Stuff reports:

The three women held captive for a decade at a run-down US house were bound with ropes and chains, police say.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are believed to have been kept in several rooms of Cleveland house at 2207 Seymour Ave where chains, tape and other bondage devices were found.

Charges were expected by the end of the day against the three brothers under arrest.

Neighbours in the largely Puerto Rican neighbourhood said one of the brothers, 52-year-old Ariel Castro, had taken part in the search for one of the missing women, performed music at a fundraiser for her and attended a candlelight vigil, where he comforted her mother.

The women’s plight has riveted the US since 27-year-old Berry kicked through a screen door at the house on Tuesday, used a neighbour’s telephone to call authorities and told a police dispatcher, “I’m free now”. A policeman showed up minutes later and Berry ran out and threw her arms around the officer, a neighbour said.

Once a loved one is missing for more than a week, you probably accept that statistically they will be dead. But hope sometimes wins out, and amazingly these three lost girls were all alive.

This is not the first long-term abduction case, but I think the first with multiple un-related victims.

I can’t comprehend how someone can do this to other human beings. I guess he or they are just sociopaths.

The key dates for the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election are:

• Wed 8 May – date announced
• Wed 29 May – Writ Day
• Thu 30 May – nominations open
• Wed 5 June – nominations close
• Wed 12 June – advance voting starts
• Sat 29 June – E-Day
• Wed 10 July – Official Results
• Thu 18 July – final day for return of the writ

Wellington is 1/10th as Good as Christchurch (even after the
earthquakes).

Kilometres of Christchurch beaches make Oriental Bay look
like a sand pit, which it is, just dumped ships ballast. So
you’re sunbathing on a tip!

Up until the year 2000, I had lived equal durations in both
the Wellington and Canterbury regions, raised my kids in
both, so am qualified to take on Colin Espiner and his
assessment of Wellington vs Auckland.  I’m sorry, but this
will be a one-eyed total slam dunk.

Christchurch is named after God; Wellington after some
British warmonger.

Colin opines,

1. Better coffee. Wellington is powered by caffeine. And
there’s none finer than in the capital.

Well, if “coffee” is Wellington’s best “asset”
let’s just stop now. The same coffee in Wellington is
distributed elsewhere in NZ, so that is an impotent point.
Christchurch has hundreds of cafes and all the main brands
of coffee, as well as its own local roasters.

2. The Brooklyn windmill. Don’t scoff. One of the first in
the country and now a major tourist attraction. The views
from the carpark are stunning.

Any views in Welly (if you’re not being blown over) are
about a tenth as good as the 360 degree views from the Port
Hills (try the Christchurch Gondola, not that red fire
engine on a cable thingy; ours is silent, yours rattles and
bangs away).  Against the Welly Windmill (an ironic but
appropriate fit for Windy Welly) Christchurch has the
Victorian Jubilee clock tower, the bells of several
neo-gothic churches, two massive cathedrals, and had the
Lyttelton time ball.

3. The Bucket Fountain. You’ve got to love a town that
keeps something so hideous and so broken that it’s become
a city icon.

If this is one of Welly’s finest bench-marks then it’s
all over.  It’s a hideous thing.  To counter, Christchurch
has it kitsch Queen Mother Corgis, the stunning Drummonds
outside the Christchurch Art Gallery, the Anzac bridge, the
hideous 9/11 memorial sculpture on Madras St (perhaps the
ugliest public sculpture ever made) or any number of
brilliant public sculptures that grace like artificial
flowers this very fair Garden City.

4. The Penthouse cinema. Arthouse cinema at its finest,
complete with decent red wine and its own theatre cat.

The Art Centre cinemas (Cloisters and Academy), Hollywood at
Sumner, the Rialtos, the Metro, the Regent, as well as the
chains: Hoyts, Movieland and Readings. Christchurch has
gazillions more cinematic options than Welly and even more
than Sydney.  We even have outdoor cinema.

5. Westpac Stadium. Sorry Eden Park, but the Cake Tin is
better in every respect.

I have to concede this one, as Jade is damaged, but we have
several others (our Westpac Stadium for example, as backup)
and Christchurch is getting a huge multi-million dollar job
bordering Cathedral Square.  It will be state-of-the-art.

6. Public transport. Aucklanders haven’t heard of this,
but it’s a fast, cheap, convenient and quick way to get to
work.

Many young adults in Christchurch simply do not have drivers
licenses because they can get anywhere in our city, hassle
free, inexpensively, on the amazing transport system.
Moreover, we have San Francisco style trams, London
double-decker buses, an efficient rail system; it all leaves
Welly for dead.  Our bus drivers are also friendly and
helpful; Welly bus drivers are known for their grumpiness.
It’s the weather.

Christchurch has far more bikes than Welly and the most
amazing suburban rides as well as mountain-biking options
with views the best in the world for this sport.

7. Sunshine and fresh air. OK, sometimes too much fresh air,
but Welly clocks up many more sunshine hours than its
northern sibling.

Blenheim actually has the record, so this goes to a
Mainlander.  Christchurch has much fresher air because we
have a massive range of mountains along our spine, and our
city is much closer to direct prevailing sea winds.

8. Cuba Street. No other city in New Zealand does cool
grunge like Wellington’s Cuba Street. Plus it’s home to
Midnight Espresso, home of the finest nachos in the country.

