David Farrar

She's back!

A big welcome back to Cactus Kate.

Already talking about how she once had a crush on the NZ Herald's Bernard Orsman!

Rockies Train Trip Photos

First up photo is of a typical pine forest covered with snow.

This is a waterfall most of the time. Frozen solid currently.

And this is a lake. Also frozen solid.

Peters leaving Tauranga?

Aaron Bhatnagar has blogged that it appears Winston Peters is closing down his Tauranag office, and setting up office in Auckland instead.

Guess he isn't too confident about that electoral petition then!

Accused of Plagiarism

Jason Watson posts on NZ Media Bias further on the issue where a TVNZ Producer accused him on air of having stolen a story from TVNZ. It seems it did not occur to the producer that Jason actually already had the story before them, through personal links.

The train trip

This was written and updated as I was on the train. Probably should censor it somewhat, but hey people may find it amusing.

Train is very relaxing, and getting to know quite well my fellow travelers.

The actual bedroom is very small – as in the bed when pulled down fills it up. But you don’t spent too much time in there.

The back carriage has a lounge, a bar and an observation deck, and I am next to that so have spent a fair bit of time there. There is also a dining carriage and the dinner on Tuesday was as good as most restaurants. Had dinner with an Australian farmer who was traveling with his two daughters. Chatted economics all meal and bored the kids to sleep.

Towards the middle of the train is the skyline carriage. It has the activities room where one has games and videos, but also a skydeck with 360 degree windows with the best views. Not much to see so far as been moving out of Vancouver and it has been dark (it gets dark soon after 4.00 pm!).

Watched the Wedding Planner in the activities lounge last night. Was pretty dreadful, but the girls all liked it so one gains kudos for watching it. Afterwards got playing cards with an American girl traveling by herself. Getting on pretty well, but she is around 6 feet tall which may be a problem. I’ve actually gone out with someone over six feet before, and we stayed together for around nine months so it isn’t necessarily a problem. However it just isn’t the done thing to hit on someone who is half a foot taller than you – they need to make the first move!

Race Riots on Sydney Beaches

Tim Blair has a roundup of the coverage. Up to 5,000 people were involved!

A spectacular photo

The NZ Herald has a spectacular photo of a car smashing through the barrier at Meremere and sneding a cameraman flying into the air.

You can see the poor cameraman, Robert Miller, around 12 feet up in the air and upside down. Somehow he came out of it with only minor injuries.

Mal Bain, who took the photo of the other cameraman in the air, did incredibly well to get such a spectacular photo.

National up in the polls

Tonight's One News poll has National up 2% to 46% and Labour down 3% to 36%. I don't believe there is a 10% gap, and polls so soon after an election don't mean much, but it is logical that Labour would be losing some ground with the last few weeks being full of negative stories on Peters and Benson-Pope.

Labour are lucky they have Xmas coming up as they will have a second chance next year to get the Government off to a positive start. But if they fail at that, they may find like National/NZ First did in 96/97 that if you don't at least start strongly, you have little chance to make the finish line.

If the poll results tonight did reflect an election (and remember they tend to be overly optimistic for National) then the seats would be:

National 59 (+11)
Labour 47 (-3)
NZ First 0 (-7)
Greens 8 (+2)
Maori 4 (nc)
United 1 (-2)
ACT 1 (-1)
Prog 1 (nc)

Homophobia a priority crime in the UK!!!

Okay I think most people know I am not exactly conservative on most social issues in that I support civil unions, gay marriage, gay adoption etc.

And I deplore actual hate crimes where people get assaulted or killed just because they are gay.

But what the hell are the UK Police doing in treating as a police matter a complaint that a children's rights author made homophobic comments because she did not believe that homosexuals should be allowed to adopt.

This confirms all my worst fears about hate speech legislation. Especially when reading how the Police speak to all parties in an incident, even if it is not strictly a crime.

One should not have to endure the Police asking you about your views, on the basis of comments you make on a radio show (unless they are clearly fostering violence or similiar). This is a small step to having the Police contact bloggers because someone has complained a blogger is racist or homophobic. Idiotic and silly.

