One of NZTU’s founding members and staffers has left us to embark on her OE. I’m going to quote some extracts of her farewell letter to supporters because there was some stuff in there I didn’t even know about – and I’m on the board!

Five years ago, my friend Jordan Williams asked me to become a founding member of the Taxpayers Union.  Soon enough I was one of the first of the student interns.

None of us there at the beginning would have guessed that by 2018 we would grow to have 35,000 members and supporters, national media coverage every week, and a passionate, dedicated team working around the clock to stand up for lower taxes, less waste and more transparency.

I didn’t realise we had over 35,000 people now signed up as supporters.

One of the best things about working for the Taxpayers’ Union has been the interaction with you: our tens of thousands of members and supporters.  We get about the same level of correspondence as an MP’s electorate office (I count 7,400 so far this year); but unlike them, not a cent of Government funding (not that we would take it!).

The 7,400 items of correspondence staggered me. I had no idea there was so much. But a lot of our best stories come from tip offs from members.

In fact, last year your humble Taxpayers’ Union filed more official information requests than any other organisation in New Zealand – even more than the then-opposition Labour Party!

Holding the Government to account, regardless of who is in power.

While most requests do not result in a news story, each and every one of them reminds an official or a politician that someone is looking over their shoulder.

And that’s exactly what I signed up for – holding government to account when it comes to spending of taxpayer money.

Just knowing that NZTU is going to come asking questions about some spending can in itself act as a brake on some spending.

NZTU has been going around five years now and it is great to have at least one group out there that isn’t arguing for tax hikes and more spending.

Wellington Commuter blogs:

The GWRC will now increase the average Wellington City Household rates bill by over $200/year

That’s huge.

The average rates increase for the region is $41 but they are changing their transport rate distribution:

The proposed changes to public transport will mean residents in the Hutt Valley, South Wairarapa and Porirua pay a bit less toward public transport than they do now, while residents in Wellington city, Kāpiti and Masterton pay a bit more toward public transport.

And what is a bit more? Well the Council never tells you. The info in the blog post had to be dragged out of them under the OIA. It means:

• a reduced rates payment from Wellington CBD businesses by nearly $3M
• an increased rates payment from Residential Ratepayers by nearly $3M

And what does this mean for the hip pocket?

• Wellington City ratepayers go from $172 transport rate average to $361 – an increase of over 100%

Wellington Commuter concludes:

It is shocking that the GWRC has managed to add over $200/year to the average Wellington City household rates bill without anyone noticing. 

It is.

Stuff reports:

Privacy commissioner John Edwards has made a last-ditch plea to further toughen up an overhaul of the country’s privacy laws, telling MPs privacy was a “fundamental human right”. …

But Edwards said several big changes were needed, including a right commonly known as the “right to be forgotten” that would require others to erase personal information that was out of date, inaccurate or misleading, once asked, and to “personal information portability”.

The latter right would for example allow people to demand their personal information was transferred from one online service to another at their request, and could impact the likes of social media companies.

No problems with information portability but the so called “right to be forgotten” is a horrendous idea which basically forces Internet search engines or publishers to censor the Internet so that people with a past they wish to hide, can do so.

National MP Chris Bishop said the changes being sought by Edwards were “quite big” and questioned whether – if they were to be considered – they would need to go back out for public consultation, and whether the bill would need to be withdrawn and reworked. 

A right to be forgotten would be a massive change and would definitely need public consultation on. I’d be leading a fight against it.

I blogged a few days ago on the claims by the widow of Awanui Black that he was a paedophile.

I said that one shouldn’t rush to judgement as there were no details, no complainants and the reference to organised child-adult sex rings seemed over the top.

In an exclusive interview with the NZ Herald, we learnt a bit more, including:

This goes deep and wide, in terms of the paedophile ring, to the highest heights you can imagine. These people aren’t just labourers and workers at fast food restaurants. These people are suits and people in power.”

Also she alleged:

Now, she believed he had used their marriage as a mask for his “private life” – one that included affairs with consenting adults, abuse against children and large amounts of alcohol.

“He did admit to me that he thought he was rangatira and he thought he was entitled to have women wherever he slept for the night. That might have rolled a few hundred years ago but it’s not what I signed up for.

“He was never ever faithful. Prostitutes, orgies, group sex – all of it.”

Now prostitutes, orgies and group sex (if true) are not illegal. They certainly would make your partner hate you, but they don’t make you a paedophile.

And there were children, she said. The youngest victim to have emerged was someone who had said they were aged 8 when sexually abused by Awanui Black.

Zhou Black said the couple separated in 2012, during which time he admitted affairs and using pre-teen pornography. There was a reconciliation a year later but the time away gave Zhou Black a voice she felt she never had and the reunion never worked.

