All White Motherf@%kers!

Well it still doesn't quite seem real but the All White's are in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

I've never seen anything like last night. The crowd was amazing - almost entirely in white, chanting and carrying on the whole night. Unbelievable noise - my ears were ringing when Fallon scored from Leo's cross and yet it still got louder and crazier when Paston saved the penalty from the spot.

Wellington is the only place where you could pull off that atmosphere in New Zealand - it was epic.

Watts and I were both kitted out in our All White gears and we were still carrying on well after the final whistle.

How badass would it be if we had England, Australia and the All Whites in one pool? How badass is it that we can even talk about which pool we are going to be in!?

Time to book some flights to Africa!

MMP Poll

In an excellent use of the Facebook, UMR research did a preview of a poll that it is releasing tomorrow on MMP.

It is based on the referenda we will undertake at the next election. My feeling is that it will be a tight race and a lot will depend on peoples satisfaction with the Government going into the election.

The poll puts MMP on 48 per cent support with 40 per cent saying they would like a change of system (I assume the remainder don't know).

I think most peoples disatisfaction with MMP arose when a large number of people didn't end up getting the government they wanted after a minor party shifted its support around. Like for example in 1996, when NZ First went with National after saying it would never do that, and NZ First accepting those baubles in 2005 with the relatively popular Greens missing out altogether.

But currently we have a popular government, so not surprisingly, most people are opting to stick with the status quo. So this could change obviously - especially if the Government continues to "do nothing" as Rodney says.

As I've said before, I think we need to keep MMP, but I would like to see a few improvements.

Systemic Failure

So there has been a bit of talk around the forthcoming MMP referendum. Labour seems to be leaning towards the idea that we should stick with MMP - people are now largely used to it and we've had stable government for the greatest part of the last 13 years - well aside from the messy break ups of NZ First in 1998 and the Alliance in 2002.

But MMP isn't perfect - if anything it gives minor parties something of an advantage (that's what it was designed to do for post-Nazi Germany so no one party would dominate) and at times they can dominate the landscape. Mind you, that isn't always negative - if it wasn't for the Alliance's influence on Labour, we would not have paid-parental leave to the same extent as families now enjoy and KiwiBank would not exist.

No one at this stage is calling for a return to first past the post - which does show that we have at least matured a little. John Key has said he likes the idea of Supplementary Member (SM) and I must admit I'm reasonably partial to that system in the New Zealand context. SM is similar to MMP in that you have two votes - one for the candidate you prefer in your electorate, and the other for your favourite party, however, under SM the party vote doesn't determine the make up of the whole house, only the list seats. Basically what this does is put more emphasis on winning electorates - which I like.

But what would have happened had we had SM since 96 instead of MMP? Well honestly the actual result wouldn't have been too different. 1996 and 1999 the results would have been similar, 2002, Labour would have easily governed alone and 05 would have been about the same as follows: (the standard has the 2008 example - Nats govern alone)









The way I see it though, is that we could basically achieve the same thing by making a few alterations to MMP instead of changing system entirely. The one seat threshold (where a party gets its party vote allocation if it wins one electorate) could be raised to something more akin to the German system like 3 seats - so parties like ACT can't just leverage off one electorate seat and have disproportionate influence. I would also go back to the Royal Commission's original recommendation of a 4 per cent threshold on the party vote.

Also, why not remove the safety net of the list? So you either stand as a list or an electorate candidate. This would mean the hacks that get rejected by their electorate are truly gone. It would also serve to rid us of the lazy attitude so many current list MPs who once held electorates took to their local constituencies - they would either lose and be gone, or stand aside and let someone who really wants to represent a particular constituency have a go.

As I said late last year, I think Labour reconnecting at a local level has to be the number 1 priority for this early part of opposition. I think we should stick with MMP for a while yet but there are potentially some real positives that could come from reforming it - both by halting a lot of the wagging of the dog by minor parties, but also by pushing MPs to stay in touch with their constituencies. By just making a few tweaks and balancing things a bit better we could actually come up with a system that satisfies most of us.

March Fest

Well I havent blogged in over a week because I have basically been out of town- spent two days at a vineyard in Martinborough and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday over in Nelson for March Fest.