Sorry, Cuba Street is a second-hand shop with a few buskers.
Christchurch wipes the floor here with its impressive
Cashel Street pop-up Restart Mall (now an international
attraction) and New Regent Street with its tram flow and
Spanish Colonial architecture.  Then there’s Rolleston
Avenue flanked by Christs College, the Canterbury Museum,
the Avon, and spectacular Hagley Park, the rival of NY’s
Central Park. No contest.

9. Wellington’s waterfront. Whereas Auckland and
Christchurch have turned their backs on their ports, the
capital’s is a living, breathing, human space. And you
can’t beat Oriental Parade in the sunshine.

It is abutted by a huge Soviet box (Te Papa paid for by the
rest of us) and trying to access the foreshore is not that
easy.  In Christchurch stroll down to New Brighton and walk
along the Brighton Pier, read a book in the library on the
sea front, or go over to the many bays of Banks Peninsula
where you can swim with dolphins, catch various ferries to
exotic bays like Diamond Harbour, or enjoy the seaman’s
culture of Lyttelton, Scott and Shackleton’s final ports
of call.

10. Houses you can actually afford to buy. Not much point in
living somewhere if you can’t afford it. Wellington house
prices are not cheap, but they’re not stupid either.

You can buy a 2-3 bedroom in Christchurch by the sea for
$149,000 (there are several on Trademe today) or you can buy
multi-million dollar homes in a massive selection of
beautiful suburbs, several with rivers flowing through them.

We haven’t even mentioned the Crusaders (I have to show
some mercy), or the easy access to the great outdoors that
Christchurch has in spades: from alpine skiing to ocean
sports, ballooning, sky sports, caving, mountain climbing
and all within the hour.

Kilometres of beaches make Oriental Bay look like a sand
pit. There is mighty chinook salmon, and trout fishing, in
Christchurch. You can literally hand feed wild trout and NZ
eels within a block of Cathedral Square. We are wrapped
around by an ocean reserve with whales, dolphins, and ocean
fishing. We have a working Maori village, a working modern
Maori tribe, Ngai Tahu, a role model for how Maori can make
the most of historic Treaty settlements.

Our art gallery puts to shame anything in Wellington as does
the vibrant arts community across the spectrum.
Punting-on-the-Avon, the Antarctic Centre, the Cardboard
Cathedral, our huge network of parks, gardens, river and
wetland reserves; the texture of Banks Peninsula. Then
there’s Autumn and Spring.  Christchurch is utterly
gorgeous.

Since 1900, Canterbury has produced seven prime ministers
(Hall-Jones, Holland, Kirk, Palmer, Moore, Shipley, Key) to
Wellington’s three (Fraser, Nash. Marshall).  Aaron
Gilmore may have stood on our List, but he moved to live in
Wellington, so he’s yours.

You may have the (recent) Wellywood investment of Sir Peter
Jackson at Miramar, and Weta, but where are all those films
actually shot?  Canterbury. Heavenly Creatures is a
Christchurch Story.  The Riders of Rohan gallop Canterbury
vistas. Narnia’s centaurs and fawns carouse among our
limestone outcrops.

Sorry Welly, but perhaps the best measure is that more
people choose to live in the Garden City than in the glass
and steel corridor of Welly, jammed in between the Petone
highway and the Ngauranga Gorge.  Christchurch is the second
largest city in New Zealand and shines beside Wellington’s
flickering torch.

~ John Stringer, www.coNZervative.wordpress.com

Pete George has an e-mail from Peter Dunne on why he is not backing the food in schools bill:

I fully understand what is intended by this essentially laudable proposals, but I think it is fundamentally flawed for a number of reasons.

Of course, there is a significant number of children who go to school to hungry, because they have not been properly fed at home, and of course poor nutrition has an adverse effect on learning and the subsequent development of the child. That is not the issue – rather, the question is what is the best way of addressing this problem.

At one level, the idea of meals in schools is superficially attractive, but it is essentially palliative, and does little to deal with the circumstances of these children on a long term basis.

Then there is the question of which group of children should we be focusing on. After all, not all children in schools will come from the same socio-economic backgrounds. So, should such a programme be applied universally, which would be as expensive as it would be impractical, or should it be more tightly targeted?

And if so, how? Should, for example, it just apply in low decile schools, even though there will children in those schools from a higher socio-economic status who would not need such a programme?

In that event, what about low-income household children in higher decile schools? Or, to get around income definition problems, should the children of beneficiaries be the only ones eligible?

Whatever way one looks at the issue, the definitional problems are massive, and strongly suggest that such a programme would not only be unsustainable, but also impractical, and in a number of cases potentially inequitable.

That is why I take the view that a much more realistic and workable approach is to target directly, through early identification by community agencies, at risk families and to work with them to help them  get the support they need to properly feed their children.

That support could take any number of forms, depending on individual circumstances, including direct assistance with the provision of food, at one end of the scale, through to such things as life skills advice on cooking, for example, and proper budget advice at the other end of the scale.

Such a targeted approach is far more likely to succeed in the long term, and benefit directly at-risk children, and would have my full support. 

Sounds sensible to me. Slogans rarely make good policy.

Aaron Gilmore has announced:

National List MP Aaron Gilmore has announced that he will seek a fresh mandate by standing in the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election on 29 June.

Mr Gilmore, who is of Ngai Tahu descent, said that the by-election would give him an opportunity to put the recent allegations behind him, and focus on being able to make his contribution to Parliament.

