When thick meets rude

Pulling the "I'll have you fired! Don't you know who I am!?" routine doesn't work for backbench list MPs because outside of their tight booze-soaked bubble of flunkies, freebies and fulminations from leather chairs, in the real world it is the waiter that has more credibility and social standing. In NZ the waiter will also stand a greater chance of having the MP fired than the reverse.

 Simply obnoxious.

NZ Herald:
--
National Christchurch list MP Aaron Gilmore threatened use his influence with Prime Minister John Key's office to have a waiter at a Hanmer Springs hotel sacked after the man took issue with Mr Gilmore's "disgusting'' behaviour, it is claimed.
Mr Gilmore this morning issued two apologies for the "boisterous'' behaviour of his group of four at the Heritage Hanmer Springs on Saturday night.
Those apologies came after one of his dining companions, Christchurch lawyer Andrew Riches confirmed he'd left a note at the hotel the following morning apologising for Mr Gilmore's behaviour.
Mr Gilmore allegedly called the waiter a "dickhead'' when he refused him more wine and gave him his business card saying something like "Don't you know who I am? I'm an important politician'', The Press reported today.
It has also been suggested this morning that Mr Gilmore told the waiter he would tell the Prime Minister's office about the waiter's behaviour and have him sacked.
--

OK, these incidents happen occasionally and Tories acting like pricks - Jonathan Coleman's cigar run-in comes to mind - are to be expected from time to time; but it is the response from Gilmore that risks doing more damage. He's apologising... for the group, not for anything he did per se.

Aaron Gilmore's press release:
-- 
Press Release: New Zealand National PartyAaron Gilmore
National Party MP

Media Statement2 May 2013MP Aaron Gilmore apologisesNational List MP Aaron Gilmore is this morning apologising to staff and patrons at the Heritage Hotel Hanmer Springs following a dinner he attended there on Saturday 27 April.“As a group of diners our behaviour was at times boisterous and I sincerely apologise for any offence this may have caused any staff and/or patrons,” Mr Gilmore said.“I intend to convey my apologies on behalf of the group to hotel staff, and understand that Members of Parliament should uphold, and be seen to uphold, the highest of standards at all times.“On this occasion I believe as a group, our behaviour fell short of this mark, and I should have recognised this at the time.“I also plan to pass my apologies on to the Prime Minister for failing to meet the standards I believe National MPs should uphold.”ENDS
--

 How courageous and dignified to have taken collective responsibility for his whole group. That's really manning up.

NZ Herald:
--
Mr Riches also said he was disappointed that Mr Gilmore had apologised for his group's behaviour when it was "absolutely'' his own behaviour that was in question."It's a shame because I thought this could just lie, he could apologise and that would be the end of it, but to sort of blame everyone else!''
He told the Herald that two of the four in Mr Gilmore's group had left by the time of the incident.
"It was because most of the group had already left, he was cut off service, he did the old, "do you know who I am, I'm an MP''.
"I thought it was just disgusting.''
Mr Gilmore initially denied the claims but this morning issued an apology via Twitter and a later press [...].
--

Nothing says a heart-felt sorry like a message on Twitter. National may have enjoyed getting to almost 48% at the general election, but they have can't be too over-joyed to wear the sorts of dolts coming in at the end of the list. It's a shallow barrel of talent the Nats are scraping. 

Unhappy Atheist Alert: Jerry Coyne doesn't like the results of the recent poll of philosophers

Jerry Coyne is one of those New Atheist scientists whose lack of philosophical competence tends to manifest itself in a penchant for lashing out at the discipline of philosophy. It's one of those Gomer Pyle at the Sorbonne kind of situations, except Gomer isn't the type to blame other people for his ignorance.

Coyne, about whom we've had frequent occasion to comment, is probably still smarting

WWW 0.0

The first website has been resurrected at CERN. No usual things like a navigation bar, but what can you expect from the very first one? Please note there are no cat pics.

