Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

The National Party has rudely turned its back on supporters, with the decision to cancel its two remaining rounds of (admittedly pretty weak) tax cuts.

The Government is using the "global economic crisis" to justify its decision, but still seems to have found $1 billion to subsidise homeowners who haven't already fitted their own home insulation.

This is part of National's idea of cosying up with the Greens, while ignoring the policies of National's own support partners ACT and the Maori Party. A shocking betrayal... and no matter how you try to spin it, the Watermelon Greens will never fully support a centre-right Government.

And after apparently going through the budgets of Government departments "line by line", they have only managed to come up with a meagre $500 million in savings per year, for the next four years. Pssh. Bring back Aunty Ruth!!!

The bottomless pit of Health again gets a big spending boost - up another $3 billion over four years. Education gets an extra $1.68 billion, while Justice gets $950 million (mainly for more Police, and room for 1000 more prisoners). "Think Big" theories are back, with $7.5 in infrastructure spending planned over the next 5 years.

As Not PC points out, National has now committed to Labour Party policies that it once campaigned against strongly in opposition. Bill English has been too weak to touch Labour's socialist 'Working for Families' programme, which condemns everyday working families (including those on above-average incomes) to Welfare dependency.

Expenditure on Social welfare is forecast to go from an already-awful $17.8 billion in 2008 to $22 billion in 2011, and a shocking $23.5 billion in 2013.

No changes either for expensive socialist luxuries like Interest-free student loans, Universal Superannuation from age 65, and State Housing.

Shame too on ACT for not "keeping National honest" as they promised in last year's election campaign. Not only was Cullen's 39% tax not "gone by Christmas when there is a National led government with ACT putting a bit of courage into them", but now the meagre National Party version of "tax cuts" have also been dumped.

In fact, with increases in ACC levies cancelling out most of last month's tax cuts for most people, ACT has not made even an inch of progress towards the party's policy of 12.5% personal tax up to $20,000, and 15% personal tax over $20,000, along with 15% company tax, and 10% GST.

To be fair, ACT MP Sir Roger Douglas has labelled English's first budget as a disappointment. He points out the current Government deficit is a third of what it was when he took over the reigns in 1984.

Douglas says it took that Labour Party just 3 years to get the books back in black. National's plans will take 11 years to get back into surplus. He also notes the relatively low cost for National to deliver on its key election promise...

"... Delivering the tax cuts would have cost [just] $1 billion, requiring the Government to cut only 1.5% of waste.

Yet National's spending is projected to exceed $65 billion over the 2009/10 financial year - against a backdrop where Government spending is $18 billion dollars higher in real terms than it was nine years ago."

However on the whole, ACT, the Maori Party, and United Dunne are largely supporting National's plans to break its election promise on tax cuts, while refusing to break any of John Key's silly "me too" promises made in the heat of the campaign.

Southern rural blogger Homepaddock is admittedly "to the left" of me, but I agree that households and business would be in a much stronger position, had we not had nine years of over taxing and over spending, and if Michael Cullen hadn't spent the lot last year.

The Government is refusing to take a serious knife to Government expenditure, and instead mortgaging future generations by borrowing billions of dollars. It is time for courage to stand up against the billions of dollars in wasteful spending added by Hillin Cluck and Michael Cullen over their 9 years in charge.

The Libertarianz Party is contesting the Mt Albert by-election, and its candidate Julian Pistorius is reminding voters of the broken promises on Tax. The Libertarianz have proposed an alternative budget, based on their "Don't-Spend-So-Goddamned-Much Plan", promoted during last year's election campaign.
Basically this simple plan requires the Government to stop wasting people's hard-earned cash on inefficient programmes and stupid Government departments, which would leave enough money to be able to abolish GST and make the first $50,000 of all incomes tax-free. Sounds like a plan.

* Not PC - The English Budget: "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"

* Kiwiblog - The 2009 Budget

* ACT - Budget Never Fails To Disappoint (Sir Roger Douglas)

* NZ Herald - Budget 2009: Main points in brief

* Stuff - Budget '09: Tax cuts gone

National Party PM John Key is revealing himself to be almost as much a fan of the "nanny state" as his predecessors in the Labour Party.

Key has today proposed banning the use of Pseudoephedrine in the making of cold and flu tablets sold in New Zealand.

John Key has asked his new chief science adviser Prof Peter Gluckman to investigate whether pseudoephedrine can be eliminated from all cold and flu tablets available in New Zealand.