Mr Gilmore will be standing for the You Know Who I Am Party. They plan to contest all 70 seats at the next election. His co-leader is Ms Reese Witherspoon.

The Govt has announced:

113,000 New Zealanders will become shareholders in Mighty River Power following a successful share offer, Finance Minister Bill English and State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall say.

The final price will be $2.50 per share.

Of the shares issued, 86.5 per cent will be New Zealand owned: 26.9 per cent by New Zealand retail investors, 8.6 per cent by New Zealand institutions and with the Crown retaining a majority 51 per cent shareholding. That leaves 13.5 per cent for overseas institutions.

“This is an outstanding result and fulfils our commitment to ensuring at least 85-90 per cent New Zealand ownership of the company,” Mr English says.

“The share offer will raise $1.7 billion, which is a very good return for New Zealand taxpayers. Those proceeds will go into the Future Investment Fund, allowing the Government to control debt while continuing to invest in public assets. More details will be announced in next week’s Budget.

“The Government has achieved all of its objectives for the Mighty River Power share offer, so the company will list on Friday.

“Given the strong response to the share offer, and the price we have set, Mighty River Power will have a market capitalisation of $3.5 billion.

“And with over 110,000 New Zealand shareholders, it will have the largest share register – by some margin – of any New Zealand company on the exchange.”

Mr Ryall says that due to the strong level of demand, some scaling has been necessary.

“We have decided to apply progressive scaling, which means that larger applications are scaled more than smaller ones,” Mr Ryall says.

“That means that more than 80 per cent New Zealanders will get what they applied for.”

Yay, this means I’ll get all the shares I applied for. It also means I picked up the shares for around $600 cheaper than they might have been, thanks to Labour and Greens.

I will get 2,000 shares, which is 214 more than I would have got if the price was $2.80. Assuming the real value is $2.80 if the nationalisation policy never eventuates, then those 214 bonus shares are worth $600.

68% of applicants did not have a CSN number, which implies they are first time investors. That is great, because having more people invest in capital markets is a good thing.

The Herald reports:

Kim Dotcom has called for an investigation into the FBI case against Megaupload in a legal review which accuses Prime Minister John Key of being misled by the United States.

The “White Paper” released by Mr Dotcom last night also alleges the illegal spying by the GCSB went on for 10 days longer than the spy bureau has previously admitted.

The 39-page document written by his legal team aims to dissect the FBI investigation against him and three Megaupload colleagues arrested on criminal copyright charges last year. It is entitled “Megaupload, the Copyright Lobby, and the Future of Digital Rights: The United States versus You (and Kim Dotcom)”.

It calls for investigations by US Senate oversight committees, linking the motives for the prosecution to Hollywood studios’ political contributions and support for President Barack Obama.

It’s not a “white paper” with or without the quote marks. White papers are government documents. It is a PR document put out by the defence team for someone who has been charged with multiple criminal offences. It isn’t even a legal document – it is purely a PR document. But for this it get heralded as some sort of official white paper, and gets Mr Dotcom a free q&a session on the Herald website. I wonder if they plan to do this for all other people charged with criminal offences in other countries?

Dotcom is trying to turn this into a political issue, rather than a legal one. On the politics of copyright law, i actually agree with much of what he says. But I also believe you try to act within the law and accept consequences if you do not.

Whether the charges laid by the US Government are valid under our extradition treaty is a legal issue to be determined by the NZ courts. If they find they are valid, then he should be extradited – just as the US extradites people from the US to NZ if they face criminal charges here.

If he is extradited to the US, then his guilt or innocence is a matter for the US courts and/or juries. Again it is a legal matter.

If Mr Dotcom wins his legal cases, then as far as I am concerned he is welcome to stay in NZ, despite his less than reputable past and previous criminal offending. But justice should not be decided in the media by PR strategies. The charges he faces are legal matters for the NZ and then the US courts to determine.

The House has moved into urgency for the GCSB and other bills.

The good thing is that this is the first time in around two years that the Government has used urgency. That is the longest period in recent times we have ever had without its use, thanks to new Standing Orders.

The bad thing is that one of the bills, the GCSB Bill, will pass through all stages under urgency. I think that is a bad decision. While I can appreciate that there is a need not to take the normal nine months to change the law, I don’t see why the bill couldn’t go to the Intelligence and Security Committee for a brief round of submissions They could report it back in a month, and it would be passed within say six weeks. That is not too long to wait.

Fortunately the sister bill around telecommunications interceptions will at least go to select committee. There are some very meaty issues in that bill to be worked through and absolutely vital it is fully scrutinised.

UPDATE: I am pleased to say I was misinformed and the GCSB is in fact going to the Intelligence and Security Committee for submissions. That is the right thing to do. So obviously my comments above are invalid.

NBR reports:

The Reserve Bank says it intervened in foreign exchange markets in an attempt to drive the kiwi lower. It gave no details of the size of the intervention.

The kiwi tumbled to 83.90 US cents from 84.48 cents before governor Graeme Wheeler’s comments were telegraphed at the finance and expenditure select committee in Wellington. The trade-weighted index dropped to 77.71 from 78.17.

The comments come after Mr Wheeler said in a briefing for the six-monthly financial stability report today that the currency was “significantly overvalued”.

“That intervention will not materially change the level of the exchange rate but could take potentially the tops off rallies,” Mr Wheeler told the committee. “In terms of activity, there’s been an intervention.”

