Stuff reports:

Andrew Little is talking up his connections outside the Labour caucus, amid signals he may stand for the Labour leadership.

The former Labour Party president who has twice failed to win the seat of New Plymouth, was confirmed as an MP on Saturday only after a dramatic swing in special votes away from the Government.

But Little, a former head of the EPMU, said that in the hours since the election result was finalised he had been “prevailed upon by a large number of people” to consider nominating for the party leadership.

While saying that Labour should ideally reflect on its poor election result before a leadership contest, Little talked up his broad connections.

“I know the party because I’ve been party president, in terms of my union work I . . . continue to have a lot of contact with the corporate sector, with working people, a whole range of people. It’s those networks we need to get out to,” Little told TVNZ’s Q+A.

Andrew is a credible and strong contender for the leadership. He is right that a lot of members and activists are saying they want more than two candidates, as the contest risks turning into a referendum on who is to blame – the leader or the caucus.

The Cunliffe and Robertson factions have little time for each other. If Little can gain enough support to not be the lowest polling candidate, he could then pick up second preferences from the candidate eliminated and have a decent chance of winning.

Having a former union boss as the Labour leader, would of course entrench the perception that Labour is beholden to sectional interests, rather than the national interest. This is part of why they got 25%.

But on the positive side, he is in a better position than Cunliffe or Robertson to unify the party.

Stuff reports:

A plunge in the payout to dairy farmers could put pressure on the government’s target of reaching surplus this year, Prime Minister John Key warned today.

Last week, Fonterra slashed its payout forecast from $6 per kilo of milk solids to $5.30, a move which came before another 7 per cent fall in dairy prices. Economists are now warning that the final payout for Fonterra could fall below $5.

Today, Key admitted the impact on the economy could be $5 billion which would inevitably have “some impact” on the Crown’s books. It was possible that the government would take additional steps to protect its surplus target.

It is a good reminder that we are not yet in surplus – just projected to be. The need for fiscal restraint is as strong as ever – the government needs to keep spending at an affordable level, so that we get back into surplus without tax increases. In fact, so in the future we can boost take home pays with tax cuts.

Chris Keall gives succinct advice for each party in NBR:

• Labour – change the leader and scrap the primary-style contest
• Internet-Mana – give up and go home
• Conservatives – media training for Colin Craig and a deal with National in Napier
• ACT – media training for David Seymour and push National on tax
• Maori Party – give up and go home
• Green Party – stick to being Green
• NZ First – recruit Shane Jones
• United Future – cruise control
• National – nothing different

The demographics of the full 28 person Ministry (including Under-Secretaries) is:

• 68% male, 32% female
• 82% European, 14% Maori, 4% Pasifika
• 11% 30s, 43% 40s, 43% 50s, 4% 60s
• 39% Auckland, 11% Wellington, 7% Christchurch, 18% Provincial, 25% Rural
• 75% North Island, 25% South Island
• 7% entered 1980s, 14% 1990s, 64% 2000s and 7% 2010s

The 25 National Ministers are:

• 64% male, 36% female
• 84% European, 12% Maori, 4% Pasifika
• 8% 30s, 48% 40s, 40% 50s, 4% 60s
• 40% Auckland, 8% Wellington, 8% Christchurch, 16% Provincial, 28% Rural
• 72% North Island, 28% South Island
• 4% entered 1980s, 16% 1990s, 72% 2000s and 8% 2010s

13 of the 25 National Ministers entered Parliament in 2008 or later.

The Cabinet is:

• 70% male, 30% female
• 80% European, 15% Maori, 5% Pasifika
• 10% 30s, 45% 40s, 40% 50s, 5% 60s
• 45% Auckland, 10% Wellington, 5% Christchurch, 20% Provincial, 20% Rural
• 75% North Island, 25% South Island
• 5% entered 1980s, 20% 1990s, 70% 2000s and 5% 2010s

The 11 Front Benchers are:

• 64% male, 36% female
• 73% European, 27% Maori
• 9% 30s, 36% 40s, 55% 50s,
• 36% Auckland, 18% Wellington, 9% Christchurch, 9% Provincial, 27% Rural
• 73% North Island, 27% South Island
• 27% entered 1990s, 27% between 2000 and 2007 and 45% in 2008

So almost half the front bench are relatively new MPs. That’s rejuvenation. Clark’s front bench in 2005 looked very similar to her 1999 one.

