0 Nearly, but not quite

After our busiest ever blogging month in March, we had low expectations for April. The combination of a 30-day month, public holidays (Easter and Anzac Day) and our trip to South Australia all pointed to falling numbers in the latter part of the month.

And we were right; visitor numbers were down, but not by as much as we had expected, and we still recorded our second-ever busiest month both for unique visits and page views. Here are the numbers:

We were more surprised however to hold our place at #10 in Open Parachute's New Zealand Blog Rankings. We have some way to go to catch the likes of Whaleoil, Kiwiblog or even the union-funded Daily Blog, but for a most-of-the-time one-man band we're not doing too badly.

As always, we note that these results are entirely based on the premise that people will vote with their mouse, and pay us a visit. In order for them to do that, we have to provide content that's worthy of checking out, and that's what we try to do; sometimes, more successfully than others! So thanks for stopping by, and please call again; we DO appreciate it. 

0 UPDATED: PM responds to Williamson allegations; Williamson resigns

UPDATE: Maurice Williamson has gone by lunchtime; as a Minister, at least. John Key has just announced that he has accepted Williamson's resignation. The PM's office has just released this statement:

PM accepts resignation of Maurice Williamson

Prime Minister John Key today announced he has accepted the resignation of Maurice Williamson as a Minister.

“I have been made aware that Mr Williamson contacted Police some time ago regarding their investigation of Mr Donghua Liu,” Mr Key says.

“Mr Williamson has assured me that he did not in any way intend to influence the Police investigation.

“However, Mr Williamson’s decision to discuss the investigation with Police was a significant error of judgement.

“The independence of Police investigations is a fundamental part of our country’s legal framework.

“Mr Williamson’s actions have been very unwise as they have the potential to bring that independence into question.

“I have advised the Governor General to accept Mr Williamson’s resignation as a Minister.

Mr Key said he will appoint a new Minister outside Cabinet early next week and in the meantime, Nick Smith will act in the Building and Construction portfolio, Nathan Guy in Land Information, and Simon Bridges in Customs and Statistics.

For an MP and Minister of Williamson's experience to have made an error of judgment such as this is inexplicable, and he has no one to blame but himself. John Key would surely have sacked Williamson had he not resigned.

The Prime Minister is fronting a media stand-up at 12.15pm to answer questions on this issue. Stay tuned...

*************************

Stuff is reporting that John Key will make a statement "soon" regarding allegations against Maurice Williamson; check this out:

Prime Minister John Key will make a statement soon about reports cabinet minister Maurice Williamson called a top policeman after a wealthy businessman with close ties to him was arrested on domestic violence charges.
A spokeswoman for Key said there was no comment now but there would be a comment "later this morning".
The New Zealand Herald is reporting the Prime Minister was told by police, under the "no surprises" policy, that Maurice Williamson contacted them about the arrest of Donghua Liu.
Former Labour associate immigration minister Damien O'Connor approved residency for the wealthy Chinese businessman in 2005, against officials' advice.
Williamson lobbied ministerial colleagues heavily on behalf of Liu's citizenship bid.
Liu was arrested in December following a domestic violence incident with his partner and her mother at the Boulevard Hotel. He pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman and assault with intent to injure. 

The full Herald story can be viewed here. If there has been any meddling by Maurice Williamson in the criminal case, he would be in big strife. Rather than speculate however, we will await the PM's announcement, and comment further then.

0 Selective morality from the Dom-Post

The Dominion-Post has an "interesting" editorial this morning. We use the inverted commas, because there are plenty of other words that could be used to describe it. Here's a brief sample:

The job of being a tobacco lobbyist is not a respectable one. Big Tobacco kills 5000 New Zealanders a year.
Half its customers die as a result of using the product. Tobacco is an addictive substance that causes untold misery and death throughout the world. Those promoting the interests of Big Tobacco know all this, and yet choose to work for a genuinely evil force.
Astonishingly, the National Party has chosen a 23-year-old tobacco lobbyist as its candidate for the super- safe National seat of Southland. Todd Barclay seems rather conflicted about his eight months as corporate affairs PR for Philip Morris. On the one hand, he says, it was "just a job" and it "doesn't define him".
On the other, he doesn't "condone" smoking and even seems to think he should acknowledge some of its ill- effects. "Everyone has been affected by someone with a long-term illness, so my greatest sympathies go out to them," says the young politician. 

Firstly, let's point out the obvious error. There is no Southland electorate, and there hasn't been since the first MMP election in 1996. The electorate in question is Clutha-Southland.

Some would argue that the job of a journalist is "not a respectable one" either. The revelations of phone-tapping in the UK certainly don't do that particular industry a lot of good. But it is the Dom-Post's selective morality that is our prime concern.

Throughout the term of this Parliament, Labour has railed against problem gambling. It opposed the Sky City Convention Centre deal and the subsequent legislation, although that did not stop Labour MP's enjoying corporate hospitality from Sky City at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, or again in June last year.

We do not dispute that gambling is an addiction, and that in extreme cases it causes significant harm, especially to the families of the problem gambler. So where was the Dom-Post's moral hubris and outrage when the Labour Party appointed TAB bookie Kieran McAnulty as its Wairarapa candidate in this year's General Election.

Todd Barclay resigned from his role with Phillip Morris immediately upon his selection as a National Party candidate. Kieran McAnulty was selected as Labour's Wairarapa candidate in December 2013, but as recently as the end of February, was still taking bets. 

