Tu is an intense drama.  A Maori East Coast family is torn apart both emotionally and literally by the shafts of love, strife and war.

The play is based on the novel by Patrica Grace. Old Tu (Tammy Davis) recounts what happened to him and his brothers and family as they went to war in the 1940s.

The three brothers are Philomel, or older brother; Boydie and Tu. They’re played by Jarod Rawiri, Taungaroa Emile and Kimo Houltham respectively. Boydie is the flashy charmer. Philomel is looking forward to life with Jess (Aroha White) and Tu is the typical younger brother. Tina Cook performs wonderfully as their Ma, and Kali Kopae is the at home daughter taking an interest in the US marines stationed in Wellington.

The set is surrounded by audience on both sides of it, making it an unusual viewing experience, as you can see the reactions of those seated opposite.

It’s a hard show to summarise, as so much of it is caught up in the emotional intensity of the scenes. You spend the last 20 minutes almost on the edge of your seat – even though you sort of know the inevitable ending.

A great NZ production, that resonated with the audience.

Also reviewed at Theatreview.

Clare Curran released:

The Government’s refusal to break the stranglehold of pay-TV company Sky on the media market has contributed to the position MediaWorks finds itself in today, says Labour’s Broadcasting spokesperson Clare Curran.

This is bizarre. Clare seems to have a fetish against Sky TV. It seems they are responsible for everything bad in broadcasting (despite keeping Backbenches on the air) and somehow are magically responsible for Mediaworks taking on too much debt.

TVNZ has remained profitable, so blaming the receivership of Mediaworks on Sky TV is ridiculous, and scapegoating. In fact their problems are long-standing around their level of debt.

“Instead of throwing a $43 million loan at MediaWorks three years ago to bail them out of a short term sticky situation, the Government should have done what most other countries do and free up the market to enable free to air television to compete with pay-television.

I’ve never heard of a loan with commercial interest rates (now repaid) being referred to as throwing money away before.

And by “free up the market”, I presume the actual intent is to regulate against Sky for being too successful!

I notice Clare’s press release is not on the Labour website. Does her statement speak on behalf of the Labour Party? Do they also believe that Sky TV is responsible for Mediaworks having too much debt?

The .nz Domain Name Commission (note I am a director of it) is consulting on a revised proposal to allow registrants to register .nz domain names at the second level (anyname.nz) rather than only the third level (anyname.2ld.nz).

A major concern expressed by some submitters was that existing registrants could feel “forced” to incur extra costs in registering anyname.nz on top of their existing anyname.co.nz name.  To mitigate this issue, DNCL is proposing that existing registrants be able to reserve registration of the equivalent of their current name at the second level (for no cost for at least two years).   DNCL believes this modified proposal delivers significant benefits to registrants without disadvantaging those who do not wish to use a name at the second level.  There are also other changes to the proposal following the initial consultation.

If you’re interested in this issue, I encourage you to make a submission at the above link.

The report of the Labour/Greens/NZ First/Mana inquiry into manufacturing is here.

The best comment in the report was on page 24:

Manufacturing Strategy: submitters made it plain that there was little interest on their part in further “talkfests” about the future of manufacturing in New Zealand, or about the need for a “Manufacturing Strategy”, requiring further extended discussion

Which is ironic, as that is what the entire inquiry has been – a massive talkfest.

What is most hilarious is the major recommendations for macro-economic policy:

• a fairer and less volatile exchange rate through reforms to monetary policy
• refocusing capital investment into the productive economy, rather than housing speculation;
• and lowering structural costs in the economy, such as electricity prices

How amazing. By total coincidence the major macro-economic recommendations happen to be the pre-existing policy of Labour et al. They didn’t even have to think up any new policies.

Gerry Brownlee writes in The Press:

The Christchurch Town Hall is broken and unusable, and fixing it would be an expensive challenge, says the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery, Gerry Brownlee.

it would cost around $130 million to repair it, and insurance would cover only half.

In April 2012 we established the Christchurch Central Development Unit, of which the Christchurch City Council is a part, with the Crown and Ngai Tahu.

Council staff advised and played a significant role in developing the blueprint, ensuring it reflected what Christchurch residents told them. There was strong community support for a performing arts precinct, which was developed into an anchor project.

In 1974, Christchurch opened the premier performing arts facility of its generation.

The Christchurch Town Hall was state of the art for its time. The ultimate compliment was paid when in 1975 the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington was commissioned using the same architects and acoustic engineer.

