First the headline:

Little fear in dearer booze

Then the summary:

Alcoholics say minimum pricing would see them reduce intake, not turn to crime.

But what did the data actually say:

• Survey of 115 detox patients who were dependent on alcohol

• On average they had been consuming 24 standard drinks a day, the equivalent of 3 bottles of wine

When asked if their preferred drink became too expensive:

• 86% said they would switch to a cheaper drink and/or combine their usual drink with something cheaper

• 13% said they would reduce drinking substantially, to continue with their usual drink

So actually the study found that minimum pricing would not in any way reduce alcohol consumption for the vast vast majority of alcoholics. Only 13% say they would drink less if alcohol was much more expensive.

Somehow this damning data is promoted as backing minimum pricing where every single drinker in NZ would have to pay more for alcohol, so that at best 13% of problem drinkers would drink less.

Talk about having a conclusion written regardless of the facts.

There is a huge amount of global evidence that the heavier the drinker the less price sensitive they are. This data back that, not refutes it.

I blogged earlier this month on a court order which directed Pete George to introduce a FT moderator:

I make no comment on the dispute itself between Pete George and the party who gained the court order.

I am concerned however that a Judge has made a ruling that a blogger must “introduce a full time moderator systems so that no comment that is harmful to said person is placed on the blog”.

It is unclear under which statute the Judge has made the ruling. It may be the Harmful Digital Communications Act, but this is not stated in the court order.

I don’t have a problem with an interim order instructing content be removed.  That is a proper and not entirely uncommon thing to occur.

But an order that a blog must introduce a full time moderator system is deeply concerning.

The order has now been withdrawn by the court.

Amazingly the Judge did not realise the provisions of the Harmful Digital Communications Act which he relied on, were not to come into force for a couple of years.

I’m shocked a Judge would make such a wide ranging order, and not even have properly read the Act to realise most of it was not in force yet.

The SMH reports:

The federal government has won its case against tobacco giant Philip Morris Asia challenging Australia’s tobacco plain-packaging laws.

It means the former Gillard government’s plain-packaging laws, introduced in 2011, will remain in place.

Actually it doesn’t. The more significant case is the WTO case brought by a number of countries against Australia. That is yet to be heard and decided. This case is the one under the FTA with Hong Kong.

And incidentally the tribunal could never have ruled that the laws can’t remain in place. At best it would have decided they were a breach and there would have to be compensation or damages.

The tribunal in the arbitration, based in Singapore, has issued a unanimous decision agreeing with Australia’s position that it has no jurisdiction to hear Philip Morris’s claim.   

So this is nothing to do with the merits. It is a jurisdictional issue.

What it does show is that the fear being whipped up against Investor State Dispute clauses was vastly over-stated. The fact this case has failed to gain jurisdiction shows there is a difference between making a claim, and having it upheld.

The WTO case should be heard some stage in 2016. That is the one with the most interest for us in NZ, because we are also a member of the WTO. We were not a party to the Australia – Hong Kong FTA, so that case was always of lesser relevance.

An interesting interview of the PM by Tracy Watkins.

But that’s still nearly two years away and Key is focused more immediately on the year that’s been – it was a year that started with Andrew Little still new in the job as Labour leader, and making a decent enough fist of it that Key might have been worried. But he’s not.

“With the greatest respect, all they’ve done is stopped arguing with each other,” he says.

“Okay so that’s a positive I suppose. But they haven’t really done a lot, their numbers are not moving. …and as I said to our guys [our] numbers are good, we’re advancing our agenda for 2016, we didn’t lose a minister [to scandal] this year, so broadly speaking it’s been a very solid year for us and across the things that we would care about.”

By that he means National got the books back into surplus  – “and that’s a big tick for us, very few Westernised countries have managed that”.

He ticks off the other plusses – National is  advancing its agenda in areas like welfare, education and health, it got the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement over the line, and – one for the greenies – it made the Kermadecs an ocean sanctuary.

It’s good steady progress and that’s why the needle hasn’t budged on National’s support, he maintains.

“If you think about why our numbers aren’t moving it’s because no one expects perfection from the Government because I don’t think any government can achieve that.

