Why Hubbard Is A Four Letter Word....

Back in August last year I completed a series of posts that ultimately questioned why on earth South Canterbury Finance was allowed in the guarantee deposit scheme, least of all why there was a payout when breaches of the deeds were clearly made.

Here

And here

Treasury had a spitty tanty and replied on my point claiming nothing was breached

So what has happened this week? John Key fronted a meeting of oldies and had this to say:

"The entire time I've been Prime Minister I've had Treasury in my office week after week, month after month telling me South Canterbury Finance was going bankrupt."

Oh dear. He's really landed Treasury and Bill English in the poop here. So Treasury from day one of his Prime Ministership were warning the PM that "SCF was going bankrupt"?

I remind you of the first deed signed:

“During the guarantee period (12th October 2008 for two years) the principal debtor shall ensure its business and operations (and the business and operation of its subsidiaries) are conducted in a proper, businesslike, efficient and prudent manner”

Since when can a business be run "proper businesslike, efficient or prudent manner" when on the guarantee period signing, Treasury wonks were running around crying bankrupt to the PM? Unless they knew it was going to tank and put it in the scheme anyway to protect investors from day one for unknown reasons.

SCF and Allan Hubbard are four letter words. The whole thing has been a debacle from day one, the guarantee was executed solely on the "too large to let fail" basis.

Say what you want about Hotchin and Watson and Hanover - they are yet to cost the taxpayer a cent.

Between the limp chumps at Treasury and those in Bill English's offices, this decision was made to include a company that the Prime Minister even admits was doomed to fail as it was on life-support throughout until the plug was finally pulled.

It won't cost the taxpayer a $1 billion once the wash up is made but estimates are around $3-400 million.

Clearly putting SCF into the guarantee scheme was a political decision. The real question now is who benefited the most?

Watch out for Treasury to chuck another spitty tanty at this blogger in response.

Mind Boggling

Truth Page 03 Apr1

The Truth has reported Whale's hint from days gone past that one of the items removed from Annette King's home was a swiss ball.

I can vouch for the usefulness of the swiss ball in the said mind boggling activities but it takes a very fit person with great core strength to actually use the ball in the manner that the Truth seem to be inferring occurred. Most attempts at leverage off the swiss ball result in the circus performer falling arse over face on the ground with carpet burn.

Given Hughes' rather lack of athleticism, a lazy DNA sample on the said swiss ball is probably the more likely outcome.

Right.....back to lunch then.....

KFC Double Down INCOMING!!!

Watch out Kiwis for the food nazis - it is coming.

The KFC Double Down!!!!

Full review and tasting notes from me here after my NYC experience



Whaleoil v David Farrar in an eating challenge. ON!!

Lookalikes

Ross Taylor - New Zealand Cricket *Star (*pending tonight's match)

And "good boy" Lachan Kelly-Tumarae who waved a gun around and got popped by Police.

Pay Up

I am fully supportive of this campaign to get expats to front up and pay back their student loans. Despite the sanctimonious clap-trap from the man behind it, given his campaign forced itself to have a Maori name and all....HEKE....come on.....Maori aren't the ones that are targeted here being under-represented in tertiary education and not exactly known for rampant OE's as a group. Those not paying the loans back are generally middle-class, white (or Asian), mobile and fleeing.

Despite many students from days past not having received any INTEREST FREE loans and then hit with having to pay FROM THE SECOND THEY STARTED EARNING A CENT.....

Peter Dunne chimes in of course with more mutterings of utter uselessness.

Revenue Minister Peter Dunne congratulated Sir Paul on his campaign. "There's a basic intolerance among New Zealanders for people they see as not paying back their loans ... what Sir Paul is doing is simply reflecting that."

Well students ARE NOT PAYING INTEREST on their loans currently and this should no longer be tolerated with such large bills to pay.