A building younger than me, is not a heritage building.

Today the Christchurch Town Hall is badly torn apart.

What is left of it sits on some of the worst land from the geotechnical perspective in the central city – in part why it is so seriously damaged. It lies broken and unusable, and fixing it would be an expensive challenge.

We have a clear choice: try to recapture the magic of the past and patch up the town hall, as some want to do; or deliver modern facilities that could again have Christchurch leading the world for quality performing arts spaces.

The blueprint proposes developing an arts and entertainment complex with multiple theatres and performing arts spaces.

It would deliver auditoria of differing sizes, for multiple purposes, across a range of entertainment genres and with the performing arts community’s needs in mind.

This proposal encompasses the things Christchurch residents told the city council they wanted through the Share an Idea process.

It would incorporate space for our music schools.

It would have space for art house cinema and documentaries.

Performance spaces of varying sizes would take some risk out of mounting shows; if more seats were required, they would be at the same venue.

Sounds a much better plan to me, and something that would be used by many many more people than the old Town Hall.

But I have no doubt the Council will vote the other way.

Rob Kidd at Stuff reports:

A lawyer has won a harassment case against a blogger who launched an online campaign to ruin her reputation, setting a major precedent extending the scope of anti-stalking laws.

Judge David Harvey issued blogger Jacqueline Sperling with an indefinite restraining order to protect lawyer Madeleine Flannagan, a rare case in which the Harassment Act has been used to cover blogging. The decision now opens the door to victims of harassment on other online sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Sperling – who created colourful headlines when she outed herself as an ex-methamphetamine addict, ex-prostitute and ex-girlfriend of Michael Laws – was ordered to take down nearly 100 posts and comments from her blog which made derogatory references to Flannagan. …

A year ago, Flannagan and Brown unsuccessfully applied for a restraining order against Sperling, saying she had made numerous hurtful and distressing internet posts about them.

Judge Harvey ordered some posts be taken offline but ruled a restraining order was not required.

Flannagan took legal action a second time after Sperling renewed her online attacks. This time the lawyer won the indefinite restraining order.

Flannagan hailed her win this month as a “precedent-setting case”.

She said it was not the first cyber-bullying case tested by the Harassment Act but it was the first with a detailed judgment.

I’ve got a copy of the judgment, which is here – Flannagan Madeleine v Sperling Jacqueline jud 13052013. It’s an interesting case, as arguably action could have been taken for either defamation or harassment. The problem with defamation proceedings is they take a long time and can turn very expensive. In this case, Madeleine has achieved what she wants – which is (hopefully) and end to the harassment.

It’s good to see that the current law can be used effectively in online cases.

Stuff reports:

Presenters and staff at embattled MediaWorks will keep their jobs following receivers being appointed to the company, but the taxpayer – potentially owed tens of millions of dollars – will be the big loser.

At a press conference this morning receivers Brendan Gibson and Michael Stiassny of KordaMentha said they had been appointed by MediaWorks’ senior lenders to manage a transition in ownership.

Gibson said senior lenders – owed around $400m – were forming a new company and intended to retain all current staff.

“All the 1400 employees will keep their jobs. We’ll be moving to transfer their contracts at an appropriate time,” Gibson said.

Contracts and payments to suppliers would also be met, and current broadcast programming would be unaffected, the receivers said.

For now, no job losses. But hard to think there will not be some down the road as the receivers cut costs to the bone.

The fate of Mediaworks is perhaps a good comparative lesson for non-commercial broadcasters that are taxpayer funded. They’ve been whining about a funding freeze, while their commercial counterparts would sell their right arm to be able to have stable revenue.

The Speaker is now publishing a list of “approved visitors”, which are people like me who have a parliamentary pass. Basically the pass just means you don’t have to go through the metal detector, and can walk around the public areas (but not MPs offices unless you have explicit permission) rather than have to wait at reception or be given a temporary pass to operate the lifts.

Many many more people have passes than those on the above list though. Off memory, the following have then:

• Current MPs and staff (of course)
• Former MPs
• Family members of current MPs
• Hundreds of public servants, maybe over a thousand.
• Interns (often activists with youth wings)
• Press Gallery, and associates

I’d estimate there are 2,000 or so passes out there.

My view is that anyone who is a regular visitor to Parliament, and is not a security risk, should be able to get a pass if they are willing to signs the conditions of use. The last things we want is to made Parliament less accessible. 