And here's the rub. Two months ago we blogged about a story, in the Dom-Post no less, on betting on Masterton's iconic Golden Shears competition. Mr McAnulty was featured, with no mention of his Labour Party affiliation, or his candidacy for Parliament.

So not only has the Dom-Post decreed that working for Big Tobacco is a crime far worse than working in the gambling industry, but it has made the editorial decision that one must be condemned, and the other ignored. 

That is selective morality of the worst kind, with undertones of overt political bias. The Dominion-Post should be better than that.

0 This is doubly good news!

This is especially good news. In fact some would even describe it as "vintage"; the Herald reports:

New Zealand wine exports have rebounded to record levels as the wine growing industry continues its turnaround in fortunes.
Wine exports exceeded $1.3 billion annually for the first time in March, according to figures released by Statistics New Zealand - a 9.2 per cent increase from 12 months ago.
"We expect further strong growth in the year ahead when the 2014 vintage wines are released," New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan said.
"The very robust export performance over the past 12 months reflects the continued demand in key markets and increased availability of the wine from the 2013 vintage," Gregan added.

That's fantastic news for an industry which is more at the mercy of Mother Nature than most. But the good news doesn't stop there; read on:

2013 saw a record harvest of 345,000 tonnes of grapes, up significantly from the low 2012 harvest, and the 2014 vintage is being tipped by some local growers to be the best ever.

Gisborne winemaker Steve Voysey of Spade Oak Vineyard says the region's warm spring temperatures ensured excellent flowering, while the cool nights and warm days towards the end of January enhanced véraison (ripening).
"You know it's a legendary vintage when every tank in the place is chocca. I'm just loving what I'm seeing being caressed into wine, the ferment bench is a delight to taste through," Voysey said.
Last month, Hawke's Bay winegrower Hugh Crichton of Vidal Estate, tipped this year's Chardonnay crop to be the region's best ever vintage.
Wine is New Zealand's eighth biggest export good ($1.32 billion), just behind fish ($1.34 billion in annual export earnings) and crude oil exports ($1.38 billion), according to the March Overseas Merchandise Trade figures.

We've just spent a week in Australia's main wine-producing area. It's fair to say that New Zealand wines have a very good reputation, even over there. Staff at one of the cellars we visited in the Barossa Valley conceded that they can't match the flavours of our sauvigon blancs, and pinot gris is almost unheard of. At dinner on our last night we enjoyed an excellent Central Otago pinot noir, recommended by the waiter from a lengthy, international wine list. And an Australian chap sitting next to us on the plane home told us he almost exclusively drinks New Zealand wine, as a matter of choice.

Here's hoping that the 2014 vintage is indeed as good as expected. We look forward to sampling some in the fullness of time, whilst appreciating the importance of the export dollars this industry earns.

0 Une citation hannibal en image

Une jolie citation d’Hannibal en image:

« Nous trouverons un chemin... ou nous en créerons un.  »

 

0 Photo of the Day - 30 April 2014

This one wins hands down. Not only does it show Judith Collins as you've almost certainly never seen her before, but it carries a very strong underlying message:

Tackling crime was a key election promise by National in 2008 and 2011. And it is a promise that the Government is delivering on, although there will always be room for improvement.

0 Thought crime

Donald Sterling appears to be a racist. He told his girlfriend that he didn't want her to post photos of herself with black men, and didn't want her to invite them to the basketball games with her, because it might make people think less of her, and by implication him.

It appears that having that conversation has certainly made people think less of him.

When a covertly made recording of his conversation was released to TMZ he became a pariah. He was fined $2.5 million and has been banned for life from the NBA. He may be forced to sell his franchise. Because of a private conversation.

I'm not going to condone what Sterling said, but I do think that it is interesting that all of this is happening as a result of a private conversation that he probably never intended for public consumption.

The big issue is that he has come across as holding beliefs that go against the NBA's core values. It is not a statement or an action that he is being penalised for. It is his thought crime that he is being punished. He has revealed what was inside his head and now the thought police in the media are out to make him pay.

After fining him, exiling him and potentially stripping him of (some of) his assets, he should now be ready for re-programming. While this process is taking place, perhaps he could be made to serve the greater good of society. Perhaps a spot working in a salt mine might assist in his rehabilitation.

0 Always read the fine print...

Fairfax journalist Stacey Kirk has been busy. She's done what good journalists should do, and read the fine print of Labour's "big tool" policy. And look what she's found, lost in the fine print:

Labour may look at controlling immigration as a way to affect housing demand and general price inflation.
In the small print of Labour's monetary policy documents, the party says "there may be a case for varying inward migration and/or work permits in a counter-cyclical manner". 

Unsurprisingly, another party leader has praised Labour's policy:

NZ First leader Winston Peters has praised the policy.
"We have always been for compulsory savings and New Zealand desperately needs a long-term savings regime, so that's very wise," he said today on Morning Report.
"On the Reserve Bank Act, that surely needs changing and has been the case for a very long time, which is good too.
"The variable savings rate of course means money stays in our economy, rather than goes off in high-interest payments to some other economy."
The issue of immigration, particularly where it might drive house prices and inflation, has also been an issue Peters has focused on. 

Winston Peters was mentored by Sir Robert Muldoon when he first entered Parliament. So there is no surprise that he favours intervention by the Government with regard to the supposedly independent  Reserve Bank. 