In 2014, they separated again and stayed apart.

And they were seperated.

“We don’t know where the cover up will begin. There are compromised police here in Tauranga that are part of that ring. I know of one.”

She would also not name a number of suspected victims, again because it could jeopardise the police inquiry.

The police inquiry is key. What is alleged is serious criminal behaviour by her ex husband, and many others. So it is good that the Police have investigated.

Which brings me to this column by Martin van Beynen who informs us of something I had not seen before:

By Wednesday, the police had interviewed Black and issued a release with the following sentence:

“Based on the information available to us at this time, no victims have come forward to Police and no victims have been identified.”

That seems to suggest Black has been unable to produce any hard evidence for the police to investigate. Not even a single name.

This should be ringing big alarm bells.

It may be that in time she will be vindicated and a procession of victims will come forward with reliable accounts.

It is possible. But MVB makes a useful point:

Let’s assume for a minute that what Black alleges is true. That her husband was in fact part of an organised group that recruited and groomed children for the members’ sexual gratification.

By broadcasting her allegations to the world on Facebook, Black gave the perpetrators an invaluable warning. They had a useful head start before the police started looking for evidence. Get rid of the computers, written material, cellphones etc. Get out of the country.

If the organised abuse has been going on for most her adult life, why on earth did Black wait until her husband died?

Surely the scores of children being abused for years deserved better. If she wanted to protect children and expose the perpetrators of the abuse she alleged in the post, she chose exactly the wrong way to do it.

She should have gone to the Police, not to Facebook.

The Herald reports:

SKY Television has claimed a victory over set-top box distributor Fibre TV.

A judge in the Christchurch District Court ruled the sale of Fibre TV’s pre-loaded ‘Kodi boxes’ were unlawful and breached copyright, a statement from Sky TV says.

Sophie Moloney, SKY Television’s general counsel, said it was great to have the matter clarified as New Zealanders were buying the boxes under false impression that they were legitimate. …

Pre-loaded boxes are often called ‘Kodi boxes’, because they use Kodi software platforms.

The unlawful aspect is using software plugins or add-ons that enable people to find and stream pirated content, Sky said.

Using such add-ons, Fibre TV positioned itself as having “all of the content with none of the fees”, including Netflix, SKY movies and a range of sport content.

Seems a good decision. Sets pre-loaded with plugins to pirate content seem a clear infringement.

I used to download or torrent a lot of shows because it was the only way I could get to see them. But I now have Netflix and Lightbox and have so much legal content on demand, that it has been ages since I have torrented anything.

Are others the same?

The Herald reports:

A Nelson woman has been found guilty of offensive behaviour after rat poison was rubbed on National MP Nick Smith.

The politician had claimed that Rose Renton and another protester rubbed rat poison on him while he was at a Saturday market in Nelson in September.

She was charged with offensive behaviour and Justices of the Peace have found her guilty of the charge, RNZ reported. …

Smith said today that he welcomed the guilty verdict.

“People are entitled to express their opinions, however, throwing and rubbing poison on another person has been rightly confirmed by the court as offensive behaviour,” he said.

“The Nelson Market is a friendly weekly event for locals and visitors and we need to protect its reputation as a peaceful place where diverse opinions are respected.”

Smith said he was worried about the number of ugly incidents which had occurred as the use of poison for pest control increased in New Zealand.

“I have previously faced death threats as Minister and there have been several dangerous incidents and threats against Department of Conservation staff.”

From all accounts Renton shows no contrition and is downplaying what she did. I hope this is taken into account.

The Herald reports:

Property developers say Auckland Council-owned carparks are perfect sites for new office or apartment buildings, with many in key central locations bound to benefit from the City Rail Link now under construction.

Michael Holloway, Property Council Auckland branch president, welcomed analysis from the Auckland Council, which used the $95.2m Downtown carpark to make a case for sales.

That analysis, prepared in December last year, questioned the council carpark ownership with a finance expert saying “unsolicited offers” had been made for valuable parking buildings.

However, the council said this morning it was not actively pursuing the sale of any of its parking buildings.

It should.

There is no need for Councils to own carpark buildings. They are commercial enterprises and locations and prices for carpark buildings are best set by demand.

Karl du Fresne writes:

Israel recently celebrated its 70th birthday – no mean feat when nearly everyone around you wants to wipe you off the map.  …

To our shame, New Zealand has fallen into line with the anti-Israel bloc. Last year, we supported 16 of the 19 UN resolutions that condemned the Jewish state. 

This is perplexing, because according to the international Democracy Index compiled by the British magazine The Economist, Israel remains the only democracy in the Middle East.

