Parliament's website has this to say on this development:

"During 2007 some evidence and advice…

$21m/1.4m is $15 per household – more than enough for an NZ Post overnight-courier-addressee's-signature-required-A4-CourierPost delivery.

While not disagreeing with the original point about what is essentially taxpayer funded, under-handed, vote for the political party that bought you this policy advertising...

I suspect you could come up with similar figures to…

Neil, could you please enlighten me as to which drugs are taken with the deliberate intent to drive less well?

I took a shortcut. People take recreational drugs to alter their brain state and that (usually) entails producing a brain state less well adapted to driving. Usually, since people have…

Yikes! That's amazing Graeme – got a link?

No.

It's a stat I made up. Well, calculated.

$21m was the proposed initial cost (the Auditor-General made them cut it back to $15m) of WFF advertising (I could find a link for this, but won't). There are approx 1.4m households in…

...spare me the Greens arguing that a bit of recreational shooting up is some how equivalent to taking heart medication.

Well, taking heart medication certainly isn't exactly the same as, say, taking pot. If that's the Greens position, sure, it's absurd.

I'm not closely familiar with the Greens policy, but…

Which makes me suspect the motives.

You don't even need my hyperactive cynicism gland to not merely "suspect the motives" – but that this kind of rort has become so blatant that's it's just greeted with a shurg? why are media outlets going to kick up a stink editorially, when…

Whereas take prescription medication appropriately is not done with the deliberate intent to drive less well.

Neil, could you please enlighten me as to which drugs are taken with the deliberate intent to drive less well?

. . . you can probably find someone who'll prescribe you Vicodin or Oxycontin, which are both very effective and, especially in the case of Oxycontin, extremely addictve.

Long-term, heroin has to be better than Oxycontin – just compare Iggy Pop with Rush Limbaugh.

http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=12866&IBLOCK_ID=35

I'm not really that interested in heart medicine or BZP, but I do wish my local 4 Square would start selling heroin.

One thing people who claim the US War on Drugs is working reliably ignore is the massive shift to prescription drug abuse there: you can't get codeine in…

140,000 ppl might be eligible for home insulation subsidies

That should be 70,000 ppl might be eligible for home insulation subsidies, and 70,000 ppl might be eligible for home insulation interest free loans.

most of the advertising is overkill.

I always like the stat that so much was spent advertising Working for Families that the Government could have hand-couriered, signature required, all the information to every family in the country and saved themselves money.

what The Bean said, above

Sorry, but I'm with Craig on this one. Whilst I agree that the public should be well informed of public policy/benefits that could benefit them; most of the advertising is overkill. Which makes me suspect the motives.

I look forward to a Govt sponsored campaign to…

With all due respect, I was in Sudney as (entirely coincidentally I'm sure) millions of dollars worth of 'public information' campaigns started around the same time the state election campaign kicked into high gear.

I certainly agree that hitting old people is bad, droughts suck and you really…

i hope the contributors to the daily msm have to declare their political interessts too – that would only be fair, right?

Well, not a very apt analogy. I'd note the political coverage in the Herald in front of me is all by-lined, and it's a matter of public record…

I think also that the War on Pseudonyms fails to recognise that women sometimes have a different experience of online forums than men.

Yes, I have definitely witnessed and had second hand evidence of that. It's horrible. I wasn't trying to start a war, just make a bout about my…

Linger makes…

and yes merc, the kids are fine.

It's not the pseudonyms, it's how we're pseudonyming.
In my own case (though the same considerations apply to other individuals such as "Idiot/Savant"), there are several reasons for using "linger":

(1) more people know me by this name than by my birth name. I've been online in some form…

weird scare-wearing cults

A very apt typo, Craig.

I know we're perpetually going to have to agree to disagree on this, but if electoral outcomes were that easily 'brought' then I'd suggest our electoral system would be rather different today. Now, I didn't support MMP – and am still rather ambivalent about it today – but…

as the law is written (apologies Don)

:-)

I have no problem with the fact that the authors of those sites should become known. Having been around the internet for a while I have definitely come to the conclusion that posting under pseudonyms is probably not the right way to…

The Standard has a good scoop

One interesting point is that, as the law is written (apologies Don), come January 1st, those writing The Standard will have to let us know who they are (and where they live).

Perhaps they're the same people who were behind the well-funded __Keep Left…

I tell you, I climbed a wee bit of…

I'd rather not be able to buy heroine at the supermarket than you very much

With appropriate age limits I wouldn't have a problem with that. But spare me the Greens arguing that a bit of recreational shooting up is some how equivalent to taking heart medication.

Much better that you pay a gang member for it, for somethign of dubious quality, at an over inflated price eh.

Much better to criminalise the users, subsidise criminal elements and take money out of…

We disagree on the possible impact of the EFB. However, I may be wrong on that outcome.

