OCKF 2006 April – June

April

• “I am always ready to praise Labour when they do something right, so I can only offer my congratulations to Dr Cullen for his announcement in this morning’s pre-budget update of a reduction in the middle tax rate.…The cost of the tax cuts is $580 million a year. Not anywhere near enough with a surplus of over $5 billion but it is useful progress.” [see below!]
• The Louise Nicholas case
• April Fools – “Well a few people fell for my April’s Fools posting praising Labour for their 2c reduction in the middle tax rate. …People should know better than to think Labour would ever reduce tax rates!“
• “The PM has given a big hint that Dr Cullen may retire at the election, saying she only expects him to deliver the 2006 and 2007 budgets. If he is retiring in 2008, then it is probable they will want his replacement in office before the 2008 election.”
• “David Boulton has taught for four years in Britain, has two university degrees, a post-graduate teaching certificate and “qualified teacher status”. But this doesn’t quite fit the NZQA system so he would be paid as an unqualified teacher.
• Dom Post on Working for Families – “…Why bother when it doesn’t greatly matter whether you earn $38,000 or $60,000? The state will make up most of the difference. This is the worst part of the the package. …With marginal tax and abatement rates at around 90% the difference between being on $38,000 and $60,000 is only around $45 a week if you have a couple of kids.”
• “A very impressive list of people are heading to the US to work on improving the relationship….So who is missing? I mean isn’t there an obvious portfolio which would normally not just be attending, but maybe even leading the delegation?…So what good is our Foreign Minister actually doing for NZ? I mean seriously hasn’t the joke gone on far enough?”
• “Spirit of 76 quoted The Letter to look at how Labour has managed to create a majority of NZers who now receive some or all of their income from the state. Hence 51% can keep voting to sock the other 49% for as much as possible…. This is a total if 71%.
• “They specifically praise the attitude of Johm Howard who says exactly the right thing (despite being a target) with “I don’t approve of the taste but I’ll defend to the death the cartoonist’s right to be tasteless.” One can contrast that to our PM who repeatedly attacked editors whom made the decision to publish the Muhammed cartoons.”
• “The nice United Nations, which is unable to even agree on criteria to keep North Korea off the Human Rights Council, has got time though to tell New Zealand what it should be doing.”
• “Remember how Helen gave the Greens a consolation prize of some extra taxpayer-funded staff (beyond their parliamentary budget based on No of MPs). Well the Auditor-General has found that technically the arrangement is legal because these staff actually work for Helen, they just sit in Jeanette’s office. …It is no surprise that the Auditor-General has also said that the arrangements risked breaching the funding rules with a blurring of roles.”
• “Michael Cullen has taken action to help prevent repeats of tertiary funding scams such as the Cool IT CD produced by Christchurch Polytechnic. This is better late than never – but really there is no excuse for Maharey not acting when first aware of these problems years ago. …The core problem as I see it is that almost all the scam courses have been free (this does not mean all free courses are scams).”
• MPs encouraged onto welfare
• “Jane Clifton (as usual) captures wonderfully yesterday in the House as Winston demanded repeatedly that Gerry Brownlee be made to apologise …he just laughed loudly, and hence wasn’t seeing that he had interjected. How-ever Winston kept whining so finally the Speaker told Gerry he had to apologise. The result:”
• [Fun] – A day in the life of the Foreign Minister
• “He is charged with ripping off two people, a trust and a street cleaning fund of $92,440. The street cleaning fund had received money from the very board he sits on! …The question for City Vision/Labour has to be why they haven’t had Maka resign or at least stand down from the board which gave money (and he voted for it) to the organisation he allegedly stole from and is repaying money to. He was attending meetings at least two months after he was charged.”
• “What would you consider worse? A teacher putting masking tape over a student’s mouth to keep them quiet or a teacher using the tape to hold their hands down and sticking a tennis ball in their mouth to keep them quiet? The former saw the teacher sacked from their teaching job and referred to the Police at the time.”
• “Not a good day yesterday for the Rt Hon. First of all question time somehow gets diverted into a question of whether Peters has paid Bob Clarkson the $40,000 he owes him. Just as Peters said that he had now paid that debt and David Carter bounced up to say he was still waiting for Winston to pay the money he was owed for his legal fees. And then Rodney followed up to say Ken Shirley was still waiting also. A petulant Peters declared he was still suing both Carter and Shirley. Then towards the end of the session Clarkson got up to announce his lawyers had just informed him that Peters had now paid the $40,000. This generated a suggestion that the NZ First MPs had done a whip-around. Heh.”
• The Parker Inquiry – “It now emerges that the PM’s own Department has been communicating with the agency undertaking the investigation and that her change of tune may be because she had been assured that Parker will be cleared. The House was somewhat stunned that the PM confirmed her Chief Executive had received a briefing from the CEO responsible for the Companies Office on the timing of the inquiry.” [read the whole thing – very murky]
• “Patricia Herbert, Michael Cullen’s former press secretary, is doing some consulting work for the legal wing of Labour – Chen Palmer. However when she e-mailed the press gallery a press release, she accidentially included a copy of her latest fairly large invoice to Chen & Palmer.”
• “The SIS has warned in its annual report that New Zealand is not immune from terrorism and that there are friends of al Qaeda in NZ, along with people who have participated in jihad – holy war – in countries such as Bosnia.But of course Keith Locke knows better and says the SIS is crying wolf.”
• “A month ago the Government dismissed concerns that power supplies would be tight this winter, describing them as a “myth”. Yesterday they said the hydro power lake levels are extremely close to the commission’s so called “minzone””
• “The NZ Herald has a copy of the Register of pecuniary interests of MPs. Mostly unexciting, but Whale Oil has noted the Ashraf Choudhary does have shares in Sky City. So your religion tells you it is illegal to gamble, but hey it is okay to be part-owner of a casino “
• “The Government has axed funding for Plunket Line. Now some people will recall in 1999 National temporarily also ceased funding Plunket Line. And what did Helen have to say at the time about this”
• The ever growing surplus – “Tax revenue is $2.2 billion higher than 12 months ago. The Government is doing its best to blow the surplus with expenditure up $4.1 billion but not even Labour can find enough things to throw money at.”
• Gagging Whistle Blowers – “Housing NZ looks to have seriously erred after one of its senior executives raised concerns that their financial statements were manipulated to give untrue information. Housing NZ’s response was to threaten to withhold his pay unless he signed an agreement that banned him from speaking to “any Minister, [or] MP”.”
• “The SST has revealed that David Benson-Pope met with Gerry Brownlee and tried to bully (or arguably blackmail) him into stopping National’s attacks on him, threatening to release a letter from a person alleging misconduct by Brownlee while he was a woodwork teacher at Christchurch’s St Bede’s College between 1986 and 1995. I think think this revelation illustrates perfectly the character of David Benson-Pope – the man placed by Helen Clark to be in charge firstly of our schools and now in charge of the children, youth and families agency.”
