The NZ Herald editorial:

He first made this proposal during the election campaign when it was suggested that voters in the rest of Auckland might resent paying for the former Manukau City Council’s free pools. Mr Brown’s answer was that he would extend the policy to the whole of Auckland. This week he repeated that intention as one of his “100 projects in 100 days”.

Free swimming pools would be a complete waste of money for most of Auckland. This blessed city has a vast free swimming pool all around it. Two harbours and the Hauraki Gulf provide warm, calm, sheltered bays in abundance.

Nobody in Auckland lives much more than a 15-minutes drive from a beach, and most live within easy reach of many.

Unlike Wellington, where there are basically no beaches where the water is warm enough for swimming.

Better still, the issue could be left to local boards. Those new elected bodies are waiting for the Auckland Council to define their role. This time last year Mr Brown’s website offered them responsibilities that included liquor licensing, local street management, libraries, swimming pools, public toilets, camping grounds and beach control.

If they are bulk-funded from council revenue for services such as those, the boards would asses the importance of a free pool to their communities against the need for other amenities. No public body is better placed to make that assessment. Voters can punish boards that misread their priorities.

Leaving it to the local boards is a good idea.

But Mr Brown is not talking of delegating the decision. He says his next step towards free pools for all is to commission a report on the cost, equity and fairness of the proposal. He says he picked up an “overwhelming sentiment” in the election that free pools would be welcome across Auckland.

Doubtless he did. Nobody rejects a free offer in election campaigns. He could as easily have offered free gymnasiums, free golf courses or free dance classes in the name of health and opportunity.

Please, don’t give him ideas.

Claire Trevett at NZ Herald reports:

Parliament’s Speaker has moved to officially abolish politicians’ international travel perks, and will vet any travel applications by MPs to ensure they do not abuse the new system.

His new set of “directions” – the rules governing MPs’ spending and entitlements – has abolished use of the perk for private travel, from January 1. And it can no longer be used for spouses in any circumstances.

That is good, and well overdue.

MPs can still claim a rebate if their trip is primarily for parliamentary purposes – a broad-ranging definition which includes “research” and international conferences.

This is well intentioned, but is open to exploitation. If an MP wishes to go over to the UK and attend the Labour or Conservative Party conference, then they will be able to. Catch up with a couple of mates who happen to be MPs there and you have your research component.

But the vetting will ensure no one can set up a work-related meeting on holiday as justification for a rebate.

The Speaker is in charge of vetting those trips, for which MPs must pay part of the costs themselves.

This is better than no vetting, but an inferior solution to what I prefer – that the costs of any international travel be funded out of a parliamentary party’s bulk fund. This would provide a real incentive for MPs to only travel when there is real value in doing so – because there are other things you can spend the bulk fund on – more staff, external research, advertising etc.

The international travel subsidy will continue to be ring-fenced. This provides an incentive for MPs to try and maximise its use.

Claire Trevett at NZ Herald reports:

Labour is promising to extend paid parental leave and make Working for Families more generous for parents of under-2s under its new social welfare policy.

Labour’s social development spokeswoman Annette King has given further details about the party’s new social policies, the full details of which will be made public within two months.

The plans include increasing paid parental leave from the current 14 weeks and allowing more parents to be eligible for it to make it more comparable to Australia’s new scheme, which allows for 18 weeks on the minimum wage.

If one was running a huge surplus, I think one could have a debate about whether to increase spending in certain areas.

But when the Government is already borrowing $300 million a week, you’d think even Labour would realise that borrowing even more money to hand out as welfare is reckless.

Working for Families would be more generous for parents of children under 2 – allowing more freedom for a parent to remain at home with young children. Changes to the domestic purposes benefit were also planned.

She said National’s black and white rule requiring single parents to find work when their youngest child was 6 years old was unfair.

So really Labour is saying that they wish to pay people more money not to work, and water down any requirements for those on welfare to work.

The Age reports:

A bizarre decision to ride an inflatable doll down a flood-swollen Yarra River blew up in a woman’s face yesterday when she lost her latex playmate in a rough patch.

The incident prompted a warning from police that blow-up sex toys are “not recognised flotation devices”.

Police and a State Emergency Services crew were called to the rescue when the woman and a man, both 19, struck trouble at Warrandyte North about 4.30pm yesterday.

