Trevor Mallard blogged:

Sometimes you get leaks of policy through interjections. Today we got a gem from Paul Quinn.

After it was pointed out that twice as many firms in Aussie are increasing staff this year than in NZ, and that 23% more Aussie firms are planning to increase wages we at last got the plan.

Quinn said – Kiwis should move to Australia.

Except he didn’t.

He said “Well go to Australia”- basically to Trevor. He never said “Kiwis should move”.

You can listen to it at In the House, at around 2:56.

War is a Crime blogs a transcript of how Bush and Cheney pulled off 9/11, as alleged by the “911 truthers”:

Cheney: No, we bomb the World Trade Center and blame it on Osama bin Laden.

Feith: Oh. How?

Cheney: Easy. First, we cultivate 19 suicidal Muslim patsies from a variety of Middle Eastern countries, I’d say mostly from Saudi Arabia. We bring them to the U.S., train them at U.S. flight schools. They should be high-profile terrorist suspects who are magically given free reign by the security agencies to travel back and forth to various terrorist training camps to study passenger jet piloting. Actually that process is already underway now. Our friends in the Clinton administration are seeing to it that four groups of Arab men are being brought along by the FBI and the CIA.

Wolfowitz: How is it that the Clinton administration is already helping us with this, when we haven’t even planned this yet?

Cheney: They just are. Okay?

Wolfowitz: Okay, fine. And what do we do with these hijackers?

Cheney: We sit idly by while they plot to hijack a series of passenger jet planes and crash them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the White House.

Wolfowitz: And how do we get them to do that?

Cheney: We just do. You see, we worked with these people back in the old mujahadeen days in Afghanistan. So naturally we’re still thick as thieves with them.

Feith: Oh, of course. So we get them to fly into these buildings. And the impact from the planes will bring down the World Trade Center.

Cheney: No, Doug, dammit, you’re not following me. The impact from the planes most certainly won’t be sufficient to knock down the Towers. We know this because we’ve privately conducted studies which show that the Towers will easily be able to withstand impact by two jets loaded to the gills with jet fuel. That said, the jets will likely cause skyscraper fires hot enough to kill everyone above the point of impact; we’re going to have to assume, of course, that the exits from the higher floors to the lower floors will be mostly blocked after the collisions. So assuming we crash the planes about two-thirds of the way up each of the towers early on a business day, we’re looking at trapping and killing a good three, four, maybe even five thousand people on the upper floors.

Feith: Fantastic. I love killing people in the finance industry. It’s too bad the people on the lower floors will get to escape.

Cheney: It is too bad — especially since we’re going to blow up the rest of the building complex anyway.

Feith: We are?

Cheney: Yes. You see, the way I see it, our best course of action is to first crash planes into each the towers, trapping and killing those thousands on the upper floors of each building. After the impact, of course, the people on the lower floors will find their way out of the building and on to the street, where they will achieve relative safety — at which point we’ll finally detonate the massive network of explosive charges we’ve secretly hidden in the buildings in the weeks and months prior to the attacks.

As hilarious as these are – the sad thing is tens of thousands of people actually believe this is what happened.

Feith: So why don’t we detonate the charges earlier, so that we can kill the people on the lower floors, too?

Cheney: That’s a good question. At some point we have to sacrifice effect for believability. You see, if the planes crash into the buildings and the buildings immediately collapse, everyone will be suspicious and they’ll immediately be onto the presence of the explosives. So what we have to do is let the planes crash into the building, give the jet fuel time to start fires that will “soften” the building core, and then we detonate the charges. Afterwards, we’ll be able to argue that the fires coupled with the impact actually caused the buildings to collapse.

Feith: Why will we be able to argue that? Didn’t our studies show that impact and fire alone wouldn’t have caused the buildings to collapse?

Cheney: Those were our secret, far-more-advanced studies, done with secret, far-more-advanced military technology. The vast majority of the world’s civilian structural engineers, however, can be counted on after the incident to conclude that the buildings collapsed due to a combination of fire, impact, and the knocking off of fireproofing from the building beams.

Feith: Why can they be counted on to conclude that?

Cheney: Because that’s what our secret research shows their not-secret research will show! Jesus Christ, work with me on this, will you?

I love Cheney’s lines.

Wolfowitz: I think I get it. We crash the planes, kill everyone above the impact of the planes, let the people underneath the impact out to safety, then collapse the buildings about an hour or so later using the explosives that we pointlessly incurred months and weeks worth of career- and life-threatening risk to covertly plant in a building complex visited by hundreds of thousands of people every week.