• Crime so out of control even a Govt MP is scared – ” Shouldn’t the local MP be the one person leading the campaign publicly for the Police to take action? If the MP is scared of retaliation, how on earth can the Government expect other citizens to report crime? Doesn’t this suggest a climate of fear rather than law?”
• More on MPs’ Register – “* Why the man who attacks foreign owned banks (Anderton) has shares in one?”
• Delays for heart ops – “Despite health spending under Labour increasing by over 50%, outcomes have barely improved at all – or are getting worse. Today Auckland heart patients will find out that some of them will not be able to get heart surgery done, despite being assessed as needing it by their surgeons.”
• “Under the 2003 Land Transport Management Act Transit can veto developments likely to add traffic to state highways.[see link for details] … Having Transit determine unilaterally where and when developments can occur is ridiculous and a hark back to soviet style central planning. Transit’s job is to build roads to where developments happen, not to veto developments in areas they disapprove of.”
• [Fun?] – Leaked Foreign Affairs Protocol
• Learning from Mistakes – “John Armstrong writes how much better the Government has handled the Housing NZ hush money scandal, than previous ones. I concur. They have left themselves somewhat vulnerable by leaving the CEO who allegedly approved the deal in place, but by immediately agreeing the behaviour of Housing NZ was unacceptable, the issue loses much of its potency.”
• “The cost of landscaping at new prisons is a massive $11 million, according to the NZ Herald. I think this explains a lot about why the projected costs have doubled from original estimates.”
• Only 36% confidence in tertiary education system – “An NZQA commissioned survey has found only a staggeringly low 36% have confidence in the quality of the tertiary education system. 36% are neutral and 24% had little or no confidence. An education system should have 70% or greater confidence. This appallingly low figure is the legacy of the Maharey years.”
• NZ Herald on Health System – “An excellent NZ Herald editorial on health waiting lists.”
• “You see policy over the last six years has been to cap funding for PTEs, while the public providers were allowed to go wild with scams such as Cool IT. …Similiar problems exist in health, where the Government does everything possible to discourage the use of private hospitals, even when they will provide a better outcome for patients, at less costs (allowing more operations to be done).”
• Boys’ Education – “The NZ Herald reports that an adviser to the Education Minister says the Government has responded to falling academic achievement among boys with “denial, delay and trivialisation”. This is a huge, and growing, problem.”
• The great waiting list cull of 2005 – “So the message for heath boards and their managers is that you can cull as many patients as you like, but make sure you do it in a way which doesn’t attract headlines. Incredible!”
• NZ and Iran – funding Hamas together
• “However we are now poised to have the worse of both worlds – zero growth in the last six to nine months and inflation heading upwards…. Sadly the Bank seems to lack the political will to take the hard decisions. It toys around with reviews of other mechanisms, when what was really needed was firm action over a year ago. “
• “The IMF has projected that his year we will have the second lowest growth in the developed world! We will beat Portugal though. Yay for Portugal keeping us off the bottom.”
• “Listen to Treasury – “The PM should listen to Treasury. She was complaining the other day that they have massively increased funding of the health sector, so aren’t to blame for the fact 8,000 patients were culled from waiting lists last year. Treasury have said that the Government needs to focus more on the results of spending, and tie departmental funding more closely to results.”
• “The NZ Herald has a sensible editorial on the bullying assault case, saying that this should not have become a criminal prosecution and conviction.…Translation: He would have got off if he was a Labour Cabinet Minister!”
• “The Government has finally abandoned plans to legislate for public access on farmer’s lands.”
• Children’s Commissioner accused of bullying – “…Family First have revealed how three social workers were threatened with their jobs and bullied because they said, when asked, that they supported amending rather than repealing Section 59. If this is correct (and NewstalkZB have confirmed it) this is an appalling displaying of abusive behaviour.”
• “Kerre Woodham writes that if the Government wants to keep the Upham medlas in NZ, then they should do so even if it costs them money. Upham could have donated the medals in his will to the Army Museum. He chose not to. In the SST, Amanda Upham explains why they want to sell them, saying the government is being “grossly unfair” in refusing to buy the medals, but “insisting” they stay at the museum.“
• Nice spin attempt – “Katherine Rich has pointed out that a Government business consultation website is a fairly dismal failure with less than ten visits a day, most of which are probably crawlers for search engines….Then Rick Barker said it wasn’t a flop, and that money had not been wasted on it as the purpose of the website launch was “to get people used to the idea”.”
• “[the EPMU have]threatened mass industrial action if National MP Wayne Mapp does not withdraw his probationary periods bill within 90 days. It is slightly thuggish to demand that an individual MP must withdraw a private member’s bill. One thing for Government bills, but I can’t recall a private members bill having ever been singled out before – and especially giving an actual deadline for withdrawal or else. They need to watch less Sopranos.”
• Truth in Sentencing – “Somewhere in Wellington, Stephen Franks is yelling into his cornflakes “I told you I was right”. After advocating “truth in sentencing” for many years, he has had no less than the Law Commission join his call for it.”
• Labour’s new health policy – “Tracy Watkins reviews the Government’s new health policy for elective surgery – finger pointing! Helen Clark’s concern is “most other district health boards appear to be managing waiting lists in a way that doesn’t attract headlines.” While Pete Hodgson says “I hope every DHB appreciates the consequences of promising more than they can deliver.””
• Surprise Surprise – “Newstalk ZB reports that David Parker will not be prosecuted. He’ll be back in Cabinet by lunchtime.”
• This is not a joke – ““The rising cost of everyday goods and services provides a strong case for tax cuts and major reforms in next month’s budget, Labor said today. This is a true headline. Sadly as those who saw the missing u in Labour, it is Australian Labor who are calling for this.”
• Parker is a lucky man –  “Ian Wishart comments on the report in his blog. He makes three points worth repeating: 1) “If he genuinely believe Hyslop was not a shareholder, why did he continue to file returns for years falsely stating that he was? If the returns were not false because Hyslop didn’t have to be consulted because he was no longer a shareholder, then arguably they were false by continuing to list Hyslop as a shareholder.”…3) Parker thought that Hyslop was still a share-holder, right up until Crown Law told him otherwise”
• Cabinet Report Card
• Keating calls for more tax cuts
• Sinister Overseas Influence in NZ – “Do you remember Trevor Mallard maliciously inventing allegations about how sinister US interests were funding the National Party? Well maybe Trevor should be looking closer to home.”
• [Interesting] – US rich paying more tax under Bush
• [Fun] – Why it’s good to be blue!

