Details from tweets (and now the release) are:

• Grant Robertson picks up Health and moves to front bench
• Darren Hughes gets education
• Trevor Mallard Shadow Leader of the House and Associate Finance
• Shane Jones moves to No 13, but only has Associate Maori Affairs, plus  Transport, Infrastructure & Fisheries
• Dyson stays No 5, gets conservation, state services and immigration
• Parker moves to No 4
• Chauvel & Moronery move up rankings
• Sio gets Pacific Island Affairs
• Twyford gets Local Government
• Ardern gets Employment
• Shearer, Nash, Fenton, Hipkins, Davis and Burns get rankings

The Robertson move is the best part of the reshuffle. Tony Ryall will have a more challenging time with Grant against him. Health is traditionally a strong area for Labour, and the fact they have performed so dismally in this area has to change, for them to be competitive. It also marks the high regard Robertson is held in, to get it in just two years. He is a future Labour Prime Minister in my opinion.

Darren replacing Trevor in Education is also a good move. Trevor has all the union and teacher links, but his public persona is bad, and seen as part of the past. Darren will bring a more friendly image, and being young in this portfolio is not a bad thing.

Jones has a chance to redeem himself. He is very talented but notoriously lazy also – if he wants to be Leader, he now has to put in the hard work in his portfolios.

Mallard has basically been the de facto Shadow Leader anyway, so no real change there.

With Ruth Dyson, I can’t do better the copy Danyl Mc”s tweet: “Not enough liquid nitrogen in Thorndon to remove Dyson from front bench”

Goff has made a mistake in keeping Dyson on. While what he has done is generally good, it doesn’t go far enough. The front bench is still comprised of all Clark era Ministers with the sole exception being Grant – who instead was in the PMs Office. But the reality is Goff’s leadership is not strong enough that he could denote Dyson.

Parker going up to No 4 reflects performance. And if Labour loses the next election, I would expect Parker to move to No 2 or 3 and be Finance Spokesperson., with Cunliffe as Leader.

Annoyingly Labour have not put out a full list of portfolios and rankings, so can’t comment in detail on the other moves.

Overall Goff gets positive marks for the reshuffle – the new lineup will put more pressure on National. But I don’t think it will be a circuit breaker in its attempts to reconnect with the public.

After falling last quarter, unemployment has risen again to 6.8%. This reinforces how the economy will be the biggest issue in election year, and the Government will not want to go into the election with unemployment this high.

John Anthony from the Taranaki Daily News reports:

Outspoken local body politician Sherril George is facing an investigation and calls to resign following her campaign urging people to boycott a Waitara food outlet.

Ms George stood outside the shop in the town’s main street yesterday next to a sign urging people to “support businesses that support your community”.

She handed out leaflets to shoppers berating the Cambodian-owned firm for, among other things, not being local, not employing locals, not investing in the local economy and for providing cheap and low quality products.

Unbelievable – a Councillor picketing a rate paying business, trying to close it down. Their sin, as far as I can tell, is they were born in Cambodia.

Ms George said the protest had nothing to do with her own food outlet in Waitara losing customers.

Oh my God, even worse.

“This is nothing to do with my shop. This is to do with the health of our town and the economy. I’m trying to make other small communities aware of what happens when these people move in. There are 14 food stores here in Waitara and one comes in here and kills it for everyone else.”

She referred to them as “these people”. Nah, she’s not racist.

Town and Country Food’s owner Hoyt Khuon said Ms George’s behaviour yesterday was very unusual. “I’ve never seen anybody behave like this before.”

If Ms George wanted to attract more customers she should improve her product, he said.

He sounds Kiwi to me. Good advice.

His business contributed significantly to the community, he said. He used Waitara builders, plumbers and electricians when he set up. Most products purchased for the shop were done so through Waitara businesses.

Mr Khuon considered himself a local already and would be happy to support future community projects, he said. He and his wife rented a home in Waitara.

“If I’m going to live here I’m going to be a local too. Everywhere I walk around here I feel safe and people say `Nice food’.” …

The business employed five people including himself and he would look to employ more Waitara residents in the future, he said.