And there are more signs that Labour is putting out the welcome mat to Peters:

The Labour documents say immigration tended to be "pro-cyclical, with higher net inwards migration coinciding with strong local economic conditions".
Labour was open to investigating whether that cycle could be reversed - letting more immigrants into New Zealand when the economy was weaker, and tightening controls during high-growth periods. 
"This would require consideration of a range of factors, including the lag time between approval and arrival, the wage effects of inward migration at times of supply constraints, and the need to meet skill shortages," the documents said.  

Intervention in the Reserve Bank and controls on inward migration are Winston peters' stock-in-trade, and it is barely surprising that he is lauding a policy which could have been written just for him.

But is Labour is cuddling up to Uncle Winston, that spells bad news for the Greens, whom Peters abhors. On the very off chance that Labour was able to do deals after September's General Election, might the Greens be left at the altar once again, and might Russel and Metiria become the perennial bridesmaids?

That's all hypothetical, of course. If Labour really is polling at 23%, as sources within the National Party claim, they will be more focused on trying to remain the dominant opposition party, not preparing to somehow lead a coalition of the unwilling and unsuited.

0 A public service post...

Do you know who this woman is?

The Northern Advocate explains:

Police want to hear from anyone who knows the young woman who stole a St John donation box from Opua's general store.
She was captured clearly on CCTV as she entered the shop, snatched the donations box and fled about 5.30pm on Saturday.
Sergeant Peter Masters, of Paihia police, said the offender was one of three young females and one male who had been seen around Opua from about 11am that morning.
''This crime will be solved by someone who recognises the girl. It's quite blatant, the way she reaches in and takes the box,'' he said.
No one in Opua had recognised her so it was thought she was from outside the Bay of Islands, possibly from the Whangarei District.
Mr Masters urged anyone who knew who she was to contact the Paihia station on (09) 402 7130.

Stealing from charities such as St John is a particularly low sort of crime. We reproduce the images of this young woman in the hope that someone will recognise her and let the Paihia police know who she is.

Social media is powerful, and on this occasion, it is a tool which can be used for good. Please feel free to share these images by whatever means you can.

0 Sterling banned for life

We first became aware of the allegations of racism against LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling on Monday. And NBA Commissioner Aaron Silver has wasted no time in taking the most punitive action available to him; Reuters reports:

The National Basketball Association banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the game for life and fined him $2.5 million for racist comments made public over the weekend, the league's commissioner said on Tuesday.
Sterling, the longest-tenured owner of any of the 30 NBA teams, will not be allowed any role in the operations of his team or be able to serve as one of the league's governors, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced at a news conference in New York.
The controversy began over the weekend when the celebrity website TMZ.com released an audio recording with a voice said to be Sterling's criticizing a friend for associating with "black people."
An investigation into the recording concluded the voice was Sterling's Silver told reporters.
"The man whose voice is heard on the recording and on a second recording from the same conversation that was released on Sunday is Mr. Sterling," said Silver, who is confronting his first major crisis since he was named commissioner in February. "The views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful."
Sterling's comments caused a wave of outrage from fans, players and coaches of the league, which was on the forefront of racial integration in U.S. professional sports, all the way to Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, who blasted the "incredibly offensive racist statements."

Regular readers ought be aware of where we stand on racism; it is never OK. Sterling seems to be a fairly unpleasant, intolerant, very wealthy specimen of humanity.

But what does a woman of 31 see in a man of 80? Does this matter have anything to do with V. Stiviano being sued by Sterling's wife? And although Ms Stiviano denies leaking the tape of Sterling to the media, who recorded it, and who leaked it?

Donald Sterling may be an intolerant old goat, but there certainly seems more to this case than meets the eye. We suspect that today's decision by Aaron Silver is by no means the end of this matter.

0 Back home to more good news

We've had a wonderful holiday. We're back in New Zealand now, and there will be a few bills to pay after SWMBO's attempts to revitalise the South Australian retail sector!

But we're delighted to see that the tide of good news shows no signs of turning. No; we're not referring to nice Mr Cunliffe's latest gaffe, although those are becoming a bit of a habit. We're referring to the latest piece of good news from Statistics NZ; this time it's export earnings:

The seasonally adjusted value of exported goods rose 2.1 percent to $13.6 billion in the March 2014 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. This follows rises in the previous two quarters.
“Meat and fruit led the increase in seasonally adjusted exports,” international statistics manager Jason Attewell said. “This is the second consecutive quarter that both values and quantities for these two commodities have risen.”
Seasonally adjusted meat values rose 8.7 percent in the March quarter, and quantities rose 6.8 percent. Fruit values rose 27 percent, and quantities rose 20 percent.
The rise in meat and fruit was offset slightly by a fall in milk powder, butter, and cheese, down 2.4 percent. The fall in dairy follows 26 percent increases in both the September and December 2013 quarters. Despite the small fall this quarter, dairy remains at high levels and is the leading contributor (31 percent) to total exports.
Imports rose 1.5 percent to $12.5 billion in the March 2014 quarter. The increase was led by a rise in capital goods.
The seasonally adjusted trade balance for the March 2014 quarter was a surplus of $1.1 billion. This follows a surplus of $986 million in the December 2013 quarter. 

A trade surplus in excess of $1 billion is fantastic news for New Zealand. In trade terms, we are paying our way in the world.

