TUMEKE!

The fix

2013-06-18T16:11:00.001+12:00

The grand rort that is the pokies industry looks to have little to fear from what has become of the Maori Party's attempt to curtail the excesses of the inherently corrupt gambling regime.

Stuff:
--
The Government is promising more reform of non-casino gambling after a watered-down bill was reported back to Parliament yesterday. Internal Affairs Minister Chris Tremain and Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell are due to announce a harm-minimisation package tomorrow.
That comes after a weakened version of Mr Flavell's Gambling Harm Reduction Bill was reported back from the commerce select committee.
[...]
The bill aimed to return the proceeds of pokie machines to the communities they were made in and give local authorities more control over gambling operations.
But the committee rejected the plan to return 80 per cent of profits, instead allowing for regulations to ensure more of the proceeds returned to the same geographical area.
It also ruled out imposing the use of pre-commitment, player tracking, or other harm-minimisation devices, saying it would be "premature to mandate specific approaches".
And it ruled out removing horse racing from the list that could receive gambling profits.
Labour reserved its decision on supporting the bill but the Greens will now vote against it.
--

The regulations are bullshit because it lets in the likes of former National Minister, Paul East - the pokies lobbiest - to get in the ear of the Minister and get everything their way. Without firm statutory limits the regulations could be piss weak and will be piss weak - just the way they want it.

The fundamentally conflicted relationships and motivations between publicans, their manufactured "charities" and the politicians culminate in effectively siphoning off millions each year from the poorer communities into the wealthier communities. The cause of these pokie parasites is not being addressed by the bill.

NRT observes:
--
Meanwhile, the Labour Party did not issue a minority report on the bill, and instead "reserve[d] its position". Clayton Cosgrove was on the committee. Clayton Cosgrove was also in SkyCity's corporate box last week. You can draw your own conclusions from that.
--

It is apparent why this corruption has gone unchecked for so many years, despite the many cases, when both major parties are in on the fix.

TV Review

2013-06-16T19:29:00.000+12:00

My TV review is posted up over at The Daily Blog . This week, Lotto: Bum's rush.

De-commissioning

2013-06-13T16:01:00.000+12:00

The extraordinary scenes at a select committee yesterday are a bullet in the career of NZ Police Deputy Commissioner Bush. The would-be executioner, Trevor Mallard, backed by an irate Labour delegation demanded the tough questions be put. When the Police Minister, Anne Tolley, intervened to save him the embarrassment it got nasty. The media seem to be downgrading this to some sort of political stunt of little consequence. It is far from that. Never has such a senior police official been subject to such accountability. The issue here is that Bush condones corruption. Mallard has every right to call him on it.

Stuff:
--
A select committee hearing has descended into acrimony after Labour MP Trevor Mallard appeared to threaten the job of a senior police officer. Mallard abruptly left a select committee after an exchange of angry words with Police Minister Anne Tolley after he questioned the decision of Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Bush to speak at the funeral of former police officer Bruce Hutton.
[...]After Mallard attempted to question Bush on the issue Government committee members objected that his questions were out of order. But Mallard hit back and appeared to threaten Bush's job.
"We're deciding whether or not to continue his salary, that's what we're deciding now," he said.
Mallard then got embroiled in an exchange with Tolley who said that was not his decision before Mallard abruptly left the committee.
Speaking after the committee, Bush said his comments in the eulogy were for a grieving family and weren't meant to be taken by any wider audience.
"They weren't meant to cause any offence to anyone."
--

NZ Herald:
--
The eulogy by one of the country's police officers for a controversial detective was scripted to offer praise for his integrity - despite the former colleague being found to have planted evidence.
Documents reveal deputy commissioner Mike Bush was offered his own personal endorsement for former detective inspector Bruce Hutton, the officer who led the flawed inquiry into the murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe.
Previously, Commissioner Peter Marshall backed up his deputy, saying the eulogy included "a range of positive comments from the service file of Bruce Hutton".
[...]Documents released sourced through the Official Information Act show there were comments which did not come from Mr Hutton's service file.In contrast, they were made written in a section of the speech in which Mr Bush shared his recollections of Mr Hutton.
In a reference to the Crewe inquiry, he said: "It is a great tragedy and irony that a man of such character should have been subject to devastating accusations of dishonesty."
--

Bush can never make Commissioner after this.

Fifth corner of the PRISM

2013-06-12T16:01:00.002+12:00

It is rather telling that both the PM - the Minister in charge of the NZ spy agencies - and the former head of the GCSB are clueless about the PRISM metadata trawling undertaken with dubious legality by the American government.

RNZ:
--
A former director of the Government Communication Security Bureau says the agency never used information gathered by the top-secret United States intelligence monitoring programme under his watch.
[...]
Sir Bruce Ferguson told Nine to Noon his staff never cooperated with Prism.
But he was not able to confirm to the programme whether or not anyone knew of the existence of the programme.
--

Ferguson says he didn't know, so he doesn't know whether any information was used or not - he's out of the loop. And he's out of touch - which is perhaps why he was chosen for the role. There's no-one more discreet than someone who is completely ignorant.

NZ Herald:
--
Former GCSB boss Air Marshal Sir Bruce Ferguson said the sacrifice made to enjoy the relationship was small - even though New Zealand was extremely unlikely to suffer a terrorist incident like the September 11, 2001 attacks."We are a democratic, free country because of others, not because of us. That's the way it is when you're a small country."
--

Ferguson was a small cog in a machine that is really run by and for others and is comfortable being a tiny tool for their purposes. He thinks the NZ security institutions are weak and ineffective on their own without assistance from the big powers. What he doesn't seem to acknowledge though is that the vaunted democracy and freedom he uses to justify spying is not premised at all upon whoring one's country off to foreigners. Switzerland, for example, is democratic and free without military alliances.

What Ferguson seems to mean when he says democracy is threatened by not having spying is that the nation could be either invaded or taken over internally by anti-democratic forces if we didn't co-operate with the US. The fact is starkly opposite: if we stopped co-operating with the US and the UK then our democracy would really be in jeopardy because they would use anti-democratic methods to destabalise and overthrow our government to suit them in the same ways they have all around the world.

And as for "freedom" - NZ cannot be free because of a dependent relationship with others. NZ is only as free as NZ's big power chums let it be free. The freedom is illusory. NZ has the freedom to enforce the American's bullshit copyright laws, the freedom to enact union-bashing laws, the freedom to enact laws to protect off-shore foreign oil corporations, the freedom to be like America. That is not my idea of being free.

--
He said there was a certain amount of naivete in the New Zealand public about the dangers faced. "Don't look at the cataclysmic 9/11 things - they are extremely unlikely to happen here. It could be nothing more complex than some foreign power or foreign organisation with the flick of a switch turning off Wellington's sewerage system, or if there is a bit of a problem with a trade agreement, suddenly we find power goes off in certain cities. It's not necessarily going to kill anybody but would certainly damage our economy."I would think it does matter if the hospitals all lost their power for 24 hours [and] those on life support systems start dying, or you'd have to evacuate Wellington within 36 hours if the sewerage system failed.
--

Ferguson is giving a briefing to would-be terrorists about how to cripple Wellington! Unbelievable. The Hong Kong-based Chinese-backed billionaire who bought Wellington's local power line company is clearly the centre of that scenario. And so we have the whoring off of NZ assets to the Chinese being held up as some sort of justification for having the Americans (and everyone else)spying on us all?

--
But Sir Bruce said information sharing was governed by "protocols". "No country wants any other country intentionally or unintentionally looking on their own citizens."
He said it made sense to share information "likely to end up in a terrorism incident" in a friendly country.
"You don't want to know all about 9/11 before it happens but then after say 'I told you so' or 'I knew about that but didn't think I should tell you'. That would make your friendship last about five seconds."
--

Didn't the Americans know about the French agents before they attacked the Rainbow Warrior?

It's not murder

2013-06-10T15:16:00.001+12:00

Last week: A police officer shoots and kills a man, Morehu, at the New Plymouth golf course, and the media dutifully report the NZ Police version of events. They helpfully run the standard PR lines of the police as they roll out. They are totally spun. All the while their whitewash 'separate and independent' investigation of themselves and by themselves is scripting the exoneration.

Within the first 24 hours RNZ was leading with police have (somehow) 'saved a life' by having shot Morehu. Radio Live was leading their bulletin with police 'gave aid' to Morehu (after they shot him). The police brass was on TV that night spouting the usual rubbish that all the police involved in the killing were heros and courageous. All of the police assertions went unchallenged in the mainstream media from what I have seen.

Today: the Stuff site has downgraded the killing to a 'police shooting'. The NZ Herald's mobile site at least doesn't even have a story on it today. RNZ was claiming that police had shot Morehu as 'returned fire' trying to suggest a rapid exchange or gunfight which even the police version does not support. Just chuck another nigger on the meat wagon and let's get a coffee - that is the prevailing stance by the establishment. Nothing to see here, move along in an orderly manner, we don't want a scene. It's not murder, it's not even a killing.