March Fest is the annual celebration of the harvest of the Nelson hops and involved a tour around several micro-breweries and the main March Fest event at Founders Park on Saturday.

First up was the excellent little Lighthouse Brewery where master brewer and all around decent bloke, Dick, cracked us up with his yarns. While his Pilsener was a tad bitter for me, his 'Dick's Dark' ale was fantastic - strong coffee and chocolate hints... mmmm. This is us standing around at the Lighthouse drinking - its possibly the smallest commercial brewery in New Zealand!



Then it was on to Tasman Brewery, where I especially liked the Doppelbock and the Fern Dark, but what I really dug about Tasman is that they have set up three bars in Nelson all called the Sprig and Fern - one of which was located on the very suburban Milton St next to a dairy and fish and chip shop. They pride themselves on being a small community pub with no pokies or plasma screens - just really good beer. Check them out here - I got to thinking somewhere like Island Bay would be perfect.... hmmm....

The next morning we went out to NZ Hops - which smelt stunning, before heading to the Festival proper.





While at March Fest we checked out one of my favourite breweries - the organic, vegan friendly and now kosher Founders Brewery. I knew Founders was owned by the family of an old acquaintance, Matt, from university, but what I didnt know was that he is now brewing there and is actually behind their gold medal winning Fair Maiden Ale - and he is now going out with another friend of mine who I hadnt seen for five years. So it was basically one big catch up over a selection of Long Blacks (their very dark lager), Tall Blondes (gold lager) Generation Ale and their Marchfest brew - Fat Lip, which was an even darker ale. Good times!



You have to admire the purity of Founders - sixth generation brewers who have put their craft first despite the fact that they have forced themselves into having to be so inventive as there are only 4 organic types of hops in New Zealand and just as few types of malt.

Next day it was a tale of two breweries - the uber-flash, US owned, no expense spared (but a bit shit in terms of taste!) Golden Bear brewery - their kit is the first pic below - and later to the super relaxed, brewery in a shed with super friendly blue heelers, Townshend Brewery.





Wasn't a big fan of either on taste - but give me a Townshend any day!

After that we finished up at the Moutere Inn - who also claim to be NZ's oldest pub... which I always thought was the Thistle in Wellington - but oh well, they have better beer so I'll go with Moutere!



So all in all it was a great weekend of beer drinking organised by SOBA, the Society of Beer Advocates, who are trying to encourage people to be more discerning with their beer - you wouldnt drink cask wine, so why drink crap like Tui??

Stimulating thoughts

As governments of the world are walking around in circles to get some sort of economic stimulus package passed and as we anticipate what John Key will come up with in the next two weeks, I thought I would share some little tid-bits from the Rachel Maddow show the other night and a few thoughts of my own.

Key is reportedly going to announce a $500 million infrastructure package that will target a couple of specific roading projects, school property upgrades and insulating state houses - all good things. But beyond this the largest part of his stimulus package will be tax cuts... and yes they will be the tax cuts he already announced in the campaign that overwhelmingly favoured those on higher incomes. We need to change that balance.

The reason for these stimulus packages seems to have been lost along the way. Basically what has happened is that people aren't buying stuff, which has the flow on of meaning other people will lose their jobs, so the government needs to step in and spend to effectively save those jobs.

Rachel Maddow had a really good piece the other night comparing different types of spending which was based on work by Moody's.
Every $1 spent on tax cuts creates $1.02 of economic activity
Every $1 spent on infrastructure creates $1.59 of economic activity
Every $1 spent on food stamps creates $1.73 of economic activity.
(Source: Moody's Economy.com)

In short people dont necessarily spend the tax cuts they get so it is ineffective as a stimulus measure.

We don't have a lot of cash in New Zealand so frankly we need to be targeting what we have on the most effective measures and that does not include tax cuts.

Why not expand that insulation programme back to what it was and roll out to as many homes as possible? Hell why not look at investing in solar water heating for state houses? These are both worthy investment ideas that would actually have valuable flow on effects by creating healthier households and lower power bills.

