Wellington

Enjoy!

via Stuff

I just love the booger hanging out of his nose.

Photo: stuff.co.nz by Ross Giblin

So the Wellywood sign is a dead duck. They are now going to hold a competition for what the sign should say.

Here in Auckland they would form a sneaky committee in secret with members appointed from furtive Len Brown’s secret list of donors then put a sign up with what Len said it should say.

But speaking of aDead Duck…how aboutt his for a sign idea.

Celia Wade Brown is copping a flogging in the DomPost after her tirade against the deputy Mayor: Editorial: Wellington can’t afford a wishy-washy mayor.

Those who crossed Ms Prendergast knew she bore grudges, sometimes mistaking dissent for disloyalty. But even the critics recognised that she knew what she wanted to achieve for the city and had developed strategies for corralling the votes for the policies that she wanted to implement.

Against that, Ms Wade-Brown looks less sure-footed. Her more inclusive style has brought those hitherto regarded as outliers into her tent, but because her leadership is more tentative, less certain, she is finding that these cats are still difficult to herd. In fact, her style has caused some to wonder aloud if she has the leadership skills and political nous to maintain the momentum that marked the terms of predecessors.

People didn’t vote for Celia Wade-Brown, they voted against Kerry Prendergast, and now it seems they are going to suffer a bit of voters remorse.

Auckland’s plethora of councils are now one, giving that metropolis huge political clout. To counter it, this region too must speak with one voice. That means the mayor of its largest city must be pragmatic, energetic and decisive.

If Ms Wade-Brown prefers impotent idealism to realpolitik, she will be a one-term mayor. And the city will have wasted three precious years.

If Wellington can’t afford a wishy-washy mayor then neither can Auckland. Len Brown likewise is copping a flogging but for very different reasons: Brian Rudman: Undemocratic mess must be cleaned up.

The unelected Maori Statutory Board went boo, and Mayor Len Brown and a majority of his councillors buckled.

And then the mayor’s own personal PR spinner Bernard Orsman also gives him a swipe:

Last week, Mayor Len Brown, who promised a transparent administration, opposed a move by nine councillors for an open debate on a funding package for the Maori Statutory Board.

This followed an attack by the Automobile Association on the mega-transport council-controlled organisation (CCO) for acting in secrecy and the Waitemata Local Board being stopped from talking about a secret deal condemning heritage buildings in the Wynyard Quarter.

In all these cases, Mr Brown, the Auckland Council and Auckland Transport have been criticised for keeping the public in the dark about important issues.

Len Brown certainly campaigned on transparency, he sat on a train in his campaign video and promised us he would open, honest, transparent and he would open the books. So far he has been the exact opposite of that. He has been secretive, furtive, lied, and the books still remain closed.

Six months into his mayoralty and Len Brown looks like he would be out of his depth in a car park puddle.

Earlier this year I interviewed Celia Wade-Brown, Mayor of  Wellington. She impressed me as having high integrity, and unlike charlatans like Len Brown is willing to personally use bikes and public transport rather than insisting that other people use them.

Unfortunately for Celia losing your temper is never good for a politician, because it immediately begs the question how would they respond under real pressure.

How would she cope with an earthquake?

Phil Goff has said he was joking about calling for looters to be shot.

PHIL GOFF SAYS CALL TO SHOOT LOOTERS A JOKE QUAKE-GOFF  Mar 10th

Wellington, March 10 NZPA – Labour leader Phil Goff joked that the army should shoot looters stealing goods after the Christchurch earthquake in a
radio interview.

On radio station BFM on February 28, Mr Goff talked about meeting a man in Linwood whose sister was killed in the quake, whose house had been badly
damaged but then it was ransacked by looters.

“I saw the army out in the street and I thought court martial, firing squads you just can’t believe how low a small minority of people can get,” he told the radio station.

Right wing blogger David Farrar highlighted the comment on twitter.

“Interesting that Phil Goff on radio said that army should shoot looters. Wonder how his caucus feel about his law and order policy?” he wrote.

Mr Goff said it was clear he was joking.

“I was making the point that first of all I had absolute contempt for anybody who would exploit other people’s misery at a time like this but I was making a joke … It was obviously not intended to be taken seriously by anyone other than the most dim-witted National Party blogger.”

