The 46th Vice-President of the United States has died, aged 84. He was arguably the most powerful Vice-President in the history of the United States. This was partially because he had no interest in becoming President. If you look at all elected former VPs, you have:

• Vance – will stand for President in 2028
• Harris – stood for President in 2024
• Pence – stood for President in 2024
• Biden – stood for President in 2020
• Gore – stood for President in 2000
• Quayle – wanted to stand in 1996, bad had bad health
• George HW Bush – stood for President in 1980 and 1988 and 1992
• Mondale – stood in 1984
• Agnew – disgraced
• Humphrey – stood in 1968
• LBJ – stood in 1964
• Nixon – stood in 1960, 68 and 72
• Truman – stood in 1948

His lack of ambition to be President is part of why Bush gave him so much authority. The rest was probably his background. He had been Chief of Staff to a President and Secretary of Defence to another.

He was probably more hated by the left than Bush. Many saw him as the power behind the throne. I used to joke that Bush was unlikely to be assassinated, because that would result in President Cheney.

He once joked he didn’t mind being called Darth Vader, as that was one of the nicer things Democrats called him.

Andrew Little has announced his appointments for WCC. There are six Labour Crs, four Green Crs and six independents. Let’s look at how he has allocated things.

• Deputy Mayor: Labour:
• Committee Chairs: Labour 1, Greens 1, Independents 1
• Subcommittee Chairs: Independents 3, Greens 1
• Committee Deputy Chairs: Labour 2, Independents 1
• Subcommittee Deputy Chairs: Labour 2, Independents 2

Not much to criticise there. Seems to be a good start that he wants to unite, not divide. I also like that the appointments are only for 18 months, so that he can shuffle around if things are not working.

He’s also put a stop to the nonsense of fencing off the ocean, so again a good start.

The Herald reports:

A rookie constable leaked police intelligence to her gang member boyfriend shortly after starting her new career, the Herald can reveal. …

Knowing her boyfriend’s gang affiliation, Smith sent him the name of someone she described as a “snitch”.

She had arrested someone for minor traffic and theft offences in August 2022. 

After transporting him to the police station, Smith sat in on an intelligence-gathering interview conducted by one of her colleagues.

During the interview, the suspect disclosed the addresses of properties in west Auckland that he believed were being used to manufacture drugs.

After the meeting, Smith messaged her Killer Beez boyfriend and disclosed the identity of the “snitch” she had arrested.

“His name’s [redacted] he was giving intel at work … names of some cook houses out west,” Smith wrote in a message.

This is incredibly serious. Revealing the identity of a snitch to a gang member could result in the snitch being wounded or killed. She should face serious criminal consequences for what she did.

The Herald reports:

The Oxford Union is, in its own estimation, “the world’s most prestigious debating society”, where international guests and speakers have sat for pointed interviews and stood for lively debate in its hallowed halls since 1823.

Guests have included Bernie Sanders, Ronald Reagan, Ricky Gervais, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein and Michael Jackson – and, just this May, Charlie Kirk, the firebrand conservative American activist who was killed in September.

Today, the Oxford Union president-elect, a 20-year-old student who appeared to celebrate Kirk’s killing, has been removed from office. 

He lost a confidence vote that has drawn attention among student members and thousands of alumni from around the world who are eligible to cast ballots by proxy.

Sky News reports that 501 voters had confidence in George Abaraonye, while 1228 wanted to remove him.

Pleased to see Oxford Union members know right from wrong.

What was shocking about Abaraonye’s reaction is that Kirk wasn’t some unknown political figure to him. He had actually met and debated Kirk at Oxford just a few months earlier. I can understand (but still condemn) such a reaction in response to the shooting of a stranger whose politics you disagree with, but you almost have to be a sociopath to have actually met someone, had a very civil debate with them, and them instinctively celebrate the fact they have been shot.

Dave Armstrong writes:

Meanwhile, who would have predicted the tumult on the left? Labour has largely avoided controversy, helped by having a safe, if unspectacular, pair of hands in the form of Chris Hipkins – and no new policy to bicker about. But the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are starting to look like models of dysfunction.

Greens have lost one third of their caucus in under two years, and Te Pati Maori are trying to deselect some of their own MPs.

Hipkins will be hoping things get so bad for the coalition that Labour and the Greens get the required number of seats to govern without TPM.

He can hope for that, but 0 out of 67 polls since the election have shown that as possible.

The problem for Labour will be the scaremongering tactics the right will use if Labour suggests working with TPM. Peters and Seymour are masters of stirring up anti-Māori sentiment, as we have seen this term.