Last week: Some boys beat and kill another boy, Dudley, at Kelston after rugby training and the media dutifully report the NZ Police and establishment version of events. It had nothing to do with rugby the school says. With former all Black coach Sir Graham Henry being the former head of Kelston it must have nothing to do with rugby or rugby culture. With most rugby thugs being aspiring policemen the cops aren't keen to push any further up the charging scale than they have to either. Being brown is an indication of guilt and an aggrevating factor as far as the NZ Police go... unless you are a potential All Black or Policeman, and then, suddenly, the establishment haven't got the stomach for dishing out their normal instinct for blood. The excuses start counting. It's not murder, it isn't even a killing.

Today: Stuff's headline is a 'fatal fight' not a bash and a killing. That maybe an innocent fight club turned to death match because of a mix-up in the rules or something - one of those freak things or whatever - that's the angle. At the NZ Herald it's a 'tragedy' and the Dudley parents headlined as saying 'no time for anger'. That doesn't mean there are no time for questions. The media aren't asking any, they are hollow conduits for the establishment agenda. Both these cases are clouded in official fog.

Dunne over

2013-06-06T13:39:00.001+12:00

This morning Peter Dunne is smelling like a sizzling fat juicy goneburger. The champion of quality French hairdressing is bouffant flambé. The grey mediocrity of his grey Wellington beltway constituency must abhor the type of scandal that Winston Peters has attempted to make under privilege. They must be unimpressed (but maybe not quite as much as Dunne) that his Jim Anderton-style vehicle of convenience post office box party has been deregistered. His party members - like himself - won't say whether they will stick around till the election. He can't blame them when he as leader, now in mid-2013 refuses to say if he will stand again in late 2014. The wheels are falling off and he's down to half a unicycle. It's time to wind up the bastard concoction that is United-Future. The United is meaningless in a one man caucus, and it has no Future. It has ceased to exist officially.

Dunne will be more concerned that the Speaker is taking it seriously and the extra $122k as nominal leader is in jeopardy. Dunne's concern, I imagine from his long comfy tenure as the permanent Minister of Revenue, would be that his ministerial beamer is on the line too - not so much that he could hold his party AGM in one.

His surgeon's bow-tie of sobriety and rectitude won't help him through the existential crisis of no-one caring about Peter Dunne. He's smashed crackers at the bottom of the barrel right now. The voting shows his ticket dips below the natural threshold at which point they contribute to the 'overhang' and are deemed parasites in the electoral system.

So to re-cap: There's this geek who looks like a 18th century French pimp, whose electorate is a like an over-indulged Paris Arrondissement with a bastard Christian-gun nut parasite party in tow using electoral chicanery to lever coalition deals that render him in charge of the government's revenue.

He's spread the IRD's tentacles into Australia and just instituted arresting people with outstanding student loan debts as soon as they enter the country! In what will probably be his last bureaucratic tinkering of any significance he has also announced a $1.5b IRD computer upgrade that is already being mentioned in the same breath as INCIS. The Dunne-led initiatives are few and far between, nothing leaps to mind that would define a legacy to show for being in government for the most part of a quarter century.

The Nats are running out out mates.

---
UPDATE 3:00PM:
NZ Herald reporting the most extraordinary scenes in parliament. It is apparent the Speaker isn't taking this seriously at all. Carter is a shocker - he makes Lockwood look saintly.
--
NZ First MPs and Labour's Trevor Mallard have walked out of Parliament in protest after Speaker David Carter allowed United Future MP Peter Dunne to keep the extra funding and entitlements that come with being a party leader, despite the de-registration of his party.
Mr Carter announced that decision today but both Labour and NZ First objected, saying if Mr Dunne's party was not registered then it clearly did not meet the rules required for those resources.
Labour MP Trevor Mallard also described the decision as a "farce" and when asked to apologise, refused and chose to leave the Debating Chamber instead.
After objecting, NZ First leader Winston Peters said that if Mr Carter did not produce the legal advice he based his decision on, then his party would boycott Parliament until that happened. His caucus then left Parliament after the Speaker refused to discuss the matter further, beyond saying he had received advice on it before making the decision.
--

It's limping to a certain fate. The vultures are hopping all over the crawling carcass, pecking the eyes and guts out of it before it has the dignity of death.

--
Earlier, Mr Mallard had argued that as well as extra funding, party leaders held certain positions, such as membership on the important Business Committee, which Mr Dunne should no longer be entitled to.
He said it was the wrong decision because Parliamentary rules required a party to be registered with the Electoral Commission for those entitlement to apply.
His colleague David Parker said if United Future was not registered, then in effect Mr Dunne and independent MP Brendon Horan should be treated the same.
Winston Peters had said the Speaker should have acted as soon as the Electoral Commission advised that the party was no longer registered.
Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee said Mr Dunne was elected as a party leader in 2011 and was entitled to continue to be recognised as such.
--

Gerry Brownlee's pudgy little digits all over this one according to NRT. The Nats have to protect Dunne, but now the smell of blood is in the water the end must be near.

Pic: Dunne accepting a novelty giant cigarette lighter from British-American Tobacco for his services to commonsense.

Tooned out

2013-05-30T16:56:00.003+12:00

Don't worry it's not really racist says the race relations Commissioner...

NZ Herald:
--
The cartoons, by Al Nisbett, have been widely condemned on social networking sites as racist towards Maori and Pacific Islanders.
Dame Susan said at a press conference this afternoon that the cartoons did not breach the level considered to be racist under the Human Rights Act.

One of the drawings published in the Marlborough Express appeared to show a group of brown-skinned adults in school uniforms taking advantage of the breakfast in schools programme to save money for cigarettes, alcohol and pokies.
The other cartoon, printed in The Press showed a Maori or Polynesian family discussing how great the free breakfast programme would be to help them ease their poverty, while sitting in front of lottery tickets, cigarettes and empty beer cans.
[...]
But she said it did not reach the high threshold considered to be racist in the Human Rights Act because they did not incite racial disharmony.
"We have the right to freedom of expression and we have the right to freedom of speech and people can say what they like and print what they like, even if we find it really offensive."
A lot of people agreed with the cartoons, Dame Susan said.
"I personally and those at the Commission don't [agree with the cartoons]. We do find it offensive, we find it quite insulting."
--

I heard Devoy on Radio Live this morning being given a relaxing massage by Sean Plunket - who then concluded she had gone all PC whimpy liberal. Talk-hate radio at its finest. Devoy also couched her response in terms of understanding: 'I can understand where you[racists] are coming from'. That's the problem right there. The "we" is the commission staff of liberal pointy-heads the conservatives so despise, but what about the "I" of her personal beliefs? There is no way she can have credibility with her track record and with what she has said today.

From my twitter posts today:

Editor of Malb Exp on Radio Live now: 'will rely on community', ie. approx. 95% white pop of elderly, provincial Malborough. Next...Devoy :/

av. white male cartoonist reaction if they were characatured in KKK robes, seig heiling each other, wanking their tiny dicks? MalbExp meme.

Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election: Foreshore and seabed test

2013-05-29T16:21:00.001+12:00

Part of the reason Parekura Horomia was able to hang on to his seat after he backed the Labour leadership's shameful and unconstitutional foreshore and seabed confiscation in 2004 was that his Ngati Porou supporters trusted him to work around the legislation for them. That was done by way of a bill to recognise the tribe's rights over their East Cape stretch of the coast. The tribe have supported the NZ government - often against other tribes - and could expect more than other Iwi. The government could be expected to give that support because the Iwi's territory is isolated, the Tangata Whenua are in the majority of the population, and the area is of limited economic value - in other words they do not pose a threat to the Crown. Fair for Ngati Porou, but unfair to every other tribe not in that advantageous geo-political circumstance.

In the spending frenzy that marked the last days of the fifth Labour government the Crown signed off on a settlement with them and also for the introduction of a bill: Ngā Rohe Moana o Ngā Hapū o Ngāti Porou Bill. The Bill is yet to be read a first time.

In between then and now the National government passed the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 with the Maori Party having the bill hijacked off them and basically letting the National Party and the Pakeha officials write the law they wanted it - which effectively just re-stated the Foreshore and Seabed Act, but this time the wording opens up the court to decide that Maori have no customary rights. This is incredibly dangerous and the Maori Party should never have acquiesced to this possibility. Today's announcement from Finlayson will be in some ways a part of Horomia's legacy as it is part of the Maori Party's legacy.

