On the one hand the Greens rail against lobbyists, yet on the other hand they say they should be able to be tax free charities. I guess the difference is whether or not they agree with them.

Green MP Denise Roche blogs::

Community organisations already spend much of their time advocating. They shouldn’t be excluded from getting charitable status (and tax exemption) because of this. Organisations of long standing repute including the National Council of Women have been denied charitable status on the basis that advocacy is their primary purpose. Advocacy  is not currently deemed a ‘charitable purpose’ under the Act, and therefore they are denied  tax exemption for donations.

And this is how it should be. Lobby groups should not be escaping tax. The National Council of Women is one of the most prolific lobby groups in New Zealand. It puts in a submission on almost every single bill before Parliament. Now good on them for being politically active, but allowing them to be a registered charity would be allowing any organisation to be a charity. Would we accept Business NZ being a registered charity?

On the back of the government’s announcement I have drafted a simple Private Member’s Bill to write advocacy into the definition of charitable purpose in the Charities Act as an ancillary purpose. I’ve been holding off for ages because I kept hearing that there would be a review and this would be the main focus of it.

That will make it open slater for every political lobby group in New Zealand to gain charitable tax status.

Personally I think the guidelines should be even tighter. As a secular country I think churches should lose their general tax free status. If they have subsidiaries that do charitable work (such as homeless shelters) then that should be charitable. But why should donations to Scientology be tax deductible?

Scott Yorke blogs at Imperator Fish:

A Day In The Life Of Sherwin T. McFadden, Broadcaster And Blogger

7:29 am

Was that the door? Oh my God, they’re here! I knew that one day the fascists in their jackboots and brown shirts would smash down my door and take me away. Didn’t I warn everyone that this was where it was all going to lead? This is all the mainstream media’s fault. They wouldn’t have dared to come here if only TVNZ had given me my own show.

Why didn’t the fools listen to me? Damn you, mainstream media!

7:35 am

So it turns out that the knock on the door was a courier, here to deliver the John Pilger book I ordered online.

“Can I get your signature?” he asked me as he handed me the parcel.

I don’t often get asked for an autograph, but I’m always happy to make a fan’s day. It’s hard to believe that when I pitched my hard-hitting current affairs show to TV3 they told me I didn’t have enough of a public profile. Ha!

“Do you watch my show, or are you a follower of my blog?” I asked the courier.

“I don’t know who the f**k you are, mister,” he replied. “Just sign for the parcel, so I can get going.”

I could tell he was a Nazi the moment he pulled up in his van.

9:42 am

The ratings are due out today for my hard-hitting current affairs show, Sherwin Says. It’s on every week on Freeview channel 418, and I provide commentary on the issues of the day, asking the questions everyone in the mainstream media is afraid to ask.

Last week I eviscerated John Key’s government, labelling its members “a band of crazies sucking at the neoliberal crack pipe”. I would love to have seen the look on John Key’s face when his advisers ran to his office to report what I’d said. 

11:16 am

The TV ratings are rigged! It’s just another scam engineered by a corrupt elite to shut down dissent. As soon as anyone challenges the existing power structures they get squashed.

 There’s no way my show had only four viewers last month. They won’t stop my crusade! 

1:21 pm

I can’t believe Nate Silver is getting all the credit for predicting an Obama victory. In an exclusive piece on my blog way back in October I picked Obama to win, not that most people would know. Of course the elites in power are determined to ignore me, because they know the mayhem I would cause. One day the public will awaken from their slumbers and realise that their country has been taken from them by the rich, the powerful and the greedy. And I shall be there to help them take it back, reporting every moment of the action on my blog for posterity.

1:34 pm

Bryce Edwards has again failed to include any of my blogposts in his daily politics round-up.

His decision to ignore my powerful post John Key is evil and kills children was obviously deliberate. He’s part of the problem, not the solution, now that he works for the Herald.

4:08 pm

Spent most of the afternoon blocking people on Twitter, defriending people of Facebook, banning people from my blog, and writing a blogpost attacking various other bloggers and commentators on the left. The only thing worse than a right wing stooge is a leftie who has a different shade of opinion to mine.