The size of the bank’s action would show up on its balance sheet, deputy governor Grant Spencer told the same meeting.

This is an independent decision of the Governor. It has happened once or twice before. I am skeptical of the ability of the Reserve Bank to move the level of the NZ dollar in the long-term as our reserves are much smaller than others. However if they have correctly calculated that the currency is over-valued, then they may take the edge off the dollar without it costing taxpayers money.

As I have said previously, I think the issue is more the weakness of the US dollar and the Euro, not the strength of the Kiwi.

The annual Register of Interests is here:

Some interesting disclosures:

• Many MPs had a Sheyne Tuffery print gifted by Greenpeace
• Simon Bridges has honorary memberships of Mount Maunganui  and Tauranga golf clubs
• Steffan Browning was a director of BioGro
• Cam Calder owns a restoration project of some ruins in Gers, France
• David Carter has shares in almost every rural company out there!
• Jonathan Coleman got a wine decanter and glasses from the US Secretary of Defence
• Paul Goldsmith has a season pass to the Auckland Racing Club
• Brendan Horan is part-owner of a racehorse!
• Steven Joyce got tickets to WOW
• John Key’s gifts include a Samsung Galaxy tablet from the President of  (presumably South!) Korea, a model of ancient dragon boat from a member of the Chinese Politburo, Russian cognac from President Putin, a bicycle from the President of Philippines and a round of golf with Greg Norman by Duco Events Limited
• David Parker was given a ticket by Fonterra to hear Al Gore speak. It seems this is deemed of value!
• Tony Ryall is a director of Maisie and Llewe Limited – textile sales
• David Shearer has this time included his US bank account!
• Nicky Wagner has a Timelord Trust
• Jian Yang helped organised a friendly football game between the All Whites and the Chinese national team.

Vernon Small tweeted:

Shearer talks – to big turnout of young Labour says party. Hmm more grey heads among young than there used to be

If that is Young Labour, I’d hate to see Old Labour. They’re even older than New Zealand First Youth which is any party member under 70!

Review: Ewen Gilmour’s Midlife Circus – San Francisco Bathhouse Wellington

By Dave’s Flatmate

 I don’t know about you but I seriously can’t believe David has become one of those people who seems to be the ‘go to guy’ as the resident New Zealand agony aunt of politics.

I hardly ever see him at the apartment he’s that busy. He’s always out attending things like art gallery openings, MCing events, chairing debates, polling, talking on radio, making shit up and laying his hands on the Young Nats curing them of their belief that John Key is the second coming – evidently that’s Judith Collins.

And now the latest is that it seems all the serious journalists. art critics and reviewers have been marginalised to writing for the wasteland of the NZ Listener’s “Life in NZ’  as David steps up and now becomes NZ’s resident comedy critic.

This truly is the land of opportunity. So, anyway, he comes home and says something like…”Hey C#@t we are going to see Ewen Gilmour’s show tomorrow night, and because you were born and schooled in Huntly, you’ll get the humour and can write the review.”

And that’s the rub, he says it in such a way that at face value it sounds reasonable and logical, yet really it’s like the Emperor has no clothes and no one is going to pull him up about the way he makes vacuous authoritive statements.

Now. For all of the two readers of this ‘My Space page’, the show was held at the San Francisco Bathhouse in Cuba Street Wellington. It’s exactly like the comedy club in Auckland, but a little bit shit.

We grab our seats. Here’s the funny part. I had to pull David from sitting up the front. He said why?

Now, I know, everyone else in New Zealand is in on the joke, but it pained me not to break his little heart and I held back from saying to him…”Mate, a little short four eyed, bald, David Bain look-alike winner will be the first person to be picked on by a comedian in the front row.”

Instead, like the rest of us who cover for Dave, I said….”Mate, if we sit back, we can check out the talent!”  I really should be a Spin Doctor. He bought it, and it saved me the embarrassment of being picked on by Ewen as the red-headed Huntly kid with the mini-me best friend.

Ok, so we settle in and its Bogan central – no one from the beltway is to be seen.

“Dave, want a beer?” I’m thinking as in Rome do as the Patricians do and let’s just fit in. “Nah, grab me a Diet coke”. I gave up providing Dave with any spatial awareness and head to the bar.  

Ewen then comes on stage, and it’s the first time I’ve seen him do comedy. And to be honest, I normally think NZ comedians are crap. But he is a genuinely funny guy. Sure there was plenty of toilet humour, and a few groans, I can’t believe he went there. However there was plenty of downright burst out loud laughing as he pokes at his mid-life crisis.

As for the show, he show covered the whole range of taboos not normally heard in polite Wellington Society. As the blurb says: Tattoos; motorbikes; beer; fast cars; overseas trips; beer; cholesterol; hearing aids; beer; glasses; prostate checks.

So, you can’t complain that you didn’t know what you were up for.

In particular Ewan’s take on his extra curricula activities in hotel rooms was side splitting funny. His dog with ‘that weeping gland’ problem was right down there with cringe, but delivered in the funniest way that even Chris Finlayson would have to admire the comedic artist at work.

Of course he picked on the two guys in the front row. Predictably an IT nerd and some something or othererer (sic) –I sat there smugly thinking how the innocent next to me had no idea what I had saved him from.