NZ government:
--
Public information sought for East Coast customary marine title enquiry

The Office of Treaty Settlements is seeking information from the public on their use of parts of the common marine and coastal area (CMCA) on the East Coast, to assist with an enquiry into the existence of customary marine title under the Marine and Coastal Area Act, Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Christopher Finlayson said today.
The Office is collecting information from the recreational users, commercial operators and the general public, and public records of occupancy and use back to 1840. Te Runanganui O Ngāti Porou is also gathering information about its members’ traditional use of the coastal and marine area.
[...]
The Marine and Coastal Area Act sets out a process for determining customary marine title. Customary marine title recognises rights and interests which have existed since 1840 in parts of the marine and coastal area, and does not affect public access, fishing or navigation.
It is a factual enquiry, and is not a negotiation between the Crown and iwi.
The Minister has appointed former High Court Judge, Dame Justice Judith Potter, as an Independent Assessor. The Independent Assessor will provide a non-binding, independent, expert view as to whether the Crown may be satisfied the applicant group meets the requirements in the Act based on the evidence provided to her.
Under the Act, the Minister makes a determination on whether customary marine title or protected customary rights exist in an application area based on whether the evidence demonstrates an applicant group meets the tests laid out in the Act.
The Office of Treaty Settlements would like to hear from members of the public who use any parts of the common marine and coastal area along the East Coast from Potikirua (West of Lottin Point) to the Pouawa Stream, out to three nautical miles offshore.

There will be up to two open days in Gisborne to discuss the enquiry:
Monday 10 June, 12-7pm at the Emerald Hotel; and
Monday 24 June (subject to demand), 12-7pm at the Emerald Hotel.
--

The problem with the Marine and Confiscation Area Act is that it sets arbitrarily created criteria for customary rights (and lets open the possibility there aren't any at all) and lets in any Tom, Dick, or Harry to cut across those rights and supposedly allows them to extinguish the pre-existing customary rights just on the mere fact they may have also used the same area. This is the white man's law in action. This is why Judge Potter's role is so important and will set a precedent.

With the Iwi having the strongest "claim" under the Act going first it provides the best platform for having Maori rights recognised, but at what thresholds? The process may be judicial in this aspect, however the process is defined by the legislation, so whatever the outcome it may not be satisfactory. As you can see by the public hearings this falls right in the heat of the by-election campaign, so it inevitably will become an issue.

Police/State

2013-05-24T14:08:00.002+12:00

The policewoman Inspector on RNZ this morning has that police officer's unshakeable confidence in their calling and their organisation. This is despite her just having gone through the many inadequacies of the organisation. She had the optimism of a fanatic - and the words to describe her love - police culture. 'Policing is a privilege', she said. 'You take an oath and you do the right thing', she intoned - as she must have a hundred times at police college no doubt. The police do believe they are privileged, they believe they are always right no matter what motive they act on or what harm they cause, and that is precisely the root of all misconduct and failures in the NZ Police.

This pervasive police thinking - or assumption in the context of their arrrogance - that they are effectively beyond or above the law because they are the police and carry some assumed unquestionable trust allowing them to bend it on occasion, has only been reinforced by the law-makers response to each illegality and failure of the NZ Police. The government just passes another bill through parliament to make their unlawful breaches lawful and everything carries on as if they were right all along. To a policeman this is the same sort of sweeping under the mat performed for them by school authorities whenever they fucked up and jeopardised the First XV. The establishment exonerated and emboldened their uniformed thuggery at school and they do so when they migrate to the police force as the over-seer class in the colony. The recent eulogising by the top brass of rogue detectives who did more planting in their career than Eion Scarrow is yet more evidence that dodgy practices are condoned and excused at the highest levels. That is the vaunted police culture for you. Hypocritical and out out of control. There is just a Commissioner and the Ministers with the NZ Police set up remember, there is no board, there is no effective independent oversight of this organistation. The PM appoints the Commissioner and deputies, so it is a closed loop. If that is not the makings - if not the definition - of a police state then what is?

The list of validating legislation to stop prosecutions and judicial actions against police in NZ is a long one. The looting, arson, rapes and massacres ol past police assaults and invasions, when the war they waged against Maori was more overt, is on a continuum with yesterday's whitewash report from the mis-named Independent Police Conduct Authority on the Urewera 'Operation 8' show trial.

Once agiain the NZ government's tactics when dealing with Maori at least are predictable: deny illegality and claim everything is done in good faith, delay the reports to take the heat out and in the meantime pass laws to make the illegality go away. And they will still claim no fault and offer half an apology because the geriatric ciphers like Neazor at the GCSB and Carruthers at the IPCA see there roles as supporting the agencies on behalf of the government, not scrutinising the agencies on behalf of the public. Yes, there was criticism in the IPCA report, but where is the disbelief that the photographing of the villagers in and out of Ruatoki and Taneatua was supposedly spontaneous. Where is the recommendations that heads roll? There are none, and none forthcoming from the police themselves either, naturally. So, things just went wrong and... No-one is to blame. The reason they didn't tell the local Maori cops or any Maori in any position was because the white establishment does not trust any Maori. That won't change through any revision of written protocols.

And the cops, fresh from a dose of Brute and an earful of ZB to wash off the media liberals, can dish themselves out some medals for their bravery... And the NZ Herald can write editorials like masked police terrorising villages and pointing guns at children and illegal detentions along with the illegal spying that all amounted to a hysterical, anti-climactical Crown show trial in Auckland like every other Crown invasion in the East Coast has done, and Granny Herald thinks... its now just some historical footnote. That it is somehow a lesson already learned. Nothing more than apologists.

How Kruger and the Tuhoe negotiators could do a deal with the Crown whilst the people with any balls in their community were locked up for the spurious crime of misusing guns is a mystery. They were locked up because they represent self-determination (and a capacity to defend themselves) of Maori and in particular Tuhoe. How could those Tuhoe negotiators put in the details of Rua Kenena's arrest and the killings and invasion by police and subsequent show trial in Auckland and yet they leave out the 2007 police invasion, arrests and subsequent show trial in Auckland? Everyone seems to be lauding Kruger for the deal, but on the ground elements of Tuhoe, and their neighbours, are deeply unhappy about the settlement terms.

The NZ Police may have lost their right - or privilege - to police the Urewera by there misdeeds in 2007, but they never had that right - or privilege - to begin with. The NZ Police came as invaders and occupiers, sent by the government in Wellington in 1865. Parliament passed the Outlying Police Districts Act to do it in the Eastern BoP. The armed constabulary remained, paid by the government until 1882 as subsidised colonisation on the confiscated land. They were established as an occupation force in those areas. The NZ Police exhibit a colonial mentality and are not capable of serving those communities. There never was any trust. How could there be between oppressor and oppressed?

The communities would be better off with their own ability to set priorities and their relationship with the NZ Police. Policing needs local accountability too, not just setting up a committee in Wellington and pretending we should all move along because there is nothing to see here.

BREAKING: Nikora to stand for Mana in by-election

2013-05-21T15:41:00.002+12:00

The candidate nominations are firming up for the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election ahead of the May 30 - June 5th candidacy period. The announcement that the Maori Party will run their prison officer candidate again will surprise few, but the news the Greens are standing is - and it will come as a blow to the Mana movement who would have counted on the majority of Green voters to back them. This makes it very difficult for Mana whose candidate came third at the general election.

RNZ reporting:
--
Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says the party has attracted a great deal of support from Maori over the years and it wants to give voters in Ikaroa-Rawhiti a real choice.
She says a candidate selection meeting will be held on Friday.
The Maori Party has selected Na Raihania as its candidate, and the Mana Party will announce its candidate on Wednesday.
Labour will make its decision on Sunday between four people bidding for the candidacy. They are Hayden Hape, Henare O'Keefe, Meka Whaitiri and Shane Taurima.
The by-election will be held on 29 June.
--

This morning on twitter:
--
Mihingarangi Forbes‏@Mihi_Forbes2h

Mana Party candidate for #IkaroaRawhiti is Te Hamua Nikora #TeKaea tonight

--

This is unofficial as the date is set for tomorrow. Nikora is best known for his Maori TV work.

Not sure how the jolly, cheesy TV schtick will translate on the campaign trail though. He will be well-known to the constituency via television, but this won't count for much if Labour pick the slick TVNZ presenter, Shane Taurima who will be a strong contender, ticking many boxes.

Local customs

2013-05-21T12:07:00.003+12:00

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy was doing his best John Key "I'm-relaxed-about-that" routine this morning on RNZ. NZ meat has been held up at the Chinese border and Guy reckons one issue is the change of name of the NZ authority and something else, but he hopes by the end of the week it will be OK. He says it happens everywhere apparently. Does anyone really believe this?

Would the NZ customs have held up an important class of Chinese imported product on the basis of a name change to the Chinese ministry and... something else? No way - that would not happen. The NZ authorities would not do this and nor would the Chinese authorities just accept what has happened the way the NZ politicians and officials have.

RNZ reporting:
--
Chinese officials have been refusing to clear the meat being held at the border because of confusion over a name change on accompanying documentation.
Export certificates for companies to send meat to China were changed in March to recognise that the former Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) is now known as the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).
Mr Guy told Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon programme some chilled meat is already being taken off the wharf, and frozen product is likely to be moved in the next two days.
--

Guy is clueless. Something is seriously wrong with this relationship. The Chinese customs service lists visits between officials, but this does not seem substantial.