May

• “Waiheke Island residents are understandably upset their rates are going up by 50% or more and are talking a rates revolt.”
• “The then Chairman of TVNZ, Craig Boyce, seems to have been unaware of the Official Information Act. In e-mails released under the OIA we learn: * MPs on the Finance Select Committee investigating TVNZ were referred to as “the enemy”, and “bastards”. * he told Ian Fraser not to tell the truth about what happened with Dame Ann Hercus as it would “be a disaster for everyone”. Not the best attitude from the board of the public TV broadcaster.”
• “Looks like the numbers are there to over-ride the Government and exempt farm dogs from micro-chipping. Good. Last term, Labour ruled by getting United Future to vote with it on right leaning legislation and the Greens on left leaning legislation. This term National is playing the game in reverse.”
• “Now we have Health Minister Pete Hodgson attacking, well everyone who points out problems in the health system. Pete says it is all a myth…. Unfortunately for Pete, it is not just the media and Tony Ryall (can there be a better compliment to one’s effectiveness as an Opposition MP when the Minister blames you), but as the Dom Post reports the head of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons New Zealand board has rejected Hodgson’s claims that the “crisis” has been manufactured.”
• The start of the cycle? High inflation causing problems.
• Concealing Golden Handshakes – “Now how-ever some state agencies, knowing that the wrath of Helengrad hits them if they agree to a golden handshake, have come up with a new way to do it. You enter into a new contract for some consulting job after you make someone redundant or sack them. That way it is not officially a golden handshake, but a contract for writing some report. Luckily the Auditor-General and the Commerce Select Committee have exposed the practice which should kill it off.”
• “Good to see a Climate Science Coalition has been founded, to refute some of the global warming claims. …One learns a lot about the Green Party thinking when they take they view, yes we may be wrong, but “what would we have lost by trying to prepare to reduce our greenhouse emissions“? [outside of collapsing the economy!] …I also find it ironic that in regard to climate change the Greens claims “the science around global warming has already stood up to rigorous scrutiny” yet when it comes to genetic engineering the Greens refuse to accept any amount of scientific testing and constantly get their facts wrong (as they got clobbered by the Royal Commission for doing).”
• April 2006 NZ Blog Stats
• “The Philip Field Inquiry is becoming a farce. Not only has a nine day inquiry become a seven month+ inquiry, …It is quite simply unacceptable to have PM declare there is no time limit and no costs will be reported.”
• Union Spin – unions try to argue against their own laws
• Broadband package looks very good – Local Loop Unbundling introduced
• [Interesting] -” I am glad the smoking lawsuit fails for several reasons.”
• Party donor returns – “I would also point out that this Government is known as being very vengeful against individuals and companies that criticise or don’t support it. Many professional directors say they are scared to publicly associate with a party because of retribution from the Beehive. This is probably the main reason why so many donors wish to be anonymous – fear of retribution.”
• “Well done to Winston for being a good sport and turning up for the unveiling of new puppets at the Backbencher for himself and Helen Clark. As you can see they make a lovely couple Helen herself didn’t turn up – I think it is the first time ever a politican has refused to unveil their puppet. Guess she wasn’t too keen on the imagery of her and Winnie.”
• Youth Rates – “The Ministry of Justice has published an opinion that the current regulations setting a different minimum wage for 16 and 17 year olds to 18+ year olds may be ultra vires as a breach of the Bill of Rights….Two unions are already pledging to sue *employers* for up to six years of back wages for those who got youth rates. This is misguided to put it even mildly. As the youth rate regulations have been deemed legal for 16 years, you can’t blame an employer for relying on official government advice that they are legal.”
• “TVNZ reported last night that the Police considered Heather Simpson was the appropriate person to charge for Labour’s over-spending. They even concluded a charge would result in a conviction. Yet they decided not to prosecute, on the grounds of lack of intent to break the law. Now this is legal incompetence of the highest level from the Police.”
• LBJ on Youth Rates Bill – “This is a seriously useful analysis, and makes two things clear: 1) The hysterical press releases from EPMU and UNITE claiming they will be seeking years of back pay from employers, shows they don’t even know the law in this area – and I should not believe their claims in future. 2) Sue Bradford has managed to draft a bill so incompetently that it will not actually achieve what she wants it to.” [WayBack]
• “…Dr Cullen announced on Thursday that for the first time since records began in 1972, the NZ Government has no net debt. This is a great achievement, considering how at one stage the interest of our debt was one of our larger items of expenditure. …The person who should take most of the credit is Ruth Richardson who reversed a 20 year trend of increasing deficits. But highly commended goes to both Bill Birch and Michael Cullen who have kept the surpluses up.”
• What a surprise! – “The Dom Post reports that thousands of students have stopped making voluntary repayments on their student loans. This is of course entirely logical and expected. It’s looking like annual voluntary repayment may have fallen by as much as $300 million.”
• “Remember how Helen attaced District Health Boards for culling their waiting lists. Well they are actually under orders to do so from her Government. Yes the Ministry of Health has set a target of 17,000 patients to be removed from waiting lists, with Canterbury DHB about to remove 2,000.”
• “The HOS reports on how three female [National] MPs walked out of an official visit to a CYF office, after a kaumatua attacked them for refusing to sit in the back….So what we have is a Government Department which went out of its way to insult and abuse said MPs, reneging on the agreement not to have a powhiri.” [from Herald] “But the trio’s actions have been labelled “a disgraceful display” by Labour’s Georgina Beyer, who chairs the social services committee.“
• [Interesting] –Israel prevents assassination of Palestinian President – “So who was trying to assassinate him? Was it Israeli settlers?… No it was Hamas. Yes, that’s right the group just elected to a majority in the Palestinian Parliament. The same group Winston and Helen just gave $500,000 to.”
• Is Venezuela funding UNITE? – “Matt McCarten admitted a few weeks ago that UNITE was seeking overseas funding for its work. Trevor Loudon connects some dots with a UNITE organiser being in Venezuela, and asks whether the Venezuelan Government or unions are funding UNITE?”
• “The number of people on a benefit has fallen by 2.9% in the last year. This is pleasing, and reflects what has been a growing economy. However as Lindsay Mitchell points out, the numbers on sickness and invalids benefits continues to increase”
• Leaky Homes – “I recall well the day when an angry Helen Clark denounced on radio the leaky homes issues as a beat-up, saying it was just the Herald “banging on” about it. There are now 15,000 homes with a collective repair bill of over $1 billion.”
• “… Helen has decided to go for the smear treatment and is insisting that the National MPs who walked out were not being rebuked for sitting in the front row, but for boorish behaviour during the ceremony. This shows wonderful powers of telepathy as the PM wasn’t at the event in question. MP Paula Bennett, who was there, dismissed Clark’s allegations as fiction, saying that the kaumatua made it very clear that he found it offensive and that it ‘brought shame’ for two women to sit in the front.”
• “At long last, the inquiry which was meant to last nine days has a draft report after eight months. Now a few things to watch out for:”
• How weak! – “I heard commentators on Newstalk ZB laughing about Winston’s latest e-mail revelation, basically saying that it was very very lame.”
• Fran O’Sullivan on Telecom
• “It has emerged that the Police have 330 “decoy cops” or “temporary constables”. Now these are people who look like cops, wear the uniform, but in fact are not cops – they can not arrest offenders, and have no handcuffs, batons or pepper spray.”
• Trevor and Winston – “It is sadly ironic that the Foreign Minister’s main goal of improving relations with the US, is jeopardized by no less a person than the Foreign Minister. As noted, the US Government really prefers not to be dragged into domestic politics.”
• Let them eat jaffas – “Michael Cullen has ruled out any tax cuts at all, despite Australia delivering $45 billion of tax cuts (and on smaller surplues per capita)”
• Bauble Watch – “McCully helpfully reveals that three of the NZ observers include a NZ First MP, a NZ First candidate and a NZ First parliamentary staff member.”
• O’Sullivan on gutless police – “Fran O’Sullivan calls the Police gutless over their failure to act on the complaints from the Electoral Commission. Now Fran, unlike 99.9999% of the population, has gone through the hundreds of pages of documents released by the Police, and she has concluded they are damning of the Police. “[see later posts]
• “Matthew Hooton in the SST calls Don Brash a historic figure who saved National from oblivion and brought it to the cusp of power – but that change is now needed.”
• Winston caught in yet another stupid lie
• “Over today, and possibly tomorrow, I am going to make a series of posts drawing on the hundreds of pages released by the Police under the OIA in relation to their decision not to charge Labour with over-spending at the last election. These will include extracts and scans of various letters and reports….I also point out that this case is not a borderline case, or a marginal call. It was over-whelming.”
• The players
• The timeline

