March 2009

Potential axe-murder by the looks of his name, Nobilangelo Ceramalus reckons that the Super City proposal is a bugger’s muddle.

Clint Heine has just the thing for the Clown of Campbells Bay, plus do go look at the 13 most tasteless costumes ever.

Cactus Kate invents a new term, the Houstache. I hope this is more successful than “burnt sperm”

Guido compares the Hannan video vs. Gordon Brown speech video….a million views to 2000

Old Holborn puts the boot into Derek Draper

In the Herald’s largely excellent coverage of the supercity proposals, there is one standout example of faulty logic.

Brian Rudman is critical of the at-large system that will be used to partly fill the seats of the new Auckland Council.

He says that the at-large system will favour the Remuera power-brokers, and will apparently perpetuate the notion of older men and Europeans in local government.

The irony is that he couldn’t be more wrong. Rudman is probably harkening back to his heydeys of reporting in the late 1970s, rather than reflecting on what modern New Zealand is like. In the 1970s, the Auckland councils were predominately white and older faces, but then, the Labour Party offerings in the 1970s were hardly appealing. In fact, they were goddamn incompetent buffoons like Jim Anderton. Faced with that choice, voters rushed to support C&R. But I digress.

In fact, there is an example of a modern “at large” system for voting in NZ politics. It’s called the MMP list.

If anything, the MMP list has been an opportunity to massively increase diversity in almost every way. We now have Chinese, Korean, Pacific Islander, Indian, Muslim and more ethnic groups in Parliament, thanks to the Parliamentary list. Admittedly, we haven’t made life easy for those MPs who wanted to be Dutch before Kiwi, but you get the drift.

At Large systems don’t promulgate a certain sector of population in a modern, multi-cultural society. They reflect them.

Tickets that end up offering only Maori radical candidates on any new Auckland Council would be just as exclusionary and forgettable in the minds of voters as a “Chinatown First” political party or a ticket made up of white older men.

Voters are after competent, hardworking, intelligent people, who reflect their communities. With the added responsibilities of a $3.2 billion organisation, we will need people with businesslike thinking, commercial and/or political experience as well as community involvement and engagement.

Rudman really needs to let go of the 1970s, and embrace the new millenium. We’ve all changed a lot over 40 years. Rudman should too.

Clark will make solo move to New York – Former Prime Minister Helen Clark’s husband will not accompany her to New York and will instead stay at home because of his work commitments. Peter Davis told the Weekend Herald he wasn’t in a position to “down tools” and move… [NZ Herald Politics]

Helen’s letter to the editor writer won’t be gong to New York. he reckons that he and Helen “would work out a commuting pattern that the university would be happy with”.

More like a commuting pattern that avoids US Immigration authorities.

lets live on the web  on my waydg fd

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The panty-wetters at the Labour/EPMU lap-blog The Standard want Paul Henry sacked summarily for his “Moustache” comments. It was Tane aka Neale Jones, an employee of the EPMU, a union.

He is calling for the summary dismissal of an employee of a state owned enterprise? I know, bizarre isn’t it?

Other lefty panty-wetters are also calling for his dismissal.

Anyway a “group” has sprung up on Facebook.

The emminently sensible MacDoctor has looked at Labour’s attempt to push Nick Smith over the edge over ACC.

I see Labour has spent the week having a good go at Nick Smith after his pronouncement about ACC last week. Annette “It’s a summer thing” King was laying into him today about his competence. Apparently his senior officials are complaining that he is not reading his briefing papers and that there are 400 of them on his desk. Clearly, Nick Smith is a man who knows the way to handle a bureaucracy – ignore it. Eventually, most of his senior officials will get the message that they can’t immobilise Smith with a barrage of drivel and will start producing Reader’s Digest versions that are manageable. They will also start approaching the minister directly with urgent things.

If ever there was an image of waste in government services, it is that of a pile of 400 reports.  Who are all these people who produce these things? Do they say anything relevant? Why are Nick Smith’s senior officials not prioritising material for the minister? And, the most important question of all – why has Nick Smith not fired the lot of them?

Precisely!…..I know what i would do if officials sent me 400 briefing papers in 4 months including the Christmas break. That is over 25 briefing papers a week!!!

I’d stroll over to ACC and find the authors and give them a DCM. We simply do not need this amount of wastage on piffle. It is non-productive and sucking this country dry.

This Earth Hour crap is getting beyond the pale.

A week ago, when they realised the date clash, some of their 120 guests rang to say they could not make it because a wedding reception’s lights were not likely to be dimmed.

The only dim-bulbs in this story sre the fools getting married.

If some guests said they couldn’t make it I’d thank them very much for being arseholes.

Sounds more like a damn good way of cutting down the guest list!

This is getting ridiculous.

Helen Clark never planned to continue to be Prime Minister if she had miraculously won the 2008 election. In order to win the job she has now got with the UNDP she would have been lobbying far longer than the time we have known about it. Positions like this do not get fiulled overnight and she would have known about it for months before the general election.

She was clearly trying not to lie when interviewed by Radio Live before the election and now we all know why she obfuscated when asked directly if she would complete a full term.

PRESENTER: If you win the ah, this election, if you, if Labour wins this election, will you stick around for a full three-year term.

CLARK: Well someone asked that at the press conference today too and I said I have no retirement plans. Here I am, a fit and healthy woman still our doing the back country skiing and enjoying life.

PRESENTER: But no retirement plans isn’t the same as a categorical assurance that people might need, Labour voters might need or voters might need to vote for Labour this election knowing that you will remain for a full three-year term

CLARK: Well ah PRESENTER: can you give that categorical assurance. CLARK: Well ah, I’m going into it obviously saying I’m looking to lead Labour for a fourth term and PRESENTER: Full fourth term. CLARK: Well I’m looking to lead for a fourth term ah, and that’s as much as I can say. I mean I’ve got good health and good energy at the moment. Who knows ah, things can change on you but right now I’m looking for the fourth term.

Helen Clark uysed her position as Prime Minister to campaign for the UNDP job, she used a lifetime of public trough snuffling to build her CV and she essentially lied to New Zealand when she said she would stay on. The voters of Mt Albert have been abandoned by a woman who who never intended to represent them for the full term.

This video shows what would have been a better way for Michael Cullen to spend our money if he wanted a train set. More than 1 million visitors a year see this train set which is probably more than the passengers on Kiwirail.

Single council should govern Auckland region – Commission – All the councils in the Auckland region will be abolished and replaced by one single authority if a Royal Commission’s recommendation announced this afternoon is accepted by the Government. The Auckland Regional Council and the… [NZ Herald Politics]

The Royal Commission has released its report today and as expect has reccommended the abolition of the existing seven councils and the formation of the new Auckland Council.

The report is 800 pages long and so I haven’t yet had a chance to read it all but on the surface this looks like a workable plan that with some minor tweaks could deliver real results for Auckland.

As part of the proposed changes, an area currently in the Waikato region, including Tuakau, Pokeno and Mercer, would be included in the new Auckland region, essentially taking in the whole of the Bombay Hills.

Auckland would be the largest region under one council in Australasia.

Once I have read the whole report I will blog in more detail.