In November last year I posted on this when the product in question being impaired was infant formula:

--
Chinese front companies using NZ, the melamine scandal... it comes down to dodgy Chinese pratices - not dodgy NZ practices.

I wouldn't have posted on this formula milk issue if it weren't for reports I've received that our fish products are getting a hard time going through the Hong Kong border into China and that as a result of this it has to be re-routed through Shanghai at great expense. The reasons given why our exports aren't getting through in Hong Kong (but are getting through via Shanghai) are typically vague.

The Chinese are not proving to be particularly reliable partners are they? What a surprise that would be - to no-one.
[...]
NZ customs have not acted in the aggressive and hostile way our Chinese counterparts have - and our state-controlled media hasn't organised a campaign to discredit Chinese products the way they seem to have done in this instance either.

Are these incidents and impairments in China part of Chinese policy or not? Is the FTA going to turn into a one-way street, with our direction blocked with Chinese red tape?
--

... seriously wrong.

NZ Herald reporting today:
--
The New Zealand Defence Force and Ports of Auckland confirmed yesterday that the Yuan Wang 6 arrived on Sunday and was a space-tracking vessel controlled by the Chinese navy.This detail was later denied by its shipping agency Cosco and omitted in statements by both the Chinese Consulate General and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Lieutenant Commander Vicki Rendall of the Royal New Zealand Navy confirmed yesterday morning that "yes, it is a Chinese navy ship".
Ports of Auckland senior communications advisor Dee Radhakrishnan echoed this shortly after.
"The Chinese ship at Queens Wharf West is the Yuan Wang 6 - Chinese space-tracking ship, operated by the Chinese navy."
[...]

The Chinese Consulate General was guarded when asked about the ship."We have contacted the official on the ship in charge of media affairs and we were told that they will not accept any media interviews during their stay."
But when pushed further the Vice-Consul, Zhang Fangfang, released the following statement.
"Thanks for your attention for the Chinese space-tracking ship Yuan Wang 6. Yuan Wang 6 arrived in Auckland on May 19 after successful completion of a space-tracking assignment, to replenish supplies and allow the crew a refreshing rest."
A spokesman for Mfat also overlooked the navy detail.
"The Yuan Wang 6, currently in NZ waters, is a Chinese vessel used for satellite tracking. The visit of the Yuan Wang 6 follows similar visits in the past by space-tracking vessels, most recently in 2011."
The ship carries 300 crew members and is due to stay for a week.
--

The NZ government is whoring the country off to the Americans by day (witness the high-level Hollywood love-in going on in the US now) and renting it out by night to the new pimps on the block, the Chinese - including to their military - all in aid of a so-called"free" trade agreement where they are playing games and refusing to allow our main food product categories (like seafood and meat) through their border. Where is the NZ top brass to deal with this issue?

How the relationship works out in the cold hard light of the real world is a lot different than how it looked on paper to the MFAT flunkies in Wellington and the dollar-eyed farmers. The concern is not so much the actual affect that these stoppages and hassles have had in themselves - they are probably very small in relation to overall trade across the board - but what they signal for the how the relationship develops and just how much shit NZ is willing to put up with. The Chinese are pushing and NZ is not pushing back. This acquiescenceis not the foundation of an equal partnership.

Budget 2013

2013-05-16T15:44:00.002+12:00

The government's budget is being presented in the House by Bill English. His prophesised sacred surplus by 2014/15 is being bashed into shape. Updates are coming through:

Stuff:
--
LATEST: Finance Minister Bill English's fifth Budget carries a kick with sweeping reforms targeting soaring house prices. [...]
English has this afternoon unveiled the Budget which promised the Government would make a $75 million surplus in 2014/15.
[...]
He named Meridian Energy as the next state-owned company to be sold.
[...]
Meanwhile, reducing the housing bubble and curbing rising poverty were key focuses of the Budget.
New legislation will be introduced to tackle housing affordability by giving central government more control over the consenting process.
The bill was expected to be rushed into Parliament this week and have a shortened select committee hearing.
Government also agreed to a memorandum of understanding which allows the Reserve Bank Governor to put pressure on banks to crack down on excessive lending in the housing market.
A number of initiatives to help low-income families were announced including extending income-related rents to non-government housing and consideration of zero or no-interest loans.
A reduction in ACC levies was the only sweetener offered for middle New Zealand.
--

Highlights so far: Nick Smith was apoplectic at Labour over the ACC levies and blamed them when he hiked them up. Now they are coming down shouldn't we blame him for having over-reacted in the same way he said that Labour had under-reacted?

The use of urgency to ram through bills is going to apply to housing:
--
"This legislation is an immediate and short-term response to housing pressures in areas facing severe housing affordability problems," Smith said, adding that the first area should be designated in Auckland later this year. Once passed, the legislation would see a streamlined consenting process in special housing areas agreed between councils and Government.
While it would prefer "to partner with councils", Smith made it clear that where agreement cannot be reached, the Government could take over.
"If an accord cannot be reached in an area of severe housing unaffordability, the Government can intervene by establishing special housing areas and issuing consents for developments."
[...]
The new legislation was designed to "free up land and speed up provision of housing in areas where housing is least affordable" English told reporters today.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MOBIE) has been given $7.2 million over four years to fund the initiative.
Smith said the emergency measure would allow time for broader changes to the Resource Management Act to take effect.
--

Immigration demand is the cause of the housing shortage so stemming that would be a better answer than chucking out the resource consent process when they think it is inconvenient. The property developers will be celebrating. $7.2m needed by Wellington to make houses get built in Auckland? Sounds like the bureacracy is clipping the ticket. And with private developers having the red tape cut for them it wouldn't be a National budget if there wasn't also red tape being wrapped around the social sector:
--
The Government is also trialling a housing "warrant of fitness" (WOF), although it will initially apply only to Housing New Zealand properties and later social housing providers, with no commitment to applying it to rental accommodation generally.
--

The positive aspect in the housing announcement - possibly the only one:
--
Other changes announced today include the introduction of the Social Housing Reform Bill which will extend income-related rents to community house providers such as the Salvation Army.
--
This is consistent - so that's good to put these social housing tenants on the same wicket as state houses. Good for the tenants anyway. However the huge gap between a beneficiary in a state house paying only a quarter of their income in rent and the typical beneficiary in the big cities as private rental tenants paying half or more of their income in rent is severely unequal. Beneficiaries certainly are not being treated fairly in this situation - the state house ones are the lucky few, everyone else is up shit creek sans paddle. Labour didn't fix it, the Nats sure won't. The Nats version of fairness is to lower the plane, though, not raise it. They want to review all state house tenancies, predicting there will be 3000 evictions! Unlucky bastards. Reality land and is going to be a hell of a lot tougher than La-la land. Also sounding positive, if vague, on the housing front:
--
* A memorandum of understanding with Reserve Bank for measures to curb accelerating house prices and avoid fuelling boom-bust cycles in wider economy.
--
Send a memo. Solve house price inflation and the boom-bust economic cycle by sending a memo? If it is this easy you wonder why some other government at an earlier point hadn't sent off a memo to the Reserve Bank.

And this struck me as slightly ironic:
--
Government to use bulk purchasing power to buy cheaper whiteware for beneficiaries.
--
Isn't this another rung on the ladder of dependency? Are they going to offer cheap cars too on the same rationale? This is not what I would expect from the anti-nanny Nats. Here the Nats were in hysterics claiming the Labour-Green policy of a government buyer of electricity on the consumers' behalf was communism, and now: a government buyer of electrical appliances. Confusing. Hopefully a good deal for everyone, but confusing coming from National. Being the Nats, I wonder if this is really just a bit of corporate welfare for one of their mates (retailers or manufacturers).

The budget is just too much to digest in one post. More later.

---
UPDATE 3:50PM: Where is that money from the sale of public assets going again? It's not to pay off debt. The government can't pay off debt as to their mind that independence from money-lenders may destroy capitalism. No, the funds from selling off the electricity companies goes to private projects to enrich the already wealthy establishment classes... like this:

Nats:
--
Budget 2013 has confirmed $80 million in funding for regional irrigation projects, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy says.
[...]
The $80 million funding was announced in January and comes from the Government’s Future Investment Fund, using proceeds from the share offer programme. In total, the Government has signalled plans to invest up to $400 million in regional irrigation schemes to encourage third-party capital investment.
A new Crown company will be established on 1 July to act as a bridging investor for irrigation projects. This will involve short-term, minority investments to help kick-start these regional projects.
--

Crony capitalism is another term for it.

MMP status quo

2013-05-15T14:50:00.002+12:00

The MMP review seems to have been for nought.