Great.

Naki Butcher & Fruit Bowl owner Laine Cummings said his business had improved since Town and Country Food opened.

“I fully support it. I reckon they’ve done Waitara well. There’s a lot more foot traffic and a lot more people on the street,” he said.

Waitara businessman Jeff Davidson, who bought his morning tea from Town and Country Food yesterday, said he totally disagreed with Ms George’s behaviour.

The new business had brought positive changes to Waitara, he said.

“I’ve never seen the main street so full.”

Waitara resident Marcus Russ said Town and Country Food was a great addition to the town and claimed Ms George’s actions were more racist than anything else.

Another customer, Nadene Brown, said she ate there nearly every second day.

“This place gives you everything, it’s just a shame everyone is up in arms about it.”

Nice to see locals being fair minded.

The Waitara Hot Bread Shop owner, who did not want to be named, said sales had dropped about 50 per cent since Town and Country opened next door.

“It’s not fair for me having them right next door.”

Town and Country Food had stolen most of its customers, he said.

No they are not your customers to steal. It may seem unfair, but competition can”t be banned to protect current businesses.

There’s been interesting speculation on why Winston was ruled out. Some think it is tactical (to try and paint him and Goff together). Some say it is because of policy differences. Both may be minor factors, but miss the big reason.

He was ruled out because you simply can not trust him at all.

Peters lied not once but dozens and dozens of times over his knowledge of the Owen Glenn donation. He lied to the media, he lied to the public, he even lied to the then Prime Minister’s face. Helen Clark told Winston that Owen Glenn told her he had donated $100,000 and Peters lied to her face and said he knew nothing about it. And the phone records show that was clearly a lie.

Clark was prepared to tolerate a Minister who lies to her face, in her quest to retain power. Key is not – simple as that.

This is not about policies. Arguably NZ First has more policies in common with National than the Greens and maybe the Maori Party.

John Key does not rule out the Greens. In fact he has a co-operation (but not confidence) agreement with them. If there was a desire to do so, I think he would even consider a deal where you have the Greens take up a couple of portfolios in exchange for perhaps abstaining on confidence and supply. That would depend on being able to agree on enough policies in common.

The nature of MMP means that no political party is likely to govern alone, and the system demands that parties compromise on policies in order to form a Government. But it does not mean that parties should compromise on integrity.

At the end of the day one could trust Metiria Turei and Russel Norman in a Government to not lie to the Prime Minister. Likewise with the Maori Party.

John Key ruled Winston out in 2008 because Winston lied about the Owen Glenn donation, and could not be trusted. Winston has never apologised for his actions, and to this day still insists he did not lie – that somehow it was a coincidence that Owen Glenn phone up Winston’s lawyers with a $100,000 donation five seconds after speaking to Winston.

Unless Winston did some sort of mea culpa and apologised for what he did, then of course John Key was going to have to rule him out again. Because otherwise people would ask, what has changed? And the reality is, nothing has.

Media have now also asked Phil Goff who is on his list of five hottest women, and of course John Key’s list has gone global.

But why has no reporter asked Shane Jones for his five hottest women? 🙂

Mike Watson at the Dom Post reports:

Mears, 26, of Hamilton, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years’ jail yesterday after admitting a charge of manslaughter in December. It is the first time someone has been convicted of manslaughter for a hunting homicide in New Zealand.

Miss Ives mother, Margaret McFarlane, told the court she “wanted to die herself” when she was rung to be told her daughter, a Montessori teacher, had been killed.

“I have no understanding of how a grown man could make so many illegal, selfish, ill-considered and deliberate decisions that ultimately led to him shooting my daughter at close range.

“This was not an accident and it did not happen by chance. There will never be any forgiveness from me for Mears.”

It is correct that this was not some stroke of bad luck, or accident.

Mears has impressed me by his contrition and willingness to front up and talk about how stupid he was, and how awful he feels about what he did (I 95% accept it as genuine – 5% of me remains stubbornly cynical and wonders if his lawyer just told him he should do that).