 NZ Herald:
--
The world's first web page will be dragged out of cyberspace and restored for Internet browsers as part of a project to celebrate 20 years of the Web.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said it had begun recreating the website that launched that World Wide Web, as well as the hardware that made the groundbreaking technology possible.
--

There are reports... and then there are reports. The concepts, technology (and even the budget)outlining the creation of the internet in 1990 seems modest and clear - the results 23 years later are anything but. --

Introduction

The current incompatibilities of the platforms and tools make it impossible to access existing information through a common interface, leading to waste of time, frustration and obsolete answers to simple data lookup. There is a potential large benefit from the integration of a variety of systems in a way which allows a user to follow links pointing from one piece of information to another one. This forming of a web of information nodes rather than a hierarchical tree or an ordered list is the basic concept behind HyperText.
[...]
A program which provides access to the hypertext world we call a browser. When starting a hypertext browser on your workstation, you will first be presented with a hypertext page which is personal to you : your personal notes, if you like. A hypertext page has pieces of text which refer to other texts. Such references are highlighted and can be selected with a mouse (on dumb terminals, they would appear in a numbered list and selection would be done by entering a number). When you select a reference, the browser presents you with the text which is referenced: you have made the browser follow a hypertext link :
[...] 
The texts are linked together in a way that one can go from one concept to another to find the information one wants. The network of links is called a web .
--

Why aren't liberals advising us to have a monarchy too?

For as long as I remember, liberals have pointed to the Scandinavians as the models of what Americans should want to be like when they grow up. I can't remember them pointing to the Norwegians, but surely I must have missed it. And I don't recall the Finns being held up for our admiration.

But how many times have we had the Swedish placed before us as the paragons of civilization? How many

Keep Auckland Guessing

Keep Auckland Moving website and the group's report is online.

Mayor Len Brown, the ideological clown, has sided again with the business lobby and the upper and middle classes against his working class supporters - just as he did when he backed the management over the unions at the Ports of Auckland lockout - this time he's bought the roading lobby's spin and is backing the pernicious cocktail of tolls and road charges to fund Auckland's transport needs.

 NZ Herald:
--
Aucklanders face heftier transport costs under either funding option put forward by an advisory group to Mayor Len Brown, but road charges are picked to provide better payback.
[...]
The 17-member mayoral group - on which business and union leaders have joined transport campaigners and the Automobile Association - is trying to build a consensus among Aucklanders while asking them which option they would "prefer" before it makes a final recommendation to city councillors in July.Mr Brown is not saying whether he will call a referendum on the issue, which centre-right councillor Cameron Brewer insisted yesterday should be held during the local body elections in October.
--

He should call his bluff. But the wording of the options and what it envisages is crucial. Probably too dangerous to contemplate though, that's why Brewer is having a poke. I heard the Mayor saying he was now in favour of charging people for using the existing roads. It must have been on radio because I can't find the statement online, just an official release about the report.

Len Brown says:
--
"I would encourage Aucklanders to look at the report and have their say as part of the consultation process. We all have a stake in Auckland's future, and our ability to move freely and easily around the city is clearly an issue that touches the lives of all Aucklanders."
--

No-one will be able to "move freely" if there are tolls and charges set up across the city. They will move expensively.

To the better off - especially the company car mob that would have all the deductable and GST-refundable tolling bills picked up by the firm anyway - the term freely means something different than it does to the plebs who are planned into what will be a bus-dependent future (see Auckland Transport Blog on the disingenious bus proponents). No more shit heaps clogging up the road - or at least the roads they use - that's how they see the solution to congestion. It is basically unfair and I would hope people reject the concept.

What I see and hear is more evidence that Len will line up with the big knobs instead of taking on Wellington where most of the problems lie.

On the issue of Auckland public transport I say again for the quazillionth time:

The problem is the transport funding is aggregated to a quasi-political group (Auckland Transport) so that the most difficult, costly and longest timeline to build (ie. rail) will always be sacrificed for shorter-term, easier and cheaper options (that will only be marginal improvements but never the best option). Until there is a separate statute establishing a rail authority for Auckland specifically mandated to build and operate the rail system over 50-100 years and mandated to strike its own rate based on the capital costs of the system (and limited to a 1.0 rate for properties within 1km and maybe a 0.5 rate for properties 1-2km from a rail station) then rail will always come last on the list.

Dooming the city to run on bloody buses forever is not an option - it just adds to the road congestion. Only a sustainable and independently funded agency for rail will have the focus and long-term planning ability to complete the task and operate the system. What a shame no-one in a position to do something has ever promoted that idea.

NZ Herald:
--
First Union secretary Robert Reid, representing unions on the mayoral group, said the Government's refusal to join the panel had made the exercise more difficult and turned it into a case of "what Aucklanders can do by themselves to get the changes and transport project which the Auckland Plan calls for".But the Government would sooner or later "have to come to the party".

