Audrey Young at the Herald scores all the Ministers.

Her average rating is 6.5. Top scores were Jacinda Ardern and Kris Faafoi both 9/10.

Who was down the bottom?

• 4/10 – Phil Twyford, David Clark, Shane Jones
• 5/10 – Iain Lees-Galloway, Jenny Salesa, Peeni Henare, Aupito William Sio

It is rare to have three of the most important portfolios (housing, health and economic development) held by the three worst performing ministers.

Today is May Day. It was chosen by communists and socialists to commemorate the Haymarket affair where 11 people were killed after a dynamite bomb was thrown at Police.

It seems an appropriate day to commemorate all those killed by communism. The numbers below exclude war dead. This is deaths by government.

1. China 73.2 million, mainly famine
2. USSR 58.6 million, famine and executions
3. Russia (1918 – 1922) 3.3 million
4. North Korea 3.1 million, mainly famine
5. Cambodia 2.6 million, genocide
6. Afghanistan 1.8 million
7. Vietnam 1.7 million
8. Ethiopa 1.3 million
9. Yugoslavia 1.1 million
10. Chinese Soviet Republic 700k
11. Mozambique 700k
12. Romania 435k
13. Bulgaria 222k
14. Angola 125k
15. Mongolia 100k
16. Albania 100k
17. Cuba 73k
18. East Germany 70k
19. Czechoslovakia 65k
20. Laos 56k

That’s a total of almost 150 million dead due to communism. We should remember all those dead, especially when we see people proclaim they are a Marxist or communist. They will insist all those other countries just did it wrong, of course.

Stuff reports:

Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon claims he has been “shut out” of conversations with the NZ Transport Agency but Transport Minister Phil Twyford says Falloon is “playing politics”.
Falloon says he has been trying to arrange meetings with the agency regarding several issues – including upcoming roading projects in the Mid-South Canterbury area – but his requests have been declined. …

Falloon said previously organising meetings had been pretty informal and done via phone but he could understand, in some cases, why approval was required.
“Under the previous National Government, authorisation was needed when MPs wanted to visit sensitive and hazardous sites like research organisations undertaking chemical testing. Even then they were approved.
“This was a request for a meeting in an office, hardly anything that could be deemed hazardous. Instead I’ve been sent a letter outlining some points quite irrelevant to the issues I wanted to raise.”
Transport Minister Phil Twyford said Falloon was “playing politics”.
“He received a full update from the Transport Agency including on the feedback they received from the local community.
‘”No-one wants NZTA officials tied up in meetings when they have important work to get on with,” Twyford said.

So this Government, which pledged to be the most open and transparent ever, has banned NZTA from meeting local MPs over local roading issues.

Twyford arrogantly proclaims meeting a local MP is an unimportant meeting of no value.

Just another reason why a Government of equal measures incompetence and arrogance should go.

The Guardian reports:

Migrant communities must be compelled to do more to integrate to help combat the rise of “far-right bigotry”, Tony Blair has warned.
The former prime minister said that successive governments had “failed to find the right balance between diversity and integration”, while the concept of multiculturalism has been misused as a way to justify a “refusal to integrate”.

This is spot on.

I’m pro-immigration and pro-multiculturalism. But both are contingent on the migrants and cultures being able to integrate with existing populations. Integration is not assimilation. It is critical to harmonious society.

If Europe didn’t have such a problem with non-integration with some (not most) immigrants, then the populists and nationalists would not have gained so much support. When mainstream parties fail to deliver, it is the extremes that prosper.

“Without the right to, for example, practise one’s faith, diversity would have no content; but without the duty to integrate, ‘culture’ or ‘faith’ can be used as a way of upsetting that basic social contract that binds us together.
“Government cannot and should not be neutral on this question. It has to be a passionate advocate and, where necessary, an enforcer of the duty to integrate while protecting the proper space for diversity. Integration is not a choice; it is a necessity.”

Hear hear.

