The Guardian reported:

Labour’s attempts to prove it is pro business backfired on Tuesday night when the shadow chancellor Ed Balls was unable to remember the name of one of the party’s key supporters.

In a bid to prove Labour did have support from some of the most influential names in business, Balls’ attempts to reel off the names was over before it began when interviewed by Newsnight. The best he could come up with was someone named Bill.

Asked by presenter Emily Maitlis whether it was worrying that the 63 business leaders who wrote to the Financial Times backing Labour in 2005 were silent ahead of May’s general election, Balls insisted the party did have support.

“I’ve been at a dinner tonight with a number of business-supporting Labour figures,” he said. Who were they, Maitlis asked?

“Well, em, Bill. The former chief executive of EDS who I was just talking to…”

Seizing on his uncertainty, Maitlis pressed: “What was his name?”

At which point the shadow chancellor had to admit he couldn’t actually remember. “It has just gone from my head, which is a bit annoying at this time of night.”

The hole got deeper when Maitlis replied: “Okay. So frankly you’ve got Bill somebody. Have we got anyone else? Cos you were talking about 63 or 50 FTSE 100 leaders. Now we’ve got Bill somebody.”

Oh dear that is a fairly bad fail.

It did get me thinking. While overall more business leaders tend to support National, the Clark/Cullen Labour government did have a reasonably significant number of business supporters. Hugh Fletcher, Stephen Tindall etc.

But since going into opposition and coming up with policies such as their electricity effective nationalisation policy, I struggle to think of any prominent business supporters apart from that Selwyn guy, and the gym owner. Certainly no one from a top 50 company. And as I said, while most business leaders do tend to be centre-right, it is by no means all.

Stuff reports:

The Greens are calling on the New Zealand Super Fund to divest from fossil fuels, as it accuses its guardians of betting on a climate disaster. 

The fund currently has $676 million in fossil fuel companies – about 2 per cent of the fund’s assets under management.

The role of the Super Fund is to maximise the return on investment to help fund NZ Superannuation. It is not to reflect Green Party ideology. If you want a Green fund, then you can invest in one of the dozens around. But one of the huge risks in the Government having a large investment fund is that politicians will want to use it for their own pet projects. First they start excluding stuff they don’t like, and then they announce say $5 billion will be invested in wind farm companies, and bang the NZ Super Fund becomes a plaything for politicians.

“Getting out of fossil fuels is not only the right thing to do, it makes financial sense too.”

I wonder how many would die if in fact every fossil fuel company in the world had its funding turned off, and was unable to attract capital. I suspect it might be more than Mao managed!

I do agree that renewable energy needs to be a much larger share of the world’s future energy supply. But fossil fuels in countries like China currently provide heating and electricity to hundreds of millions. If you declared a ban on any future fossil fuel extraction, then there would be massive shortages.

The Herald  reports:

The Green Party says Labour has broken the law by not consulting its co-leaders about a spot on the powerful intelligence and security committee.

The party pointed to the Intelligence and Security Committee Act, which said the Leader of the Opposition could nominate an MP “following consultation with the leader of each party that is not in Government or in coalition with a Government party”.

There is no doubt the Greens are correct and Little has broken the law. He failed to not only consult other parties over his nominations, but failed to even notify them – they found out by way of media release.

His nomination of David Shearer is illegal, and a judicial review would I am sure be successful. However a law suit would only force him to restart the process, not to ultimately make a different choice.

But his failure to consult, despite a statutory requirement to do so, should be alarming. He aspires to be Prime Minister, a role which has numerous positions he effectively appoints, some of which require consultation with opposition parties such as Governor-General, human rights commissioners, officers of Parliament, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security etc. Will a Prime Minister Little be as unconcerned about breaking the law on consultation, as Opposition Leader Little is?

Stuff reports:

Little said he would “consult” with the Greens about the committee’s deliberations. That would fulfil his legal obligations.

No it doesn’t. The obligation is around the nomination of members. He is meant to be a lawyer, yet seems unable to read the statute.

His failure to follow the law also raises issue around his office. His staff should have been aware of the legal requirements, and advised appropriately.

He earlier said he chose Shearer because Norman was standing down as co-leader in May.

He had rejected appointing co-leader Metiria Turei because he wanted someone with “skills, understanding and experience.” 