I don't agree with Lynette Burrows views, but as they say I absolutely defend her right to hold them and promote them.

Hugo Chavez

Had never read too much on Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela. As he turned up on Wikipedia's front page I read their article on him.

Is it just me, or does he remind others of Mugabe? Not as bad as Mugabe, but the rhetoric, the blaaming the West, the consolidating power, jailing opponents etc.

Why I don't like the death penalty

Silent Running blogs an open letter to Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi regarding the death sentence given to Cory Maye who shot a police officer when they raided the wrong house, and illegally entered his house using a no-knock warrant.

There may well be more to the story that is conveyed in the blog post, but it is certainly enough to make me glad that we can reverse our miscarriages of justice.

A hate crime or not?

Russell Brown blogged last week with his lead item being how "Kansas university professor Paul Mirecki, who devised a course describing intelligent design as "mythology", has been tailgated then beaten by two men who made reference to his course as they dealt to him."

Obviously such an act, if accurately described, is appalling. But did it happen as the professor claimed? Michelle Malkin has not come to any conclusions, but points out the Police no longer are calling it a hate crime, and also that the professor has suddenly resigned from the university and is refusing to give any more interviews.

There may well be logical explanations for all of this, time will tell.

Hat Tip: Sir Humphrey's

Joining a Union

The SST has an article on young people joining unions. This is actually a pretty sensible thing to do for many young people. I helped several teeangares I knew (they were in my venturer unit) join a union when their employer (a suopermarket owner) was making unreasonable and illegal demands of them. The union was very good as an advocate for them, as it is pretty hard to be assertive of your rights as a 15 year old.

As people get older and more confident, most of them have less of a need for someone else to represent them. Personally there is no substitute for direct communications between an employer and employee, but it does depend on your job and your employer.

Where unions annoy me is where they get overly political and are more worried about the Sandinstas in Nicarargua or sporting tours than actually representing their members direct interests. At least with voluntary membership now people can and do leave if they get too political. However in the state sector the Government/taxpayer bribes employees to become union members so that many people join to get the bribe, but don't want to be members as they think the union is crap at communicating with them and takes them for granted etc.

A moronic bank robber

They say the average criminal is pretty dumb, but this guy takes the cake. After robbing a bank in person, he then rings up two days later and tries to rob it again by telephone, asking the Manager to bring a paper bag full of cash to a meeting.

The Police simply traced the phone call!

More warmongering from Iran

After calling for Israel to be wiped out, the President of Iran has denied the Holocaust occurred, and said that Israel should be moved to Europe (ie wiped out).

In a few months Iran could have nuclear weapons. If they ae not stopped I think there will be a very nasty war.

I think it is getting to the point where countries like New Zealand have to consider whether one should continue to trade with a regime like Iran?

A Korean Parliamentary Debate

Stef has photos of a Korean parliamentary debate, which of course is a good old fashioned punch-up.

I especially like how the media compared the actions of some MPs to the moves of professional wrestlers!

Desperate Tactics!

Silent Running is so desperate to beat Tim Blair for the best Aust-NZ blog that they have resorted to such underhand tricks as topless photos!

Very funny, even if not totally work-safe.

Corby and Drugs

I could never work out why Australians got so hysterical about Schapelle Corby as the evidence against her was pretty over-whelming, and her main dfenece seemed to be that she was very pretty. Yes the Indonesian Justice System isn't the best in the world, but that's a good reason not to smuggle drugs there.

Anyway she has rpeeatdely said she has never been involved with drugs and doesn't know anyone who is. Unfortunately Australian Police have found multiple photos of her with a South Australian man who has just been arrested for you got it - marijuana smuggling.

Another blog gone

The only thing sadder than a blog stopping due to media or work issues, is a blog stopping due to ill health.

DBP Roundup

You're offline for just a couple of days and you miss heaps of good editorials and columns which all have one thing in column - condemning David Benson-Pope.

But to save me having to look for them all, Rodney provides an index.