Two roads
Recommendations for raising $400 million more a year on top of extra Government funding and limited public transport fare rises.

Option 1
* Rates rises: $90m
* Fuel tax rises (including a possible regional levy): $250m
* Tolls on new roads: $60m
* Average extra daily transport cost per household: 70c to 75c
* Daily travel time saving per household: 50c

Option 2
* Road tolls and charges (existing roads)*: $250m
* Extra revenue rates and fuel tax rises, and tolls on new roads: $150m.
* Average extra daily transport cost per household: 80c-110c
* Daily travel time saving per household: 95c.
* Motorway tolls or charges to pass through cordons on existing arterial routes).
--

And the context to all this congestion is not just the under-investment and mal-investment by successive governments and Auckland authorities either, the reason mega billions have to be found is because the city's population is planned to rise by some astounding figure - a million additional people over the next 30 years.

The fudges the officials are trying to sell the public revolve around deliberately underestimating the impact of immigrant flows. The unique aspect of the ethnicity figure in the Auckland Plan, for example, was it was the shortest projection by far in the whole 300+ page document at only 9 years, when everything else was 20, 30 or 40 years. They are trying to hide something that is as plain as the people in the street. And what a crowded street it will become.

--
The problem [transport] is going to get much worse. One new Aucklander is being added to our city every 20 minutes, giving us a predicted population of between 2.2 and 2.5 million by 2041
--

They are trying to assert that most of this million people will be births and people within NZ migrating to Auckland. This is so obviously false. With the natural increase being so low there is no way internal migration will make up the numbers they claim. - it is spurious. The vast majority of the million will be immigrants - most of whom will be from Asia, mainly China and India - that's the sort of facts they aren't keen to publicise. They seem keen enough on the raw numbers though - as if it were a triumph and uncontroversially a positive thing - as if they were actively aiming for a million rather than having it imposed by Wellington as a fait accompli.

Congestion is the symptom, mass immigration is actually the problem. We add more people than we can cope with and that is unsustainable. We are in a permanent infrastructural deficit. One of the more obvious answers in this situation is to stem the demand for the scarce transport resources, ie. less immigration. Cutting our meagre cloth for a whole lot of other people who are about to march in is not the best way to make a suit that fits.

Let the Nonsense Begin: Dawkins and Krauss hit the atheist crusade circuit

If your pomposity detector has been displaying high readings, there's a good reason:

Now that a movie is coming out starring the two ("The Unbelievers") we are apparently going to see a lot more of Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss, two atheist scientists on a mission to rid the world of religion.

Someone be sure to check the pulse of this movement in, oh, about 50 years when churches will

NEWSFLASH: Religion causes violence

In interviews promoting their new movie "The Unbelievers," scientists Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss assert that religious faith causes violence.

This made me think of all the violent things that religion has invented, such as the rack, the pillory, the strappado, waterboarding, the machine gun, grenades, mortors, bazookas, napalm, cluster bombs, torpedoes, carpet bombing, nuclear weapons

Energy royalties in NZ: tender issues

More boasting from the Nats today on how quickly they are selling the country's nationalised resources off to foreigners.

Government's oil and gas tender
--
Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges today announced details of the Government’s second round to attract competing bids for oil and gas exploration permits.
Speaking at the Advantage NZ: 2013 Petroleum Conference, Mr Bridges said Block Offer 2013 is an important step towards realising the potential of New Zealand’s oil and gas resources.
[...]
“Block Offer 2013 includes 189,000 square kilometres of offshore and over 1,500 square kilometres of onshore area. The following areas will be open for bidding on 24 May:

• three defined onshore blocks in Taranaki
• two defined onshore blocks on the East Coast of the North Island
• three offshore release areas in the Reinga-Northland Basins, Taranaki Basin and Great South-Canterbury Basins

--

Just as well Ministers tend to focus on the jobs and the on-shore economy than the royalties because that is definitely the weak point. The fact they assiduously avoid any direct statement as to what exactly the amount of the royalty is in these matters speaks volumes. Any statement from a Minister will never answer this question - it will be rolled into the accounting profit and company tax etc. the public will never be given a straight answer. Why? We are being ripped off. It is very difficult to come to any other conclusion.