He says he understands a number of states in USA have banned the ingredient (actually only Oregon, where it is still available through prescription).

Mike Sabin, a misinformed (or deliberately-biased) campaigner for the anti-drugs lobby, claims there are other effective medicines for treating cold and flu symptoms.

He claims there are "many viable viable alternatives, well over a dozen, that can replace pseudoephedrine, if you like, in cold and flu medications... So in actual fact, there is no need for pseudoephedrine any longer."

This is not true. The "dozen or so" that Sabin mentions are the "PE"-tagged products manufactured under brands like Codral, Sudafed, and Lemsip. These products replace Pseudoephedrine with the ingredient Phenylephrine (hydrochloride, which can't be used in the manufacture of "P" or methamphetamines).

However, despite what the expensive TV ads from the likes of Codral try to spin, the new formulations marketed with Phenylephrine are definitely not as effective as the original tablets/remedies.

The chief executive of the NZ Pharmacy Guild, Annabel Young, backs this up. She says the alternatives to pseudoephedrine (ie. PE) were not nearly as effective in dealing with cold symptoms. (NZ's own Consumer Institute had similar findings after testing the PE products when they first came on the market a few years ago).

In the United States, there has been growing calls against the blanket substitution of Phenylephrine for Pseudoephedrine. Many pharmacists argue that oral Phenylephrine is innefective as an oral decongestant, particularly at the 10mg dose normally used.

At least two studies found Phenylephrine formulations were no more effective as a decongestant than a Placebo. A somewhat more positive study by GlaxoSmithKline's own researchers did find it was more effective than a placebo (although still not as effective as a nasal decongestant as Pseudoephedrine).

Making the drug prescription-only has been suggested by Labour leader Phil Goff. This is almost as bad, as people who just have the regular standard winter cold would have to spend an hour or so at the doctors (with many also paying a healthy Doctor's fee), just to get access to a simple cold remedy.
The monkeys have already taken away the "good stuff"... ie. the genuine full strength 12-hour versions of Codral and Sudafed, which gave decongestant relief for a full work day. These were "modified release tablets" which released the pseudoephedrine slowly over a 12 hour period. Don't let them condemn us to relief-free-colds for life!!

* NZ Herald - PM moves to ban P-makers' vital cold and flu pills

* 3 News - Pharmacists argue over-the-counter sales not to blame for P

* Bio-Medicine.org - FDA Mulls Effectiveness of OTC Cold Remedies

* PubMedCentral.com - Substitution of phenylephrine for pseudoephedrine as a nasal decongestant. An illogical way to control methamphetamine abuse

* Not PC - Can’t we just ban stupidity from office?

British mobile phone company T-Mobile have followed up last year's train station dance stunt with a massed Karaoke singalong in London's Trafalgar Square.

Last January the cellphone operator borrowed a trick from flashmob veterans Improv Everywhere, organising 350 dancers to break into a mass dance routine at London's Liverpool Street train station. The stunt was part of a television campaign for T-Mobile, aimed at promoting its "Life's For Sharing" slogan.

For the latest flash mob-style stunt, 13,500 people (including tv personalities and pop star Pink) gathered in Trafalgar Square, and with Singstar-looking microphones, joined together to sing The Beatles' hit song, Hey Jude.

An impressive 2,000 Shure wireless mics were apparently handed out around the crowd, with the singing mixed down from 162 channels (including two just for Pink herself).

Like many large group musical attempts, the timing gets a little off, with those towards the back dragging the chain a split second behind the music coming from the screen at the front ;-)


TV host Vernon Kay also led the multi-cultural, multi-generational crowd in renditions of Hit Me Baby One More Time and Is This The Way To Amarillo?, while Pink encouraged the thousands of singers to join her in singing her hit song So What.

Event production company Partizan set up 20 video cameras around Trafalgar Square, with the open air performance being edited down to a two minute advertisement for T-Mobile.

Check out the clip below to see the song and some behind-the-scenes footage...

Despite the endless propaganda from the greenies and health fanatics, New Zealanders continue to be big fans of fast food. Last year kiwis spent more than $1 billion on fast food, with sales increasing further this year as wallets become tighter.

In the first three months of this year, New Zealanders ate through $300 million in fast food takeaways... that works out to $70 per person! ;-) That spend is up $6 million on the first quarter of 2008, with fast food sales jumping $10.5 million in March to $105.6 million.