Perhaps at that point expats will feel that they are being treated more fairly and comply. Many overseas owe very large sums because of interest accumulated while they were studying and when they were in New Zealand on low paid areas of work. Most have the attitude now that why should they pay the debt back when the government in New Zealand has bailed out and paid off all sorts of other people's debts. Not to mention given preferable treatment for current students.

Basically until the magic day that students are stopped at borders coming and going from New Zealand, handcuffed or slapped with a bill before they can exit New Zealand, then followed up with debt collection agencies overseas, they won't all comply.

I welcome that day.

I also welcome the day the current bunch of bludgers are slapped with market rates of interest from the second they drawdown the loan, even while studying - just like everyone else had to endure.

I also welcome the day that the government rebates all the interest accrued then paid from good honest people who have already paid their loans off in full and with the 7+% interest from the day of drawdown.

I imagine we will all be waiting more than a lifetime for even a thank you.

The T-Bomb

From Whaleoil

We are waiting for the T-Bomb to be dropped. $160k for a few months work you can feel it dropping in to Wellington very soon ready to finish her business in a far deadlier way than Sir Roger ever could.

Pinko Bait

While Phool Gaff is rolled by his colleagues after being roughed up and taken apart on the weekend's Q + A by veteran Paul Holmes, watch the Pinko's go absolutely apeshit across the blogs today with this. John Key on a comic skit.

The lines about WINZ are fabulous.

The Secret Diaries by Steve Braunias

Braunias is writing such for the deepest darkest hidden Southland Times. Fortunately they are online. This weeks effort is on Darren "private dancer" Hughes.

Enjoy.... excerpt below....

Friday:
Crept into my office after dark with a cardboard box. Was creeping out again when I noticed a sheet of paper taped to Annette's door. She'd written something on it. All the lights were out in the corridor – it's Labour's energy policy – so I had to step closer to see what it was.

She'd written: FLATMATE WANTED.

What's Next For Dazza?

Apart from #10 which is clearly not acceptable the rest are genuinely very funny so I assume the intern or Norrie at Spy wrote them.

Who Is Damien Grant?

The Granny on Sunday has been running some stunning columns as of recent by this Damien Grant.

Fuck you to leaky homes "speculators".
Fuck you to Hanover "investors".
Fuck you to those who oppose foreign ownership.

Never heard of him before, so sensing this was all too good to be true that a journalist could write with such laissez faire, caveat emptor anti-populist balls I did a bit of googling and found that Damien Grant is not a journalist at all

He's a liquidator and corporate undertaker.



Touche.

Journalists Disown Meng-Yee

Carolyne Meng-Yee wore a very bad taste Sophie Elliott costume to a HoS party. Imagine the outcry if Paul Henry had done similar with Clayton Weatherstone?

In the profession of Law we discipline offending members by striking them off.

In an act of internal discipline by the journalism profession The Minger has now worn their own unique brand of punishment - she's demoted to being called a "writer".

The Price of MMP

David Farrar at Kiwiblog has rather spectacularly run the numbers of how much money Judith Tizard will have to turn down if she does what most in the Labour Party want, and stands aside to let Louisa Wall come in early.

But it is not just Tizard who will have to make the sacrificial bunt, these high achievers will have to do likewise:

Judith Tizard
Mark Burton
Mahara Okeroa
Martin Gallagher
Dave Hereora

If they return as an MP, and retire at the election, they’ll actually get paid to three months after the election under s18(3)(b) of Civil List Act 1979. This means they’ll get paid for 11 months. What will they get paid in those 11 months?

1. Salary of $123,350
2. 20% super contribution of $24,670
3. Expenses allowance of $14,000

That’s a total of $162,020 Andrew Little is asking those candidates to turn down. And they have every right under the law of the land to become an MP and get paid that money, as Labour ranked them high enough up their party list. So we await with anticipation, their decisions.

Most right-thinking people would be asking precisely what I am asking at the moment, why, now just eight months from the election, does New Zealand need to replace a list MP at all?