He does seem shattered by what he did, and I doubt he will ever offend again.

But not sending him to jail was never an option in my opinion, and the sentence is about right. A young woman is dead at Mears’ hand – gunned down in front of her partner. It wasn’t murder but it was manslaughter, and absolutely avoidable. Quite simply you don’t fire a gun unless you are absolutely sure what you are firing at.

Mears’ will not serve the full 30 months in prison. I expect he will get parole at the earliest opportunity. But his sentence hopefully ill serve as a deterrent to others.

AP report:

South Africa’s governing party has pronounced: eating sushi off the body of a model in a bikini is politically incorrect.

A statement from African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe on Monday is unequivocal: “This act is anti-ANC and anti-revolutionary. This act is defamatory, insensitive and undermining of woman’s integrity.”

The fish-on-flesh question has raged in South African media in recent months following reports of the practice at parties of wealthy businessmen and socialites. Earlier Monday, Johannesburg newspapers reported the head of the ANC’s powerful youth league had attended such a party over the weekend.

How nice of the ANC to decie this matter. I wonder if it becomes acceptable if it is sashimi instead?

TVNZ’s Te Karere programme has just released a poll done of 1,002 Maori voters (367 from general and 635 from Maori rolls), taken from 6 to 28 January. I blogged their 2010 poll here. Key findings so far are below. :

Party Vote:

• Labour 36.9% (-1.0% from Jan 10)
• Maori Party 36.2% (-2.1%)
• National 16.8% (-0.15)
• Greens 4.5% (+1.2%)
• NZ First 4.3%
• ACT 0.8% (+0.6%)

Not a lot of change from last year I have to say. The breakdown by roll is interesting. On the Maori roll it is Maori Party 46% (-5%), Labour 35% (+3%) and National 12% (+15). On the general roll it is Labour 42% (-9%), National 30% (+2%), Maori 11% (nc).

One can compare the Maori roll results to the 2008 election. Labour got 50% of the party vote in the 2008 election, so are down 15% from the election. The Maori Party got 29% of the maori roll party vote in the 2008 election, so are up 17% from the election. So in 2008 Labour was 21% higher than the Maori Party, and today they are 11% behind the Maori Party – a net 16% swing from Labour.

Preferred PM:

1. John Key 26.4% (-4.1%)
2. Pita Sharples 7.8% (-4.0%)
3. Tariana Turia 7.8% (+2.9%)
4. Winston Peters 7.0% (nc)
5. Phil Goff 6.4% (+1.8%)
6. Hone Harawira 2.7% (-0.3%)
7. Helen Clark 2.6% (-1.2%)
8. Shane Jones 2.1% (-0.1%)

A small improvement for Goff, but still very low considering how strong Maori support for Labour has been in the past.

Key is Preferred PM for 33% of Maori on the general roll and 24% of Maori on the Maori roll.

Phil Goff

• Only 25.2% (-10.8%) of Labour voters think he is the best person to lead Labour
• 24.1% (+5.9%) say Goff provides good leadership on Maori issues

Shane Jones will be pleased with these results.

The Dom Post reports:

Wellington waterfront visitors will be able to connect to the internet for free from this morning with the launch of Trade Me’s wi-fi network.

Initially expected to cover the area south from Frank Kitts Lagoon to the waterfront side of Te Papa, it is likely to extend to areas including the Sunday markets.

Weather’s not great today, but hope to try it out at the weekend with an iPad at one of the fine bars on the waterfront.

The Dom Post reports:

He also said he would rule out a coalition with Winston Peters and NZ First. He said there was no place for Peters in a National-led government.

Yay, yay, yay. It is indeed preferable to go into Opposition than try to run a Government with Winston in it. Key has explicitly said that if Winston holds the balance of power, then Phil Goff will be Prime Minister.

Labour sacrificed their integrity defending Peters in 2008. It was obvious Peters lied time and time again over his knowledge of the Glenn donation. The phone records leave no reasonable doubt. But Labour defended his lies, and both in 2008 and again in 2011 will give him anything he asks for, in a grasp for power.