I've looked for the answers to royalties in this official review, but as one would expect it is well disguised. [Found here - see figures at end of blog] On top of this fog is that each field - developed in stages over the years - seems to be on a different royalty system. This makes generalising conveniently difficult. The review is about the valuation as a whole over the lifetime of the fields rather than the revenue. What it shows is not that fabulous and they are not anticipating a bonanza.

--

We calculate the overall value of the Crown’s royalty from currently producing fields in the petroleum estate, as at 30 June 2010, to be NZ$3,191 million.

--

Over about 20 years of life the current fields will therefore yield on that total $3.2b about $160m pa. Hardly Australia or Kuwait. The projections are all over the show as it is guesswork about what finds will or will not take place in the next generation. The report says:--

We view the prudent valuation for the Crown’s royalty from future discoveries, as at 30 June 2010, to be $5,545 million [...]

--
 That would still be well below half a billion dollars annually. The report's low trajectory shows a peak of a billion dollars in annual royalties at 2036, the mid one, $1b pa by 2018, $2b by 2030 and $5b by 2046. The high trajectory is la-la land. What I would like to know is what the average royalties are on a barrel of oil, cumex of gas etc., compared with other nations.

From the figures at the NZPAM:--

Government revenue (NZ$) from petroleum and mineral royalties and ERLs
	2011-2012	2010-2011	2009-2010	2008-2009	2007-2008
Energy Resource Levy – coal	9,510,421	8,257,339	6,494,095	7,144,633	8,198,386
Energy Resources Levy – gas	26,852,346	27,451,449	32,697,508	31,378,469	38,056,798
Total ERLs	36,362,767	35,708,787	39,191,603	38,523,102	46,255,183
Royalties – minerals (excluding coal)	10,789,115	9,284,529	11,345,526	6,543,107	3,614,108
Royalties – coal	2,756,508	2,258,972	918,339	1,034,875	1,304,758
Total royalties – minerals	13,545,623	11,543,501	12,263,865	7,577,982	4,918,866
Total royalties – petroleum	333,760,254	357,058,364	399,194,757	511,580,791	86,093,975
Total royalties	347,305,877	368,601,865	411,458,621	519,158,773	91,012,840
Total ERL and royalties – minerals, including coal	23,056,044	19,800,840	18,757,960	14,722,615	13,117,252
Total ERL and royalties – petroleum	360,612,600	384,509,812	431,892,265	542,959,260	124,150,773
Total revenue (NZ$)	383,668,644	404,310,652	450,650,223	557,681,875	137,268,023

-- The revenue has declined significantly - perhaps the global recession more than output.

A nexus of interconnected decision-making... and other Horomiaisms

Labour's lovable, rotund rhetoritician of bamboozling bureaucratese has been unwell for some time - as I understand it - and has not been practising his confounding oratory at the usual places you would expect to see him (and, no I don't mean Bellamys). Looks like things may have taken an unfavourable turn and the pie jokes will have to go back in the warmer for the present time.

 NZ Herald:
--
Labour MP Parekura Horomia is seriously ill and resting at home with his family.
The Ikaroa Rawhiti MP, 62, is understood to have been unwell for some time, but the cause is not known.
His family issued a statement today requesting privacy and saying he was at his Mangatuna home convalescing.
"The whanau of Hon. Parekura Horomia is very humbled by all the love, support and kind wishes for their grandfather, father, brother and uncle."
A spokesman for Labour said the party was aware of the family's statement "and wish him well at this time."
Mr Parekura was first elected as the MP for Ikaroa Rawhiti in 1999 and is regarded as Labour's 'kaumatua' in Parliament, respected for his widespread links to Maoridom. He was Minister for Maori Affairs between 2002 and 2008.
--

Not one bad word has been said about Parekura Horomia - which is ironic given how many words of any description Horomia was capable of saying on any topic. Some would say he is a wordsmith, others, just wordy. Regardless of what people may think of the substance or the delivery he is one of parliament's characters and for all his verbosity is one of its best speakers.

The illness means a by-election is virtually certain. Labour will be sounding out candidates and running through scenarios. David Shearer hinted there was some hope of a good Labour candidate to take over from Parekura, so it may be someone parachuted in from left-field. Depending on the candidate of course, Mana should be the main rival to Labour in this seat however, not the hopelessly divided and dwindling Maori Party.

