Posts by Rich of Observationz
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Not to get on this futile fairground ride again, Neil, I'm not in the least bewildered that the American primary process tips the signal to noise ratio far too far in the wrong direction.
I'm amazed anyone takes an interest. They're still going to elect an American...
But seriously, nothing in the primary process is anything other than convention. Why doesn't the Democratic party just hold an nationwide STV primary vote on the fourth of August and have three months to campaign against the other lot?
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It affects people's perceptions though.
For instance, try finding a car crash reported in the Guardian or New York Times. They don't cover them unless there victims are exceptionally numerous or notable. NZ media covers every fatality, giving one the impression that this is more of a land of carnage than it actually is.
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I'd actually be interested to see if the legal action challenging the A-G's report gets that far. Because it's probably part of the "proceedings of Parliament" and the 1689 Bill of Rights (which *is* enforceable) put those beyond challenge in the courts.
That's a disadvantage of our system, of course. In other countries (US and Europe) a claimed conflict in legislation can be litigated through the whole court system. Here, it's down to a five page report from a few government lawyers. (I'm not sure if Parliament could vote to reject a report, but it seems pointless when they could just defeat a Bill).
But if anyone knows otherwise?
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Cullen should have told Parliament the Bill conflicts with the bill of rights - hence presumably that the act should be thrown out.
No, Parliament passes acts that conflict with the Bill of Rights all the time - see the advice on the Misuse of Drugs (BZP) Act
Basically, the BoR is a pointless adornment. We should have a proper BOR that allows legislation to be voided, but don't.
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I've been around long enough to see the change from the Horton family to Sir Tony O'Reilly has wrought on the NZ herald in particular. The Fairfax media backed Howard in Australia and they back the Nats here.
Um.. The Herald belongs to APN, which is over 25% owned by Independent News and Media, which is 26% owned by O'Reilly. No Fairfax involvement there.
Fairfax own the Dom Post.
Other O'Reilly influenced papers aren't particularly right-wing, e.g. the (London) Independent. I haven't been around that long, but I get the impression that the Herald has always been right-wing, but went through a period of trying to disguise it.
Also, I think the rightist nature of NZ media (TV as well as papers) is more a matter of self-perpetuation, with a right-wing incumbent management hiring mostly rightists. Maybe this will change, but I doubt it.
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I would say that one could summarise the entire content in that bulletin in 1500 words or less, which would take me about ten minutes max to read.
One of the main reasons I don't have a telly.
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The thing is, as voters, aren't we entitled to elect a government and have it implement the policies it was elected on? Politicians should decide and public servants advise and implement.
With 60 or so government MPs (some of whom are bound to be incompetent or criminal) plus a budget for maybe the same number of party advisers, that isn't very many people to supervise and make the decisions. Can we really expect somebody who's a dyed-in-the wool neo-liberal to implement social market policy? Or a safety obsessive at LTNZ to accept a less prescriptive attitude to road safety?
Maybe we need to bite the bullet and have a temporary civil service of a few hundred people on 3-year contracts, to *complement* the permanent staff?
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You could have posted this 12 hours prior. There's a nice little path through the Town Belt past the back of Premier House.
I've always thought it a nice thing about NZ that there aren't SAS and cops hiding in the trees up there providing security. But then if there are naked 50-somethings covered in possum fat, dancing, I think that may act as a more effective deterrent.
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These are (presumably) factual pamphlets.
Surely National activists will also want to hand them out and explain why Kiwisaver is bad and they want to scrap it. Same for the extra week's holiday, Working for Families, interest-free student loans, etc.
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Of course, comedy stars burst brightly and burn out quickly. John Cleese had the right idea in only making twelve episodes (ok, it might not be intentional. He broke up with his then wife Connie Booth, who played Polly, during the making of the second series).
I predict that Flight of the Conchords will shortly stop being funny, this will not be accepted by those involved, and they will still be cranking it out in 2047. In Vegas (whether roto- or las remains to be seen).
Incidentally, the BBC R4 "comedy half hour" has done a lot for British comedy by letting comedians try out at limited expense before creating a TV show. Most funny comedy in the last 15 years has come through this path.