Deliberations underway

An item that caught my eye.

While I await the outcome of coronial deliberations from the inquest into personal responsibility, I see that Whale's mate, Breasel is awaiting a slightly different outcome.

Mr Sheehan said the family would await the coroner's report before deciding if it wanted to take legal action on any other matters.

Yes, I smell money, although I did get the distinct impression from proceedings that the DHB seems has been lined up to take the fall.

Editor needs a bomb

This serious article has serious spelling mistakes, just like a Mr Wang made in Q7 here.

One of these days the writer might learn not to rely on computer spell checkers.

Is that it?

A block of cheese, that's all.

From what I can see the sod has spent all the kitty, just so any incoming government does not get a chance to spend a wad of my wedge.

Out and out election bribe, but not enough. A desperate, cynical move.

Companies ditching staff for sustainable climate

Companies continue to ditch staff like there's no tomorrow. I saw on TV One tonight some mussel shucker in Nelson has ditched 300 plus. That's over 1000 jobs in the past week jobs gone in unsustainable businesses under the current economic climate. Good timing on this one just after the nod for a new mussel farm came through.

I guess these 'rich prick' capitalists will have had the nod via the old boys club to clear the yards on Liarbour's watch, so maximum damage is done during the great Liarbour rout yet to come. The self-destruct internal war has just started as seen today with the veteran Filk Off having been caught inadvertently questioning her indoor's reign for life.

The new faces with the controls in the New Year can only look good as they take the tough decisions, gutting welfarism, reining in the rampant bureaucracy and bringing the economy back on an even keel.

Yes, then we could have a sustainable climate.

Update:
It is not often a cartoonist draws one on-topic for a post.

Personal responsibility

Although I do not hold any hope of a coroner issuing anything other than a diplomatically worded summary couched in legalese, this inquest starting today will hopefully define where personal responsibility lies.

At the time of the misadventure, very capable people stood by, some singing songs and watched the woman die after being disconnected for not paying their power bill. Then Whale's union mate, the 'family friend' stepped forth and proceeded to let fly, railing against the SOE power supplier, trying to garner political kudos. So much so, her indoors dropped everything, attending the funeral and was thus rightly accused of 'corpse chasing'.

Yes, it will be very enlightening to see the outcome. A healthy dose of personal responsibility is what more than a few could do with.

Caption contest

Kyoto will only cost you this much.

or

Michael's tax cuts this week are only this big.

Wrong side of the tracks

As the true costs associated with the purchase of NZ Toy Trains Inc are uncovered to sunlight, the electors are screaming with one voice from the other side of the tracks. Immediate tax cuts, followed by double-taxation relief on fuels.

They're tired of the fact that they're so out of touch with issues that concern them in their daily life.

The yawning chasm is growing daily, which no amount of 'closing the gaps' election bribes this week will repair. If only voters could be so easily controlled by covering them over like cracks in St Heliers.

Yes, under 30% in the polls is definitely the wrong side of the tracks to be on when trying to control the populace who are definitely moving away on their own high speed track from the train wreck that is Helen and Michael.

Big health infusion due

So says the headline. That would be a big increase in the number of patients in corridors and broom cupboards as winter bites?

Great little earner

Tomorrow, digital red light cameras are to start officially extracting revenue from those so obviously colour blind that reside north of the Bombays.

Red-light cameras are ... not about collecting fines

Yeah Right. An earlier test over 20 days revealed 341,000 red light runners. That is 17,000 a day or 12 a minute. Numbers so scary, I had to re-read the article a few times. Someone tell me I have mis-interpreted this article.

Anyway, at a fine of $150 each, these same 341,000 would earn $51 million for the council in 20 days. Not bad, for $1.6M in, over a year that could be $900 million plus. Cost of accidents $12 million over previous 5 years. Good balance sheet.

Great little earner, try to tell anyone you are not in it for revenue. As for those of you in JafaLand, keep running red lights, I can see a future with no rates.