But wait; there's more. A couple of significant records have been set; read on:

Monthly exports pass $5 billion for the first time
Exports rose $671 million in the March month, to $5.1 billion. Milk powder, butter, and cheese led the rise in exports, up $474 million (45 percent) compared with March 2013.
“This is the first time monthly exports have exceeded $5 billion, and annual exports have exceeded $50 billion,” Mr Attewell said. “Record dairy exports pushed the values past these thresholds.”

This is really good news for New Zealand exporters, especially when the opposition parties continue to push the line that the export sector is in crisis. Patently, it isn't.

The continuing flow of excellent economic indicators suggests that the economy is in pretty good shape, with just over 19 weeks to go until the General Election. Why would any voter with any common sense put New Zealand's economic recovery at risk just for the sake of "one big new tool", or whatever Labour and the Greens are rolling out this week.

0 Citation hypocrisie facebook

 Une belle citation inspirante sur l'hypocrisie illustrée sur une jolie image à partager sur facebook:

"Nos faiblesses doivent rester cachées, non sous le voile de l'hypocrisie, mais sous celui de la pudeur." Goswin de Stassart  

Découvrez plus des citations avec le mot hypocrisie:

"Le voile de la modestie couvre le mérite, et le masque de l'hypocrisie cache la malignité." Jean de La Bruyère

"L’hypocrisie est seulement un hommage à l’intérêt." Eduard Douwes Dekker

"Charité : hypocrisie qui donne dix sous d'attention pour recevoir vingt francs de gratitude." Jules Renard

"La pudeur est la conception la plus raffinée du vice. Elle parachève l'hypocrisie des sentiments. " Maurice Dekobra

"L'hypocrisie est le sentier tortueux qui mène des bas-fonds vers les hauteurs." Michel Tournier

"Il y a des gens qui réussissent à cacher même leur hypocrisie."  Paul Claudel

"Prescrire l'affection, c'est commander l'hypocrisie : l'attachement doit naître de lui-même." Citation populaire 

"Il y a des gens qui réussissent à cacher même leur hypocrisie. " Paul Claudel

"Quelle pitoyable hypocrisie de dire : elle vivra toujours dans ma mémoire ! VIVRE ? C'est précisément ce qu'elle ne fera plus. " Sinclair Lewis

0 Back to reality

We've had a wonderful week in Adelaide. We've done plenty of resting, walked plenty, eaten a different variety of ethnic food each night (an Argentinian steak house last night!) and SWMBO has done her bit for the South Australian retail sector. In short it has been an excellent break.

But all good things must come to an end, and we're about to board the plane back to Auckland. Plenty of work will await our arrival home, although we are surprised how few calls and e-mails have found their way to us over the last week. Our staff have done well!

We'll be offline now until tonight, and we'll be back in the blogosphere proper on Wednesday catching up with what's been going on in our absence. We'll also be adapting to the weather at home; the thermometers here were into the early 30's for a while around the middle of yesterday, but we gather that temperatures at home have not been quite that warm!

As for Adelaide, it's been the perfect destination for the holiday we needed. We recommend it heartily. But now it's back to reality...

0 No wonder David Parker needs a "new tool"!

David Parker has been smacked down by Associate Finance Minister Steven Joyce. In a presser headed Parker wrong nine times in one interview Joyce notes:

The Labour Party's attempts to talk down New Zealand's economic performance have hit a new low this weekend with David Parker making at least nine factually incorrect statements in one short interview, Associate Finance Minister Steven Joyce says.
In the interview, with TV3's The Nation programme, Parker made assertions about low export prices, a poor balance of trade, job losses in the export sector, New Zealand’s current account deficit,  high interest rates, a lack of business investment, 40 per cent house price increases, no tax on housing speculators, and low levels of house building.
Mr Joyce says all of Mr Parker’s assertions in relation to these nine things are incorrect.
“This is an appalling number of errors for someone who would seek to run New Zealand's economy. This number of errors surely can't have been made by accident,” Mr Joyce says.
“Mr Parker's attempts to describe the New Zealand economy sound much more like the situation this government inherited from Labour in 2008 than anything we are seeing in 2014. 
“He must have been thinking of 2008 when he talked of ridiculously high interest rates, a poor balance of trade, and the poor performance of the export sector. All were pretty sick back then and all are in much better shape today as a result of this government's careful stewardship of the economy.”
Mr Joyce says there are two possible conclusions. “Either Labour is deliberately fudging the facts to fabricate the need for their radical economic policy prescription, or they have truly woken up in 2014 for the election without observing anything that has happened in the last five years. The latter would at least fit their regular denials of the impacts of the GFC and the Canterbury earthquakes.
“New Zealanders know that this country today is doing better than most other developed countries, and in 2008 we were doing worse than most, in fact entering our own recession before the Global Financial Crisis,” Mr Joyce says.
“It might be an idea for Labour to look at the steady improvements that are occurring in the New Zealand economy before they start trying to write up their policy ideas.”

We're not quite sure which is worse; that the man who wants to be New Zealand's next Finance Minister is so ill-informed, or that Labour is prepared to tell such extravagant falsehoods in order to get some media coverage.

And equally galling is the fact that no one from the media seems to have picked up on Parker's mis-speaking, and that his comments have been generally reported as fact. That does not reflect well on a supposed informed, non-partisan news media.