At the start of the smacking debate in August 06 there was parity and at the end National was 15% ahead. It is a matter of record, no guesstimates at variance and no need to suspect or doubt.

You clearly have to many E's though.

The Nazi's loaded their troops up on meth – http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,354606,00.html

Which may explain at least some of the random and extremely brutal atrocities committed by German forces.

I'd rather not be able to buy heroine at the supermarket than you very much

I would, sometimes a girl needs a little dutch courage ; )

Most people don't campaign during election times. I suspect most would rather there was less than more.

Still,…

It's a bit like the smacking debate. There was reasonable concern but all too often this with reasonable concerns aligned themselves with some real wild eyed loonies.

Don,

Not a bit, it is exactly like the anti-smacking debate. Only this time National will not be offering a face saving compronise.…

Silly them. Speed would have been the obvious choice.

The race only lasts 80 min and most intense at the start. Perfect for coke. Speed lasts a bit too long, don't want to on whilst doing press after the race.

Not really equipped to talk about illegal drugs, but on the legal drugs front, a hell of a lot of them have warnings about driving a vehilce, etc. Asked my GP about this recently about something I was on after a health hiccup earlier this year and he…

Supposedly the US Airforce in WW2 got a lot of meth too.

As did Japanese kamikaze pilots.

The ex-team doctor for Ferrari made claims in early 2005 that 30% of the field were using cocaine to improve driving performance.

Silly them. Speed would have been the obvious choice.

prescribed "go" and "no-go" pills to help them cope...

Well, if it worked for Judy Garland... oh.

Supposedly the US Airforce in WW2 got a lot of meth too.

The USAF today gets a lot of meth. During the initial bombing campaign against Afghanistan they were flying very long-range missions, and prescribed "go" and "no-go" pills to help them cope...

The only reason to take illegal drugs is for the express purpose of changing one's brain state which always has the effect of decreasing one's ability to drive.

The ex-team doctor for Ferrari made claims in early 2005 that 30% of the field were using cocaine to improve driving performance.…

As a side note, Water has caused significantly more harm…

The only reason to take illegal drugs is for the express purpose of changing one's brain state which always has the effect of decreasing one's ability to drive.

I'd like to see a few more stats relating to that 'always' there. And I…

there are so many "one interpretation" made by folks such as a gentleman called "Whaleoil" that have nothing to do with reality and heaps to do with a certain political agenda.

Don, if you are concerned with my political agenda in relation to the EFB may I suggest you look…

The focus, as she says, should be on impairment by whatever means,

but that is the focus. If you don't abide by the warnings of a prescription then you're equally in trouble.

I completely disagree with the Greens position. There is clearly a difference between prescription drugs and illegal drugs.…

And the EFB does not stop there. At the same time as censoring non-connected groups it allows "powerful and self interested forces" to donate behind closed doors vast sums of money to political parties.

With
* your submission
* your contact…

That's not what freedom is about. It is about the freedom of society not to be subject to powerful and self interested forces in an undue manner.

Where would 11 months of unrestricted government 'information campaigns' with no effective right of reply sit in relation to this definition? I don't…

I am always somewhat bemused by this libertarian approach to "freedom". It seems that the equivalent of curtailing their rights to own slaves, or, if you read Redbaiter, to seize power at the point of a gun is a bad thing.

OK, Don, so anyone who has an issue with…

The sort of advertising that might fall under it would be this effort...

Change the might to a should, and you might get agreement.

Of course the law shouldn't stop the Hollow Men being sold. Of course that can be easily fixed. But it might just be a BS draft…

I understand the problems and disappointments with the EFB but to suggest The Hollow Men…

And that, of course, would be a bullshit interpretation.

Well, bully for you – and Winston Peters says the same about the decision handed down by the three High Court justices who threw out his electoral petition. Doesn't an independent judiciary suck? :)

And, although Hager strongly disagrees, that its crackdown on independent advocacy in election years is too onerous.

Actually, I think he agrees with this too. In the transcript, he notes that he supports the lower spending limits onthird parties "as long as the definitions are clear that they’re not spending…

The hypocrisy of the the EBs, their hidden agendas, secrecy and, ultimately, refusal to vote is stomach churning.…

"How" is by stealth, by expanding the categories of illegality. Why this isn't a question for the people, as it always was with alcohol, I can't…

I'm a strong supporter of the modest performance right fee that APRA levies on businesses that use music, such as cafes and gyms

If only the levy was harsh enough to prevent gyms from playing any music at all... nothing ruins my workout more than the inane dance music that…

impairment by whatever means

Yes, but how do you bust people for being tired for instance. Or for having a distracting load of children. Or for just being too stupid to drive a car.

Incidentally, does getting a "P" endorsement to drive a taxi involve a higher level of test…

...And, although Hager strongly disagrees, that its crackdown on independent advocacy in election years is too onerous.

Are we sure he disagrees? At least one available interpretation of the bill as drafted will require The Hollow Men to be withdrawn from sale next year...