The Herald reports:

Controversial church leader Bishop Brian Tamaki has warned of revolts in prisons if the Government continues to deny access to Destiny Church’s Man Up anti-violence programme.
Despite his claims, the Government and Corrections have repeatedly said Destiny Church has never made an application to run the course in Corrections’ facilities.
Today in a series of tweets, Tamaki warned of prisoner uprisings, he and his wife Hannah traded insults with Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Tamaki called Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis a liar.

Tamaki shows again he is a charlatan. Threatening violence if his anti-violence programme isn’t funded is very stupid.

News.com.au reports:

The US Commerce Department’s first-quarter report puts GDP growth at 3.2 per cent, well above the 2.3 per cent mark economists predicted and the strongest first-quarter print in four years.

That’s very decent growth.

Mr Trump’s good news is reportedly stoking fears among Democrats as they continue to grapple with producing an economic message of their own.
Celinda Lake, a leading Democratic strategist and pollster, told Politico this could prove “disastrous” for the party next year.
“We don’t really have a robust national message right now,” she said. “We will tend to talk about things like paid leave and equal pay — and those things are all very popular policies. But they don’t add up to an economic message that is robust enough to win the presidency and beat Donald Trump who talks about a very robust economic policy.”
She added: “You may agree or not with it, but you know what (Trump’s message) is. And Democrats, you don’t know what it is. And that’s a recipe for disaster in 2020.”
Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt said the 2020 election “isn’t going to be close”, citing the GDP figures as evidence the Trump economy is getting “stronger and stronger”.

As Bill Clinton said “It’s the economy, stupid”

The latest Newspoll had the Coalition improving to 49% TPP to Labor’s 51%.

In March it was 46% to 54%.

Most pundits are saying Morrison is campaigning well and Shorten not so well.

Still have to favour Labor to win at this stage, but these results show campaigns do matter.

The Herald reports:

Top journalist and commentator Heather du Plessis-Allan is the new host of Newstalk ZB’s Drive show.
The current presenter of the station’s Wellington Mornings show, du Plessis-Allan has been at the forefront of New Zealand’s news for 15 years.
The Herald on Sunday columnist has hosted prime-time TV shows, grilled politicians in her role as a press gallery journalist, broken many stories including the Saudi Sheep Farm saga and an investigation that showed up flaws in our firearms laws.
Du Plessis-Allan will step into the Drive slot on May 13. She replaces host Larry Williams, who has departed after 27 years in the job.

A great choice for the role. Following on from Larry means you have huge shoes to fill, but Heather is the best person for the job.

Mike Hosking writes:

Jacinda Ardern is a compassionate, likeable, engaging and open-hearted leader who perhaps in those dreadful days post March15 had the finest moments of her premiership, not just at that point in time, but most likely ever.
It was the part of the job she is a natural at.
But knowing when to move on is an art, and if there is a criticism in our response, it is the simple truth that we might just have spent too much time and too much energy not moving forward and the Crusaders debacle exemplifies this.
No one — literally no one — was talking about the connection to the Crusaders, and religion, or history and what it may or may not mean.

The same way the Highlanders are a team, not marauding killers.
The Hurricanes are a team, not a massive destructive weather system.
The Chiefs are a team, not an insensitively, culturally inappropriately named mistake.

Good points. Will there be calls for The Chiefs to be renamed also?

It will be interesting to see what the decision will be. Whatever they decide, there will be a backlash.

Newsroom reports:

The Provincial Growth Fund was on the cusp of investing $30 million to purchase stakes in two private airlines – including one that had not even applied for funding – before advice from sceptical Treasury and Ministry of Transport officials encouraged ministers to put a stop to the plan.

Thank God for officials.

Applications of between $1 million and $20m are required to go to a Regional Economic Development Ministers’ meeting for sign off. Those ministers are Shane Jones, Grant Robertson, David Parker, and Phil Twyford. The ministers are briefed by the MBIE’s Provincial Development Unit (PDU), and an independent advisory panel on proposals
The PDU advised that the $20m request be downgraded to an investment of $15m, but also recommended that another investment of $15m be made in another airline. This is noteworthy as the second company had not yet applied for funding from the Provincial Growth Fund. 