Tizard has every right to bag another $162k and take her seat in Parliament. If so it would cap off her career nicely in more ways than one. The Tizard Bomb could in fact lead New Zealanders to chuck out MMP.

If The T-Bomb achieves this it will be her greatest achievement in politics and redeem her career in troughing as a worthwhile one.

Come on T-Bomb, do it!!

A Glimmer of Sporting Hope

The Black Caps - what an impossible victory against probably the form team left in the World Cup in South Africa. Next up the winner of Sri Lanka v England.

Please let it be England so we can have the chance to smash the colonials up.

By the way - those who trash the Black Caps sporting record, they may not have won the World Cup but they have made the semi-finals now a total of five times.

A Hughes Error

Make no mistake Darren Hughes has just fucked up his entire political career. It's over for him. He's on the unemployment line looking for a job either with his Godmother Dear Leader in NYC or back in the Labour Party Headquarters as a back room sally his entire life.

I can't say I am sad for him because I am not. He's a pinko. Richard Worth had to go, David Garrett had to go, Pansy Wong had to go. Darren Hughes had to go.

Darren Hughes' biggest mistake was just like Worth's with the sex scandal- he didn't front foot the issue and kept quiet.

I have been too busy to post on "The Huge" this week and it's been too ugly to kick the corpse until the Undertaker announced it dead. But from day one he should have outed himself properly. That is, pull a "Shane Jones" and front it. He left his Leader (an inept Phool) to deal with it. That seems The Huge's largest mistake. As Whaleoil has called it 24 hours ahead of everyone this week - this is now Phool's leadership issue.

The day after a young man with excellent academic and leadership credentials was allegedly seen running naked "holding his penis" from the house The Huge was staying at with his Deputy Leader, The Huge should have called a Press Conference.

Forget the criminal investigation. He's a politician. The legal issues are secondary to the PR issues. A lawyer would have advised him to shut up, because a lawyer's job is to save him from jail. A PR practitioner thinks otherwise and is trying to save his job. If they do it well they will also save him from jail. All lawyers should be drowned at this point, The Huge should have called a PR advisor because their advice will differ at the first point of call - the morning after.

The Huge should have discussed the event, outed himself what all of us on the right have known for years - that he's gay and shy about it, and then said the whole incident was a terrible misunderstanding and that it is hard for him to form relationships with men because of the mixed messages and awkwardness that goes with telling someone that you fancy that is the same sex as you are, that you are gay. As I attest, New Zealand has a man drought for straight females, I can only imagine how hard it is for a gay man to work out what males are actually keen, let alone score a root without ending up at the local cop shop.

Make no mistake though Hughes is an idiot and he makes a mistake plenty of my friends also do. He parties with young people. He parties with the wrong people. In public life, as with any professional who has to adhere to ridiculously high standards, you should only party with people with as much to lose as you have. A very wise person once told me that. A known rooter, drug user, liar and philanderer and bless him. But one that has never been caught because he has adhered to that rule. He only parties, roots and takes drugs with those who will not take offence to his behaviour and will shut their traps. Almost always these people are OLDER than you are.

When you are living with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Party and you are being promoted through the Party on the fast track to achieve at least that position yourself, the last thing you do is bring back to the house any man or woman who will not be accepting of your advances, sexual or otherwise.

Darren Hughes, you deserve to be fired, not for being gay or even for the sexual advances, behaviour or otherwise but for being an idiot. I don't think there has ever been a situation in NZ politics where someone on the fast track to "achieve" so much has fucked up so badly.

We don't need another "Veitch" incident out of this, The Huge is a sensitive bloke and I guess that's why Kiwiblog's Farrar has been soft on this. Hughes is an awkward character who clearly needs to be drunk to be socially comfortable. Nothing wrong with that but all those years in the closet has come to bite him, for no straight male would accept an invite back to his part of Annette King's villa if they knew his sexuality. This incident would have been avoided.

