General Debate 6 April 2009

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campit

DPF, you might want want to check the settings under Ajax Edit Comments. Check the countdown timer is set to Yes. All of the relevant javascript appears to be in the source code of your pages, so it looks as if it is activated correctly. Either that or check you have the latest version of the plug in which is 2.3.2.1

[DPF: It is latest version and countdown is set for three minutes. I have turned off gravatars as that can interfere and deleted the temporary security keys generated when someone edits (has happened 22,000 times!)
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April 6, 2009 8:07am
barry

What a wanker that Bob Harvey is. After sucking on the public tit (well the waitakere ratepayers anyway) he now has the check to say that – among others – hes been screwing the residents of the auckland area with useless administration and planning.

One can only assume that he’s lining himself up for the greater auckland mayor – you know “Yes , I admit it, the old system was no good and I can see the right way to do it – so vote for me”

Useless bum.
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April 6, 2009 8:14am
libertyscott

Doesn’t anyone think that the mega Auckland city debate should be delayed until there is a more fundamental review of what the role of local government should be? Labour passed legislation to allow local government to do nearly anything, meaning it could grow and grow hindered only by the councillors’ ambitions.

Isn’t it about time to constrain councils to what are commonly referred to as public goods? Or be braver and restructure the Police to operate at the local level so it can be locally accountable?
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April 6, 2009 8:32am
artemisia

Reparation for crime victims. Or probably not, if last night’s Sunday programme is even partly true. Nice piece of investigative journalism, though seems highly likely the story of the rest of the iceberg is still to be told. I wonder if there will now be a flood of responses from victims of crime about their experiences. The Department for Courts came off looking decidedly incompetent, and the Minister for Courts Georgina Te Heuheu scarcely less so. Very disappointing showing from the minister. Her waffling and uncomfortable responses sounded like she had no idea what was going on. And a cliffhanger at the end of the story, in which a previous employee suggested an investigation into the millions and millions of dollars in the reparation programme’s suspense account.
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April 6, 2009 8:35am
kiwipolemicist

Today the NZ Herald said that a baby was born with the help of John Key, but this is somewhere between extremely imaginative and utterly untrue:

An eye specialists’ outreach tour to a remote area of the Solomon Islands, funded by the auction of John Key’s broken arm cast, took an unexpected turn when they were asked to perform an emergency caesarean.

The stupidity of the mainstream media in this country beggars belief.

http://kiwipolemicist.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/baby-born-with-help-of-john-key-or-not/
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April 6, 2009 8:41am
kiwipolemicist

DPF: a couple of times now I’ve closed the HTML tags in a comment but the comment has shown up as if having unclosed tags.
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April 6, 2009 8:42am
Inventory2

There is an outstanding piece on drink-driving on the Herald website this morning =- we’ve reproduced it in full, and reckon other blogs should consider doing likewise – it’s certainly worth reading

http://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2009/04/getting-away-with-murder.html
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April 6, 2009 8:49am
Paul Marsden

Re Bain case. Anyone here surprised that the computer was not the subject of more detailed forensic testing? For example, were there attempts to lift fingerprints, handprints, body fluids etc from the keys, keyboard and frame? Yes I know, there would be a surfeit of foresnics from other computer users, but I’d love to know if the key strokes in a particular, were tested for fingerprints.

If you can match the prints on the keystrokes, then you have the killer. Simple.
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April 6, 2009 8:52am
greenfly

This cycleway project – it’s such a popular one – caught the imagination of the public etc. Why is English trashing it!! Baldly stating that the cycleway won’t get even the basic 50 million Key said was needed – maybe one million only, according to English! One million! The cost of a single house (in some parts of the country). What has happened to the vision? The Job Summit is proving to be nothing but the talkfest Key promised it wouldn’t be. The public will be disenchanted.
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April 6, 2009 8:53am
aardvark

How come the world is up in (quite literally) arms over N.Korea’s rocket/nuke aspirations while they are happy to include China in the nuke-club?

If the criteria for objection to new entrants to the nuke club are a propensity to invade one’s neighbours and the abuse of human rights, ought-not the Chinese be made to hand back their membership card?

How much of this duplicity is down to the fact that the US and Europe are just acting like bullies and only picking fights with the weakest of opponents?

Yeah I blogged about this today.
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April 6, 2009 9:09am
Inventory2

greenfly said “The public will be disenchanted.”