Did you know most of our buses are built and designed in Christchurch? Why don't we take this opportunity to invest in public transport by upgrading our fleet nationwide? In doing this we could also do wonders for our green ambitions.

Families tend to spend more as they have higher costs, so instead of tax cuts - why not expand Working for Families again? As Moody's said, food stamps are the best kind of stimulus and expanding WFF is probably the most politically palatable idea along these lines in the New Zealand context.

Our skills and training gap remains and we still have so many people with poor literacy and numeracy skills - so if businesses with low skill workers are about to crumble or lay off staff, then how about considering a 4 day week for workers at some workplaces and on the fifth day have the worker undertake skills training being paid for by the government. Under this the worker would keep their job and undertake training in an area of need. This could offset the need to lay off staff as wage bills would be decreased and it would provide a much needed investment in skills.

There are tons of other ideas floating around as well, but my point is that the old argument of tax cuts is not suited to this particular situation and right now we need to be making smart investments in our people and economy.

Voltaire and Dauth

A recent article on current blog du jour, Kiwipolitico, talking about how the fifth Labour Government shouldn't be mourned by the true left because it didn't go far enough on several issues and condoned other 'evils' such as the anti-terror raids in 2007, the Foreshore and Seabed Act and not clarifying the legislation around abortion (the latter which I hadnt picked up as an issue at all btw???) has got a few tongues wagging.

This afternoon I was listening to a podcast of Air America radio which had a talkback piece on whether President-elect Obama was smart to be so inclusive of the right. One of the callers basically said because of some of Obama's appointments of republican figures - he was bad and his presidency will be a wasted opportunity. Essentially the same premise as the criticism that Kiwipolitico was making.

One of my previous bosses would often pull out his favourite Voltaire quote - The perfect is the enemy of the good. Like the host on Air America (who attributed it to his mother!?) who used it in the Obama context - I feel that it fits this argument around the fifth Labour Government.

What I think Voltaire was getting at was that attaining perfection becomes infinitely more difficult the further you go along. There are always going to be the unseen fish-hooks, pot-holes etc etc that trip you, so at some point, you have to cut your losses, and realise that doing tangible 'good things' is actually better than continually traversing a seemingly neverending road towards some sort of utopian perfection. If it's 'good enough' (so to speak) - then get on with it.

Was Labour perfect? Absolutely not. But it's simplistic to say that it was a government of missed opportunities just because Clark sometimes took a pragmatic approach rather than seeking leftist-perfection. The reality is, we now have the savings scheme that we should have had for over 30 years, we have an infinitely fairer tertiary student loans system, the lowest unemployment rates for nigh on a generation - especially amongst Maori and Pacific Islanders, cheaper and more accessible primary healthcare, a new pride in what it means to be a New Zealander, probably the most significant investment in infrastructure for 50 years and so on.

Sure it wasn't perfect - but it was pretty bloody good.

Taking over the asylum

I was planning on avoiding politics as a topic for the remainder of the year, but the happenings of the last week have meant I just can't bite my tongue any longer. Almost unbelievably our brand spanking new tory government has seemingly used its first week in the house to shoot itself in the foot and try to bring an end to its own honeymoon period.

They had widely flagged that tax legislation and changes to KiwiSaver would be introduced under urgency, but had not even hinted that the 90 Day probation period bill would be introduced - let alone passed. Personally I don't have a problem with probationary periods - and they were actually allowed for under the Employment Relations Act. Of course as most people know, my previous employer used the probation period mechanism under the ERA and they had actually used it to remove a previous employee, but only after they had gone through a process which identified what was wrong and provided a chance for the worker to get it together. But what this bill does is actually remove any avenue for recourse or mediation - basically if you're sacked at the end of the 90 day period and you feel you have been unfairly treated or that you received insufficient training to be able to do the job or no warning etc - there is nothing you can do, you're gone. There is no independent complaints authority - you're out of luck, sunshine.

Worse still, watching the debates it was abundantly clear that the government backbenchers actually had no idea about the implications of their tax changes for low income earners (naturally the cuts favour the rich and actually disadvantage workers earning under $45k). Is there anything more dangerous in a democracy than a government passing legislation that they haven't read and refuse to release until the debate begins under urgency, with minimal debate and no consultation?

