A deserved honour

Althought perhaps the most obviously political honour since Sir Robert Muldoon's knighthood, Owen Glen deserves his award. He has been very philanthropic in New Zealand, donating large amounts of cash to the Auckland Business School, and to the Labour Party - helping democratic participation.

People who bleat that it is a 'cash for honours' scheme are pushing the truth a little far. But it would be interesting to see how many big National Party donors have received honors in the past eight years.

Why am I not surprised?

John Tamihere is in trouble with the police for not filing a return for his Waitakere Mayoralty campaign.

Given his past history, I'm not surprised to see he's in trouble with the law.

What is surprising is the political parties keep courting him to become a candidate. Tamihere has proven himself to be a loose cannon with no respect for the rules - and the law.

The Seven Deadly Sins of The Golden Compass

Without a doubt, "The Golden Compass" is one of the worst adaptations of a novel into a movie I've ever seen. There are some plot spoilers below, but even if you know these it won't make the movie any better:

1. Lyra working out who the 'Gobblers' were by seeing a letterhead that says "General Oblation Board". No eleven-year-old would work that out.

2. Making Ma Costa a secondary figure. (In the book she was Lyra's nurse while her parents had to sort out the legal machinations surrounding her birth, and becomes her adoptive mother when she flees Mrs Coulter.)

3. Not explaining why the Gyptians have a fondness for Lord Asriel. (In the book, he advocates for legal recognition of their customary land rights.)

4. Making most of the interesting characters of the book two-dimensional.

5. Having Mrs Coulter confess that she is Lyra's monther, and Lord Asriel is her father, without explaining why they couldn't raise her themselves and had to abandoned her at Oxford College.

6. Claiming that the Magisterium wants to control the lives of those in other worlds, but having them stopping any research by Lord Asriel that allows them to move between them.

7. Cutting out the last chapters of the book from the movie, so the shocking ending of the book is not included in an attempt to give the story an uplifting ending instead, and not leave the story hanging if the sequels are not made.

I don't think any church has anything to fear from this movie - supposedly, an adventure movie the best thing to sum this movie up would be the guy in the seat behind me who started snoring after 30 minutes. Word will get around and no-one will go.

Just who is doing the shouting, PM?

A Christmas interview with Helen Clark at Stuff includes this question:

How much have you spent on your husband's Christmas present?
I'm shouting him a holiday so it wasn't cheap. It's overseas, northern.

Helen Clark and Peter Davis get a 90% discount on their overseas travel (MPs elected before 1996 get this benefit after being re-elected twice) so probably it is the taxpayer who is picking up most of the cost.

Just the thing for Christchurch

Boyracers are causing problems for residents in Christchurch's outer suburbs. Perhaps the residents could install one of these:

I'd love to see the scouts let in ....

Ten Fijian Scouts have withdrawn their visa applications because they have family members who are in the Fijian Military - meaning that the applications would be declined.

There are calls from some, including Green MP Keith Locke, to allow the Scouts into New Zealand because they are children, and therefore uninvolved in the Fijian crisis, and it is not the children who are being targeted by the sanctions are designed against.

However, if it makes the military government in Fiji consider calling elections sooner because Fijian children are being denied access to the Scout Jamboree, then it's all for the good.

If the interim military Government was to announce that elections will be held within six months (and set a date), and that no member of the new parliament can be serving concurrently in the military, then I would support allowing the 10 scouts into New Zealand.

The other Ellis

Once again, the Peter Ellis (no relation) case has another twist with an academic saying that the evidence against Ellis was unreliable.

Peter Ellis has had a trial, appeal, inquiry, Ministerial inquiry, and media trial. In the trial, appeal, inquiry and Ministerial inquiry Ellis has been found to be guilty. It would have taken any one of these to find sufficient doubt to quash all the convictions, but they have stood. Only the media trial (in which claims can be speculative, not factual) has Ellis had doubt raised.

The last I heard of this case was that Peter Ellis wants to appeal to the Privy Council. That is his right (and rightly so) and he can pursue it to his hearts content. But until I hear a competent tribunal declare the Ellis is not quilty, I won't pretend to think he is innocent.