Again the passes do not provide access to all areas of Parliament. They do not give you special privileges, beyond saving a bit of time, and allowing you to pop into the cafe (and trust me that doesn’t count as much of a perk!) and bar (which is sadly empty most of the time now).

The Dom Post editorial:

Wellington City Council chief executive Kevin Lavery said he felt “deflated” when councillors blew his carefully crafted annual plan out of the water. He was being diplomatic, no doubt. In fact, the politicians had behaved irresponsibly.

Mr Lavery had presented them with a plan that held rate increases within the council’s self-imposed limit of 2.5 per cent. But then councillors voted to fund extra projects – and by the end of the meeting the rates increase had jumped to 2.75 per cent. Mr Lavery was entitled to feel miffed. Officials “actually gave you $300,000 to spare”, he noted. Instead, they had overshot.

This was bad enough, but Councillor Bryan Pepperell rubbed salt in the wound. He said council staff should work to reduce the rates increase to 2.5 per cent when the full council meets in two weeks to adopt the yearly budget. This was an outrageous suggestion, and Mr Pepperell rightly got a caning for it.

Cr Simon Marsh said it was like saying, “we made the mess, now someone else clean it up”. Exactly.

The buck has to stop with the politicians themselves. They have to make the tough calls on cuts and they have to resist the urge to fund their pet projects. In this case they failed to do either.

We need Councillors who can make tough decisions, rather than keep increasing our rates beyond the ability of households to pay.

Labour, Greens and NZ First release their “report” from their manufactured inquiry into the manufacturing crisis. They specialise in putting out cherry picked data to try and convince people there is a crisis in manufacturing.

To counter that I’m blogging these graphs which are all directly from the Stats NZ Infoshare database and show some key metrics over time, so people can see the actual changes and trends. They are a mixture of positive and negative, but not an indicator of a crisis I would say. In fact all have been improving recently.

This is the manufacturing component of NZ’s GDP. There certainly has been a decline in real prices, but note it started in 2006 and since 2010 it has started growing again.

This is the total gross earnings from people working the the manufacturing sector. A significant fall from Q1 2008 to Q3 2009, but some growth since then.

The number of jobs in the manufacturing sector has been falling since 2004. This is partly because of growing automation.  The large falls began in Q1 2007 until Q4 2009. Since 2009, there has been some modest growth.

The manufacturing sales show a similar pattern. A big decline started Q1 2008. Since Q4 2010, it has been growing – quite strongly in recent months.

This graph I blogged last week and is not from Stats NZ, but the BNZ/Business NZ Performance of Manufacturing Index. It is basically a specialised business confidence index for the sector. It is at a nine year high.

So what do these graphs all show? Several things:

1. NZ suffered from the global financial crisis in late 2008 through to 2010
2. NZ manufacturing started declining prior to the GFC, in Labour’s last term. This is no surprise as we went into recession at the beginning of 2008, and the tradeables sector was in recession from 2005.
3. Jobs in manufacturing have been declining for a longer period, due to automation
4. Every manufacturing indicator is now positive and growing, with confidence for the sector at a nine year high

It’s good for parties to promote alternative economic policies for sectors such as manufacturing. That is what politics is about. It is not good however to try and manufacture a crisis, when there clearly is not a crisis.

As for the exchange rate, have a look at the TWI in the last year.

And before anyone lies, this post was my idea, all my own work, and unknown to everyone else in the entire universe  until it appeared on the blog.

David Fisher at NZ Herald reports:

Opposition leaders say New Zealand’s involvement in the international “Five Eyes” spying network should be included in an inquiry into intelligence agencies.

Labour leader David Shearer and Green co-leader Russel Norman said too little was known about what benefit New Zealand got out of the relationship.

It also brought from Dr Norman comparisons to New Zealand’s rejection of nuclear weapons in the 1980s – a step which saw the country frozen out of friendly relations with the United States for 25 years.

The call comes after a week of international suspicion over spying by the United States’ National Security Agency, a sister agency to New Zealand’s GCSB in the Five Eyes network. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden claimed the agency used data from Apple, Facebook, Google, Yahoo and other tech giants to spy on billions of people.

Mr Shearer pledged to hold an inquiry into the intelligence services if the party won power next year. He said it was an important step towards improving oversight and would include the Five Eyes network.

I expect the Green Party to say things like NZ should consider withdrawing from our intelligence sharing operations with Australia, Canada, UK and US.

But I’m actually shocked that Labour is now agreeing with the Greens, and saying we should look at withdrawing.