This willingness to force through legislation under urgency - when there is no real need - does beg the question whether we need another check or balance on the Parliament. The Select Committee process was supposed to alleviate the need for an upper house by providing another check on the government. Given this government's perceived eagerness to avoid Select Committee's and the historic unwillingness of the Governor General to reject laws, I wonder if we do need to look again at the idea of re-establishing an upper house as a final check.

On top of all this big Gerry Brownlee's cringeworthy, shambolic performance as Leader of the House has been like watching some sort of David Brent/Manuel The Office/Fawlty Towers hybrid. It makes you really want Labour to pick up the Yellow Fever chant from Phoenix matches - "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING".

Meanwhile Brownlee has been the talk of the town for other reasons - with leaks flowing from all angles suggesting that because of his personal dislike for Nick Smith he has instructed officials in the Energy and Resources area that they are not to talk to or give any information to Environment ministry officials for fear that it will end up in Nick Smith's hands. That's right kids, if true - Brownlee has basically ordered by decree that officials working on things like, I dunno, Biofuels and electricity generation are not allowed to talk to the lead agency on climate change. I know right - WTF? how does that work?

And this is week one.

The knife also continues to hover over the public service with redundancies seeming almost inevitable. I only hope that National look at how ineffective the Rudd Labor government's cuts to the public sector have been in Australia. The public service over there is stupidly overworked and I know of people being expected to work 12-13 hour days, 6 days a week as a norm. Foreign Affairs has supposedly been a top priority of the new government with Rudd keen to be seen as a leader on issues like climate change, yet the budget cuts at DFAT has seen a 10 per cent staff turnover already in the first 12 months of KRudd.

I know this is what the people wanted and that this is the government the people chose. But I'm not sure anyone really thought it would be this messy quite so soon.

Are you local?

One of the most notable outcomes of the recent election was how Labour lost every single provincial seat that it held, despite many of the areas being characteristically 'Labour' areas. For example previously safe regional seats like East Coast, Otaki, Tukituki, West Coast-Tasman, Invercargill, and Whanganui have all been lost over the last two terms. In Palmerston North and Rimutaka Labour also struggled even though they had both had long solid service from popular retiring local MPs.

Five-minute PM, Mike Moore recently suggested that one of the reasons for this was MMP. He said that the safety net created by the party list meant MPs were preoccupied with impressing their leader and party hierarchy to gain promotion and to secure a decent list spot rather than putting in the hard yards in their electorates. Moore suggested this was why MPs had lost touch with their electorates and why so many of Labour's caucus seemed non-plussed at the thought of life on the list.

I think he is almost right on the money. We are told that there are huge numbers of people signing up to the party - that the membership is growing and is the strongest it has been. But take all those electorates listed above - not one of them has what you would call a strong local committee with active members and supporters. The membership in these areas has stagnated and aged to the point that basic activities such as door-knocking could not happen and deliveries in many had to be contracted out.

As UK Labour Councillor, Phillip Glanville, succinctly put it in his recent piece on the Blairite site Progress Online talking about the UK party - local campaigns are vital or no seat is safe. The parallels to our local party are stunning -

"Campaigning in Crewe, I was struck by the lack of long-term organisation. The late, great Gwyneth Dunwoody was a formidable parliamentarian and much-respected MP, but the local party in Crewe seemed moribund at best. Sadly, it was clear that canvassing and campaigning had not taken place for a generation. No historic data, no personal relationships, no record of local campaigning.

In estate after estate, there was no sense that Labour had been talking to local people. We hadn't fostered a sense that the party was on their side - campaigning for better schools, safer streets and new homes."

Just swap out the MP and place names and you pretty much have NZ Labour.

"... Crewe and Glasgow are better after 11 years of Labour Government. Yet, for years it seems nobody has talked to local people about what we are doing and why.

Our supporters don't need Facebook, they want us to talk face to face: in their local pub, at the church fete, at a residents' meeting or on the doorstep. It may be old-fashioned or unsexy, but it works. You can't just turn up every four years (or, even worse, mid-term) and expect people to vote for you.