I once offered to combine blog forces with The Standard, but they turned me down. Well it’s their loss. They’re just a bunch of tired Labour party hacks too scared to speak truth to power. Their politics disgust me, and I suspect them of being class enemies, one and all.

Why won’t they let me do a guest post? 

5:51 pm

That loathsome Whaleoil needs to be stopped. That obnoxious fascist clown and his National Party shill David Farrar represent everything that’s wrong with the world.

And have you seen their blog traffic? It’s so unfair!

Vernon Small reports at the Dom Post:

Associate Education Minister Craig Foss has slated the Education Ministry for plans to sack nine of the staff dealing with the Novopay debacle once the troubled teachers’ payroll system is working well.

“I am utterly flabbergasted by this decision,” Mr Foss said.

“Any plan to cut payroll staff numbers is totally out of sync with what the ministry is trying to achieve with the Novopay rollout. It’s pretty clear that the ministry’s payroll team needs more resources, not fewer.”

It is rare, but sometimes necessary, for a Minister to directly criticise their own Department or Ministry. This is definitely one of those times. Staffing issues are the sole preserve of the CEO, or Secretary of Education in this case. But there is an obligation to have a no surprises policy and it is clear that the decision to reduce the number of payroll staff was not run via the Minister. It is almost incomprehensible that the Ministry did not think to do so, and calls into question their overall level of competence.

Camp Cunliffe have done well at the Labour Party Conference.

Most of the caucus and hierarchy were arguing for a high threshold to trigger a leadership ballot.

The NZ Council in July proposed that you need a two thirds petition of caucus to trigger a leadership ballot. This met a backlash so they watered it down to 55%.

But the party delegates went further and reduced it to 50% for unscheduled votes. However here is the real big news. They lowered it to 40% for scheduled votes which are the ones held just after each general election (which will only be an issue if Labour loses) AND the vote scheduled for February 2013!

Vernon Small tweeted:

Labour votes to give 40pc pf MPs the trigger for a vote on the leadership by 264 to 237. Big win for Cunliffe.

It seems that the move to 40% was lost on the hand vote, but the unions used their bulk voting power to win the card vote.

This means that come February 2013, David Shearer needs to have at least 61% of caucus vote for him to remain leader – or a ballot is triggered.

The fact the unions have backed this, suggests that Cunliffe could win both the 40% members votes and the 20% union votes and be forced into the leadership no matter what the caucus votes.

Shearer will face immense pressure to perform tomorrow. It has already been reported that only a quarter rose to give him a standing ovation at the beginning of his speech, compared to 100% standing ovation for Goff and King as they were thanked. Shearer did get a full ovation at the end of the speech – but that is near compulsory.

UPDATE: Just calculated that just 14 Labour MPs can trigger a leadership ballot, under their new rules. Game on.

UPDATE2: According to Vernon Small (who gets the best Labour intelligence) the following MPs voted for Cunliffe in 2011:

1. David Cunliffe
2. Nanaia Mahuta
3. Charles Chauvel
4. Moana Mackey
5. Lianne Dalziel
6. Louisa Wall
7. Rino Tirikatene
8. Sua William Sio
9. Carmel Sepuloni
10. Sue Moroney
11. Rajen Prasad.

So he needs just three more votes to get a leadership ballot. Who were the unknowns:

1. Parekura Horomia
2. Shane Jones
3. Megan Woods
4. Ross Robertson
5. Andrew Little.

I’d say he’d get Parekura easily with Nanaia behind him. Shane Jones is known to have turned on Shearer after Shearer asked the Auditor-General to investigate him. So Ross Robertson could be crucial! More likely is Andrew Little is the power broken and can deliver four or five votes, plus the likely endorsement of the unions if a ballot is called for.

UPDATE3: Carmel didn’t make it back after recounts so Cunliffe needs four of the five who were listed as unsure. Of course he could also try to pick up someone who voted Shearer but has changed their mind.

Stuff reports:

He’s an ordinary-looking teenager, but 13-year-old Jordan Nelson is now believed to be New Zealand’s youngest murderer.