In the same link Rodney also comments on how the Waikato Times compared him to Ilie Nastase who amongst other things had slept with around 2,500 women. Is there something we should know? :-)

UPDATE: Rodney also has found in the police files a statement from a teacher who claims she was bullied by DBP. She at least got an apology from him but states "I am worried for the boys who have gone public as he tries to crush anyone who disgarees with him"

Appalling

It's not a major crime in that it wasn't murder, rape or GBH etc but I still feel appalled that a Belinda Sutherland of Masterton assaulted a Chinese tourist just because she didn't like her speaking Chinese on the train.

Pity we can't deport her to London where she would have to listen to dozens of foreign languages on the Underground!

Will it make $10b?

When the surplus was approaching $5b I remember debating with Labourits whether this was sufficient to allow tax relief. They insisted that somehow $5b was not enough.

I suspected that they actually have an ideological hatred of giving NZers any of their tax money back, so I started asking them at what level of surplus would they agree we could afford tax cuts. They would look nervous and refuse to say.

So then I would pluck a ridiculously high figure out of the air and say, well what if one day incredibly the surplus was $10b, would you then agree one could afford some tax cuts? They'd look nervous at this, but usually agree that yeah it is hard to argue a $10b surplus in a $50b government is too small to allow tax cuts.

Yesterday Treasury announced the four month surplus is a massive $3b, suggesting the full year surplus could get close to $10b.

I look forward to Labourites soon saying that $10b is still too small a surplus and that in fact they meant $20b surplus before they would agree to tax cuts.

Of course I suspect that the surplus could even by $50b and some of them would never agree that it is fair to reduce taxes on those who pay them. Because at the end of the day they just don't believe that much in private property!

Freedom comes to Australian universities

The Australian Senate passed last night legislation outlawing compulsory membership of student associations. Rebel National Senator Barnaby Joyce was left impotent as the Family First Senator voted with the Government to pass the law.

As the Family First Senator said: "Forcing students to join a student union in the 21st century is crazy"

Let us hope that New Zealand will not be too far behind Australia in bringing freedom to campuses. It will take a change of Government, but should be relatively simple to implement once we do.

And before anyone tries to argue that students can already decide to go voluntary, let me just retort that even putting aside the near impossibility of a fair campaign and vote, there is no sound reason why 51% of students should be able to force 49% to fund their political campaigns and other activities.

Armed Air Marshals

Just as we hear of the first shooting of a passenger by armed air marshals overseas (a justified one though by the sounds of it) the NZ Government announces a law change to allow armed air marshals on NZ flights.

I suspect this is the result of pressure from the US, rather than a plea from Air NZ cabin crew.

I recall one suggestion that the best way to stop hijacking of planes is not to have armed air marshals, but to arm all passengers. The suggestion was that as you board the plane you are given a pistol. But the pistol has only one bullet in it. So you know that if you try to hold up the plane, all the other passengers can shoot you, and you only have one shot.

I suspect the downside of such a policy will be if passengers start to have arguments with each other, they may turn lethal :-)

Cathy's Blog

Cathy has asked me to post this message on her behalf, as so many people have been asking what has happened to her blog. Very sad as yet another talented writer is pushed out of blogging.

Blogging Hits A Bogging

There has been a little trend lately in blogland to pack up shop and stop your blog. These people have done so voluntarily.

I didn't.

I deleted my blog after the following sequence of events, none of which involved the rumoured discovery by Hong Kong expat wives of the blog:

Now as all of you will know if you have a google function, you can put my name in it and you will shortly find out where I work. Oh you are a genius. You really are.
Because very likely I can do the same thing back to you.
You see when I started blogging in May I thought of using a pen name. But I hated the whole idea of writing behind a name that was not mine. It felt a little...dishonest. And yep, my writing style is about as distinctive and subtle as it would be driving a Mac Truck through Auckland's Viaduct basin.

Yesterday I received a comment in from a very distinctive and full name of one of my co-workers.

This led to two possibilities:

a) Now it either WAS the co-worker, but he never uses his full name, or
b) It was in fact some genius who looked up my name on google and found the profile of one of my coworkers and pretended to be him.

Which of course it is only a matter of time before the said genius does something more stupid. We all know the answer was b) as I am pretty sure it was the same person who then posted under another name seconds later about an issue the co-worker would not have been the slightest bit interested in.