In 2008 the initial National front bench was only 22% female.

Stuff reports:

Hager told Radio New Zealand that he accepted the police had the right to be at his home, but he was critical of the “rather draconian” Search and Surveillance Bill passed in 2012 that allowed the raid.

That’s just Hager once again misleading people to try and score political points. I’m 99% certain the Police had the powers to search his house under pre-existing laws. The Search and Surveillance Bill was more about harmonising the powers of other agencies – the Police have always had the power to search and seize for the purposes of a criminal investigation – if a Judge or JP signs a warrant.

Similar raids had not been made in response to a police complaint by the Greens into hacking on the Labour Party’s website allegedly involving National Party staffer Jason Ede, as detailed in Dirty Politics, he claimed. “That is a real crime.”

In Hager world, accessing a website that was left wide open on the World Wide Web is a crime, while hacking someone’s Gmail, Facebook and other accounts is not a crime.

If National had been stupid enough to leave their credit card donation website unsecured on the Internet so you can access it without a password, then I suspect Hager would have published a conspiracy theory book which listed every donor to National and how 65% are members of Rotary or something. Give Whale Oil some credit that he never published any of the names that Labour left unsecured.

Here’s the budget for each parliamentary party from The Parliamentary Service. On top of this List MPs get two staff, electorate MPs get three staff, large electorate MPs get four staff and Ministers get on average 10 staff.

The funding is:

• Leadership funding of $100,000 per party and $64,430 per non Executive MP
• Party funding of $22,000 per MP
• MP funding of $85,500 per large (area over 12,500 square kms) electorate MP, $64,260 per normal electorate MP and $40,932 per List MP

There are seven parliamentary parties with 121 MPs. 28 are in the Executive and 93 are not. 12 are large electorate MPs, 59 are normal electorate MPs and 50 are list MPs.

The funding for each party is:

• National $7,189,168
• Labour $4,929,360
• Greens $1,881,528
• NZ First $1,449,772
• Maori $334,752
• ACT $186,260
• United Future $186,260

The formula has now changed so that MPs now get bulk funded for their staff and ICT costs. The overall level of spending should not have changed, but the new figures now include costs previously directly provided by The Parliamentary Service. The new directions are here.

The funding for each party is:

• National $17,416,111
• Labour $11,858,505
• Greens $3,925,458
• NZ First $3,105,717
• Maori $524,808
• ACT $333,474
• United Future $333,474

The decision to give Finlayson responsibility for the SIS and GCSB is an inspired move for two reasons.

Finlayson is one of the smartest legal minds in NZ. There is no way that either agency will get the law wrong in future if he has anything to do with it. Finlayson will scrutinise any warrants and documents so they are beyond reproach. The appointment is also useful politically – it removes the PM from being tied for for three years answering questions on the GCSB, rather than talking about the Government’s agenda.

English having a formal role in the housing area should ensure that useful work continues to occur there.

Having Joyce take ICT back from Adams, but Adams keeping Communications is interesting. Yet clear where the boundary between the two portfolios will be. My guess is that as the fibre project was Joyce’s baby, he is keen to see its further evolution.

I thought Paula Bannett’s talents are a bit under-utilised. She has given up welfare, which was a huge portfolio, to take on state services, social housing and a couple of associates. But she could do very well in state services if she pushes the investment approach pioneered at MSD to the wider public service.

Jonathan Coleman’s move to Health was widely expected. As a doctor, he knows the sector. However Health is a notoriously volatile portfolio, and this assignment will challenge him beyond what he has had to date. I expect he will be targeted by the Opposition, when we get one.

Adams has a chance to shine as Justice and Courts Minister. There is always a ton of legislation as Justice Minister to see through the House. She failed to gain majorities for a couple of laws in her old portfolios, but shouldn’t have this problem in Justice. She may be able to get NZ First on board for some of it.

Simon Bridges loses Labour but gains Transport. The combination of that with Energy will make him the number one target for the Greens, and possibly Labour. They will try and paint him as unsympathetic to environmental issues, and his challenge is to now allow the left to determine his public image.

