Dunne Parties Technorati

National has announced that s92a, Judith Tizard’s ill conceived sop to big business, is as dead as Tizards political career.

Prime Minister John Key has announced that the government will throw out the controversial Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment (New Technologies) Act and start again.

Commerce and justice minister Simon Power will now meet with officials and rewrite the Section 92A (S92) of the Act from the ground up.

“Section 92a is not going to come into force as originally written. We have now asked the minister of commerce to start work on a replacement section,” the prime minister said.

No timeframe has been set for amending S92.

Well done, listening to your citizens rather than ramming through ideologically inspired stupid laws.

The Mad Mayor Andrew Williams, The Clown of Campbells Bay should pay back the money spent on his silly little joke.

Govt to let employers buy back holidays – The Government will let employers offer staff a cash payment to replace the fourth week of their annual holidays, reversing a crucial element of the previous Government’s Holidays Act. Labour’s law made it illegal to pay cash in… [NZ Herald Politics]

Well done National for planning to allow workers to cash up their 4th week of holidays. This was perhaps the single biggest productivity killer that Labour brought in and they took away the right of a worker to cash it in at the same time.

Andrew Little must be getting anoyed that everytime he pipes up for the EPMU the Herald notes he is actually “Andrew Little – who is also Labour Party President”

My little story about the Clown from Campbells Bay, North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams and his 72 bottles of piss has made the NZ Herald today in an article by Bernard Orsman.

I even get named, not once but twice and so does the blog. Thanks Bernard.

However the Mad Mayor still doesn’t get it and blames everything on a conspiracy against him and takes another flick against Mayor Banks.

Mr Williams will not be over-imbibing: “If you have too much of it it leaves a really bitter taste in your mouth. It’s best in small doses.”

I’ll tell what is bitter, the taste of paying rates for this complete numpty fool with a persecution complex.

As a public service here is the list of all people involved in the conspiracy against the Clown of Campbells Bay, Andrew Williams, the Mayor of North Shore, since the following have all been critical of Williams or have represented a “dark force” against his Mayoralty. I have helpfully assorted a score out of ten to assist readers understand how involved they are in the conspiracy.

Whaleoil – 10
Cameron Brewer, Newmarket Business Association – 8
Cr Chris Darby, North Shore City – 9
Cr Margaret Miles, North Shore City – 9
Cr Aaron Bhatnagar, Auckland City – 8
Cr Ann Hartley, North Shore City – 8
PM John Key – 3
Hon Jonathan Coleman – 4
Hon Wayne Mapp – 4
Hon Rodney Hide – 7
Chairman Mike Lee of the ARC – 5
Mayor John Banks – 6
Bernard Orsman, Herald Reporter – 6
John Roughan, Herald Columnist – 6
Ed Rooney, Editor of the Aucklander – 8
Esther Haward, Sunday Star Times reporter – 5
Gooner and others from NoMinister.blogspot.com – 7
Basketball NZ – 2
The Lamborghini driver on Hurstmere Rd who allegedly parked on a yellow line at night – 1
The Cafe owners who didn’t recognise Andrew Williams – 2
Youth Town, who didn’t do as Williams wanted – 2
Paul Henry, Breakfast TV – 5
Justice Peter Salmon, Royal Commissioner – 9.5
Ambulance officers – 3
Former North Shore Mayor George Wood – 7
Anyone who voted for former Mayor George Wood – 5
Senior North Shore council officers – 5

If I’ve missed anyone, my apologies. Please let me know and I can add your name.

A Black Power chapter has been left powerless and homeless after police confiscated the gang’s pad and its president was jailed.

Black Power New Zealand president Mark Pitman was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in September last year for being the mastermind behind what the Crown said was a million dollar-plus a year cannabis-selling operation.

Pitman is believed to have finally given up his battle to keep the gang’s Mount Wellington, Auckland, headquarters after fighting police through the courts for more than three years.