1) Labour were first alerted to the CEO’s concerns 18 days before the election. The standard campaign is in the last four weeks mainly, so this was quite early in the peice

2) Labour agreed, prior to the election, to include the pledge cards in their expenditure

3) Only three weeks later did Labour withdraw its agreement – after the election

• The issues -“Now the fatal mistake the Police made is they spent all their time investigating Issue (3) which wasn’t even an issue for them. It has nothing to do with them. It is a matter for the Speaker and the Auditor-General. The Police seemed to think that merely being okay under The Parliament Service Commission’s internal rules, means that it is okay under the Electoral Act. This is not true, as the Electoral Act stands on its own merits.You will see in later documents how the Police were confused on this point right up until after they released their findings, and the Chief Electoral Officer had to put them right.”

[Note, images do not appear in these posts, have added in Wayback links which show all images. Note you need to click some to see the whole thing.]

• First Contact – [Wayback]
  
• Second Contact – “The final part of the letter is shown here. In it you see the CEO specifically warns Labour that this may be referred to the Police as an illegal practice, and that he also regards the advertising as an election expense under Section 214B. So at this stage Labour can have no doubt about the view of the top electoral official, and could have adjusted their campaign accordingly.” [Wayback Machine]
  
• The fend-off – “The CEO responds on 12 September noting the earlier questions were not answered in full, and noting a further complaint about the A2 flyer has been received. He repeats his questions,”
• The offer – “For reasons I will touch on in later posts, the issue of spending limits is far more important that correct authorisation statements. So the concession on including it in the election return is a major one. One they later withdrew. Yes they agreed before the election to include the cost, and then weeks later so “Oh we have changed our mind”.”
• NZ has had Stalinist famine! – “Graham Kelly, lifetime unionist and Labour MP, is our High Commissioner to Canada.He helpfully promotes New Zealand by explaining our past. For example listen to his description of th 1990s:�When Stalin sold the wheat crop to industrialize, six million people starved. It was about that scale in NZ,�”  [Wayback]
  
• New Zealand Tax Levels – [Several findings including…]”* New Zealanders are paying 50% more nominal tax than they did in 2000″
• “The Waitemata and central Auckland boards have been told they need to reduce the list of over 8000 patients waiting more than six months by 6000 patients. And what happens if they do not? They lose up to $3 million of funding. This policy is being directed by central Government. The DHBs are the patsies who you are meant to blame.”
• “Dr Cullen was so alarmed by the CIS report into taxation, that he made an attack on it the first patsy question on the order paper where he could shock horror reveal that the author used to work for Bill English and they even had a business card to prove it. All major parties in Australia take the CIS quite seriously.”
• The Electoral Act [Wayback] – “The major issue for everyone is that the costs of the pledge cards were not included in Labour’s expense return and they over-spent by more than $400,000. The initial police report only looks into the authorisation issue, and when the far far more important issue of over-spending is referred to them also, they spend almost no time on it. Another sign of their failure to comprehend the law (they even admit in their report they don’t understand the purpose of Section 221).”
• Labour’s Response – [extensive post on a critical point, some select quotes]”

What is fascinating is the one thing Mike Smith did *not* argue. Nowhere did he argue that the pledge cards do not “encourage or persuade or appears to encourage or persuade voters to vote for” Labour. That is the key test laid down by the Act. Not only does Smith never challenge that the pledge cards on these grounds – neither do the Police as we shall see.

Instead Smith has argued that MPs are not bound by the Act, so long as the Speaker has approved their publications. Well this is contrary to the specific advice given to MPs by the Electoral agencies in their handbooks and is against the case law set down by the Wairarapa Electoral Petition.

Finally Mike Smith, possibly recognising the seriousness of the situation, makes his offer to include the pledge cards in their election return….

My point being that on the day Mike Smith offered to include the $448,000 in their election return, he *must* have known that would put them over the limit. You would be the most incompetent campaign manager in history if you did not know three days before the election whether you could afford to add $448,000 to your return and stay within the limits.

The only conclusion one can draw is that the Labour Party General Secretary deliberately lied to the Chief Electoral Officer, to kick for touch until after the election. And a decent police investigation would have asked who he consulted with before making that offer. Because unless you believe in Santa Claus you would think he would never ever make that call on his own authority.”

• The withdrawal – “Then comes the bombshell. Out of the blue, three weeks later on 5 October 2005 Labour withdraws its offer to include the costs in their election return. Now this is a serious matter of electoral administration when a major party gives a pledge to the top electoral officer, and then reneges on it.”