Tolley in Social Development is a safe pair of hands. Don’t expect too many issues there.

Kaye swaps Food Safety for ACC, which is a great opportunity to build up her economic credentials. ACC can be a political minefield, as it affects so many New Zealanders. It is a large company with $6.7b revenue last year and almost $30b of assets.

Woodhouse gained Police and Labour. Police should be easy for him. Labour (now Workplace Relations and Safety) will be a bit of a test for him, as there’s nothing Labour fights more than laws which weaken their union funders.

Lotu-Iiga will have big shoes to fill in Corrections, as Tolley had near universal acclaim for her work there. If he does as well as her, he’ll carry on rising.

Maggie Barry’s portfolios of Conservation and Senior Citizens are naturals for her. Getting Arts an unexpected bonus. Shewill be one of the Ministers invoted to the most public meetings. Still has a very positive brand with older New Zealanders.

UPDATE: John Armstrong writes:

For a party about to start its third term in succession, today’s reassignment of portfolios and rankings along with the introduction of new faces is arguably less radical than it should have been in terms of rejuvenation. But equally neither is the reshuffle as cautious as it could easily have been.

Key is conscious voters can quickly tire of third-term governments. however. That makes some form of noticeable renewal essential. Key has given himself the flexibility to do so as the term progresses.

The reshuffle thus promotes a number of more junior ministers as National’s “new wave” for the future.

The Press editorial:

One of New Zealand’s tall poppy tendencies is to grumble about the size of executive salaries whenever these are brought to our attention. The disparity between the highest-paid chief executive, on currently a touch over $4 million, and the minimum wage earner on less than $30,000 (excluding overtime or penal rates) is indeed vast. But that doesn’t mean it is unjustifiable.

According to a recent survey, the top five best paid CEOs in New Zealand are David Hisco of ANZ New Zealand ($4.1m), Theo Spierings of Fonterra ($3.5m), Mark Admanson of Fletcher Building ($3.3m), Peter Clare of Westpac New Zealand ($3.1m) and Nigel Morrison of Sky City (just under $3m).

While naysayers will often describe these amounts in a range of adjectives from excessive to extreme to obscene, the figures are not unduly high. They are below the amounts paid in years past, and compare unfavourably to the salaries being paid for top jobs across the Tasman and elsewhere.

Also, while people sometimes balk at the top salaries paid to business people, little noise is heard about the riches to be gained in other areas of endeavour – an All Black captain can earn $800,000 to $1m in a year, a teenage golfer $1.3m so far, and our most famous film-maker has accumulated wealth said to be in the region of $600m. Even the Prime Minister, whose parliamentary pay is a relatively paltry $428,000 a year, wins general approval as a self-made man with a fortune of around $50m, earned as an international currency trader.

The difference, perhaps, is that it is easy to visualise the commitment and drive and sheer guts that goes into becoming an international rugby star, a professional golfer, a film director or a top money-market player. It is less easy to imagine the working life of a chief executive, other than a daily round of suit-wearing, desk-jockeying and general hob-nobbing.

In fact, these people are being paid to take responsibility – often for multi-billion-dollar enterprises involving the investments and livelihoods of thousands – and to keep those businesses running successfully. They have reached their exalted positions often not through a life of privilege, but through hard work. Hisco, the bank boss, is said to have started his career with ANZ by sweeping the car park at a local branch in his hometown, Adelaide.

We should celebrate his success, not condemn it.

The truth is that to survive in and compete on global markets, New Zealand’s top enterprises must position themselves as international companies. To attract the talent required, that means paying the sort of money that might seem high here, but is nothing special in the wider world. As one of the most deregulated and open economies in the world, it is unreasonable to think that remuneration can be capped at some sort of imagined and arbitrary benchmark.

Absolutely.

The ODT reports:

In most cases, the revival of a Labour Party branch which says it has doubled its membership since August, and aims to have 100 members early next year, would be welcomed by the sitting MP.

But Dunedin South MP Clare Curran is anything but thrilled by the resurrection of the Andersons Bay-Peninsula branch in her electorate.

She says the branch was reconstituted without official approval, with the aim of undermining her bid to be re-elected.