Clearly being in power is vital. We should never lose sight of that aim or hold the deluded view that we need to be in opposition to renew. Yet being in government can hold the party. Leaders inevitably start to listen to civil servants over party members and citizens. We get caught up in the idea that a good policy and a slick soundbite is all it takes to succeed."

Indeed.

However, what parts of the recent campaign also reinforced was that with real effort and a priority given to connecting directly - I firmly believe that most of the seats above can and should be won back in three years.

Hey it's a world cup in rugby code - I'll take it!

The Kiwi league team pulled off what is unquestionably the upset of the century for Rugby League last night by toppling the Kangaroo's in the league world cup final. It was only 12 or so months ago when I attended the centenary test in Wellington where we got pummeled 50 odd nil (i did steal a souvenir ball though that day so it wasnt all bad). All throughout this 'World Cup' I had been bitching about what a joke it was and that only one team could win and that the whole thing was really a play off between England and New Zealand to see who would have the honour of losing the final to Australia. But I was sooo wrong and as the Sun Herald in Sydney have said - the Joke (of a tournament) became the Choke! Finally I have something to throw back at the Aussies when they bring up choking at world cups!

The All Blacks also went well against Wales and are only one win away from another Grand Slam. The most impressive thing so far is that in the three Grand Slam tests (Scotland, Ireland and Wales) and the Hong Kong test against the Wallabies, is that the All Blacks haven't conceded a single try - would be great to see them hold that against England this week. But anyway, aren't we just loving all the Haka hijinks - first we had Tipoki, Howlett etc doing a haka to the All Blacks before the Munster game and then we had the Wales stare down contest - loving it!

The Phoenix also did their darnedest to butcher a win against Newcastle tonight - with two red cards against Newcastle before half time you would assume victory was inevitable - especially since the star Phoenix recruit, Fred from DC United and formerly of the Victory (MVP of the 2006 A-League), was playing. But oh no - we had to fuck up as many opportunities as possible before spluttering to victory late in the game. I shouldn't be quite so harsh I know - but I'm losing enough hair as it is!

Speaking of harsh I could take the easy option and bag the NZ Cricket team for not taking their opportunity to beat Australia when they had the chance. But I'll be honest - I had incredibly low expectations and I actually thought the performance was an improvement - I'll explain what I mean in a second. But basically we don't have the batsmen to beat Australia - we have the bowlers - but not the batting so our chances were always fairly remote. How and Redmond are clinging on to their slots for dear life. Of the two (and I know Im kinda biased) How does look the most likely to get a score - but like Daniel Flynn - he needs to deliver on that at some point. Redmond is hopeless and out of his depth - but really we've tried all the other options (Bell/Papps/Cumming) so he may as well hang around. Ryder and Taylor look good but need to protect their wickets more, McCullum isn't a number 5 and doesn't look comfortable there - he should drop back to 7 with Flynn stepping up to 5 and being pushed for runs. I know Grant Elliot is only there to make up the numbers but he is just painful to watch and should not be there - he can't bat and he can only barely bowl - so why bother? Why not just throw Kyle Mills back in at 8 - at least he can bowl and his 15 or 20 runs late in the innings would be more use than another 6-ball duck.

But anyway as I said, I thought it was an improvement and I say that because we actually dominated a whole days play (day 1), which I can't remember us doing for a long time against Australia. We put Australia in, bundled them out for a low score and then didnt lose a wicket - all you could ask for out of day 1 of a test. Honours were split on day 2, we won the last session having lost the first and second sessions badly. Day 3 was Australia's and was enough to take the test. But despite a poor day 3 it was still better than the last time we faced Australia in a test. During that series we might do ok during the odd session - but we could never maintain that pressure throughout a whole day. We would either start well by picking up wickets only to butcher the game with a poor second session - with Symonds, Ponting or Gilchrist piling on runs or we would have another middle order collapse if we were batting. Either way we would be unable to maintain the pressure we had built up into the next session. But in Brisbane for a whole day we had the foot on the throat of Australia and we were competitive. So yeah its still disappointing to lose again, but it showed progress and hopefully during the next series against them we can start winning consecutive whole days... and who knows if we can start scoring runs - maybe even a test.