So yeah, I had to delete the blog because just like EVERYONE who seems to read my blog, I spend some time doing so at work. I was not necessarily concerned about the content on the blog for they hired me having actually met me, so they know my sense of humour and writing style, as much as the time issue. I don't track down the computer and therefore company this chump is surfing the net and commenting on in work hours. But I could and I could make his life very uncomfortable as well. But I don't because that sort of behaviour is just plain g.a.y.

I spent perhaps an hour a day including part of my statutory lunch time writing, reading and commenting on blogs. I frequently write articles at home the previous night and paste them during the day onto the blog. Why? Because it is fun. That's all. I don't get paid for it. I don't receive favours in return for doing it.

Work is not fun. No one can possibly say their job is fun all the time. Work sucks for possibly 80% of the time. It involves usually intellectually unstimulating repetitive tasks. But we all have to go do it... because we are adults. Unless we are a dropkick Socialist or a student. I spend at least eight hours a day still on work related issues. But where the line becomes blurred between personal and work you always have to laboriously defend yourself.
And I did not want to do that because it is the end of the year and frankly, I don't have the energy.

So the blogging community has an issue here. Do we sanction such behaviour as to bring blogger's paid professions into the blogsphere to eliminate them from the blogroll? Or do we show some spirit as to what the whole blog thing is all about - having fun, sometimes at each others' expense. But most of the time it is interacting with others in the blogging community.

If we don't then what will happen is that professional people will not blog. This will lead to a horridly distorted view of the world by other bloggers, most of whom seem to work in media, are self employed or work for political parties. It will also make the blogsphere a whole lot more boring as people will not write about anything controversial or confrontational for fear of being "found out". If you want me to write about what I have for breakfast, lunch and dinner and how I saw an elderly handicapped woman sitting at a bus stop and a maid walk a dog in Hong Kong. Then fine. Personally I would rather be writing a legal opinion.

It is not a left/right thing. I defended notorious leftie Jordan Carter recently against another right wing blogger having a go at a post he wrote that brought Jordan's job into it. I did so because it was not correct behaviour. He is an adult, he has to work and regardless of my personal or political opinion of Jordan, it has nothing to do at all with the job that someone else pays him to do because we can assume he adds value to their organisation.

I will now have to go to the trouble of re-inventing my character for the blogsphere. I will have to do so under anonymity and without full disclosure. I don't think this is the honest thing to do and I don't like doing it.
However while there are people out there who just don't get what it means to operate a blog, I am afraid that this is what will have to be.

In Winnipeg

Shit that was a stunning train trip. Will blog on it more fully later as only have an hour at Winnipeg Airport before I fly to Toronto.

Not sure where I am staying in Barrie - they are putting me up somewhere local. I have said my only requirement is an Internet connection!

Oh yeah it is very cold. And I mean very cold. I am the person who generally does not get cold and it is bloody freezing.

Don't people learn?

I would have though that people would have learnt by now that deleting a controversial post is not a good idea, as inevitably it is cached or copied somewhere and then the fact it has been deleted means that it ends up attracting more publicity than if one had just left it there!

David Cameron wins by 2:1 margin

As expected David Cameron has been elected Leader of the Conservative Party. He had 134,446 members for him against 64,398 for David Davis - a very large majority.

I only met Cameron briefly at the Blackpool Conference so my imporessions are limited. He certainly has charisma and is a very good public speaker. However still only been an MP for four years so has quite a challenge against Blair and Brown in the Commons.

The opportunity he represents to the Conservatives is for people to start liking them again, or at least not disliking them. Tony Blair and New Labour have lost a lot of popularity and a viable alternative may be able to win a lot of seats off them.

UPDATE: An excellent analysis of how Cameron won by the blog dedicated to covering the leadership contest. This is a great example of blogging at its best.

Bloggus Interruptus

In a few hours I will be on a train crossing the Rockies and travelling to Winnipeg. I'll be on the train for two days and it doesn't have Internet access (it will have it next year they say) so no blog updates for a couple of days unless we have an extended stop somewhere with access.

The train I am on is The Canadian and I'm looking forward to it. I hate bus travel, dislike most plane travel but love train travel if it is a nice train.