“But across all the indicators the voters care most about – the economy, law and order, health and education – we’re delivering.”

No surprise that I agree, but the PM is right. People care about things that affect their lives.

And it has been a year where the Government didn’t just manage to balance the books, but gave beneficiaries the first real increase in 43 years, did the biggest marine sanctuary in the world, saw crime continue to drop and good progress towards health and education targets.

Ponytail-gate was the big political story of the year.

Waitress Amanda Bailey complained Key repeatedly pulled her hair, even after she pleaded with his minders to make him stop.

It seemed shockingly strange behaviour for a prime minister. It polarised public opinion. And Key’s opponents made a meal of it.

It was a chance to chip away at Key’s personal mana.

So was he diminished by it?

Not at all, says Key. Those Opposition attacks just did not resonate with people. He knows that because of the polls. And as we all know, it is an article of faith with Key that the polls don’t lie.

“[My numbers] didn’t move when they polled right around it, they polled immediately after it, we poll every week and and it never did anything. In fact, to be honest, my numbers went up.”

It was a story that had the potential to harm Key. But the media and opposition went so over the top with the story, that people then started to feel sorry for Key, an his numbers did go up. If there had been a less frenzied response to it, then it may have ended differently, but once again the opposition are their worst own enemies.

The thing is they never seem to learn.

The Herald reports:

The police search on the home of investigative journalist Nicky Hager has been found unlawful by the High Court.

In a judgment released today, Justice Denis Clifford ruled against the way police went about obtaining the search warrant used to search Hager’s home in the hunt for identity of the hacker Rawshark who supplied information for the Dirty Politics book.

Justice Clifford said there was “no explicit reference” in the warrant application put before a district court judge to “Hager’s status as a journalist”, to legal principles around search warrants executed on journalist, to the legal rights journalists had under the Evidence Act or to the way those rights were explained in the Search and Surveillance Act.

He said Parliament would not have intended for a judge to be kept blind to the possibility of journalistic privilege in an application for a search warrant. He said Parliament would also not have intended for a judge to not be informed about the principles which arose as a result.

Justice Clifford said it was important not only for the judge to be aware but for judges, when deciding to grant warrants, to be satisfied police were also aware of the issues and had appropriate steps in place to deal with information on which privilege was claimed.

The result, said Justice Clifford, was “a material failure to discharge the duty of candour” by police.

Basically the Police should have been more fulsome with the Judge. If they had, they may still have got a warrant, but by not disclosing the relevant info, they warrant has been found to be illegal.

A pity that the criminal who did the hacking may never be identified and charged.

Once again I emulate the annual Fairfax predictions, with my own. Here’s my 20 for 2016:

1. There will be a by-election in 2016
2. There will be a change to the composition of the Key Ministry in 2016
3. A List MP will leave Parliament in 2016
4. We will have a new Speaker during the year
5. Jacinda Ardern will poll within 2% of Andrew Little as Preferred PM
6. The 2015/16 year will also end in surplus
7. The official cash rate will not rise in 2016
8. National will poll higher than Labour and Greens combined in at least 80% of public polls
9. The current flag will win in the second referendum
10. David Shearer will be appointed the Government’s Special Envoy for the Middle East
11. Phil Goff will not be elected Mayor of Auckland
12. Lianne Dalziel will be re-elected Mayor of Christchurch
13. A registered political party will deregister during the year
14. Celia Wade-Brown will  not be re-elected Mayor of Wellington
15. NZ First will poll higher than the Greens in at least one public poll
16. John Key will host two of the five permanent members (their heads of governments) of the Security Council in NZ in 2015
17. One or more Labour Maori MPs will break ranks with Labour on a major policy or issue
18. The Greens will declare more large donations than Labour in their annual return to the Electoral Commission
19. Unemployment will drop back below 6%
20. The NZ Herald will publish more stories about Max Key than about the Maori Party, ACT Party and United Future combined

The Herald reports:

The Government has spent $4.8 million on a charter school it now plans to close.

Education Minister Hekia Parata announced this afternoon she is proposing to terminate one of the country’s first charter schools because of poor teaching, low achievement and an inadequate curriculum.