Cheney: Exactly! The actual deaths will mostly be caused by the planes. But we’ll incur the massive additional risk simply to destroy the building, for effect, because it will look cool and scary on television.

Again, this is what some people believe.

The Herald has put online 50 pages of e-mails related to the Justice Wilson complaints, between former Judge Ted Thomas and QC Jim Farmer.

They are a fascinating read, and quite extraordinary – especially as the friendship gets strained on the issue of Justice Wilson. The Herald summarises:

As time passed and Sir Edmund pressed Dr Farmer to come forward, the emails between the two good friends became strained.

When Dr Farmer suggested that Sir Edmund might have leaked information to a controversial blogger, the retired judge replied that the comment made him “unbelievably angry”.

“I note that you are distressed. You sound like Weatherston,” Sir Edmund wrote, referring to Clayton Weatherston, the man found guilty of killing Sophie Elliott.

“We are all distressed. Those who have expressly used the word ‘sick’ to describe how they felt about this whole sorry business include you, me, the Chief Justice and the Attorney-General. To make matters worse, it is a distress that could have been avoided if Alan had followed your original advice and tabled the true facts with the Chief Justice at the outset.”

The blogsite they refer to is the one by Vince Siemer.

Got to Vienna Sunday afternoon and we headed to the apartment we had booked. It’s on the 5th floor of Zedlitzgasse, which is in District 1 – the central district (Innere Stadt) surrounded by the Ringstraße.

Even better, we discovered the apartment is in a superb location – just two blocks basically from the Stephansdom.

It is so large, it is difficult to fit it all in the one photo. It is a truly imposing creation, and dominates Vienna.

A close up of one the many artworks around the exterior of the cathedral. This is of St. John Capistrano.

This scene is at the external rear of the cathedral. You can spend an hour just walking around the outside looking at the pieces.

The high altar, inside. There’s a lot to see, including extensive catacombs.

You can ascend two of the towers. This is a photo of the horses and carriages out front, from the tower. Definitely worth going up for magnificent views of Vienna.

One of the 23 bells at the cathedral. The largest one weights 23,000 kgs.

The tube stations is outside the Stephansdom, so we end up walking past the cathedral several times a day.

The WSJ reports:

This just in: San Francisco federal judge Vaughn Walker has shot down California’s Proposition 8, the initiative passed by voters in 2008 that banned same-sex marriage.

Judge Walker said Proposition 8 violated the federal constitutional rights of gays and lesbians to marry the partners of their choice. Click here for the opinion.

“Plaintiffs challenge Proposition 8 under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the judge wrote. “Each challenge is independently meritorious, as Proposition 8 both unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry and creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Walker’s ruling is expected to be appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If I lived in California I would have voted against Proposition 8. I have no problems with same sex marriage.

But I do not like judges deciding that there is a constitutional right for same sex marriage, and over-riding the will of the people.

I do not think the intent of the the drafters of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights could possibly have been to force same-sex marriage onto a state, despite its rejection by popular decision.

Eventually the US Supreme Court will decide the case on the legal issues. I am more interested in the political.

I think having Judges “decide” something is a right is generally counter-productive. Roe v Wade is a fine example. Why so many hate that decision, is because a group of Judges decided abortion policy for the entire United States. If Roe v Wade had never been decided that way, I beleive most states would not have reasonable abortion laws, without anywhere near the controversy that surrounds them.

Justice Scalia has made the point that there is almost no controversy over women having got the vote, because it was done the proper way – through elected representatives changing the law. If the US Supreme Court had just one day declared women have the vote, then the decision would have far less “ownership” from the public.

I’m not against an entrenched bill of rights, where laws that conflict with it can be struck down. I am against what is generally called judicial activism where issues that should be decided through the political process, are decided overwhelmingly by the judicial process.

Interestingly the Judge who made the ruling is gay, but was a Reagan appointee and is regarded as conservative or tending libertarian.

Going for a more tranquil start to the day today-

Hope everyone has a good day…now I’m off to find some coffee 🙂

NZPA report:

Most voters don’t think Labour can win the next election whether or not Phil Goff stays as leader, an opinion poll has shown. …

It asked voters whether Mr Carter was right, and 42 per cent said he was. A further 32 per cent said Labour can’t win no matter who the leader is.