I'm travelling silver & blue class with a private bedroom so should get some nice photos from the viewing car.

Marriage Bill does not have the numbers

Tony Milne predicts (and knowing where he works I suspect he has a good basis for his predictions) that there will be at least 71 votes against the United Future Marriage Bill.

I presume Brian Donnelly is the one NZ First vote against. Will be interesting to see how the National MPs vote on this.

Personally I don't see this bill as big an issue as the CIvil Unions Bill. This bill will not really change anything (which is why I would vote against it) and is just United Future trying to win some brownie points claiming "they saved marriage".

Rather ironic that instead they will now be responsible for Parliament rejecting their definition of marriage - an act which ironically could lead a future Supreme Court to change its interpretation of the Marriage Act.

A full apology

Allan Peachey did stuff up with his e-mail to a principal in his electorate. However good to see that he has now done the right thing and made a personal explanation in Parliament where he said:

"I wish to apologise for the e-mail, for the sending of the e-mail. I apologise to all who found it objectionable and in particular I apologise to the recipient of the e-mail. I accept full and sole responsibility for what happened. It was, by my own standards, not good enough."

DBP Update

The NZ Herald has a useful story, highlighting the four major issues of yesterday:

1) DBP no longer denies he did it, he has now changed his story to one of no recollection

2) The PM has criticised him for leaking the Police report to the HoS (ironic as he was following her example with Doonegate)

3) The Police Minister has reprimanded him for DPB's attack on the Police, and revealed DBP has apologised to the Police

4) Press Secretary Pete Coleman is taking the fall and facing termination

Another NZ Herald story notes how pissed off his colleagues are, as even they fell for the selective leak he did from the Police report.

And somewhat surprisingly The Press in its editorial has actually called for Benson-Pope to be sacked by Helen Clark.

The Press says "Benson-Pope's performance throughout the affair has been woeful – by turns hectoring and blustering. He has shown that he does not have the character and judgment to be a Cabinet minister".

They conclude "To excuse Benson-Pope's performance is to set the standards of behaviour for Cabinet ministers at an abysmally low level".

Foreign Affairs

Wow we have the Prime Minister of Turkey visiting for the first time, and you can't even invite the NZ Foreign Minister to dinner with him as you wish to talk trade, and he is you know against it.

No amount of witty replies in the House will change the fact that the arrangement is highly dysfunctional.

GST - Doh!

A pretty big stuff-up from National in getting the broadcasting allocation mixed up so that $900,000+GST was spent instead of $900,000 incl GST.

I am really surprised it happened as the National Party HQ drills into every local campaign that campaign expenditures are GST inclusive. Now this was a broadcasting allocation, which is separate legislation but the same principle applies.

The remedy in this situation is unclear. Broadcasters are owed over $100,000. National is not allowed by law to make the money up. Very messy. The issue has been referred to the Police for a possible breach of the Broadcasting Act.

Generally most activists regarded this campaign as one of the best organised. It will be pretty gutting for all that to be blotted by this (fairly huge) mistake.

Reaction to David Benson-Pope report

Well first off DBP's lawyer says the Police are wrong. Well he would say that, wouldn't he.

The NZ Herald has a general round-up of reactions, and midly points out how selective DBP has been with his leaks.

John Armstrong is more severe, drawing comparisons to Richard Nixon in that the cover-up is far worse than the original 'crime'. He highlights how badly DBP's version of what the police report says is hugely at odds with its actual contents.

The Dom Post is also relatively severe on DBP saying "David Benson-Pope is under mounting pressure to resign after it was revealed his office leaked favourable extracts from a police file that contains significant evidence that he assaulted pupils while a teacher".

Now that was great skiing

I've skiied in New Zealand for years and years but had never got around to skiing in an overseas country. And it was great - I just love skiing through (or around more correctly) trees.

Despite the fact I had none of my gear with me and had to hire or purchase everything, we got on the skifield by around 930 am. We were on Cypress Mountain which is a five lift field very near Vancouver. Some very nice runs with great scenery.

I used to ski for a week or two every year without fail but had been so busy in recent years it had been a while since I had skiied. However with powder so good, it was no problem getting in over 20 runs with my companions Colin (NZ) and Slobodan (Serbia).