Yep. The scores are:

1. Israel 7.79
2. Tunisia 6.32
3. Morocco 4.87
4. Lebanon 4.72
5. Palestine 4.46
6. Iraq 4.09
7. Jordan 3.87
8. Kuwait 3.85
9. Algeria 3.56
10. Egypt 3.36
11. Qatar 3.19
12. Oman 3.04
13. Bahrain 2.71
14. UAE 2.69
15. Iran 2.45
16. Libya 2.32
17. Sudan 2.15
18. Yemen 2.07
19. Saudi Arabia 1.93
20. Syria 1.43

Admittedly, Israel hasn’t always made it easy to be its friend. The provocative habit of building Jewish settlements in occupied territories claimed by Palestinians has been a consistent impediment in efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement. 

I agree – they should stop that.

Take the most recent flare-up. We’re told it was Arab anger at Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital that triggered Palestinian protests, resulting in the deaths of 60 people.

But just this once, Trump may have got it right. Jerusalem is central to Jewish history and culture. It’s mentioned hundreds of times in the Bible and the Torah, but not once in the Koran. 

Interesting.

Western observers wrung their hands over the recent suffering in Gaza, but it could have been halted in the blink of an eye. All it took was for the Hamas fanatics to stop firing rockets and mortar bombs across the border, or digging tunnels underneath it, with the intention of killing Israeli citizens.

Yep.

Western politicians bang on about the two-state solution, but there can be no such solution as long as a key player such as Hamas vows never to recognise Israel. 

And all this because a few million people, having survived unimaginable horror in Europe, sought to create a sanctuary in their ancestral desert homeland. For all the Israelis’ faults, I have no trouble deciding whose side I’m on.

Same.

The Herald reports:

One of Parliament’s new parents, Kiri Allen, has argued for a cap on taxpayer-funded travel for MPs’ partners to be lifted for those with young babies.

While MPs’ partners used to be allowed unlimited travel to be with the MP, the so-called “perk” was cut back in 2014 after excessive use by some.

The cap does not apply to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s partner Clarke Gayford, who will be primary caregiver for baby Neve, because the Prime Minister’s partner gets unlimited travel.

However, the partners of ordinary MPs get 20 trips a year maximum while ministers’ partners get 30 trips a year. The caps are set by the Remuneration Authority and can only be used to accompany MPs on work-related travel.

Allan, mother to a 10-month-old, raised the issue when speaking as a new mother and MP at a conference of Speakers and Clerks from Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Allen said the cap was difficult when her baby was less than six months old as it restricted her partner and baby to visiting Wellington only once every six weeks at a time the family wanted to spend as much time together as possible.

Kiri is quite correct that allowing unlimited travel for partners would make it easier for MPs who are parents of young kids.

But how do you justify doing this just for MPs? Why are MP parents more deserving that other parents whose jobs require them to spend time away from home?

Would Labour introduce a system of free partner travel for all parents?

Not in any way comparing myself to an MP, but I get speaking requests for around NZ. I’m reluctant to do these if it means leaving my partner behind with the young one. So what we often do is pay for an extra airfare (at our expense) so we travel together. Should the taxpayer pay for my partner’s travel?

So it is a real issue for MPs who are parents. But returning to the days of unlimited partner travel would be helping the few, not the many.

Akhil Reed Amar is a professor at Yale Law School and constitutional law expert. He has been cited by the Supreme Court in over 30 cases. He writes in the NYT:

The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be the next Supreme Court justice is President Trump’s finest hour, his classiest move. Last week the president promised to select “someone with impeccable credentials, great intellect, unbiased judgment, and deep reverence for the laws and Constitution of the United States.” In picking Judge Kavanaugh, he has done just that.

In 2016, I strongly supported Hillary Clinton for president as well as President Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland. But today, with the exception of the current justices and Judge Garland, it is hard to name anyone with judicial credentials as strong as those of Judge Kavanaugh.

High praise from one of the rock stars of US constitutional law.

Good appellate judges faithfully follow the Supreme Court; great ones influence and help steer it. Several of Judge Kavanaugh’s most important ideas and arguments — such as his powerful defense of presidential authority to oversee federal bureaucrats and his skepticism about newfangled attacks on the property rights of criminal defendants — have found their way into Supreme Court opinions.

I found that interesting – his judgments have been backed by the Supreme Court more times than possibly any other jurist on appellate courts.

Although Democrats are still fuming about Judge Garland’s failed nomination, the hard truth is that they control neither the presidency nor the Senate; they have limited options. Still, they could try to sour the hearings by attacking Judge Kavanaugh and looking to complicate the proceedings whenever possible.

