What the hell were National thinking?

The waste watch site is...umm...one of the stupidest things I have seen in a while. Now don't get me wrong, I like the idea of keeping an eye on waste but the nats have really dropped the ball on this one.

You would think that they would fund the site themselves and not have to use the leaders budget to pay for it! The cost of the site would have been next to nothing judging the design, but it's just silly to have a wastewatch campaign funded in any way by OUR taxes....What a waste.

There are some great comments on Kiwi Blog about this and the design.

Ministry of Writing Reports

Now this would be funny if it was not costing every New Zealander a packet!

The Minister of Maori Affairs is now telling his officials to get out of the office and do some work with...of all people..Maori! Heaven forbid that the Ministry of Maori Development has to get out there and talk to Maori!

Gerry Brownley does well with this press release.

We don't need a Ministry that wasts our money with useless report writing, although, perhaps it's better to be writing reports than actually being out there meddling in people's lives...

Where to Sit?

So the Maori seats are so important to Maori that they are struggling to get enough people choosing the Maori option to get even one extra seat. Interesting.

Maori seats are racist and should be abolished. They never should have come into existence in 1867. We don't have Chinese seats, Indian seats or European seats. There are only two choices. The general roll which anyone can sign on to and the Maori roll - for Maori.

I've heard a lot of justifications for having the Maori roll option. The main one being, that as the native people of New Zealand, they are a more important minority than others. That's a load of rubbish! Maori are immigrants to this country just like everyone else. They have been here a long time, but they arrived by boat just like my great-great grandfather did.

The campaign to get Maori to choose the Maori option is failing. Most Maori I know don't want to be treated differently just because of the colour of their skin, the have a culture that they identify with but see themselves as Kiwi's.

National need to keep talking about abolishing the racist Maori seats even though it's not in their best interest. If the Maori seats were to go it would pump a lot of non National voting Maori into the provincial seats which could possibly cost National in the marginal electorates. It's ironic that Labour is supporting keeping the seats as they would benefit from this the most. They know that the Maori Party are doing a good job in Maori seats. Perhaps Labour will change their tune when they loose the rest of the Maori seats at the next election. They changed it on time limits for Treaty claims after all.

Police Don't Need Another Shock

I must admit that I got nervous when I head the Police were conducting a Taser trail. Police have been known to use pepper spray when it was not needed - storys here and here and I worry that they will do the same with the Taser. Because the Taser is seen as a non leathel form of dealing with aggressive 'customers' I can see it being abused.

I support the right of Police to have firearms, and to use them in self defense or while protecting others (as I do for every private citizen) so really had to give this some thought. A firearm is used by Police as a last defense. They would not pull out their gun and use it just to teach the guy who took a swing at their partner a lesson as this would take a life. A Taser however could be seen as an effective way to 'get your own back'

Another possible problem is that they are seen as non lethal (not true always) they may be used for minor offenses.

With the current state of Police credibility I don't think Tasers are a good idea. The public don't trust the Police currently for a number of reasons, having Tasers being used is not going to improve this one bit.

If Tasers are going to be used by the Police, and if they get it wrong, the individual Police Officer should be made to face serious charges in criminal court.

Darnton Vs Clark

Just wanted to post a link to the Darnton Vs Clark website.

Way to go Libertarianz leader Bernard Darnton! I'm pleased someone has stood up and decided to hold the this government to account! it's a real disgrace about the lack of media coverage it's got.

I really encourage you to donate a few bucks to the court case. There is a link on the Darton Vs Clark site.

Bernard, good luck!

The Free Trade Advocate has been Traded

So Jim Sutton has finally stepped down and been given a new role as a trade ambassador and chair of Landcorp.

It's taken him a while to go. Clark has been giving him gentle pushes but it's taken her a long time.

Sutton generally has been considered a pretty good MP by all sides of the political spectrum. He did however get into trouble in his final yeas as Agriculture Minister with the fart tax and the right to roam working group.

I know farmers who called him Wellington's man on the farm, not the Farmer's man in Wellington. It was perceived that he was not an advocate for Rural New Zealand in Cabinet. To be fair he was bound by collective cabinet responsibility so we don't really know what he pushed across the cabinet table. I guess we will have to wait for the book. He was fierce in his public support for the ridiculous fart tax though.