I was incredibly proud of John Key when he ruled Peters out in 2008, and again today I’m thrilled he has done so.

A key message for this year will be that a vote for Winston is a vote for Labour and Goff, and that a vote for Labour is a vote for Peters to be back in Government (if they make 5%).

NZIER have released research into the 90 day trial periods. What they did is:

Data are now available to analyse these impacts in the policy’s first several months in operation.¹ NZIER has conducted an initial analysis of the publicly available data from Statistics New Zealand’s Linked Employer-Employee Database (LEED), including April 2009 to September 2009. Our analysis assessed year-over-year changes in total jobs, accessions (hirings), and separations (firings) from 2005 to 2009 for six size categories of employers in 17 industries. The analysis controlled for seasonal variation in employment by identifying second and third quarter figures separately. Simple regression models² were estimated for the three employment variables. The models also included a variable indicating whether the trial period was in effect for the time period and firm size. The regressions used are a simple analytical technique; more complex models may be able to estimate the policy’s impact more precisely.

So this is an analysis of actual employer data from Stats NZ. So what did they find:

• The trial period appears to have increased hiring. On average, hiring by SMEs was almost six percentage points higher than expected, given the relative performance of other firms and the annual hiring trends.
• Total job numbers for these firms were also higher, by about two percentage points.
• These positive employment outcomes happened while hiring overall was falling. The model found that hirings fell on average in 2008 and 2009.
• There was little difference in hiring behaviours across industries.

A 6% improvement in hiring and a 2% improvement in job numbers are good outcomes. The extension of the 90 day trial period to all employers is a good thing.

The Prime Minister has announced the general election will be held on Saturday 26 November 2011.

I must point out that last March I blogged on the election date and said that 26 November was the most likely date. I was never one who thought the PM would go early for a possible tactical advantage.

In fact Key has again shown how different he is to his predecessors. Previous PMs have treated the election date as being more precious, than – well the Ring to Gollum. They’ve kept it secret for as long as possible, to gain maximum tactical advantage from it.

Hopefully this move by Key, may be a first step towards having a fixed election date. Unless the Government has collapsed or lost confidence, Parliament should continue full-term. Previous PMs Muldoon and Clark called snap election on flimsy excuses (Clark’s was there were too many points of order during question time).

Under the new electoral legislation s3B(2)((a)(ii) the regulated period starts three months before the election day, on the 26th of August 2011.

Claire Trevett in the NZ Herald reports:

Mr Key said he was assured by the Chief of the Defence Force that the SAS’s world cup commitments would not be compromised by the small contingent remaining in Afghanistan.

He expected it to be the last deployment in Afghanistan and said the SAS had requested it to allow troops to complete their work with the crisis response unit so it could continue on without them. He believed the SAS was best placed to assess the situation, so he had taken the request on board.

I think it is sensible to finish a job they have started, and helping train up the Afghan Crisis Response Team is a job which won’t extendon forever.

Although Labour had previously sent the SAS to Afghanistan, its leader Phil Goff opposed the 2009 deployment saying the Afghan Government was clearly corrupt. Yesterday he repeated his concerns, saying New Zealand should instead focus on reconstruction in Bamiyan.

I despair that Labour though all principles to the wind in a desperate gasp for publicity. If the Government is too corrupt to have the SAS remain, then logically it is too corrupt to have the Provincial Reconstruction Team remain also.

I find it almost amusing that Labour sent the SAS to Afghanistan when George W Bush asked for them, but say we should say “fuck off” to the US when nobel peace prize winner Barack Obama asks for them.

Jessica Mutch blogs:

On Friday I was in East Auckland covering the Labour Party Caucus meeting.

In the afternoon I travelled to West Auckland to an event the Prime Minister was hosting.

Note that it was in West Auckland – in fact in te Atatu. This is traditional Labour homeland territory.

