Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Reputation and remuneration, in reply to merc,
Any fool can see gambling is their thing, not conferences.
A bunch of things are their thing, really. The main hotel and Sky City Grand, the various ballrooms and conference rooms at each of them, the bars and restaurants – and the substantial telecommunications revenue from the tower.
And, of course, several different layers of gambling services. They’re making promises on the conference side to try and win favours on the gambling side, because one has broader economic appeal and the other is a giant suckhole.
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Hard News: Reputation and remuneration, in reply to ScottY,
A large conference venue would be good for the local economy. That said, I'm not comfortable with the deal being done between the Govt and Sky City. Gambling has a massive social cost.
This is precisely my view.
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Hard News: Time to move on, in reply to Islander,
I do that for fun, and the entertainment & enlightenment of whanau kids- so, I’m a *terrorist* for fucks’ sake?
Yeah, but you didn’t negotiate to buy a grenade launcher, or threaten people who crossed your path. You didn’t bind and blindfold kids you invited into your circle. You didn’t openly fantasise about killing people, declare to your friends that you were “going to war”, or stage military-like exercises.
I was as clear as I could be that I don’t regard these people as terrorists. But I do regard them as idiots who would probably have got someone hurt.
Anyway, I have one or two other thoughts, but it’s a bit late now.
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Hard News: Time to move on, in reply to tussock,
That and finally getting Tame Iti on firearms charges after he dodged the last ones. Never underestimate the pettiness of the NZ justice system.
I thought the firearms charges against Iti after the flag-shooting incident were ridiculous: that was protest plain and simple. I actually value his presence as an activist and provocateur. But I’m quite surprised that everyone seems to have forgotten that he does have a conviction for assault with a blunt instrument (on a youth in his care, if I remember rightly).
And the fact is that while he was training with weapons and recruiting others to do the same, he told his colleagues he was preparing to “make war on New Zealand”. They said a lot of that stuff to each other.
Frankly, the best-case scenario is that he was a fucking dickhead at the time.
And I would also point out that the New Zealand justice system has come out with basically the right decision this time.
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Hard News: Time to move on, in reply to andrew gunn,
You will have to look far and wide to find a more striking illustration of the term “disingenuous” than the phrase “someone put petrol in the wrong kind of container once”.
I agree. It drives me nuts watching people come up with rationalisations about this.
They didn't "put petrol in the wrong container". They made, and practiced with, molotov cocktails, for fuck's sake.
And the bullshit talk about the Al Qaeda and IRA terrorist manuals and killing people might have been more amusing had not at least one such manual been been found in the searches.
Again: I think these people were mostly idiots, but trying to rationalise their behaviour into into some sort of innocent haven't-we-all-done-that whoopsie is pathetic.
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Hard News: Time to move on, in reply to Terence W,
Russell I concur that this is the most thoughtful and informative commentary I have read on the whole saga.
My thoughts as well – thank you Russell.
Thanks. The response here and elsewhere has been flattering and gratifying. It's something I knew I'd write eventually, but of course it turned out I had to write it in 90 minutes on a Media7 production day. I'm most pleased that it apparently doesn't suck.
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Hard News: Reputation and remuneration, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Or is that a bit much to be hosting more than 1 per year? Actually we as a country are pretty good at smaller things. We have many Small businesses in Auckland. They maybe could manage a few rather than one super duper conference….. ;)
If you could get even 2-3 capacity events a year, a bigger conference centre would be great for the city. Conference centres do break down to smaller spaces, so it's just more space for local events.
My concerns are:
(a) The government buying it by loosening social legislation around pokies seriously sucks.
(b) Please tell me it's going to be better built than the Sky City conference centre, which is a piece-of-shit building with terrible air-conditioning.
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Hard News: Reputation and remuneration, in reply to Steve Barnes,
So what was Winston implying? Are Smith and Pullar closer than has been mentioned so far?.
The papers are certainly hinting thus. And when our researcher called his office today, his press sec opened by declaring that the minister would not answer any questions about his private life. Which she hadn't asked.
Smith also noted that "personal details" had been redacted of one of the letters he tabled in Parliament today.
Messy.
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Hard News: Time to move on, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Right, those would be restricted weapons (http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/1984/0122/latest/whole.html#DLM95644). A flare launcher such as a Very pistol wouldn’t be, I think.
If someone made a general enquiry, it wouldn’t be an offence – they might have taken the course of acquiring a legal flare launcher.
Sunday News covered this in 2009. It seems an employee of a gun shop was illegally importing the launchers and selling them. The story suggests the launcher was actually obtained by Kemara, but there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of that.
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Hard News: Time to move on, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Also, this could have been dealt with very differently: a quiet word from the community cops to someone like Tamati Kruger – just let them know that TPTB know what they’re up to and it would be a good idea to tone it down.
I don't disagree much with that. But it's an easier thing to say with hindsight.
And it does seem Iti and others did know they were being watched. They got tip-offs, which is why the cops kept turning up to the appointed place and finding nothing happening.
And Iti was called and flat-out asked by a Star Times journalist earlier in the year whether he'd been organising commando training. He denied it and the paper didn't follow up.