Nelson pleaded guilty in the High Court at New Plymouth yesterday to the murder of his caregiver, 50-year-old Rosemaree Kurth earlier this year.

Nelson was 13 years and 89 days old when he shot Ms Kurth in the back of the head with a .22 calibre rifle.

The nearest thing to a motive that the Crown could offer to the court was the fact that Ms Kurth had taken his Freeview TV receiver from him.

It’s a sad and puzzling case. To kill someone over such a trivial issue is disturbing – even more so when it is a 13 year old.

However the background, as reported, doesn’t seem typical for young killers. Not in a gang. Acted alone. Rural, not urban.

The Greens will be distraught. Denmark has scrapped their fat tax. The WSJ reports:

Danish lawmakers have killed a controversial “fat tax” one year after its implementation, after finding its negative effect on the economy and the strain it has put on small businesses far outweigh the health benefits.

Nations including Switzerland, the U.K, and Germany have held up the tax, which applies to any food containing more than 2.3% saturated fat, as a potential model for addressing obesity and other health concerns. But in Denmark, it has been a source of pain for consumers, food producers and retailers as the nation’s economy struggles.

“The fat tax is one of the most maligned we [have] had in a long time,” Mette Gjerskov, the minister for food, agriculture and fisheries, said during a news conference Saturday announcing the decision to dump the tax. “Now we have to try improving the public health by other means.”

The failure of Denmark’s fat tax is a demonstration of how difficult it can be to modify behavior by slapping additional duties on products seen by many as essential staples, especially during tough economic times. Products such as butter, oil, sausage, cheese and cream were subject to increases of as much as 9% immediately after the new tax was enacted.

So why was it dropped?

Lone Saaby, director of economic policy at Denmark’s Landbrug & Fødevarer farmers association, said the fat tax “increased border trade as well as administrative costs,” putting Danish jobs in jeopardy. Ms. Saaby’s organization lobbied the government to kill the fat tax and abandon the sugar tax before the impact to employment became too noticeable.

Mr. Giørtz-Carlsen said the fat tax cost his company about €670,000 over one year, and estimates “smaller companies probably had disproportionately higher costs.”

Many want to use the tax system to incentivise what they see as good behaviour. But the more complex you make it, the less effective it is. The best tax system is broad base and low rates with minimal exceptions.

At Glee Girl’s farewell party last night and the theme was dress as a NZ icon. Almost everyone guessed who I was meant to be (and in fact many other guests borrowed the jersey and bag to get photos of them dressed up with them) but what was amusing were the variety of guesses for Glee Girl. They were:

• Paula Bennett
• Nicky Watson
• Chloe of Wainuiomata
• Lynn of Tawa
• Cheryl West
• Christine Rankin
• Penny (with my as Sheldon)
• Kim Kardashian
• Judith Collins
• Betty Turpin (Coro Street)
• Wilma (and Fred)

The correct answer was in fact Cheryl West!

Patrick Gower reports at 3 News:

The Labour Party faithful have queued up to get into their party conference in Auckland this evening.

All members are welcome except one – the prodigal son, John Tamihere – who has not been allowed to return.

“It’s a bit like joining the Head Hunters,” he says, “as I’m trying to walk through, trying to get my membership, they are all there beating you – it’s a bit like a gang, a gang initiation”.

Yes, that’s right, Mr Tamihere compares the Labour Party to the Head Hunters, Auckland’s most feared gang. That’s because while he’s paid his membership fees and wants to be an MP again, his colourful past – including a Serious Fraud Office investigation – means that membership is yet to be approved by the party hierarchy.

He says he is being blocked by forces from within.

So Tamihere isn’t even allowed to attend the conference despite having been a Labour Party Cabinet Minister!

3 News tried to talk to Labour Party member Shane Te Pou about Mr Tamihere, but found the door closed. Mr Te Pou was a key figure in the Bill Liu citizenship controversy – a series of events currently under investigation by the Auditor-General. But while Mr Te Pou is allowed into the conference, Mr Tamihere isn’t.

Of course Shane is welcome – he is a Labour Party fundraiser!

NZ Herald quiz here. I got one wrong only.