Chicken and Pizzas are the biggest sellers, with fish and chips, hamburgers, and ethnic takeaways making up the next biggest block.

At burger chain McDonalds, sales are up about 7% this year, while KFC has seen a 4.1% increase in sales, while Pizza Hut taking were down by 6.4%.

Nutritionists are not impressed by kiwis' love affair with what they see as bad fast food. "Community nutrition advisor" Janne Pasco says people need foods packed with nutrients to ward off disease, and this is particularly important during hard times...

"It is sad that when faced with an economic recession, people are seeing takeaways as representing good value for money particularly when for the same price, and not much extra time and effort, a family of four could have three tasty yet much more nutritious meals."

In the United States, KFC is trying to improve its image after years of bad press for being "an unhealthy fast food option". In an effort to appeal to calorie counters, KFC has introduced the new "Kentucky Grilled Chicken".
The new grilled chicken has fewer calories, fewer grams of fat, and less sodium that the Original Recipe fried chicken. To retain the famous KFC flavour, the chicken pieces are marinated and seasoned with the secret herbs & spices, before being slow-roasted/grilled. Sounds yummy!

To help spread the word, KFC launched a "Free Meal" coupon deal through the Oprah Winfrey Show. The free meal included 2 pieces of the new Grilled Chicken, 2 individual sides (like coleslaw and potato & gravy), plus a "biscuit" (what kiwis would call a plain scone).
Unfortunately for KFC, the offer proved too popular, leading to shortages in many stores, as well as mini riots from angry customers. The company has since offered an apology, and a raincheck offer for anyone who missed out...



I also like the "bowl" range of meals that KFC has in America and some overseas outlets. Crispy chicken is mixed with mashed potatos and sweet corn, covered in gravy, and topped with cheese. (The US version also features a rice option).
KFC introduced a bowl meal very briefly here in New Zealand last year (including Popcorn chicken in the mix), but unfortunately their "limited time only" offer lasted all of about 3 weeks, and the delicious meals haven't been seen since. Shame on you KFC!

Meanwhile, Pizza Hutt is trying to regain market share and increase profits by expanding its range to include oven-baked Pasta. Restaurant Brands holds the local rights to the brand, but has struggled to make money from its Pizza arm, due to higher cheese and flour prices, along with a tough Pizza price war with competitors like Dominos.
The tv commercials currently being playing in New Zealand to promote the new baked pasta range show a Pizza Hut restaurant being blown up, and replaced with a "Pasta Hut" outlet.

The adverts aren't all for show... Yum! Brands - which owns the international company - did test the Pasta Hut brand overseas by converting some outlets to the new name, before reverting to the original Pizza Hut name after 3 months "due to popular demand".

Australian customers were also asked to vote for their preferred name, with the original brand name winning out, although a few stores are co-branded.

Pasta meals have already been introduced successfully in the US, UK, Canada and Australia Pizza Hut restaurants. Pizza Hut NZ is launching the Tuscani Pasta range here in two varieties, meatball napolitana and creamy chicken & mushroom.

* Stuff: We're pigging out on fast food

The Labour Party is still struggling to come to terms with the fact that it is no longer running the country, after New Zealand voters rejected its diet of mandatory social engineering and excessive spending to create dependency on the state.

Labour still cannot understand that wasteful spending from "the public purse" which it promotes is really just stealing money from regular hard working New Zealanders!

Parliament was yesterday debating the bills to set up the new Auckland Super City council, but frustrated by the fact that another group of political parties have been handed control of the country, Labour MPs began a series of immature stalling tactics.

Labour has already forced votes on almost 1,000 (One Thousand!) "largely trivial amendments" to a Parliamentary bill setting up a transitional authority and creating the Auckland Council.

The filibuster strategy meant last night's debate continued until 1am this morning, with MPs and staff forced to return to Parliament today at 9am, with a Monday sitting also possible.

Tubby Mallard said his party had already invented around 7,000 amendments, and told reporters that "new ones could be written faster than votes could be held".
While genuine amendments aimed at improving bills proposed by a ruling Government are to be encouraged, Labour's amendments were just petty and aimed at time wasting.

Elderly Labour numpty George Hawkins has been given the boring task of moving most of the amendments, and says he hopes he can drag the debate out all day. Opponents also decided to cast votes for every amendment in Maori, which then had to be translated into English, slowing the process further.

