July 5, 2012 3:00pm by David Farrar

Column topics

As it had been a light political week, I asked on Twitter or Facebook if people could think of anything more interesting to write on for my NZ Herald column than the ETS changes. In the end I went with alcohol minimum pricing, but people may be interested to see all the suggestions made which were:

  • you could explain why the taxpayer is picking up the cost for polluters. not so much “market” in that market-based policy
  • list the companies that the melons would shut down if they got into Govt .. might need a biger than normal column
  • Stephen Gale’s appointment?
  • Definitely ETS.
  • how the left somehow blame fracking for last nites earthquake
  • You’re forgetting the big news of the week… NZCS became @IITPnz 🙂
  • Discopants could be a great topic!
  • anything but the speakers tour…
  • Proposed minimum alcohol prices?
  • US Intellectual Property laws as the Manifest Destiny of the 21st Century.
  •  “internal enemies” as ministerial rhetoric.
  •  the rain in Auckland. No seriously, slow week. how about Speaker’s trip flying business class, cost to taxpayer $110 K?
  • welfaredrugtesting – why the politics are easy but the implementation is bloody hard
  • Propensity of the Greens to demand independent enquiries?
  • you could talk about alcohol minimum pricing as well and just do a general drugs related riff.
  • international relations. ETS and asylum seeker issue. NZ helped under the Pacific Solution.
  • How about “How to sprint down 10 floors faster than Usain Bolt”
  • alcohol minimum price-related?
  • plain pack, Navy/Hawaii/nuclear ‘snub’, ETS changes, drug testing proposal or national standards data?
  • the keep it 18 campaign & alcohol law reform?
  • ETS sounds good. Yay, free trade for carbon credits…
  • Polls look like a narrow Obama win, esp marginal states
  • how about Psa?
  • Defn8ly go with ETS mate. Farmers need a break especially with the result of the ladt milk auction
  • Sick of the ETS. Go for the Taxpayer funded parliamentary trip of dubious intent. Fenton / O’Rourke / Hughes et al. And Speaker + wife.
  • How about Lenny baby swanning off on a junket, after his press release of the proposed rate payers petrol head event.
  • the Auckland Transport inner city rail loop plan that has yet to actually get the funding it needs from central govt.
  •  Mr Dotcom sues NZ, and will Mr key personally cough up the money if Mr Dotcom should win?
  • why nz is better than Australia to live
  • Perhaps if Dr Chris Warner will get off the murder charge?
  •  is “Drop, Cover and Hold” really good advice?
  • On the parliamentary security guy who died suddenly. Security have a very important job to do at parliament and sounds like he will be very much missed. (Especially after the earthquake last night – who knows what tomorrow will bring…….).
  •  Alcohol reform and the 4 Maori Party SOPs.
  • Asset sales and post modern feminism, if you dare ?
  • Seriously, a libertarians perspective of minimum alcohol pricing would be interesting
  • Prometheus as a part of the Alien canon… Has Ridley Scott become Michael Bay?
  • How about peak oil and the Monbiot expose – about how Malthusians refuse to die out, no matter how often they are proven wrong?
  • How about: “Not Guilty versus Not Proven – how the lynch mob mentality can drive Justice Policy”?
  • The Higgs Boson. What else is left?
  • Drug testing of beneficiaries
  • Food rescue (kaibosh) and need for good Samaritan legislation
  •  the extradition treaty with the US. I believe NZ needs to stand up on its hind legs over this one. The Dotcom case should have been discarded out-of-hand by our police. It is not our police force’s business to defend Hollywood’s Inte…
  • How TV3 news seems to be dominated by the whining left?
  • Plenty on Auckland politics, especially as we JAFAs are asking the national tax payer for a few billion
  • I think the Aussie super story is one that deserves mores legs over there. Has been pushed pretty heavily here in SYD today.
  • I find it annoying the ETS has escaped as much public pressure as it has – now implemented and forgotten. Making energy more expensive for all of us inaccessible for those on the lowest incomes the greatest travesty of all of it. Nail that f**ker to the wall
  • The Greens and their inquiries into everything would be a good angle.
  • Have a personal interest in ETS but think universal benefit is my new favourite rant. When your kid is diagnosed with a terminal disease you should not have to stand down from benefits…but I was at dinner stop hope you got something sorted
  • How about the need to target health benefits better. I no long work in the sector but the universal subsidies on pharmaceuticals still makes no sense. Tis is an issue of both the fee per item and also the ceiling (or safety net) of 20 scripts. Have a look at what they do in Australia!
  • TAX

I’m never again going to complain about a lack of things to write about!