Olivia Wannan at Stuff reports:

Once blamed for glamorising children having babies, teen pregnancy reality shows are now credited with a drop in New Zealand’s teenage pregnancy rates.

A new report from the Abortion Supervisory Committee suggested shows like 16 and Pregnant might deter unwanted pregnancies by depicting the struggle young people faced when raising children.

The show, and other spin-offs, chronicle the struggles girls face when they become pregnant while still in high school.

Never seen it, but yeah I imagine being confronted with the reality would be offputting.

Last year 4247 teenagers gave birth – down 387 from 2010, Statistics New Zealand figures show.

Teenage abortion rates fell as well, down 17 per cent from 2010.

That’s excellent to have both rates falling.

NZ Herald Vice Political Editor Claire Trevett profiles David Shearer and ranks the front bench performance. The scores:

• Grant Robertson 8
• Phil Twyford 8
• David Cunliffe 7
• Maryan Street 6
• David Parker 6
• Jacinda Ardern 6
• David Shearer 6
• Clayton Cosgrove 5
• Nanaia Mahuta 4
• Su’a William Sio 3
• Shane Jones – Hon Mention

When Labour Party members gather in Auckland tonight for the opening of their annual conference, the one topic on everyone’s lips will be the one topic that is not on the agenda paper: David Shearer’s leadership. …

To say Mr Shearer’s first 11 months in the job have been underwhelming is an understatement. Confronted by television cameras and microphones, he is rendered incoherent unless he has previously learnt his lines, no one has got a clue what Labour stands for and his senior MPs are being allowed to idle away their days. It is no surprise, therefore, that supporters of defeated leadership candidate David Cunliffe continue to agitate on his behalf, or that Mr Cunliffe continues to make pronouncements that fuel speculation about his intentions. ….

The choice for Labour is between a green leader who is struggling, a proven ministerial performer who is disliked by his colleagues and two unknown quantities.

Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy:

On this election day, as on most others, we will hear a lot about the need to increase turnout and the dangers of voter suppression. But few will even consider questioning the systematic exclusion of a huge part of our population from the franchise: children under the age of 18. We allow even the most ignorant and irresponsible adults to vote, but exclude even the most knowledgeable and insightful children. And to add insult to injury, we saddle them with a mediocre education system and trillions of dollars in public debt that they will someday have to repay.

I’m not in favour of change the general age of voting below 18.

The main objection to giving children the vote is that they lack the knowledge to make informed choices. Of course the same is true of most of the adult electorate, who are rationally ignorant about politics and public policy, and often don’t know even very basic facts. Nonetheless, it’s probably true that the average child knows a lot less about politics than the average adult, and that may be a good reason to deny most children the franchise. But why deny it to all of them? If a minor can pass a test of basic political knowledge (say, the political knowledge equivalent of the citizenship test administered to immigrants seeking naturalization), why shouldn’t he or she have the right to vote? Such a precocious child-voter would probably be more knowledgeable than the majority of the adult population. Giving her the right to vote would actually increase the average knowledge level of the electorate and thereby slightly improve the quality of political decision-making. I’ve met twelve-year-olds with far higher levels of political knowledge than that of the average adult. You probably have too.

I think there is some merit to this argument. Don’t lower the voting age, but allow under 18s to prove they are knowledgeable enough to vote if they wish to.

Finally, it’s worth noting the commonality this post and my last one, in which I urged adult voters to consider not voting on issues they know little or nothing about. Knowledge, not age, should be the main qualification for exercising political power at the ballot box. We may understandably shy away from giving government the power to use knowledge tests to narrow the franchise. But it’s much tougher to argue against using them to expand it.

It would be nice if only the non-ignorant voted, on a voluntary basis.

I made my appearance at the Govt Admin Select Committee on Wednesday on Louisa Wall’s Marriage Bill. Some good questions from MPs on both sides of the debate. I expressed sympathy for the MPs and staff who received some 20,000 or more submissions on the bill!

I was amused when at the end, Chair Ruth Dyson said “We’ll see you at our next bill”. I actually don’t  submit on that many bills – but a lot of them end up on Govt Admin Select Cmte. A lot are Justice & Electoral also. Don’t think I have ever made a submission to the Health Select Committee.