While he has clearly broken the law in not consulting, his actual decision in not appointing a Green MP is the right one. The Greens are effectively opposed to the very existence of the intelligence agencies. Hence appointing them to an oversight committee means that their interest is just to find ways to discredit the agencies, not to play a constructive role in oversight.

However I do think it is regrettable that Labour kept both spots for itself. While I am not his biggest fan, I think it would have been quite suitable to appoint Winston Peters on the basis he is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs.

UPDATE: It appears from what Peter Dunne said on Twitter that he was not consulted by the Prime Minister of the Government’s nominees. If correct, this is also a breach of the Act and equally bad behaviour. It is also a bad way for a Government to treat a coalition partner.

There is no question that Dunne himself could not be appointed to the committee, after his leaking of the Kitteridge report to Andrea Vance (denied but not believed). But even though he could not be appointed himself, that doesn’t mean the Government is released from its obligations to consult him (and ACT and the Maori Party).

A great punking here:

In preparation for an upcoming neo-Nazi march in the small Bavarian town of Wunsiedel, local residents decided to fight back in a hilariously perfect way: by sponsoring each of the 250 fascist participants. According to Heeb Magazine, “For every metre they walked, €10 went to a programme called EXIT Deutschland, which helps people escape extremist groups.”

The anti-semitic walkers didn’t figure out the town’s scheme until they had already started their march, and by that time, it was too late to turn back. The end result? The neo-Nazis raised more than $12,000 to fund programs to put an end to neo-Nazis. 

A much better idea than a counter-march!

Watch the video. It is hilarious as you see signs thanking them for their marching, a stand handing out bananas to help their energy levels keep going, and updates painted on the ground about how much they have nor fund-raised for anti-extremist causes.

Such a clever way of discouraging them to come back.

The latest infographic from Mana News – once a political party, and now a source of nutty infographics.

I guess it didn’t occur to them that I blogged on the issue of whether Iwi should have law making powers because I’m against it!

John Minto writes:

When the Government changed the Education Act to allow for charter schools, it bet that a bunch of non-educators using their own untested theories of education could run schools for our most disadvantaged students and achieve better results than state schools.

Who are these non-educators that Minto claims are running charter schools in NZ? As far as I know they are all educators.

Not only that, it stacked the decks by deliberately removing the charter schools from the checks and balances that all state schools must face and gave them more money (as a series of set-up grants).

They actually get slightly less money than an equivalent new state school as detailed by the Ministry.

For example, these schools are exempt from making disclosures under the Official Information Act, despite the fact that they are government-funded.

The OIA applies to organisations owned by the Government, not funded by them. Personally I think it should apply to all bodies funded in whole or majority by the Government, but it doesn’t. All those NGOs that are 95% government funded should come under the OIA, as should charter schools. But I suspect John doesn’t want it extended to all bodies funded by the Government – just those he disagrees with.

The Quality Public Education Coalition (QPEC) has been tracking US charter schools daily for more than two years ago now, and not only are many of them an educational disgrace but they continue to contribute to the overall educational collapse of the US in world educational rankings. Per dollar spent, US schools are the world’s worst.

It is because the US school system is so bad, that charter schools have done so well there. And there have been numerous studies showing that they overall lift achievements rates for pupils. Also in some states, they have seen a lift in achievement rates for neighbouring public schools also.

There is no empirical research that supports this model of charter schools, and plenty of evidence against the model. It is being driven by the first-term, right-wing Act MP, David Seymour, who promises to support these schools through thick, thin and very expensive, success or failure – competition at all costs, and the taxpayer must pay.

There is a huge amount of empirical evidence. But the best empirical evidence will come from NZ. Minto and others want to close these schools before they can be given a chance to succeed. I say judge them on results. If a charter school produces bad results (as one looks to be doing), then close it down. But if they are producing great results, then support them. In the state school system a failing public school is never closed down – they are just given more money and a bigger zone!

Stuff reports:

Five months on from her political party’s implosion Laila Harre had her thumb out on the roadside in Taranaki, hoping to find out how to make politics work for New Zealanders.

Former Internet-Mana Party leader Laila Harre and sister Niki are hitching around the North Island hearing what ideas the public have to make the world a better place. …

Ideas they’ve encountered include a basic living wage, schools putting more emphasis on teaching children to be part of the community, avoiding people falling into a debt-dependant lifestyle and, in Whanganui, the introduction of a feijoa festival.

“It’s free, we all share it and paying money for feijoas is just ridiculous,” Laila said.

Absolutely. Free feijoas is a human right. It is barbaric that people have to pay for them.