A crazy 6 hours was spent voting on date changes in the bills, while 48 amendments suggested alternative names for the new Auckland Council, including "The Funsized Council", "Everyone Belongs Council", or "Auckland Katchafire Council". Really mature Labour.

The loopy Greens joined in the playground tactics, with an amendment to try and force the council to only buy cars with small engines.

The stalling tactics even angered Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia (who is opposed to the legislation, largely because it doesn't include separatist Maori-only seats).

Turia stormed out of the debating chamber "in anger yesterday" for the first time ever, saying Labour had gone too far with its stalling tactics, saying it was a "frace", and Labour was simply wasting taxpayers' money and the valuable time of all MPs.

* NZ Herald: Turia exits Parliament in disgust over Labour attempts to stall Super City law
* No Minister: WasteMasters Exposed
* Newstalk ZB: "Melissa Lee Memorial Council" mooted
* Guide2.co.nz: Labour Holds Off Passage Of Bill For The Day

The new Aussie-supplied mobile speed cameras introduced by the NZ Police this year are crap-ass, and have been wrongly issuing tickets for twice the true speed of large vehicles. FAIL!

Police have waived over 130 tickets from the new cameras because of proven or suspected cases of inaccurate readings. 43 of the new digital cameras were rolled out across the country in January, at a cost of $4 million, replacing 31 old film cameras.

However, Police have admitted the cameras were initially set incorrectly, resulting in false high readings. The problem seems mainly to affect high-sided trucks and buses, with the cameras' radar beams being "deflected from the sides of large vehicles to nearby metal objects and back, doubling the recorded speed".
Until the problem is sorted out, Police have stopped issuing speeding infringements for large vehicles, giving them a temporary free pass to choose their own speed limits!! As it should be :-)

Officials won't reveal how much money they've lost in speed camera revenue while the problem is sorted out, and refused to admit whether any tickets issued for regular vehicles had also been waived.
$36 million was collected in speeding fines last year, and it is claimed the expansion of the speed camera programme is aimed at lowering the road toll.
A total of 536,995 speed camera tickets were issued in the 15 months to April 15 2009.

* Stuff: Cameras record incorrect speeds

The Government's "Job Support Scheme" (aka 'the 9 day fortnight) was this week slammed by the NZ Institute of Economic Research as a waste of taxpayer money, and useless at fighting unemployment.

I quite agree with the NZIER report which concludes that subsidies to artificially protect jobs should be avoided, and says money would be better spent on targeted training programmes, and promoting business investment.

The 9 day fortnight scheme was the flagship policy from the Job Summit held earlier in the year. It gives companies a wage subsidy of $12.50 per employee for 5 hours a fortnight, provided no more workers are made redundant while the company is part of the scheme (although it can dump workers before signing up to the programme, as was the case with Japanese-owned company Summit Wool Spinners in Oamaru).

The NZIER report calculates that only 2 out of every 20 jobs created by the subsidy are really "new" jobs...

"For every 20 jobs that are 'created' after the subsidy is in place, twelve would have happened anyway, five are just replacing unsubsidised workers, and one is due to displacement. Only two are genuinely 'new' jobs."

So far just three companies have formally signed up to the scheme (Fisher & Paykel Appliances is the biggest), but the Government insists dozens more are considering joining up. The scheme was recently expanded to include smaller firms with 50 employees or more.

NZIER's report lists Job search assistance as the most cost-effective initiative for fighting unemployment, but warned that while training programmes can deliver "long-term benefits", they can also be expensive, and should be focused on goals like raising productivity.
The most cost-effective of possible unemployment-fighting initiatives is job search assistance, concludes the report.

It notes that “Work and Income New Zealand has a well-honed routine of getting unemployed people into work before they even get to draw the unemployment benefit” but right now there is a sheer lack of jobs and also a mismatch between skills and location of the unemployed and where job growth occurs.

Training programmes have the potential to deliver “long-term benefits” but are expensive and should be targeted carefully; NZIER says they should also focus on raising productivity.

* NBR: NZIER slams nine-day fortnight as 'artificially' protecting jobs

Well, after years of a virtual mobile duopoly, the gates have opened and suddenly everyone thinks they can make a buck by launching a mobile phone network in the sparsely populated Pacific nation of Nu Zillund.

The country's third GSM mobile operator, NZ Communications, has announced it is... almost ready to announce the brand for its new network.