Gordon Copeland also appeared and made some headlines with his views on how allowing same sex marriage is like apartheid. For those who enjoy the views of Gordon, I am happy to link to my 2008 blog which quotes wonderful extracts from his autobiography. The highlight is Chapter 12:

Jetlag does funny thing and I was wide awake in prayer at about 4am one morning in London when the Lord told me that Satan would attack me in Bangkok on the way home.

I had forgotten all about that a couple of days later when I was lying back in 40 degree Celsius heat alongside the swimming pool at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok enjoying the sunshine. A beautiful girl stripped off topless alongside me and covered herself in suntan lotion before diving in for a swim. She was very much in my thoughts about 20 minutes later when I went back to my hotel room for a much needed nap.

Somewhere between the bedroom and the bathroom, I was physically attacked by an invisible spiritual being. I felt I was being strangled but strangely felt very little fear. The Lord’s warning to me in London suddenly flashed into my mind. I realised that I had been attacked by an unseen spiritual being from the realm of Satan. I am no stranger to demons and have many times, in ministering to people, found it necessary to rebuke spiritual beings in the name of Jesus Christ. The problem was that on this occasion I was incapable of speaking since my voice box appeared to be completely choked off. Inwardly, however, my spirit cried out desperately to God, “Help me!” From within the deep resources of my being a wave of the Holy Spirit rose up through my body and seemed to explode up through my throat and my mouth in a song, from my boyhood days of praise to God. I felt the spiritual being which had me in its grip loose me and leave. I was overcome with joy and went on singing my praise to God for several minutes. I didn’t even know that I still knew that particular hymn of praise!

Oddly, I’ve often had Satan attack me also, when I see a beautiful topless girl rubbing oil over herself. Sadly for me, unlike Gordon, Satan has won the fight on these occasions.

Just been looking at the level of Government spending on health and safety, in the wake of the Royal Commission report. Here’s the increase or decrease in health and safety spending since 1999.

• 2000 +$5,000
• 2001 -$52,000
• 2002 +$2,582,000
• 2003 -$251,000
• 2004 -$438,000
• 2005 +$3,865,000
• 2006 -$157,000
• 2007 +$3,818,000
• 2008 +$4,268,000
• 2009 -$98,000
• 2010 +$2,969,000
• 2011 +$3,224,000
• 2012 +$8,528,000

So if anyone goes on about cuts to health and safety funding, these facts may be useful.

NBR reports:

A call from the Dominion Post may have been the “final straw” which pushed leading crime lawyer Greg King to take his own life.

Wellington lawyer Nikki Pender says it looked like Mr King did get a call from the Dominion Post which she says was just the “final straw”.

This confirms the story broken by Truth. The only other media publication to touch on this revelation is NBR. I’m amazed that Mediawatch did not deem it worthwhile to even ask the Dominion Post if their staff called Greg King just before he died. Did the Herald ask any questions of the Dominion Post such as “Is it true you had written a story on Greg King, which you pulled just before the print deadline”.

Greg King’s death is tragic and profoundly sad. It is even more tragic if the catalyst was a story about a dispute over $1,500 of legal aid hours. Would journalists at the Dominion Post accept a refuse to comment from any of the subjects of their investigations? So, why is it acceptable from the newspaper itself?

I’m not saying the Dominion Post has done anything wrong. But I am saying they should front up and explain exactly what their involvement was.

When Christine Rankin was thought to be involved with the family of a woman who killed herself, the Dominion Post and other Fairfax papers pursued the story with vigour. There was no sense of being inappropriate to comment until the Coroner’s Report. The double standards in this case are hypocritical. I can understand the double standard from the Dom Post (who naturally do not want bad publicity), but why are other media and shows that are meant to focus on the media not reporting on this?

Food News reports:

A school lunch lady in Falun, Sweden has been told by education authorities to get in step and stop serving better quality meals than lunch ladies at other schools.

Horrific. That means there is no food equality. It is not fair kids at one school get better meals than kids at another school.