Stuff reports:

The Government is set to tighten up the rules around zero-hour contracts – the casual employment agreements that saw petrol station workers docked wages after customers drove off.

This article conflates two separate issues. Zero hours contracts and if an employer can deduct wages for staff actions or inactions which cause a loss. The latter issue could occur no matter how many hours you are contracted for, and it is misleading to conflate the issues.

I think deducting wages of petrol station workers for drive offs is wrong, and illegal in many cases.

It comes as a union campaign to outlaw the controversial contracts – which are widely used in the fast-food and service industries – gathers a head of steam.

The terms mean staff work and get paid only when they are needed and often at short notice. Shifts can be cancelled, without reimbursement for travel or other costs. Holiday, sick pay and other employment rights are not guaranteed and in some cases employees are penalised for losses.

Again this is wrong. The article lumps together a number of what you may call employment abuses and calls them zero hours contracts. This is useful to Labour and the unions who have a campaign against them, but it is again misleading.

Zero hour contracts do mean staff only get paid when needed and can be cancelled at short notice. But it does not mean holiday pay is not guaranteed – that is an absolute right. It also has nothing to do with penalising employees for losses. That is a separate issue.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse said he was motivated to act after it emerged Gull service station managers had billed staff when customers fled without paying for their fuel.

He has asked officials to look at a ban on practices “where there is no quid-pro-quo in the employment relationship”. It will form part of an ongoing review of employment standards that began last year.

Billing staff for drive offs is wrong and exploitative and may already be illegal. It is good the Government is looking into the law around that.

However, it is unlikely the Government will go as far as outlawing zero-hours contracts – because they suit students, part-time parents and the semi-retired. He rejected the ‘Certainty at Work’ legislation proposed by Labour last week, saying it was “blunt and unsophisticated and would make things worse for the workers”.

It could effectively be a ban on all casual work, which would devastate many employees and employers. As the article says, zero hours contracts suit many students who don’t want fixed hours.

My view is that zero hour contracts are absolutely fine – however if the employer does not guarantee a minimum number of hours, then the employee can’t be forced to work any particular hours – ie the employer has to persuade staff to work a particular shift – rather than just force them on, with no reciprocal obligation of minimum hours.

Kelly says current employment laws only provide for fixed-term or permanent employment.

“If someone is fixed term they have to be employed on genuine grounds. We think most casual employment is already illegal, it just requires enforcement.

So the CTU and their parliamentary wing want to abolish casual work. Nice.

Lindsay Mitchell summarises the war on the poor that some on the left are claiming the Government has:

• Insulation of over 200,000 homes
• increased access to GPs
• an intensive campaign to reduce rheumatic fever
• boosted budgeting advisory services
• low cost procurement of household essentials like washing machines
• low interest loans to combat loan sharks
• partnering with charities providing food and clothing to poor children
• home visitation programmes like Early Start
• extended income-related rents to non-government social housing
• Whanau Ora

Yeah that is a real war on the poor.

Stuff reports:

The Green Party is urging Parliament not to be the first in the world to vote on the practice of testing cosmetics on animals and choose to continue it.

Green MP Mojo Mathers has introduced proposed amendments to the Government’s Animal Welfare Amendment Bill,which is likely to come before the house this week. 

It would see the testing of cosmetics on animals completely banned, although animal testing does not occur in New Zealand anyway.

But the amendments would not extend to imported products that have been tested on animals overseas. 

I support this Green Party policy. Testing on animals for cosmetics is nasty. Testing for medical reasons or safety is a “necessary evil” but testing for cosmetics is different.

The Herald reports:

Egypt called for a seven day period of mourning over the death of 21 Egyptian Christians, beheaded by Isis militants, and warned it would “avenge the criminal killings.”

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned that his country would respond to the deaths as it saw fit.

Militants in Libya had been holding the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians hostage for weeks, all laborers rounded up from the city of Sirte in December and January.

These were not soldiers. They were labourers who were executed because they belonged to the wrong religion. Targeting people for death due to their religion is what the Nazis did.

People are fooling themselves if they think that ISIL is just a small localised conflict or civil war. Their ambitions are global. They openly boast of it. They seek the death of subjugation of  anyone who doesn’t follow their religion.

“Funded by the government just means funded by the people. Government, by the way, has no money. It only takes money from the people. Sometimes people forget that that’s really what occurs.”