Skiing

Off skiing today in a few minutes, so no blogging until later today.

Finally the Benson-Pope Police Report

After several days of leaks and spinning we now have the complete report, and thanks to Scoop it is online. The link is to the key documents but they also have the full file.

Key aspects I have noted are:

Tennis Ball Incident

* 27 students interviewed. Nine recall the incident, 16 can not remember it and three rebut it. The three are described as very supportive of DBP.
* The Police say the nine witnesses are independent, appear to be genuine and do not have an axe to grind
* In a later paragraph they say the evidence is strong and none of the witnesses appear to have any hidden agendas
* The complainant did not even know DBP was an MP when he was informed that DBP had denied the allegation. The info came to light not from him but from friends who recalled it
* The issue of him having put the ball is his mouth first makes more sense in context. He basically says he stuck the ball in a bit as a joke (I imagine just biting on it almost). The DBP pushed it in further and he took it out. Then DBP pushed it right back in again and then taped his hands to the desk so he wouldn't remove it again

Hit Face Incident

* Complainant and one witness agree it happened, one witness refutes it
* The witness says DBP did hit or slap a student in the left jaw. The witness says that DBP was a good teacher and the school needed more like him, and he thought about bullshitting that it never happened (but that it did). He goes on to say he thinks NZ needs more politicians like DBP, and is clearly a fan, which make his statement the assault happened far more credible.
The complainant has said he doesn't like the assault being used as a political issue before an election but that he is concerned DBP has denied it happened as MPs should tell the truth.
* The pupil who does not recall the assault says he think he would have remembered someone being hit, but doesn't recall much about that school camp
* evidence not as strong as for tennis ball and would need to be put to jury for credibility to be established

Overall

* The Police conclude the witnesses for both incidents are credible and reliable
* The Police say the appropriate charge would have been assault under S1196 of the Crimes Act as DBP had authority and control over the pupils and that this would be a major aggravating factor taking it outside common assault
* The Police also cite DBP's complete denial of the allegations as an aggravating factor
* That the complainants just wanted acknowledgement that the incidents occurred and an apology
*Benson-Pope denies the incidents ever happened, agreeing they would both be assault. He claims all parties have been put up to this by Rodney Hide (impressive that Rodney can get 11 people to perjure themselves)

DPF'S views

Firstly I think there is really no doubt the tennis ball incident happened. Nine independent witnesses is well beyond what you can normally get for any sort of investigation. As the Police say this is very strong evidence.

I had always been puzzled about why this incident only happened once, if it happened, but it now makes sense reading all the affidavits. As usual DBP threw the ball at a student, but this time he clowned about and stuck it lightly into his mouth. DBP probably latched on thinking this was suitable and pushed it in further. And then when the student removed it, he thought no he had the right idea at the beginning and as a sort of joke pushed it back in and taped his hands to the desk to stop it being removed.

Incidentally the portrayal of the complainant as being a bully is not supported by almost all his classmates. They all remember him as being cheeky, a talker and getting in trouble but not a bully. I can relate to this as I often got caned at school for being a talker but I was certainly not a bully (esp as I was tiny). It's also clear that there was no political motivation behind the complainant, and he only came forward after it was denied in Parliament. He was totally unaware DBP was an MP up until then as he lived in Australia.

The hit to the face is less clear-cut. The other complainant again did not want to make an issue of that, was only annoyed it was denied. He didn't like the fact it was being used politically. The witness who recalls it is a huge fan of DBP and seems very credible also. However the other witness does not recall it at all, and it is more likely to be something you would recall. Also the complainant says that everyone at camp was talking about it, yet no-one else (bar one) can recall being told about it at the time. I think something did happen, but it may not have been as severe as the complainant recollects in terms of causing bleeding etc.

As I have said previously, I believe the Police were correct in not prosecuting. The passage of time is relevant in this case, and the alleged offending was not at the high end of the scale. However I don't believe anyone can read that entire Police file and not conclude that the tennis ball incident at a minimum did happen, contrary to what Benson-Pope said in Parliament and to the Police.