What I'm listening to at the moment

After loving The Phoenix Foundation's Happy Ending and the soundtrack they pulled together for Eagle vs Shark, I've been checking out Samuel Flynn (son of Tom) Scott's solo album Straight Answer Machine.

Its a good listen and I've chucked the first track, Llewellyn below. It has some really good tracks such as Stolen Egypt, the toe tapping - Leave Me Alone and All My Dreams. However it does lack the polish of the Phoenix Foundation andt at times it does seem a little underdone - even a little bit like a collection of b-sides.

If you haven't listened to Wellington's finest before, then I would suggest starting with an album like Happy Ending before jumping into Straight Answer Machine.



For a taster of the Phoenix Foundation you can watch the video of my happy song (directed by Taika Waititi) from Happy Ending - Bright Grey here or watch my favourite music video (obviously because of the cricket content and cameos by Dion 'hash-pipe' Nash and Lou Vincent - I love the Hadlee shrine too lol) Bleaching Sun below.

How good were they?

Well a couple of weeks ago I nicely put my foot in it (as most of you know) when I was (drunkenly) talking (like the expert I am) about our medal hopes for the games when 'someone' said to look out for the Evers-Swindell twins taking Gold - and I mocked this saying something like - Ha! Bronze at best.... forgetting that the person I was talking to was an Olympic Rowing Bronze medalist... nice one! Thats right up there with inadvertently taking highly strung lesbians to an evening of stand up jokes about lesbians! But probably not as bad as my other recent faux-pas - I was giving a colleague from Christchurch shit for not being at work on a particular Friday - long weekend haha etc etc - she replied oh no I was shifting my husbands stuff out as he has left me. Brilliant, glad I brought it up.

Its been a great year. lol

But anyway - turns out he might have been on the money as the twins stormed back into contention last night qualifying directly for the final. Rowing on the whole seemed to go well - Waddell and Cohen turned it on in the last 1000m to come from a boat length behind to take it by a length, the twins were like some sort of possessed machine (in a good way - not like Terminator), Twigg looked strong and Drysdale was predictably dominant.

Also while we're on rowing - there was a great doco on TVNZ 7 last night about the 1984 rowing 8s, following their campaign start to finish - but don't worry I won't mock their fourth placing out of fear of offending anyone else! A cool thing I found was on the World Rowing website - results from all Olympic games with times etc - i find this sort of stuff fascinating.

Limpuc Games

I love the Olympics and on paper this is looking like a great games for New Zealand - world class rowing crews for africa, Valerie Vili in the shot put, Hayden Roulston in the cycling, Ben Fouhy in the kayaking, Sarah Walker in the BMX, Bevan Docherty in the triathlon and of course the reliable Barbara Kendall.

And this year TVNZ have upped their coverage with their usual coverage on TV1, a dedicated Olympic channel on Freeview and two other streaming online channels. Its a real shame they still drag out Keith Quinn and John McBeth every four years - I mean Murray Mexted may say some daft things, but at least he has a pulse. I love the way they felt there was a need to inform us that they were fireworks that were going off - yeah thanks Keith I think we can work that out.

But anyway I couldnt resist the pull and ended up buying a Freeview box today. Yes yes I already have Sky - but you can't get the extra Freeview channels (including the extra Olympic channel) on Sky! For our overseas readers - Freeview is based on the UK digital platform with the same name that the BBC run - its like Sky, but funnily enough free - but you do have to buy a set top box for around $200.

Its great though - took all of 10 minutes to set up (assuming you already have a Sky dish) and now I have the best of both worlds! Plus I know a few people who have been considering getting a box so I figure I can flog it off after the games if I stop using it.

Environmental heresy?

The very excellent Wired Magazine is likely to cause a storm with its incendiary article on approaches to climate change in the latest issue.

It talks about how if we are serious about addressing global warming, then only one thing really matters - cutting carbon emissions. Wired argues that if we are to do that then we are going to have to make some big calls, cut out the bullshit basically and address the ‘inconvenient truths’ and possibly swallow some dead rats.