Duck in sights of EC

Trev Mallard MP has been again caught red-handed. This time for driving his red electoral advertising wheelbarrow breaching his own parties ill-conceived EFA legislation.

He has this to say on the matter.

the van was not bought for the purpose of electioneering and was not used for electioneering

A Tui is in order. When I see any MP's shopping cart emblazoned with the party logo, it is nothing but blatant electoral advertising. Hohepa Public, while he may think Helen is Queen of the Realm, does not emblazon his vehicle with logos for other than advertising purposes, although some may use various decals to cover re-entry burns.

There is a question which the EC might ask of the IRD to settle such claims for personal usage or electoral advertising.

'Does Mr Mallard claim any work-related expenses or depreciation in regards to this vehicle?'.

Acting PM to visit Dannevegas

From the council's local rag, the Bush Telegraph, not online

by Rebekah Kingston (brand new reporter)
The Prime Minister of New Zealand will be visiting Dannevirke on the 29th of May. Helen Clarke has never been here as PM and in fact it has been many years since an acting Prime Minister has visited our town. Denise MacKenzie the Labour Candidate for Wairarapa thought it was extremely important that Mrs. Clarke came and talked to the residents of Dannevirke.

Yes, I am sure the acting PM will be positively champing at the bit to talk to the residents over a nice cuppa at Mrs. MacKenzie's small rooms on the High Street. Particularly all 466 of them wot were made unemployed today. So important that even the affairs of state could not her back.

Apart from the spelling and grammar mistakes, all the best in your new career Rebekah. Just for the future though, it is Miss Clark, she unfortunately is not acting, but the real PM for a few short months more.

I wonder will she keep to the date as promulgated or is it time for a Tui?

Lame duck says no to call in

Unable to face any more adverse publicity, Trev 'Punchy' has decided no to calling in the application by government's energy generator to build a new hydro dam in the pristine wilderness.

Not good for votes more like it. Liarbour does not need more negative press sorting this crap out - the ratepayers can stand the EC bill.

Get stuffed Save Happy Valley kindergarten. Another Gordon River campaign in the making here.

Oringi to close

The shine has been taken off a beautiful day here at 40S as the expected formal announcement has been made that Oringi will close.

Not bad PPCS - almost 500 Tararua workers out of work in a district that has under 19,000 residents total. That is even worse in Dannnevegas where it could be 15% to 20% of the workforce.

Still, the only industry in town that has recently undergone massive expansion will do very well thank you. Yes, WINZ is reported to be assisting potential clients.

And yet ratepayers will still afford expensive new paving imported from England and a large Viking statue.

PM will not lead Labour at next election

All right lefties, settle down, stop choking on your coffee.

A headline I so wish for, but unfortunately not going to happen anytime soon here in Helengrad. The chinks in the armour are appearing in this Labour.

Trading carbon for votes

Whilst her indoors is backing off the emissions trading because it is political suicide at present, I note she was prepared to forgo a billion dollar industry and the 3,500 associated jobs.

What would Southland have then? Just Mayor Tim and his clapped out concrete mixer.

At least if the smelter did go, JafaLand might have a guaranteed power supply for a few more years.

But seriously, under the Law of Unintended Consequences, she is ready to allow probably the largest industrial employer in the country to head to closure over emissions. Shame the hot air and particulate emissions from her electorate are following the same principles by not being included in the carbon tax scheme.

As one of her own rightly notes about the introduction of this scheme

we're all stuffed.

It's too late and it's not enough

So says the next PM of NZ if he plays his cards right. Trying to gazumph Mickey no doubt as Adolf at No Minister has suggested. Even goes so far to suggest Liarbour

has been asleep at the wheel, blinded by the ideological belief that it knows best how to spend your money

You see, the future PM has, shall I say, a different but maybe necessarily conservative view at the edge of the abyss of what could be required to stay in business as a NZ battler, not as a consumer of welfare at the WINZ trough. Some, like myself, have been down this road before with interest rates in the low 20's. Ideals such as those below could also be good for you.