You can read Steven Joyce's detailed error-by-error critique of the David Parker interview at the link above. We can only speculate that the reason David Parker wants "one big new tool" to tinker with the Reserve Bank Act is because Labour hasn't got a clue how to use the tools already at its disposal. 

The ineptitude of Mr Parker and his party does little to give anyone confidence that they could successfully manage a piss-up in a brewery, let alone an entire economy.

0 A religious experience

We experienced a shot of religion on Sunday; Australian style religion. Yes; we went to church in the morning in one of Adelaide's many historic churches. But that was just a warm-up for what was to follow.

We can proudly say that we are no longer AFL virgins. In fact, we are now AFL converts! Sunday afternoon's match at the revamped Adelaide Oval left us hooked on the sport.

We were amongst a crowd of 47,007 which packed into the iconic cricket ground. And it's safe to say that Adelaide now has a multi-use stadium as good as any in the world. We sat in the grandstand on the eastern side of the ground, on the lower of its four levels. The view was superb.

To our left towered the Riverbank Stand. 

We could barely make out the folk sitting at the back of the top deck, but the view must be superb. For cricket matches, spectators are looking right down the line of the pitch, and for AFL they pack in behind the goalpost at the southern end, just a couple of metres from the playing surface.

Directly opposite us were three stands in one; the Chappell Stand and the Sir Edwin Smith Stand flank the Sir Donald Bradman Pavillion. We took this shot just after our arrival around an hour before the bounce; by game-time, it too was packed to the rafters.

And to keep traditionalists happy, the northern end of the Adelaide Oval remains relatively unchanged, apart from the front part of the grass bank giving way to terraced seating. But the gound's iconic scoreboard has been preserved, along with the trees which provide welcome relief from Adelaide's brutal summer sun.

The quality of the football matched the venue and the crowd. We were cheering for the Geelong Cats, the AFL side we have supported for 20-odd years. But they were no match for Port Adelaide yesterday, and the Adelaide Oval will be a fortress that visiting sides have to conquer later in the season. The crowd was vocal, loud, and unashamedly partisan. If only New Zealand crowds could leave their inhibitions at the gates as our Anzac brothers and sisters do!

All in all it was a wonderful experience, and one which we will surely repeat. And if you get a chance to go to the Adelaide Oval, grab it; the new stadium is absolutely magnificent. It will rock next Sunday when Port Adelaide plays the Adelaide Crows in the first Adelaide derby to be played at the new home of AFL in Adelaide; the Oval will be packed to the rafters.

It may be "footie Jim, but not as we know it". But we thoroughly enjoyed our religious experiences in Adelaide yesterday, and we're thirsty for more!

0 Citation du jour bonheur

Une citation en image sur le bonheur à utiliser comme citation du jour pour facebook:

"On ne connaît bien le bonheur que lorsqu'on l'a perdu."Mirabeau 

Autres citation bonheur:

"Personne n'est propriétaire du bonheur, on a parfois la chance d'avoir un bail, et d'en être locataire. Il faut être très régulier sur le paiement de ses loyers, on se fait exproprier très vite."Marc Lévy

"Tu es mon seul bonheur, tout l'aliment de ma vie." Juliette Drouet

"Le problème du bonheur, c'est que ça cache toujours quelque chose ; la note finit toujours par tomber." Jacques Dutronc

"Faites-vous un bonheur modeste de tous les maux qui vous sont épargnés." Alphonse Karr

"Si la vertu ne suffit pas à assurer le bonheur, la méchanceté suffit à rendre malheureux. " Aristote

"Et l'on reconnaîtra que, même au point de vue de notre égoïsme, il est difficile de composer le bonheur de l'homme avec la souffrance de la femme. "Victor Hugo

"Le bonheur, c'est tous les matins mes deux pieds touchant le sol bien à plat, et je me dis : bonne journée, tu es en vie et en bonne santé." Lubrano Lavadera

"Le bonheur... c'est du chagrin qui se repose." Léo Ferré 

 "Le bonheur n'est pas une chose toute faite. Il découle de vos propres actions" Dalaï Lama

0 Congratulations Lydia Ko

Lydia Ko turned 17 last Thursday. Today she got the best birthday present possible; CBC Sports reports:

With the 18th pin and a championship in sight, Lydia Ko found herself in the rough again in a day filled with off-target drives. The teen told herself she just needed one more important chip with the tournament on the line.
Poised and unflappable, Ko made the perfect pitch up to the green and birdied the final hole for her first LPGA Tour victory as a professional and third in all, holding off Stacy Lewis and Jenny Shin on Sunday in the inaugural Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.
In one memorable week, Ko turned 17, earned a spot as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine and captured her first LPGA Tour win as a pro — all while playing with a fill-in caddie from the local club.
"Normally they would say sweet 16, but I would say it's sweet 17," Ko said. "I don't think I could have any better birthday week."
It went down to the final shots, and the teen made a 6-foot birdie putt moments before Lewis knocked in a 4-footer of her own to finish one stroke back.
After beginning the day a stroke behind Lewis, Ko birdied three of her final four holes on the front nine on the way to a 3-under 69 and 12-under 276 total at Lake Merced.

And this win was all the more special for personal reasons; read on:

Ko earned $270,000, celebrating on the 18th green three days after celebrating her birthday at the first tee box with the gallery singing "Happy Birthday."
Ko, born in South Korea and raised in New Zealand, will move up two spots to No. 2 in the next world ranking.
Her father, G.H., got to see her win Sunday.
"Tears nearly ran down my face. You may lose friends but you're always going to have your parents," Ko said. "I try to make myself not cry of happiness but it was coming to that point."