The poll showed 33 per cent of those identifying themselves as Labour supporters didn’t think Mr Goff could win next year’s election and 54 per cent of Green Party supporters had the same view.

So Carter may be right on that point.

But he may also be right on George Hawkins. NZPA also report:

Labour’s veteran Manurewa MP George Hawkins is going to stand for a local board in Auckland’s super city council elections, and if he is successful he won’t seek re-election to Parliament next year. …

Mr Hawkins will be a candidate for the Manurewa local board in the October elections.

So George is jumping before the EPMU evict him from his seat? And George is known as a good mate of Phil Goff’s. Guess who the new candidate will be backing for Leader?

Wow that is a big jump. I always thought the 6.1% figure last quarter was probably too optimistic (remember the HLFS is only a survey, albeit a large one) so I was expecting a small increase. But this is a large increase.

I tend to think one almost forgets the March 2010 quarter figure (as no one really thinks unemployment has risen by 0.7% in a quarter) and focus on that it has gone from 7.1% in Dec to just 6.8% in June 2010. That is not much at all.

Three thoughts:

1. Stats NZ need to consider why such huge variations from one quarter to another quarter. This shakes confidence a bit in the HLFS.
2. The Govt becomes far more vulnerable to opposition attacks, now they no longer have “the biggest quarterly employment growth” in history to rely on.
3. It is becoming quite obvious the recovery is not that robust and needs to be stronger, and this puts pressure on the Government to consider further growth friendly policies – yes even those put out by the 2025 taskforce

A reader sent me in this cache of Chris Carter’s website. Chris managed to drag himself off his sickbed to delete the post, but that doesn’t work so well on the Internet.

He argues very well, for somone so unwell.

Someone has set up a campaign page for Russell Marshall, who is standing for Mayor of Porirua. I suspect it is a parody. I did like this blurb:

Methodist pastor in the 50s, School Teacher in the 60s, MP in the 80s, Diplomat and Retired pensioner in the 90s, and now your Mayor.

Marshal makes even Jim Anderton look young – he is 74.

Chester blogs:

Life as an MP is not all work. I spent last weekend on the Chatham Islands playing rugby for the Parliamentary Rugby team. (Yes we paid our own travel and accommodation!) Life’s not all play either as we took some time to meet with the District Councillors about the many issues that challenge those on the island. These include the cost of electricity being up at 93 cents per unit; the wharf deteriorating due to poor workmanship and needing replacement ($6m); the airstrip needing lengthening and strengthening ($3.m); the need for a breakwater so ships can birth, unload, and reload without having to ‘stand off’ awaiting calm weather – which at $10,000 per day for 60-90 days per year is quite significant ($7-10m).

93c per unit of electricity is rather steep. I understand two wind turbines will be added to the diesel generators at some stage.

The lack of a long and strong airstrip means planes are limited by capacity so freight is expensive and so is tourism. Vegetables are expensive – $6 per cabbage – but obviously fish and meat are cheap.

Now a simple response can be “well the islanders choose to live there so why should we bother?” But this is a little simplistic given the Chathams are recognised as part of New Zealand and not a foreign country.

New Zealanders are not expected to pay for their electricity generation or taxed for freight costs in the same way Chatham Islanders do. Although there are costs to living rurally in New Zealand, many of the costs Islanders incur are not replicated here.

The compelling argument the Chatham Islanders make is the huge contribution they make to the New Zealand economy, as the Islands are in New Zealand territorial waters. The most lucrative fishing is on the Chatham Rise and this must contribute tens of millions in tax take alone. The exploitation of the wealth of this small community has resulted in very little being contributed to the infrastructure on the island and big dollars for New Zealand.

Chester has a fair point I reckon. Their value in terms of fisheries must be immense.

The Dom Post reports:

Two Wellington streets, named after wealthy Brits who never set foot in New Zealand, are likely to keep their misspelled names.

It comes as two other Wellington locations take a step closer to getting dual Maori and European names, and an unnamed ridge gets a proposed Maori name.

Wellington man George Holmes believes the names of Majoribanks and Nairn streets should be changed to reflect the names of those they were named after – early 1840s New Zealand Company directors Stewart Marjoribanks and Alexander Nairne.

Both men never came to New Zealand but helped fund European settlement.

“It’s extremely poor taste to mangle their names,” Mr Holmes said.

Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said council staff would not recommend the proposed changes.

