In the video above you can see Phil Goff talking about ruling Hone out.

Left wing blogger Imperator Fish comments on Goff’s words:

I’m willing to cut the new leader of a political party a bit of slack. Even if they have been around the political scene for years.

But I can barely listen to or read a thing Phil Goff says without groaning. He really needs to be taken aside and given the hard word about gun safety. How can anyone shoot themselves in the foot so many times?

He specifically quotes Goff saying:

“I don’t believe you could form a stable government on a relationship with Hone Harawira.”

And comments:

But Goff’s happy to work with Winston Peters, despite Peters being at least as widely reviled as Harawira. The main difference between the two is that Harawira speaks from the heart. He may be unreliable and unstable, but you know where you stand with Hone.

Does anyone remember how Goff reacted when John Key ruled out working with Winston Peters? I recall accusations of hubris and arrogance. Goff in turn said that he was prepared to work with anyone.

To me this demonstrates a crisis in confidence within the leadership of Labour. There is no consistency in the messages they are sending to the electorate, because they are floundering and bereft of ideas. Nothing they do seems to impress the voters. So they keep trying new things. Goff’s “me too” approach to politicking just shows him to be weak and lacking a firm vision for the country. His comments about Liz Hurley, and suggestions that extrajudicial means should be used to deal with looters, all indicate Goff may be more reactionary than visionary. They also piss off a lot of people who should be falling over to vote Labour.

He concludes:

… if someone like me, who should be a natural Labour voter, is seriously wondering why he should bother voting for them, how many others are there in the same situation?

I don’t think Imperator Fish is alone in asking.

Simon Power has just announced a review and consultation on bail laws.

This is additional to the reversal of the change made by Labour in 2007 which made it easier for people to get bail. This was repealed straight after the election.

Some interesting stats:

• Under 2% of defendents are remanded in custody for the entire period between arrest and trial
• Around 9% of defendents spend some time in custory and some time on bail
• The proportion of defendants that offended on bail has increased from 15.7% in 2004 to 17.9% in 2008
• Over the five years 2004 – 2008, 64,659 defendents were convicted of commiting an offence while on bail
• Of those who offend while on bail, 34% got a community based sentence, 30% imprisonment and 21% a fine

The questions the Government is asking are:

1. What is your view on whether there should be a reverse burden of proof for defendants charged with serious class A drug offences (i.e. should they have to prove that they should be granted bail instead of the prosecution having to prove that they should not)?
2. What is your view on whether electronically monitored bail should continue to be an option for defendants charged with serious methamphetamine offences?
3. What is your view on whether the Courts should be able to release defendants charged with murder on bail
4. What is your view on whether there should be a reverse burden of proof for defendants charged with murder (i.e. should they have to prove that they should be granted bail instead of the prosecution having to prove that they should not)?
5. What is your view on whether new offences should be added to the list of specified offences that qualify for a reverse burden of proof (if the defendant has a previous conviction for one of those offences)? What criteria should be used to assess which offences to add to the list of specified offences?
6. What is your view on whether electronically monitored bail should continue to be an option for defendants charged with serious violent and sexual offences?
7. What is your view on whether the presumption in favour of bail for 17 to 19 year olds should apply to defendants who have previously served a prison sentence?
8. What is your view on whether breach of any condition of bail should be a ground for arresting a defendant under 17 years of age without a warrant?
9. Do you think that any further requirements or safeguards are needed to prevent bail being granted inappropriately in return for information? If so, do you agree with the Government’s proposal to insert a legislative provision into the Bail Act 2000 and are any other requirements or safeguards needed?
10. Are there any other non-legislative measures that could be used to reduce the number of defendants that fail to answer bail?
11. What is your view on whether the maximum penalty for failure to answer Court bail should be increased? If you think it should be increased, what should it be increased to?
12. What is your view on whether the maximum penalty for failure to answer Police bail should be increased? If you think it should be increased, what should it be increased to?
13. What is your view on whether monetary bonds and sureties should be reintroduced in the District Court?
14. What is your view on whether monetary bonds and sureties should be abolished for Police bail?
15. What is your view on whether the EM bail regime should be set out in legislation?
16. What is your view on whether breach of EM bail should be an offence in addition to being a ground for arrest and reconsideration of bail?
17. What is your view on whether time spent on EM bail should be taken into account in sentencing?
18. If time spent on EM bail is taken into account in sentencing, should there be some legislative guidance to assist the Courts in determining the appropriate discount (e.g. a set formula or guidelines specifying the types of factors relevant to deciding how time spent on EM bail should be taken into account)?

