sense.”

Best of a bad situation. I suspect he will break his conditions early on, and at least he’ll be close to the prison where he may hopefully then spend the rest of his days in.

I’ve just heard that Graham Watson died in a car crash near Pokeno, and am stunned like many who knew Graham and regarded him as a friend.

Picture from Blair Mullholland’s blog.

I first met Graham at an NZUSA council in the late 1980s. Graham (then known as Wally). He was the charismastic roguish President of the Auckland University Students’ Association, AUSA. Graham got elected President an unprecedented four times, serving three terms. Even after his terms of office, he continued to be a major force in Auckland student politics. At various time he was a life member and/or also banned from AUSA premises. His ability to get a crowd to an SRC meeting and vote with him was loved and feared in equal measure.

Graham was also the major reasons AUSA went voluntary in the late 1990s, when referenda were held. He campaigned tirelessly speaking in lecture theatre after lecture theatre. NZUSA flew up staff to counter him, and AUSA  spent masses urging a vote to stay compulsory. But Graham and Richie Watson (no relation), a few activist and around a $500 budget won. The margin was barely in double figures. I recall speaking to Graham that night as we both got very very drunk, celebrating a histroic achievement. The result at AUSA made it easier to pass the VSM bill years later.

Graham was a bit of a rogue, in a good way. His presidency had the odd scandal. When he was campaigning for VSM he would actually cite scandals that occurred on his watch, as reasons for VSM. Only Graham would have the chutzpah to do it.

Graham stayed with me in Wellington a couple of times, and later on become the ACT Party Manager, where I dealt with him professionally a fair bit. Many in ACT will know him, and mourn his far too early death.

Graham was an very capable and charismatic individual, who was lots of fun, and made a difference. I mourn his passing, and my thoughts are with his family.

David Shearer started off his heartland tour of the provinces with this speech:

Another example is the priority that Government gives to roads.

Over the next ten years it’s planning to spend over $12 billion on building new motorways.

The money for those new motorways comes from the same budget as all other new roads and upgrades are paid for. There isn’t some magical new pot of gold at the bottom of the garden that pays for motorways.

Almost no regional roads will be built or upgraded in the next ten years because the money is going into new motorways like the one from Puhoi to Wellsford.

It’s a nice to have, but when you spend on new regional roads, you get back more economic benefit than the cost of building them.

I can’t think of a worse example for David Shearer to use, in trying to make his case that National is spending too much in the cities at the expense of the provinces.

1. The Puhoi to Wellsford road is in the provinces, and its main rationale is to support economic development in Northland. I can’t wait for him to head up north and condemn the road improvement as being anti-provinces. They’re keen as hell for it up in Northland.
2. Labour proposes taking the money from a road to improve links to Northland and spend it on the Auckland CBD rail loop. That seems to me a great case of taking money from the provinces to spend in the cities.
3. In the Mt Albert by-election David Shearer demanded the Goverment spend an extra $1 billion on changing the Waterview motorway, to help him win the seat. That would be $1 billion less for all other roading projects in NZ, if the Government had done what Shearer called for.

So really complaining about the spend on regional roads, when you want to spend around $3b more in Auckland on transport is ludicrous. Does no one in Labour bother to even think about whether what they say is defensible?

Olivia Carville at The Press reports:

Two Christchurch construction companies are hiring beneficiaries for the city’s rebuild.

Fletcher Building and Hawkins Construction have embedded Work and Income staff members to help recruit unemployed youth for jobs in the rebuild.

The two companies have assisted 86 unemployed Cantabrians into work.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett visited a Hawkins Construction site today and met four workers who had been employed through the Work and Income scheme and a Maori trade training scheme.

One of the workers, apprentice Jesse Neville, 19, said he had been trying to secure a job for four years.

He had been on a benefit for 12 months before Work and Income gave him the chance to get an apprenticeship with Hawkins Construction.

Although life was “easier being on the dole, it’s less boring working”, he said.

When he was on a benefit he would usually wake up at noon and play Xbox for the afternoon, but now he was “way more motivated”.

Neville had applied for about 30 jobs to no avail and said that if the apprenticeship opportunity had not been offered to him, he would still be on the benefit.