I was at the Mana AGM a few weeks ago but can't recall what was lined up for the electorate. It was an issue though - Horomia's illness and the ramifications were well known for some time. Tawhai McClutchie did not do as well as hoped so I'm not sure his chances are that hot. Mana's East Coast general electorate candidate, Val Irwin, is a better prospect from what I've seen: he's a good communicator in both languages, has whanau connections on that coast and has an interesting back story as a local film star in the 60s. Annette Sykes, Mana president and Waiariki candidate (who ran Te Ururoa Flavell to within 1,900 votes at the least election) is the big gun however should she decide to enter. There may be quite a few people chancing their arm when a by-election is on offer so it is rather early to speculate.

Horomia leaves big gumboots to fill. He retains strong popularity despite challenges. Derek Fox (running for the Maori Party) came the closest to toppling him in 2008 cutting him to a 1,645 majority.

Official Count Results 2011 -- Ikaroa-Rāwhiti

Labour Party	9,054		HOROMIA, Parekura	LAB	10,558
Mana	1,754		McCLUTCHIE, Tawhai	MANA	2,484
Māori Party	2,736		RAIHANIA, Na	MAOR	4,017

_________________________________________

UPDATE 30/04/2013 11:50am

Parekura passed away yesterday afternoon - just shortly after this post was written. Many have said fond things of him. RIP Parekura Horomia.

TV Review: Pimp my ad

My TV review for The Daily Blog is posted up over there. Drinan has called it ''a strong opinion'' for what it's worth. It's about responding to prostitution on television.

What are the Boy Scouts for? Anthony Esolen on what a boy is

It is a commentary on the intellectual condition of our modern culture that the smarter you purport to be, the less you are able to tell the difference between boys and girls.

The Boy Scouts recent announcement that they are abandoning their policy against admitting open homosexuals as Scouts. Fortunately, most local Scout leaders understand what they are for, but their leaders, like those in

Classical Charter Schools: The coming counter-revolution in education

If you want to see an educational revolution, visit Phoenix, Arizona.

I just got back from a trip to Phoenix to attend a conference put on by the Great Hearts charter schools. Great Hearts is a system of sixteen classical charter schools in Arizona, which is now beginning to open schools in Texas as well, and, eventually, several other states.

While the public school establishment is shifting

How little it takes to spook conservative leaders on the marriage issue

As more and more conservative leaders propose the idea of fighting under the standard of a white flag on cultural issues, it is instructive for those who still think it worthwhile to conserve something to remind themselves of just how novel is the idea of same-sex marriage.

In his review of Michael Klarman's From the Closet to the Altar, Christopher Caldwell gives us a brief timeline (partly

Costs of exploitation

The NZ government - especially, but not exclusively under National - will put the interests of foreign oil companies ahead of the fishing rights and any other rights of the indigenous people every time. It's part of the colonial economy - the basis of the colonial economy. The exploitation of "free" resources (ie. resources confiscated off indigenous people) happens in many countries where the settler-colonists run the state. The exploitation is more obvious when the state forcibly evicts on the land; but on water initiating the confiscation manifests itself in the tresspass needed to enforce it - thus the law change to criminalise protest in the NZ EEZ.

The NZ government authorised the NZ Defence Force - the Royal NZ Navy in the actual instance - to do unlawfully what the new law of theirs now says they can do legally. Sad, but consistent. The use of the military for domestic protest action wasn't much commented on at the time, presumably because it is accepted the NZ Police didn't have the capacity. The precedent for military-police operations domestically stems all the way from before the Land wars to the Northern War most likely - and the latest I can recall is the Bastion Point operation in the 1970s where branches of the military were used. What a lamentable history of oppression. And it continues - a million dollars and a whole taskforce for a guy and his fishing boat. It should have been billed to Petrobras.

NZ Herald:
--
The Defence Force and New Zealand police were sent to the Raukumara Basin in April 2011 when a protest flotilla led by an East Cape iwi interfered with Brazilian company Petrobras' seismic surveys.
Tauranga fisherman Elvis Teddy was arrested by police, but the charges were dropped because the incident took place outside New Zealand's 12-mile territorial limit.
The High Court overturned this decision, and Energy Minister Simon Bridges introduced an amendment to clarify the law and create new offences covering interference with mining companies on the high seas.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment documents show the Defence Force deployment was estimated to cost $1.08 million, based on the deployment of two patrol vessels and personnel for 40 days.
The direct cost to police was estimated at $585,000, which included sending 12 full-time staff to the region for 42 days.
[...]
As a result of the protests, Petrobras had to halt its surveys for nearly two days. It has since handed back its exploration licences for New Zealand waters.
Mr Bridges' law change, which was passed last week, means protesters who intentionally damage or interfere with mining sites or vessels which are outside New Zealand's 12-mile limit risk up to a year in prison, or fines of up to $50,000 for a person or $100,000 for an organisation.
The law also gives police and Defence Force personnel power to board protesters' ships and arrest and detain them.