She has been told to stop baking her own bread in favour of the store-bought version and to reduce the range of vegetables she offers in her now famous vegie buffets.

In spite of working within her budget, and meeting all health and nutrition standards, Annika Erikson has been told her super lunches are unfair on students at other schools, and she must stop such anti-social behaviour immediately.

Yes, initiative and excellence are anti-social behaviour.

Katarina Lindberg, head of the authority which overseas school meals in the region, told local news media, “A menu has been developed. …It is about making a collective effort on quality, to improve school meals overall and to try and ensure everyone does the same.”

Oh yes the collective effort, This is the same collective effort that argues against performance pay for excellent teachers because it is all about the collective effort.

Another article on this has a great quote:

The “same,” even if everyone is worse off. Or as Winston Churchill put it, “socialism is the equal sharing of misery.”

Equality, comrades!

John Fund at National Review writes:

Angela McCaskill was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a school for the deaf and hard of hearing. She has now worked at Gallaudet for over 20 years, and in January 2011 she was named its chief diversity officer. Last year, she helped open a resource center for sexual minorities on campus. But she has now been placed on leave because of pressure from some students and faculty. Her job is on the line.

McCaskill’s sin? She was one of 200,000 people to sign a petition demanding a referendum on a law recognizing gay marriage, which was signed by Maryland’s Democratic governor, Martin O’Malley, in March. The referendum will be on the ballot next month, and the vote is expected to be close.

McCaskill’s signature became public when the Washington Blade posted a database online “outing” all those who had signed the petition. Even though her signature indicated only that she wanted the decision on gay marriage to be made by the people and not by the legislature and the governor, her critics declared that it demonstrated “bias.”

Gallaudet University’s president, T. Alan Hurwitz, announced that he was putting McCaskill on paid leave because “some feel it is inappropriate for an individual serving as chief diversity officer” to have signed such a petition. “I will use the extended time while she is on administrative leave to determine the appropriate next steps,” said Hurwitz, “taking into consideration the duties of this position at the university.” Just last year, Hurwitz had praised McCaskill as “a longtime devoted advocate of social justice and equity causes.” But she is apparently not allowed to have private political views

That’s pretty appalling. Her saying this is a matter that should be put to a referendum does not impact her job at all.

One should debate those with opposing views – not try to get them closed down or sacked.

Similarly, Los Angeles Film Festival director Richard Raddon was forced to step down after it was revealed that he had donated $1,500 to “Yes on 8.” The festival’s organizer put out a statement saying, “Our organization does not police the personal, religious or political choices of any employee, member or filmmaker.” Behind the scenes, however, many of the festival’s board members pressured Mr. Raddon to resign. “From now on, no one in entertainment will feel safe making a donation as measly as $100 to a conservative defense-of-marriage campaign,” mourned Brent Bozell, head of the conservative Media Research Center.

Nor is the modern-day blacklist confined to the entertainment industry. Marjorie Christoffersen, manager of the famous Los Angeles restaurant El Coyote, resigned after El Coyote was subjected to a month of boycotts and demonstrations because she had contributed $100 to the campaign against gay marriage. Christoffersen, who had been with El Coyote for 26 years, insisted her stance had nothing to do with prejudice against gays, but rather was rooted in her Mormon faith. That didn’t impress the blacklisters. Fellow employees at El Coyote vouched for her kindness to gay employees, including personally paying for the mother of an employee who had died of AIDS to fly to Los Angeles to attend his funeral. That didn’t matter either. And neither did the fact that El Coyote sent $10,000 to gay groups to “make up” for Ms. Christoffersen’s contribution. The boycott continued, and the slowdown in business forced Ms. Christoffersen to leave.

It’s like boycotting the Mad Butcher because he said some nice things about John Key. Targeting people, and the business they work for, just because they made a donation to a cause you don’t approve of is not healthy.

A typical story on this issue has been this Stuff one:

 SkyCity boasted about bringing high-rolling gamblers to New Zealand aboard China Southern Airlines through a fast-tracked visa process a year before Immigration New Zealand recommended that the Government sign a deal with the carrier.