It’s not unusual for a Prime Minister to be greeted warmly at such events and for a few kids to trail around after the PM and the TV camera… but this was unusual.

Key was barely a few steps inside before he was mobbed by both kids and parents.

He spent a good 20 minutes (maybe longer – we had to leave after 20 minutes) posing for photos, signing shirts and shaking hands.

The hordes of people grew – as did the nervous looks of the Diplomatic Protection Squad.

Young guys were coming up to the PM and putting their arm around him… and calling him John.

Heh the poor DPS.

He seemed to be loving the attention – and courting it. I wonder when John Key’s status moved from Prime Minister to celebrity?

Can he be both? And do we want him to be both? Is this just a sign of a popular Prime Minister or has he worked hard to appear approachable?

I think he is popular because he is just himself. There aren’t two John Keys. He is genuinely friendly and approachable, and hasn’t had his job go to his head.

Mike Watson at Stuff reports:

A hui to hear a complaint against Maverick Maori Party MP Hone Harawira has ended without resolution on his future with the party.

Mr Harawira and Maori Party whip Te Ururoa Flavell walked out together but told reporters they hadn’t resolved all the issues that sparked the hui.

The fact they talked face to face is a good start, but I have my doubts that it will solve things.

Harawira said this afternoon he “absolutely” believed he could still work with Flavell and had no issues with co-leader Tariana Turia either.

He did not want to leave the Maori Party.

I think this supports the Gower theory that Hone is in fact trying to take over the Maori Party. Note that he did not say he had no issues with Pita Sharples.

Stuff reports:

Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak is to announce he will step down at the next election, according to reports.

Mubarak, the focus of millions of protesting Egyptians, would make the announcement in a speech today, reported Al Arabiya TV.

At least one million people have rallied across Egypt clamouring for Mubarak to give up power, piling pressure on a leader who has towered over Middle East politics for 30 years to make way for a new era of democracy in the Arab nation.

Cairo’s Tahrir (Liberation) Square was jammed with people ranging from lawyers and doctors to students and jobless poor, the crowd spilling into surrounding streets.

Two dictators toppled in a month is almost a trend. In Jordan, the King has sacked his Government to try and placate protesters – will that be enough?

In terms of Egypt, the focus will be on who serves as interim President, and once elections are held, which parties form the Government.

The military, which has run Egypt since it toppled King Farouk in 1952, will be the key player in deciding who replaces him. Analysts expect it to retain significant power while introducing enough reforms to defuse the protests.

Armed forces chief of staff Sami Enan could be an acceptable leader, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood said.

Enan, who has good ties with Washington, was a liberal who could be seen as suitable by the nascent opposition coalition, prominent overseas cleric Kamel El-Helbawy told Reuters.

“He can be the future man of Egypt,” Helbawy said. “The people do not know him (as corrupt).”

A liberal with good ties to Washington sounds pretty good to me.

Not everything that Governments do is controversial. While most of the focus and debate goes on the areas of disagreement, often a Government announces things that most would regard as near universally good news.

The announcement at the weekend that the Government had established three huge marine reserves around the Subantarctic Islands, would be one of those you expect. Announcing the protection of 435,000 hectares of marine territory is not one likely to generate negative coverage.

Most media reported it fairly straight, but as a wonderful example of how a determined media outlet can turn the best of stories negative, look at how it appeared on Tv3 with environmental reporter Sam Hayes. I suggest you view the item yourself – it is 3 minutes 15 secs long.