Yeah greenfly, I guess the public is disenchanted, going by the Colmar Brunton poll last night. I see that the Greens were at 7%, which is quite a bit lower than Colmar Brunton had the Greens rating in the week of the election, and look what happened there.
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April 6, 2009 9:13am
libertyscott

Aardvark – China has been a nuclear weapons state since the 1960s and isn’t broadcasting bellicose rhetoric about liberating South Korea or teaching Japan a lesson every single day. How do you propose making China “hand back its membership card” since it is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and is the world’s 3rd biggest economy?

Or I guess the fact that North Korea is a totalitarian cult of personality run dictatorship, which has a 1 million man army, which has chemical weapons and scud missiles, that enslaves its population in near total isolation, constantly proclaims to its own population that attack is imminent, constantly proclaims it is the beacon of global Marxist Leninist revolution – escaped you?

North Korea makes China’s human rights look like a holiday camp. In China you can by and large get on with your life and not face political repression unless you are a political activist – in North Korea you go to the gulag for sitting on a newspaper image of the Kims.

Oh and how would you confront China? Want another Cold War? or do you really think China will surrender its nuclear capability under threats of Western attack?
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April 6, 2009 9:18am
Ryan Sproull

If the criteria for objection to new entrants to the nuke club are a propensity to invade one’s neighbours and the abuse of human rights, ought-not the Chinese be made to hand back their membership card?

There wouldn’t be many people in the nuke club at all if they could be made to hand back their membership cards for doing stuff like that.
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April 6, 2009 9:20am
greenfly

Inventory2 – granted, but what do you think about the progress of the cycleway and Bill English’s statements on Q&A? There is a real problem with the project and the public have had their expectations built up by John Key.
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April 6, 2009 9:29am
Neil

Thi9s is also related to the Clark-Davis interview on Q and A.
Davis saying thAT Helen felt let down after being rejected as PM. Quite a natural reaction, authoritarian long term leaders eventually run out of puff but they don’t know they are sliding in public opinion.Simply because they despise the large “unwashed non-pc group.
Clark was “hated” outside the coffee bars,lesbian and gay establishments,pc areas. Any sane person knew that HC was a big reason for Labours defeat.
Her demise was on board in 2005, when rural and provincial New Zealand said no more to HC.Urban voters caught up three years later.
In our small town we had a stupid mayor who thought she was loved by all. When she suffered her 2-1 defeat she blamed everyone but herself. She lost because she got out of synch with the local people. The same with HC
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April 6, 2009 9:39am
freethinker

I notice Frogbog says the Greens are inviting Winston to join them – yippee this will completly stuff their future. And talking of future I welcome the report if true that Rodney Hide is to introduce a bill to force local councils to have a referendum on rate increases in excess of the RPI – second yippee all I need for the trifecta is Winston to repay the money he stole off the taxpayer.
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April 6, 2009 9:44am
Inventory2

greenfly – speaking personally, I hate cycling, and I think that the term “fun run” is almost the ultimate oxymorom – almost as bad as “honest lawyer” (although with my Darling Daughter now studying law, maybe I should rethink that 😉 ) or – wait for it – “principled Green”!!
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April 6, 2009 9:47am
aardvark

libertyscott… have you listened to China’s rhetoric and threats over Taiwan?

I see little difference between that and the examples you cited.

Also, N.Korea is only abusing the human rights of its own people — China is abusing those of its annexed neighbours — isn’t that even worse?
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April 6, 2009 9:55am
adamsmith1922

libertyscott earlier on Local Government

I tend to agree with you, all haste no improvement.

Michael Bassett has commented in similar vein as I note here http://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/bassett-on-auckland/

The power of general competence should be removed for starters. A commenter on my post refers to an article by Owen McShane which may well be worth a look as well
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April 6, 2009 9:58am
Inventory2

You’re not going to the cricket either then Adam?
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April 6, 2009 10:00am
goodgod

The Job Summit is proving to be nothing but the talkfest Key promised it wouldn’t be. The public will be disenchanted.

I honestly believe the public didn’t get the chance to become disenchanted because they weren’t listening to start with. After 9 years of daft ideas they could recognise another silly one when they saw it, but since it was never likely to get off the ground and wasn’t aimed at reorganising their living rooms they were quite happy to say nothing.
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April 6, 2009 10:27am
PhilBest

I love cycling. As a twenty-something year old, I even donated money to “Cycle Aware”.