Then there were a couple of awkward…do I laugh or not moments. One was about his wife’s death a few years ago. The other was about blow-jobs. I won’t go into repeating what he said, but the sad moment was having to explain to my 45 year old flatmate what a blowjob is. No Kiwiblog Ladies, I’m not an idiot. I didn’t tell him what it really is, I told him it was what hairdressers do to dry ladies hair in the Hair salon.

Could you imagine David with that piece of information at his little fingertips. It would be like Winston finding out Russell Norman is an Immigrant.

The show lasted about an hour, and as I said, it was everything one would expect of from Ewen

And as Kiwiblog’s resident comedic reviewer. I give the show 2 Michelin Stars. Well worth the detour and a fun way to avoid a night at home.

Ewen’s in Wellington tiil the 11^th of May at San Francisco Bathhouse

http://www.ewengilmour.com/gigs/

DPF: The show was hilarious. Laughing almost non-stop. I will never ever stay in a hotel room again, that Ewen Gilmour has been near! Note also that my flatmate lies and has invented most of the above conversations!

One of the Kiwiblog readers who won free tickets e-mailed me this morning and said:

Thanks heaps for the tickets would have liked to thank you in person but I had to get my wife home, she had surgery a few weeks ago and laughed so hard she was a bit sore!

Even without surgery, you could hurt yourself laughing.

Stuff reports:

A judge has condemned a serial paedophile’s offending as horrific and utterly depraved as he sentenced him to preventive detention for at least 20 years.

Justice Edwin Wylie said a finite prison sentence would not be sufficient to protect society from Aaron Ellmers, and “I have no confidence that you are motivated to try to rehabilitate yourself”.

He said Ellmers, 41, had failed to address his offending, lacked remorse and there was a very real risk that he would continue to sexually assault young boys.

The Hastings truck driver sat motionless, his head bowed throughout his sentencing in the High Court at Napier yesterday.

Crown lawyer Steve Manning said Ellmers’ offending was “so serious and so disturbing” that preventive detention – an indefinite sentence that can be imposed on offenders convicted of serious sexual or violent offences – was required to protect the public.

Mr Manning read from a psychiatric report which said Ellmers’ “benign presentation conceals a callous nature where his focus is on solely satisfying his own deviant sexual needs with no consideration for the rights of his victims”.

His skill at obtaining trust and grooming victims probably “provides him with a measure of pride and satisfaction”.

Ellmers befriended parents with the intention of obtaining their trust and grooming their sons for sex. His victims were aged 3 and 9 when he began abusing them.

He crushed sleeping pills on their desserts to stupefy them. He used a camera to record his offending and emailed it to others. Many charges relate to objectionable material involving children as young as 6 months.

Ellmers is the type of offender preventive detention was invented for. The minimum non-release period will see him inside until he is at least 61, but I would not be surprised if he is not released until he is extremely old and feeble as he seems unable or at least unwilling to change.

A reader has sent in this real time display of the power supply in NZ. You need supply to match or exceed demand – otherwise you have blackouts.

Now I am a fan of wind power. I love the sight of wind turbines on the hills. I like using natural renewable resources. But wind power can not be relied on at peak times as the above shows. My reader points out:

When electricity demand is high, like on cold frosty nights and mornings, the wind just isn’t there and it doesn’t matter where in the country you have the windfarms, there isn’t any wind. That is why the UK grid is in near crisis. They have spent multi-billions on wind farm construction and millions a year in subsidies, yet they are talking of blackouts there within the next few years if they can’t build nukes in a hurry.

Now bear in mind that the Greens have said they want no more coal and no more large hydro. Imagine how the above would work if they had their way. And now also add into the mix the fact that the Labour and Greens nationalisation policy means generators will be very reluctant to invest in new generation.

Amateurs think that so long as the maximum capacity of a country’s power stations exceeds the maximum demand, then that is all you need. California and the UK are showing this is not the case. The balance or mix of sources of power is critical to avoid power blackouts, as well as having incentives for new capacity to be built in advance of when it is needed. Electing a Government determined to stop any future coal or large hydro generation capacity is a recipe for disaster. And if it occurs, it is not a problem you can fix overnight, or within weeks or months. New capacity takes years to consent, construct and make operational.

On days like today the total wind capacity is a mere 9 MW, of a needed 5,500 MW.

The Herald reports:

Auckland rates will rise on average by 2.9 per cent this year – an election year for local politicians – under Mayor Len Brown’s inflation-sensitive budget to be put to the council tomorrow for approval.

Annual inflation is 0.9% at the moment.

The Press editorial:

The suggestion by the Minister of Justice, Judith Collins, that public registers be set up to provide open and easy access to the criminal record of serious offenders is one that will be welcomed by many people. Such information is widely and freely available already from the proliferation in the last decade or so of websites including news and information sites, and by organisations like the Sensible Sentencing Trust. But, because of the limited resources of those news and other organisations, the information those sites contain is inevitably piecemeal and patchy. An authoritative and accurate official record would plainly be of much greater benefit.

I agree. Perhaps the threshold for inclusion could be a strike offence?

Criminal convictions are already a matter of public record. Access to the record, however, is not easy. The police, for instance, in most circumstances cannot, because of rules governing the disclosure of information from police computers and concerns about privacy, reveal them. A properly maintained official register would cut through the thicket of difficulties to provide the information more readily.