– Elon Musk

The quote of the week is brought to you by the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. To support the Union’s campaign for lower taxes and less government waste, click here.

Stuff reports:

Ireland’s giant killers have struck again although captain Will Porterfield wasn’t listening to any talk of an upset.

The Irish have a history of Cricket World Cup upsets. Their hit-list has included a tie with Zimbabwe as a qualifier in 2007 before beating Pakistan and Bangladesh ahead of a stunning three-wicket final-over win against England in 2011.

But today’s pulsating four-wicket win over the West Indies in their pool B clash at Nelson’s Saxton Oval ranked among the best of them as they spectacularly added another top-tier nation to their trophy bag.

I love it when a minnow nation in a sport topples one of the top tier teams. Who would have ever thought that an Irish cricket team would beat the West Indies.

So looking forward to other matches over the next few weeks.

A reader writes in:

National Radio doesn’t run enough sports bulletins with their news. Most other stations have a short news and sports broadcast on the hour and half-hour during the prime morning and drivetime periods. National Radio has sports (I think, in the morning when I listen) at 7am, 8am and then not until 12 noon.

 A large number of musicians are big fans of sport, especially the English Premier League. Many of the musos in Auckland play football both 11 a side and indoors. Apparently Anika Moa nearly ended up playing for the Black Ferns, something I have never heard in any newspaper article on her.

So my theory is that National Radio would hold and increase its audience if it brought in regular sports segments with all of their news broadcasts. They could do a particular angle in features that would suit their audience on the intersection of music and sport. Or politicians and sport. Or environmentalists and sport.

It’s an interesting point. New Zealand does love its sports, and National Radio could increase its coverage of sports in a way that would complement its brand. I wonder what research Radio NZ has done around this – both of current listeners and former listeners?

The HoS reports:

Kim Dotcom’s long-running legal battle has suffered a blow after one of his co-accused pleaded guilty – and will now testify against his former colleagues.

In one of the biggest developments since Dotcom’s Coatesville compound was raided three years ago, computer programmer Andrus Nomm pleaded guilty to internet piracy in a Virginia court on Friday.

The 36-year-old struck a plea bargain deal with the US Justice Department, admitting he personally downloaded copyright-infringing files. Nomm will serve a year and a day behind bars. …

The US Department of Justice claims Nomm’s guilty plea was a major blow to Dotcom’s case. But that was last night rejected by his legal team. His attorney, Ira Rothken, told the Herald on Sunday the guilty plea did not serve as a precedent.

“If Mr Nomm testifies in a truthful manner … we expect that his testimony will help the defence.

I can’t imagine that there would be a plea deal, if the testimony would help the defence.

What will be interesting is whether it may affect the extradition hearing? Does the fact one person has pleaded guilty to the charges, make it harder for the NZ court to find that the charges are not valid? Remember the NZ court does not have to find likely guilt – just that the charges are valid, and would be an offence in NZ.

Whilst the standing down of Brian Williams from NBC continues to tickle the funny bone of the US cartoonists I’ve chosen one cartoon about Obama’s Iraq policy and the other about Jeb Bush.

The first is by Michael Ramirez and highlights an issue with Obama’s foreign policy and the lack of properly defined endgame. The word overcautious comes to mind.

© Michael Ramirez: found at Real Clear Politics

The other cartoon by Andy Marlette makes fun of Jeb Bush’s strategy of seemingly trying to win the GOP presidential nomination by hoovering up the big $’s early on from the key GOP donors. He hasn’t as yet convinced me that his policy ideas are winners. He is a winner in the piling up the campaign funds contest though.

© Andy Marlette: Found at Real Clear Politics

Stuff reports:

The organiser of a street art festival is outraged Canterbury Museum is ignoring his request to pull a controversial T-shirt from its exhibition, which is part of the event.

Spectrum street art festival director George Shaw is distancing himself and the festival from the T-shirt. He is upset the museum ignored his early warnings to consult with stakeholders before deciding to include the garment.

T-Shirts Unfolding is a big part of the Spectrum festival and features 1000 T-shirts – including the Vestal Masturbation, which shows an image of a masturbating nun while on the reverse it has the phrase “Jesus is a c…”.

Museum director Anthony Wright is standing firm, saying the museum has no plans to ditch the shirt.

The shirt is offensive and obscene. Canterbury Museum though has the right to display it. There is no requirement in NZ not to upset adherents of a particular religion.

