Chris Finlayson

Wellington employment specialists, Cullen Law, hosted one of its regular breakfasts for the city’s leading business figures at the Wellesley Club yesterday (Wednesday) with The Hon Chris Finlayson QC as guest speaker.

The hapless Celia Wade-Brown – possibly unaware of his formidable reputation as a litigator, wit and wasp – bemoaned Wellington City Councillors’ poor relationships with the Government.

Chris Finlayson verbally lacerated CWB, highlighting the shortcomings of many of Wellington’s Flat Earth councillors; identifying, in particular, Iona Pannett (Green) and Andy Foster (Independent, but considered erratically green-tinged under his suit and tie).

Celia was publicly humiliated. It’s now the No 1 subject at the Wellington Club gym; the source of a great deal of mirth. Can’t Wellington find someone to stand against Celia? Before the city becomes another Canberra?

Consensus is that “CWB made a complete tit of herself”; and she knew it.

Kim Dotcom continues to use the tame media mouthpieces of the NZ Herald and David Fisher in particular to try and conduct his legal defence in the media rather than front up to a court and present his case.

Bizarrely they have issued what they call a “White Paper”. This is complete rubbish. A White Paper is defined as:

A white paper is an authoritative report or guide helping readers to understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. White papers are used in two main spheres: government and business-to-business marketing.  Read more »

The Sensible Sentencing Trust, currently battling with the Privacy Commission and Pedophile Human Rights Commission has decided to launch a website highlighting dud judges…and boy aren’t the judges upset by it all.

Here’s a hint for them, stop cuddling crimes, hugging pedophiles and start sentencing people to the maximum not the minimum they can think of.

The Sensible Sentencing Trust plans an assault on the judiciary with a website designed to “out bad judges”.

The victims’ advocacy group says it will launch the website this month but has already set its sights on two judges involved in bail decisions over which it has raised concerns.

The fresh online assault on judges has brought disapproval from government ministers, with Justice Minister Judith Collins and Attorney-General Chris Finlayson speaking against it. The judiciary have also expressed dismay over the move, with opposition from Chief District Court Judge Jan-Marie Doogue.

An internet domain registry search shows the judgethejudges.co.nz site has been registered by the Sensible Sentencing Trust. It is not connected to this week’s Judging the Judges news series in the Herald.  Read more »

Karl du Fresne hooks into the left wing jobsworths at Radio New Zealand. TVNZ returns a profit and a dividend to the taxpayer, Radio NZ is nothing but a cost centre.

It is funded by the taxpayer and generates no commercial revenue. Its funding has been frozen since 2009, which suggests it doesn’t rate highly in the Government’s priorities. In fact, if Wellington gossip is to be believed, there are influential figures in the Government who are at best indifferent, and possibly even hostile, to the state broadcaster.

Take Steven Joyce, for example. As the fourth-ranked minister in the Cabinet, he carries a lot of clout – probably more than his ranking suggests.

He is also a former broadcasting entrepreneur who built a small New Plymouth radio station into the RadioWorks network and pocketed $6 million when he sold his interest.

Mr Joyce is said to be less than sympathetic to arguments that RNZ deserves more money. And while there may be others in the Cabinet who don’t share his robust support for private enterprise (it would be interesting, for example, to know the attitude of the attorney-general, Chris Finlayson), the brutal reality is that National probably takes the view that there’s little electoral risk in upsetting RNZ listeners because most of them vote Labour anyway.  Read more »

The new edition of Truth is on sale today:

News:

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Sports:

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Chris Finlayson is a sarcastic bastard…and one of the best sledgers in politics…check out this one against Charles Chauvel from yesterday:

A sad day for Labour, as it farewells its most talented Arts Spokesperson since Steve Chadwick.

— Chris Finlayson (@chrisfinlayson) February 19, 2013

Read more »

David Shearer has let the cat out of the bag, Ratana are about to become Labour’s maori bitches once again:

Mr Shearer pledged last year to meet regularly with the Ratana movement.

Since then, he has hosted the church elders at Parliament and met them several times.

“So I am going up for the church service on Friday – for me that is the most significant day and it’s the day when people commemorate it.”

He said this week that Labour were also now in discussions with Ratana about whether it would become an affiliate of the party.

That would give it some influence over candidate selections and voting power in future leadership elections.

National should now shun Ratana, they have become a politically corrupt organisation. I’ll bet they are a registered charity as well…that needs reviewing too now they look set to become an affiliate of the Labour party.

Chris Finlayson, Judith Collins and new labour minister Simon Bridges need to sit down now and review electoral laws. They need to do it urgently.

There is no place in politics for affiliate memberships of political parties with special rights and privileges.

What needs to happen is for the law to change to prevent anyone other than natural persons from becoming members, affiliate or otherwise of a political party. The second thing that needs to happen is for the law around donations to change at the same time. That law needs to prevent any donations to political parties unless they are from natural persons. No corporates, no unions, no trusts, nothing but individuals.

These things are urgent, they need to be done to prevent an abuse of our democracy. It would be appalling if the Auckland Chamber of Commerce was abkle to become a member of the National party, and likewise if the EMA was too…but for some reason labour thinks it is perfectly above board to hand out memberships to affiliate unions and now a church based on a cult figure.

Chris Finalyson is perhaps the best Arts Minister one could find in the world. He loathes pretentious art.

The Parliamentary Art Collection, value $12 million, includes an artwork in shagpile that can only be described as a piece of its time.

That time is 1981 – the year of the underarm bowling scandal, the Springbok Tour, and the first hints of the trend that shoulder pads and big hair will become. The piece, Variation in Apricot, is considered ‘textile art’. It reportedly feels like touching a dirty dog.

Arts Minister Chris Finlayson’s immediate reaction is sotto voce: “S***, that’s awful.”

Then he gets closer and sees the plaque that says it was donated by the National Party caucus wives in 1981 – when Robert Muldoon was the Prime Minister.

“Oh my God,” he says, shamefaced at slighting the taste of such a group of women. He slams into reverse and hunts for a more diplomatic adjective than ‘awful.’

“It certainly is a unique contribution to the art collection in Parliament.

I couldn’t think of better lighting for it. It has been very carefully thought through.”

It is in a dark corridor of Parliament, in an area where no members of the public and few MPs would go.

There are other insults:  Read more »

Judy McGregor is the outgoing Equal Opportunities Commissioner. She delivered  keynote speech to the Labour party conference on the Friday evening.

That speech is OTT politically loaded….but her love of, and involvement in, Labour has never been a great secret.  Her job ends early next year, however with such a politically loaded speech her position is untenable in the state services.

Her gender specific arguments for the Labour organisation also seem somewhat insulting to women.

Laying that aside….

How can it be so horrific when the PM calls a shirt ‘gay’, but when Judy McGregor calls someone (Chris Finlayson) a ‘queen’ at the Labour Party conference she gets applause and laughter?

That insult there, from an Equal Opportunities Commissioner is yet another reason she must tender her resignation immediately and leave.

Someone brought their pets to the office:

A fly infestation will force the evacuation of two ministerial offices today.

Level 19 of Bowen House will be swept and fumigated from midday, forcing Attorney General Chris Finlayson, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne and around 15 staff out.

It’s understood the bugs are vinegar flies and the problem became obvious earlier in the week in Finlayson’s office and spread through the suites.

”We are not full of flies, although there a few pesky ones about,” a source said. ”Good excuse to head off early for the weekend.”