Judith Collins:
--
Justice Minister Judith Collins says the fact that political parties cannot agree makes it impossible to make any changes to our MMP voting system.
“Opposition parties have said the Government is deliberately ignoring the recommendations of the Electoral Commission. This is simply not true – all parties have their own agendas and have selected which recommendations they will support, and which they won’t.
“All parties in Parliament are responsible to the public on the Electoral Commission’s review of MMP.
“I have consulted with all those parties, and there is absolutely no consensus, or even a majority, across Parliament.
--

Consensus hasn't always been the hallmark of electoral legislation now or in the past so there is a more credible answer. Because National's support parties, Act and United Future, game the coat-tailing rule to their (and National's) advantage the Nats have no incentive to abolish that provision or alter the threshold limit that many people regard as prohibitively high. It is a cop-out and all of those submissions and the entire exercise of review might as well have been shitcanned to start with.

NZ Herald: John Armstrong fumes:
--
That rationale is just a little too convenient, however. When it comes to consensus, National is the one which refused to budge in its opposition to arguably the commission's most important and most controversial finding - that the anomalous, outdated one-seat threshold under which minor party list candidates can coat-tail into Parliament on the back of a MP winning an electorate seat should be abolished.[...]Such a stance is totally indefensible. But it is also completely understandable.
--

The system as it is has seen the Nats in government after three of the last six MMP elections, so we shouldn't be surprised they have concluded they may only have something to lose by tinkering. That means we are stuck with a 5% threshold and the coat-tailing. While this keeps the life-raft afloat for Act and United Future on the right, it also keeps the Mana waka above the waterline too, so this is a calculated risk by the Nats.

What a pity. The threshold is the cause of the unfairness and wasted votes. If there was only one aspect that should have been dealt with it's the threshold.

Pratfall

2013-05-13T13:54:00.000+12:00

The media - and bloggers - put a lot of time and effort over the last week or so into destroying Aaron Gilmore's political career, so it was somewhat amusing to find that the denoument of the hate campaign - the resignation - was so utterly anti-climactical. It was as anti-climactical as his political contribution was underwhelming. But the one left with egg on their face, or maybe wine on their tie is a better metaphor, is the National Party - not haughty Gilmore.

NZ Herald:
--
Disgraced National Party list MP Aaron Gilmore has moved to spare the Government further embarrassment during a critical week by announcing his resignation last night.
Two weeks after reports emerged of him abusing and threatening a waiter at a Hanmer Springs hotel during a boozy night out, Mr Gilmore said he would step down.
[...]
Mr Gilmore said that staying on in Parliament would "only serve to cause my loved ones more upset, and cause me undeserved further stress".
--

"Undeserved" - that really says it all. As an audition for MP least likely to be missed from parliament, Gilmore has aced this one.

That the Nats couldn't get their shit together and deal with the inevitable resignation a week ago demonstrates poor organisation. To have the PM in the House saying he hasn't talked with Gilmore - when he is sitting up the back - is such a weak look. Key's claims he couldn't do anything as leader was a particularly pathetic admission he has no power over his own caucus. Key's "I'm comfortable" line might work for some things, but internal management of the government's numbers isn't just the whip's job it is ultimately the leader's - especially when list MPs are involved (where the leader would be expected to have some swing over these appointments - as Helen Clark clearly had over Labour's list).

This could have ended with significantly less ignominy for all concerned had things been dealt with earlier as competent party bosses would have. I can't help but think the sideways moves and re-jigs in the PM's office recently are an attempt to remedy this drift and disorder behind the scenes. They have a big caucus that is difficult to control at the edges - as Bolger had after the 1990 election - but unlike that ministry this one has a very thin majority and cannot tolerate black sheep wandering off.

As for Gilmore's replacement off the list, Claudette Hauiti, she has not impressed despite the CV. Going from her appearances on Tumeke blogger emeritus, Mr Bradbury's 'Citizen A' TV panel show she is a second-rate flunky whose No. 63 placing was for a good reason. If anyone has the time to go through the footage perhaps a montage of all the appalled and exasperated facial expressions and retorts from Chris Trotter as he respondes to the dumb-arse things Hauiti says would be a laugh.

NZ Herald:
--
Former Maori broadcaster Claudette Hauiti, next in line to take over from Aaron Gilmore, is in a civil union and raising a child with her partner.
She has publicly admitted she "ticks all the boxes" on National's representation scale.
The party's general manager, Greg Hamilton, confirmed last night Ms Hauiti would be asked by the Electoral Commission to enter Parliament.
"She's the next on our list ... she'll need to make a decision on whether she would want to do that."
Ms Hauiti, who is 63rd on the party's list of 75, has a 5-year-old daughter, Manawa, with her partner, Nadine Hauiti-Mau.
The couple plan to marry next year.
A former producer, Ms Hauiti founded TV and film production company Front of the Box Productions in 1993 and has worked mainly in Maori and Pasifika media.
--

You know you are getting to the bottom of the National list when you get to lesbian Maori.

As for Gilmore, Stuff: reports he's preparing a form of political self-immolation:
--
Disgraced MP Aaron Gilmore has been threatening 'utu' on those who effected his downfall ahead of his valedictory speech in Parliament tomorrow.
After resigning from Parliament last night, Gilmore is understood to have sent at least four people text messages advising them to learn the meaning of ''utu''.
[...]
Gilmore, the National party's lowest-ranked list MP, was privately said to be seething last night, and party members are anxious about what he might say in a valedictory speech planned for tomorrow.
[...]
Gilmore was due to talk to party president Peter Goodfellow by phone yesterday afternoon, and Goodfellow wanted a meeting in Wellington today.
However, The Press understands the party drafted in fixer and political consultant Simon Lusk to persuade Gilmore to go.
--

A man at the bottom of the barrel wanting to buy a scrap with someone already in the mud:

This could be fun. Go hard.

UPDATE 3:00pm

TV Review: Harry

2013-05-11T19:33:00.002+12:00

My TV review for The Daily Blog is posted up over there. A positive one, for once.

Spy bills

2013-05-08T21:34:00.000+12:00

I'm watching Phil Goff in parliament tearing shreds off the National government's spying legislation they are rushing through. The Nats have nothing to say. The latest knee-jerk reaction to the government finding out their spying was unlawful is to change the laws to make it all legal. The NZ Police and the government's 'intelligence community' - as laughable as that may sound - are using the Nat's conservative and authoritarian instincts to pass laws designed for themselves to do as they please without consequence.

These bills validate intrusive and prejudicial measures they have been employing already or contemplating all along. indeed the local security establishment have been considerably emboldened by the Dotcom overkill, instead of responding with any meaningful self-examination that should have been warranted following such a humiliating series of botches. And as these laws for the assistance of and/or at the insistence of the US are being rammed through parliament in Wellington I see the Attorneys-General of the white Anglosphere are gathered in Auckland today by either Masonic manifestation or cosmic coincidence. NZ is everyone's little bitch. Everyone knows it but the little bitch. NZ is a made-up country sitting on stolen land run on borrowed people, borrowed money and borrowed time. The apparatus of monitoring and suppressing dissent to maintain this order needs upgrading to industrial standards.

Two parallel bills are going through a truncated process: a telecommunications interception bill that Goff has outlined is fascist with wide and undefined powers of the GCSB and penalties for telcos who wont co-operate. The telcos were not consulted. The other bill, the GCSB and Related Legislation Amendment Bill, has all sorts of patches to justify the poor practices of the past. [that bill was passed 59-61 earlier.] It will be open-slather domestic spying on pretty much anyone and probably everyone. This is nasty, but the mainstream media have ignored it or backed it in editorials.

Sadly and shamefully NZ First and the Maori Party have just voted for it. [That's what I thought I heard, haven't checked the record. They did not vote for the earlier bill according to the NZ Herald]

Dear fucktard, I'm sorry you don't recognise my greatness...

2013-05-08T15:37:00.000+12:00

Why is this obnoxious Tory buffoon still an MP? How desperately do the Nats think they need this dolt? Gilmore is a personification of all the worst stereotypes of the Young Nat - with no redeeming features - and as such he must be harming the perception of the party.

NZ Herald:
--
The key witness to National MP Aaron Gilmore's actions in a Hanmer hotel says he is certain about his account of the incident despite the MP rejecting nearly all of the allegations about his behaviour.
Mr Gilmore offered a heartfelt apology for his dispute with hotel staff yesterday while challenging most of the details published about it.
The 59th-placed list MP was at first contrite, then defensive in his first public appearance since he was accused of abusing a waiter who had refused to sell him a bottle of wine after a dinner with his partner and friends last week.
He admitted to being rude and arrogant and accepted he may have been a bully: "If there was a dickhead that night it was me."
--

People are starting to think that 59 is his IQ rather than his list placing - despite the PM's typically nonchalant assurance that deep down (and it must be in the Earth's mantle somewhere) he's very bright. He's very something, but it ain't bright.

His performance at his press conference yesterday veered off contrition once the necessary self-pitying public blubbing was done. He stuck to his "I was rude and arrogant" line rigidly. Problem is in answering the media he displayed all the rudeness and arrogance he just admitted was disgraceful. If it wasn't a collosal fatal train wreck it was at least a nasty derailment with someone in intensive care.