• 
• The CEO acts [Wayback] – “Now note the language in the letter from the CEO. He labels the actions a “clear breach”. This is unusual as many referrals from the CEO to the Police do not conclude a clear breach but just ask for an investigation.“
• “The messenger sacked for leaking the cabinet paper to Telecom may sue over his dismissal. This would be deeply ironic if he does. Because while no-one would disagree his dismissal was justified on substantive terms, the current employment law requires near perfect process. So if SSC and DPMC have erred in any way he may get a payout.”
• A few Budget snippets – “The underlying surplus, or OBERAC, for this year is $1 billion higher than six months ago. … Cullen spins a lot on what surplus one should use, and tries to convince peopel we should go back to the 1970s and do it all by cash accounting. I doubt any countries outside Mongolia rely on cash surplsues anymore.”
• Road Funding – “Over the next few years the Government will spend more on roading than it takes in petrol tax, and this is welcome. Of course this is also hypocritical as they attacked National for its pledge to do just that.”
• Budget Reaction – “Not quite universally panned, but not far from it.”
• The contradiction of Labour’s tax and WFF policies – “Those earning over $60,000 a year, the despised “rich” whom Dr Cullen increased the tax rate on because they weren’t contributing enough money, … Well they now pay 51% of all income tax. Yep the top 12% pay over half. The top 3% pay over one quarter of all income tax…. [But] Even couples with only one sole child get family assistance up until around $70,000.
• “Imagine a National Government that has presided over seven years of a growing economy. Over that seven years that have cut taxes every year. Also over that seven years they have chalked up tens of billions in surpluses. But over that seven years that have refused to increase Government spending by one cent. Yes no matter how good the case, no matter how long the waiting lists, no matter how many more students are attending universities the Government over seven years refused to increase spending by even a cent. That insisted that every single dollar of the growing economy must go into tax cuts and surpluses. …Well this is what Labour are doing, in reverse.“
• “…there is basically no record at all of them [the Police] investigating seperately the over-spending offence. And this is the offence which was the more serious and the one which was easier to prove …They spent all their time investigating Section 221 and neglected Section 214B which was far more serious and far easier to prove. I’ve gone through nearly 1,000 pages looking for the details of their Section 214B investigation and it simply isn’t there.
• Monopoly Profits – “He then looks at the Government’s performance last year. Its $8.5b surplus off $44.4b revenue is a 19% profitability figure. So perhaps we need to break up the Government monopoly also “
• “The NZ Herald says Dr Cullen is “sensitive about being portrayed as having a natural or ideological resistance to tax cuts”. Well actions speak louder than words. Dr Cullen better get over his sensitivity.”
• “Yes the NZ surpluses are three to four times as large as the Australian surpluses. And in Australia no-one is saying the tax cuts are unaffordable. In fact they are saying they don’t go far enough!…Australia has a far lower surplus than NZ, yet is delivering very significant tax reductions. Almost every country is the world has smaller surpluses than NZ yet many if not most of them reduce tax rates over time.”
• The purge is coming … – “Helen Clark deep down is a FPP politician and has little time for MPs who lose their seats. Once they become List MPs she sees them as serving at her pleasure alone.”
• More on the budget
• A green activist on the Green leadership
• “NRT reports that a majority of the Justice and Electoral Select Committee have reported back that the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill not proceed any further.”

[Note, the following posts are extensive, only small sections are quoted here.]

• The S221 Investigation [Wayback] – “Now this is the end of the Police job sheet. The extent of the Police investigation was one meeting with Mike Smith who basically said nothing to do with us, plus all the parties do it. And then one meeting with Heather Simpson where she was given a set of questions and had eight days to answer them. [Not to mention,  she claimed that the Members’ Handbook overrode the law!]”
• The Section 221 Report – [Wayback] – “It is also worth noting that at the time of the investigation, the Government was deciding who would be appointed Police Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners. These decisions are made personally by the Prime Minister. This is not stated to suggest some sort of quid pro quo, but to point out that it is not in the interests of the Police hierarchy to prosecute members of the Government which appoints them, reviews their performance, provides their funding etc etc.”
• The S214B Complaint [Wayback] – “The important thing to note from above is that the full Electoral Commission concluded there had been a breach, not just the CEO. The Commission include two Judges (one retired) and the Secretary of Justice.”
• The Section 214B investigation [Wayback] – “As hard as it is to believe, there was none. Nowhere in the 1,500 pages of materials released under the OIA is anything at all relating to Section 214B being investigated. No interviews, no legal advice, nothing.”
• The Wairarapa Electoral Petition – [WayBack] “You see down at the bottom that Reg Boorman’s expenses were found to include material paid for by Parliamentary Services. The Judge nowhere concerns himself with what the internal Parliamentary Service Commission rules are, he measures them solely against the Electoral Act. This should have given Police a huge steer that the issue is not whether or not Parliament should have paid for them, but whether or not they were defined as adertisement and expenses under the Electoral Act.”
• The Section 214B Report – [Wayback] “The Police simply say Mike Smith didn’t pay for the pledge cards, so he can’t be held liable. Also note that the Police did not investigate Heather Simpson under S214B – only under S221. In fact as I have said they didn’t investigate anyone under this section…. I believe a very good case can also be made that Mike Smith could be found guilty of a corrupt practice under (a). He definitely had knowledge of the CEO’s opinion, and he ignored it. Even worse he told the CEO he would include the pledge cards as an expense at a time when he must have known this would put Labour over the limit.”
• The Release and Aftermath [Wayback] – “Now I had been wondering over whether the Police hierarchy simply overlooked the deadline. It was mentioned many times by the Detective who did the S221 investigation, so surely it was not overlooked.”
• What the Police should have done
• Summary of the Case

The overall case is damning. In summary:

* Labour were told 17 days before the election that the CEO considered the pledge cards electoral advertisements.

* Labour offered, prior to the election, to include the pledge cards in their election return.

* That offer, was withdrawn after the election. The large cost of the pledge cards makes it difficult to reach any conclusion other than the offer was made with bad faith to stop the CEO referring them pre-election to the Police. In other words they lied to the CEO.

* The overwhelming view of the top electoral and legal authorities, including the Secretary of Justice and the Chief Electoral Officer, was that the pledge cards were very clearly electoral activity and expenses.

* The Police investigation was superficial, and did not even investigate the over-spending charge.

* The Police brought into the view of Heather Simpson that the Parliamentary Service Commission rules over-ride the Electoral Act. This is despite the PSC rules themselves referring to the fact some parliamentary expenditure can be electoral expenses under the Electoral Act

* The Police kept confusing the two issues, right up until after the public release, when the CEO put them right.