To have her father present for her first LPGA Tour victory as a professional made this an extra special win the New Zealand prodigy. She has now won on women's golf's biggest tour in three consecutive years, and it is hardly likely that the winning habit will be broken as Ko becomes more and more familiar with the itinerant lifestyle of a professional sportswoman. 

The world of women's golf is Lydia Ko's oyster. It's only a matter of time now before she wins a major, confirming her standing as one of the best ever sportswomen to come out of New Zealand. Superstardom beckons for Lydia Ko.

0 Unfortunate Statement of the Year

Labour Party finance spokesman David Parker doubtless had the best of intentions when he appeared on The Nation at the weekend. 

But when you're talking about equipping yourself to tinker with the Reserve Bank Act, you leave yourself open to innuendo and ridicule; check this out, courtesy of the NBR:

But it begs the question; could the "one big new tool" that Mr Parker refers to be Green Party co-leader Dr Russel Norman? And it that were the case, do you fear the likely outcome as much as we do?

0 Better late than never

Peter Dunne announced last night that legal highs were to be banned next week; the Herald reports:

The Government will ban all synthetic drugs within two weeks until they can be proven to be low-risk, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne has revealed.
The move comes as Labour plans to announce its own policy on psychoactive substances tomorrow, and follows increasing protest from local communities against legal highs.
Mr Dunne told the Herald this afternoon: "Last Tuesday, Cabinet agreed on a proposal from me to introduce legislation under urgency when Parliament resumes to remove the remaining 41 products from the shelves until such time as their low-level of risk can be proven."
He said he would have made the announcement earlier but he did not want to encourage stock-piling of the drugs.

The emergency legislation will be introduced when Parliament resumed on May 6, and will be passed under urgency.
"I'm expecting it to be passed that particular week and to take effect pretty much immediately afterwards," Mr Dunne said.
This meant there would be no psychoactive substances for sale in New Zealand for "some considerable amount of time".

This is very welcome news. A couple of friends have gone through some tough times in the last couple of years with children becoming addicted to legal highs. The legislation designed to regulate the sale of these harmful products has not worked as was intended.

With the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to argue that Peter Dunne ought to have acted sooner. 20/20 hindsight though is a rare and precious gift. We applaud the Minister for taking this step, even though it is something that probably should have been done sooner.

We look forward to the passage of the necessary legislation next week,and we would hope that the vote is unanimous. Legal highs serve no useful purpose.

0 Who'd have ever thunk it?

When the Hurricanes lost their first three matched of the Super XV season, even seasoned fans like us were thinking "not again". The Hurricanes have been Super Rugby's underachievers, promising much, but failing to deliver.

Six matches later however, who would have ever predicted this:

Yes Dear Readers; by virtue of sitting atop the New Zealand conference at the moment, the Hurricanes sit third on the table, even though the Force side has scored more competition points. They have won five of their last six, including the last four on the trot where they have dispatched the Crusaders, Bulls, Blues, and last night the Reds.

And they are playing wonderful rugby. Cory Jane was the chief beneficiary last night with three tries, the first after some brilliant lead-up work and inter-passing. Check out the match highlights here:

The Hurricanes are certainly the form New Zealand outfit as the Aaron Cruden-less Chiefs stutter. What a contrast the end of April is to early March!

0 Small on the Jones "cluster failure"

Vernon Small is one of the more senior members of Parliament's Press Gallery. He has seen more MP's come and more MP's go than most of us have had hot dinners. So he's not given to going overboard.

That makes his column in yesterday's Dominion-Post even more noteworthy. Under the heading Church collapsed? Buy a house Small opines:

Helen Clark would have lowered her voice and with a hint of authority - and a side order of menace - drawled "it's time to move on".
Labour leader David Cunliffe must be hoping he can move the party, and the political agenda, on after what is surely the heart of darkness of his political year.
If things could get any worse than the cluster failure around Shane Jones' sudden departure to work for a government he was supposed to want out of office, it is hard to see what they could be.

When Mr Small says "cluster failure", we're pretty sure that he means a variant of that phrase, which also starts with "cluster", followed by the letter "f". But the Dom-Post is a polite newspaper, and such a turn of phrase might be frowned upon by Small's editor. However, we all get the picture.

And it has been a shocker of a week for David Cunliffe and his party. Shane Jones quite literally lobbed the electoral equivalent of a hand grenade into Labour's War Room, and the party's handling of the issue is deserving of the "clusterf#ck" label.

Small continues:

The danger for Cunliffe, in the wake of Jones' departure, is that with some in the party wading knee deep in vitriol it will spill over into civil war, revisiting the divisions of the 2012 annual conference. (That's the one where according to some Cunliffites the media fabricated Cunliffe's challenge to David Shearer's leadership.)
Already the same divisions are surfacing. On one side there are the "good riddance to Jones" merchants who seem to believe the broad church party would have a wider appeal if its MPs came from a smaller chapel. It sometimes seems they would rather people - voters - changed their ways rather than the party appealed to a broader array of views.
On the other side are those who lament the loss of Jones' appeal to Maori, soft centrist or conservative National voters but use his supposed straight talking - too many "geldings" in the party etc - to attack identity politics.
At times it becomes indistinguishable from prejudice and downplays the strong strand of liberal egalitarianism and concern for human rights at the party's core. Both axes seem to think tolerance is essential, as long as you agree with me.
Cunliffe's task is to heal those wounds yet again - as Clark mostly did after her messy coup against Mike Moore in 1993 - and get the party back to its core messages. There are, after all, only 20 weeks till polling day.