Here Armstrong conflates things. Being anti-TPM is not being anti-Maori. TPM do not speak for all, or even most Maori.

The Post reports:

Two long-discussed Wellington roading projects — worth a combined $6.4 billion — have taken a major step forward, with investment cases signed off and fast-tracking confirmed.

Newly released plans show the Wellington tunnels project – which includes a second Mr Victoria tunnel – is expected to cost up to $3.8b and a new Petone to Grenada highway $2.6b.

Four lanes for both tunnels will make sure a huge difference in Wellington. And a direct link between Petone and the Northern Suburbs will also be massive.

But the catch is you’re likely to have to pay for it.

The investment cases for the high-profile projects included them being toll roads. Bishop also said congestion charging was on the table.

Great – we should pay for it. When it takes me an hour to get from Kilbirnie to Johnsonville, I’d happily pay $10 to make it less than half an hour. Hell I’d pay $30.

Back on September 12 I blogged:

Reliable sources tell me this is much bigger than I realised. There is a huge split in TPM, basically between the Tamihere aligned MPs and the rest. I have been told that some existing MPs are facing deselection, and that this is behind what we are seeing with the Whip sacked and Ferris defying the co-leaders.

This was some weeks before the infighting went public. My reliable sources were indeed reliable.

The latest is:

Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere is suggesting two of the party’s MPs should resign as he accuses them of “greed, avarice and entitlement”. 

In a social media post this afternoon, Tamihere names Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris as seeking to challenge for the party’s leadership.

This is something that is called democracy in most parties. However TPM is different in that they have four leadership positions – two co-leaders, the president and the general manager. Three of those four are held by Tamihere family members – Tamihere, his daughter and his son-in-law.

He urges them to do the “honourable thing”, which he likens to Hone Harawira’s 2011 split from the Māori Party. 

“I guarantee Kapa-Kingi and Ferris will not do the same thing because their conduct is not based on mana, is not based on integrity and honesty or on principle. Their conduct is based on greed, avarice and entitlement.”

This from the guys whose charitable senior management team get an average salary of $500,000!!

I remind people yet agains that every single poll since the election has shown the only way Chris Hipkins could form Government is with the support of Te Pati Maori.

Mike Yardley writes:

As someone who has worked in broadcasting for over 30 years — and has admittedly been the subject of several failed complaints to the BSA — I believe it has had its day. It should be abolished.

Alternatively, perhaps it should fold its tent and transfer oversight of broadcasting standards to the Media Council. This self-regulatory body is funded by its industry members.

This is my preferred model. One industry led self-regulatory body for all media. No appointments by Government.

the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has surely bitten off more than it can chew by trying to broaden its remit.

With so much media content shifting to newer platforms, far beyond terrestrial and satellite television bands and AM/FM radio frequencies, the BSA is in a battle for its survival. Its authority is steadily diminishing, and this taxpayer-funded entity is facing an existential struggle to remain relevant.

But to try and argue that it has jurisdiction over digital-only content such as Sean Plunket’s The Platform is absolute over-reach.

It is huge over-reach.

Radio NZ reports:

Hipkins bristled at questions over why neither the policy document, nor accompanying media release, included any figures – including the $200m capital injection later announced by finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds.

“It was certainly in earlier materials. So I think it was just simply an oversight that it wasn’t contained in the press statement.

“As you would have seen, Barbara mentioned it in her introductory remarks, so it was clearly part of the announcement we made on Monday.”

Pressed over how that occurred, Hipkins suggested reporters were overreacting: “Oh, don’t be so lazy. We’re not gonna provide everything to you in advance, and have you not bother to show up to the announcement.”

So they forgot to include the $200 million cost in both the policy and the press release. Or they didn’t forget, and it was made up on the spot. Mickey Mouse either way.

I’ve been thinking more about how it will play out on the basis that this is not to be a maximise wealth fund, but a must be invested in NZ companies we approve of fund. Here’s how it will go.

• Labour previously had procurement rules that contracts are preferred to companies with a Maori or Pacific owner. So the ethnicity of the owners will no doubt be a criteria for the fund.
• The Greens will insist the fund can only invest in industries they approve of, and not in any company that produces greenhouse gas emissions (which is almost all of them)
• Te Pati Maori will insist that the fund only invest in companies that agree with their interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi

I suspect you’d end up getting a better return sticking the money in a term deposit!

Stuff reports:

Britain’s biggest police force has announced it will no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents.

The Metropolitan Police said it hoped the move would provide a “clearer direction for officers”, allowing them to focus on criminal investigations.

The force said incidents would still be recorded for intelligence purposes but officers would not get involved in “policing toxic culture war debates”.