My general instincts are that the criteria for getting bail should not change much (remember not everyone charged is found guilty) but that the penalties for offending on bail should be increased.

It will be held on Thursday, March 17, at the Backbencher. Doors will open at 5pm and the debate will start about 7pm.

 Moot: Politics is a grubby business.

 The affirmative: Annette King, MP; Darren Hughes, MP; Simon Bridges, MP.

 The negative: Pinky Agnew, Guyon Espiner, David Townsend

 The chair is Duncan Garner.

Proceeds from ticket sales ($30) will go to the Red Cross (and are available from Brent in the RNZ office) for famiies of earthquake victims.

Afterwards there is an auction, with proceeds also going to the earthquake appeal.

TVNZ’s Guyon Espiner is putting up for auction, the original “no” sign used by Winston Peters. This could go for a fair bit of money – especially as Winston will probably have a secret trust bidding for it.

Whale and I would be keen to buy the sign at the auction. If we win it, we guarantee it will turn up to most of the public meetings that Winston attends during the campaign. E-mail me if you are willing to contribute towards buying it at the auction, and how much you are able to contribute. If we get it for less than the amount pledged, we’ll divide it up pro-rata. And remember it is all for a good cause – money for Christchurch relief.

As well as the  no sign, the gallery will be auctioning off various other items such as the PM’s pinot noir. So. should be a fun night.

UPDATE: The PM has said he’ll bid $5,000 for the sign. Help us outbid the PM as we’ll put it to better use.
So far we have over $1,000 pledged

UPDATE2: I’d say we mow have more than $2,000 pledged. Lots of $20, $50 and $100 pledges all add up quickly. Thanks for e-mails of pledges. We’ll only ask for the money if we actually win the auction.

Stuff reports:

State-owned Solid Energy, if successful with a bid, would probably look to develop the mine in a joint opencast/underground approach. It would need to get part of the surrounding land removed from schedule 4 protected conservation land for opencast mining. Access would be difficult and so would resource conditions.

If Solid Energy do buy Pike River, I hope the Government does make it possible for them to carry on mining there, in the safest way possible. If that means moving a couple of hectares out of Schedule 4, then so be it.

Rodney Hide at the weekend seemed to have ESP with his call:

ACT leader Rodney Hide is calling for open-cast mining at Pike River and on protected conservation land.

State-owned Solid Energy should be allowed to open-cast mine Pike River, to access an estimated $10 billion of resources, he said. “It seems to me it will require a great deal of care and sensitivity. But I can’t see how not continuing their [the miner’s] work respects them.” …

Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn backed Mr Hide’s call for open-cast mining at Pike River.

“Yeah, Rodney Hide is correct. We need to get on with it and we need to do it in a way that will safeguard the environment and at the same time get economic development.”

It looks like it might happen, which is good.

Kate Chapman at Stuff reports:

The families of Chinese students killed in the Christchurch earthquake will not get extra compensation, despite claims that they need it because of China’s one-child policy.

At least 24 Chinese nationals, mainly students studying in the CTV building, were believed to have been killed in last month’s quake, though only seven have been formally identified so far. Most were aged between 15 and 30.

Cheng Lei, co-ordinator of the Chinese embassy’s disaster relief centre, told Radio New Zealand that the one-child policy meant the victims’ families had lost their source of economic assistance for retirement. He called on the New Zealand Government to increase the ACC compensation available to them. …

Prime Minister John Key said the Government felt great sympathy for the families but would not change its policy.

It was never going to happen of course. Could you imagine the outcry if the Government approved higher payouts to foreigners, than to its own citizens. You’d be more popular selling steaks to vegans.

The request from the Chinese Embassy is I am sure made in good faith. Losing your only child must be a massive blow to a family, and they’ll never recover from it.