This would be a mistake. Judge Kavanaugh is, again, a superb nominee. So I propose that the Democrats offer the following compromise: Each Senate Democrat will pledge either to vote yes for Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation — or, if voting no, to first publicly name at least two clearly better candidates whom a Republican president might realistically have nominated instead (not an easy task). In exchange for this act of good will, Democrats will insist that Judge Kavanaugh answer all fair questions at his confirmation hearing.

The Democrats are going to try and do total opposition, but they will lose as they don’t have the numbers and in fact some of their own Senators may vote for Kananaugh.

Amanda Saxton at Stuff reports:

They look homeless, act homeless, and half of them actually are homeless.

But Phillip and the group’s kaumātua Sole Johnstone have houses to go home to each evening. While they call themselves ‘hustlers’, they could also be labelled professional beggars.

They could get an NCEA qualification for it!

So why, if he has a home and an income, does he wake up before sparrow’s fart in the middle of winter to beg on the streets?

The answer is simple: he’s doing what makes him happy. When asked how he’d rate his happiness out of 10, Phillip says he’s an 11 “easy”.

“Why would I stay home, doing nothing? I love this, I love being with my brothers, I love hustling, I love speaking with people.

“Why would we work, slaving 40 hours a week, when we can get $100 a pop sitting here? And I can get drunk at the same time.”

On a good day, Phillip makes about $100 begging. On an amazing day, $200 – that’s on top of his benefit and his partner’s salary.

Why indeed.

He says he spends about $100 a day on beer and the odd bit of whiskey.

I await the academic study blaming this on some sports sponsorship.

Phillip says he’s proud of his lifestyle, but sombres when asked what his 13 kids and seven grandchildren think of it. 

So proud of our welfare state.

Some of Phillip’s kids are currently homeless themselves, which he says “is their choice”. 

I suspect his kids started life with a bleak outlet. I wish there was a simple solution to bad parents having tons of kids.

“I ask ‘what are you going to do with your life? Are you going to go to [Work and Income]? Are you going to do something positive?’ And they’re like, ‘aw nah. I just want to rest’.

Like their dad.

There’s been a huge increase in the number of staff employed in Ministerial (and Under-Secretary) offices.

In 2008, there were a total of 286 staff in the last year of the Clark administration.

In 2017, there were 275 staff in the last year of the Key/English Government.

In 2018, the number of staff has grown to 312, a 13% increase.

I’ve divided staff up into five categories. They are:

1. Managers (Chiefs of Staff, Senior Private Secretaries)
2. Comms (Press Secretaries, media, comms staff)
3. Political (Advisors)
4. Portfolio (Portfolio Private Secretaries)
5. Admin (Private Secretaries, Exec Assistants)

So how has any category changed since 2017:

1. Political staff up 13 from 38 to 51, a 34% increase
2. Managers up 6 from 28 to 34, a 21% increase
3. Portfolio staff up 22 from 122 to 144, an 18% increase
4. Comms staff up 2 from 40 to 42, a 5% increase
5. Admin staff down 6 from 47 to 41, a 13% decrease

So the biggest percentage increase has been political staffers, all paid for by the taxpayer. I’m of course not against political advisors in ministerial offices. But I am against a 34% increase in them.

The biggest offices are:

1. Prime Minister, 34 staff
2. Twyford and Hipkins, 15 staff each
3. Parker, 14 staff
4. Clark, 13 staff
5. Peters, Sepuloni, Nash, Martin and Shaw, 12 staff each

Dirt on th’ Gath Philistines #3

Day 1 on the dig was very heavy work as we restored site to last season’s condition after ‘over wintering. In Israel, trees and weeds grow prolifically. A tree in the middle of the site was cut to a stump in 2017 and on arrival this season was well over 10 feet high with vicious hooked thorns on it sharper than anything in NZ and several inches across. These thorns stick as well as ACT politicians do to Dancing with the Stars.

All winter growth has to be removed so the site is back to 2017 condition. A huge Bedouin-style shade tent is erected over the entire site to shade the archaeologists while digging. Work would be impossible without this. The shade tent is erected with large PVC poles which are sturdy but light and anchored with metal stringers and ropes. Only after all this is done, can excavation begin. It takes a whole day to tidy and prepare the worked archaeological site. Day 1 is usually the hardest as there is no shade and lots of grubbing to do. It is utterly exhausting. Below left you can see the site after it has been cleaned all day by 50 people. The tent shade is raised and lowered every day, as is the shaded communal food eating area.  All metal tools are removed from the site and transported away at the end of each day. So there is a lot of daily pack-up and pack-down.  Note the tree stump, centre. The pylon in the background is part of a large nearby electricity station often targeted by Palestinian incendiary devices.