The 47-year-old who had amassed a property portfolio of almost $1 million before his arrest was to appeal the forfeiture of the two-storey Jolson Rd property which is painted in the gang’s dark-blue colours but last month withdrew his attempt.

In her Proceeds of Crime decision released late last year, Manukau District Court judge Anna Johns also ordered Pitman to pay a “pecuniary penalty” of $60,000 and a former partner of his whose name is suppressed was ordered pay the Crown $47,520.

The seizure of the gang pad under the Proceeds of Crime Act was one of only a handful of successful confiscations of gang headquarters in New Zealand history.

Boo-fucking-hoo…..This is what I call a good start. Now the Police should get cracking on the next lot of oxygen thieves.

Key confirms TVNZ charter for the chop – Prime Minister John Key has confirmed the government will abolish the TVNZ charter. The cabinet was working on the issue, he said. [Stuff Politics]

Bloody good show. It is about time that these funds were made contestable then we can have some quality instilled in the shos we as taxpayers cough for rather than applying the funds to TVNZ’s pet projects and bubble gum shows.

It also means that the likes of Richard Harman’s Frontpage can foot it against TVNZ for a quality current affairs show.

Hell, maybe I’ll even contest for some funds to make a show about the Blogmobile.

Direct from Tim Blair. There is nothing I can add to this post other than the rather obvious suggestion that you pick your causes a bit more carefully next time…if she gets a next time.

Canadian journalist Beverly Giesbrecht, who converted to Islam following 9/11 and launched the website Jihad Unspun seven years ago, faces beheading after being kidnapped by jihadists in Pakistan:

A video of a Canadian journalist held captive in Pakistan surfaced on the Internet Thursday in which she said her captors would “probably” kill her by the end of the month if their demands weren’t met.

“The time is now very short and my life is going to end,” a pale and tired Beverly Giesbrecht says on the video before it fades out.

The Vancouver journalist is shown sitting in a chair with a dagger mounted on the wall behind her, pointed at her head.

“We have a very short time now, I’m going to be killed, as you can see,” Giesbrecht says.

Post-conversion, Giesbrecht changed her name to Khadija Abdul Qahaar. Not that it makes any apparent difference to her Taliban captors.

UPDATE. JeffS asks: “Is she being held by moderate Taliban?”

UPDATE II. Rayhan looks on the bright side:

It is always heart warming to hear people coming to Islam especially prominant figures like journalists. Thanks for notifying us of her conversion.

The nice guy from Newmarket, Cameron Brewer, who has stood up to the Mad Mayor of the North Shore over hi ill considered remarks has written to the editor of the Herald on the very day that the Clown from Campbells Bay, Andrew Williams proved why he is such an abject failure.

You couldn’t find a more clear example of the differences between the two men. Cameron Brewer is thoughful and erudite and the Mad Mayor is vtriolic and vengeful.

Brewer could almost be mistaken for standing for Mayor of North SHore himself such is the accuracy of his comments. It is a pity that there won’t be a North Shore City election again after amalgamation takes place. He would make a fine Mayor to take over from the fool that is there now.

The Newmarket Business Association is clearly rather fortunate to have such an out-spoken advocate of their interests.

Brewer is correct in saying the Clown from Campbells Bay is “unpredictable and unpopular”. This blog too receives much information about the antics of the Mad Mayor Andrew Williams.

I do wonder though whether Brewer is trying to subltly hint to the Royal Commission that the new name for the amalgamated city should be Newmarket.

MP urges finance collapse inquiry – Act MP John Boscawen wants to set up a parliamentary inquiry into the spate of finance company collapses to avoid “such massive losses” occurring again. Mr Boscawen said that after 46 finance industry failures and with $6 billion… [NZ Herald Politics]

I don’t think we need an inquiry. It isn’t rocket science with most of these dodgy finance companies that have tipped over.