Now one could give DBP the benefit of the doubt and say perhaps he just doesn't remember them, being actions of no consequence. However he doesn't allow one to conclude this as he is adamant that the actions described are totally wrong and reprehensible and hence this is why he never would have done them.

DBP also constantly refers in his police interview to the fact that no complaint was laid at the time, hence it must not have happened. I think he places far too much reliance on this, from personal experience. When I was a Scout we had a Scout Leader whose behaviour towards us was sometimes, umm, inappropriate. Nothing too serious, and we all liked him, so we never thought to say anything at the time. It was only after a couple of years when the behaviour became shall we say more eccentric that we decided we should have a word to another adult. It is quite common for kids not to go running to authority figures when something wrong happens, if it is at the lower end of the scale.

Anyway so overall the Police have got it right. There is clearly a prima facie case, and the witnesses have significant credibility. Once again DBP could have made this all go away by simply not denying it outright in the House.

UPDATE: NZPA beat me to getting a summary out, with this story on Stuff. TVNZ has a story also.

A change of plans

Well I was booked to fly back to New Zealand on Tuesday. However as the Canadian Parliament has been kind enough to trigger an election while I was visiting their country, it seems only fair to stay on and help the forces of light, right and goodness :-)

I'm now going to be staying in Canada until January, and will spend most of the time down in Barrie, Ontario (near Toronto) where I will be assisting my good friend Patrick Brown with his campaign for Barrie.

Patrick and I met in Sri Lanka a few years ago, when we were both helping with democracy training with the youth wing of the local conservative party in Sri Lanka, in our roles with the International Young Democrat Union. I've almost forgiven him for nicknaming me Uncle Fester :-)

I may also do a bit of stuff in the capital Ottawa - still working on details. But anyway here for at least a month, doing what I enjoy most (well okay second most :-)

Best and Worst Jobs

Scott Adams (yes that one, the Dilbert creator) blogs on how the worst job in the world seems to be being No 3 in al-Qaida as for around the tenth time they have announced they have killed the third highest ranking al-Qaida leader.

He says in contrast the best job would be to be the guy who sits there playing Doom on his PC until he gets an e-mail saying “Blow up mud hut #4,7855.” :-)

Leaking and Spinning

I'm not personally against leaking and spinning of government reports - let's be real - that is part of the job to try and get favourable coverage of policies etc.

Where the line should be drawn though is not reports on policies and programmes but judicial type reports. David Benson-Pope has today been exposed as having selectively leaked the Police report into his actions to the HoS. And his office denying they had done so.

If a Minister wants to arrange a good story of a report saying that xyz educational programme has been well received, then go for it. But when you are the accused in a criminal investigation then do not use your press secretary to undermine the Police process. Likewise Clark was also wrong to use the SST to leak (incorrect) information against Peter Doone who was facing a criminal investigation also.

The bottom line is no problem with Ministers leaking reports that they are the authors of, or directly concern their portfolio area. But semi-judicial reports by the Police, Police Complaints Authority, the Auditor-General etc should not be leaked and spun to the media until the final official version is released.

Oh talking of spinning, Trevor Loudon has a naughty comparison to DBP. And no he is not seriously making a comparison, but the holing up in a bunker part is funny!

Canada Tax Cuts

Tax Cuts have become a key campaign issue this week with the Conservatives offering a cut in GST from 7% to 5% in response to the Liberals earlier announcement of income tax cuts.

And yes for those who missed that, the centre-left Liberals are cutting income tax. Most centre-left parties do - in Australia, US and UK - the left parties all support tax cuts. Common sense except for Dr Cullen who says $8 billion is not a large enough surplus.

Anyway why are the Conseratives pledging to cut GST rather than income tax? After all most economists say income taxes are better for the economy as they encourage people to earn more, while GST cuts more encourage people to spend more.

The reason is that the GST is despised in Canada, and I mean despised. This may be hard to comprehend in NZ where we have had GST for almost 20 years and many consumers don't even realise it is there. But when the COnseratives introduced it in the early 90s the backlash was so servere, this is the main reason they went from around 139 seats to just 2 seats in Parliament.