Gath (pronounced “Gat”) has been excavated since 1996. The director of the dig is Israeli archaeologist Dr. Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv, a world expert on the Philistines. The site manager for him this year is Dr Jeff Chadwick. Gath is located in the Shephelah of the Judean high country and sits astride the main copper trade route west-east into Jordan. The topography West to East is: The Mediterarnean Sea, the Plain (where the Philistines dominated), the low foothills of the Shephelah (Sh’Fay-lah) where Gath is situated on the last main spur, and the high country of Israel behind.  The Philistines came in to Canaan from the sea as “The Sea Peoples;” the ancient Hebrews from the east via the Jordan. Gath dominates the Elah valley, a major west-east corridor.

Dig ‘Digs’

In 2018 the crew are domiciled in a residential school at Kibbutz Menahem which is only 7 minutes’ drive from the Tell. This enables us an extra 30 minutes archaeology a day than was possible last year, as we are much closer. It’s very basic for a residential school (well below NZ standards) but does the trick. The kibbutz provides us with very healthy kosher communal meals every day. We are residing dorm-style 4 or 5 to a room with our own shower and loo per unit, which is very nice and is heavily used. Everyone is so dogged-tired each day, luxuries are not missed.

Below: The school at the kibbutz Menahem and a Philistine weather vane at the top of the Tell.

Up at ‘Sparrow Fart’

Each day starts at 5am. We excavate till 9am when we break for breakfast onsite under a shade canopy we erected at 5am. This is fresh vegetables, yoghurts, fruit, coffee/tea, buns, and rice mixes, hard boiled eggs and cheese. We start early as this gives us several of the cooler hours to get work done. It becomes very hot very quickly. We leave the site at 1pm, pack down, and head back to the kibbutz for pottery washing and then ‘pottery reading’ and other lab duties. There is lunch, followed by lectures and then dinner at 7pm.  It’s a full long day but very gratifying and engaging. I attend every lecture my body allows and find these fascinating: the Sea Peoples, Archaeology 101, ancient Semitic languages, Iron-Age metallurgy, archeo-biology, Canaanite religions.

Day 1 Tell Tour

On Day 1, however, after the site is cleared and cleaned and the shade tents erected, we are guided to the top of Tell-es-Safi (Gath) by Professor Maeir as we are all too tired to excavate which begins properly on day 2. Aren explains the 360° view and the history of the site as well as previous excavation areas up on the Tell. This spans Chalcolithic habitation right through to modern Arab settlement up to 1948 when the village was abandoned and later deconstructed as part of the National Park. But it is the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age (1200-1100BC) that brings us all here.

Of particular interest is the photo below. Note the modern city in the middle background. There is a prominent hill on the right with broken trees on top, and a rise on the left (trees, dirt, and trees).  This is the historic site of the battle of David and Goliath. The Philistines were camped on the right, Israel on the left. David and Goliath met in the space in between in a classic late-Mycenaean champion’s duel (see the Iliad).  A small river runs from Gath down this valley and beyond, and it is from here that David selected the 5 stones to combat Goliath (who had 4 large brothers).

After Goliath fell and was decapitated, the very super superstitious Philistines (as were most ancient people) fled up this valley away from the more powerful Hebrew God whose boys can slay their fiercest war champions) towards where the picture is taken and to relative safety at Gath. This is the biblical valley of Elah. So in 1000 BC you can imagine Philistines routing up this valley directly towards you.

Below: Tell-top excavations from previous years. We are now digging in the lower city where we will find more domestic material (less elite or cultic ritual stuff). We are also actively searching for the gate of Gath. I’m sure we are close.

Here are some other perspectives of the Elah valley from the other direction. I am excavating a few metres from ‘David’s brook’ and frequently take shade breaks in the brook which is bone dry this time of year and completely brown. The image at left was taken in winter. David selected his 5 stones from here, thus the gloved 5 fingers.

We walked to the top of the Tell from the north side. It has sweeping 360° views and we stand on human occupation levels that span at least 4000 years. There is history and scattered pottery sherds everywhere.

Early Bronze/Canaanite (3,500 – 2,050 BC).

Late Bronze/Canaanite (2,050 – 1,500 BC).

Iron Age I & II/ Israelite (1,200 – 586 BC).

Philistine (Ps) (1,200 – 830 BC). Destroyed by Hazael of Syria (see 2 Kings 12:17).

The Ps were eventually subsumed into local culture as Canaanites (ca. 830-586 BC) and were carried away by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. This is when Daniel of the ‘Lions Den’ story was taken as well. They disappear as a culture while the Jews, suffering the identical fate, and repeated pogroms, maintained their culture until the present day, even restoring their nationhood and land (in 1948). But that is another story entirely.