Here’s how the item goes:

1. 15 second intro from anchor
2. 40 seconds on not this announcement, but about a decision taken last year not to make Akaroa Harbour a marine reserve.
3. Then a mere 25 seconds on this announcment, with the reporter introducing it by saying it was done to save face over the previous Akaroa decision
4. They give 15 seconds for WWF to complain that the marine reserves should be larger
5. Not content with that, then they tie into the story a 40 second piece on a change in air pollution standards. They have the Minister defending it, but no mention (for example) of the fact even the independent Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment supports the new standards (as the old ones were unachievable and unfair). A far more balanced take on the new standards comes from Claire Browning at Pundit.
6. They then give Russel Norman a free swipe to say the Blue Greens are just abut “greenwash”
7. Then for good measure the reporter adds her views that with National the economy will win out over the environment
8. And finally just so there is not doubt left with viewers that National are evil planet destorying heatherns, they spend 35 seconds talking about how a few weeks ago the Minister let a farmer continue, against official advice, grazing by a polluted lake – without any balance at all about why (which is the officials fucked up by inviting the farmer to apply when they should have told him he was ineligible)

So the actual announcement got 25 seconds of around 200 seconds, and almost all the rest of it was spent beating up on National. And this was all in relation to a pretty non controversial announcement.

It reminds me of the old saying that if John Key walked on water, then the headline would be “John Key can’t swim”.

Talk about spewing words out in a panic. Maryan Street is reported as saying:

Labour Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maryan Street said New Zealand should do what other governments were doing and charter or provide an aircraft.

“It is not good enough for the government simply to sit back and say we will give the British or the Americans a call if necessary, to see if they can bump our people up their list,” she said.

“A government’s very first responsibility is the defence of its citizens and this government is sitting on its hands while Kiwi families are at real risk of danger in Cairo right now.

“The embassy has told people to leave but are not being given the resources to help them do exactly that,” she said.

“The government could charter a plane faster than it could send a 757 to get there. It could even divert or appropriate an Air New Zealand plane out of London which could get to Cairo quickly.

Yes that is a Labour MP calling for the Government to forcibly appropriate NZ001 and divert it to Cairo. I’m not sure what power she thinks the Government can do this under – maybe the Canterbury Earthquake legislation!

Anna Leask in the Herald reports:

A senior police officer has condemned colleagues for using their cellphones while driving, saying it is a joke to go out and enforce the law when officers appear to be readily flouting it.

I agree. I have never been a supporter of the new law, and the fact that Police are basically exempt from it makes it worse.

Another officer has been caught on camera talking on his cellphone at traffic lights. He was filmed by a motorist in West Auckland on Thursday.

“I wound down the window and started recording, I was yelling out trying to get his attention,” said the motorist, who did not want to be identified. “Then the light turned green and he casually drove off, still talking.”

If Police are in an emergency situation, then cellphone use should be okay, but this case shows quite the opposite.

The senior officer said it was unacceptable for police to be using cellphones while driving unless it was a real emergency. “I’m out there telling people off for using their phones while they drive. And yet cops are out there doing it. I am absolutely pissed off by the hypocrisy,” he said.

And shouldn’t Police cars have hand free devices anyway?

The Herald was inundated with emails from readers over the weekend who had spotted officers using their cellphones while driving.

“I actually reported a policeman in a marked police car driving on St Lukes Rd talking on the mobile phone, driving around 65km/h and changing lanes without indicating,” said one.

Another reader concerned about a female officer using her phone on the harbour bridge was disappointed with the response to his official complaint. He was quoted the relevant act.

The exemption for Police is too wide. It should be for emergencies only.

Or they could just scrap the law, and just use the general offence of driving while distracted.

John Armstrong writes:

It being election year, Phil Goff has decided to hold a press conference every Monday to counter the Prime Minister’s use of his weekly media briefing to set the political agenda. Yesterday’s first effort was hardly an unqualified success.

Instead of setting the agenda, Goff found it being set for him by the media. The questions had a recurring theme – where is the money coming from to fund Labour’s seemingly ever-expanding list of promises.

I am amazed that Labour has embarked on this strategy to dent its credibility. At a time when deficits and debt are so high, you can’t just announce spending plans with no way to pay for them.

Goff’s reluctance to provide detail beyond saying Labour would ditch some projects – such as the scheduled $875 million missile upgrade for the navy’s frigates – turned the 18-minute press conference into the media equivalent of shooting a rather large fish in a relatively small barrel.

Having got rid of any offensive capability for the Air Force, it seems they want to do the same for the Navy. Regardless the $875m is a one off capital cost – these upgrades probably happen every 30 years or so. You can’t fund much operational expenditure from delaying a capital upgrade.