“Just one problem. Winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering some of environmentalism's sacred cows. We can afford to ignore neither the carbon-free electricity supplied by nuclear energy nor the transformational potential of genetic engineering. We need to take advantage of the energy efficiencies offered by urban density. We must accept that the world's fastest-growing economies won't forgo a higher standard of living in the name of climate science — and that, on the way up, countries like India and China might actually help devise the solutions the planet so desperately needs.”

“The planet is already heating up, and the point of no return may be only decades away. So combating greenhouse gases must be our top priority, even if that means embracing the unthinkable.”

The article lists 10 ‘heresies’ that would deliver cuts in global carbon emissions and make a real impact on climate change as follows:

1. Live in cities – Urban living is kinder to the planet than the suburban lifestyle. (Totally agree!)
2. Air conditioning is ok - Live in warmer places - Air-conditioning actually emits less C02 than heating. (Difficult in NZ and hard to ask people to up and move out of the South Island – but a good idea)
3. Organics are not the answer -Surprise! Conventional agriculture can be easier on the planet. (Agree! Organics are bollocks)
4. Farm the forests - Treat forests like crops - old-growth forests can actually contribute to global warming.
5. China is the solution, not the problem - The People's Republic leads the way in alternative-energy hardware – China is actually the number 1 manufacturer of solar panels. (Very good point)
6. Carbon Trading Doesn’t Work - Carbon Credits were a great idea, but the benefits are illusory – Kyoto will reduce the impact of Climate Change by 6.5 days. (I think we kind of knew this was window-dressing)
7. Accept Genetic Engineering - Superefficient Frankencrops could put a real dent in Greenhouse Gas emissions. (Totally agree! Science shouldn’t be something we fear)
8. Embrace Nuclear Power - Face it. Nukes are the most Climate-friendly industrial-scale form of energy. (Agree this is a good idea for large countries – but a country the size of NZ could never afford to build one – better off with other renewable sources)
9. Used cars – Not hybrids - Don't buy that new Prius! Test-drive a used car instead. (Totally agree!)
10. Prepare for the worst - Climate Change is inevitable. Get used to it.

I guess that famous Kennedy quote - if the price of peace is Nuclear war, then we'll be left with the taste of ashes in our mouths - comes to mind. But the article is right - if we leave the response up to the hand-wringers and do-gooders then little impact will be achieved on the actual goal of cutting carbon emissions. I suppose we have to ask ourselves - what price we are prepared to pay as a society to fight global warming?

Not sure

Well I've now had a couple of days to ponder the Budget so I thought I'd reflect on what was probably the most important budget politically since 2005.

This time of course Dr Cullen, albeit reluctantly, offered the tax cuts that politically at least should have probably come 12-24 months ago. While the amounts involved will never satisfy the media and those people who are dark about Clark and Co anyway, it is about $40 a pay extra for me - which I will naturally blow on something important like an album or DVD no doubt... er i mean save - which can't really be sneezed at.

But the old school element in me has also pondered what could have been - the total cost of this package was over $10 billion over four years. Now granted there was overwhelming political demand for the cuts and if they hadn't been delivered, Cullen may as well have handed over the cheque book to English straight away, but I think its important to reflect on what else $10 billion could have bought the country had we not all been sucked into the Nats campaign saying this was the way to higher wages and having more money in the pocket.

$10 billion could have delivered free primary healthcare (doctors visits) to all New Zealanders. Or it could have wiped student debt. It could have delivered free early childhood education, taken care of school fees and no doubt still made a pretty decent dent in our national skills shortage.

Higher wages will be achieved when we increase productivity, up our education and skill levels, move our focus to innovative weightless exports and improve our infrastructure - not by cutting taxes (you only have to do that again and again and again - while inevitably cutting services meaning household costs rise further). I guess if the Government hadn't waited 9 years to change the thresholds there would have been less demand and this year's spending could have been a little more intelligent and we could have avoided playing a short-term move.

Time will tell if it gets Labour back in the game and arguably John (Guy Smiley) Key did more damage to his party than the cuts with his dire performance on Campbell Live and Close Up. It would be nice if our wonderful intellectual media "Political Editors" could spend less time drinking with him at the Matterhorn and more time noticing his inability to deliver a decent speech or anything that looks like a policy.