They were floating down the river on two inflatable dolls and had just passed the Pound Bend Tunnel when the woman lost her toy in turbulent water.

Now that would make a great You Tube video.

I know of the odd flat which has a sex doll (invariably students), but having two sex dolls is rare – perhaps they went out and purchased them just for the floods?

Giles Brown at The Press reports:

A young mother was caught in Christchurch driving with nearly twice the drink-drive limit, sipping from a cup of rum and with two children in the car, police say.

Southern Canterbury area commander, Inspector Malcolm Johnston, said it was one of the worst cases of drink-driving he had seen in 30 years.

He said the 21-year-old woman was caught in Riccarton Rd about 8.15pm on Saturday after police spotted her driving erratically. Her 25-year-old partner was in the front passenger seat with an unrestrained two-year-old boy on his lap, Johnston said, and a baby boy was in a restraining seat in the back.

Johnston said that while the mother was being spoken to by police she was drinking rum from a cup.

I’m not sure what is worse – the drink driving with kids in the car, the holding of the boy on a lap, which is guaranteed to kill him in a crash, or carrying on drinking while the Police are talking to you.

Regardless, the combination of such moronic behaviour has me conclude that there is no way they can be safe parents.

Rebecca Todd in The Press reports:

Families of suicide victims are angry their voices were not included in a ministerial review of media reporting on suicide, a spokeswoman says. …

Maria Bradshaw, co-founder of family support group CASPER, said the committee’s review was missing the voices of the victims of suicide and families were “tired of Government inaction on the issue”. Families were restricted by the Coroners Act as they could not say publicly how their loved one died, for instance in funeral notices, until the coroner had made a ruling.

Bradshaw had a court order imposed to stop her discussing her son’s suicide publicly before the coroner had ruled on his death.

“That’s no way to treat a victim group. It just increases the isolation and stigma,” she said.

And is ineffective.

Newspaper Publishers’ Association chief executive Tim Pankhurst said the explosion in social networking made the Coroners Act largely irrelevant.

“If a teenager is killed, then hundreds of people are going to be Facebooking or tweeting about that within a couple of hours. Those kids aren’t reading newspapers or looking at news websites,” he said.

Exactly. Often it is the deceased’s own Facebook page where the news is broken, and people console.

Yes that is an elephant up there. Photo from BBC.

Claire Trevett in the NZ Herakld writes:

Labour leader Andrew Little said there was a greater reluctance to donate, which many attributed to the recession.

“We are getting a steady flow but they are more modest by comparison to those which are reported in the election returns [of more than $15,000].”

National Party president Peter Goodfellow was overseas.

Claire is ahead of herself. Andrew Little has not yet rolled Phil Goff.

H/T: Whale

David Choat, an elected member of Capital Coast DHB, blogged on his initial board meeting

While I do not share David’s politics, I found his blog post a very useful way to get a concise summary of issues being considered at board level. David shows his leanings of course by talking about “I’ll be keen to get some perspectives from unions and others with an view about this proposal prior to that.” I hope David includes patients amongst his “others”.

He blogs again last week that he has been asked to not blog:

A few days after posting it, I received an email from the Chair of my Board, saying it had caused distress, and was in breach of Capital & Coast’s media policy, which says that the Chair is the media spokesperson and “Board members will consult the Chair and seek approval prior to making public comment on any policy issue” (my emphasis). The media policy will now be on the agenda for discussion at February’s board meeting (which I welcome).

Personally I don’t think we should have elected DHB members, as they actually lead to reduced accountabilty for the Minister and Government. But given we do have elected DHB members, it is silly to try and have a policy that forbids them from speaking out on any policy issue without approval.

If a board is all appointed, then that is a common convention. But trying to impose it on a DHB is like a Mayor telling Councillors they can’t speak publicly on any policy issue.

Capital Coast Health would be better focused on how to fix that they are the DHB which seems less able to live within its means, and less time on stopping DHB members from blogging.

John Hartevelt at Stuff reports:

Two top-ranking British Cabinet Ministers will visit New Zealand next week to hold talks with the Government.

It was announced today that Foreign Secretary William Hague and Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox will meet their New Zealand counterparts Murray McCully and Wayne Mapp from Thursday.

“The Asia-Pacific region is developing rapidly and this visit indicates Britain’s increased interest in the region,” Dr Mapp said.