The announcement came after Graham Linehan, the comedy writer who was arrested at Heathrow by five armed officers over messages posted on social media, was told he would face no further action.

Both are very good things.

The Police should only investigate crimes, not hurt feelings.

And you should only be arrested for a tweet if it is seriously threatening violence against an individual.

Radio NZ reports:

A high school offering traditional activities and languages for Pasifika girls will open its doors to 120 students in Term 1 next year.

Sisters United Academy, sponsored by Auckland youth organisation Sisters United, is one of the latest charter schools to be announced by the coalition.

It will teach students in years 9 to13, with those in years 12 and 13 offered flexible combinations of classroom learning, internships, tertiary study, overseas opportunities, or work experience.

Sisters United co-founder Kendal Collins said the new school would be a game changer for her community.

“It’s really a future focused school for our girls and Pasifika-led and culture-centered, so the students learn through their culture, their storytelling, it’s through the language.

“Each girl gets to learn their heritage language through the school and it’s not just an add on. The culture is embedded into every subject that they learn. It’s very personalised.” …

“This is something that’s been needed within our community for so long now and this charter school opportunity is the perfect way to really show that our kids need to learn in a different way and that these different schools that are coming out, is such a blessing because not everybody suits the mainstream system.

“Our goal is to create an environment where our girls are so excited to turn up everyday because they love what they’re learning, they love who they’re learning with and they love the teachers who are teaching them.”

Labour and Greens are vowing to close down all charter schools. They don’t want this flexibility in the state education system. They want such flexibility to only be available in expensive private schools with huge fees.

Some reasons for optimism and pessimism in the poll of Palestinians in the West Bank.

• Only 26% support and 46% oppose what Hamas did on 7 October 2023
• Only 31% support kidnapping of civilians and 57% oppose
• 52% support a two state solution, 28% support a Palestine covering Israel with no Jews and 16% support a single state with Jews and Palestinians.
• Support for a possible two state solution rises to 75% when given details
• However 56% believe Israel has no right to exist.
• 43% support negotiations, 25% non violent resistance and 17% armed struggle
• 39% wants Gaza governed by a Fatah-Hamas coalition, 24% by the Palestinian Authority, 17% a technocratic government and 8% Hamas

There are real differences of opinion between Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. One shouldn’t think of them as a monolithic bloc. In East Jerusalem more Palestinians want Israeli citizenship than Palestinian for example.

The Spinoff reports:

Over in Papatoetoe in the south of the city, police are investigating alleged election fraud after a surprise result that saw every member of a new political ticket elected in a landslide. The vote counts in the suburb stand out. Whereas turnout slumped almost everywhere else in the city, including next door Ōtara, in Papatoetoe, it rose by 7%. Incumbent board members received roughly the same number of votes that saw them elected comfortably in 2022. But they were beaten soundly by all four members of the Papatoetoe-Otara Action Team, who were all voted onto the board by 1,000-plus vote margins over their nearest rivals.

It’s possible the team simply ran the best local campaign in recent memory. Their opponents don’t think so though. They’re making a range of allegations, including that voting papers were stolen from people’s letterboxes. Labour candidates have obtained signed statements from voters who say they never received their papers, but were still recorded as having voted. Complaints have also been lodged over people allegedly being instructed on how to vote inside polling booths and at a Sikh temple. Police again say their investigation is in its “very early” stages.

I have no idea if there was fraud in that election, but I will say that postal voting is very very insecure, and much more open to fraud than other methods – including Internet voting.

You can indeed take hundreds or even thousands of postal voting papers from letterboxes, open them, fill them in, send them to the Returning Officer, and there are no checks. The person whose ballot papers they are doesn’t get notified that a vote has been cast on their behalf. It is only if they check, does the fraud get detected.

So again I have no idea what happened in that board election, but postal voting fraud is very easy to do, quite hard to detect and even harder to prove who is responsible. If you do detect multiple votes all for the same candidate, that is not enough to prove it is them behind it. You would need physical proof such as fingerprints or DNA on voting papers, handwriting analysis (hard just for ticks) or CCTV footage of someone grabbing voting papers from letterboxes or putting large numbers into a NZ Post letterbox.

One easy anti fraud measure would be to have the Returning Officer e-mail a resident once their voting paper has been received. Most people have provided an e-mail address to the Electoral Commission, and a simple law change could allow it to be used to notify people their vote has been received. This would allow people early on to alert the Returning Officer that someone has voted on their behalf.