I don’t think I can imagine an act more likely to permanently alienate our traditional friends.

Labour’s lurch to the left continues. Look at this list of Green party policies that Labour has now adopted after initially resisting:

• Capital Gains Tax
• Universal Child Payment
• Extending Paid Parental Leave
• Exchange Rate Interventions
• NZ Power nationalisation
• Abolishing youth rates
• Reviewing involvement in Five Eyes

Labour seem determined to battle the Greens for the left vote, and abandon the centre to National.  This is an unusual approach for an opposition.

One of these men is NZ Labour MP David Clark and one is German CDU MP Jens Spahn.

Spahn was elected an MP at the age of 22, and is now 33.

Just been to The Penthouse Theatre to see National Theatre: This House. It’s filmed version of the play, and if you are into politics, I’d call it a must see.

It is based in the House of Commons from 1974 to 1979 and shows the machinations of both Government and Opposition Whips during that five year period of minority government or very unstable majority Government.

Almost all the events shown are based on real life incidents such as the MP who faked his own death and the Liberal Party leader charged with murdering his gay lover.

The play ends with the 1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan government which the Opposition won by 311 to 310.

It is on Monday night at 7 pm and Wednesday morning at 10 am. A three hour show, with an interval. Superbly done and a must see for politicos.

The NZ Herald reviews the Fork & Brewer in Wellington:

Tucked away in a former pizza joint just off Wellington’s Willis St, this pub presented me with something of a problem when I first found it. Having been to an event where the troughing and grazing were top-notch, the stairs were a struggle for me.

However, that was the only struggle I had as I found an absolute gem of a bar at the top; a haven for those who love not just great beer but exceptional food as well.

The place is large enough to accommodate both a generous bar area and a quieter dining area, despite having a brewery slap in the middle of it. With 40 beers on tap, you need to give yourself a bit of time when you visit.

The beer selection is nicely democratic, offering mainstream as well as craft versions, which allows the customer to decide what to drink. Among the craft beers are some stand-out drops, like Renaissance Stonecutter Scotch Ale, Yeastie Boys’ Pot Kettle Black and Fuller’s London Pride among many others. The bottled selection is strong, with a nice choice of beers from around the world.

The wine list is well thought-out and handily priced, while the spirits selection is great.

The service is great, too, with attentive, knowledgeable and, best of all, chatty and genuinely funny people behind the stick, making it the sort of place where even a solo drinker can linger.

The food is simply divine. Chef Anton Legg loves beer and it shows in how he uses spent grain from the brewery as an ingredient in his cuisine. He also makes his own vinegars, which are sensational. If you order the glorious hand-cut, spent-grain-slated chips, make sure you request some of the pale ale vinegar to dip them in. Try the spicy chicken wings, too.

I can thoroughly recommend the chicken wings also!

Wellington is packed with great beer bars (something Auckland should be taking note of) and this is a one of the better ones, taking a simple concept – good beer and good food – and turning it into a real art form. Go there, and enjoy, but make sure you don’t have anything on afterwards because you won’t want to leave.

Scores

Service: 5
Menu: 5
Drinks: 5
Atmosphere: 5
Overall: 5

You can’t complain about a review like that.

Fork & Brewer is my favourite bar in that area of town. Not only does it have great beer, food and service – it also has power plugs at every table for laptops!

BNZ Chief Economist Tony Alexander has eight proposals for helping with housing problems. They are:

1. Initiate a large builder training programme targeting not just youth but low skilled migrants. Yes, the migrant gates would need to be opened. Just the signalling of strong intention to boost builder numbers would make investors think twice about their capital gain assumptions. 
2. Ban councils from imposing any development fees and allow developers to install their own infrastructure. 
3. Create an SOE whose sole purpose is to undercut existing building materials suppliers through bulk purchases from offshore, nodal warehousing and distribution from just three or four locations in the country, with a separate agency responsible for monitoring the quality of materials sourced. 
4. Initiate a new large state house building programme relying largely on the to be created new carpenters etc. Constrain new state houses to more efficient building systems including containerised modular housing (this doesn’t involve shipping containers), central and screwed in foundations, etc. 
5. Ban house sales to non-residents (even new houses given the ease with which special developments could arise targeting solely folk offshore and soaking up construction sector resources). 
6. Impose a tax on all houses owned by Kiwis offshore with the aim of encouraging them to sell them. 
7. Put in place a capital gains tax on second properties and farmland and immediately payable stamp duty for all second house purchases. 
8. Rezone all land within 10-20 kilometres of existing city boundaries as residential

Nice to have some radical thinking in this area. Tony predicts the chances of hos policies being implemented:

Low, zero, zero, mild, mild, zero, low, zero. 