However he stood by another remark during the interview about setting looters to work with a shovel.

“I thought that people who were offending in that way … should be part of the effort to clean up and help others as a form of restorative justice rather than exploiting their fellow Cantabrians. They should be required to carry out a sentence where they had to put something back into the community.”

NZPA

Quite apart from Phil Goff claiming to be joking about a situation where a person had lost their family member to the quake he really is now asking us to believe the unbelievable.

He not only suggested that looter be court-martialed and shot but also that perhaps some could be “shackled to shovels” and put to work. That is quite different from suggesting as he claims that they “should be part of the effort to clean up and help others as a form of restorative justice”

Now bear in mind that it is Labour through Grant Robertson that have attacked Judith Collins for suggesting that criminals should go to court then be locked up for a very longtime with a cellmate. Phil Goff went further, he says he joked, about a situation where a family member has lost a family member and that looters should be court martialed and then shot but at the very least they should be shackled to a shovel. What Goff has suggested is of a magnitude far exceeding anything other than rabid bloggers like myself have suggested. For him to essentially deny that he said it by saying he was only joking just makes matters worse.

This is a law and order policy that only the Sensible Sentencing Trust could wish for in their wildest dreams.

Just so we can be aware of the context, I have now obtained the full audio and also details of the short part that Phil says he was joking about. It is clear in the entire interview that there is no joking about this serious situation.

Phil Goff Interview BFM

[http://www.95bfm.com/assets/sm/198778/3/PhilGoff28Feb2011 [dot] mp3]

It is clear that he isn’t joking. And even if he was he shouldn’t have been. Here is the short version…it certainly doesn’t sound like he is joking.

Phil Goff wants to shoot looters by whaleoil

Nope still can’t see it as joking. Grant Robertson and Phil Goff have some explaining to do.

Warning NSFW:

A couple of micro penises spotted in the wild at the Sevens tonight.. Please advise the tipline so we can heap more embarrassment on them.

Perhaps the first chink in Celia’s formidable armour is her strange email about hobbies. Others have blogged about it. This blog suggests that in true Green Party fashion she makes Morris Dancing compulsory for all councillors.

It reminds me of a famous quote:

One should try everything once, except incest and folk-dancing. – Arnold Bax

Yesterday I spoke with Wellington Mayor, Celia Wade-Brown, in her office in Wellington.

We talked about her stunning election victory, a victory that not even the much vaunted iPredict managed to predict. She reveals some secrets of her campaign strategy. In addition we talk about wider Wellington city amalgamation, public transport, climate change and of course cycling.

Celia Wade-Brown was awarded the awarded the Whaleoil Politician of the year award because of her stunning victory against all odds, though interestingly Celia herself always thought she could win.

If you are going to have a left wing Mayor of a city then Celia Wade-Brown probably is the best of the bunch, with sound practical business and IT experience and a small tolerance for bullshit.

I hope you enjoy the interview:

WOBH Summer Series Interviews – Celia Wade-Brown

Just typical.

Te Papa’s new chairman has thrown his weight behind building a $100 million art gallery to house the museum’s formidable – but rarely seen – collection.

Sir Wira Gardiner, appointed to the top job a fortnight ago, says a standalone gallery is high on his personal agenda as the museum does not do the collection justice.

Te Papa has been criticised by the art community, politicians and the public since it opened in 1998 for not displaying more of the 15,000 artworks in its collection.

Sir Wira said yesterday that he supported Te Papa board member Chris Parkin, who told The Dominion Post he “would really like to leave Wellington with a new national art gallery”.

Don’t you just love it. Monument building wankers talking about how they’d really like to leave behind giant expensive edifices, ones paid for by the taxpayer as well.

If the art community, politicians and the liberal elite art gallery attending public think there should be a national art gallery worth $100 million in Wellington then I suggest they start a fund and go build it themselves. People should be very wary of wannabe politicians and civil servants who intone that they have a “personal agenda”.

I doubt that Chris Finlayson expected Wira Gardiner to throw out his hand for taxpayer largesse just two weeks into his cushy job at Te papa. But then again he and Hekia wouldn’t dip into their pockets for the by-election so not much has changed.