He avoided some of the crucial questions at the press conference, has the witness still at odds over the facts (see below), and because the PM was mentioned, or invoked, in the drunken exchange Key's wrath would be warranted should Gilmore be caught out. After hearing Gilmore's fraying explanation yesterday that is a possibility.

ZB reporting this txt conversation between Gilmore and Riches:
--
Andrew Riches: What's all this group stuff? You directly threatened to have the guy Fired and said the prime ministers office would be contacting his employer the next day. The girls were gone by that stage and I was just standing there. Stop trying to imply we did something.
Aaron Gilmore: FFS the batman claims the group were racist and that I was escorted from the hotel.
AR: What's the batman?
AG: Barman
AR: What? That's ridiculous, we were lovely to him. I also never recall you calling anyone a dickhead
AR: I didn't write that note because I thought we were boisterous, I wrote it because you told the guy he was being fired, said the pm would be involved and I didn't want the poor guy to worry about his job
AG: I know. They are trying to make it seem bigger than that. Its bullshit. ive taken the blame and apologised. Just say nothing.
AR: You didn't take the blame. You blamed the rest of your group when the girls weren't even in the same room
AG: I did the fucktard said I was not the only one drink and i was carried out of the bar. I said that I was rude but he claims others were too. It's not worth the argument.
AR: Well the herald just called ad informed me they have heard you mentioned the prime ministers office ad threatened to get them involved
--

If the barman makes a statement backing up Riches version then it could be over for Gilmore. Add the txt messages above and the case looks open and shut.

Gilmore implies he was somehow sober when all this occured - that is patently false and contradictory to his other statements. They are the sorts of things people say when they were too drunk to really remember the details, but not drunk enough to have forgotten the whole night. They are the sorts of things said to preserve one's job and keep in good with the boss.

Well the boss is piss weak if he's willing to put up with this shit from such a boorish non-entity. Key implied that if Gilmore had brought the office of PM into it then he would be out. How tenable is that position now? A stronger leader than Key would have got the whips to have a word - or done it personally: "Look, you are an embarrassment and a dead duck and you won't get on the list next time and you know it. So, here's the deal: resign as an MP now (for the official reason of fibbing to the PM) and be at least credited with doing 'the right and honourable' thing. Wait 6 months and we'll give you a patronage position somewhere we need stacking like the Human Rights Commission." That would have been smart management by National.

But that resignation isn't happening because Gilmore is a smarmy prick standing to pick up $200k+ in MP's salary between now and the next election, and John Key and the Nats are more nervous about what an alienated loose canon would do to their tight majority. The net cost is they must wear the sleaze.

And no sooner had I written that...

NZ Herald:
--
Prime Minister John Key has sent a clear message to MP Aaron Gilmore to resign, referring the case to the party president.
Mr Key also said he found it difficult to reconcile the version of events Mr Gilmore had given him about a night at the Heritage Hotel in Hanmer Springs with text messages from Mr Gilmore which had subsequently been released.
A referral to the president is the first step of expelling an MP from caucus - but Mr Key said he did not expect to move to expel him because it was a long process and it might be quicker to wait until the next election.
However, he made it clear he wanted Mr Gilmore to resign, saying he could not force a list MP to quit Parliament and had not asked Mr Gilmore to resign directly: "But given the pressure he's been under and the questions he has been unable to answer to the media, I would have thought it was self-explanatory for him to come forward if that's what he wants to do."
He said text messages that had since been provided to his office were hard to reconcile with the version of events Mr Gilmore had provided him with. "I find it very difficult to reconcile, and I find it very difficult to get a straight answer quite frankly."
--

Key and his advisers have come to their senses... slowly. Still messy though - doing it through the media instead of talking directly to one another to sort this out. This is poor political management, but they can't let it drift while Gilmore digs a deeper hole with the media providing the equipment. Looks like Key and the party bosses now have enough to hang him.

--
Mr Gilmore said this morning he had sent his own version of the text exchange to Mr Key's office. However Mr Key said "I find [the texts] difficult to reconcile with the version of events Mr Gilmore gave my office. I said at the time, if I found it difficult to reconcile those events I'd treat it as an serious matter."
He said he could not pre-judge what the party would do, but he expected them to take it into account in the list ranking.
"No party leader can force a list member out of Parliament. Even if we were to try and sack him out of caucus, that is a long drawn-out and quite painful and expensive process. But he is 59th out of 59, he has no portfolio responsibilities, he's a list member of Parliament and I have expressed my real concerns to the President."
--

Referendum close

2013-05-07T15:55:00.001+12:00

The citizen's-initiated referendum to oppose the National government's asset privatisation policy hasn't quite made it across the petition threshold. This will be disappointing to the organisers - to have to scramble around for the next two months to get the remaining signatures. However much the Mighty River Power sell-off is a done deal, there will be more on the block and this will keep the electorate focused on the issue. As an attempt to try to convert widespread popular opposition into something tangible a referendum is the best method.

NZ Herald:
--
Parliament's Clerk of the House Mary Harris this afternoon said she had certified that the petition had lapsed because she could not be sure minimum number of signatures required by law had been met.
The petition needed the signatures of 10 per cent of voters to succeed which the Electoral Commission said worked out to 308,753.
But Ms Harris said that following a counting and sampling and checking process she found the petition was short by about 16,500 valid signatures.
The organisers of the petition presented it to Parliament in March claiming they had 393,000 signatures.
But Ms Harris this afternoon said some of the signatories could not be found on the electoral roll, "either because they were not enrolled or because the identifying information they supplied was insufficient or illegible".
"Some duplicate signatures were also identified."
Ms Harris said legislation allowed the organisers a further two months to collect additional signatures. Grey Power national president and Keep Our Assets coalition spokesman Roy Reid said the coalition was committed to finishing the job.
--

The problem I have with the referendum isn't the organisation, it is not that it isn't binding, or that it may come too late to save the first traunche of state companies, but the wording of the referendum question itself:
--
Do you support the Government selling up to 49% of Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power, Genisis Power, Solid Energy and Air New Zealand?
--

Two major issues: Firstly, the question should be posed as a positive, rather than asking your supporters to cast a no vote. Secondly, the question is too complicated with percentages and names of companies. The question is a dog's breakfast, it really is. Whoever designed the question must have been a Tory. Asking people if they want to retain full public ownership of state assets would have been a better way to approach it.

Undermining Waihi

2013-05-07T13:22:00.002+12:00

NZ Herald:
--
Consent has been granted for an underground gold mine under a residential part of Waihi, Radio New Zealand reported.
Mining company Newmont Waihi Gold has been granted consent for the Correnso Underground Mine, New Zealand's first mine directly below a residential area.
Conditions include restrictions on the magnitude and number of blasts.
[...]
Green MP Catherine Delahunty said those affected by the mine in Waihi would be devastated by the decision.
[...]
"Already there have been effects from the Favona and Trio mines, but they weren't directly under people's houses. Now it's direct."
She acknowledged those who worked at the mine would be pleased with the decision, but said "the people affected by the mine will be devastated".
Ms Delahunty said Waihi was an economically vulnerable community, despite the millions of dollars of gold that have been mined from it.
--
When I heard this had been consented I was stunned. Mining under a residential area!? With all the problems of subsidence, pollution and nuisance in the past it still seems gold counts for more in any equation.

Waihi is a mining town - the huge Martha pit is visible from the main road - so I guess people's expectations are already low. If it wasn't for the look of the people and the English language signage it could be mistaken for somewhere in the Andes or Africa the way the miners cottages go all the way to the edge of the hole. If it was anywhere else the opposition would win, but mining in Waihi - like their toxic tailings - will be around for a very long time.

The map shows the proposed mine area is basically all the east of Waihi township. It goes under private and public property (my bolding below). How the hell does that work? The report says a lot of the housing under the project was built in the 1970s and 80s. You do have to wonder what sort of planning was operating back then to let residential development occur around ore deposits - which at that point would have been mined for a century. Or did they assume in their plan that mining would have come to an end by now? The rule seems to be as long as they think there is gold in the ground humans will try to get it out - it doesn't matter how improbable and difficult the location.

The report:
--

Waihi Gold Company Ltd (trading as Newmont Waihi Gold (NWG)) is the owner and operator of

the Martha Mine, an open pit mining operation located more-or-less in the middle of Waihi township within 100m of the main street through the town. NWG also owns and operates the Favona Mine, an underground mine in the vicinity of the process plant several kilometres east of the Waihi township, and is currently developing the Trio Underground Mine which is located under Union Hill about halfway between the existing process plant and the Martha open pit.

[...]

This resource consent application seeks to provide for underground mining within a defined project area, termed the ‘Golden Link Project Area’ (refer Figure 1). The Golden Link Project Area incorporates the Correnso ore body.

[...]
A limited duration for the land use consent of 20 years is sought[...]