This is what happens when you tell MBIE they have to find ways of spending a billion dollars. They come back with “Hey let’s give millions to this company, even though they haven’t even asked for it”

Ministers appeared interested enough in the proposal to ask for more information, although they were worried about the precedent the proposal would set. 

A precedent of giving money to companies that haven’t asked for it.

The proposal was shot down at the Regional Economic Development Ministers meeting on 6 December 2018. Jones said that while he was keen for the proposal to go further, his colleagues were less enthusiastic. 

Hooray for Grant, Phil and David who at least have some fiscal rectitude.

The advice notes significant concerns from Treasury and the Ministry of Transport. In particular it records scepticism about soliciting a funding application from a company that had not yet sought PGF funding.
“[The company] has not applied to the PGF for funding, and we have not seen any analysis of what benefit a $15 million investment in this company would provide,” the briefing said. 

Easy when it is taxpayer money to not care about things such as benefits. Shane think electoral benefits are the only ones that count.

Henry Cooke at Stuff reports:

Already that lobby is hard at work. This week Family First released a “shock poll” from reputable company Curia, with just 18 per cent of respondents supporting “lifting restrictions” of cannabis for recreational use. This was drastically less than the 65 per cent of people in a poll from the same company in 2017 who supported it being either legalised or decriminalised for personal use.

A few things explain this. One is the fact that the Family First poll also included a bunch of questions likely to make anyone think twice about relaxing cannabis rules like: “Are tobacco companies pushing for cannabis legalisation?” and “Do you think that drivers using cannabis are more likely or less likely to cause accidents?”.
The other is the question. “Personal” and “recreational” are very different words. Family First didn’t let voters pick and choose between decriminalisation and legalisation, as the earlier poll did, it simply asked if people wanted the Government to “Lift restrictions for recreational use”, alongside another more popular option to “Lift restrictions for medical but not recreational use”.
This poll doesn’t deliver the knockout blow to proponents of legalisation that Family First might have hoped. But it does show us two things: that the campaign is going to matter a lot and that the wording of the question will too.

This is very astute analysis. The two polls (both done by Curia) show that people respond different ways to how questions are framed, and what they are focused on. If people are thinking about whether people should be criminalised for personal cannabis use, they tend to say no. If people are thinking about the harmful effects of cannabis, they tend to be more cautious.

Until the Government comes up with a specific proposal and wording, it would be a brave person who predicts the outcome in advance.

The Green Party confidence and supply agreement read “legalisation” not “decriminalisation” – so this won’t be a case of police looking the other way. But legalisation is different everywhere, from state monopolies in Uruguay to big business commercialism in the US. Kiwis will demand a real idea of what path we will be going down, especially as the vote will likely be binding.
Getting the details out in the open could see some supporters fall away as their preferred option is ruled out. On the other hand, it stops the anti-legalisation lobby from filling the void with suggestions every seven-year-old is going to be able to buy a joint at the corner dairy. 

I don’t favour state monopolies in anything!

Stuff reports:

Wellington City councillors are sticking to the script as they throw their weight behind a proposal which would see the yearly cost of residents’ parking hiked by more than 50 per cent.
At present, a yearly permit costs $126.50 but, if the proposal is approved, it will jump to $195. Monthly permits would increase from $10 to $17 – a 70 per cent rise.

Houses that use on street parking instead of off street parking tend to be cheaper. But it costs money to provide off street parking. I have no problem with this proposed increase, as it is basically user pays.

$200 for a year of on street parking is pretty damn good value. In the CBD you can pay $40 for a day’s parking.

Oh my God.

The Herald reports:

The pregnant wife of a Sri Lankan suicide bomber has detonated a suicide vest killing her self, her children, and police officers.
The wife of the suspected mastermind behind the Easter Sunday bombings detonated the explosives as police raided the family’s Colombo home, Sri Lanka’s Deputy Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said.

I can’t fathom how someone can kill their children, and convince themselves it is for a good cause. You must be going against every human instinct you have.

