Snippets from Agenda

Trevor Mallard is currently in ValeNZia on a holiday provided by the taxpayer and has been interviewed on Agenda this morning. He would have us believe the restrictions on media satirizing are in fact not needed - if straight reporting was conducted, members would handsomely provide all the satire, ridicule and denigration themselves. If that is the case, why did Labour feel the need to muzzle the media?

Also he has been on another recent 'trade mission' with her indoors across the ditch pressing the flesh with MPs from Oz. He would have us believe it was not a junket and wondered aloud why Oz MPs are regarded 'slightly higher' than their counterparts this side of the ditch. Enough said!

While on that junket, the issue of assuming the financial package that would go with a full merger of the AU-NZ economies in capital gains, stamp duty taxes, high dollar, he suggested that it might be a hard package to sell. What he neglected to mention is that his party's voting base would disappear when they would have to work for the dole.

The Cup yet again has NZ firmly on the international stage without the need for the political vulture to be hovering should we win. After todays spinnaker hoisting, we are one step closer to losing and the vulture will be airborne, not to be seen because there are no political points available. Put on the spot, he did say if we were holding the cup aloft at the end of proceedings, further funding would definitely be available, but should we lose, he said it would be considered shortly after the cup - an ill-considered No in my book.

Enjoy your holiday at my expense, Trevor, hopefully it will be your last.