* The Police failed to consider that Section 214B offences have strict liability, where intent is not required.

Was this a stolen election? No-one can know. …What one can more easily determine is was it deliberate. Imagine you are in Labour and it is your worst nightmare – you are actually behind in some of the polls. …

You know the CEO’s view on the pledge cards. You have a choice. You can reduce spending on your other advertising or you can risk being prosecuted after the election. You decide the election is too close to stop spending, so you take a gamble and risk prosecution. However to stop any adverse publicity pre-election from an investigation, you tell the CEO you will include the pledge cards as an expense (and implicitly restrict your other spending) so no news comes out during the final week. A few weeks later you then recant on your offer.

It may not be a stolen election, but it does make it a very dodgy “win”. If the Police had done their job then there would be the benefit of a Court Judgement to resolve the matter.

• Recommendations – “Clearly there has to be law changes, to stop a repeat of this at the 2008 election.”
• The one that got away! – “There was one person who wasn’t investigated by the Police. And this is unusual because decisions on spending are vested in her name. In previous actions under the Electoral Act it has been the MP, not their secretary or their campaign chair, who has faced action.”
• 
• Doctors resisting nationalisation
• Electoral Integrity Bill will not pass unchanged
• “In 1999, Government spending on health was $5.88 billion. Expenditure next year is …a staggering 82.7% increase.  Yet …health outcomes have only increased slightly, …Tony Ryall points out one of the reasons. There are an extra 1,786 health bureaucrats now, than in 1999. “
• Common sense emerging on smacking law?
• “Steve Maharey is saying that just because the ERO said one in five kids were “not succeeding” at school, doesn’t mean that they are “failing”.”
• “Okay which soon to be Labour MP once said his aim is to be implementing socialist policy and bringing about the dictatorship of the proletariat? Trevor Loudon has the answer.”
• “The Green Party are the ones who claim to not engage in dirty politics such as personal attacks, and instead just talk issues? Yeah Right!” [Wayback] – [Nasty stuff]
• PM shoots at Senate
• “Labour’s Kate Sutton has announced the resignation of David Mako from the Tamaki Community Board and said “David has served his community well and his input on the community board will be missed” [That would be the man who stole $85000]
• “The Government has announced a review of regulations and red tape surrounding business. The problem is not identifying the issues – there have been numerous reports and reviews in the last few years on this. They have largely all been ignored and not implemented by the Government.”
• Receiving stolen documents – “This has got me thinking. You see there is an MP in Parliament who boasts every week that he is in possession of stolen e-mails from Don Brash. And let us have no mistake – they were stolen. It was the equivalent of having someone break into a filing cabinet (think Nixon in 1972) and take copies of confidential letters.”
• Labour’s Strategy Paper on Language – “* How to position National as the “enemies of the people”” [No 1 – never mention that they have far higher membership that the Labour party, heh.]
• Horomia hands Maori seats over to Maori Party – “If the Maori Party wins all eight or nine Maori electorates at the next election, yesterday may be the day people will point to as the reason why…. I can just see the Maori Party adverts now: “Labour took in $8.5 billion more than it spent in 2006. And how much extra money did Labour’s Minister of Maori Affairs ask for?” Swap to video footage of Parekua saying “I asked for nothing” and “Because my CEO told me we had enough”. Absolutely damning.”
• [Fun] – New language for Labour [Wayback]
• How patronising – “Ouch. This is Parekura defending himself in Parliament yesterday:”
• Parliamentary Party Funding
• Treasury forecasts of Surpluses
• A dry talent pool – discusses protecting existing MPs on the list
• “Once upon a time the Greens were known as a party of principle. They would say if they thought something was wrong, regardless of party. They would refuse to vote for urgency motions without good reason etc. Now after months and months of saying nothing at all about Labour’s deliberate $450,000 overspending, they suddenly jump up and down to protest on behalf of broadcasters that National’s GST error is unfair.”
• “Leader Don Brash has submitted a bill to amend the Broadcasting Act which will allow the Electoral Commission to pay the $110,000 to the five broadcasters and in turn be paid by National. I expect this bill could be introduced with unanimous leave of the House and passed through all stages under urgency. It will also no doubt serve as the starkest of comparisons for ethical behaviour compared to Labour who over-spent by $418,000, broke their word to the Chief Electoral Officer, and refues to acknowlegde any wrongdoing whatsoever.”
• “63% of NZers don’t believe Michael Cullen, when he says tax cuts are unaffordable. This is pleasing, even though the figure should be 95% as all but the most partisan pundits say it is obvious you can afford tax cuts with a $9 billion surplus. Our beloved PM of course disagrees and attacks the polling company.”
• Jordan Carter “doesn’t have time” to update his National-bashing graph with data that happens to put the Labour govt in a bad light.
• Green co-leader
• “So when Dr Cullen refers to future surpluses showing tax cuts are unaffordable, remember that he has almost $10b of unallocated provisions in there, with no rationale for them being at that level.” [Translation: the surplus is whatever Dr Cullen wants it to be, and is in fact a heck of a lot higher than reported – as high as that is]

June

• “Jim Anderton has proposed an annual booze-free day. He obviously has too much time on his hands. How about something more useful like a tax-free day? One day a year the Government says you can keep everything you earn that day.”
• “You see the Government in June launched a “Significant Community Based Projects Fund”. And it launched it at, of all places, the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary with the PM specifically saying it was the sort of project the $32 million fund aimed to help. So it is little surprise the local MPs feel “embarrassed and hurt”, as having the PM launch the fund at your project and hold your project up as what the fund was designed for, yet then not be successful with your application.”
• Today is Tax Freedom Day – [Wayback]