* An ongoing programme of personal tax cuts;

* A disciplined approach to government spending so interest rates track down, not up;

* Putting an end to the "massive" rise in head office bureaucracy and deal with regulatory and compliance issues that smothered businesses;

* An "unwavering focus" on improving education standards; and

* Investment in infrastructure that the country needed to grow.

The PM to be suggests

big economic challenges New Zealand was facing and present a serious, considered plan delivering financial security

He has all the necessary answers.

an economic plan to deliver that step change...it isn't a short-term set of band-aid solutions

I look forward to the offerings on the table and wish the next PM of NZ well. Yes the bribes so necessary to be relelected to be offered by the incumbent are too little and too late.

41% believe NZ is down the gurgler

The latest from the esteemed House of Morgan on the continued and widening gap for her indoors.

Helen Clark’s Government badly trails the National Party and would lose Government if the election were now. What should concern Helen Clark is the number of electors who believe New Zealand is heading in the wrong direction — up 3% to 40.5%.

“In addition the latest Roy Morgan New Zealand Consumer Confidence Rating (released today) is at a record 92.7 (down 7.3 points).

The NZ Government must get on the front foot to save the Labour Party from Electoral defeat later in the year.

Of particular note is the 52% in JafaLand that want to see (yes, I know that is a horrible thought for those of you with minds in the gutter) her backside in November and also that
the numbers north of the Bombay's suggest it is a 3 horse race.

HT Keeping Stock

Bob the Builder quits

An 'out of his depth' Bob the Builder has just handed Tauranga on a plate to the Minister of Baubles.

A real loss for NZ politics, Bob was a real MP not afraid to call a spade a spade, not like the other mincers we have running the show.

BTW, has the said Minister paid back his debt to the taxpayer yet?

Varsities no longer hotbed for student activism

campus life is in decline and changes need to be made if sporting, cultural and student organisations are to survive

Recently ditched Johnny H. rightly told the varsities to adopt a user-pays scheme back in 2005 and now they reckon they are short by AU$167M. Using the sport and cultural line that they are needed, truth is that it is more likely the unions bleating about having no pre-paid membership to work on. Any reduction in student activism can only be a good thing, after all students are there to learn.

The newly installed Kevni has been helping his union mates and recently called for an inquiry. 90% of submissions call for re-instatement of compulsory student union fees.

Any move to user-pays has to be good - if students want extra curricular support services, they should pay for it up front in fees, not in some rort fostering compulsory unionism.

I wonder how much of the NZ$10B student loans in NZ are to support the compulsory student unions we have in our tertiary establishments? Why are student unions still compulsory in NZ?

Stop your bitching

Bruce Simpson over at Aardvark offers sage advice for those bitching about the cost of living and other items when they earn heaps.

Seems he manages very well thank you on much less than the average wage and suggests the following points are good starters to get through the tough times.

It's time that Kiwis learned the difference between "wants" and "needs".

Yes, we all "want" the luxuries of life but we "need" the necessities.

If you can't pay your power-bill or petrol for the car then what the hell are you doing buying booze or ciggies?

If you're relying on the food bank to keep yourself alive then should you really be buying all those lotto tickets every week?

What ever happened to teaching people good, basic, sound financial management skills?

I have no LCD/Plasma TV, I have no Sky TV, I have a 20-year old ute rather than a nice comfy car with aircon. But I also have no HP payments, no debt, no leases and no other drains on my meager income -- except rent, power, phone, insurance, food and clothing.

Diesel has gone through the roof - so I *walk* the round trip of 5Kms to clear the mailbox in town every day. I make my own yogurt, I'm about to plant my own veges and my missus knows enough to turn a tray of sausages into a four-course meal with desert.

Perhaps I am the product of a generation-past when we were taught to think about what we are doing and the importance of self-reliance. Am I just a square peg in a round hole?

How are you coping with the seemingly endless increase in prices?

How much debt to you run?