No excavation on Day 1. Next post: Days 2-5 at Gath and some remarkable finds.

Stuff reports:

The Green Party says New Zealand is not truly subscribing to the rules-based order by purchasing new military planes with increased combat capability.

On Monday, Defence Minister Ron Mark announced the Government would buy four Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft from the US Government at a cost of $2.3 billion.

The planes, which have enhanced weapon and submarine-hunting capabilities, will be delivered from 2023, with the cost spread out to 2026, and would replace the fleet of ageing P-3K Orions.

Mark said the P-8s were the only choice, and would strengthen the Government’s Pacific reset.

Seems like a good purchase. We have a big area to look after.

Mark and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have spoken extensively about the growing threat to the global rules-based order. And it seems part of New Zealand’s response was to ensure the NZDF is combat capable, and has interoperability with its traditional allies.

Also sensible.

But Green Party defence spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman said New Zealand needed to move away from investing in war industries if it was serious about upholding the international rules-based system.

“We need to move away from following the old world order of the US, UK, Australia and diverse from investing in the war industries and focus on what we can do best, instead,” Ghahraman said.

This is bizarre. Having military capability is not in conflict with a rules-based system.  It is what allows you to enforce one.

UN Security Council resolutions are meaningless, unless they can be enforced.

I also note the rhetoric about moving away from the US, UK and Australia. I disagree. While we certainly should make independent decisions (and we do), it is ridiculous to not recognise the special relationships we have with those countries.

Not content with their earlier smear on me (since retracted) that I was involved in sending white feathers to Auckland Councillors (the entire story was fictious – no one sent or received a white feather), the Spin Off now smears me as a racist and supporter of white supremacy.

Hayden Donnell is unhappy that the Free Speech Coalition raised $50,000 to challenge Phil Goff’s dictates about who can speak or not at an Auckland Council owned venue.

Donnell says that anyone backing the FSC must be either confused (code for hypocrisy), a racist or a free speech absolutist.

Donnell ignores the fact that Chris Trotter is an FSC member, and instead smears me who not only isn’t a member, but I haven’t even donated a cent to the FSC. I didn’t even know it was being formed until after they announced it. My “crime” is I blogged in support.

Donnell has set up a fallacy so he can smear people as racists, because of course no one is a free speech absolutist. I’m not. I don’t think one should be able to say “kill the buddhists” or “go and have sex with two year olds” or “bash a Croatian”.

My view is that Government censorship of speech needs to have a very high threshold – basically inciting violence, riots etc. And Goff was acting in a Government capacity as Mayor of Auckland.

My view seems to be much the same as Idiot/Savant of No Right Turn, who of course does not get smeared by The Spin Off.

Now Donnell purports to find examples of hypocrisy from me, so that readers will conclude I am a hypocrite or a racist or both. It’s a disgusting piece from him designed to smear me, and even worse is they get funded by sponsors to do their smears – including government agencies.

Donnell’s first example against me is:

Or the time Free Speech Coalition supporter David Farrar called for the government to take away Homebrew Crew’s grant money after they released an anti-government song, saying “They’re entitled to call [John Key] what they want, but I’d rather not have the taxpayer fund it”.

Donnell seems to be either very stupid or very malicious as he actually quotes me defending Homebrew’s right to call John Key a c**t. My only objection is having taxpayers fund it.

It is possible Donnell is so stupid that he doesn’t recognise the difference between Government censorship and funding. But I suspect he does, and he conflates the two to make his smear.

There are thousands of things I don’t want the Government to fund. But there are probably none of them that I want the Government to ban. I don’t want the Government to fund The Spin Off, but I don’t want them banned either.

Or when time Farrar wrote sympathetically about efforts to sanction Kim Dotcom for leading a “fuck John Key” chant.

Nowhere did I call for Dotcom to face legal sanction. I pointed out the left probably would, if it was someone chanting the same about Clark. I did mention the video had been complained about to the Advertising Standards Authority. This is a self-regulatory scheme that has no enforcement powers. People choose to comply or not. So no hypocrisy.

And when he wavered on whether Immigration New Zealand should deny a Visa to Odd Future on the grounds of incitement to violence.

Which if you follow the link you’ll see I actually say:

However having said all that, I don’t think the ban was the right call. I’d have them perform in NZ for those who want to listen to them

So in fact I have been entirely consistent with my views. The post by Donnell is designed to portray my as a hypocrite, a racist and a supporter of white supremacy – all because I don’t think Phil Goff should decide who gets to speak at Council owned commercial venues.