We'll have to wait until May 11th when NZ Comms will reveal its marketing name, and when they'll also tell us when their long-delayed network will "go live". The company (previously known as Econet Wireless) is built around frequencies allocated to Maori, with backing from overseas investors.

NZ Communications has already signed a national roaming deal with Vodafone to ensure nationwide coverage outside of its own network coverage area, and says it will focus on "offering value rather than branding".

Meanwhile, Internet Service Provider Orcon is planning to launch its "purple phone" mobile network to August, waiting until the big Telecom/Vodafone war dies down a little.

Orcon will be the third 'mobile virtual network operator' ** using Vodafone's network, along with Black+White and Compass.

Telecom is also ramping up the stakes in their new main 3G battle. The company is planning to quickly upgrade the speed of its new XT Mobile network, from 7.2Mbit/s on launch day on May 13, up to a theoretical 21Mbit/s by the end of the year. That's faster than a lot of regular ADSL broadband connections.

Vodafone claims it's already working on its own speed upgrade, to bring its network up to 4G. The company says its already trialling the 21Mbit/s services, which it believes it can launch before Telecom's faster service.

** UPDATE - Add CallPlus and Slingshot to that list as Vodafone MVNOs...

* NBR: NZ Comms announces date to announce launch date

* NBR: Telecom to turbocharge XT by Christmas

Telecom has confirmed rumours that it will launch its "next generation" XT 3G network early. Telecom's "T-Day" was originally set down for June, the new network will now launch to the public on May 13th.

That beats Vodofone's "97% coverage" network upgrade by a couple of weeks. It will also allow Telecom to provide business users with a genuine worldwide roaming service, something that has been seriously lacking as it battled Vodafone in the mobile wars.

A number of other mobile network operators are also due to launch in New Zealand in the coming months, with NZ Communications still to announce a launch date, after spending $200 million on its new network.

But Telecom mobile resellers (mobile virtual network operators) like TelstraClear and Digital Island will be restricted to rebadged offering from Telecom's existing CDMA mobile network, and are locked out of the faster W-CDMA (XT) network until early 2011.
The $574 million XT network is launching with some impressive new handsets, including a world-first launch of the Sony Ericsson W995, which has an 8.1 megapixel camera, Outlook email support, and music player. Samsung's touchscreen F480 phone is another new model being released on May 13.

The business-friendly BlackBerry lineup are also expected to be popular on the new network, while Apple's iPhone will continue to be marketed for Vodafone's network (although users should be able to take across to the XT network).

Details of XT network plans and prices are still to be released. Expect something of a price and features war between Telecom and Vodafone over the next few months, which can only be good news for customers.

As launch date for Telecom's new 3G network approaches in New Zealand, major rival Vodafone is finally sharpening up its mobile broadband offerings. Telecom's "T-Day" launch is set down for early June, although there are rumours the company is considering bringing that launch date forward.

Vodafone says its 3G network currently covers 70% of the population... although the actual geographical 3G coverage is quite woeful, particularly in the South Island and central North Island.

The company had been planning a long term programme of 3G expansion (as in by mid-2010), but fast-tracked this following Telecom's T-Day announcement.

Vodafone says its 3G mobile broadband coverage will be extended to "97% of places New Zealanders live, work, and play" by the end of May. (They better get a move on, as that's just 5 weeks away!)

Telecom's network promises to cover a similar 97% figure... Of course, with both companies that doesn't actually translate to 97% of the country, and rural users will still find themselves with super-slow connections (if anything at all).

The company's newest mobile broadband deal is the 'Broadband Surfer' package, which offers a solid 512MB of data for $40/month.

Vodafone's recently released 'Broadband Lite' package offers 100MB for $10/month, or a casual rate of $1 a day for up to 10MB. Currently the new packages are only available to Prepay users (go figure?), but will apparently be available to On Account customers in a few weeks time.

Telecom is hoping its 3G launch will help it attract a larger share of the more profitable business customers and heavy users market.

NBR reports that Telecom currently has a 47% share of the mobile phone market in New Zealand, but only 35% of the revenue (thanks to the huge number of teens using cheapo deals like $10 text).

* NBR - Vodafone’s stream of pre-T Day deals continues

I'm not quite sure what to do about my future supermarket shopping habits. Foodstuffs announced today that from August they'll be charging 5c a bag for plastic bags at all their New World, Pak 'n Save, and Four Square supermarkets.