Which ones do you agree with?

I like 1, 2, 6 and 8. I support a CGT but on all properties, not just some.

Stuff reports:

Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani won Iran’s presidential election today, the interior ministry said, scoring a surprising landslide victory over conservative hardliners without the need of a second round run-off.

Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar announced on state television that Rohani secured just over 50 percent of the ballot based on a 72 percent turnout of 50 million eligible voters. “Mr Hassan Rohani … got the absolute majority of votes and was elected as president,” Najjar said.

The outcome will not soon transform Iran’s long tense relations with the West, call into question its disputed pursuit of nuclear power or lessen its support of Syria’s president in the civil war there – matters of national security that remain the domain of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

This doesn’t mean a radical change of policy. The Supreme Leader remains in charge. But it does mean a President who is not as offensive as his predecessor.

Though an establishment figure, Rohani is a former chief nuclear negotiator known for his nuanced, conciliatory approach. He has pledged to promote a policy of “constructive interaction with the world” and to enact a domestic “civil rights charter”.

Rohani’s wide margin revealed a broad reservoir of pro-reform sentiment with many voters, undaunted by restrictions on candidate choice and campaign rallies, seizing the chance to repudiate the dominant hardline elite over Iran’s economic woes, international isolation and crackdowns on social freedoms.

The fact he won on the first ballot is a good sign of strength for the reform movement. Over 36 million Iranians voted and he got 50.7% of the vote, with the next two candidates getting 16.6% and 11.4% respectively.

Rodney Hide writes in the HoS:

It was Dunne’s basic goodness that did for him. Politicians leak all the time. Helen Clark was masterful. But they don’t get caught. That’s because they know what they’re doing.

You certainly don’t use your Parliamentary email. You don’t discuss with a journalist the possibility of leaking. That gives them the power, either through error or design, to get you sacked.

If you’re going to leak, leak; don’t leave your fingerprints all over it.

The leaking, too, has to have a point: it advances your cause, knocks an enemy off course, distracts the media from your own problems, or helps set the agenda. The leak was of no political benefit to Dunne whatsoever.

Most leaks are to disadvantage the other side. This leak disadvantaged the Government he is part of, and didn’t help Dunne at all. A few people think that maybe Dunne wasn’t the leaker – that he just helped Vance confirm the story and she had a second source. But personally I go with Occam’s razor.

The HoS reports:

Teachers at a state school have called in the union to protest about being asked to lead pupils in daily karakia.

The NZEI union has been asked to address concerns held by some staff at Auckland’s Kelston Intermediate School over reciting a Maori prayer before lessons start each day.

The school recites a karakia at the start of its weekly assembly and in classrooms before lessons begin.

Staff deliver the prayer, which asks for the day to be blessed, help with work and to have a good week.

An NZEI spokeswoman confirmed the union was intervening at the school.

“NZEI is helping facilitate further discussion at the school on the issue and the school is welcoming of this.” Kelston Intermediate principal Phil Gordon said he had no idea some staff were unhappy with karakia in the classroom until contacted by the union representative.

A Ministry of Education official said state primary schools were required to be secular – but this didn’t preclude teaching about religion.

There is a difference between teaching about religion, and compulsory prayer sessions led by a teacher.

NZEI is right to intervene and stand up for the rights of their members not to have to partake in a religious ceremony.

Gordon said he reassured the union representative the karakia was a cultural component of school life and an expression of beliefs that reflected the Kelston community.

“I guess what they might have been inquiring about is the presence of karakia, etc, within school so we talked about what we’re doing is not a religious thing but a cultural thing.”

It is both religious and cultural. They can do cultural stuff that is not religious, but prayers by their nature are religious.

Fran O’Sullivan writes at NZ Herald:

David Shearer, Russel Norman and Winston Peters will have an opportunity to present themselves as the “government-in-waiting” when they turn up to HamiltonJet’s premises on Monday to release the results of their parliamentary inquiry into the future of manufacturing.

What awful timing for them. On Friday the Performance of Manufacturing Index hit a ten year high, and on Monday the three parties will have to proclaim how manufacturing is in crisis and dying.