Now as I said this is not the first time The Spin Off has smeared me. I let it go the first time, but I reluctantly conclude they are going to carry on doing so. So I am going to respond more aggressively in future. If they smear me again, I will be contacting every one of their sponsors and asking for a personal meeting to explain why I think they should not sponsor a site that repeatedly smears me. I will be happy to fly up and down New Zealand to meet them all.

I will also encourage others to do the same.

I don’t want people to do this yet. I am reluctant to take the final step. I actually enjoy much of the content on The Spin Off and have respect for some of their staff. But it is because they do a lot of good journalism, that I won’t tolerate their smear jobs on me. It doesn’t concern me at all when I get smeared on The Standard or The Daily Blog because to be honest that probably increases my reputation with most people. Hell it is almost a badge of honour to have Bradbury call you silly names.

But The Spin Off needs to decide whether they want to stand by stuff such as this final paragraph in relation to me:

Except for when they’ve done and said things that make it look like many of them do want limits on speech. Because if you don’t make an exception for those things, it can look like some of them aren’t free speech absolutists at all – and that they just want the boundaries of acceptable speech moved to include overt racism and white supremacy.

So having mentioned me more often than anyone else in the article, they imply and almost state that I am a racist who supports white supremacy speech as acceptable.

In 2006 I blogged on David Irving and said he shouldn’t have been jailed for holocaust denial. Does that mean I am a holocaust denier (despite two of my great grant parents perishing in it), or that I think holocaust denial should be acceptable? No. It just means I don’t think the state should prevent it.

The Herald reports:

DHBs want a tax on sugary drinks – warning the obesity epidemic could result in Kiwi kids living shorter lives than their parents.

The extraordinary letters sent to Health Minister David Clark are the strongest call for change so far from within a health system treating more obesity-related disease and tooth decay.

“For the first time in history, NZ children could live shorter lives than their parents as a result of excess weight and obesity,” Andrew Blair, chair of both Capital & Coast and Hutt Valley DHBs, told Clark.

Even if that is the case,a tax on sugary drinks will make no difference.

If we are generous and assume the following:

• A sugar tax reduces consumption of soda drinks by 10%
• There is no substitution (highly unlikely but we’ll be generous)

Then the average New Zealander will consume 3.2 fewer calories a day.

That means after seven and a half years of a sugar tax, the average New Zealander will lose one kg of weight!

Oscar Lau writes in Stuff:

Those people lucky enough to win the KiwiBuild lottery will buy their home at a heavy discount.

And when they sell it in the future, they’ll receive the full market price. That doesn’t make any sense.

To see why, let’s keep things simple. Suppose lucky Bob gets to pay only $500k for a KiwiBuild house that’s valued at $1 million in the open market.

After three years he decides to sell. If the market stayed flat, he’ll pocket a windfall of half a million, a parting gift from the Government. Even if the market plummeted by 50 per cent, he’ll break even.

It’s taxpayer funded lotto.

Bob’s twin brother Todd didn’t win the lottery. Yet he somehow managed to secure a loan to buy a similar $1m home in the open market.

Suppose he put down the same amount of deposit as Bob did. So he will have to borrow $500k more than Bob did, which means he’ll pay hundreds of thousands more in interest over the life of the loan.

When he decides to sell, of course there will be no parting gift from the Government. If the market plummeted, he’ll probably go bankrupt.

So Bob wins a double jackpot: huge savings in loan interest and immediate doubling of house value. Meanwhile Todd gets nothing, all because of his (lack of) luck.

And Labour say they want to help the most needy, when in fact they are giving random people huge windfalls.

There’s an easy solution to the double jackpot problem. And if the Government had cared to study comparable schemes from other parts of the world, they would have already found it.

It can be found in Hong Kong, which has been running a remarkably similar programme, known as the Home Ownership Scheme, since the late 1970s.

The basic principle is simple: buy at a discount, sell at the same discount.

Here’s roughly how it would work. When Bob decides to sell his house, he can either sell it in the open market or sell it to another KiwiBuild qualified buyer in the KiwiBuild secondary market.

In the first case, the new buyer pays the full market price; but Bob receives only half of it, with the other half (the originally discounted proportion) returned to the Government.

In the second case, Bob receives the full payment from the new buyer. But when the new buyer decides to sell in the future, she’ll have to follow the same rules as Bob did.

That seems a lot better than random people gaining huge windfalls.

The Herald reports:

Councillors have delivered a mixed verdict on the possibility Aucklanders could be levied another tax — nicknamed a “toilet tax” by opponents.

The Weekend Herald revealed today Auckland Council and the Government are considering the tax to pay for a $1 billion sewer tunnel running deep below our biggest city and aimed at allowing for future growth and significantly reducing sewage and stormwater overflows into harbours.

But the potential tax also comes hard on the heels of a 11.5c a litre regional petrol tax, introduced six days ago, and a bed tax for accommodation providers.