The move follows a decision by The Warehouse to introduce a 10c a bag surcharge from next Monday. The dodgy big red sheds plan to give profits from their bag sales to "local community groups". Foodstuffs is promising a similar system, with "the majority of funds raised" destined for "environmental causes".

That leaves me with the dilemma of always carrying around a bunch of those "green" canvas bags, or making a mandatory donation to an "environmental cause" which I probably wouldn't support.

Rival supermarket group Progressive Enterprises (Countdown, Woolworths, Foodtown) says it hasn't yet made a decision on any potential charge for plastic bags, but is "looking at the options available" (so shopping there may only be a temporary solution to my dilemma...)

Some opponents argue that the so-called "eco bags" made of canvas/material/hemp will actually take up more room in the landfill when their handles break or develop holes/smelly spills in the bottom, as they are much bulkier than plastic bags.

Canvas tote bags are the most common type of reusable bags used here in New Zealand. However there is a significant environment impact of cotton cultivation, with a heavy dosing of the world's herbicides used to defoliate cotton before it is harvested. The heavier the bag, the greater its environmental impact.

Whale Oil notes that paper bags used to be considered a better alternative to plastic, but research reveals that paper bags generate 70% more air pollutants, and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic. It takes about 4 times as much energy to construct a paper bag, and uses 84 times as much energy to recycle.

Expect the Greens and most of their "mainstream media" friends to welcome the bag charging schemes with open arms, complete with sob stories about the little fishies which apparently die each year because someone threw their old plastic bags into the ocean...

* NBR: Foodstuffs plastic bag profit destined for mystery environmental cause
* Stuff: Chain's levy bagged as a money-spinner

There was good news for "proper" music fans this week in New Zealand, with the announcement that the legendary Eurovision Song Contest is returning to kiwi screens after an absence of more than 30 years.

In days gone by, the famous contest used to screen on the state broadcaster (now known as TVNZ), introducing classic songs like Waterloo (Abba), Save Your Kisses For Me (Brotherhood of Man), and Puppet on a String (Sandie Shaw) to New Zealand audiences.

But unfortunately the song contest was dropped by the early 80s, as part of the gradual Americanisation of the small Pacific Nation.

The 54-year old Eurovision Song Contest has less clout these days in launching international music careers, but is still described as "Europe's Favourite TV Show", and is seen as a great promotional tool by singers, bands, and songwriters across both Western and Eastern Europe.

An impressive 42 countries will take part in this year's contest from Moscow's Olimpiysky Indoor Arena, which will be broadcast to over 100 million homes worldwide.

The 2009 Eurovision Final will screen in New Zealand on May 17th, nationwide on the Triangle Stratos satellite channel (Freeview Ch.21 or Sky Digital Ch. 89), and on Triangle Television's UHF channel in Auckland. That's just half a day after the event screens live in the Northern Hemisphere.

Triangle and Stratos are also planning to screen a compilation of last year's two semi-finals on May 3rd. (The Eurovision Song Contest is so popular these days, that only 5 countries directly qualify for the following year's final, while all other countries (37 in total) have to compete in one of two semi-finals in the week prior).

The 2008 Eurovision final (held in Belgrade, Serbia) will screen on May 10th, as a teaser for viewers not used to the kitchy contest.

* Scoop: Eurovision Song Contest on Triangle and Stratos TV
* Eurovision Song Contest - Moscow 2009 (Official Website)

Don't believe the hype. And certainly don't believe the many biased media reports you'll hear about "Earth Hour", by reporters who have no clue what they are talking about.

If you have any common sense and self respect, do not take part in this Gaian celebration aimed at encouraging mass hysteria about the false religion of climate change.

Do your bit for sanity and keep your lights and appliances on during "Earth Hour"...



* Anti Earth Hour

* Cartoon hat tip: Whale Oil

He's on the telly far too early for me, but luckily the best bits of Paul Henry and TV One's Breakfast show make it onto the interweb, for non-morning people like myself.

The highlight of the week has been the widely publicised "Moustache Gate", where Paul Henry allegedly insulted Greenpeace activist Stephanie Mills, by reading out some Viewer Feedback relating to Ms Mills' unsightly hairy upper lip, despite the pleas from co-host Alison Mau and "the people in [his] ear"...

"Seriously, I have no idea what Stephanie Mills was thinking, going on telly with that enormous moustache! Wax is cheap you know."

"Are moes for female Greenpeace members standard issue?"