I believe we should have a nationwide network of cycle tracks. There is a very good one already in place. We should just pull up all the rails and sleepers.
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April 6, 2009 10:43am
greenfly

The value of cycling aside – this project was the ‘cheerful face’ of the job summit, something for people to rally behind. English has poured cold water over both it and his ‘cloud jumping’ boss. It was an odd interview from that point of view. Who, we might ask, is wearing the trousers?
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April 6, 2009 10:57am
Inventory2

Both are wearing trousers greenfly, because neither is a kaftan-wearing greenie! However Key is the boss, so the old maxin applies – the boss may not always be right, but he’s always the boss. Mrs I and I use that too with our business, but in that instance substitute she for he 😉
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April 6, 2009 11:04am
greenfly

chortle, chortle Inventory2, but nothing of substance from you on the issue? Key says Great Project, Jobs for All, Inspirational Stuff and English says…Nah! The Boss may well ‘always be right’ but a major, public contradiction like the one English made is bad for business.
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April 6, 2009 11:31am
Inventory2

But is it a contradiction greenfly? You see, over on this side, things aren’t always as black and whire as they are on the left. Key’s right – it’s a great idea. English is also right – he has to budget for it. And that’s where an interesting concept comes into play – compromise. That’s where the two parties work to find a solution that will work for both of them. Unfortunately, the Greens think that compromise is what you do to your principles.
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April 6, 2009 11:42am
Inventory2

Whoops – end of the first line should, of course read “black and white”

Bring back the edit function please DPF!
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April 6, 2009 11:43am
bchapman

The purpose of the jobs summit was to provide shovel ready projects that could support employment and creative industries until things improved later (whenever that may be). What’s the point of putting off the cycleway to the never never? Memo leaders- its no good waiting for unemployment to hit 10% before doing anything.
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April 6, 2009 11:50am
greenfly

Inventory2 – Look! bchapman made a reasoned contribution to the debate, without resorting to snippy criticisms of the Greens! His comment is insightful too. I bet you could make insightful comments as well, Inventory2!
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April 6, 2009 12:49pm
Inventory2

greenfly – I just looooove making insightful comments, I really do! I’ll try harder. What I said before is that there is merit in both what Key and English are saying. The cycleway idea is an excellent initiative. That Key is its main proponent, whilst also serving as Tourism Minister is not surprising; it will be good for both domestic and inbound tourism. But at the end of the day English has a budget to prepare, and if you don’t have the dosh, you can’t spend it. As I( said earlier, in very insightful fashion, there is doubtless a compromise that can be reached which will leave both JK abd BE feeling “mana-enhanced”. You, like me as a parent would know that, not that the children do!

There – was that insightful enough for you?
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April 6, 2009 1:05pm
greenfly

Inventory2 – thanks for that insight. The compromise you expect might well eventuate, but I’m genuinely perturbed by the public dissonance. Surely the two could have discussed this in private, rather than spring the contradictory approaches on the viewing public. That said, English has clearly done that consciously. Guess we could blame the miserly grinch for the haul-back on the project, rather than the unstainable Key 🙂 . All in all, the cycleway proposal has taken a dive as a flagship project and example of the ‘Key’ approach to getting things done. It’s become very iffy.
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April 6, 2009 1:36pm
getstaffed

Big Brother row as police force starts using Google camera cars to fine wayward drivers.

Totalitarianism anyone?
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April 6, 2009 3:22pm
libertyscott

aardvark – China and Taiwan are closely connected in economic terms, and now have travel between them. You don’t read or listen to rhetoric from China on Taiwan and compare it to the venom of the Korean Central News Agency. You have a bee in your bonnet about Tibet, for some good reason. Still Tibet remains relatively open compared to North Korea. You need to do some research, you’re seriously naive – besides you have absolutely no answers to the question as to how large countries should confront China regarding a province that virtually all recognise as being governed by Beijing.
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April 6, 2009 5:32pm
wikiriwhis business

There are very little accidents in 50k areas.

I don’t know why cops observe at peak times either when the traffic is bumper to bumper.

THere’s no place to commit error at that time of day.

policing 50k areas is 100% proof of revenuing
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April 6, 2009 10:23pm
Poliwatch

From the NZ Herald

Not one of the 423 prisoners serving life sentences would have been stopped by the proposed “three strikes” law, official information reveals.

The Department of Corrections has released information that shows none of the prisoners would have been “struck out” before the offence that earned the life sentence.

The information is based on the definition of a “strike” in the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill – one of a list of violent offences where the offender has been given a sentence of five years or more.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/crime/news/article.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=10565592
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April 7, 2009 5:35am

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