This is what you get with a Labour Mayor. Rates increases plus lots of new taxes.

Albany councillor John Watson said Aucklanders were being hit with a “double whammy” of new charges and asset sales — both over a short period and despite promises amalgamation would cut costs. He wanted an independent review of the Super City.

“When the Super City was set up the fundamental selling point to Aucklanders was that it would result in reduced costs. That hasn’t eventuated because we are now getting additional charges for services you’d expect to be included … in rates.”

Waitematā and Gulf councillor Mike Lee said too much money had been wasted on an IT budget blowout and a new council headquarters.

“Watercare did the massive upgrade of Project Manukau, the Waikato pipeline and Project Hobson, and they were all on the books about the same time, but it was easily affordable to take on that debt. Not anymore.”

Rodney councillor Greg Sayers said Mayor Phil Goff hadn’t lived up to his campaign pledge to find 3 to 6 per cent savings from the council budget.

“This would amount to between $70 million and $140m … enough to pay for the new wastewater infrastructure and meaning Aucklanders would not have to pay Phil Goff’s toilet tax.”

Sayers is spot on. Off memory Goff’s savings drive has found around 0.4%, if that.

The Dom Post editorial:

Without the possibility of offence we would be a bland, totalitarian state devoid of interest, imagination and ideas.

Superbly stated.

Controversial Canadians Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux have built an impressive global profile by testing the boundaries and pressure points of that ecosystem. They are variably described as far and alt-Right commentators and provocateurs. They want to visit New Zealand and offer their polarising views on, among many things, immigration, gender and feminism. …

We believe that what they are likely to present may qualify as offensive to some, but will fall below what the great majority of Kiwis would regard as hate speech.

Absolutely.

Those groups concerned about potential insults against their religion or sexual orientation should instead be comforted that this country allows such a breadth of opinion without reacting with hatred or oppression from other parties, including the state. As happens in some parts of the world.

Healthy, robust debate is as essential to our democracy as the right to vote, possibly more so.

Yep, but a point sadly lost on Saziah Bashir who writes at RNZ:

That there needs to be a debate on Islam in New Zealand is itself a ridiculous proposition because when was the last time we needed a national debate on any other religion, despite the violence some so-called members of that religion may be perpetrating somewhere in the world?

So Bashir says no one should be allowed to debate Islam. This is despite there being 2,043 seperate Islamic terror attacks in 2017 which killed 16,367 people and wounded 14,360 more.

And as it happens other religions get scrutinised and criticised all the time also. This is as it should be.

Dirt on th’Gath Philistines #2

2018 Israel archaeological excavation at biblical Gath (home of Goliath)

By John Stringer on site at Tell es-Safi, west of Jerusalem.

[It is not kosher to publish excavated objects before they are properly processed and published as part of the excavation, so I’ll not do that without permission. But you’ll get some generic images; and where I get permission from Professor Aren Maeir I will provide Kiwiblog readers early bird images of some of the fascinating discoverers where that is permissible].

First Impressions

LeGuardia Hotel make that “Le Giardia” Hotel

The hotel I am staying in, is not a good first impression. The Russian on the desk is Basil Fawlty in a dress…with an overused cellphone.  “You cannot check-in until 2pm!”  It is 9am.  So I leave and go walkies. Tel Aviv is a busy, grimly, rundown, quickie modulated-concrete pop up city. Arriving back dead on 2pm she says “another 40 minutes.”  Decidedly unhelpful, unsmiling and uncommunicative, she takes phone calls and chats while we’re trying to process check-in. This takes twice as long as it should. The eftpos takes 5 attempts to work. I have to ask for a receipt but never get one because the printer isn’t working.

The room is up three flights of that ghastly sharp-edged corporate marble that hotels so like.  There is no lift. Quite how older people are expected to haul their luggage up these steps is beyond me.  Ms Millennial Russian Cellphone does not offer to help.  She shouts at an Asian woman who is cleaning down a corridor.

The shower leaks into the toilet area. The clock doesn’t work. A light switch is broken. I cannot find any channel on the TV at all.  There is no “Hello Welcome to Tel Aviv” smiley smiley guest folder. Online I am told there is a mini bar.  There is an old fridge by the bed, but it is empty.  It is not switched on.  There is a jug, but no cups to use or coffee or milk. So, you use the jug as a water bottle?  There is no toilet paper holder.  I booked this hotel because it advertised a free shuttle to/from the airport.  There is no shuttle and I’m down $150 shekels for the cab to this Wonderland.

In a sentence:  DO NOT STAY AT LEGUARDIA, TEL AVIV. They asked me for an online review.  There it is.

Carmel Market