The Correnso Underground Mine is almost centred within Area L of the Golden Link Project Area and is predominantly below private property and public roads in the eastern part of Waihi

Township (refer Figure 3). As far as possible, access drives including those from Favona and Trio as well as the vent drive to the SFA follow public roads. As noted previously, the orebody itself is
located between 130m and 430m below ground surface, however the top of the mine is 157m
from the surface based on current mine design and the majority of mining activity occurs at a depth of 270m – 350m below ground surface.--

Is the Hauraki District Council going to get any royalties from the gold taken under Morgan Park, Banks St. Reserve and the town's streets etc?

TV Review: Kharmic fruit of the Yewtree

2013-05-04T16:49:00.000+12:00

My TV review for The Daily Blog is posted up over there.

When thick meets rude

2013-05-02T15:28:00.001+12:00

Pulling the "I'll have you fired! Don't you know who I am!?" routine doesn't work for backbench list MPs because outside of their tight booze-soaked bubble of flunkies, freebies and fulminations from leather chairs, in the real world it is the waiter that has more credibility and social standing. In NZ the waiter will also stand a greater chance of having the MP fired than the reverse.

Simply obnoxious.

NZ Herald:
--
National Christchurch list MP Aaron Gilmore threatened use his influence with Prime Minister John Key's office to have a waiter at a Hanmer Springs hotel sacked after the man took issue with Mr Gilmore's "disgusting'' behaviour, it is claimed.
Mr Gilmore this morning issued two apologies for the "boisterous'' behaviour of his group of four at the Heritage Hanmer Springs on Saturday night.
Those apologies came after one of his dining companions, Christchurch lawyer Andrew Riches confirmed he'd left a note at the hotel the following morning apologising for Mr Gilmore's behaviour.
Mr Gilmore allegedly called the waiter a "dickhead'' when he refused him more wine and gave him his business card saying something like "Don't you know who I am? I'm an important politician'', The Press reported today.
It has also been suggested this morning that Mr Gilmore told the waiter he would tell the Prime Minister's office about the waiter's behaviour and have him sacked.
--

OK, these incidents happen occasionally and Tories acting like pricks - Jonathan Coleman's cigar run-in comes to mind - are to be expected from time to time; but it is the response from Gilmore that risks doing more damage. He's apologising... for the group, not for anything he did per se.

Aaron Gilmore's press release:
--
Press Release: New Zealand National PartyAaron Gilmore
National Party MP

Media Statement2 May 2013MP Aaron Gilmore apologisesNational List MP Aaron Gilmore is this morning apologising to staff and patrons at the Heritage Hotel Hanmer Springs following a dinner he attended there on Saturday 27 April.“As a group of diners our behaviour was at times boisterous and I sincerely apologise for any offence this may have caused any staff and/or patrons,” Mr Gilmore said.“I intend to convey my apologies on behalf of the group to hotel staff, and understand that Members of Parliament should uphold, and be seen to uphold, the highest of standards at all times.“On this occasion I believe as a group, our behaviour fell short of this mark, and I should have recognised this at the time.“I also plan to pass my apologies on to the Prime Minister for failing to meet the standards I believe National MPs should uphold.”ENDS
--

How courageous and dignified to have taken collective responsibility for his whole group. That's really manning up.

NZ Herald:
--
Mr Riches also said he was disappointed that Mr Gilmore had apologised for his group's behaviour when it was "absolutely'' his own behaviour that was in question."It's a shame because I thought this could just lie, he could apologise and that would be the end of it, but to sort of blame everyone else!''
He told the Herald that two of the four in Mr Gilmore's group had left by the time of the incident.
"It was because most of the group had already left, he was cut off service, he did the old, "do you know who I am, I'm an MP''.
"I thought it was just disgusting.''
Mr Gilmore initially denied the claims but this morning issued an apology via Twitter and a later press [...].
--

Nothing says a heart-felt sorry like a message on Twitter. National may have enjoyed getting to almost 48% at the general election, but they have can't be too over-joyed to wear the sorts of dolts coming in at the end of the list. It's a shallow barrel of talent the Nats are scraping.

WWW 0.0

2013-05-01T14:40:00.000+12:00

The first website has been resurrected at CERN. No usual things like a navigation bar, but what can you expect from the very first one? Please note there are no cat pics.

NZ Herald:
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The world's first web page will be dragged out of cyberspace and restored for Internet browsers as part of a project to celebrate 20 years of the Web.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said it had begun recreating the website that launched that World Wide Web, as well as the hardware that made the groundbreaking technology possible.
--

There are reports... and then there are reports. The concepts, technology (and even the budget)outlining the creation of the internet in 1990 seems modest and clear - the results 23 years later are anything but. --

Introduction

The current incompatibilities of the platforms and tools make it impossible to access existing information through a common interface, leading to waste of time, frustration and obsolete answers to simple data lookup. There is a potential large benefit from the integration of a variety of systems in a way which allows a user to follow links pointing from one piece of information to another one. This forming of a web of information nodes rather than a hierarchical tree or an ordered list is the basic concept behind HyperText.
[...]
A program which provides access to the hypertext world we call a browser. When starting a hypertext browser on your workstation, you will first be presented with a hypertext page which is personal to you : your personal notes, if you like. A hypertext page has pieces of text which refer to other texts. Such references are highlighted and can be selected with a mouse (on dumb terminals, they would appear in a numbered list and selection would be done by entering a number). When you select a reference, the browser presents you with the text which is referenced: you have made the browser follow a hypertext link :
[...]
The texts are linked together in a way that one can go from one concept to another to find the information one wants. The network of links is called a web .
--

Keep Auckland Guessing

2013-04-30T15:50:00.000+12:00

Keep Auckland Moving website and the group's report is online.

Mayor Len Brown, the ideological clown, has sided again with the business lobby and the upper and middle classes against his working class supporters - just as he did when he backed the management over the unions at the Ports of Auckland lockout - this time he's bought the roading lobby's spin and is backing the pernicious cocktail of tolls and road charges to fund Auckland's transport needs.

NZ Herald:
--
Aucklanders face heftier transport costs under either funding option put forward by an advisory group to Mayor Len Brown, but road charges are picked to provide better payback.
[...]
The 17-member mayoral group - on which business and union leaders have joined transport campaigners and the Automobile Association - is trying to build a consensus among Aucklanders while asking them which option they would "prefer" before it makes a final recommendation to city councillors in July.Mr Brown is not saying whether he will call a referendum on the issue, which centre-right councillor Cameron Brewer insisted yesterday should be held during the local body elections in October.
--

He should call his bluff. But the wording of the options and what it envisages is crucial. Probably too dangerous to contemplate though, that's why Brewer is having a poke. I heard the Mayor saying he was now in favour of charging people for using the existing roads. It must have been on radio because I can't find the statement online, just an official release about the report.

Len Brown says:
--
"I would encourage Aucklanders to look at the report and have their say as part of the consultation process. We all have a stake in Auckland's future, and our ability to move freely and easily around the city is clearly an issue that touches the lives of all Aucklanders."
--

No-one will be able to "move freely" if there are tolls and charges set up across the city. They will move expensively.

To the better off - especially the company car mob that would have all the deductable and GST-refundable tolling bills picked up by the firm anyway - the term freely means something different than it does to the plebs who are planned into what will be a bus-dependent future (see Auckland Transport Blog on the disingenious bus proponents). No more shit heaps clogging up the road - or at least the roads they use - that's how they see the solution to congestion. It is basically unfair and I would hope people reject the concept.

What I see and hear is more evidence that Len will line up with the big knobs instead of taking on Wellington where most of the problems lie.

On the issue of Auckland public transport I say again for the quazillionth time:

The problem is the transport funding is aggregated to a quasi-political group (Auckland Transport) so that the most difficult, costly and longest timeline to build (ie. rail) will always be sacrificed for shorter-term, easier and cheaper options (that will only be marginal improvements but never the best option). Until there is a separate statute establishing a rail authority for Auckland specifically mandated to build and operate the rail system over 50-100 years and mandated to strike its own rate based on the capital costs of the system (and limited to a 1.0 rate for properties within 1km and maybe a 0.5 rate for properties 1-2km from a rail station) then rail will always come last on the list.

Dooming the city to run on bloody buses forever is not an option - it just adds to the road congestion. Only a sustainable and independently funded agency for rail will have the focus and long-term planning ability to complete the task and operate the system. What a shame no-one in a position to do something has ever promoted that idea.

NZ Herald:
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First Union secretary Robert Reid, representing unions on the mayoral group, said the Government's refusal to join the panel had made the exercise more difficult and turned it into a case of "what Aucklanders can do by themselves to get the changes and transport project which the Auckland Plan calls for".But the Government would sooner or later "have to come to the party".

Two roads
Recommendations for raising $400 million more a year on top of extra Government funding and limited public transport fare rises.