“The visit by Defence Secretary Fox will provide an opportunity for us to review our co-operation.”

The two-day visit will be the first to New Zealand by Hague and Fox, who will be joined by UK Chief of Defence Staff General Sir David Richards.

I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know William Hague, through various IDU Young Leaders Forums.

In the UK his parliamentary debating skills are generally held to be without peer. He is a very quick, witty debater.

He became Conservative Party Leader at the worst possible time, and it is no surprise he lost to Blair in 2001. During his time on the backbench he wrote a excellent biography of Pitt the Younger, which is a great read.

On a personal level, he is very down to earth, and easy to chat to. Some politicians will just talk to you for a few minutes and treat it as a duty, but William genuinely engages.

Hague is still only in his 40s, and may still one day become Conservative Party Leader again.

The Republican Presidential Primaries will be held in early 2012, and there is huge jockeying for position already. Obama has relatively low approval ratings but nearly two years out from the presidential election these count for little.

In 1982 Ronald Reagan, now considered one of the most popular politician of all time, faced a tough economy and a democrat controlled congress. As the chart below from USA Today shows, Obama is clearly ahead of where Reagan was at the same time in his presidency.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/presidential-approval-tracker.htm

This is a fascinating tracker poll. You can track any president against any other using the compare chart.

Tracker polls like this are interesting because they point to historical precedent. So when the media start talking about low approval ratings for Obama it pays to be skeptical as to how much influence this has on his reelection campaign.

Also worth noting that Obama’s approval is on the rise.

The Dom Post reports:

Cash-strapped homeowners will see some relief this year, with experts predicting the Reserve Bank will keep official interest rates low until at least September.

However, some experts say even that may be too early.

After two rises of 0.25 percentage points in June and July, the Reserve Bank has held the official cash rate steady at 3 per cent, as economic growth stalled.

Economists still expect a recovery this year, but there is a growing view that Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard will leave rates on hold for another eight months.

Works for me, as from today I am once again burdened with a mortgage. My disposable income has shrunk by around 75%!

Keith Lynch in The Press reports:

A “marked improvement” in the atmosphere in the Pike River mine does not mean it is safe to re-enter, an Australian expert says.

Yesterday, the families of the 29 mine workers released a statement saying the decision to seal the Pike River Coal mine was wrong and needed to be revisited.

“There is a stable atmospheric environment now achieved which is likely to be sustained,” the statement said.

Mine safety expert Dr David Cliff, of the University of Queensland, said that while the atmosphere in the West Coast mine had improved, to say it was safe to enter was a “quantum leap”.

Personally I’d love it if the mine could be entered, but I am not an expert, and you really have to rely on expert advice on these things.

“The atmosphere is now inert without the use of the GAG [Gorniczy Agregat Gasniczy],” Cliff said.

“It’s not capable of supporting combustion. It’s full of methane, as far as we can detect.

“But then to say everything is OK, we can go enter the mine, that’s another quantum leap beyond that.”

The mine’s atmosphere was close to 100 per cent methane, with oxygen excluded, he said.

“Therefore it’s a dramatic improvement. There’s no active ignition sources in the mine, most probably, but we still don’t know for sure.”

If conditions were maintained, there would be “no more explosions”, Cliff said.

“The atmosphere is one part of the equation – there’s the mining conditions, it is the logistics of re-entering up a single tunnel that is 2.5-kilometres long into unknown conditions – these are the sort of factors bearing on people’s minds.”

Bore holes would be required to stabilise the mine, at a cost of $250,000 each.

If, and I stress if, that is all that is required to make the mine safe, then the price is well worth paying. However it is not at all clear that is all that is required.

I do have to say that the reasons the mine can’t be re-entered according to the experts has not been clearly communicated. Hopefully when the receivers submit their plans tonight, there might be more light on this.

I blogged on Tuesday about discovering Mudd Hut in the Mangaone Valley, and asked if people knew anything about it.