But it gets better than that. The Liberal Finance Spokesperson campaigned in 1993 on a platform of abolishing GST. And they got elected on that platform, and reneged. It's still there. And what role does that Finance Spokesperson have today? He is Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin.

So this is very cunning by the Conservatives. There are dozens of quotes by Paul Martin on how evil and bad GST is. And now the Conservatives have come out announcing they will reduce it, it is impossible for the Liberals to condemn the policy with any credibility.

So in the first week of the campaign, the media are saying the Conservatives have done relatively well, and set the agenda for this week. However they have started a fair way behind and there is seven weeks to go, so they are most definitely still the underdogs.

Hamish McKenzie has a useful summary of the state of play in Canada also.

Sigh

The parody blog has announced it is closing down - probably because I suspect they got bored.

They are however lying when they claim it is due to "veiled threats of legal action". I have made no such threat, and wouldn't. If I objected to the site I wouldn't have linked to it (ironically probably delivering 99% of its traffic). My only comment was that the humour was lame.

ICANN Composition

ICANN wraps up today and it has been a fairly lively meeting (Karl Auerbach has a summary of the public forum) with various controversial issues (such as the .xxx proposal) being debated. The number of attendees was relatively high at 740, and they come from 113 different countries and territories.

Some of the smaller or less developed countries here have included Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cayman Islands, Christmas Island, Cuba, Ethiopa, Faroe Islands, Gambia, Iran (12 people), Iraq, Israel, Niue, Serbia, Virgin Islands and Yemen.

Also of interest is that on the InternetNZ Blog we have a link to the letter sent from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the European Union to persuade them not to support putting the Internet under some sort of UN governance.

The letter is very strongly worded for a diplomatic letter. The opening paragraph refers to "paramount importance to the United States" and "essential infrastructure" - this is code for we will be seriously fucked off if you stuff this up.

Then Rice goes onto say "We regret the recent positions on Internet governance offered by the European Union". Regret is also a very strong word for diplomats. Much stronger than that and you are talking Pearl Harbour :-)

The level of officials at the WSIS PrepCom would have been reasonably junior, and I understand the earlier EU position had not been endorsed by the appropriate EU body. This letter sent at Foreign Minister level would have, I suspect, resulted in a degree of bollocking of said officials for their earlier position.

Military Democracy

Claire Harvey in the NZ Herald is appalled that David Morris has said "The Army is not an institution which allows democratic discussion", comparing the statement to the Nazis at Nuremberg or the My Lai massacure.

Now it goes without saying that following orders does not extend to illegal acts, but as long as the action is not illegal, then such orders are not subject to consensus, voting or even discussion. Harvey is beating up a story out of nothing. It is obvious the former judge was not suggesting that the necessity for obedience extends to illegal acts.

The famous line "We are here to preserve democracy, not practise it" always appeals to me.

Go Gordon Brown

Not normally a huge Gordon Brown fan, but how can one not applaud him as he proposes:

"that future EU farm policy include no price support, export refunds or other production or consumption subsidies"

The French will be besides themselves with rage with this proposal that farm subsidies be not just reduced but abolished. The farm subsidies take up 40% of the entire EU budget!

Saving TVNZ

Russell Brown has a copy of a speech by the head of South Pacific Pictures, John Barnett on TVNZ.

Unlike Russell who can't say if he agree with the prescription for public broadcasting in New Zealand, I am happy to say what Barnett proposes would seem to me to be a huge improvement over the status quo. It's a long speech but worth reading in full.

There seems to be an emerging consensus that the charter has been a disaster, especially when you consider that it is a state secret what programmes are actually prodiced as part of the charter, so the proposal that charter money simply be given to NZ on Air is sensible.

Job Vacancy

Do you believe:

* That free trade is evil and that it is better for third world workers to be unemployed

* That NZ should be non-aligned and not part of any western defence alliances

* That global warming is going to start destroying small island countries in a few years

* That the Treaty of Waitangi is a living spiritual partnership, and that Taniwha do have rights

* That dihydrate monooxide is potentially dangerous and possibly should be banned

* That there should be a size limit for easter eggs

If you score four out of six or better, I've got the perfect job for you! :-)