At the centre of the plot that has devastated the peaceful Southeast Asian nation are two brothers, according to reports. They were the sons of a rich spice merchant, and they lived in one of the most lavish mansions in their wealthy suburb in Colombo.
The mastermind of the suicide bomb plot is now believed to have been Inshaf Ibrahim, in his 30s, who owned a copper factory. He is said to have detonated his own explosive device at the Shangri-La hotel, by the busy breakfast buffet, a source close to the family told reporters.

Often those who fall for extremist ideology are poor, unemployed etc and hence see a way out through extremism. But what is scary here is these brothers were very wealthy, had family yet still decided that they had a duty to slaughter innocent people through suicide bombing.

The Herald reports:

A vegan cafe which became a “punching bag” after introducing an 18 per cent ‘man tax’, is closing down so its owner can pursue some “hands-on” work.
Handsome Her opened in Melbourne in 2017 and made international headlines with a bold approach to making a difference in closing the gender pay gap.
The owners of the Brunswick venture asked men to pay an 18 per cent premium one week a month and advertised ruled on a chalkboard out front that included “women have priority seating” and “respect goes both ways”.
The “tax” paid by male diners went to Elizabeth Morgan House Aboriginal Women’s Services.

How utterly non-surprising that it has gone out of business.

Why only ask men to pay an 18% premium? 60 year olds earn more than 20 year olds, so a premium for them also. If Asians earn more than non-Asians (as is the case in the US), will they also charge Asians more? What about Jews? How about a surcharge on Jews because they earn more than non-Jews?

Jordan Carter of InternetNZ has a very useful and thoughtful blog on the Paris meeting discussing violent extremist content online.

He has six thoughts on what is needed from it to be successful:

1. Keep the scope narrow to “terrorist and violent extremist content” rather than a wider scope which hits free speech issues. Most people accept inciting violence is not acceptable.
2. Have clear targets: Focus on the giant social media companies with the global reach, not the entire Internet.
3. Be clear about the ask: What do you want the social media companies to do, beyond the status quo, bearing in mind such content is already outside their terms and conditions?
4. Have a sensible application of the ask: Overly tight automated filtering will lead to overblocking
5. Measure success and have a cost for failure
6. Make the discussion inclusive: This shouldn’t be a decision just for Governments.

Stuff reports:

More than 100 people – including white supremacists, Muslim converts and people left disgruntled by the Christchurch terror attack – are being actively monitored by police.
Stuff has obtained part of a top secret list that names those who are of concern to police following the March 15 terror attack. Stuff has chosen not to name anyone on the list or contact them for security reasons.

This is a huge security breach. The list of people under surveillance by the Police as potential security risks should be held incredibly tightly. How it could end up (in part) in the hands of the media must be answered.

A white supremacist called John Earnest has killed one and wounded three at the Congregation Chabad synagogue.

It sounds like those in attendance fought back to some degree, which prevented a higher death toll.

Earnest is a white supremacist. He claims in an open letter that he doesn’t “care about the debt-based currency that Jews like to pretend is money” and he would “die a thousand times over to prevent the doomed fate that the Jews have planned for my race”. He goes on to blame Jews for everything from the news media, marxism, feminism, pornography, slavery, race mixing, the murder of Simon of Trent in 1475 and oh yeah the killing of Jesus.

I repeat some of his insanity here, so people can see how warped these white supremacists are. He sees anyone not white European as an “anti-human’. Also he explicitly cites the Christchurch terrorist so there is a real lesson here about how extremism encourages extremism.

The Herald reports:

More than $1 million of taxpayer money has been spent on 193 slushy machines in a bid to keep prison guards cool over summer.
Opposition leader Simon Bridges has called out the Government, saying it’s “irresponsible” and “wasteful” spending.
But Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has reportedly said he didn’t care what Bridges had to say and he supported the health and safety spend.
Documents released to National under the Official Information Act revealed Corrections spent $1.095m on 193 ice slushy machines at the end of last year.

That’s around $5,700 per slushy machine!

You can buy home slushy machines for around $100. So even if one accepted that taxpayers should fund slushy machines for Corrections staff, they seem to have gone for the most expensive machines possible.