Te Pumanawa o te Wairua, at Whangaruru in Northland, has until January 15 to give feedback on the proposal, but it seems unlikely the school will continue.

This is the right decision, and if anything should have happened earlier.

There’s nine charter schools now, and eight of them are doing well and a couple excelling. This one has been a basket case, and there should be scrutiny as to why it was thought capable, and what happened.

However this is absolutely a strength of the charter school model – a non performing school gets closed down – and quickly. In the state system we have scores and scores of non performing schools that never get closed down – they just carry on for years and years and years – and students are forced to attend them due to school zones.

I’d love to see state schools go down the charter school model more – greater flexibility of funding, and explicit performance targets they must meet.

Richard Harman at Politik reports:

The country’s local bodies are proposing a radical reform of the country’s planning and environment laws.

In short they are calling for either reducing the authority of the resource Management Act or scrapping it altogether.

In a so-called “Blue Skies” document released yesterday Local Government New Zealand offers two stages of reforms.

The second stage proposed scrapping the Resource Management Act, the Land Transport Act and the Local Government Act and their replacement by two new pieces of legislation.

The Councils say the current program of RMA reforms is encouraging and moving in a positive direction. 

But the Councils believe even the current reforms may not be enough.

So they are proposing three options:

• Blending the land use, infrastructure planning and funding components of the Local Government Act, the RMA and Land Transport Management Act into a single Planning Act and creating a separate Environment Act. 
• Or – Retaining the three acts but installing overarching planning legislation that  sets the regional strategic direction and the high-level parameters within which the acts are to operate.
• Or – Changing financial signals to promote sustainable decision making that integrates economic and environmental outcomes. 

Because the last option could require substantial finance, it is the least likely to be agreed to. 

But the other two options slot neatly into the current review of the three acts by the Productivity Commission. 

I like the idea of a Environment Act and Planning Act.

538 staff chat about whom they think will drop out next in the Republican primary.

Those already dropped out (in order are)

1. Rick Perry
2. Scott Walker
3. Bobby Jindal

So whom do they predict next (ignoring Jim Gilmore):

1. Rand Paul
2. Lindsey Graham
3. John Kasich
4. George Pataki
5. Carly Fiorina
6. Rick Santorum
7. Jeb Bush
8. Ben Carson
9. Donald Trump
10. Mick Huckabee
11. Chris Christie
12. Marco Rubio

So by default they think Ted Criz may win the nomination.

In December 2014 I did my normal 20 predictions for the year, being a mixture of serious and fun. So how did I go?

1. There will be a by-election in 2015 – 1/1
2. There will be no changes to the composition of the Key Ministry in 2015 – 0/1
3. Two Labour List MPs will leave Parliament in 2015 – 0/1
4. The Government will post a small surplus for the 2014/15 fiscal year – 1/1
5. Andrew Little will remain Labour Party Leader – 1/1
6. Jacinda Ardern will be annointed Labour Party Deputy Leader – 0/1
7. Four of the original five charter schools will get good reviews, but one will close – 1/1 (announced this week)
8. Not a single members’ bill will pass into law in 2015 0/1 (two passed including the Rugby World Cup bars bill)
9. At least one person on Labour’s list, will waive taking up their spot in Parliament, when vacancies occur – 0/1
10. An MP will announce their engagement – 0/1
11. Helen Clark will not stand for UN Secretary-General – 1/1 (no candidacy yet, if at all)
12. Labour will reach 30% in at least one poll in 2015 – 1/1
13. Trevor Mallard will throw Winston Peters out of the House for disorderly conduct – 0/1
14. An MP will get pregnant in 2015 – 0/1
15. Whatever decision the Government makes on helping combat the Islamic State, it will be condemned by the Greens – 1/1
16. No ACT MP will be charged with a crime in 2015 – 1/1
17. A visit to NZ by David Cameron will be announced in 2015 – 0/1
18. The winning design in the first flag referendum (to decide which goes off against the current one) will have a Silver Fern on it – 1/1
19. Claire Trevett will hold onto power as Chair of the Press Gallery, defeating the ABT faction once again – 1/1
20. The Government will not give a cent to Sky City for the convention centre – 1/1

So overall I score myself 11/20! Just passed.