If we’re going to correct Maori names, by putting an h into Whanganui, we should do the same with British names and stick an e on Nairne and an r into Marjoribanks.

The names changes don’t have to cost anything. Over time people will  use the correct version – but the incorrect versions would I am sure still be accepted for postal purposes etc.

However sounds like the incorrect names will continue. Sadly. As a student of history, I think it is important to get names right.

During the week we caught up with one of Dad’s old school mates. He went on from Wellington College to become the inaugural JRR Tolkien Professor of English at Oxford University. Normally I skip lunches with my parents’ friends, but I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to chat to him about Oxford, and Tolkien (whom he met).

We asked for the apartment manager to recommend a nice place for lunch, and ended up at one of those very fancy Kensington cafes, where the food and the service are top class. As you can see above, they even tie bows through the potato chips!

The food looked so ood I had to keep taking photos of it. Tasted great also.

If you are in London, and have not done so, check out the Hyde Park Tube. Lots of these great sketches there.

There are permanent protesters opposite Parliament, and they are often colourful, or just nuts – like this one. For the record I do not think the Royal Family or freemasons killed Mark Quinsey, but the Real IRA.

I’m a bit surprised that they have a statue of Oliver Cromwell up outside Parliament, considering his corpse was dug up, hung in chains and beheaded. Plus the Irish basically hate him as he killed lots of them, and sold 50,000 more into slavery.

Got invited to the Marquis of Granby for leaving drinks for a staffer from Conservative Central Office and had a fun time catching up with some old friends, and meeting some more staffers from CCO.

I love how in London the licenses allow people to drink outside on the street – you get more people drinking outside, than inside.

Also had a good catchup with various blog people at the Southerner – my only regret was I could not stay long as I had a bqq to attend also.

On Sunday, we flew out from Heathrow to Vienna.

Tracy Watkins reports:

The United States is signalling a deeper relationship with New Zealand, including a step-up in military training and exercises between the two countries.

Is that a primal scream I hear from Keith Locke?

“When [US] President [Barack] Obama came to power with Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton together [they] took a number of bilateral reviews and one of those at the top of the list was New Zealand … I think there is a recognition that this is a relationship that was underperforming.”

What had come through “resoundingly” in the review was that it was “profoundly in American interests to take the relationship with New Zealand to the next level, maybe the next two levels.”

So if we were very very very very good friends, does this mean we are now very, very, very, very, very very good friends?

But a widely anticipated White House visit by Prime Minister John Key now looks unlikely till next year.

Campbell said Key had been a “big hit” in Washington at the Nuclear Security Summit this year but he was unable to give a commitment about any meeting between him and President Barack Obama in Washington.

They’re called mid-terms. Obama will be busy until they are out of the way.

Audrey Young reports:

Chris Carter’s voluntary two-month leave from Parliament has highlighted loopholes in the rules on MPs’ absences that could allow an MP to stay off work until the next election on almost full pay.

Speaker Lockwood Smith said yesterday he wants to address the unsatisfactory rules.

An electorate MP could stay away for the rest of the parliamentary term with very little penalty – a maximum of $30 a week in a sitting week – under the Civil List Act 1979.

Dr Smith said yesterday that was inadequate and he wanted it addressed.

“I have a real concern for the integrity of Parliament and it worries me that a member could, in a worst case scenario, decide they are not coming back at all this term,”

Yeah, the penalty for absence without leave should be something alone the lines of 50% of their pay – not less than 1% of their pay.

Mr Carter, who was adamant during his attacks last week on Labour leader Phil Goff, that he wasn’t unwell, is said by friends to be sick and in need of rest. …

Dr Smith said he had received a letter from Mr Carter’s lawyer – friend Claudia Elliot – saying he would be away from Parliament for two months because he was “unwell and unfit to attend work”.

I guess a lawyer’s letter trumps a doctor’s certificate as they earn more money. Who needs to spend six years studying internal medicine etc, when a lawyer can determine not just that you are sick – but even calculate in advance how much leave you will need.

The Herald reports:

The Human Rights Commission says Maori Party MP Hone Harawira needs to consider whether his personal feelings are helpful to race relations.

Good to have the HRC comment.

Mr Harawira said in a weekend newspaper interview he would not feel comfortable if one of his seven children brought home a Pakeha partner, and believed many Pakeha would feel the same about Maori.

Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said members of the public had contacted the Human Rights Commission about the remarks.