Sutton did a good job in his trade role and was an advocate of free trade. If there was only one reason that the New Zealand public should miss him from Parliament, that should be it.

It Never Rains, it Pours

The head of the 111 Call Centre, Steve Fitzgerald has been stood down after a serious complaint from another staff member. This is another huge blow to the credibility of the Police. Fitzgerald was the guy sent in to fix the unit.

I don't know what happened, or what did not happen but it's just another headline the Police really did not need. The 111 call centre has been the centre of negitive publicity and needs some serious changes and reform for the public to regain confidence. One suggestion to do this would be to contract out the service to an organisation outside the police.

There are a large number of companies that specialise in running call centres effectively and perhaps now is the time to look at giving them a shot at it. If I call 111 I don't really care who the person that answers the phone works for, as long as they know their stuff and can get a cop to where I need them.

Let's free up some of the cops that work there so they can go and solve crimes.

Protect Private Property

Yet another story in the Herald that will make the public loose more confidence in the Police. The man interviewed owns a bottle store and caught two shoplifters red handed, he was able to give a full description to the Police as the offending was caught on camera and was even able to provide the license plate number of the car they took off in.

Now the Police still have not caught up with the offenders. They did however have time to write the property owner this letter: "As a result of the current workload experienced by staff I am in the position of having to review all files presently held by this office. It is unlikely that this matter can be attended to in the near future."

This is a disgrace! The Police have an obligation to protect our property rights. If they are behind they need to pull cops off the road and get them to investigate real crimes.

Perhaps it's time the Police came up with a new quota system. Something that measures the percentage of crimes solved in each region no matter how small they may be. The region could get performance pay bonuses based on the results. If this was the case I think a very simple crime this this would have been solved nearly as fast as it would have taken to write the letter saying "It is unlikely that this matter can be attended to in the near future."

20 Years of Freedom

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the Homosexual Law reform.

Just think, only 20 years ago two consenting adults could be arrested for the things the choose to do in the bedroom. We have come a long way in those 20 years. It's hard to imagine having to live your life in secret and in fear of loosing your freedom just because of your sexual orientation. I firmly believe that freedom is second only to life itself and to have that taken away from you is abhorrent, especially if you were not hurting another person.

Reading up on the campaign for law reform, it seems it was quite a battle. Fran Wilde made a name for herself and, with the help of a huge organised campaign, managed to get the government out of the bedroom. I'm still at a loss as to why the government and police wanted to be there in the first place though!

The opponents of this legislation were vile. If you ever get a chance have a look at some of the hansard of the debates it makes interesting reading. The opponents of the law reform said allowing two gay men to have sex made them feel ill, well reading John Banks describing the acts in great detail nearly made me loose my breakfast. I also read about how the Salvation Army jumped in and organised the petition to keep the government in the bedroom. They have now appoligised for any hurt caused by their actions 20 years ago. Even so, I know that I will now hesitate to give the Sally's any money if i'm stopped by a street collector.

It pisses me off that the right never lead social freedom issues. A lot of right wing MPs are happy promote economic freedom, but seem to think that people only need freedom with their money, not with their lives. I think economic freedom is important because I think all freedom is important. For me the two are mutually exclusive.

Anyhow, well done to Fran Wilde and all those who worked with her to fight oppression from the government and allow consenting adults to live their life without fear of loosing their freedom.

Load of Crap

Was just watching History Makers on Prime.

They had a slot with the PM. The commentary says she was will go down in history as the first elected female PM in New Zealand.

Now, I've heard this line many times before and it always pisses me off!

Jenny Shipley was the first female Prime Minister of New Zealand. Sorry Helen, she beat you!

Saying that you are the first elected female PM is pure semantics. In New Zealand we don not elect Prime Ministers, we elect Members of Parliament.

Lets have a look at this.

Shipley was elected by the good people of Ashburton and by her parliamentary caucus as leader. She became Prime Minister because National won an election and her caucus elected her to the position.

Clark was elected by the good people of Mt Albert and by her parliamentary caucus as leader. She became Prime Minister because Labour won an election and her caucus elected her to the position.

See a big difference? Seems Clark does.

What I love is the way the left can spin everything. You have to give them credit, they seem to be able to convince the media that the sky is red.