It may be argued that a register of convictions, by being forever available on the internet, would make it harder for a criminal to live down his or her past and become rehabilitated. The fact is that that is occurring to a certain extent anyway. The register, as Collins suggests it, would be concerned only with serious offences, the kinds of things already covered by news media and suchlike websites. Those websites are very long-lived and can be searched without much trouble by Google. But the media cannot cover everything, even serious crime. An official register would remove the randomness in them in that it would cover all serious offences, not just those the media deem newsworthy, and it should be less subject to error.

If the Government does not set up a register, then those run by groups such as the SST will become more and more authoritative in the absence of anything else.

It may also help deter offending. Contrary to popular opinion, criminals respond to incentives as much as anyone else. Offenders, once they come to know that it will not be so easy to conceal their past crimes, will be less inclined to commit them in the first place.

Fewer crimes and fewer victims would be a good thing.

Colin Espiner gives his 10 things he loves about Wellington:

1. Better coffee. Wellington is powered by caffeine. And there’s none finer than in the capital. 

2. The Brooklyn windmill. Don’t scoff. One of the first in the country and now a major tourist attraction. The views from the carpark are stunning. 

3. The Bucket Fountain. You’ve got to love a town that keeps something so hideous and so broken that it’s become a city icon. 

4. The Penthouse cinema. Arthouse cinema at its finest, complete with decent red wine and its own theatre cat. 

5. Westpac Stadium. Sorry Eden Park, but the Cake Tin is better in every respect. 

6. Public transport. Aucklanders haven’t heard of this, but it’s a fast, cheap, convenient and quick way to get to work. 

7. Sunshine and fresh air. OK, sometimes too much fresh air, but Welly clocks up many more sunshine hours than its northern sibling. 

8. Cuba Street. No other city in New Zealand does cool grunge like Wellington’s Cuba Street. Plus it’s home to Midnight Espresso, home of the finest nachos in the country.

9. Wellington’s waterfront. Whereas Auckland and Christchurch have turned their backs on their ports, the capital’s is a living, breathing, human space. And you can’t beat Oriental Parade in the sunshine. 

10. Houses you can actually afford to buy. Not much point in living somewhere if you can’t afford it. Wellington house prices are not cheap, but they’re not stupid either. 

I love the bucket fountain. As a kid I would spend ages sitting in Cuba Mall watching it until the large bucket at the bottom would finally empty.

Sam Boyer at Stuff reports:

Having a big head, sweating profusely, and stress are enough to excuse a cyclist from having to wear a helmet, but the Transport Agency has stopped accepting “personal desire not to wear a helmet” as a medical condition.

Three cyclists have this year been granted exemptions from wearing helmets on medical grounds, all for “headaches and/or claustrophobia”.

Information obtained by The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act shows 147 people have successfully applied for helmet exemptions since records began in 1994. Twenty-five applications have been declined in that period.

Last year, there were five exemptions issued by the NZ Transport Agency: two for headaches or claustrophobia, two for “hypersensitive scalps, eczema, heat, sunburn”, and one “physically unable to fasten strap”.

Easily the most common medical ground accepted by the agency was headaches or claustrophobia. In the past five years, four people with “abnormally large heads” have been granted helmet exemptions, as have two people for “stress” and one for “excessive sweating”.

The mandatory helmet law is well-intentioned. However I believe people should decide for themselves whether or not they wear a helmet.

Interestingly there is some data from overseas that suggests helmet laws are bad for public health, as significantly fewer people cycle because of them.

Parliament yesterday paid  to Parekura Horomia. Many funny and moving speeches. Some extracts:

John Key

On any marae in the country, and especially amongst his own people, he was in his element. I myself remember a number of occasions when he came up when I was on the marae, to ensure that I was comfortable and aware of the protocols and procedures. The respect he commanded was borne from his tireless work for his people, the people from Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and all of Māoridom.

Nice.

Despite our political differences, and because of our shared love of making up words, I have always had enormous respect for Parekura and his command of the English language. He never forgot where he came from and why he was here in Parliament. Parekura played an extremely important role in building the strong and positive relationship that currently exists between Māori and the Crown, and I hope his family are as proud of his achievements in this area as in every other. Parekura was staunchly loyal to his Prime Minister, to his party, and, most important, to his people. Through some of the most difficult times he took counsel from the people he was elected to serve. Through everything he championed a better deal for Māori. He did so across party lines, and he was not afraid to fight for what he believed in. I will remember his presence in this Chamber, his big smile, and his warm heart.

David Shearer

 I remember more than once in our caucus meetings when we were talking about high-level sort of issues on policy and getting rather hypothetical about things, it would Parekura who would bring us down to earth, talking about the family he met when he was travelling up that day, and talking about that family who he met, those people who he met, and asking what they would get out of that particular policy that we were pushing out in front of us. 

Hone Harawira

I think, more than anything, that is what most of us are going to miss about Parekura is that he was when you saw Parekura you just saw a mate. He did not get overly fussed about the politics. He was, for a while, when Tariana came marching up on to Parliament here with 50,000 people to oppose the foreshore and seabed legislation, but even apart from that he was easy to get on with. So I am going to miss seeing him waddle around the House here. I am not going to miss him telling me what to do, though. I used to say to him: “Parekura, you’re not even in the same party. You can’t tell me what to do.” He said: “Oh, I know that.” and then he would still tell me what to do. I am going to miss all of that and I think a lot of us are.