Option 1
* Rates rises: $90m
* Fuel tax rises (including a possible regional levy): $250m
* Tolls on new roads: $60m
* Average extra daily transport cost per household: 70c to 75c
* Daily travel time saving per household: 50c

Option 2
* Road tolls and charges (existing roads)*: $250m
* Extra revenue rates and fuel tax rises, and tolls on new roads: $150m.
* Average extra daily transport cost per household: 80c-110c
* Daily travel time saving per household: 95c.
* Motorway tolls or charges to pass through cordons on existing arterial routes).
--

And the context to all this congestion is not just the under-investment and mal-investment by successive governments and Auckland authorities either, the reason mega billions have to be found is because the city's population is planned to rise by some astounding figure - a million additional people over the next 30 years.

The fudges the officials are trying to sell the public revolve around deliberately underestimating the impact of immigrant flows. The unique aspect of the ethnicity figure in the Auckland Plan, for example, was it was the shortest projection by far in the whole 300+ page document at only 9 years, when everything else was 20, 30 or 40 years. They are trying to hide something that is as plain as the people in the street. And what a crowded street it will become.

--
The problem [transport] is going to get much worse. One new Aucklander is being added to our city every 20 minutes, giving us a predicted population of between 2.2 and 2.5 million by 2041
--

They are trying to assert that most of this million people will be births and people within NZ migrating to Auckland. This is so obviously false. With the natural increase being so low there is no way internal migration will make up the numbers they claim. - it is spurious. The vast majority of the million will be immigrants - most of whom will be from Asia, mainly China and India - that's the sort of facts they aren't keen to publicise. They seem keen enough on the raw numbers though - as if it were a triumph and uncontroversially a positive thing - as if they were actively aiming for a million rather than having it imposed by Wellington as a fait accompli.

Congestion is the symptom, mass immigration is actually the problem. We add more people than we can cope with and that is unsustainable. We are in a permanent infrastructural deficit. One of the more obvious answers in this situation is to stem the demand for the scarce transport resources, ie. less immigration. Cutting our meagre cloth for a whole lot of other people who are about to march in is not the best way to make a suit that fits.

Energy royalties in NZ: tender issues

2013-04-29T15:58:00.000+12:00

More boasting from the Nats today on how quickly they are selling the country's nationalised resources off to foreigners.

Government's oil and gas tender
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Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges today announced details of the Government’s second round to attract competing bids for oil and gas exploration permits.
Speaking at the Advantage NZ: 2013 Petroleum Conference, Mr Bridges said Block Offer 2013 is an important step towards realising the potential of New Zealand’s oil and gas resources.
[...]
“Block Offer 2013 includes 189,000 square kilometres of offshore and over 1,500 square kilometres of onshore area. The following areas will be open for bidding on 24 May:

three defined onshore blocks in Taranaki
two defined onshore blocks on the East Coast of the North Island
three offshore release areas in the Reinga-Northland Basins, Taranaki Basin and Great South-Canterbury Basins

--

Just as well Ministers tend to focus on the jobs and the on-shore economy than the royalties because that is definitely the weak point. The fact they assiduously avoid any direct statement as to what exactly the amount of the royalty is in these matters speaks volumes. Any statement from a Minister will never answer this question - it will be rolled into the accounting profit and company tax etc. the public will never be given a straight answer. Why? We are being ripped off. It is very difficult to come to any other conclusion.

I've looked for the answers to royalties in this official review, but as one would expect it is well disguised. [Found here - see figures at end of blog] On top of this fog is that each field - developed in stages over the years - seems to be on a different royalty system. This makes generalising conveniently difficult. The review is about the valuation as a whole over the lifetime of the fields rather than the revenue. What it shows is not that fabulous and they are not anticipating a bonanza.

--

We calculate the overall value of the Crown’s royalty from currently producing fields in the petroleum estate, as at 30 June 2010, to be NZ$3,191 million.

Over about 20 years of life the current fields will therefore yield on that total $3.2b about $160m pa. Hardly Australia or Kuwait. The projections are all over the show as it is guesswork about what finds will or will not take place in the next generation. The report says:--

We view the prudent valuation for the Crown’s royalty from future discoveries, as at 30 June 2010, to be $5,545 million [...]

--
That would still be well below half a billion dollars annually. The report's low trajectory shows a peak of a billion dollars in annual royalties at 2036, the mid one, $1b pa by 2018, $2b by 2030 and $5b by 2046. The high trajectory is la-la land. What I would like to know is what the average royalties are on a barrel of oil, cumex of gas etc., compared with other nations.

From the figures at the NZPAM:--

Government revenue (NZ$) from petroleum and mineral royalties and ERLs
	2011-2012	2010-2011	2009-2010	2008-2009	2007-2008
Energy Resource Levy – coal	9,510,421	8,257,339	6,494,095	7,144,633	8,198,386
Energy Resources Levy – gas	26,852,346	27,451,449	32,697,508	31,378,469	38,056,798
Total ERLs	36,362,767	35,708,787	39,191,603	38,523,102	46,255,183
Royalties – minerals (excluding coal)	10,789,115	9,284,529	11,345,526	6,543,107	3,614,108
Royalties – coal	2,756,508	2,258,972	918,339	1,034,875	1,304,758
Total royalties – minerals	13,545,623	11,543,501	12,263,865	7,577,982	4,918,866
Total royalties – petroleum	333,760,254	357,058,364	399,194,757	511,580,791	86,093,975
Total royalties	347,305,877	368,601,865	411,458,621	519,158,773	91,012,840
Total ERL and royalties – minerals, including coal	23,056,044	19,800,840	18,757,960	14,722,615	13,117,252
Total ERL and royalties – petroleum	360,612,600	384,509,812	431,892,265	542,959,260	124,150,773
Total revenue (NZ$)	383,668,644	404,310,652	450,650,223	557,681,875	137,268,023

-- The revenue has declined significantly - perhaps the global recession more than output.

A nexus of interconnected decision-making... and other Horomiaisms

2013-04-29T13:47:00.000+12:00

Labour's lovable, rotund rhetoritician of bamboozling bureaucratese has been unwell for some time - as I understand it - and has not been practising his confounding oratory at the usual places you would expect to see him (and, no I don't mean Bellamys). Looks like things may have taken an unfavourable turn and the pie jokes will have to go back in the warmer for the present time.

NZ Herald:
--
Labour MP Parekura Horomia is seriously ill and resting at home with his family.
The Ikaroa Rawhiti MP, 62, is understood to have been unwell for some time, but the cause is not known.
His family issued a statement today requesting privacy and saying he was at his Mangatuna home convalescing.
"The whanau of Hon. Parekura Horomia is very humbled by all the love, support and kind wishes for their grandfather, father, brother and uncle."
A spokesman for Labour said the party was aware of the family's statement "and wish him well at this time."
Mr Parekura was first elected as the MP for Ikaroa Rawhiti in 1999 and is regarded as Labour's 'kaumatua' in Parliament, respected for his widespread links to Maoridom. He was Minister for Maori Affairs between 2002 and 2008.
--

Not one bad word has been said about Parekura Horomia - which is ironic given how many words of any description Horomia was capable of saying on any topic. Some would say he is a wordsmith, others, just wordy. Regardless of what people may think of the substance or the delivery he is one of parliament's characters and for all his verbosity is one of its best speakers.

The illness means a by-election is virtually certain. Labour will be sounding out candidates and running through scenarios. David Shearer hinted there was some hope of a good Labour candidate to take over from Parekura, so it may be someone parachuted in from left-field. Depending on the candidate of course, Mana should be the main rival to Labour in this seat however, not the hopelessly divided and dwindling Maori Party.

I was at the Mana AGM a few weeks ago but can't recall what was lined up for the electorate. It was an issue though - Horomia's illness and the ramifications were well known for some time. Tawhai McClutchie did not do as well as hoped so I'm not sure his chances are that hot. Mana's East Coast general electorate candidate, Val Irwin, is a better prospect from what I've seen: he's a good communicator in both languages, has whanau connections on that coast and has an interesting back story as a local film star in the 60s. Annette Sykes, Mana president and Waiariki candidate (who ran Te Ururoa Flavell to within 1,900 votes at the least election) is the big gun however should she decide to enter. There may be quite a few people chancing their arm when a by-election is on offer so it is rather early to speculate.

Horomia leaves big gumboots to fill. He retains strong popularity despite challenges. Derek Fox (running for the Maori Party) came the closest to toppling him in 2008 cutting him to a 1,645 majority.

Official Count Results 2011 -- Ikaroa-Rāwhiti
Labour Party 9,054 HOROMIA, Parekura LAB 10,558
Mana 1,754 McCLUTCHIE, Tawhai MANA 2,484
Māori Party 2,736 RAIHANIA, Na MAOR 4,017

_________________________________________

UPDATE 30/04/2013 11:50am

Parekura passed away yesterday afternoon - just shortly after this post was written. Many have said fond things of him. RIP Parekura Horomia.

Labour Party	9,054	HOROMIA, Parekura	LAB	10,558
Mana	1,754	McCLUTCHIE, Tawhai	MANA	2,484
Māori Party	2,736	RAIHANIA, Na	MAOR	4,017