Stats NZ reports:

The New Zealand economy grew 0.9 percent in the September 2015 quarter, following an increase of 0.3 percent in June, Statistics New Zealand said today. The September quarter increase was driven by growth in the service industries and manufacturing.

“The increase this quarter follows lower growth earlier in the year, which has brought the annual growth down to 2.9 percent,” national accounts manager Gary Dunnet said.

2.9% annual growth is very decent.

And the main increase has been in manufacturing. Even since Labour, Greens and NZ First declared manufacturing is in crisis three years ago it has grown 6.7% in real terms.

Stuff reports:

After chalking up a single Budget surplus the Government’s books will have dipped back into deficit, but the spluttering start is forecast to gain momentum in the years ahead. 

Finance Minister Bill English has also moved to give a $1 billion boost to capital spending next year, while leaving wriggle room for the Government’s spending programme to be brought forward.  

In its Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update, Treasury indicated weaker global conditions off the back of slower growth in China, weaker trading and commodity prices and slow dairy recovery had negatively impacted on the economy. 

Household consumption had also been soft, in addition to reduced impetus from the Canterbury rebuild, said Treasury secretary Gabriel Makhlouf.

A $414 million surplus in 2015 was forecast to dip back into a $401m deficit for next year, before tracking up to a $4.9b surplus by 2020. 

The $401 deficit is just a forecast, and as with 2014/15, it may end up as a surplus. Time will tell.

What is clear is that it will be years until there are significantly large surpluses. This means tight fiscal restraint has to continue. There is no room for a huge spend up.

English said the operating allowance for Budget 2016 remained to plan, with $1b extra spending at next year’s Budget followed by $2.5b in 2017 and $1.5b in 2018 and 2019. However, he has left room for the Government’s spending plan to be brought forward. 

Labour were increasing spending by $3 to $4 billion a year, and once the economy hit recession in 2008 (before the GFC) we were left with a level of spending we couldn’t pay for. It has taken six years to get back to surplus and still finely balanced.

With lower inflation (good for consumers) it means that the Government can’t rely on fiscal drag to push people into higher tax brackets and quietly increase the tax take. So again you need some fiscal restraint.

Sadly though there is little sign of it, with $9 billion of new annual spending demanded by various politicians and lobby grorups since the Budget.

A guest post by Wellington Deputy Mayor Justin Lester:

When I was first elected to Wellington City Council in 2010 the prevailing mind-set was that Wellington was facing a challenging time and the Council should batten down the hatches. Council was subject to comments that Wellington was stagnating or even dying. The advice was to consider implementing service cuts like closing libraries and swimming pools and to keep any new investment to a minimum.

I disagreed.  I thought the city needed to take a good look at itself and where its comparative advantages lay. Wellington needed to be bold and adopt a counter-intuitive Keynesian approach, like it had done in the 1990s. The reality was that if Government was prioritising it’s investment in Auckland and Christchurch and private business was contracting, then local government needed to step up.

Which is what we have done. It was from this that the Council’s economic growth agenda emerged.  The agenda was designed to stimulate jobs and growth. When I was appointed Deputy Mayor in 2013 I sought the role of Chair of the annual and long-term planning process, where my focus was to help set out the Council’s 10 year vision and investment programme and work towards its implementation.

We have reached a critical first achievement of this vision.

Movie Museum and Convention Centre

Recently Wellington City Council announced its intention to proceed with a combined Movie Museum and Convention Centre on Cable St.

The Movie Museum, backed and inspired by Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Richard Taylor, is a monumental project for our city. It will be an international drawcard and is could feasibly rival Te Papa, the Cake Tin or any other undertaking in Wellington’s recent history. In the 150 years since Wellington became New Zealand’s Capital, I can only think of a handful of moments that have been as significant.

To put it in context, 50 years after the release of the Sound of Music 300,000 people visit Salzburg to see the film’s shooting locations. New Zealand has had a similar experience with The Lord of the Rings. This year, in the unlikely location of Matamata, 400,000 mainly international tourists will descend upon Hobbiton. They will take selfies in the Shire and have a beer at the Green Dragon. Many will then head to Rotorua, Queenstown and probably fly straight back home via Auckland.