Immigration Minister Nathan Guy was this week forced to reveal an agreement with the airline, which comes into effect next week, for its gold and silver frequent-flier cardholders to skip normal border checks after leaked documents were released by NZ First leader Winston Peters. …

Mr Peters said yesterday that SkyCity had been pushing for the scheme for years. “Their high-rollers already operate under these new rules, which means a casino and a communist government airline have under [Mr Guy’s] deal with them, now acquired privileges for their customers not available to any other group of people anywhere else in the world.”

Police listed common offences by Asian crime syndicates as extortion, drug trafficking, identity fraud and people smuggling, he told Parliament.

This story may be the biggest beat up of the year. The media seemed to have gone out of their way to be as non-specific as possible as to what has been agreed, because the truth is boringly mundane. Here are the facts.

• This agreement has nothing to do with anyone in China getting a work visa, a residency visa, a long-term visa or even citizenship (apply via Dover Samuels). It is purely about being able to visit New Zealand temporarily.
• 57 countries can have their citizens visit New Zealand without any visa at all. So what Peters say about privileges not available to any other group of people in the world is absolute nonsense. If you are a citizen of any of those 57 countries you can visit NZ without even needing a visa so long as you are not a criminal or been deported from another country
• Those countries for which we require a visa, tend to be relatively poor countries. We do not allow unrestricted visiting rights because of the well documented risk that they then become overstayers, illegal immigrants etc as the standard of living in NZ is much higher than those countries.
• So Chinese citizens need to get a visa to come here.  To get a visa they need to provide the following:
  • Proof of good health
  • Proof of good character
  • A proper purpose for visiting
  • Proof they plan to leave
  • Proof of funds to cover stay in NZ ($1,000/mth), and departure
  • Not have a serious criminal record
• The application form for a visa is 16 pages long. A China Southern Airlines frequent flyer still has to fill in the entire 16 page form.
• As I understand it, the only “variation” is that their status with China Southern Airlines is taken as proof of sufficient funds rather than have to provide certified copies of bank statements, letters of credit etc. Now considering that you have to have flown around the world at least twice in the last year to get frequent flyer status, then it is not a bad assumption that they have funds in excess of $1,000 a month!
• That’s it. That’s what this is all about. A decision that proof you have flown twice around the world recently is a good proxy for you have sufficient funds to cover your expenses while in NZ.

So, an absolute beatup. And also consider that if you are visiting from say Mexico or Taiwan you don’t even need proof of funds, as we assume all citizens of those countries have sufficient funds to be allowed to visit NZ.

As I understand it, the initial concern by someone in DIA was based on thinking there was going to be a general visa waiver or the like. There is not. The ONLY thing agreed to here is that proof you fly so often to get frequent flyer status is acceptable proof that  you have funds in excess of $1,000 a month!

Sky City has not engaged with the Government at all on the South China Airlines arrangement, according to both them and the Government. They support it, as it makes it easier for high rollers (who are in no way exempt the good character test) to avoid the hassle of proving they have NZ$3,000 (when in fact they have several million dollars) each time they visit. These high rollers then spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in New Zealand, boosting the tourism sector and tax revenues.

Again, an absolute beat up of a story. What annoys me is that the media could have made clear in their stories that the so called “skipping border checks” is no such thing. They get treated no differently at the border. They still need a visa in advance. The only difference is what document they have to supply in advance with their visa application – proof of frequent flyer status rather than proof of funds. But that isn’t as sexy a story.

This is in fact a very smart arrangement. South China Airlines is the third largest in the world. It means they will promote NZ as a destination to their customers on our behalf. The Tourism Industry Association thinks it is great. It doesn’t mean a single person will be allowed to visit, who doesn’t fully meet the rules. It is simply saying that you can use a frequent flyer status as proof of funds, rather than a bank statement.

Audrey Young’s profile on Josie Pagani resulted in the expected torrent of wails from some on the left that she shouldn’t be a political commentator as she isn’t ideologically pure enough. The profile has some interesting stuff in it:

Political commentator Josie Pagani had a daunting entrance into politics. She fronted up to an interview panel of Jim Anderton, Jeanette Fitzsimons, Sandra Lee, John Wright and Mr Anderton’s chief press secretary, them on one side, her on the other.