If a week is a long time in politics, the 20 weeks until the election must seem like an eternity to David Cunliffe. His party is in disarray, his policy launches have been botched, his party's social media efforts (including his own) have been ridiculed, and now his best-performing MP can see that there is not going to be much chance of a seat at the Cabinet table after 20th September.

The wounds within Labour are deep, and mere Band Aids will not suffice. Helen Clark, Phil Goff and David Shearer all resisted major surgey, but now that may be the only option Mr Cunliffe has left.

0 Photo of the Day - 27 April 2014

Having seen the V8 Supercars race at Melbourne recently, we're terribly disappointed that we are on the opposite side of the Tasman this weekend. We are holidaying in Australia whilst they race at Pukekohe.

And it looks as though it has been great racing so far; Mark "Frosty" Winterbottom is right on the point of balance in the Pepsi Max Falcon in this shot:

We'll take the V8 Supercars over Formula 1 any day of the week. And if you're going to Pukekohe Park today, have a blast!

Mind you; we're going to have some fun at the Adelaide Oval this afternoon as we barrack for Geelong Cats over Port Adelaide in the top-of-the-table AFL clash, so it's not all bad...

0 Quote of the Day - 26 April 2014

Claire Trevett from the Herald provides this perspective on the Shane Jones departure:

Whether it is truth or simply perception is irrelevant: Jones was seen as the last bastion of the centre ground for Labour as well as providing an important buffer from the view that the party was more obsessed with identity politics and political correctness than everyday grafters.
He was certainly the one who articulated it best.
The party now has to work out how to at least hold those voters and shed the perception it is lurching ever leftwards without Jones.

Josie Pagani - a Jones supporter and former Labour candidate - says it needs to do that fast.
"With Shane gone, it feels like the message to people who think like Shane, or identified with Shane, none of those people have received a message saying you're still welcome in the Labour Party. I think that's the problem."
She said the anti-Jones brigade among Labour's activists erupted in celebration on social media without appearing to realise they were effectively sending a message to others that if they identified with Jones, they were not wanted in Labour.
"All you have to do is look at the parade of people popping champagne and saying 'good riddance' in the blogosphere. Are we really saying to people who look and think and sound like Shane that they may as well go and vote National because you're not welcome in Labour?"

Josie Pagani will get no love from the left-leaning blogosphere. But she is just being honest. Readers with long memories will remember that Mrs Pagani copped a serve from factions within the party when she described the difficulty of selling Labour's policies at the 2011 General Election; especially the daft policy to extend to in-work tax credit to people who were not in work. 

The Labour Party seems hell-bent on self-destruction, and the divide between the party's liberal Left and those who still purport to represent Chris Trotter's mythical Waitakere Man is wider than it has ever been. Who are we though to dissaude the Labour Party from imploding?

0 Did Winston get the wrong Huka?

Radio New Zealand reports:

Huka Falls resort for sale

Updated 3 minutes ago

 

 

The Huka Falls Resort is for sale, just months after New Zealand First leader Winston Peters claimed it was being sold to foreign buyers.

In February in an address to Greypower in Auckland, Mr Peters claimed that Prime Minister John Key had promised the buyers a smooth ride through the Overseas Investment Office process.

At the time, Huka Lodge said Mr Peters was not correct.

Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson also said the claims were not true.

The property is advertised for sale in The Dominion Post, with tenders due to close on 15 May. It was last sold in 2003.

The sale includes 3.8 hectares, buildings and the Huka Falls Resort conference centre and a cafe business. The advertisement says 27 of the 34 villas are leased to the business.

There's just one slight issue with the RNZ story. Huka Falls Resort is NOT Huka Lodge. They are in fact totally separate businesses, located two kilometres apart.

Perhaps Winston Peters was similarly confused, and heard the rumour mill talking about Huka Falls Resort. But his claim in February that Huka Lodge had been "sold to the Chinese" is patently inaccurate. Will he apologise to the owners of the Lodge, and to those who he misled? Probably not.

Winston Peters has clearly got his Hukas mixed up. Oh dear.

Footnote: We can't link to the RNZ story, because it has mysteriously disappeared. 

0 Armstrong on Labour's bad week

Herald chief political commentator John Armstrong muses on Labour's bad week. Under the headline Labour's brutal week reveals Achilles heel, Armstrong opines:

Could things get any worse for David Cunliffe than they did this week?
It is quite conceivable they might, of course. Cunliffe's leadership of Labour still has a way to go before it hits rock-bottom. But this week's very public exhibition of the disunity which flows freely and abundantly from the deep schisms within the party may well have proved to be sufficiently damaging to have put victory in September's general election out of reach.
Senior Labour figures are bracing themselves for an expected hit in the opinion polls, but are confident it will be shortlived.
Before this week's disasters, Labour's own pollsters were said to have been registering the party's vote at around 30 per cent. That is very close to the 29.5 per cent recorded in the most recent Herald-DigiPoll survey.
However, usually reliable sources say National's private polling over the past week points to the real scale of Labour's horror story with support crumbling to a mindblowing low of just 23 per cent.

