Posts by Paul Williams

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  • Hard News: National Exuberance,

    I heard (or did I read) that there'd been no dry weekends in Akl since something like April... depressing. It's been a long while since I lived in Akl, twenty years or thereabouts, and I do recall it being wet but not that wet!

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report

  • Hard News: National Exuberance,

    .... should have been 'weather'...

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report

  • Hard News: National Exuberance,

    But they haven't, which is all that they ever ask of their members' employers - you're welcome to sack people who breach the terms of their contracts, but you're not allowed to do it out-of-hand and without due process.

    Mattew's very succinctly put the point I wanted to make (plus I'm thankful to Peter for clarifying the legal issues earlier).

    Well, I think the Greens and ACT are rather weird, but I'm sure they feel exactly the same about we Tories.

    But that's not, I don't think, the point Craig. It's his conversion that's bizarre; from hard-out lefty to hard-out righty. It's been so rapid, he's even been unable to align what he does 9 - 5 to fit with his new found faith. He must be in such turmoil!

    I don't misunderstand, or think weird, Tories or any others who take a different political perspective compared with mine, I simply disagree. But I've never understood people who's politics seem as changeable as the whether on a long weekend in Auckland.

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report

  • Southerly: The Joys of Unclehood,

    Maccas; meh! We'd not thought though all the implications when we named our youngest Mia - her learning of the alphabet has been somewhat corrupted.

    Another great piece David. We've got equally indulgent aunties but I think/hope kids know how to differentiate their behaviour to fit the circumstances.

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report

  • Hard News: National Exuberance,

    As laughable as Slater is, he's not benign. He appears the kind of person, so completely lacking in self control, that is capable of violence... even if his entreaties to "fight it out" suggests he knows his intellectual limits...

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report

  • Hard News: National Exuberance,

    Frankly, National would be well advised to sort out what its own policy on the issue is before it goes writing Labour's.

    Yet another example of National's policy being significantly under-developed. I'm prepared to accept that they'll develop it further but this is precisely this kind situation, and I'm assuming toll means some form of PPP, where the potential benefits are realised only if all the details are transparent and known in advance. The Cross City Tunnel in Sydney provides the perfect example of what can go wrong as I've previously commented.

    IMHO, the key matters to be determined include:

    1. All the contractual terms should be on public record.

    2. PPPs/toll roads should not reduce competition i.e. by changing existing roading and/or public transport to "encourage" drivers to use the new infrastructure.

    3. The has to be clarity about the risk. In his earlier piece on this, Russell noted that National's plan "offer a guaranteed return from the projects they fund", if this remains the case, then the public is underwriting the risk - and you have to ask what the point is then (incidentally, the NSW State Government didn't with at least the Cross City Tunnel if not other toll roads).

    I should just add, for the sake of anyone who's interested, the CCT and other toll roads in Sydney make life one hell of a lot easier for commuters though I'd not like to be using them every day.

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report

  • Hard News: Listen to the Music,

    Coupled with the fact that some have a vague historic value now

    Still with you and increasingly ambivalent about my book...

    , and they were then re-used in the 2006 reissue without a word of request from anyone....yes I'm pissed off still.

    Still... and also just a little curious about the '06 reissue.

    But seriously, it is interesting to know how you, and I'm assuming your experience wasn't unique, feel about the publication 'cause it occupies/d a central place in my kiwi-cultural store; it, a beautiful piece of Maori art (I wish I could think of a better descriptor that this however) and a battered first edition copy of Keith Sinclair's encyclopedia of NZ plus a couple of other things... Dix sounds like his rush to publish burned the people he wanted to celebrate. Sad that.

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Disco Tom,

    There is no reason why softball is a sport for women and baseball is a sport for men. Softball is an "easier" sport (larger ball, slower pitches, smaller field) and as such is played more by amateur sportspeople who would quickly become disenfranchised if they had to play baseball.

    Women play Baseball in Sydney - I've got family who play in a local league with ten teams plus there's another larger competition run across NSW. My three year old, on seeing blokes play Baseball in our local park stated "but daddy, boys don't play Baseball, girls do..." (she's also convinced only blokes play Netball 'cause I do).

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report

  • Hard News: Listen to the Music,

    None of the photos supplied to John were ever returned. For me it was things like the first Suburban Reptiles photoshoot, early Meeemees live shots etc etc..a huge number.

    Ahhh, yes, well I'd be thoroughly pissed off about that, it'd be like losing favourite photos of family.

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report

  • Hard News: Listen to the Music,

    You're really going to have to elaborate now Simon...

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report

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