No asset sales?

Prime Auckland property, for sale. And the money being reinvested in public housing.

Sounds like a policy that National were attacked by Labour for earlier this year - but that can't be true!.

Say what?

Now this is the weirdest thing I've read about happening in New Zealand - a resource consent only being given if the worms are happy about living in shit. It sounds like the sort of stuff that is made up.

And while we're talking about weird stuff - I swear it wasn't me.

Closing the Gap

Recent studies have indicated that the Average Australian income is 30% higher than the Average New Zealand Income. What this means is that New Zealand lags so far behind Australia that it will take a quarter of a century of slightly higher growth to catch up to Australian incomes.

The table below shows that if New Zealand's average income grew at 4%, and Australia's at only 3%, in 2032 the average NZ income is still (slightly) behind.



But to grow incomes faster than Australia is a big ask - the latest figures I could find online show Australian's are paid 4.6% more than a year ago. (I used Reserve Bank of Australia data I found at this website: http://www.economagic.com/em-cgi/data.exe/rba/glcawe)

While in New Zealand In New Zealand the average growth was 3.1%.

Maybe the first clue to the difference is to look at what New Zealand and Australian political parties are promising. In Australia, the current focus is on rewarding growth and encouraging investment with tax cuts. While in New Zealand, it's about banning party pills and stopping people advertising in election year.

La révolution est arrivée! La victoire du marché libre!

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has started cutting the bloated french civil service with an annoucement that a third of civil servants who retire next year will not be replaced, rising to 50% the following years. Also announced are reductions in pension benefits for civil servants (including members of the National Assembly).

Already, some unions are threatening to strike over the cuts. These reforms have been proposed before, but the French cultural willingness means that civil disobedience over these matters is more readily taken. (I wouldn't recommend a holiday in France for a while, unless you don't mind closed public transport and block highways!)

Just as Thatcher had to outlast the Coal Miners, Sarkozy needs to hold his nerve.

From this weeks Trans Tasman Newsletter

Overlooked because of the MPs scorecards:

"Every Labour speech in the House on the [Electoral Finance] Bill is dominated by yet another rant about the religious sect.

"The idea seems to be to drape the Bill in some sort of moral authority. In fact, it is doing the opposite. A law which relies for its principal justification on the vilification of a marginal group – The Exclusive Brethren – can have little moral authority. It positively invites civil disobedience."

Couldn't have said it better.

Will the member please apoligise ...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4317996a6160.html

Health Minister David Cunliffe says ACT MP Heather Roy should apologise to Capital and Coast's clinical staff after her claims in Parliament that patients had died after their surgery was cancelled.

"I am appalled that a member of Parliament would stand in the House and make serious statements about patient safety and then fail to provide information that would expedite an investigation into those claims."

Another MP stood in the House and made serious statements about the competenance of a Ministry of Environment staffer and then have failed to correct and apologise for his obvious error when former coleagues, and finally the Ministry Cheif Executive contradicted him.

Mr Cunliffe should have a talk to Mr Mallard - after all, he outranks him.

Taking it to the streets ....

Chris Trotter accuses the people who marched against the Electoral Finance Bill of trying to instigate mob rule at the behest of big money.

Trotter says:

"Why should these exercises of freedom of assembly and free speech be of concern to a constitutional democrat? Surely, such assertive manifestations of democratic rights are occasions for celebration – not concern? In this instance – no."

Trotter is right that peaceful protest is a cause for celebration. But he can only see ulterior motives in the actions of the organisers, and accuses those who marched as being their puppets:

... they were not marching in defence of any recognisably democratic principle at all.

I marched because non-partisan but political organisations like Sensible Sentencing Trust cannot effective campaign for legislative change - and for every SST (which is mostly aligned with conservative politics) there is a Greenpeace, or a Grey Power, or a Child Poverty Action Group. While I disagree with a lot of what these organisations say, they have a right to make fools of themselves in public say them.