If National's polling is anywhere near accurate, and there is no reason to suspect that it isn't, Labour is in a word of trouble. The party is in the same kind of territory where the Bill English-led National Party was in 2002, and if it is indeed true that less than one quarter of voters will support Labour it seems impossible that David Cunliffe will be in a position to form a government.

There's a big difference however. In 2002, National had completed just three years in opposition, and there had been a significant clean-out from the Bolger-Shipley years. Labour is SIX years into opposition, and hasn't yet had a clean-out. Not only did most of its MP's serve Helen Clark, but there are still three from the Lange-Palmer-Moore era!

Armstrong continues, noting with reference to a danse macabre within Labour:

The start of the week was punishing enough in itself with Labour squirming in humiliation following National's cruise missile-like strike which removed the Opposition party's current prime asset from the forthcoming election campaign.
Labour's embarrassment at losing Shane Jones as a result of a quite brilliant piece of politics on Murray McCully's part left Labour powerless to hit back at National.
But that was no excuse for the outbreak of factional warfare in the form of the Labour left indulging in a danse macabre on Jones' still warm political corpse.
This would not have been in National's script. The governing party would consequently have been pinching itself at its good fortune in provoking such disarray.
For those in Labour's ranks still interested in winning the election, observing the self-destructive behaviour must have been the equivalent of watching members of the orchestra on the heavily-listing Titanic fighting over who owned the instruments.

There's plenty more in Armstrong's piece where he highlight's the monster that Labour created for itself in 2012 when the party changed the rules on how leaders were selected, seizing the power from caucus. This has left the majority of Labour's MP's saddled with a leader they either dislike or despise, depending on how involved they are with the ABC faction.It's well worth a read in full.

But it's clear that Shane Jones' departure, and the circumstances surrounding it have sent shockwaves through the bitterly-divided Labour caucus. This close to the General Election, that's not where Labour wants to be.

0 Citation fauve chanteur

Voila une belle citation fauve chanteur figurée sur une belle photo:

"Quand on n'a pas ce que l'on aime Faut aimer ce que l'on a. " Serge Gainsbourg

Plus d'autres citations fauve chanteur:

"Dans la vie, j'ai eu le choix entre l'amour, la drogue et la mort. J'ai choisi les deux premières et c'est la troisième qui m'a choisi... " Jim Morrison

"Nous avons toute la vie pour nous amuser et toute la mort pour nous reposer. " Georges Moustaki

"Le plus beau jour Que j'ai jamais vécu Fut celui ou j'appris A pleurer à volonté. " Kurt Cobain

"Si j'étais Dieu, je serais peut-être le seul à ne pas croire en moi. " Serge Gainsbourg

"Ne conquiers pas le monde si tu dois y perdre ton âme car la sagesse vaut mieux que l'or et l'argent." Bob Marley

"Tenir un rôle comique, c'est exactement comme faire la cour à une jolie fille. Il faut du répondant." Bourvil

"Je ne me soucie pas de vivre dans un monde d'hommes si je peux y être une femme. " Marilyn Monroe

"Ne jetez pas la pierre à la femme adultère, je suis derrière. " Georges Brassens

0 A wonderful morning

We have had a wonderful Anzac morning in Adelaide. 

Fear not; we're not about to join the likes of DPF and try and become New Zealand's leading travel and lifestyle blogger. In fact we hadn't intended to blog at all, apart from this morning's Anzac Day tribute. But what we have experienced this morning has been deeply moving and uplifting, and definitely worthy of sharing.

We left our Adelaide lodgings at 5.45am and made the short work to the War Memorial outside Government House where a very moving dawn service took place. It was our first experience of an Anzac Day commemoration outside New Zealand, and was well worth the indignity of a 5am alarm clock whilst on holiday!

Along with what seemed half the crowd of thousands, we adjourned to a cafe for breakfast after the service, then we went for a walk. As we sat with a coffee just across the River Torrens from the Adelaide Oval we noticed the crowd building up along that Anzac Day parade route. People were out with their deckchairs and picnics well over an hour before the scheduled start of the parade.

Adelaide's Anzac Day parade was an eye-opener. Our hands are still red from all the applause accorded to the veterans who marched in a parade lasting almost two hours. There was a small New Zealand contingent at the head of the parade, followed by a steady stream of Diggers; some walking unassisted, some with walking frames or mobility scooters, some in wheelchairs and others in vehicles. This chap epitomised the parade for us:

He's got his wheelchair folded up, and is using it for support. But he was determined to complete the march under his own steam, and he did. The human spirit is indefatiguable.

The numbers of WWII veterans decline each year. But there was a large complement of Vietnam war veterans marching, who themselves are no longer young men. They were received warmly; a far contrast to the reception accorded them at the end of the Vietnam War:

There was also a large contingent of Vietnamese veterans. They too were accorded a very warm reception by the huge crowd lining the streets of Adelaide:

New Zealand was not forgotten. The crowd sang both God Defend New Zealand and Advance Australia Fair at the dawn service, and the New Zealand contingent leading the parade was greeted with cheers and applause. The Anzac spirit is alive and well.

It has been a privilege to experience Anzac Day as the Australians observe it. With the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign just one year away now it will be a time when New Zealanders and Australians can unite as never before to remember the fallen, and to honour their sacrifice.