1. They borrowed short and lent long
2. The Directors were bent
3. Lack of shareholder equity
4. Lack of Industry governance from Trustee companies
5. We sure don’t have an equivalent regulatory body like APRA, ASIC, or even an AUSTRAC

It is the fricken wild west and as I say there isn’t much we need to do except model our system on the Australians. An inquiry is simply a politicians suggestion of how to waste money talking when we really need to be “doing”.

John Roughan: City should pay for its own errors – In a country of four million people there is not much need for more than one government but you’d think Auckland could be doing more for itself. The surrender of its train set this week was pathetic. The takeover became logical… [NZ Herald Politics]

John Roughan has a very fine article in today’s Herald where he explores the ineptitude of local goverance and in particular the ARC and North Shore City. His article focus is on public transport and silly notion that rail will work in Auckland.

…..the Auckland Regional Council, hasn’t the gumption to charge its voters for the full cost of its decisions.

It has direct rating power but dares not demand more than half the cost of its desired electrification of a slow, narrow-gauge railway. For the balance it went to Wellington and got the previous Government to give it a tax on petrol sold in the region.

National rightly thinks regional sales taxes are wacko, and doubtless takes the same view of Auckland’s public transport plan. In fact, no government has really believed Auckland is suited to a rail-based system. Labour bought into the scheme only to prevent the regional council paying a ridiculous price to Tranz Rail for the Auckland tracks.

That was the beginning of a renationalisation of the entire network more by accident than design. In the end, the Government tried to charge the full cost of maintaining the tracks and a private operator couldn’t make the trains pay.

It has been a lesson in the costs to the whole economy of incompetence at lower levels of public administration.

Exactly….we as taxpayer now own a liability, you can hardly call it an asset, that a commercial operatoer couldn’t turn a dollar from.

The Government’s decision to take over the capital cost, financed from a national petrol tax, took the city’s transport planners by surprise and this week they didn’t know whether to worry.

Regional chairman Mike Lee thought the takeover made sense and the mayor of North Shore issued an odd statement of gratitude to the taxpayers of Gore.

Next day the Auckland councils were concerned that the Government hadn’t mentioned paying also for station improvements, transferable tickets and other interminable details. North Shore’s panjandrum announced that he had sent Transport Minister Steven Joyce a “please explain”.

I love the use of the word panjandrum to describe the increasingly batty and lunatic North Shore Mayor, Andrew Williams. For those who don’t know the wrd i took the libety of looking it up.There are various meanings of the made up word. There is a play called Panjandrum, but this isn’t where Roughan wanted the meaning placed I am sure. The word itself was invented by Samuel Foote.

When he found himself out of work in November 1754, Foote rented the Haymarket theatre and began to stage mock lectures. Satirizing Charles Macklin‘s newly opened school of oratory, these lectures created a sort of theatrical war, especially when Macklin began to appear at the lectures himself. At one particular lecture, Foote extemporized a piece of nonsense prose to test Macklin’s assertion that he could memorise any text at a single reading.

So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make an apple-pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. “What! No soap?” So he died, and she very imprudently married the barber; and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyalies, and the grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top, and they all fell to playing the game of catch-as-catch-can till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots.

This introduced the nonsense term “Grand Panjandrum” into the English language and the name was adopted for the Panjandrum, an experimental World War II-era explosive device.

I think Roughan was using the nonsense self description term but I prefer the explosive device myself. Anyway I digress. John Roughan believes that Auckland is a city of a million is big enough to pay for its own mistakes, and it is healthy for the national economy that it should, and I agree with him. His final comment on the royal commission finding due any day now are especially fine.

I hope the royal commission has designed an Auckland government for a purpose somewhat larger than a united lobby in Wellington. The country needs its metropolitan centre to live up to its size, make bold, realistic, responsible decisions, convince its citizens to pay for them and become master of its own destiny.

Given this hope for the outcome then out of the existing heads of the 8 various local bodies due for amalgamation there is only one candidate who meets requirements to lead this fine city and that is John Banks.