Posts by Russell Brown
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It’s not the worst assault ever, but that’s beside the point. Key was in no danger – he was already on his way. And Prime Ministerial security guards do not get to lay a hand on Members of Parliament who are doing their jobs.
Fucksake. What a day.
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The dead cat got even more prominence because the Speaker of the House, National’s David Carter, inexplicably ruled that it is perfectly fine within Parliament’s rules to accuse MPs of “backing rapists” or “putting yourself on the side of sex offenders.”
Carter's performance today was unbelievable. Bear in mind that he actually had to cut Key's mic when he made the same offensive claims yet again.
Also, Carter's patronising putdown of Marama Davidson, interrupting a pretty standard – and mostly certainly relevant – question to remind her what a noob she was ... just disgraceful. The whole thing.
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Hard News: After Len, in reply to Angela Hart,
In my view there are two reasons rail is deserving, one is the potential to get a lot more cars off the jam packed roads
The issue in Auckland is that the projections suggest there won't be enough room for buses unless we improve urban rail capacity.
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Hard News: After Len, in reply to Swan,
I couldnt find the original press release but that is the summary from the MOT. So we havent had the definitive business case yet.
I was focusing more on the commitment to government providing “its share of funding for a construction start in 2020”. It doesn’t say “subject to a business case”.
All appeals against the land designations have been resolved or dismissed. It starts this month. It is happening.
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Hard News: After Len, in reply to Swan,
When the central government announced support of the CRL, they said they would undertake a joint business case with the council in 2017. That indeed has not happened yet, and accordingly council is jumping the gun spending so much money in advance of it.
Not quite. The government confirmed two years it would help fund the CRL – but Key declared it would do so on a "slower scale" and delay the start of work until 2020.
This arbitrary decision was terrible for a number of reasons. The trains are already overcrowded. And the Downtown mall owners couldn't just sit around twiddling their thumbs for another five years – and the CRL work there has to be done in conjunction with their demolition and rebuild. So the Council decided to begin the preparatory works.
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Hard News: After Len, in reply to Sacha,
Having any more right-wing councillors (like Ralston) will shift the focus back to ‘keeping rates down’ (regardless of the truth) as it has been for decades under C&R. We are stuck paying for many years to come for the catch-up on the water/sewer network maintenance they decided could be put off indefinitely – let alone seeing anything ambitious for this region’s future…
Ralston has repeatedly stated he wants to push on with public transport development, which is very largely debt-funded. So he has a little bit of a problem there. But that's what quoting the Taxpayers' Onion gets you.
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Guys! Everything's okay! They've saved The Bachelor!
(News from the Herald's spy.co.nz, which is eating the lunch of yet another MediaWorks flub, Scout, on what I'm guessing will be a fraction of the budget.)
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Duncan Greive was enthusiastic about the launch of the “new” MediaWorks a year ago. Last week, he wrote this:
Now 3D has been put into the Campbell Live sleeper hold, after being shunted from a plum 6.30pm Sunday slot, straight after the news, to a terrible 9.30pm Monday slot, following that well-known current affairs lead-in Heroes Reborn. Shockingly, its ratings fell.
But it’s hardly alone there. The Block had its worst debut ever. X Factor had its audience drop by a third between seasons. Jono and Ben has suffered too, mostly courtesy of a series of disastrous lead-ins post Campbell Live. Some of the overall decline is attributable to the loss of Home and Away, sure. But some must be linked to the callous and contemptuous attitude toward news the channel has exhibited.
News used to be a signature of TV3 – pacy, punchy, no-bullshit news. It had an energy and attitude which seeped into everything the channel did and stood for. But the summary execution of two of its biggest news properties, despite an uproar and Campbell Live‘s extraordinary ratings, gives credibility to the conspiracy theorists.
They’ve long muttered that the Weldon-Christie duo really are ridding TV3 of anything resembling hard news, anything problematic to their political views.
I still don’t think that’s the case. Seems too crazy, despite the circumstantial evidence. I’m leaning more toward another diagnosis: incompetence.
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Hard News: After Len, in reply to Glenn Pearce,
That is incorrect, “per ratepayer” figures refer to per “Rating Unit” which is basically 1 Certificate of Title so all Housing NZ would not count as 1 Ratepayer as you suggest.
I stand corrected!
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Hard News: After Len, in reply to Mark Graham,
Did anyone hear Bill Ralston on RNZ this morning? “Debt out of control"…"some one needs to step in…"…"rates, rates, rates.” What utter bullshit.
There is nothing out of control. Ralston’s “most indebted ratepayers in the country” claim refers to the Taxpayers’ Union’s ropey “per ratepayer” number. It’s not about counting landlords, ffs. There is, for instance, one ratepayer for all the rates-attracting properties owned by Housing New Zealand in Auckland.
Also, Auckland Council has an S&P credit rating of AA: the same as the New Zealand government, better than most councils and better than all our banks.
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