John Banks

While I reflect on the great members of Parliament who I have known in this place over 10 Parliaments—the wonderful Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan , Koru Wetere, and Peter Tapsell , just to name a few—they had a common thread through them, these Māori role-model leaders, and that was that they went about their work in a very dignified way. They had their say and did not make too many enemies, but they did make a difference. So Māoridom has lost a significant figure in Parekura’s passing. His constituents have lost a leader and an advocate for them in this House, and since his death, many have remarked on just how tirelessly he worked for his community. …

He worked his way from the bottom up, holding jobs as a manual labourer, a printer, a fencer, a worker, and many careers in between before he became a member of Parliament and a Minister of the Crown. Today it seems that many of our young people want a short cut to the top, but when they find how much hard work has to be done and how much is needed to get there, they often give up before they begin. Parekura was living proof that no matter what your background is, if you put your mind to it and are prepared to put in the hard work, you can achieve anything.

Peter Dunne

My instance relates to an event a couple of years ago. I went up to Gisborne to open a new dental clinic at a very large intermediate school. By coincidence at the airport I ran into Parekura.

“What are you doing here?”, he said. I told him what I was doing. He said: “Oh, that’s in my electorate. I better come. Have you got a car?”. I said: “I’ve got a driver waiting.” “OK. I’ll come too.”, he said. So he piled into the car, which lurched considerably to the right as we drove off to the school. The moment we arrived, he took over. I was ushered onto the marae. He was my translator, my minder, and the person who pushed me forward and made me do all the things that I was expected to do, and he did it with aplomb. He was the star of the show. When the time came to leave, he said: “Where are you going now?”. I said I was going on to a meeting at the hospital. “Oh, I better come too.”, he said. So he tagged along, and we went through the same procedure, and it was the same procedure at the third appointment. Then it was time for me to go back to the airport, so he came back to the airport with me, and as the driver dropped me off, Parekura said: “Oh, just one thing—is it OK for him to run me up the coast now and run me home?”. I could hardly say no. The driver then completed the occasion by saying: “Well, I should actually take you home because the last time I drove past your place, a couple of weeks ago, the lawns hadn’t been mowed.” So Parekura was going home to sort it out.

Shane Jones

 Just before I wind up, when David Shearer had his by-election, Parekura, Kelvin Davis, and Shane Jones were dispatched to the rather grimy streets of Avondale to doorknock. Parekura, being the senior, dispatched Kelvin Davis. He said: “Here, boy, here’s some pamphlets. Go and stand on the other side of the street. Go up there, down there.” He said: “Shane, Chief, you stay with me. You stay with me. We’ll go up the other end of the street.”, which we did. Then, getting outside a house, Parekura said to me: “Now, boy, you take these pamphlets. I’ll guard our waka. Just go and knock on that door.” I proceeded to knock on the door, only to be greeted with the largest, angriest dog in John Tamihere’s neighbourhood. And as the dog barked at me, Parekura called: “E hoa, pussy, pussy, pussy.” A Māori came out of that house. He looked at me and said: “Yeah, what do you want?”. I said: “By-election, e hoa, pamphlets.”, as the dog barked. He looked past me and he saw Parekura. Parekura hopped out of the car. He said: “Oh, kia ora, uncle.” as he went into that house. As Parekura sensed the fish heads cooking, he became positively athletic. Kelvin Davis, meanwhile, was wandering around in circles. The moral of the story is the randomness of politics. Parekura, you are in Hawaiki; Kelvin Davis, you are unemployed; Shane Jones, you have been in the crap; and David Shearer is our leader. Kia ora tātou.

Gerry Brownlee

The truth is I held Pare in the highest of regard and with the greatest of respect. I did not know him as many of you did, as the father, the grandfather, the brother, the family member, and part of your closer iwi community. I only knew him for his time here in Parliament. During that time I think all of the comments that have been made about him and about his personality I would have to agree with. He was one of those very warm people who could articulate an argument in his favour without being in any way vindictive, without any degree of vehemence, with simply a desire to stick to the issues, and to respect individuals for their own beliefs. …

During the debate one of the colleagues on this side of the House gave an impassioned speech in which he said words to the effect that the almighty God had created the foreshore and seabed for the enjoyment of all New Zealanders. Pare saw Simon and I sitting here and sent us over a note very, very quickly that said: “Gerry, Simon, tell the fool God’s a woman and she’s giving it all to the Māori.”

Heh.

 I first met him when I was a brand new MP back in about 1997 I think, at a select committee where he was presenting at a financial review as the person who was in charge of the community employment group. Anyone who knows how that works, people come in and they sit at the end of the table. They are generally invited to make a few opening comments, and then there is a series of questions. Pare’s comments went on for quite sometime. I had been warned before that this man was somewhat of a jargonaut. His speech and comments were filled with macros, micros, matrixes and analyses, synergies, and paradigms. It was a wonderful story, and beautifully articulated but left you somewhat perplexed as to what exactly it was about. I very boldly asked him. I said: “That’s very well, Mr Horomia, but what does it mean?” And he said: “Oh, well, chief, it means we’ve done a good job.” On that note can I simply say Pare, you have done a good job.

Annette King

We heard that he was hard to understand at times. I do not know whether my friend Shane Jones remembers this,

but one year I went to Rātana, as we did, year in, year out, and Parekura never missed. I was seated behind Shane Jones and Dover Samuels. Parekura got up and he was speaking. I leaned forward and I said to Shane and Dover: “What’s he saying?”. They said: “We haven’t got a clue.”