Haha, TV Gold! Good on Paul Henry for having the non-PC balls to say out loud what everybody else watching was obviously thinking!
The interaction with co-presenter Ali Mau was brilliant as well, as Henry read out the viewer comments.

Paul: Actually, shall I read this out? They're a bit iffy...
Ali: Please don't... Please don't, I beg you.
Paul: They say Yes
Ali: Please don't
Paul: This one just says "Moustache"
Ali: Oh...
Paul: Um, everyone in my ear is saying "Don't read it out"?
Ali: Don't read it out. Don't... read it out

Despite Alison's best efforts, Paul just wouldn't let go of the issue... "There's nothing to worry about", he continued. "It's just a lady with a moustache".
Alison tried to balance the debate later in the show, by reading out a viewer comment chastising Henry for his controversial comments...

"Paul, Your tactless insensitivity has reached a new low. There are medical reasons why some women in New Zealand suffer from increased growth of facial hair, resulting in moustaches - and in some poor women - even beards."

Perhaps, but in this case I think it has more to do with trying to uphold the liberal lefty "burn your bras" hippy greenie feminist attitude. "Don't conform to the world. Don't wax your upper lip. Don't shave your armpits or legs." Sorry girls, but it's not nice, and it's not pretty.

The debate has already filled many entertaining hours on talkback radio, as well as at online forums.

Good on Paul. If I was up at that time of the morning, you'd have a new viewer ;-)

After the NZ Labour Party won the 1996 election, Michael Cullen (most recently Labour's deputy leader and Finance Minister) taunted the National Party in Parliament by saying, "We won, You lost, Eat that!"

New Zealand suffered through a Labour-led administration for the first 9 years of this decade, as the party rewarded its friends in the Unions with SOE posts, directorships, and committee jobs for the boys (and girls).

Now the shoe is on the other foot with National leading the government, and they are finally seeing sense and looking to dump as many Labour luvvies as possible. Great news, albeit a small surprise from the all-too wimpy National Party. All employers (including the Govt) should be free to select the employees of their choosing.

Labour leader Phil Goff is upset about this, accusing the Government of carrying out a "witch-hunt" against state board members who aren't National supporters. Um, if the shoe fits?!

According to the Dom Post, SOE minister Simon Power has written to "a number" of directors (who were all appointed during Labour's term in office), telling them their services will no longer be required once their current terms end next month.

We have already seen the welcome exit of "Children's Commissioner" Cindy Kiro, the dumping of former Union boss Ross Wilson from ACC (although he currently remains on the boards of ACC and KiwiRail), and the resignation of former Labour Party president Mike Williams from three SOE boards.

We can hopefully look forward to the swift removal of former Labour staffer Tony Timms (Quotable Value), former CTU president Ken Douglas (NZ Post, Air NZ), former Labour MP Dianne Yates (Food Standards), CTU secretary Peter Conway (Trade & Enterprise), and Labour lackie Graham Hill (Niwa)... amongst others.

* Stuff: Labour-leaning directors go
* NZ Herald: Non-Nat directors targeted – Goff

There was some good news today... PM John Key has finally buried the last remains ofthe MP formerly known as Minister for Auckland.

For a few months there it seemed like the influence of dumped Labour MP Judith Tizard would continue from beyond the political grave, as her dopey Copyright Amendment law came under serious consideration by the National-led Government.

Labour's stupid planned changes to Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment (New Technologies) Act could have seen websites closed down (without any discussion or recourse) if anybody complained about a potential copyright infringement.

National had been resisting the growing calls to dump the controversial and badly drafted legislation, while calling on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to come up with a workable code of practice.

That was - of course - about as likely as asking McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy's to agree on a common burger size and menu range.

After the industry failed to meet John Key's deadline last Friday, he has decided the law change will not go ahead, although Commerce and Justice minister Simon Power is being tasked with rewriting sections of the Act, after meeting with industry officials.

So a small win for common sense, but the battle certainly isn't over. This is National after all... they're not really a party renown for championing freedom or common sense.

* NBR: Section 92A to be scrapped
* Creative Freedom Foundation

Broadcaster TV3 and the Labour Party this week tried to manufacture a "secret scandal", misleading the public by making false claims about plans to allocate an extra staff member to MPs of large electorates.

The National Party has agreed to $400,000 in new funding to let MPs with large geographic electorates hire an extra "out of Parliament" staff member.

3 News tried to spin the policy as a "jobs for the boys" decision by National, noting the money will help "mainly its MPs and friends in the Maori Party".