The Movie Museum will change tourism behaviour in New Zealand. It will become the most popular man-made attraction in New Zealand and Wellington will be front and centre on every tourist’s map.

Our new Convention Centre will act as a neat foil to Movie Museum’s lure given the co-location of the two sites.  It will provide a hosting facility for local, national and international delegates in the city. If we didn’t build it we could have lost $17m a year from our existing conventions market and by co-locating the two facilities I believe we will stimulate additional visitor growth and spending, which will in turn boost local businesses and generate jobs.

Can Wellington afford this and other proposed projects?

Wellington is in a very strong financial position. Of course, you might think, he would say that. But this isn’t my opinion; it comes from Standard and Poor’s (S&P).

S&P recently confirmed its AA credit rating of Wellington City Council and, for a second year in a row, considered Council’s credit rating to be higher than that of the Crown’s. S&P stated: “We view Wellington City’s stand-alone credit profile to be higher than the New Zealand sovereign, but have capped the ratings at the sovereign level. The ratings reflect our views of the council’s very strong financial management and budgetary flexibility, strong liquidity, and low contingent liabilities.” Officially, it is impossible for a council to outrank the crown, hence the equal rating.

The S&P rating also allows WCC to borrow at low interest rates and save a significant amount that would otherwise be spent on interest.

Regarding debt levels, At the end of the 2014/15 financial year Wellington City Council’s debt was 84 per cent of revenue based on net debt of $346 million against operating revenue of $451m. Wellington City Council also has investments valued at $381m.

In comparison, gross government debt was $86.1 billion on revenue of $66.6b and debt as a percentage of revenue was 130 per cent. The 2014/15 Auckland City Council annual report shows it had debt of $7.3b against operating income of $3.6b. Debt as a percentage of income in Auckland was 202 per cent.

The table below also shows how Wellington fares financially when compared with Auckland:

	Auckland	Wellington
GDP per Capita 2014	US$43,700	US$70,000
Economic growth	2.6%pa.	2.4%pa.
Population	1,529,000	206,000
Rate payers	518,784	75,613
Average rate	$2,636	$2,163
Operating surplus/revenue	13.6%	17%
Operating + capital deficit as % of revenue	(29%) 2011-2015 (19%) 2013-2017	(2.8%) (6.6%)
Debt forecast 2017	$8,176m	$446m
Debt as a % of Revenue 2017	257%	107%
Interest as a % of Revenue 2017	14.5%	6.4%

The comparison shows Wellington has a very robust balance sheet and a solid financial platform from which we can invest prudently in projects that further stimulate Wellington’s growth, boost business and create jobs.

But we also need an effective, cohesive Council that can push through our economic programme. In future I look forward to helping make Wellington perform even better.

Stuff reports:

Prime Minister John Key had brushed off research suggesting his political success will likely put him in an early grave.

“Any sacrifices in terms of some extra grey hair and a few more wrinkles are well worth it,” Key said.

New research has confirmed the stress of becoming an elected head of government means prime ministers, presidents and chancellors age faster and die nearly three years younger than their failed challengers who never reach office.

This is the first time I feel regret that Winston never got to be Prime Minister 🙂

The study by a team of American researchers, published in the British Medical Journal as part of its Christmas series, used survival data on 279 elected leaders and 261 runner-up candidates in parliamentary or presidential elections across 17 countries, spanning from 1722 to 2015.

It included 22 of New Zealand’s Prime Ministers and 10 runners-up who never served in office, from 1855 to last year’s re-election of John Key.

“We found that heads of government had substantially accelerated mortality compared with runner-up candidates.”

Let’s look at this for NZ.  WWII and beyond we’ve had 10 former PMs die. The average age of  death is 69.

Only three opposition leaders (who never became PM) have died in the same time period. The average age of death is 79.

Andrew Little should be pleased!

The Herald reports:

Labour leader Andrew Little says Labour would support sending Special Air Service troops to fight Isis if the right conditions were met.