One example suffices. Goff gave a “heads up” on families from today having to pay an extra $25 to $35 a week in early childhood education fees, something he described as a “tragedy” for childhood learning.

So would Labour restore funding to previous levels? Goff confirmed it was a “priority”. Almost in the same breath, though, he said that would happen as spare revenue “becomes available”. Given other priorities, Labour would not be able to restore those previous levels in its first Budget.

That begged the question of when is a priority really a priority or when is a priority just something on a long list of things a new Labour Government would want to do if it had the money.

I think John has absolutely analysed it correctly – a priority means “would like to do it if we could”

Unwilling to say exactly where the money would come from, Goff sounds like someone who not only thinks he can have his cake, but also eat more of it than exists.

Heh.

Labour faces a conundrum. It has no choice but to say where it stands to have any hope of jolting the polls. Goff’s reluctance to say how Labour will pay for it all is fast turning a question of credibility into a credibility problem.

There’s a reason we refer to it as Goofynomics. It s lacking in credibility.

Went on Saturday Night to Circa to see Heat, accompanied by Auckland Girl, and Mother of Auckland Girl (MAG).

Auckland Girl is in a wheelchair at the moment, and kudos go to Circa for being so disability friendly. They moved the ushers from their normal seats, to allow the wheelchair to go there.

Heat, created by Lynda Chanwai-Earle, is described as “an original love story between a woman, a man and a penguin”. As this blog is infamous for its google visits on the keywords “penguin sex”, I just knew I had to see this film 🙂

It’s a three person or creature show. John and Stella are a husband and wife team (played by Kate Prior and Simon Vinvent) who are going to live in a hut in the Antarctica for a year – he is an  atmospheric scientist, and she studies penguins. Bob is an emperor penguin.

John and Stella are obviously in love, and well if you are stuck in a hut for a year, there isn’t that much to do but make love also. But underneath their happiness is profound sadness as when they move in, they place a photo of a child and an urn on the top shelf. At some stage in the past they had the awfulness of losing a child.

Enter Bob. Bob is played by Byron Coll and he is totally nude, only covered with body paint. I hadn’t noticed the warnings of full frontal nudity, so when Bob first appeared on stage both Auckland Girl and I were casting nervous glances as MAG to see if she was offended. Luckily MAG was not.

All three actors performed well, but for me the star of the show was Bob. Despite having no speaking part, he made the show with his facial expressions, his walk and especially his flipper attacks. I’d say it is worth seeing the play for his performance alone.

The play is about how Stella comes to care for Bob after he is rejected by the penguin colony, and how over time it becomes obvious she is starting to see him as a substitute child. This causes dramatic scenes of conflict with John. Stella and John made a very convincing couple – from the playfulness through to the fights.

Some plays are pure comedy. Heat certainly has many funny moments, but it has moments of great sadness and drama. Your emotions go on a real roller-coaster watching the play, and you don’t know whether it will end in tragedy or not.

The play was 90 minutes long, and I enjoyed it greatly.

Claire Rogers reports:

Apple-loving politicians could soon be accessing work emails from their iPads and iPhones.

MPs and parliament staff must currently use BlackBerrys and Microsoft PCs to access work systems, but the Parliamentary Service is trialling software that gives email access to iPhones and iPads in response to demand from Apple enthusiasts.

I was in fact the last Mac user in Parliament. I had both a PC and a Mac in 1996/97 but finally gave the Mac up as it painful having a stand-alone machine not networked.

Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson said he was an avid iPad fan and greater support for Apple gadgets would boost productivity.

Mr Williamson said he took his iPad on a ministerial trip to China last year and loaded it up with briefing papers.

“You could just bring up the library and briefing notes and search for specific headings … the physical file that had all the briefing notes was four or five Wellington telephone books and they weren’t searchable. I find the whole iPad and iPhone experience so much better than the standard computer environment.”

The iPads are very good. Can’t wait for the iPad2.