A good report from the NZ Initiative that looks at whether ownership of state houses is the best way to help low income NZ families with housing. Some key extracts:

• Kāinga Ora manages over 77,000 homes valued at $46.7 billion, housing 198,000 people, representing 3.8% of New Zealand’s population.
• From 2017 to 2023 KO debt had surged from $2.3 billion to $16.5 billion in 2023/24 and operating deficits went from a $76 million surplus to a
• $722 million deficit.
• The report calculates that KO’s operating costs per housing unit accounted for around 88% of its market-related rental income, compared to a private sector benchmark of 50%
• This indicates that state rental housing might be costing taxpayers around $2.2 billion annually or $29,000 per unit.
• The UK transferred 1.7 million council homes to housing associations and tenant ownership, resulting in improved maintenance and tenant outcomes. 

That $29,000 per unit estimated cost is not the cost of income related rents – they are the same regardless of whether the state or charities own social housing. It is an estimate of the greater costs KO incurs in building and operating houses.

The recommendations are:

1. Asset ownership should follow function, not ideology
2. More diverse ecosystem of providers creates resilience and innovation
3. Fiscal sustainability requires bolder action
4. Underutilised land for housing represents a lost opportunity
5. Housing assistance needs to target those in greatest need better than currently
6. Care for those receiving housing assistance should be coordinated with care other agencies are providing though non- housing welfare assistance
7. Shift in emphasis from ownership to vouchers should better harness competition, choice and capabilities.
8. Measures to reduce the multiple barriers to new housing developments

Stuff reports:

A lawyer who smuggled contraband into prison for a convicted rapist and murderer, who she later married, is trying again to be readmitted as a lawyer.

Davina Reid (née Murray) was acting for Liam Reid in 2011, who is serving a preventive detention sentence for the 2007 rape and murder of deaf Christchurch woman Emma Agnew, and the rape and attempted murder of a second Dunedin woman.

Davina Reid reportedly continues to have a firm belief in his innocence.

Reid was struck off as a lawyer by the Lawyers Disciplinary Tribunal in 2015.

Lawyers can do something bad, be remorseful, and then be able to resume the law. I am a big believer that people should not be judged off the worst thing they ever did, and that mistakes should not punish you forever.

So if Davinia Reid realised how badly she behaved, and was remorseful, I would say 10 years of not being able to practice is enough.

But the reality is she has actually spent much of that time fighting and minimising the consequences of what she did. The timeline is:

• Struck off 2015
• Applied to be restored in 2022 on the basis her offending was minor and her “mana had been restored”
• Appealed to High Court
• Sought and declined leave to appeal to Court of Appeal
• Directly applied to Court of Appeal for quashing
• Appealed to Supreme Court

You need remorse for redemption.

Some great data from the ERO on student attendance. They find:

• Now nearly six in ten students (58 percent) are attending regularly, up from four in ten (40 percent) in 2022.
• Attitudes drive attendance, students are 1.7 times more likely to attend regularly if they think daily attendance is important.
• Almost a third of students (28 percent) report they never want to miss school – up from 15 percent in 2022
• Encouragingly, students in schools in low socio-economic communities show double the improvement in attitudes to daily attendance (12 percentage point increase compared to 6 percentage points for students in high socio-economic communities) and now have better attitudes to daily attendance than other students.

A long way to go, but getting attitudes right is the crucial first step.

Politico reported:

Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway.

They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

Pretty vile stuff. What I find interesting is that almost everyone of those involved has faced serious consequences – generally losing their jobs.

Meanwhile the Democratic nominee for Virginia Attorney-General who seriously advocated killing the children of his political opponents to teach them a lesson, has not been unendorsed by the Democratic Party.

ERO has done a report on how the changes to literacy and numeracy are going. It is over 150 pages long, but here are some key extracts:

• 98% of schools report they have started teaching the refreshed English learning area and the refreshed curriculum for maths
• 88% of English teachers and 85% of Maths teachers say they have change how they teach their subjects
• Over three quarters of parents report their child’s progress has improved in English (77 percent) and maths (75 percent) since one hour a day was implemented.
• Almost half (47 percent) of teachers report improved student engagement in English, and just under three in five (56 percent) teachers report improved student engagement in maths.
• Teachers told us that structured literacy approaches have improved attention and behaviour in the classroom.

All good stuff.

The Herald reports:

King Charles has officially begun the process of removing all titles and honours from his brother, Prince Andrew, Buckingham Palace has announced.

Andrew will from today be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

“His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew,” the statement from Buckingham Palace said.

“Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.

Wow, effectively sacking your own brother from the Royal Family is no small thing. Have to say that while I am a republican, I have been pretty impressed with King Charles to date.