A reader e-mailed me:

Mudd Hutt was built by boys, parents, friends and leaders of the 34th Wellington Boy Brigade company – i’d guess in the 60’/o70’s from recycled building materials, – on land owned by the Carter family of Waikanae.  Did you find the flying fox and our famed long drop?  The Hutt was a proud asset of our company, greatly cared for and respected.  While staying at the hutt us boys would learn tramping skills, we marked tracks around the hills, including one up to Kapakapanui herself, camping and cooking skills, we invented and played fantastic games – variations on spotlight, hogans heroes, and late night card games.  I spent many weekends around the hutt mostly on organised trips with Boys Brigade and other times when we aged and became more ‘responsible – yeah right’ we were allowed to make our own trips up there and we hunted and played up.  It’s a personal piece of paradise and I have many warm memories of great times up there.  A dear friend of mine’s ashes are spread around Mudd Hutt.  Mudd was the name of the leaders of the 34th Wgtn boys Brigade company – a Mr Albert Mudd. He was a lovely gentle modest man, an ex soldier and he would tell us ripping yarns about some of his experiences in desert warfare, durign BB religious instruction.  During an enduring moment of deep nostalgia this time last year I called the land owners and asked if we could go up for a look and maybe stay a night but since seeing the hutt has been so neglected and used as a base for the loggers and the logging operations the magic has gone from the place. 

Mmmm, might be due for another trip up there to exorcise a few more ghosts…

I’m grateful for the piece of history. It brough back memories of my own youth, with many great times spent out in the bush at various huts. The location of Mudd Hut is superb – I envy those who got to use it.

If I was ever super rich, I think I would build and donate 100 or so huts for use of youth groups campign and tramping.

Unlike the normal caption contest, this is one has no rules 🙂

Sadly today is the last day of summer holidays for me, so posts will be more regular from tomorrow.

Newstalk ZB reports:

EPMU secretary Andrew Little thinks sealing the mine would be wrong on at least two fronts.

“Making a decision to seal the mine now is not just a decision to leave the men down there, but a decision to say we’re not going to get the evidence to find out what really happened.”

Mr Little said the Government has let the families down and the union will continue to work with them to get justice.

Does Andrew have some magic way to enter the mine we do not know of?

Is Andrew speaking as Labour Party President or EPMU Secretary when he alleges any decision to seal the mine is part of a plot by the Government to conceal evidence?

The local Mayor is more rational:

Despite the union’s concerns, the Grey District Mayor said he is confident there will be enough evidence for the Pike River mine inquiry, even if the mine is sealed.

“They’re going to interview 400 (people) all up. They’ve got every single hard drive and computer from day one of Pike River coal. Even though they can’t get evidence from the mine, I feel there’s enough evidence out there to get to the bottom of this”, Tony Kokshoorn told Newstalk ZB.

Maybe Andrew could explain exactly what evidence he thinks still exists after weeks of thousand degree fires.

Like some other bloggers, I received a copy of the e-mail below by Wellingtom Mayor Celia-Wade Brown to her Council colleagues:

Dear colleagues,

I’d like to discuss training, conferences and personal development when we’re back. I hope some courses on chairing, speed-reading, engagement and participatory democracy, new media or the RMA will appeal. We do need to reduce our expenditure but not to zero. Instead of waiting for conferences to be put up at SPC and then trying to decide who should go, what clashes etc, there are other ways – on-line webinars, local tertiary institutions e.g. Otago’s Sustainable Cities or Victoria’s Policy Institute – or LGNZ’s courses.

Or we can take new lessons in te reo, Mandarin or ballroom dancing – all exercise neural pathways and keep us mentally fit. http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/03/can-you-build-a-better-brain.html
That might explain why skills we’re already good at don’t make us much smarter: we don’t pay much attention to them. In contrast, taking up a new, cognitively demanding activity ­ballroom dancing, a foreign language ­is more likely to boost processing speed, strengthen synapses, and expand or create functional networks.

For those who consider that mental and physical fitness might be unrelated, have a look at this link… http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100826141327.htm

A study published this year in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience provided evidence that aerobic fitness can keep aging brains healthy. “Even modest amounts of walking, 40 minutes three times a week, can engender substantial improvements in memory, decision making, and other cognitive processes,” said the study’s lead author, University of Illinois psychology professor Art Kramer.

and if you didn’t think it was relevant to your role … “Those with more connectivity … also tend to be better at planning, prioritizing, strategizing and multi-tasking. “- that’s what we have to do – and preferably enjoy doing it!