• May 2006 NZ Blog Stats
• Dr Cullen shoots some more messengers – “Cullen loses it talking to TVNZ’s Guyon Espiner, accusing the media and press gallery of biased reporting because they personally want tax cuts for themselves. You hear an incredulous Espiner ask him if he really truly believes that all these reporters are reporting negatively on the budget just because it is a “personal” issue for them. …The hilarious thing about this exchange is that Guyon hasn’t just named any four journos, but four people who, well let me just say would not qualify for membership of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy….I think it shows how out of touch the Government is getting. Another highlight was as Dr Cullen almost shouts at Guyon about the Dom Post headline of a $8.5 billion surplus and still no tax cuts, demanding to know what the connection between the two is.”
• Will Taito Phillip Field jump?
• Under 1% of kids receiving working for families subsidy
• And it just keeps getting bigger
• “Nandor Tanczos wants the Greens to drop their ban on propping up National-led governments.”
• “The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology has had $5 million of funding for what appears to be a Cool IT type scam. The course has * no tuition * no assessment * no qualification …This is just incompetence of the highest level that years after these scams were exposed, Labour is allowing them to continue. “
• “Chris Trotter brutally assesses the new Labour MPs as a talent-free zone. He says that since the early 1990s, only a handful of new MPs have shown promise, and most of them ended up blotting their copy book. Trotter says that the Labour selection system is set up to favour those who win patronage from one of the three powerful sector groups – the affiliated trade unions, the Women’s Council, and the Rainbow Council.” [DPF notes the next 6 list places are all people from these groups]
• Russel Norman elected Green co-leader
• Why we need Immigration law changes
• Dom Post on Election Spending – “…praises National for admitting the mistake, and for the bill to allow it to repay the broadcasters – asking all parties to pass it without delay. They then turn their sights on Labour, noting Labour has shown a total lack of remorse over their breaches which were for four times as much. It’s pleasing to see they have got through the spin about a confused law, and state: Labour’s was a coordinated national campaign that continued despite repeated warnings from the chief electoral officer that the material breached the law. Labour should not be allowed to get away with such a cynical flouting of the law.“
• [Interesting] – “The trial of Tim Selwyn, for sedition, starts tomorrow. It will be NZ’s first sedition trial for 80 years or so.”
• Labour whacks the private sector again -“The Government has cut off access to student loans for students at a PTE whose course does not receive a government subsidy. These are courses and qualifications still approved by the NZQA. And they have given only six months notice of this funding change. [many will close]…This comes to light in the same week it is revealed state polytechnics are still running funding scams with IT courses which have no tuition, no assessment and no attendance.”
• Tax cuts can lead to more tax revenue – “Zen Tiger has a nice example of how this can work in reality.” [Wayback link to Zen’s post]
• Field Report is with God – “I find it rather disturbing that the draft report has been out for weeks, the PM is obviously totally aware of what it says, yet a delaying game is underway while her proxies negotiate a face saving measure with Field.”
• The perfect example – “Under Wayne Mapp’s bill, that employee who turns up late, tries to steal from the employer and graffitis a client’s home would not be getting $2,400 for “hurt and humiliation” as the employer could just within the three month period have let him go.”
• Marian in the news – “…the Independent Financial Review revealed she had threatened to resign her seat last week. It’s all related to the Cabinet decision not to approve a grant to the Karori Sanctuary, despite the fact Marian lobbied for the fund to be set up specifically for cases such as the sanctuary, the PM launched the fund there, and lauded the sanctuary as an example of why the fund was created.”
• Selwyn guilty of sedition – “Tim Selwyn has been found guilty on one of the two charges of sedition he was charged with….It wasn’t a good look for the case, when it was revealed Tim had tried to recruit “militant” members of the Black Power gang. Not that in itself is illegal, but I can understand it spooking the jury. Hopefully the appeal will consider the case more dispassionately.”
• Inflation – “Brian Fallow suggests Reserve Bak Governor should be at risk of losing his job, as inflation is projected to stay above 3% (in fact reach 4%) until September 2007. This will have put it outside the target zone of 0% to 3% for around three years. ……inflation over an eight year period looks to be 26.1%, while at 1% annually it would be 8.3% over eight years.
• “The Herald have a nice scoop, revealing that in February this year Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali was admitted to NZ on a student visa. Last week he was deported immediately as a threat to national security. UPDATE2: Story now on Jihad Watch…JW makes the point that his behaviour in NZ was entirely in line with the Al-Qaeda manual for how to pass as a secular, assimilated Muslim with no interest in religion.”
• Labour Leadership – “The Herald reports that Dr Cullen may step down as Deputy Leader (and by default Deputy PM) in February.”
• Coverage of Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali
• Whangamata marina – “The e-mails from former Labour Party President Bob Harvey show beyond any doubt that Chris Carter had made up his mind at an early stage to deny the application, and then sought supporters to justify it. This creates two problems for the Minister. The first is that there must be a very real risk of the High Court ruling he did not follow correct process in declining the marina proposal. The other is that he may have lied to the House, and is now the subject of a complaint to the Privileges Committee.”
• “As reliable as ever, the only thing surprising about Keith Locke’s statement on the deported Yemeni, is that it took him two days to escape from his minders.”
• Winston decries lack of women in “parliaments and decision-making bodies” while his own cacus is the 2nd worst in parliament
• “The PM says the reasons Winston Peters has not visited East Timor, is that it needs to settle down more. Yet Phil Goff was sent there last week. Does this mean that Helen doesn’t mind if someone in Timor shoots Phil Goff?”
• Govt defeat now likely on micro-chipping
• “Having abolished an air force strike wing, what would be the reaction of the Government if it learnt a plane had taken off from Wellington and in 60 to 90 minutes was going to hit the Sky Tower?”
• “Sigh the Field inquiry is becoming more of a farce every day. A nine day inquiry is into month nine. But even worse the draft report has been out for weeks, yet no final report. Now I can guarantee you the PM (in her role as party leader!) will know exactly what is in that draft report. In fact probably most of the Labour Caucus probably know.”
• [Interesting] – New Blog Host Needed
• “Labour seemingly never admit to responsibility for anything. Hell they’ll blame the weather if need be. Never mind it is their refusal to amend the RMA, their setting up of a new electricity commission which causes so many delays in infrastructure.”
• “Tony Milne has a summary of how the political term to date has gone for the parties in Parliament. Worth a read as reasonably fair, even though I’d disagree on a couple of points….I also think he is cocooned from reality when he says “Winston perceived to be doing a good job as foreign minister.”…On Monday we read that Phil Goff was communicating to Buckingham Palace over the sale of gifts to Princess Margaret. This is 100% foreign minister territory. Labour have quite artfully used his role as trade and defence minister to justify Goff doing almost everything he did as foreign minister. Winston gets the title, the name on press releases, and lots of trips to the Pacific. Goff meanwhile chairs the Cabinet Foreign Affairs Committee.”
• “I’m amazed at the political idiocy of the Green and NZ First parties at blocking leave to introduce a bill to allow National to pay broadcasters for the GST portion of their election broadcasting. ..Oh yeah and still waiting for either NZ First or the Greens to say a single word about Labour’s $445,000 deliberate over-spending. Hypocrites.“
• Marks for Ali case – “The way the Government has handled different parts of the Ali deporation has ranged from impressive to dismal….NZ Police Assistant Commission Jon White: 2/10 for not even knowing about the different designated terrorist lists, despite being in charge of counter-terrorism.”
• “I think we know how totally unenthusiastic Labour is about actualling bring the treaty historical grievance process to an end, when the legislation to set a deadline is snuck in as part of a omnibus bill without even an announcement. This was one of their (taxpayer funded) pledges on their pledge card. They roared it during the campaign, but now seem ashamed of it.”
• Goff vs Peters
• [Fun] – RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 After giving the Matter very careful consideration, I have concluded that the conduct of the Labour government in this matter falls outside the remit of this Inquiry.