”This is dirty tricks and dirty politics in Dunedin South,” she told the Otago Daily Times this week.

I await the Nicky Hager book on the Dunedin South Labour Party.

Mr Loo told the Otago Daily Times Ms Curran was used to having ”tight control” of the branch and did not like the fact the Andersons Bay-Peninsula branch was not in her inner circle.

The branch aimed to attract new members who were not university students but were in the trades, labourers or struggling to find full-time work – the traditional base of the Labour Party, he said.

Mr Loo remained a strong supporter of former Labour leader David Cunliffe, who wants the job back but is facing a challenge from Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson, formerly of Dunedin.

Ms Curran and Dunedin North MP David Clark both supported Mr Robertson previously and can be expected to provide similar support in the Labour leadership contest.

So is this branch warfare a proxy for the wider battle?

Pointedly, he mentioned all Labour MPs would face re-selection in 2016 and selection contests were good for the health of the party.

”No MP holds their seat by right. It’s not personal, but the way of developing talent is to give people a chance of participating,” he said.

I don’t think challenges are dirty politics. It is democracy.

Dunedin South was fourth, behind Manurewa, Manukau East and Mangere, in the amount of party vote received.

This is true in terms of votes, but that is partly because Dunedin South had a higher turnout. As a percentage of the vote, Dunedin South was 17th best for Labour.

Stuff reports:

Waikato’s worst benefit fraudster says she never spent a cent of the nearly $300,000 she stole on herself.

Huntly woman Ruth Pitovao Pomate, 46, who was sentenced to nearly three years’ jail yesterday, says she was under pressure to provide for not only her six children, but also her parents over the 22-year period she stole $296,000 from the taxpayer.

Pomate told the Waikato Times before she was put behind bars that she was not “a bad person” and was trying to do her best for her family.

She said had never spent a cent on herself and didn’t even own her own clothes.

Pomate now holds the dubious title of Waikato’s worst benefit fraudster after exceeding the total clocked up by Sokha Ly who was in August jailed for defrauding $220,000 over a 12-year period.

The Huntly District Court heard how Pomate was first granted a sickness benefit in 1992 before going on to receive the domestic purposes benefit from 1996 through to January 14, this year.

The fraud is of course criminal, and it is appropriate she has been prosecuted.

But for me it is equally an issue that even without the fraud, she has spent 22 years on welfare. It appears she has not worked since 1992.

Before going into court, Pomate stressed that she was not a bad person.

“I have already told my kids that it is going to be embarrassing for them. But they also know that I never did it for me, it’s always been for them so that they always have a home.”

Or she could have got a job.

The new ministerial list is here.

The change in rankings is shown below.

So Adams and Bridges are the big movers up. Bennett and Coleman also move to the front bench, meaning four new front benchers. This is great – National needs to rejuvenate to maintain support, and Key has shown significant caucus and cabinet rejuvenation, at a time where Labour has stagnated. Kaye, Woodhouse, McClay and Lotu-Iiga also move up the ranks, with the former two moving into Cabinet.

Maggie Barry is a brand new Cabinet Minister, and Louise Upston and Paul Goldsmith become Ministers outside Cabinet.

Craig Foss remains a Minister, but outside Cabinet. And Chester Borrows leave the ministry, but is likely to become Deputy Speaker.

Some of the significant portfolio changes:

• PM becomes overall Minister for National Security and Intelligence but Chris Finlayson will be Minister responsible for the SIS and GCSB
• Paula Bennett made Minister for Social Housing and gains Associate Finance plus State Services
• Jonathan Coleman becomes Health Minister
• Amy Adams is Justice Minister
• Simon Bridges gets Transport and gives up Labour to Michael Woodhouse
• Gerry Brownlee gets Defence
• Anne Tolley is Welfare, or Social Development Minister
• Nick Smith swaps Conservation for Environment, and Maggie Barry gets Conservation
• Nikki Kaye picks up the ACC portfolio
• Michael Woodhouse also picks up Police and Sam Lotu-Iiga gets Corrections
• Louise Upston gets Land Information and is Minister for Women
• Paul Goldsmith gets Commerce and Consumer Affairs

It is an elegant reshuffle with some ministers keeping their main portfolios, but a lot of change. Helen Clark in her third term left rejuvenation far too late. It is good to see the PM determined not to make the same mistake.

Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, USA

Oak Creek Canyon is an amazing river gorge set among wonderful crimson sandstone formations in northern Arizona.

I found this particular viewpoint just outside of Sedona and shot this image in the late afternoon when there was plenty of light bouncing all around. A very tranquil part of the world that I look forward to getting back to some time soon.

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

Cheers

Richard [richardhume.com]

YouTube: Timeless – A Panoramic Journey

The Herald reports:

Several charitable trusts linked to an Auckland family which distribute millions of dollars in pokie money for community events are being probed by a Government agency with “serious concerns” about where the money has gone.

Thousands of people have attended Diwali, Bollywood and other free community events organised by the South Trust, which receives hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from gaming societies. …

Two cultural events organised by the South Trust cost $85,000 and $90,000, according to the records for the 2013 financial year.

The Herald has learned that the South Trust got nearly $500,000 over two years from the Akarana Community Trust Ltd, a gaming trust set up by Mrs Kular’s brother Harjit Dheil.

In turn, Akarana is part-funded by pokie machines at bars owned by Mrs Kular’s other brother, Hardesh Dheil.

Nearly $5.5 million in pokie money has been given in the past two years to Akarana, which in turn distributes it to other charitable societies

Akarana has also given $300,000 to the Kiwi Indian Community Trust of which the Dheils’ father, Sohan Singh, is a trustee.

This is a great example of the problems with the status quo. While pokie machines are an invaluable source of revenue for many local charities, there have been numerous cases where the proceeds go to people with a conflict of interest.

Here we have a situation where one brother owns the bar, another operates the gaming trust and the trust donates the money to other charitable trusts run by their sister and father. There should be no linkages between the pokie operator, the bar and the recipient of the charitable funds.

I believe that situations like this are so common, that a massive change is needed. I’d get rid of all the individual charitable trusts associated with the pokies industry and have all funds from the pokies go to the Lotteries Board, tagged for projects and charities in the local areas the funds came from. The Lotteries Board have a long history of non conflicted decision making on distributing money from gambling to worthy causes.

A bit bored so typed some MPs names into Google to see what it suggested as common search terms. They include:

• john key net worth
• john key hotdog
• david cunliffe polls
• david cunliffe cat
• russel norman katya paquin
• metiria turei castle
• metiria turei jacket
• peter dunne animal testing
• peter dunne hair
• grant robertson real estate
• david shearer fish
• jacinda ardern twitter
• jacinda ardern dj
• nikki kaye husband
• simon bridges emotional claptrap
• judith collins brad pitt
• judith collins assistant
• chris hipkins partner
• bill english siblings
• julie anne genter partner

Stuff reports:

Harawira told his supporters, who had gathered at Parliament today, that he would continue to campaign for the poor.

“Mana’s dream is for a society where Maori can stand tall,” he said.

“Your love and support has sustained me through the darkest of days.”

Harawira said he was proud of his party’s achievements and commitments in Parliament.

“A commitment to ending poverty for all and particularly those most vulnerable in our society – our kids; a commitment to putting an end to the grinding homelessness affecting tens of thousands of New Zealand families; a commitment to putting the employment of people ahead of the sacrifice of jobs in the endless pursuit of wealth for the few; and a commitment to a future where the Treaty of Waitangi is honoured as the basis for justice and good governance in Aotearoa,” he said.

He did not mention the Internet Party in his speech. Instead, he said it was his principles that perhaps got the better of him.

“Mind you – being so highly principled brings with it enormous risk, not least the fact that kids can’t vote and poor people don’t, he said.

It wasn’t principles that got the better of Hone. It was selling them out to Dotcom. If he had not done that, he would still be an MP, and it is pretty likely he’d have a second Mana MP in Parliament also.

There is a part of me that regrets Harawira has gone, because I think Parliament is better when it is representative, and Hone did represent a significant proportion of Maori (and non Maori) opinion. His motives were generally good, even if his judgement was less so.

But the reality in politics is that decisions have consequences. He made an appallingly bad decision, and it had appallingly bad consequences for him. That is how society works – bad decisions often lead to bad outcomes. His defeat was self-inflicted.