Those conditions were having a clear and realistic objective, that it would have to be part of a multinational mission mandated by the United Nations and that the level of risk needed to be acceptable.

There is a UN mandate. So Labour have gone from total opposition to even having trainers behind the scenes in Iraq to sending the SAS in so long as there is a clear and realistic objective.

He also said there had to be a consensus between the US and Russia before any intervention would be effective.

Which means he is talking Syria, not Iraq.

This is what he said about sending trainers to Iraq:

“We have a unique opportunity for moral leadership to show that there is a different way, a long-term way, and a lasting way to address the conflicts and the hatreds that exist in the world and in that region, and that is through supporting nation States—fledgling nation States, in some cases—to come to terms with their responsibilities, rebuild their economies, rebuild their communities, and give themselves the confidence and the means to repel the evil that is represented by Islamic State.

“We have turned our back on that option. Labour is opposed to sending troops to Iraq.”

Basically his policy a year ago was to hug ISIL and hope they repent. Now he is saying we could send the SAS in. A huge flip-flop.

The Herald reports:

A $157 million Super City computer system has a potentially “catastrophic” risk, says Auditor General Lyn Provost.

The NewCore system, the cost of which has blown out from $71 million to $157 million, also carries an “almost certain” risk with a “major impact”, she said.

Last night, the council’s chief information officer Dean Kimpton said Ms Provost was commenting on information supplied in May and the computer system had improved significantly since then.

In the past few days, Ms Provost told the council’s leadership and councillors the NewCore programme is an area of significant cost and risk to the council.

NewCore is considered key to delivering the promised savings of the Super City. It is designed to consolidate the outdated operating systems of the former eight councils, which merged in 2010 to become the Auckland Council.

Last year, the Herald revealed the budget blowout of the new system, which is due to start in June next year, a year later than originally planned.

In an audit of the council’s books, Ms Provost said, at the end of July this year, council officers assessed NewCore’s overall status as “Red – Critical”.

For a $160 million budget that is a huge concern.

Were Councilors told this at the time? Why not?

Does the Council receive and review a risk register? That is a core role of governance – risk.

A report to councillors in May made no mention of a “catastrophic” risk with the data issue, only that the “issues are being prioritised and addressed”.

If I was a Councillor I’d want to be regularly receiving a risk register. Not one of all operational risks, but of major risks with significant fiscal or reputational impact.

Have just finished reading How Star Wars conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor. A very well researched book on not just the films, but the cultural phenomenon. He has interviewed scores of peole involved and got holds of all the various drafts and amended scripts.

Picked up a lot of facts and trivia I didn’t know, so figured the day before Episode VII is a good time to share some of them. 20 facts you may now know:

1. Lucas saw Star Wars as how a small bunch of primitive rebels defeated a huge empire.  It was loosely based on the Vietnam War with the US Government being the Empire, the Emperor being Richard Nixon and the Ewoks representing the Viet Cong!
2. The original title for the first movie was “The Adventures of Luke Starkiller”
3. Lucas was over budget for the movie so destroyed Alderaan to save the expense of filming what was to be several scenes on it
4. Engineers once calculated that it would take 833,315 years for Earth to construct the Death Star and cost $852 quadrillion or $852,000 trillions.
5. When Mad Magazine did a parody called The Empire Strikes Out, Lucasfilm wrote to then threatening a lawsuit. Mad Magazine responded by sending them a copy of the personal letter they’d received from George Lucas telling them how great the parody was.
6. In original scripts C3PO was meant to die in Episode IV and Lando in Episode VI. They were changed to Obi-Wan and Yoda.
7. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher had an affair during the filming of Episode IV. It started when he surprised her by hiding naked in his closet with just a bow tie on.
8. Economists have calculated that if you paid people minimum wage to mop the floors of the Death Star, it would cost $732 billion
9. Fox Studios thought Star Wars would tank as it had only $1.5 million of advance bookings and it opened in just 43 theatres
10. So many people just stayed in theatres to watch Star Wars multiple times (without paying), that this led to theatres now checking and clearing the audience between screenings of films today
11. Fox stock went from $13 to $23 a share within one month of Star Wars opening
12. The reasons Luke Skywalker looked so stunned to learn Darth Vader was his father was he got told just two minutes before the scene was shot. And the actor who played Darth Vader (not James Earl Jones who was the voice) only found out when he watched the film!
13. The reason Had Sole got frozen in carbonite at the end of Episode V is because he had not signed up for Episode VI. If they couldn’t get an agreement he would have stayed frozen!
14. The entirety of Boba Fett”s dialogue in Episode V and VI can fit into a single tweet
15. After Mark Hamill learnt Leia was his sister (and before that Darth Vader his father) he joked that they should have Boba Fett remove Fett’s helmet and Luke discovers Boba Fett is his mother 🙂
16. Lucas named the Trade Federation leaders Nute Gunray and Lott Dod after Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.
17. The original script for the prequels sounded much better than the final scripts – Qui Gon is a minor figure so the focus is on Obi-Wan for Episode I.  Jar Jar speaks normally and is very wise, and the plot is about how Amidala’s race is prejudiced against his but she overcomes this prejudice. Also originally in Episode III Amidala was meant to found the Rebel Alliance, instead of dying.
18. One fan queued up for six weeks for the first screening of Episode I.  His reaction upon seeing it was “Shit. Fucking. Sandwich”
19. In the original script for Episode III Palpatine tells Anakin that he created him through the force, and that makes him effectively his father. That would have meant the Emperor was Luke’s grandfather!
20. Han shot first!