But hey, I may as well roll with it and start planning how I'm to spend my extra $40 a payday.

My ideas

Well I spent the weekend at Labour Congress - and given there was no new policy announced - I thought I'd throw my big ideas out there...

Up skilling
In short our manufacturing sector is buggered - we cannot and should not aim to compete with low wage economies on this basis. We need to become a high skill - high wage economy. This will be achieved by increasing productivity through education and innovation. There is no reason why we cannot produce 'weightless' exports in the form of IT, legal and accounting services. To do this, I think we need to seriously look at encouraging people into the degree courses that will enable us to have a large workforce with the right skill-set to be able to offer these services. Currently the government pays around 70 per cent of students course fees - as a start, why not pay the whole lot on IT and economic/accounting degrees?

Health
Primary Healthcare should absolutely continue to be the number 1 priority. I am a firm believer that if primary care is affordable, then people are more likely to go to the doctor - and get better sooner and not let illnesses get out of hand. Subsidies in this area should continue to rise - I'd like to see $20 doctors visits personally. But there is also unquestionably a need to address tertiary care elective surgeries. Dare I say it, I dig United's new policy for over 65s - it is a guarantee that you will have your surgery done within six months - or your treatment will be done by a private provider. Eventually this should become universal. As Tony Blair once said - the Labour value is getting people treated quickly and funded by the state - this achieves that.

Transport
Well I think at some point we are going to have to bite the bullet and build a highspeed rail network that will get our asses out of the planes. In the shorter term we need more public transport - if its safe, on time, reliable and cheap - people will use it and get the hell out of their cars. Transmission Gully is a rock solid waste of money - all it will do is encourage more cars into the central city - and we don't have enough carparks as it is - a better option would be to improve the rail service to the Kapiti coast and northern suburbs - it shouldn't take a fuckin hour to go to Pram!

10 Crap Places

Ive just been reading a guide to the 50 Most Crap Places in Britain. Number 1 is Hull, Liverpool came in at 6. I thought it would make for a great tour of the UK to travel around the top 10 or 20, but it also got me thinking - what are the 10 crapest places in New Zealand.

So here goes, Ive only included places Ive been to and spent time in rather than places I just passed through

10. Wanganui (Shit hole, who would live in this god awful dump? The mayor is Michael Laws...)
9. Timaru (this was a close call with Greymouth, but even that has something to do - Timaru is the Hamilton of the south).
8. Invercargill (The best bit of Invercargill is the air bridge at the airport - they dont need it as only small planes go there!! Obviously such hope for the future? Cold wet and poos).
7. Masterton (not even its close proximity to Greytown and Martinborough can save it - smells like cabbage, ugly rural people).
6. Levin (to be fair if anyone else was making the list - it would be lower. It is kind of getting better - but its all relative. What the fuck is that statue of a chinese market gardner? Would anyone notice if they just didnt bother and closed for a few weeks?).
5. Whangarei (always fucking raining - apalling mess of a town filled with yokels)
4. Palmerston North (Just try to find something to do - only the windmills keep it from a lower ranking - used to have nice tree lined avenues....... they chopped those down).
3. Christchurch (why? why does it exist? Wellington has government depts and quangos, Auckland has business..... Christchurch has...........?)
2. Whakatane (absolute low point of 2005 was a whole day in this shit hole, made worse by the airport being a glorified skyline garage. You spend all your time willing White Island to erupt and end the pain.)
1. Hamilton (just try navigating this bollocks - it feels like its the size of Western Australia and there is litterally nothing there that you couldnt do elsewhere the epitome of the shit hole. A huge complex network of nothingness ).

Close - Auckland (proving that a million people can be wrong), Gisborne (as depressing as Whangarei), Hutt Valley (the lighthouse and Dowse save it), Stratford (Levin of the West), Foxton (the "fox-town of NZ"... if thats the best you've got...) .

Others that I just know are shit - but I havent been there or have just passed through; Gore, Dargaville, Te Awamutu, and Kaitaia.