However even if one accepted that parents who have lost their only child should get more compensation than those with multiple children (and I don’t – children are not like tyres, where you just replaced the broken one with a spare), the question might arise about whether the compensation should come from the country where the earthquake happened – or from the Chinese Government which has implemented the one child policy.

It is worth noting that the Chinese Embassy were passing on requests from the families of the dead students, rather than making an official request.

A commenter who just received enough demerits to get him a suspension, has taken to e-mailing his displeasure to me. His four e-mails in the last hour have said:

1. Littlle fat shit i will return
2. david Farrars blog is a gay site
3. kiwi blog encourages CHINESE TAKEOVERS OF NZ BUSNESS
4. Your latest post was pathetic for a fat whimp like you,is that the best????? opps pure national arse licking, well arse licking

Very strange, my last post wasn’t even on politics, but on an upcoming film I want to see.

The scary thing is that he gets a vote.

Anyway if he keeps e-mailing me I’ll publish his name and e-mail address.  And I think his temporary ban is very close to becoming a life-time ban.

From io9:

1) It’s really wrong. In the best way — at least, if you like movies that go way too far and then just keep going, you’ll like this. It has insane ultra-violence, plus some pretty intense sex and general weirdness. James Gunn, the psychopath who brought us Slither, has managed to mash up religion, ultraviolence, fetishism, and a slew of social anxieties into one horribly disturbing package. There are some moments in this film that’ll stick in your mind for quite some time afterwards.

2) It’s scream-out-loud funny. Especially every time Nathan Fillion comes on screen as the Christian superhero, the Holy Avenger, you’ll fall out of your seat. There will be Holy Avenger T-shirts everywhere in a couple months, if not sooner. But also, Rainn Wilson is pretty freaking on top of his game as a well-meaning nutcase who really believes that whacking people in the head with a lug wrench will make the world a better place.

The movie is “Super”. I can’t wait.

The hopes of those calling for a “New Left” party entering Parliament via Hone Harawira took another tumble today, as ccording to Alex Tarrant from interest.co.nz, Phil Goff ruled out working with Hone Harawira.

Of course this position may change. A month ago Goff also ruled out working with Hone Harawira, but backed down a few days later. So this is I think his third position on working with Hone. I asked the rhetorical question in February whether Goff will manage as many positions on Hone (now up to three) as they did on foreshore & seabed (now up to five)

He still won’t rule Winston in or out though. That one should be simpler – you can at least trust Hone. Policy differences can be negotiated in good faith. Trust can not be. Winston lied blatantly to Helen Clark about the Owen Glenn donation, yet Labour are still clinging to Winston in the hope he will hold the balance of power and make Goff Prime Minister.

Paul Jenden has created a wonderfully camp entertaining experience with his Fairy Stories at Circa. Not only did he do the choreography and direction of it, he also did the costumes and just for good measure was one of the five cast members. I’m in awe of the range of his talents.

Fairy Stories runs for around two hours (with a break) and in between the opening and closing numbers, they cover ten classic fairy stories – Beauty and the Beast, The Tin Soldier, Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Conderella, Three Bill Goats Gruff, Tom Thumb, Bluebeard and Puss in Boots.

The cast is led by Sir Jon Trimmer, and as well as Paul Jenden, included Louis Solino, Kate O’Rourke and Jenny Beech.  They danced and sang up a storm. In a performance with basically no dialogue, it all comes down to how well the cast connect with the audience through visual, rather than verbal means.

Fairy Stories managed this very well. The cast’s facial gestures were only matched by the colourful array of costumes they went through.

This photo by Stephen A’Court captures the three little pigs at the end of their routine.

Don’t expect these fairy stories to work out quite the same way as the traditional stories. I certainly never recall Red Riding Hood and The Wolf dancing quite so erotically, and Tom Thumb got to go to certain places no midget should be.

My favourite twist was with the three billy goats. The troll which wouldn’t allow them to pass was a “Ms. Gruff” who was guarding wimmin’s only space. As the three billy goats all have rather large hanging testicles (no not real ones), they don’t have much sucess trying to sneak past Ms Gruff despite the ribbons they wrap around themselves. Finally the largest billy goat settles it in the traditional fashion.