The 3 News story wrongly claimed that "initially, John Key and Tariana Turia agreed the Maori electorates would be the only ones getting the extra funding because they are so big... Key has extended that to help four of his own MPs."

That is just sloppy (or deliberately misleading) journalism. The plan was listed in the "Confidence and Supply Agreement" between National and the Maori Party (signed on November 16th 2008). It was a document freely available to all media and members of the public (and linked to by news websites, including TV3).

The document highlighted the issue of 'Electorate Resources'...

The challenges of servicing the disproportionately large size of the Maori electorates will be addressed through immediate implementation of the recommendation from the March 2007 report of the Committee of the Third Triennial Review (Goulter report).

There is inequity in respect of the support that Parliament provides the very large electorates compared to the very small ones. One comparison is between Te Tai Tonga (147,000 sq km) and Epsom (22 sq km).

That recommendation reads:
That all Maori constituent Members of Parliament and each constituency Member of Parliament with an electorate in excess of 20,000 sq km in area be entitled to the services of an extra staff member to equate to three full-time equivalent out of Parliament support staff members”

Homepaddock has the response from National's Gerry Brownlee, where he takes aim at the attempted beat-up and false reporting...

“This funding increase was clearly spelled out in the post-election agreement the National Party reached with the Maori Party as long ago as November last year,” Mr Brownlee said.

“It has been a freely available public document since then, even if some journalists haven’t read it. To state that we haven’t told anyone and have secretly extended it to National MPs is a shocker.”

“The increase is something that was recommended by an independent review”

TV3 tried to label the story as an "Exclusive", which is a bit of a stretch for something that has largely been in the public arena since last November.

As well as the section in the National-Maori Party agreement, many people including Homepaddock blogged in detail about this last year.

She listed the electorates which would qualify under that agreement, questioning the inclusion of the urban Maori seat of Tamaki Makaurau (held by Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples), which covers just 730 sq km.

Tamaki Makaurau has been rightly been dropped from the final policy, although there are still two rural seats larger than the next lowest funded Maori seat (East Coast: 13,649 sq km, and Taranaki-King Country: 12,869 sq km... compared to the funded Labour-held Maori seat of Hauraki-Waikato: 12,580 sq km).

The annual (well, actually, multi-annual) and legendary Dunedin student drinking event known as "The Cookathon" was officially cancelled this Orientation Week, but that didn't stop hundreds of Otago University students lining for the replacement-and-basically-the-same event.

The popular day of drinking was held at the newly-repainted Captain Cook Hotel, one of Dunedin's most famous student watering holes. Costumes are a big part of the fun, rivalling the Rugby 7's for variety and creativity...

Otago University's 2009 Toga Parade for new first year students seems to have made the news around the world, after the event turned into a war of eggs and rubbish.

The Toga Parade is an annual Otago student event, where the freshers (mainly from Dunedin's University Halls and Hostels) march down the main street, dressed in togas and laurel head wreaths.

It's usually a noisy affair, as hostels chant insults to rival halls, and the fresher students announce their arrival in Dunedin. Older students have traditionally lined the parade, pelting the odd student with eggs, flour, and water.

This year however the pelting got out of control, with massive amounts of eggs being biffed from the street and from the first floor flats above the main street shops (some by second/third/fourth year students, others just regular locals).

There were also buckets of water being thrown at the toga-wearing crowd, along with other dodgier substances, including apparently "vomit and faeces". Nice.

Some of the first years responded by grabbing full rubbish bags and throwing them at bystanders, as well as at cars trying to drive through the main street (one car got its rear window smashed).

The unruly parade was also partly caused by a confusion about the timing of the event. Apparently students from Unicol and another hostel arrived an hour early, and got frustrated waiting, so took off before streets were closed.

They got halfway along and were turned back by representatives from the Students' Association, and then rejoined the march with the whole crowd.

A few people were arrested for minor offences, but retailers were angry about some property damage (windows, signs) as well as having to spend many hours trying to scrape/sweep/clean dried egg and other gook off their shop windows.

Council cleaners and volunteers from the OUSA did do a lot of work on the night following the parade, but it still took shop owners most of Wednesday to get rid of the mess/smell.

Some are asking the OUSA to foot the cleanup bill, and want the parade banned in future years. Hopefully that won't happen, as it's normally a fun and colourful event on Dunedin streets that has previously caused few problems.