and for Leonie in particular – Nicotine, they found, has “significant positive effects” on fine motor skills, the accuracy of short-term memory, some forms of attention, and working memory, among other basic cognitive skills. The improvements “likely represent true performance enhancement” and “beneficial cognitive effects.” The reason is that nicotine binds to the brain receptors for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine that are central players in cortical circuits. (Caveat: smoking also increases your risk of dementia, so while cigarettes may boost your memory and attention now, you could pay for it later. ) but I’m not taking it up again – shortness of breath, coughing, lung or throat cancer and most of all, the smell…

Meanwhile, I look forward to us finding efficiencies and shared ways of working so we don’t have to increase prices at Toi Poneke – nor drastically cut library hours ( some may be ok if there really is low use – well said, Stephanie). However we can’t say no to all savings , efficiencies and accept 8% rates!

Warm regards
Celia
Celia Wade-Brown
Mayor of Wellington

Perhaps it would be easier to avoid an 8% rates rise if Council did not spend its Councillor training budget on ballroom dancing lessons for Councillors.

WCC Watch and Phil Quin also blog on this topic. Quin has a response from Celia also.

Did the Mangaone Track yesterday and doing it again tomorrow. It’s a pleasant 6 km walk, but with a huge variety of scenery. I was amazed there was only one other group of people on the track the day we did it.

You can start at Mangaone North Road (Te Horo) or Mangaone South Road (Reikorangi). We started at Mangaone North Road, and I think this was the best way to do it.

The first km or two is basically a 4WD path, so fairly easy going. Mainly uphill but a modest slope.

There are a few stream crossings. You can do them without getting wet if you aim well. But be prepared to have the shoes a bit wet.

After one goes through a couple of fields, and past a house with five very loud agressive pig dogs (in kennels thankfully) you then hit the more traditional NZ bushwalk.

The trail is well signposted but there are one or two spots where you have to think about it.

A nice rest stop.

By this bridge is a rather nice swimming hole, and picnic area.

And the view below from the big swingbridge.

As I said, a very pleasant walkable track. Well worth doing if you have half a day. You just need to have two cars so you have one at the exit and entry. Of course it helps when you are staying next to one of the entrances.

The Herald reports:

A new political party linked to the businessman behind a failed Chinese bid for the Crafar dairy farms says it will contest the Botany byelection.

Jack Chen, who claims to be the force behind Natural Dairy NZ’s bid for the farms, met key leaders of the fledgling New Citizen Party in Beijing last week to discuss plans for its future.

The byelection, which follows the resignation of former Cabinet minister Pansy Wong from Parliament, has been set for March 5.

A party supporter, who did not want to be named, said that at the meeting, Mr Chen outlined a “two-step plan” to win parliamentary seats.

“First, there’s a plan to win Botany by winning the support of the migrants, who make up more than half of the voters there,” he said, speaking in Mandarin.

“Our party leaders will then be talking with Maori tribes to also get their party votes for us to get at least six candidates as MPs at this year’s election.”

It is possible that the New Citizen Party could get more votes in Botany than Labour. This might be one reason Labour is talking of not standing a candidate – they don’t want to risk coming third.

However I can’t see the NCP winning Botany. A party which holds its meeting in Beijing may not get that many votes from Taiwanese and Hong Kong Chinese, let alone Koreans, Indians and Japanese.

And as for the plan to get Iwi to endorse them and get party votes – yeah good luck with that.

Sandra Goudie has just announced that she retire at the next election.

We all owe Sandra a huge debt of gratitude for winning Coromandel off Jeanette Fitzsimons in 2002. Otherwise that may have become their permament lifeline.

Sandra has been a very effective MP for her electorate. One issue I have first hand experience of was a scam operator posing as a eco-tourism operator. Sandra helped get Fair Go to expose how many young well-meaning people from overseas had got scammed, and she also wanted to get the Fair Go story up the Google pagerank, so asked if I and others could blog on it. This isn’t the stuff that makes headlines, but often fills up the day of a constituent MP.

Sandra’s local popularity shows with the fact she got 63% of the electorate vote – a massive 14,560 majority. The party vote majority was around 9,500 so whomever wins the National nomination is likely to have a pretty good tenure as MP for Coromandel.

As I commented with the announcement of Wayne Mapp’s retirement at the election, it is good to see National rejuvenating itself early on. rejuvenation is not something you do at the last minute to stave off defeat. A sucessful party needs to be doing it constantly – rejuvenating both Caucus and Cabinet.