He said Mr Harawira’s comments reflected an “unwelcome prejudice” toward Pakeha, adding that census statistics on babies’ ethnicities contradicted Mr Harawira’s views.

It is prejudice. Especially as it was painted purely negatively towards Pakeha. If Hone had said he prefers his children to date Maori as it helps keeps the Maori culture alive, that would be somewhat different. But he basically said he does not want them dating whiteys – would have no problems with Pacific Islanders.

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said the remarks were not racist and probably mirrored the feelings of many people. …

“I think it’s just not divisive at all. It’s a view point.”

Not racist and not divisive?

So if a Caucasian Member of Parliament came out and said that he would not want his children to date Maori or Pacific Islanders, that would not be racist, and that would not be divisive?

I’m very disappointed. If the Maori Party ever talk about prejudice or racism, then their words are going to be rather hollow in future.

Have been too busy to manage to blog every day on the trip, so here is the rest of the week in London in one condensed post.

The problem hasn’t just been the daytime activities, but also work has been very busy. When I scheduled the trip I thought July/August would be quite quiet, but have ended up having heaps of extra polls scheduled since the trip started. This has meant that most mornings I am having to analyse poll results and most evenings am having to prepare questions and databases.

Now don’t get me wrong, it is very useful to be able to still earn money, while out of the country. Helps cover the costs of the trip in fact!  But it does mean the holiday is not a total holiday.

Barclays have sponsored them, but they are universally known as Boris’ Bikes, and got launched this week. It’s a great idea, stolen from the French in fact. You register for a key, and the can grab a bike from any stand and use it, dropping it off at any other stand. If you use it for less than half an hour there is no charge.

This is the “green” at Parsons Green, where my Mum lived when she was a nurse in London. It’s a very nice place- less busy than most of London.

And this is St Dionis, where my olds got married around 49 years ago. Sadly the church wasn’t open (once upon a time churches were open all the time), so only saw the outside.

This is the apartment we stayed at in London. Around 500 metres from Gloucester Road or Earls Court Tube. A very nice area. The apartment wasn’t huge and they are expensive, but it was preferable to a hotel.

Foyles is one of the huge bookshops in London. I managed to restrict myself to just buying three books there. One of them is “Third Man” by Peter Mandelson which is a fascinating insight into New Labour, and the Blair/Brown relationship.

I also got three books at Heathrow, so adding those to the ten I started with, I am now travelling with 16 books. Have finished six of them so far.

This is the rear side of Buckingham Palace, seen from their gardens. It is the end point of the tour of the state rooms.

The state rooms tour is only available eight weeks a year, and by chance opened the week we were there. I’ve previously seen the Mews and the Gallery. This is a tour well worth doing if you visit from late July to late September.

There is an outdoor cafe at the back of the Palace. I declined to enrich the Windsors further.

The birds enjoy Her Majesty’s back lawn.

To exit the grounds, you walk for around 800 metres through the Palace garden, which is almost worth doing for itself.

A short walk away, by Hyde Park is this statue of the man our capital city is named after – Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington.

Most people know he defeated the French under Napolean at the Battle of Waterloo (which globally was very significant), but not so many know he also served as Prime Minister of the UK (twice) and also was elected to the Irish House of Commons earlier on. His major achievement as PM was giving Catholics full suffrage!

Wellington, ranks along Nelson and Churchill as one of the three great British war leaders.

The Dom Post editorial:

Spot the difference. Once the Government’s new industrial relations legislation takes effect a member of the public will, if requested, have to supply her employer with a medical certificate for even one day’s absence from work. Labour MP Chris Carter becomes stressed and party president Andrew Little unilaterally declares he will be taking two months’ sick leave.

My tweet:

(I) would like a job where I get two months sick leave on full pay when I call for my boss to be sacked

got retweeted by a fair few people.

Mr Carter may well be unwell. He has certainly appeared stressed since his lavish spending on overseas travel while a minister in the last government was made public. However, his party’s concern for his psychological wellbeing would ring truer if his colleagues had not queued up to publicly question his sanity and if the clamour had preceded, rather than succeeded, his attempt to destabilise Phil Goff’s leadership by sending an anonymous letter to journalists advising of disharmony in Labour’s ranks.

Carter’s asking for sick leave is a stroke of genius, after Phil and Trevor called him unwell and unbalanced. It is so cunning, I almost wonder if the idea came from abroad!