Auckland Girl and I both loved the performance – it was lots of fun. You know you’re really enjoyed it when you’re disappointed that the performance is over. The only slight downside to the night was the laughter from one woman in the audience. Normally having the audience laugh is a very good thing, but this particular laugh resembled a 747 taking off.

Hayden Donnell in the NZ Herald reports:

State owned mining company Solid Energy has revealed it wants to buy the Pike River Coal mine, pay off its unsecured creditors and recover the bodies of 29 men still trapped inside. …

Solid Energy, which operates several West Coast mines including the nearby Spring Creek Coal Mine, today announced it was one of those looking to buy the rights to extract the $6 billion of coal still at Pike River through a mixture of opencast and underground mining.

Chief executive Don Elder said recovering the 29 bodies still inside the mine would be a priority in that proposal.

It was committed to addressing the “many challenges” of making the mine economically viable while respecting the wishes of the families of the dead, he said. …

“As a non-negotiable part of that, the wishes of the families have to be a priority in considering all options including potential recovery, if feasible, of the 29 miners’ bodies. The same applies to the unsecured creditors on the West Coast; any solution to invest in and work the mine needs to address that issue as a top priority.”

That’s possibly the best news the Coast has had, since the explosion.

Elder said the company’s plan would include opencasting parts of the mine.

Somehow I suspect the usual suspects won’t oppose this mine being opencasted.

Whale Oil blogged how media uncritically reported an NZEI media release as news, including this line:

3News has the head­line: NZEI begins inde­pen­dent assess­ment of National Stan­dards [empha­sis mine]

And the release says:

A teacher union is fund­ing inde­pen­dent research into the impact of the new National Stan­dards in schools. …

“Given the absence of a trial of National Stan­dards and the deep con­cerns the pro­fes­sion and school com­mu­ni­ties have, NZEI has decided to fund this research in a bid to get robust evi­dence about the impact of National Stan­dards on teach­ing and learn­ing,” he said.

The project is being run through the Wilf Mal­colm Insti­tute for Edu­ca­tional Research at the Uni­ver­sity of Waikato and is headed by Prof Mar­tin Thrupp.

Both Whale and I have been blessed with the psychic ability of Deb Webber and Ken Ring and we can predict that this research will conclude that national standards are a disaster and have a hugely detrimental impact on teaching and learning.

Well actually we can’t predict the future. Instead Whale just used Google:

Hmmm… I won­der if this is the same “inde­pen­dent Mar­tin Thrupp that has railed against national stan­dards in March 2010, and is it the same Mar­tin Thrupp who is very active on the national Stan­dards protest site, includ­ing this blog post about how to get trac­tion in the media against National Stan­dards and the same mar­tin Thrupp who sent an email of sup­port to the NZPF for their action against National Stan­dards?

I’m now awaiting the Government of Libya to announce they have appointed independent human rights expert Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi to lead independent research into whether the Government of Libya has breached any human rights.

The Telegraph reports:

Parents will get powers to rank local schools using a series of new-style measures under Government plans to stop schools massaging their results.

They will be able to sort primaries and secondaries based on results in any subject to find out which schools are best for sciences, languages, history, geography, music, drama or even PE.

Families can also find out which schools have the worst attendance records and the highest number of exclusions.

Currently, schools are principally ranked by the number of pupils gaining five good GCSEs in almost any subject.

But critics claim the measure is too crude and schools can inflate their positions by moving pupils onto “soft” subjects or prioritising vocational courses that are often worth the equivalent of five GCSEs.

A Coalition source said the move would boost transparency following attempts by Labour to hide the “shocking performance of some of our schools”.

This is what we should be getting in New Zealand. What I especially like is that having realised the existing league tables are crude, the response is to improve the league tables by providing more data.

I agree with critics of league tables that a league table that merely ranks school on the basis of the percentage of students who make a particular grade, doesn’t provide a fair comparison.

But the answer is not to ban the publication of educational data as the teacher unions want. It is to provide better data.

So rather than have a league table just of achievement, have a league table which compares schools in the same decile and which measures the average improvement in students from the time they enter – now that would be really useful.