The Herald reports:

The median weekly income increased by $25 this year, Statistics New Zealand says.

That’s $800 a year.

In the June 2014 quarter 50 per cent of people earned more than $600 a week — an increase of $25 from the June 2013 quarter, and the largest annual rise since the June 2007 quarter, Statistics NZ said in its New Zealand Income Survey released today.

Good to see incomes rising the strongest for seven years. Note that the median income includes adults on welfare, studying, retired etc. It is not the same as the median wage.

The number of people receiving government transfers fell by 30,700, despite 17,900 more people aged 65 and over receiving income from this source, the survey showed.

Also pleasing.

This is my first post as a contributor at Kiwiblog. The topic I will be writing about is US politics.

With the Republicans (GOP) looking certain to keep control of the House of Representatives the critical factor in the 2014 midterm elections is who will control the Senate. Currently the Democrats have 55 seats (including 2 independents who caucus with them) whilst the Republicans have 45. There are 36 seats up for grabs. Real Clear Politics are currently predicting that the GOP will gain 7 seats: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia. But they are likely to lose Kansas to an independent candidate.

The table below shows some of the closest Senate contests.

The chance of the leader winning percentage in the last column is from Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight blog. Pollsters estimate that the GOP have a 60-70% chance or better of taking the Senate. The reasons for the Democrats looking likely to lose ground in the Senate is that in some seats long standing incumbents are retiring or the party is being dragged down by Obama’s poll numbers and the perceptions regarding his performance. Alaska, Colorado and Iowa are very close. The polls do not currently predict that the Democrats will win any seats from the Republicans.

Key Issues
The latest Fox News poll asked voters what they consider to be the key issues.

Call it the ISIS effect: equal numbers of voters now say terrorism is the most important issue to their vote as say the economy: 41 percent say each will be “extremely” important in their decision. Four years ago, 57 percent said the economy would be “extremely” important, while 41 percent said terrorism (September 2010).

Today 36 percent say government spending and 35 percent say health care will be “extremely” important to their vote for Congress, followed by immigration (32 percent), foreign policy (29 percent) and abortion (23 percent).

None of these issues are surprising. Reducing government spending has been a victim of the political gridlock.

Voter Cynicism
An interesting underlying factor is the deep cynicism amongst voters about Washington being thought of as dysfunctional. An example of this issue is best exemplified by the fact that the last time the Democrat led Senate passed a budget was in April 2009! For years both parties haven’t bent over backwards to work together with the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid being very obstructionist. The GOP leaders aren’t much better and Obama has either been unable and/or is not interested in reaching across the aisle as both Reagan and Clinton did when in the White House.

The Obama Factor
But the overriding issue of the campaign may well turn out to be Obama’s competence. Writing in the Washington Post Ed Rogers comments in the PostPartisan blog include some common criticisms of the President.

After mistakes are revealed, the White House will first deny anything is wrong, then proclaim the problem is being fixed, next say everything is fine and finally deflect any blame from the president by blaming President George W. Bush or crying about partisanship in Washington. In addition, the White House will claim that Obama didn’t know anything until he saw it in the newspaper, and then it will move on to the next crisis in short order.

The president was right to say that his policies are on the ballot; whether it was wise to do so depends on your perspective. I’m sure that his partners in governance — a.k.a. the Democrats on the ballot in November — are not happy about it, but voters have every reason to make this election a referendum on how the president and his party have performed over the past six years and whether more of the same is desirable.

These perceptions of Obama are allowing the GOP to get away with not campaigning on serious policy issues and hide their own internal divisions. An example is tax reform, they want it but cannot agree amongst themselves how to go about it.

If the Senate does fall to the Republicans it will be fascinating to observe if both the GOP and Obama are willing to work together or carry on with the current political gamesmanship.

NBR reports:

Jamie Whyte has resigned as leader of the ACT.

ACT’s Board has appointed Epsom MP David Seymour to succeed Dr Whyte as leader, president John Thompson says.

“Today I announce that I have tendered, and the Board has accepted, my resignation as Leader of ACT New Zealand,” Dr Whyte said in a statement.

“Clearly I make this announcement with regret, however the election result is clear, and I must now turn to my career and my family.