Mr Carter’s absence from Parliament may reduce Labour’s embarrassment in the short term, but the party is now stuck, for two months at least, with an MP who says his leader cannot win the next election.

Far from looking strong and decisive, Mr Goff looks hasty and ill-considered. He has outmanoeuvred himself.

And the media attention will remain. Once Carter emerges from seclusion, they will ask him if he has changed his mind over the leadership.

Quite a few tough ones. Quiz is here. 51 seconds.

Stuff reports:

An average of 82 hectares of agricultural land per day has been approved for sale to offshore investors, pushing the Government close to deciding on rules to tighten farm sales to foreigners.

Prime Minister John Key says the figures prove “significant foreign purchases” have taken place. The lion’s share of investment has come from the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe.

Key yesterday held talks with Finance Minister Bill English on possible changes to the Overseas Investment Act to protect farms.

“I think we’re making progress in this area,” Key said.

“My concern is about what I see potentially unfolding and that is quite large tracts of New Zealand land coming available for sale rapidly and the consolidation of those farms in foreign hands and whether that’s in New Zealand’s best interests, and my view is, it’s not.”

Foreign investment is generally beneficial to New Zealand. If you restrict foreign owners from purchasing land in NZ, there are two potential negative impacts:

1. The current owner of the land is unable to sell the land for as much as they otherwise would have got. This means less wealth in NZ.
2. The foreign owner of the land, as they valued it more highly, may be able to put it to better economic use (as they need higher returns to cover the higher capital) and this can contribute to a more efficient economy.

The Herald reports:

Labour leader Phil Goff says Chris Carter is not his problem any more and the caucus is moving on.

He disputes that the two months’ leave Mr Carter wants to take mean a ongoing cloud will hang over his leadership and says the issue is now behind him and he has his caucus’ support.

Oh dear. Maybe in fantasy land. After Phil demanded Carter be expelled from the party, the issue will remain live until the NZ Council do so. And I am unsure they will.

However, Mr Goff said it was not up to the whips because Mr Carter was no longer in Labour’s caucus.

“It’s got nothing to do with me. Chris Carter is not part of our caucus, he doesn’t need to apply for leave and I am not giving it or withholding it.”

Not that simple. He is still listed as a Labour Member of Parliament, and until someone writes to the Speaker to say he is not a Labour MP, then he is.

Prime Minister John Key said he doubted anything was wrong with the errant MP and it felt like an excuse.

“He didn’t look very sick to me last week, he looked fairly exercised about the fact that he didn’t think Phil Goff could win an election.”

I think it was unwise of the PM to offer an opinion, even though his observation is not an unreasonable one. When your opponents are in trouble, you are best to say nothing at all. It looks a bit cheap to put the boot in.

This is a bit out of character for the PM, and I like the Dim-Post’s theory on why this has happened, noting that Phil Goff has started to talk about how relaxed he is about things!

Mr Goff said he stood by his earlier comments that he expected nominations for Mr Carter’s Te Atatu seat to reopen and that he would not stay in the party long.

Words that may come back to haunt.

The Herald reports:

Former politician and high-profile broadcaster Pam Corkery has been linked to plans for New Zealand’s first brothel for women.

The Herald understands the ex-Alliance MP is on the hunt for a property to house the bordello – where sex workers will be male and clients female.

I’m very glad Pam has finally found a suitable job.

One source said the concept involved a spa, bar and bordello where women could “come and either just drink and be titillated, or go the whole nine yards”.

Pleased to see gender equality in this area.

Mr Ellis, who was approached by the Herald after it learnt of his meeting, said Corkery wanted the brothel plan “to be shot as a TV project”. …

Ms Corkery set up a company, DWT Limited, last Friday jointly with television producer Rebekah Freeman Hay, and it is believed that the brothel will continue to operate after filming for the proposed TV series is complete.

The reality TV show would be focused on the hiring of the male sex workers.

They may even be able to get NZ on Air funding!

Ms Pickering said the main clientele would probably be “cougars” – older women who are attracted to and have sex with significantly younger men.

But the business would still struggle to survive in New Zealand.

“It’s easier to meet men, and get picked up at bars and night spots.”

I agree cougars will be a natural target for Pam’s venture. But she may be competing with young Hamiora Gardiner in Wellington who provides his services for free, so long as you don’t mind being taped.

UPDATE: I note Cactus Kate approves, and says she might even patronise the service so long as Pam’s boys can guarantee good sex and are not dud roots.