Even better, do what they did in LA – rate teachers (I would remove names for privacy reasons but have them known to school boards) by their effectiveness at lifting student achievement. Because almost all the research tells us the quality of an individual teacher is what makes the biggest difference to learning.

John Armstrong at the NZ Herald reports:

The man behind the award-winning 42 Below Vodka advertising campaign says Labour leader Phil Goff should ignore the image-building suggestions of his advisers and be his
natural self.

Darryl Parsons, a guest speaker at Act’s weekend conference and a 13-year veteran of the advertising industry, said he was sure Mr Goff would be good company were he to meet him over a beer or dinner.

“He would do quite well if he was just Phil Goff and backed himself .. It doesn’t seem he’s been given the chance to be his own man. It seems he has a whole lot of people around him who tell him, ‘You have to be like this; you have to dye your hair; you have to ride this motorbike.”‘

Mr Parsons described two future aspirants for the Labour leadership, front benchers David Cunliffe and David Parker, as “boring as mud”, and said party president Andrew Little “had no personality”.

He singled out Labour backbencher David Shearer, who holds Helen Clark’s old seat of Mt Albert, as someone with “the John Key factor”.

“He seems comfortable talking to just about anyone. He seems a decent bloke.”

David Shearer is a decent bloke, and I think has a good future. If Labour loses the election, I think the next leader is David Cunliffe. However Matthew Hooton write in the NBR that David Parker’s stocks are rising. If Cunliffe is leader, then Parker is the likely Finance Spokesperson – but it could be the other way around.

iPredict has stocks on who will be Labour Leader on or before 1 July 2012. Cunliffe is at 42%, Street 1.9% and Mallard 1.0%. That leaves 55% with other – which could represent Goff still being Leader plus Parker plus Shearer’s odds.

The Dom Post reported:

A senior Labour Party office holder has accused the party hierarchy of treating Pacific party members merely as campaign workers and voting fodder.

The Labour Party’s Mana Tagata Pasefika chairman Shane Laulu says it is at risk of losing the traditional support of Pacific members if they are not given more prominence.

In a letter addressed to Labour Party official Paul Tolich and John Ryall, the Service and Food Workers Union national secretary, Mr Laulu said he was disappointed at the lack of “Pacific candidates and their overall ranking order”.

Mr Laulu said the Labour Party was in danger of losing the support of the Pacific community because of a fallacy “their vote is a given”.

“I believe Pacific party members have moved beyond being seen as only campaign workers and voting fodder.”

Mr Laulu, who has been a member of the Service and Food Workers Union for the past decade, wrote the letter after unions, including the EPMU, SFWU, dairy workers and meatworkers’ union, published their preferred rankings of Labour candidates.

The letter and list rankings were obtained by The Dominion Post.

The full list of rankings is meant to go online, but I don’t think it has, so I got a copy off the reporter. The unions wishlist is:

1. Andrew Little – EPMU
2. Michael Wood – FINSEC
3. Jerome Mika – EPMU
4. Deb Mahuta
5. Brenda Alexander
6. Mea’ole Keil – SWFU
7. Josie Pagani – Rangitikei
8. Jordan Carter
9. Christine Rose – Rodney
10. Kate Sutton
11. Sehai Orgad – Hamilton East
12. Nicola Vallance
13. Peter Foster

It will be interesting to see how closely this follows the final list. The unions have a pact that that they are all obliged to vote in the order they have agreed, as a bloc. This gives them considerable strength at the regional list rankings and the national list ranking.

One may wonder how many new MPs will Labour get? Last election they got 43, and generally they have polled below this level. But let’s assume they get 43 MPs again.

Retiring MPs are Pete Hodgson, George Hawkins, Mita Ririnui and Lynne Pillay. So assuming they protect their current MPs, they should get 4 new MPs. However three of these will be electorate MPs in Dunedin North, Manurewa and Wigram. So if Labour get 43 MPs again, they may have just new List MP.

This suggests to me they will need to rank Little above some of the caucus to guarantee him a place.

A pretty good effort by the PM, even with Warne playing nice. Three boundaries and one of them was only a metre off being a six. Had to laugh at his sledging Warne by yelling out “Liz says hi”.