Hekia Parata

I worked with Parekura and for Parekura, and I saw h

im operate successfully and effectively no matter which Government was in power, because he went with authenticity for what he was trying to achieve. I think that he was very effective, and I think it is important that in a democracy like ours and in a House of Representatives like this we always welcome and value that rich diversity that he personified, not only in what he did but in the way he did it and the way that he was warm and generous. It has already been said that he was a big man with a big heart. He absolutely was. He worked extremely hard. I totally agree with Annette King, I think it was, who said he wanted to die doing what he loved doing.

Moana Mackey

 Parekura was a good Labour man and a strong supporter of women—within our party, within his electorate, and across the country—as evidenced by his life membership of the Māori Women’s Welfare League. When I first entered Parliament, he called me into his office and he said: “Don’t you let those men push you around. You stand up for yourself.” It is not always easy being the whitest Māori in the room, and I always appreciated how he looked out for me and supported me. Despite always telling me to shut up, he had my back. …

Parekura was a mentor and a friend to me. I suspect that, to him, I was first and foremost a somewhat reluctant co-conspirator in his elaborate plots to avoid having to come to Wellington each week. It was my job to back him up. I remember him phoning me after he had told the whips that his flight from Gisborne to Wellington had been diverted. He said that they did not believe him, so I said: “Well, where did you tell them it had been diverted to?”. He said: “Auckland.”

I asked him why he did not say Napier or Palmerston North or indeed any other place actually on the way to Wellington instead of 500 kilometres in the opposite direction, to which he simply replied: “Shut up, Moana.” I also remember the day Air New Zealand announced that it was increasing the number of flights between Gisborne and Wellington—a dark day for Parekura. I also remember the ensuing phone call instructing me in very colourful language to keep my mouth shut and to not tell the whips about the extra flights. I will miss the phone calls, I will miss him shouting questions to me from the other end of the plane on our flights home, and I would give anything to hear him say “Shut up, Moana.” one last time.

Stuff reports:

Tom Parsons, president of the Secondary Principals’ Association, said Novopay had a serious image problem that would continue to dog it, but the improvement had been remarkable.

“If you’d been repeatedly underpaid by it … whenever the word Novopay comes up you’ll roll your eyes.

“Throughout the sector that’s happening already, which is a shame because the system of today bears no resemblance to what we had pre-Christmas.”

Waikanae School principal Bevan Campbell said Novopay was still not user-friendly, “[but] I think they have been working really hard to fix it up. Now that the powers that be have realised the massive stuff-up, they are actually trying to fix it.”

The key thing, in my mind, is to get it to a stage where the level of manual data entry from the helpdesk is minimal. If schools can enter and validate all the data themselves, that will make a huge difference.

The Daily Mail reports:

Pensioners’ taxes should increase, their benefits be cut, and a tax on property wealth should be introduced in order to share the pain of austerity with today’s hard-up workers, a think-tank said today. 

The income gap between pensioners and workers has shrunk massively in the last few decades, so taxes should be raised on those in retirement, the Fabian Society said.

Middle-income working households enjoyed an income 93 per cent above that of middle-income retired households when Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, but that figure is now 37 per cent.

I don’t think we should raise taxes on the elderly, but I do think NZ Superannuation should be means tested and linked to the rate of inflation rather than the average wage. Otherwise the gap between it another benefits will continue to grow significantly.

‘Old age is no longer a proxy for poverty’, the Fabian Society said. ‘In public policy and deficit reduction measures, ministers should adopt a presumption of equality across age groups.

‘In financial terms alone, older people are no longer distinct, and blanket policies favouring them should be reviewed.’

I agree.

This is incredible. They spent around $400,000 gathering signatures for their asset sales petition, and they failed to get enough valid signatures.

They needed 308,753 valid signatures but fell short by 16,500.

That is a massive fail and gross political incompetence. They didn’t have to submit the petition when they did. They could have carried on getting more signatures to make sure.

Around 25% of their signatures were found to be invalid. That is a massively higher proportion than other petitions have had, and makes you wonder about their tactics. Did they sign up children? The Clerk has stated there were also duplicate signatures.

But surely they were intelligent enough to determine for themselves how many signatures were probably invalid, to work out how many they needed to collect. Both parties have access to an electronic electoral roll so they could have done exactly what the Electoral Commission did – take a sample of a few thousand names and check how many are on the roll.

Now the law provides that they can resubmit their petition with more signatures in the next two months, so if they persist, they can still qualify. But it means they have lost any moral claim that the Government shouldn’t proceed until the referendum – because they have failed (for now) to qualify.

It also means that the referendum may now occur after all the energy companies have been sold – making it even more of a farce.

It is bad enough they have wasted over $200,000 of taxpayer funding on trying to by signatures for their petition, and failed. Even worse to use more taxpayer money to gather the extra signatures and waste millions of dollars on a pointless referendum which may not even be held until a few months before the general election. They should instead go into the election with very clear policies on whether they wil buy back the shares or not and let the public decide at the ballot box.

I’m still staggered for now that despite spending $400,000 and having the entire memberships of the Labour and Green parties, and most unions, they proved unable to get enough valid signatures.  You could understand it if they were close to the deadline to submit – but they were not. They made a tactical decision to submit early for political posturing, and have ended up with egg on their face.

UPDATE: They claimed to have 400,000 signatures but got 292,250 valid ones. That means 107,750 were invalid which is a massive 26.9%. Maybe they should have put their paid petition gatherers on performance pay!