The conservative ideology, which inspired the "Kill the Bill" movement, is profoundly anti- democratic. ... Their ideal society is characterised by privilege, hierarchy, discrimination and deference: rule by the few – not by the many.

This what the Electoral Finance Bill does - makes the "few" of political parties (of which combined membership is less than 100,000 active members) able to campaign for Government policy while the 'many' members of organisations - some that have memberships more than the combined total of all political parties (For instance, the Automobile Association) from being able to draw attention to what policy they want to see followed.

An possible -and unintended - consequence of the EFB is that by preventing other organisations from campaigning they will instead find direct lobbying of politicians more effective. Putting more Hollow Men into politics.

Labour should withdraw the bill and resubmit a bill that makes declaring the people or organisations behind third party election campaigns impossible to hide from public scrutiny.

But then Labour (and Trotter) haven't woken up to something - Voters aren't stupid.

Fire them now!

Health Minister David Cunliffe is not willing to replace the existing Capital and Coast Health Board as he wants to "... see whether a new board can stabilise the situation at Capital Coast health."

The existing board has eight elected members:

Judith Aitken Board Chair, Elected Member
Brendon Bowkett Elected member
Peter Dady Elected Member
Ken Douglas Elected Member
Margaret Faulkner Elected Member
Ruth Gotlieb Elected member
Helene Ritchie Elected member
Ruth Bradwell Elected Member

Plus three members appointed by the Minister of Health.

The new board, which takes over next month has the following elected members:

Judith Aitken
Margaret Faulkner
Helene Ritchie
Ruth Gotlieb
Virginia Hope
Peter Roberts
Donald Urquhart-Hay

(Those in bold are members from the previous triennium.)

So, the same people who got the board into this mess are going to get out? Get real Minister! Sack the board and start at getting some trust back into the Hospital.

My heart goes out for this family

One of the biggest fears new parents have has to be that their baby suddenly stops breathing in the night. So I have so much sympathy for the parents of a new born girl who died the night after being delivered at Wellington Hospital.

However, it is still too early to be able to know if the new born baby's death would have been prevented if the family had stayed in the hospital. Although, if the hospital did allow the family to go home when it shouldn't then it really does highlight the failure of the Wellington Hospital Board to provide quality care.

Regardless of this case, it's also time drastic action was taken by the Minister of Health to sort out Capital and Coast Health. It's shortcomings have been known for a decade, but sucessive Ministers have papered over the problems until they've reached a crisis.

What did the private Labour Party Poll say?

Labour are looking to dramatically soften the EFB at the last minute. Included in the concessions are a escape clause for trivial campaigns, and the limits only applying for three months before the election, rather than the whole year.

Guess a Labour Party poll must have really shocked them on how the issue was effecting their support! (I don't have any inside information - it's just Labour have been so bloodyminded about this until now that I can't see another reason for this U-turn.)

So that's a big well done to John Boscowen, Cameron Slater, David Farrer, the Free Speech coalition, Newspaper editors and to the thousands of marchers throughout New Zealand who have turned public opinion (rightly) against the EFB.

Although it's so damaged that it probably should be withdrawn and started again - especially if it will not come into force until mid next year.

It's not hard to find out ...

The Solicitor General asked the NZ Herald to remove a page relating to Liam Reid, who is accused of murdering Emma Agnew.

But even so, it took less than a minute to find a copy of the page on another internet site. And while it is probably prejudicial (guess that rules me off the jury) it's not anything too exciting.

Improvement

Look how much more exciting American Football is when they keep the ball alive and pass between the players. (It's after the Helicopter pulling.)



All they need is to bring in an offside rule and get rid of the padding - and call it rugby.

Playing it by ear ...

The intro music on John Key's DVD has a likeness to a Coldplay song. (see the video and listen for yourself.)



It's quite common for advertisements to have copy-cat music - the local California Garden Centre uses a copy-cat of The Mamas and The Papas California Dreaming - that sails close to, but not crossing the line, of copyright infringement.

And the National Party aren't new at this - they commissioned a copycat of the Theme from 'Chariots of Fire' for Muldoon's 1984 election campaign.