--
I wonder how other countries approach these issues? For Greenpeace and local protesters it's facist bully-boy bullshit, but it's also a militarisation of the sea - that's how other countries may view this. We have overlapping EEZ issues with Fiji and Tonga - is NZ going to use this law to enforce NZ claims in their areas?

Planned Parenthood removes blinders on PA abortion doctor

Not that we expect them to keep them off.

Planned Parenthood is apparently concerned that a Philadelphia abortion doctor may give baby-killing a bad name. Here's Michelle Malkin on the group's new-found concern over Kermit Gosnell:

Planned Parenthood now says it’s “appalled” by the Philadelphia house of horrors run by accused serial baby-killer and pregnant-mom murderer Dr. Kermit Gosnell.

Joyce: saboteur

With a few wobbly poll results over the weekend a defensive Steven Joyce is running scared over the solid and unifying Labour-Green 'NZ Power' policy launch. It's timing was entirely provoked by the pig-headed Mighty River Power privatisation, so Joyce has only his hand-crafted asset sale programme to thank for that. His hysteria at the thought of lowering costs to consumers and the cries of anguish at the post-announcement slumo of the share price on behalf of the over-valued cartel has not relented. The Nats are sensing danger if the first pou of a coalition house goes in the ground unchallenged. The Tory counter-attack however has been more Dad's Army than anything 21st century. After Bridges called it North Korean, Joyce said it was South Korean. If they can't get their Koreas right, perhaps they should be searching for a new Korea?

From the paraniod Joyce today - fresh from flushing out reds from under his limo after another viewing of 'Good luck and Goodbye' spent sympathising with that awesome Sen. McArthy - he tells us the prompt disclosure by the potential incoming government of their policy to reduce electricity bills... Is to accuse them of 'sabotage' no less.

Joyce:
--
It's simply economic sabotage .
[...]
[A...] cynical and selfish attempt by left wing parties to play politics with the value of NZ's economic assets.
--

Crying a mighty river on behalf of the foreign interests too. The only thing cynical and selfish is the privatisation of public assets into the hands of the few on a flimsy pretext. The sabotage is a government that would sell off state assets to fund the irrigation schemes to make famers rich instead of paying off the debt like they promised. Everyone knows these things at some level. Those in favour of a Rogernomics-era style fire sale and unrestricted foreign ownership is low. Joyce's bogeyman tactics don't ring true and smack of desperation. By pinning so much on a share float - a show of confidence - it ran the risk of back-firing.

If Joyce is the best the Nats can do they should just bite their lips and take the judgment the market will render rather than flap about condemning the opposition for essentially being responsible and up front.

NZ Herald infographic:

The only main thing missing is the debt. The orthodox move after a float will be for the private shareholders to demand higher dividends - windfall/super dividends of over 100% of profits - and they will raise debt to do it. Borrowing to pay themselves. Looting upon looting.  After they have racked up billions in debt onto the books (which the government as 51% owner is also responsible) and taken all the cream they will then attempt to use that as a reason the commerce commission and the regulators should let them charge above average increases. It is all so predictable.

Žižek's leftist tribute to Thatcher

The always interesting Slavoj Žižek, writing in the New Stateman about Margaret Thatcher, whose funeral was last week:

In the last pages of his monumental Second World War, Winston Churchill ponders on the enigma of a military decision: after the specialists (economic and military analysts, psychologists, meteorologists) propose their analysis, somebody must assume the simple and for that very

TV review

My TV review for The Daily Blog is posted up over there. About public funding for the reality genre.

Power play

The fact that the power companies shares fell and the fact National are so hysterical is because Labour and the Greens co-operating on economic policy is the most tangible sign to the electorate that they are ready to govern. This is the sort of coalition pre-positioning people want to see - albeit hastened by the Mighty River Power privatisation. The Vector CEO thinks it is viable, but the Tories have freaked. Farrar was flipping out. Simon Bridges was saying the spectre of North Korea loomed over the country. Steven Joyce was pretty much lining up dancing cossaks today - saying the fate of South Korea also awaits. His twitter feed:

--
Steven Joyce ‏@stevenljoyce

Labour-Greens power fans citing Sth Korea example y'day. Chk this: 10% price increases, 4 yrs of losses, shortages...