4.2 This is because such an Investigation might in some way indicate that the government has behaved in an inappropriate manner, which it clearly hasn’t, as I have already been informed at the very highest levels (ie, by Mrs Heather Simpson).

• Wellington commercial property – “The SST reports that the ever growing public sector leased an extra 28,000 square metres of floor space just last year. Since 2001 over 100,000 square metres of space has been grabbed.”
• “Oh yes Keith Locke is back to his best in calling the Government’s very sensible deportation of Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali “New Zealand’s Guantanamo Bay””
• “The NZ forest estate looks to shrink by seven thousand hectares this year. Why? Well the Government nationalising carbon credits from forests being planted is of course a factor. Another is that at the end of next year land owners will be fined if they convert land from forestry to other uses. So of course many forest owners are cutting them down to convert them now.”
• Norman calls for land ownership restrictions – “New Green co-leader Russel Norman has called for foreigners to be banned from being able to purchase NZ land. Some questions. 1. Does this include Australians?”
• “Colin Espiner usefully lists all the problems in the health sector, since Pete Hodgson became Minister:”
• “Fascinating to see all the different reasons the PM has trotted out for not raising the issue of the Opposition Leader in Singapore being prosecuted for speaking without a licence:” [S1 Question: Now, what was that in the first draft of the EFB?]
• The Twins & S59
• “…Trevor Mallard was explicit on Agenda on Saturday that he wants to replace Michael Cullen as Finance Minister. No Mallard is a smart operator generally and did say that he doesn’t expect it to until next term or even the one after. However despite that qualifier, I think he will find it was most unwise to say what he said.”
• “The Leader of the Opposition in Singapore has written a letter to Helen Clark over her neglecting to mention freedom of speech issues to the PM of Singapore. He reminds us that Singapore ranks 140 out of 16 for press freedom.”
• “The Herald reports on a survey of SOE Directors, saying too many of appointments are politically influenced and too heavily weighted towards political correctness. This is no surprise. The name Helengrad came into play as Labour demonstrated a ruthless approach to dissent from Year One. Anyone who criticised the Government in one area of work, would be ineligible for appointment to a board no matter how qualified.”
• “If we are struck with a major disaster, the person in charge will be the Civil Defence Minister. He is the person whom we will rely on to oversee the recovery. Now bearing that in mind, and go read John Armstrong’s column on how well Rick Barker is handling the portfolio.” [“saying those who ignored the lessons of history were not only bound to repeat them, they were “duty bound” to repeat them.” ]
• “The editor of New Zealand Asia and Capital Chinese News turned up to the Foreign Minister’s office…However once there the Chinese Embassy staff objected to the photographer, because he “had published critical articles about China”. …they evicted Mr Wang from the building. Absolutely shameful behaviour.”
• “Congrats to the Greens who just voted with National, ACT, Maori and United Future to exempt farm dogs from micro-chipping….Very messy for the Government to lose the vote after piling so much pressure on. In the end only Labour, Progressive plus the Poodle Party voted for it, it seems.”
• Micro-chipping fallout – “What is unusual though is to have the party leader in the minority, and quite clearly pissed off with her colleagues. It seems she only found out late yesterday that they were definitely going to vote for the amendment.”
• 1,059 new police now needed – “The major policy concession NZ First got from Labour was the pledge for 1,000 more police. However current numbers are actually 59 below last June.”
• More Barker Bumbling – “…No wonder Marian Hobbs was heard to exclaim “bullshit” when Rick Barker was speaking in the House.”
• Massive Current Account Deficit – “The seasonally adjusted current account deficit for the last quarter was $4.1 billion. This is the worst deficit in the 52 years it has been measured.”
• “Dick Hubbard campaigned on the basis of reducing the level of rate rises. Then he put them up 9.7% in his first year. He then said the increase would be less the following year. However they are set to increase by a massive 13.2%. That makes two broken promises.”
• [Interesting] – ” Tim Bermers-Lee, blogs on the importance of net neutrality. If you are wondering why we should listen to him, well not many people can start a blog entry with: “When I invented the Web …””
• “As I predicted on 12 June, Bob Harvey is backing away from his own e-mails which clearly showed Chris Carter had pre-determined the Whangamata marina decision. The Herald reports today that Harvey is using two of the three excuses I predicted he would use (Nos 1 and 2).”
• “The SST has details of secret talks between Air NZ and Government Ministers over the proposal to co-operate rather than compete with Qantas. It starkly shows the problems you have when the majority owner of a company is also the industry regulator. Instead of acting in the national interest (ie consumers and competition) it wants to act in the airline’s interest – just like when they tried to push through a semi-merger with Qantas.”
• “The problem isn’t that Winston can’t be a very good Foreign Minister – it is the absurd notion that one can be a foreign minister not being part of the government. “
• A gender-neutral job evaluation tool – “What costs $121,000 and no-one knows what it does? It’s a gender-neutral job evaluation tool, developed at $400 an hour on behalf of the taxpayer. The gender-neutral job evaluation tool comes in the form of a 28-page draft document, which I am sure will be of great use to all those small and medium sized businesses out there waiting for this.”
• “The Dom Post has a poll of Wellington businesses every two months. Being a poll of business owners they tend to support good centre-right policies…How-ever one thing Labour has done they massively approve of. The Government’s decisions on local loop unbundling are supported by 86% of business with only 7% against. That is huge, and demonstrates how welcome the package is.”
• “As I am unlikely to ever work for MFAT, or be Foreign Affairs Minister, I can be blunt and honestly say that most Pacific Island Governments are absolutely corrupt. …in fact a leaked Australian memo once revealed that one particular Pacific Premier was known as Mr 10% because that was his standard cut of all contracts….So what does our Foreign Minister propose as a solution? Sending in the one organisation that is even more corrupt than the corrupt Governments – FIFA.”
• Balance
• Views galore on Kahui deaths
• “The Dom Post praises Pita Sharples for his actions in the Kahui twins killing, noting he has not just wring his hands in despair, but willingly got his hands dirty trying to help. I have to agree with the praise of Sharples. Nice to see some real leadership.”
• Progressive Staffing – “They list key staff in Minister’s offices, and Jim Anderton had a staffer whose job was listed as Caucus Secretary.”
• Darnton vs Clark – “A lawsuit has been filed today against Helen Clark and the other 48 Labour MPs (as at August 2005) in relations to their use of taxpayer funding for their 2005 election pledge cards.”