Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Rugby Now, in reply to Hugh Wilson,
Its been good to see Super Rugby visiting the Pacific a couple of times this season
The great atmosphere at that Chiefs-Crusaders game in Suva was apparent even on the TV coverage.
the relentless and booming mix of music & announcements makes you wonder why you bothered.
It could be so much better.
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Hard News: Rugby Now, in reply to John Palethorpe,
Cleaver’s piece highlights the overbearing role the ABs play in rugby, sucking up all the sponsorship and providing the game as a consumable product which replaces the grassroots involvement in the game.
That’s affecting SR teams too, almost none of which fill their AB test designed caverns of stadia, meaning its hard to get an atmosphere going.
Yeah, true. Otoh, it is the All Blacks that represent most of the value in the broadcast deal. Fingers crossed we enter a new era in 2019. I assume Spark will be doing its numbers on bidding for one or more tiers of the game.
And, oh, wouldn't it be great to have a compact, single-purpose 25,000-capacity rugby ground in Auckland?
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Hard News: Rugby Now, in reply to billtaylor,
I gave up going to live games two or thee years ago when I went with my English in-laws to a game at Eden Park – the Blues v someone. It was expensive, the alcohol was also ridiculously expensive and the food limited and also expensive.
Yeah, like I said, I ended up as pissed off by the standard of the event as the standard of the rugby. It just said nothing about about Auckland – because, it seemed to me, the Blues board was hopeless and detached. I hope it's improved now.
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Hard News: Drugs and why Dunne did it, in reply to Rob Stowell,
It’s unlikely to be a coincidence Dunne is promoting liberalisation in the first election I can remember where a clear majority of the country want cannabis law reform.
Gah, I know that I said I wanted to move past discussion about Dunne, but a year ago he was literally the only NZ MP actively countenancing cannabis law reform. The Greens, of course, renewed and refreshed their position in December. As Ross Bell notes above, it's promising just to have political parties talking about it.
Andrew Little is another idiotic hurdle. It’s like he hates being on the same side as public opinion.
I actually heard from someone who gave Little a copy of Chasing the Scream this year – and next time he saw him, was thanked and told by Little that he'd passed the book on to other members of his caucus. So maybe it's just been a matter of not being exposed to the evidence. They're still not going to say boo this year, beyond a pretty vague stance on medical cannabis. But as I was trying to say in the post, it's what happens in the next term that's important.
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Hard News: Rugby Now, in reply to Tom Semmens,
thanks to the NZRFU seeming to think the game is safe with the dying Sky business model
I don't think the NZRU thinks that. They're contracted into the present deal until 2019, so the action starts next year. The chair of its board is former Mediaworks CEO Brent Impey, who I am very sure has been exploring the options already.
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Relevant: at The Spinoff Gareth Shute talks to Dr David Galler about health, housing and the current "chaos of social policies".
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Tonight’s broadcast episode won’t be up until the morning, but for now here’s The extended “open floor” discussion with tonight’s Media Take panelists. There is conflict and a moving conclusion. 23 minutes of extended discussion with all the panelists .
It contains a fair bit of conflict, but Patricia, silent till the very end, brings it all home.
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Hard News: Drugs and why Dunne did it, in reply to Katharine Moody,
was only a sop to the nutbars in his caucus
Dunne has a caucus? “Nutbars”, such a cute expression.
Back when he did – and it included the drug warrior Pauline Gardiner. I can't recall exactly what word he used, but it wasn't far off "nutbar".
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Hard News: Drugs and why Dunne did it, in reply to BenWilson,
Where’s his campaign message, his public statements that having seen all the evidence presented over 15 years in the role that he really, finally, actually stands for something other than centrism?
In the speech, statement and interviews linked to in the post above, in which he proposes an undeniably radical shift in policy? It is actually the culmination of positions he’s taken over the past six years or so, and makes explicit the principles in the National Drug Policy, which he oversaw.
I’ve been critical of Dunne plenty for not being as bold as he likes to think he is. Yeah, he always has an eye on what’s politically possible. It just seems odd to come down on him for proposing something really bold.
Because functionally it’s as if McClay still held the portfolio.
It really isn’t, but I don't think there's any point arguing any more.. Can we talk about what you think a new Misuse of Drugs Act should look like, what you think is achievable, etc?
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I'm a bit frustrated this is all turning into an argument about Dunne rather than a discussion of policy, but I suppose it's my fault for putting his name in the headline.
I'm genuinely excited by the fact that the Act will have to be rewritten after the election(the process actually begins in November). It's a special time.
One win I think will be highly achievable is Section 12:
12 Use of premises or vehicle, etc
(1)
Every person commits an offence against this Act who knowingly permits any premises or any vessel, aircraft, hovercraft, motor vehicle, or other mode of conveyance to be used for the purpose of the commission of an offence against this Act.
(2)
Every person who commits an offence against this section is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term—
(a)
not exceeding 10 years where a Class A controlled drug was the controlled drug or one of the controlled drugs in relation to which the offence was committed:
(b)
not exceeding 7 years where paragraph (a) does not apply but a Class B controlled drug was the controlled drug or one of the controlled drugs in relation to which the offence was committed:
(c)
not exceeding 3 years in any other case.This is the impediment to harm reduction services at events. A promoter who acknowledges there are people taking drugs in his hovercraft faces 10 years in jail – or, more realistically, the voiding of his insurance.
It's a relatively minor amendment to create an exception for broadly-defined harm reduction services. This alone would put us ahead of most of the world. Dunne and his officials strongly support it, the police probably will too and I think Jacinda Ardern could persuade her colleagues. Ideally, harm reduction, including drug-checking where appropriate, would become part of the health and safety expectations of such events. That'd be a real win.