“I stood to lead ACT because I believe in the party’s ideas.  I will continue to advance these ideas both inside and outside the Party.  I do not rule out returning to a substantial role with ACT in the future.”

It is the right decision.

I may be wrong, but at 31 is Davvid Seymour the youngest party leader in NZ?

The Herald reports:

SkyCity is building its new hotel on land surrendered by the taxpayer for the creation of the $402 million convention centre, the Herald can reveal.

It is just one of a number of changes to the deal in which the Government gave the casino company gambling concessions in return for building the centre.

The decision to build a hotel on the former TVNZ property came just three months after the casino company bought the land – the result of three years campaigning for it on the premise it was needed to build the convention centre.

In response to a written question from the Green Party, Mr Joyce said the contract with SkyCity “prevents the land being used for any other purpose than as a convention centre”. He said this week he stood by his answer. “As far as I’m concerned that actually still meets the definition of it being used for the convention centre.”

Part of what makes a successful convention centre is being able to house the delegates at the venue. Building a global capacity convention centre isn’t just about having more meeting rooms – it is absolutely about having the accommodation capacity to go with it.

So from my point of view, trying to claim there is a difference about land for the convention centre and land for the hotel expansion is an artificial distinction.

As in the last election (and maybe 2008), the Greens have picked up a seat on specials, at the expense of National. This means Maureen Pugh drops off and Steffan Browing is back in.

National no longer has a majority, with 60 seats. This gives ACT and/or United Future the balance of power. Basically National will need one vote off another party to pass laws. This may give ACT some greater leverage.

This shows the votes and percentages for the final results, the provisional results, the specials and a comparison to 2011. National and NZ First did less well on specials, and Labour and Greens relatively better.

National got 72,865 more votes than in 2011, lifting its vote for the fourth election in a row. However the vote percentage was down slightly by 0.28%.

Labour lost 10,403 votes. Greens gained 9,984 but their vote share decreased.  Almost 100,000 more people voted for NZ First and the Conservatives. Mana’s $4.5 million gained them 9,927 extra votes so that is around $450 a vote.

The seats with majorities below 500 are:

1. Auckland Central 600
2. Hutt South 709
3. Ohariu 710
4. Te Tai Tokerau 739
5. Tamaki Makaurau 1,462
6. Te Tai Hauauru 1,554
7. Palmerston North 2,212
8. Port Hills 2,228
9. Maungakiekie 2,348
10. Christchurch Central 2,420
11. Waimakariri 2,506
12. Te Atatu 2,813
13. Wigram 3,330
14. Te Tai Tonga 3,554
15. Napier 3,850
16. Waiariki 3,889
17. Dunedin South 3,858
18. Christchurch East 4,073
19. West Coast-Tasman 4,094
20. Epsom 4,250
21. Whanganui 4,505
22. New Lynn 4,557
23. Ikaroa-Rawhiti 4,673

But none of these changed hands on the specials.

The NZ Herald reports:

TradeMe founder Sam Morgan has called the Government’s research and development policy a “subsidy for private investors” during a cut-and-thrust social media exchange with Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce.

The Government yesterday announced its Callaghan Innovation had awarded a further $32 million over three years to 22 high tech companies under the Research and Development Growth Grants scheme.

The latest companies come from a wide range of industries from aviation to horticulture and include two companies that floated in the past year – online travel software company Serko and software company GeoOp.

News of the grants prompted Morgan, an entrepreneur who has been involved with a number of grant recipients in the past, to take to social networking site Twitter and say taxpayers were “giving free money to publicly listed tech companies to benefit wealthy tech investors”.

“Serko. Good company. Just raised lots of money on NZX. No constraint on raising more capital. Successful grant recipient. Unnecessary,” Morgan said.

“All tech companies should apply for grants and take what they can get. When bureaucrats pick shitty companies there is no consequence…When I invest in shitty companies, I lose my money. When investors do this continually, they disappear,” Morgan tweeted.

I agree with Sam Morgan. I’d rather the Government cut company tax for all companies, than use our taxes to hand out grants to a select few. The motives are admirable – to encourage and support research and development – but I’m not convinced the outcomes are value for the taxpayer.