@stevenljoyce
Value of Contact Energy, Trustpower, & Infratril together down $643M in less than 24 hours. So this idea's not economic vandalism?


@stevenljoyce @NZGreens So minority Contact mum&dad shareholders r just legitimate collateral damage? A truly destructive attitude to NZ economy & jobs   @stevenljoyce Labour/Greens electricity plan wld reduce savings, investment & jobs - & not reduce power prices. Apart from that... --   Joyce seems very concerned about the private companies and their shareholders; not so much about the consumers.   NZ Herald:
--
Mr Bridges and Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said the plan amounted to nationalising the electricity industry.
"They may want to return to sort of United Soviet Socialist Republic of New Zealand days but National certainly doesn't," Mr Bridges said.
[...]
The Government says Labour and the Greens are trying to sink the Mighty River Power share float with a hastily drafted threat to impose Soviet-style intervention on the electricity market.

However, Labour and the Greens say their plan to regulate wholesale prices is a sound policy used in several American states and will halt rising power costs, cut household power bills by as much as $300 a year and give the economy a $450 million a year boost.
Labour leader David Shearer and Greens co-leader Russel Norman yesterday said that if they won next year's election they would establish a new agency called New Zealand Power which would act as a single buyer of wholesale electricity.
The agency would also have the power to set prices based on generators' operating costs and a fair return on capital. NZ Power would sell power to electricity retailers at prices lower than those on the current wholesale market and those savings would be passed on to consumers.
However, those savings would come at the expense of power companies.
--
Well, cry me a mighty river.

Although I'm not a big fan of more layers of bureaucracy - esp. when the legislated and regulated divisions of the electricity industry are the cause of the cartel situation - if the end result is lowering the cost to consumers (and business) then what is the net harm? This one act is not going to murder capitalism. The artificiality of the market and the corporations' necessity to create margins and support the middlmen may represent employment and turn-over for their ticket-clipping operation, but they do not enable efficiency. I don't know whether the Power NZ single-buyer concept is the right answer for NZ, but it is that there is a collective answer that counts more. I wonder if NZ First will join in?

Devoy: Job interviews

Dame Susan Devoy, Race Relations Commissioner

She's admitted she didn't apply for the job - she wanted to be the part-time disability commissioner at the Human Rights Commission - but Judith Collins convinced her she could do the Race Relations Commissioner gig. There were 270,000 reasons to say yes - 1,000,000 reasons over the five year appointment. She said she went through about four interviews as part of the process - despite the shoulder-tapping. She has also made it clear she is still learning on the job and is not fully up to speed. The two television interviews I've seen of her confirm this. Not good enough for this pay grade.

First there was Mihi Forbes on Maori TV:

 It was a testy encounter, there were forced smiles and pursed lips.

I've been attacked for having no qualifications so I didn't do any interviews for a while...

 Well, you don't really need qualifications...

 Well you don't need experience either, it's about doing the right thing...

South Africa. Well, you know, the money was good, but I didn't go in the end because of politics, I was only 20...

Overall it showed she was in training, had nothing to say and certainly could not draw on her experiences, and on top of that had been picked for political and gender reasons. If this was a job interview she would have been a very weak candidate.

Then there was John Campbell on TV3:

She was more prepared than with Mihi Forbes, she was spouting the jargon of the HRC like a good puppet.

 Hey, give me a chance, all I need is about five years to get my head around it...

And Maori are like this... Was that patronising enough?

With Campbell, a week later, she had been transformed into a more fully indoctrinated bureaucrat - something Collins had suggested was the opposite of why she was appointed. Where had all that red neck common sense gone? What was the point of putting in a straight shooter if she turns out to be towing the politically correct party line after a few weeks? Collins may have been disappointed by her apparent co-option into the chattering liberal clique, but her sudden change lends no more credibility to her having got the job. If Devoy had tanked on Maori TV, her interview with Campbell didn't go any better. She was obviously not up to it. She hasn't demonstrated the depth of comprehension needed, or the personal mana the position needs to bring racial tolerance, harmony and conciliation. People will not take her seriously.