Andre Hueber in the HoS reports:

Nick Smith is the Minister responsible for ACC – but some might say he’s just asking to come a cropper.

Smith and the Skeptics Society are planning a lunch in one of Christchurch’s highest, oldest, stone buildings – on the day that “moon man” Ken Ring says the city will be hit by another devastating earthquake. Ring’s prediction of another earthquake on March 20 – a week today – has caused alarm among some Cantabrians, who have said they will flee the city.

But the minister, who has a doctorate in geotechnical engineering, said he took a very dim view of people causing alarm with no scientific underpinning.

“I believe in free speech but just as people should not stand up in a picture theatre and scream fire, people should not be making phony predictions of major earthquakes.”

That’s a good practical way to try and calm down people who actually believe Ring.

The lunch will be held at noon on March 20 at the Sign of the Kiwi, on the top of the Port Hills – which Smith said was the closest building to the epicentre of the February 22 quake.

Skeptics spokeswoman Vicki Hyde said she wouldn’t be surprised if a shake happened during the lunch because Christchurch had been getting shakes almost every day – “but it wouldn’t have anything to do with what Ken Ring’s been saying”.

Again, a good initiative.

AP reports:

An explosion shattered a building housing a nuclear reactor yesterday, amid fears of a meltdown, while across wide swaths of northeastern Japan officials are searching for thousands of people missing more than a day after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The confirmed death toll from Friday’s twin disasters was 686, but the government’s chief spokesman said it could climb enormously

AFP is reporting that 9,500 people are unaccounted for in one town alone, Minamisoma. …

The scale of destruction was not yet known, but there were grim signs that the death toll could soar. One report said four whole trains had disappeared Friday and still not been located. Others said 9,500 people in one coastal town were unaccounted for and that at least 200 bodies had washed ashore elsewhere.

Who knows when it will end. I must say that over the last coupel of days I am glad NZ is nuclear free. I know the reacter hasn’t actually leaked, but still nuclear reactors on fire is a problem you can do without in a disaster.

Of course in some countries nuclear power is a necessity – they don’t have our access to hydropower and the like.

Despite the scale of the tragedy, Japan is well used to disasters like these. Was interesting to listen to a TVNZ report with Kiwi Cole Cameron in Japan. The majority of people are just carrying on with business.

It seems there is little loss of life from the earthquake itself despite being a massive 8.9. The tsunami is what has been so lethal.

Martin Kay in the Dom Post reports:

The chances of a broad-based Left-wing party rising from the ashes of Hone Harawira’s meltdown with the Maori Party have been dashed after he made it clear that any group he led would have to be Maori-focused.

Former Greens MP Sue Bradford – who has been closely associated with speculation that a new party was being planned – said the prospect of one being in place for this year’s election were now slim after Mr Harawira indicated he wanted a “more Left-wing Maori Party”.

Ms Bradford has said she would be interested in discussing a more generalist party that campaigned on a broad range of issues, but Mr Harawira’s comments suggested he was not interested.

I never thought Hone would want to lead a non Maori party. Maori nationalism is what he is all about.

There is a way they could try and do it – copy the Alliance structure. Have Hone as Leader of the “Mana” party and Sue as Leader of the “Left” party. The Mana Party could become a constituent part of the Left Party and that would mean if Hone retains his seat, then the Left Party would gain a List MP if they received around 30,000 party votes.

However that would mean that Hone’s party is subservient to the left party, and bound by the rules of the left party with regard to how they determine policies, list ranking, leadership.

The Dom Post reports:

The three-strikes legislation and stripping prisoners of the right to vote breach human rights and could result in New Zealand being hauled before international agencies, a watchdog says. …

The three-strikes law means a 25-year non-parole sentence for the worst criminals after their third serious offence.

No it doesn’t. It means the maximum sentence for the offence without parole. This may be as little as seven years.

What can one say. The video and the photos show Mother Nature as a force beyond our ability to withstand. Planes and cars get scattered and end up kms inland.

The death toll is provisionally around 1,000 but I think anyone who has watched that video coverage would share my fears it will be far more than that.

I read on Wikipedia that Japan has requested USAR teams from Australia, NZ, South Korea and the US. Sort of glad that we can do something to assist, after we got assistance in turn.