Stuff reports:

Do Wellingtonians really need to be able to buy alcohol after 10pm?

That question was posed on Monday at the first half of a liquor licence hearing for Pak ‘n Save Kilbirnie, where there were also suggestions the supermarket should take some responsibility for alcohol-related incidents in the suburb.

Police and the Regional Medical Officer of Health are both putting the heat on Pak ‘n Save to peg back the number of hours it sells alcohol, which is currently between 7am and 11pm.

Police want the hours cut-off at 10pm. But Pak ‘n Save argues that would be unfair given the Countdown supermarket across the road and near-by off-licences would not be subject to the same restrictions.

Once again the Police are trying to set policy. The City Council, under the law, sets maximum hours for off-licenses. But the Police tries to bully supermarkets into different hours.

Pak ‘n Save owner-operator Dean Galt said any restrictions would simply send those looking for alcohol across the road to Countdown Kilbirnie, which had a 7am till 11pm licence, and they would likely do the rest of their grocery shopping there as well.

“Unless everyone is on the same page, no, it’s not going to change the problem,” he said.

“It’s about convenience. If we don’t offer the customers what they want, they will go elsewhere for the whole shop.”

Sergeant Damian Rapira-Davies, of Wellington Police, put it to Galt that most people buying alcohol after 10pm were not buying large amounts of groceries as well, so the supermarket would not be losing that much business.

The Police are wrong, and they are basically making stuff up. I’ve done work in this area and the vast majority of people buying alcohol from a supermarket late at night (or early morning) are buying groceries also. And further they are ot buying alcohol to drink that night, just as part of their regular shopping.

But Galt disagreed and pointed to sales figures he said showed the proportion of groceries sold after 10pm was much larger than its alcohol sales.

The Police should argue on the basis of evidence, not personal preference.

Pak ‘n Save Kilbirnie was banned from selling alcohol for five days in June after allowing a pair of 16-year-old boys to buy booze.

But police said the supermarket was otherwise responsible and if it agreed to the 10pm close-off time then the police would remove its objection to the licence renewal.

This is how the Police operate – agree to our terms or we’ll object to your licence. It’s a form of legalised blackmail.

Rapira-Davies said the supermarket needed to take some responsibility for the alcohol-related harm in the Kilbirnie area.

“It’s our experience that people purchasing alcohol late at night are intending to consume it later that night,” he said.

From bottle stores yes, from supermarkets no. The majority are buying it with their weekly groceries to consume later.

“A proportion of the alcohol harm pictures needs to be recognised as belonging to the applicant … the largest volume [in the area] is sold by this licensee.

None of the alcohol harm belongs to the applicant. It belongs to those who do the harm. The applicant’s responsibility is to act within the law, not sell to minors or intoxicated persons.