I note however that upset people have responded with letters of complaints and an online petition. Not riots and killings.

The question to Canterbury Museum should be whether they would allow a t-shirt that displayed Mohammed masturbating, and the phrase “Mohammed is a w***er”?

NBR reports:

“So, if the centre is now going to be 10% smaller, then obviously the concessions afforded to the casino should be 10% smaller. For example, the increased number of pokie machines should be about 205 instead of 230, the increased number of large tables should be 36 instead of 40, and the increased length of the gambling license should go down by about five years.”

I disagree. Because Sky City is still spending the same amount of money. The concessions were valued at around $400 million (net present value), which is what they will still spend.

In comments to NBR and on social media, convention centre critic Matthew Hooton mined a similar theme, posting: “If I contract to build you a five-bedroom house with a swimming pool for $2 million but then you agree I can build you a four-bedroom one with only a hot tub for the same $2 million, then I have come out better than you in the negotiations. Does our press gallery understand this? Do MPs? I bet @nztreasury does.”

Matthew’s analogy fails on a key point. If you are a building company and you build a smaller swimming pool, then it doesn’t affect you at all – because you do not benefit from the swimming pool when complete.

But what Matthew, and others miss, is Sky City will be the operator of the convention centre. They will be the one who benefits or loses from how well patronised it is.

If we get a couple fewer conventions coming to NZ because the centre is a bit smaller, then it is Sky City that will not get the convention rental, the room hires, the meals, the entertainment spending.

Sky City have an incentive to make the convention centre as attractive as possible to attract conventions, because they (not the taxpayer) have to pay for the ongoing operating costs.

Stuff reports:

Betting cheats evicted from the Cricket World Cup opening match in Christchurch used multiple cellphones and laptops to relay information to people overseas willing to pay big money for the information, police say. 

A security expert said police probably knew who they were looking for before Saturday’s game began.

Police arrested “several” individuals and groups for courtsiding during the New Zealand versus Sri Lanka match at Hagley Oval.  

All were trespassed from future International Cricket Council events.

Courtsiding refers to a spectator at an event sending immediate information on game scores and activities before it is broadcast. The delay can be up to 15 seconds and allows people overseas to make spot bets.

Superintendent Sandy Manderson said yesterday that some of the cheats caught at Saturday’s game lived in New Zealand. The others were overseas visitors.  

Manderson said plainclothes police trained in spotting courtsiders, as well as members of the public, identified the men.

Why is this an offence, and why are Police spending time on it?

I’m all for cracking down on match fixing and the like. But this is not the same thing.

Trying to stop 40,000 people at a venue from communicating with the outside world is doomed to fail.

If an overseas bookie is stupid enough to keep taking bets on a game, while it is underway, then their stupidity does not need NZ Police protecting them. They could institute a rule that no bets within 30 seconds of a wicket are valid, due to the delay.

While not illegal in New Zealand, courtsiding is in breach of the terms of entry to matches at the Cricket World Cup.

So why are NZ Police involved?

Stuff reports:

Thousands of sensors are to be installed around Wellington to keep an eye on parking overstayers.

A $1.4 million rollout of 4000 sensors across city car parks is being planned by the Wellington City Council. The move would allow wardens to get real-time information about where people are overstaying, although the council also says automated reminder messages and top-up options sent to people’s cellphones should mean fewer tickets being issued.

The sensors can tell cellphone or internet users where car parks are available and can be linked to online payment, allowing people to receive phone alerts when their time is about to run out and to top up their payments.

That would be very useful – both being told which parks are free, and being told when your time is almost up.

It has been a busy start to the year having just finished an exhibition and rolled out a new website in conjunction.

This photograph featured quite prominently in the exhibition – just over two meters in length framed – and now has a new home having just finished the install in a clients home.

It was taken at Antelope Canyon in Arizona which is an amazing place to visit and photograph.

Click on the image for a larger view of this photograph.

Cheers

Richard [richardhume.com]

YouTube: Timeless – A Panoramic Journey

Stuff reports:

Danish police shot and killed a man in Copenhagen on Sunday they believe was responsible for two deadly attacks at an event promoting freedom of speech and on a synagogue.

The event was to promote freedom of speech – tragic.

Note this wasn’t even an event displaying depictions of Mohammed. This was a seminar to discuss freedom of speech.

And the attack on the synagogue is just another lethal anti-Semitic attack.

With these events becoming almost a weekly event, how long can it be until it occurs in New Zealand?