It was for a job as an Alliance press secretary and all the party leaders had to have a say.

Mr Anderton knew Josie through her close friendship with his daughter Philippa, and suggested she apply for the job.

The only person on the panel who thought she wasn’t up to it was the chief press secretary, John Pagani, no relation then but now her husband.

“They all gave me the tick except for John who said, apparently, ‘I just don’t think she’s strong enough’.”

John never did have good judgement 🙂

I knew Josie before she was a Pagani. I think she was Matt Robson’s press secretary. Like most in the Alliance, she wasn’t (and isn’t) a Blairite (which is the term some in Labour use for those who are impure).

Josie Pagani was raised in a political family and her roots are in Labour but not blue collar Labour. She remembers as a girl meeting her great uncle, Rewi Alley, on one of his returns from China. Her mother, author Elspeth Sandys, was very active in the British Labour Party and Josie joined as a teenager.

“I got very involved in the miners’ strike in England on the picket line. Being radical when I was in my 20s meant having ‘Coal not Dole’ stickers and standing on the picket line. Nowadays … you’re standing outside the mines with a ‘Keep the Coal in the Hole’ sticker.”

Alas I think it is hereditary. Their children can be spotted in no asset sales shirts 🙂

She was a good friend of Sam Mendes who has just directed the latest James Bond movie. She dabbled herself in films but the furthest she got was second focus puller on The Piano.

… resist making joke around now …

Perhaps fittingly for her present career, she has a degree in “political theatre” or what her husband jokingly calls “basket weaving”.

You can get a degree in political theatre?

John Pagani was regarded suspiciously, especially by the unions, in the highly factionalised Labour Party as an adviser to Mr Anderton, then Labour leaders Phil Goff and David Shearer.

Josie Pagani is, by nature, more Pollyanna than Machiavelli.

Heh, we know who that implies is the Machiavelli.

She’s a Labour Party member in the unusual position of not only having a platform to criticise the Government but her own party’s leadership, the party itself, and sacred cows such as welfare reform.

I am also sometimes in the position where my view on National’s performance is not overly shared by those in Parliament, or with party activists. It does cause a degree of tension at times. But I’m relieved I’ve never had the torrent of abuse that Josie gets just because I might say something that the activists may not agree with (such as that agriculture should now enter the ETS). People tend to communicate their criticisms or concerns to me directly and politely (yet often firmly) – which is a far more productive way of doing things.

She happily debates right-wing opponents such as Matthew Hooton, Deborah Coddington, David Farrar and Cameron Slater. There is no personal invective; they are often complimentary about her.

She wonders jokingly if they are trying to destroy her career “by showing me so much love and support”.

Oh we are. We want Irish Bill to replace her on National Radio 🙂

The most severe criticism is from the left of politics’ left, usually by anonymous bloggers who question her left-wing credentials at best and can be personally abusive. A “neo-liberal apologist” is one of the more constructive criticisms. “Useless” and “loathsome” are more typical.

What I love is how so many refer to her and John as a singular unit (The Paganis) and not only blame them for everything wrong with Labour and Shearer, but have no comprehension that Josie and John actually have quite different views on various issues. If right wing politicians carried on in such a way, they’d be denounced as sexist.

She may have empathy with Mr Tamihere because the unions fought his selection in 1999 – Helen Clark intervened – and the unions block-voted against Josie Pagani’s bid to become Labour’s candidate in the Mana byelection in 2010.

And they are about to get 20% of the vote for the next Leader.

So Labour have refused media accreditation to Cameron Slater to report on the open sessions of the Labour Party conference, despite the fact he is the editor of a newspaper. At least Muldoon only banned cartoonists!

It’s a strange decision, when you consider how much space Slater as Editor is giving the left in Truth. He has four left columnists:

• Former Alliance MP WIllie Jackson
• Former Labour MP Stuart Nash
• Former Labour candidate Josie Pagani
• Left commentator Chris Trotter

The Manawatu Standard headline:

 Shearer worked while claiming sickness benefit

Alas about a shearer, not Shearer 🙂