“It’s not unreasonable for us to have formed that view.”

Actually it is. It is like blaming banks for people who take out cash and spend it on the pokies. The Police in Wellington constantly bully supermarkets.

Oh that is mean. They gave him a choice of singing the song or yanking on a line of ponytails. Jayjay is evil.

Stuff reports:

A convicted armed robber who has been deported from Christmas Island to Invercargill feels like a foreigner in his home town.

Andre Bishop, 28, who arrived back in Invercargill on November 4, hadn’t been to the city since 1997, when he moved to Brisbane as a nine-year-old.

“A few buildings looked familiar [in Invercargill] when I came back, but that was about it,” Bishop said.

“I feel like I’m in a foreign country. I was born here but it’s the same feeling as if I’ve been dropped off in China or England or somewhere.”

He amassed a criminal history “about seven or eight pages long” and including convictions for armed robbery, extortion and assaulting police before being deported.

Does anyone except Labour think it is unreasonable of Australia to deport someone with eight pages of criminal offending?

He committed his first robbery at the age of 14.

Bishop considers himself an Australian and has already lodged an appeal against his deportation.

Good luck with that. Those with one or two convictions may (and have) win appeals, but 14 years of criminal offending is unlikely to.

He felt let down by Australia’s new immigration laws, but he “wasn’t going to sit around in a detention centre for two years waiting for an answer” and elected to return to Invercargill where he had family, turning down the chance to go to Whanganui and live with his uncle because he feared he would end up joining a gang.

I’d say Australians feel let down by him. Good to see he is trying to avoid a gang though.

“I was living a lifestyle on the Gold Coast where I was robbing pubs and paying $250 a night for high-rise apartments for weeks on end.

Oh dear, and with an attitude like that where he sees that as a good lifestyle, no wonder he struggles to get a job.

Prime Minister John Key’s office declined to comment, stating it was a matter for Corrections and that the prime minister could not comment on specific cases.

Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis said it was “absolutely ridiculous” the Prime Minister’s office did not want to comment on a problem they helped create.

Really Kelvin, how did the PM or his office create this problem? Did they force Mr Bishop into bank robberies in Australia? Do you think in the same situation, NZ should not deport someone who has 14 years of criminal offending?

If Labour MPs are going to get so offended over being labeled as defending killers and rapists (which has been apologised for), then maybe Labour MPs should not try and paint the Prime Minister as responsible for a recidivist bank robber.

“If they don’t get the social support, they’re left to sometimes resort to crime. It’s just shocking the prime minister’s Government has created this problem by not offering the social support and negotiating with the Australian Government.”

Here Davis blames society, instead of the criminal. In case he missed it, Bishop had all the social support in Australia – a family, school, job opportunities. Yet he did 14 years of criminal offending.  Yet in Davis’ world this is not his fault, but the lack of social support.

And he should stop lying about the Government not negotiating. The Government has – and in fact those negotiations are what allowed people like Bishop to file appeals from NZ rather than stay on Christmas Island – the exact thing Labour demanded an end to.

Corrections northern region operations director Lynette Cave said it assisted Christmas Island deportees just like other offenders.

“Corrections provides support to returning offenders in the same way it supports any other offender with re-integrative needs,” she said.

“Corrections contracts with Pars (formerly known as the Prisoners’ Aid and Rehabilitation Society) to provide services to returning offenders.”

Now known as People At Risk Solutions, Pars was given $100,000 by Corrections in October to assist offenders with re-integration into society.

Davis is the one who insisted these offenders be released from Christmas Island. If he is looking for blame, he could start with himself.

Stuff reports:

Labour had gone into the last two elections promising to lift the top personal rate “and we are looking closely again at that”, he said.

“I think it is core to the kind of fair society I think we should have, that those who earn the most contribute a little bit more to ensure everybody has better opportunities. I never resile from that. The exact detail of that is what we are working on.”

Robertson said 2016 was the year Labour would put forward more concrete policies.

People on the top tax rate pay 33% on income over $70,000 and 15% on top of that on good and services they consume. I reckon that is more than enough.

Those earning over $70,000 already pay 59% of all income tax in New Zealand.