Do you teach your kids (or have you been taught) the basics of sound fiscal management?

Is this another subject we ought to add to our school syllabus instead of some touch-feely cultural enlightenment course?

As he suggests, it is only a matter of getting your priorities sorted and separating 'wants' from 'needs'. And yes, it should be a core subject in schools right up there with the 3 R's.

What to do with all that dosh when you are not having tax cuts as planned?

Why, buy a train set we used to own and has been well proven to be junk since we ditched it.
Like the overly subsidised national airline, in the real world of free markets, no amount of taxpayer wedge will save it. Trains that do not go anywhere useful were not needed and will now add to the costs of shifting goods around the country.

I can smell a whole new bureaucracy being planned as I write to run NZ Toy Trains Inc and can see the road transport industry being reined in to force goods onto rail.


Mickey, enjoy your trainset for the few months you own it, I hope this decision is quickly reversed.

Tolls anyone?

"I can assure you that any suggestion of the Auckland region slapping 5c on the petrol next year is absolutely ridiculous. It's not going to happen,"

It's not going to happen on my watch when there is an election to be won is what her indoors really means.

Slide the costs sideways, Johnny Boy will have to deal with squealing public on underfunded roads tunnelling disruptively through her electorate and other areas.

Speaking of Oz men...

Spoil the wife ---- Aussie style
Look after your wife...

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on the patio, drinking beer and watching my wife mow the lawn.

Sheila from next door saw us and was so upset that she came over and yelled at me....

"You lazy bugger! Sitting there drinking beer while your poor wife pushes that ancient lawn mower around! Get up off your backside and give her a break!"

I thought “.......... Women”.

Took another swig from my stubby, wiped the cold foam from my lips, lifted my sunnies, stared directly at this nosey female and told her in no uncertain terms.

"Sod off and mind your own business. My wife has green fingers, and she really enjoys gardening".

After a few days I felt really bad so I went out and bought her a ride-on mower to show my sensitive side. I am so proud of the deal I got.

I am also proud that my wife can now sit down while mowing the lawn.

Yes guys, after all we should take good care of our wives. That way maybe they will take good care of us.

I have attached a picture below I'm so blooming soft with her, she'll want gears on it next

In the flower garden

Too hard to resist - Oz icon Mal Meninga reckons

"Australian men should be ashamed of themselves. . .we've become a nation of pansies.

"It's time to toughen up and get real – otherwise our nation runs the risk of turning into a joke

Pink wearing Ocker 'real' men apparently wash with facial scrubs and use moisturiser.

The only good news to come from the survey is that a whopping 87 per cent were not offended by "hard language".

Tossers.

Sham marriages

While those over at No Minister investigate Greek issues and marriages of convenience, after following a link, I found that those in the Golden State are having a golden moment.

proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage in California said Monday they have gathered enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

Like our recently buggered smacking petition, a few in-state voters have arduously collected more than a few signatures and have raised for the next election, what we would call a referendum. I say arduously collected, because even with interfering of gathering of petition signatures being illegal over there, more than a few out-of-state rent-a-gay-mob appear to have just done that whilst signatures were being gathered. Is it the same in NZ, I wonder? Still they got there and a million plus signatures is not to be sniffed at.

the voters in California will have the chance to protect marriage

Yes the Californian electorate is making a further stand (initially done in 2000) on the definition of marriage as being

a California voter initiative defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Even the Pope is in on the act. US bishops have been given the same message.

the sacramental bond of marriage seems scarcely distinguishable from a civil bond, or even a purely informal and open-ended arrangement to live with another person.

The electorate is being forced to take a stand on the matter, even Arnie is getting flak for not supporting the cause.

Not content to wait years to respond to the state Supreme Court, Californians are asserting their constitutional prerogative to settle this fundamental question for themselves. This will be an epic battle to defend not just marriage, but voters’ self-determination.

It would be great if NZ could have made the same commitment to real marriages, the rights of real parents and not sham marriages of convenience.