Mechanisms to deal with an “overvalued and volatile dollar” – which include making the dollar and jobs additional priorities for the Reserve Bank,

Again, what bad timing for them as the dollar has dropped by around 10% in the last few weeks.

Over a four-year period manufacturing jobs have fallen by nearly 40,000 (16.7 per cent); the number of manufacturing businesses has dropped by more than 1300 (6.1 per cent); the annual value of manufactured exports was down by 12.4 per cent; and manufacturing profits fell by 17.4 per cent.

Fran doesn’t say which four year period though. In the last four years the Household Labour Force Survey shows 255,600 manufacturing jobs in March 2009 and 246,200 jobs in March 2013 which is a decline of 9,400 – not 40,000.

Now any decline is not good, but 9,400 is one quarter the size of the 40,000 the Greens stick around.

NZ Herald quiz is here.

John Armstrong writes in the NZ Herald:

What were they thinking? Why did four of Labour’s most politically astute MPs – Phil Goff, Annette King, Clayton Cosgrove and Kris Faafoi – not foresee how awful it would look for senior party figures to be seen hobnobbing with SkyCity executives in the company’s corporate box at Ed

Almost a quorum for a caucus meeting!

The consequent perception is that Labour says one thing and does another. And, as oft-stated, perception is everything in politics.

To add further insult to injury, the MPs were fooling no one in lambasting the $400 million-plus project.

At some point, Labour is going to have to shift its position on the convention centre deal away from outright opposition to something more accommodating of the aspirations of the thousands without work in Labour strongholds such as South Auckland who view SkyCity’s latest venture as offering the possibility of a secure job.

It will be fascinating to see their election policy. Will they vow to legislate the deal away without compensation, which would see the convention centre construction stop overnight.

The gains that the party made in the polls earlier this year have largely evaporated. That has been replaced by a discernible sense of drift. David Shearer is once again struggling to gain profile. Sources describe working relationships in the leader’s parliamentary office as “dysfunctional”.

Despite the denials, I have now heard from three independent sources that the decision has been made for staff changes there, and they are actively trying to recruit a replacement.

Some MPs are at cross-purposes over policy. Others – notably Trevor Mallard – are consumed with making mountains out of parliamentary mole-hills. How many times can you stage a walkout from the parliamentary chamber without losing dramatic effect?

As I said, it is now more note-worthy when Mallard doesn’t walk out! And recall this is Labour’s nominee to be Speaker!

The blunt truth is that in terms of activity, innovative ideas, outright attack and all-round impact, the Greens are making Opposition look easy. They are running rings around Labour. They also wisely maintained a degree of perspective regarding Dunne, with Russel Norman this week questioning the value of a privileges committee hearing which is being sought by Labour.

Yep, the Greens did go too far also with talk of Police complaints, but soon wised up and backtracked.

David Shearer’s February reshuffle of his shadow Cabinet has, however, so far failed to create any sense of urgency that might suggest the party actually wants to govern. …

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking ever faster on Shearer.

I think Shearer will survive, because the caucus can no longer just roll him. If they no confidence him, then the leadership goes to a full ballot with the unions and members having the majority of the votes. The outcome of Cunliffe v Robertson is by no means certain.

Michael Forbes at Stuff reports:

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown has been accused of “blatant electioneering” by her mayoral opponent, John Morrison, after she left him out of last-minute efforts to secure a football World Cup qualifying match for the capital.

Ms Wade-Brown was in Auckland yesterday, wooing New Zealand Football officials who will decide where the All Whites will play their final home qualification game in November ahead of next year’s World Cup in Brazil.

The choice is between Wellington’s Westpac Stadium or Auckland’s Eden Park.

Mr Morrison, who is the city council’s sports portfolio leader, said he had been working with Wellington’s bid team for months.

But he found out late on Thursday night that the mayor had “pulled rank” and would be leading the delegation instead of him, he said.

“She’s attempted to basically sneak around me and slip up there [to Auckland] in the hopes that she can come away with some glory, presumably,” Mr Morrison said.

“It’s totally out of order in terms of etiquette,” Mr Morrison said.

“I just hope she doesn’t unstitch the deal since she hasn’t really been involved at all.

“I hope she doesn’t stuff it up for Wellington.”

Ms Wade-Brown, who was yesterday quoted in The Dominion Post as favouring a “consultative and inclusive leadership style”, defended her decision to go.

I think the Mayor is worried that if Morrison pulled off another successful venture, it would make her re-election even tougher. So putting her ambitions ahead of the city. Sad.