That’s a very cool story. We need more of those.

Another worker had been employed at Hawkins Construction through He Toki ki te Rika, a collaborative Maori trade training scheme with Ngai Tahu, the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology and Hawkins.

Patrick Kohu, 51, decided he needed to “make a change” in his life after he was released from prison, and he had chosen to get involved with the programme.

“It offers a sense of belonging and purpose, I suppose. It’s about rebuilding my past,” he said.

And that is even better.

I will point out the 90 day probation period makes it less of a risk for employers to take on staff with a chequered background.

David Fisher reports:

Health officials worried about an obesity epidemic want fast-food advertising dropped from public property, including bus shelters, and are questioning fast-food and soft-drink sponsorship of public events.

They have also raised concerns over the lack of political power to stop fast-food restaurants being built near schools and in poor areas.

The moves by the Auckland Regional Public Health Service are a return to the healthy-eating principles which drove the national ban on pies in school tuck shops.

I’m sorry but fuck off and leave us alone. Jesus Christ I am sick of these people trying to control our lives, and what we can see or do.

No food is entirely bad, it is all about moderation.  It sounds like they want to ban chinese takeaways in some areas. Will sushi bars be allowed though? FFS.

I know the Auckland Regional Public Health Service is not under the direct control of the Minister of Health, but could he please cut their funding or something.

Auckland health board clinical director Robyn Toomath said the over-turning of the tuck shop rules marked the beginning of a struggle to change behaviour through Parliament.

“I’ve spent a lot of time trying to persuade central government to take responsibility for these things. At the moment, that’s not happening. So either we give up and say nothing can be done, or do you say, ‘Hang on, is there another level where we can influence the environment?’, and that’s the tier we’re talking about now.”

The translation is “Oh never mind the people voted for a different Government that doesn’t believe in banning pies from tuckshops, we’ll just carry on regardless and use our taxpaayer funded jobs to ignore the Government”.

“Obesity is a genetically, biologic-ally based state. If you inherit genes that make you a food seeker, and you put that person in an environment where food is being promoted and it’s 24/7 and it’s cheap and palatable, that person will respond to that stimulus.”

God forbid, free choice be recognised as a factor. Why doesn’t Dr Toomath just call for all food outlets to be closed down and replaced by government cafetarias that will serve appropriate meals only?

Dr Toomath: “I don’t have a bone to pick with the fast-food industry. They’re a business, they have shareholders … and they’re clever at what they do. The people I do have a bone to pick with are the regulators who’ve just taken their hand off and said ‘Go for it, do what you like’.”

The bone I have is with taxpayer funded lobbyists.

The Herald editorial said:

Pointedly, however, Bainimarama has also taken steps to ensure his vision of a democracy featuring equal suffrage for all of Fiji’s racial groups will hold sway.

This year, he disbanded the Great Council of Chiefs, a leadership tradition that dates back more than 130 years. This was to prevent the council being written into the new constitution. Last week’s imprisoning of Laisenia Qarase, the country’s last democratically elected Prime Minister, on nine charges of corruption was also a conveniently-timed damning of the pre-regime government.

Bainimarama has further decreed that the term Fijian applies to all 837,000 people in the archipelago, including the 37 per cent who are Indian.

“We must now look to our commonalities as citizens of the same nation, not to what separates us as individuals or groups,” he has said.

This admirable sentiment, in a country where extra voting power has historically been allotted to ethnic Fijians, does not mean, however, that the draconian nature of Bainimarama’s regime can be overlooked. Or that emergency powers of the sort that effectively suppressed any sign of dissent, can be excused.

There has, , however, been obvious progress in the lifting of some of these powers, public consultation on the new constitution, and preparations for electronic voter registration – enough to encourage the restoring of diplomatic relations and the more flexible, case-by-case implementation of travel sanctions on members of the interim Government and the military regime.

The signs are encouraging, and I am cautiously optimistic. The intention of a non-racial constitution and electoral system I applaud. However I struggle to see a full restoration of democracy, as can Bainimarama risk someone else taking power – who could hold him accountable for his illegal actions?

Time will tell.