I roll my eyes as I have all week and ask "Dazza, what the fuck were you thinking?". There isn't a more supportive environment for a gay or lesbian than being a member of the Labour Party. And you blew it.

Play That Record Again Deborah

In the interests of fairness to Matthew Hooton for worst column of the week, I have decided to review Deborah Coddington's Sunday column on, what else when she has a slow news week? - ACT. I don't know why she bothered submitting a whole page to the Editor when it reads in 20 words:

Still don't like ACT nanananana
Still don't like ACT nanananana
Still don't like ACT nanananana
Still don't like ACT nanananana

It surely must be tongue-in-cheek when she describes:

It's like watching a newly married wife undermine her husband at a dinner party. You want to yell: "You married him. Stop bagging him in public."

Yet six years on, Coddington, an otherwise happily married woman remains and reads like the woman still scorned.

Hassling HootOFF

I am a member of the VRWC (Vast Right Wing Conspiracy). I also have always worked in a job where I am paid to promote the interests of big business, rich people and other right-wingers.

I am highly principled in these areas. I am paid a lot of money to promote these interests. Fortunately these interests mesh perfectly with my own principles so there is no conflict and never will be. I will never deviate from these principles. I am open and honest about this. If I ever change my mind then the money that flows from it has to stop. It is not just a job, it is a position I have taken.

Unlike some right-wingers who say they would take money from pinkos and the brotocracy if it was enough, I never will. I would rather IV drip my own vomit and watch an endless episode of Glee while being force fed Tui beer dining at a Soup Kitchen with smelly poor people than promote higher taxes , rates or more government or bureaucracy for example.

You could not pay me enough to promote unions, racial separatist parties such as the Maori Party, race based seats or lefties. All disgust me.

There are those on our side who are weak. And on the right, the weak need not be cuddled, they need to be drowned.

I am calling time on Matthew Hooton.

I am doing so because I have lost patience in his over the top dribble aimed at promoting himself as a right-wing random shock jock "Michael Laws" of political analysis and public affairs. I like Matthew, even though I do not know him well. I am patient with him because he's quite cute and charming, those sort of men always get a second or even third chance with me. I have three left wing Facebook friends. I would have four but Trevor Mallard has run out of friend slots. I have Facebook friends who are repeaters and I find them all at least principled. Matthew on the other hand is now defriended for the terminal position of being unprincipled while pretending to be right wing.

Matthew has a long political career behind the scenes, lets forget that and concentrate on the recent highlights of his principles as it is an awful read:

- Matthew Hooton was a paid advisor to Don Brash when Brash was about to rule the world.

- The left (Trust Fund baby Nicky Hagar) claim Matthew Hooton was one of the architects of Don Brash's infamous Orewa speech.

- Hooton's Maori public sector enhanced friends dispute this and claim he was "distraught when he saw what was in the Orewa speech". I have no doubt that Busted Blonde was repeating what did happen at the time.

- But Hooton was not too distraught at the speech as Hooton and Brash then reconciled never to speak of Orewa again.

- Exceltium, Hooton's own company was paid to run the PR for the 2025 Taskforce led by Don Brash. The Taskforce was ACT policy. Don Brash however is not and never has been an ACT member. He did though front the Taskforce and everything related to it as it meshed with his own principles while National Party leader to catch Australia.

- Hooton fronted the race based anti-democratic Maori Statutory Board on the Supercity. We will definitely come back to that.

- Don Brash returned to Orewa not so long ago on 27th November 2010 where he gave a speech very similar in structure to that he normally gives. I've been to several and I know what to expect.

- Soft introduction
- Economics
- Where National are headed
- Smashing government intervention and other pet hates
- More constructive dryball economics
- Second part pull back into Maori issues
- Inspirational quote and wind-up at the end.

This is a standard Brash speech. Not a bo-peep out of Hooton then in November when Brash was speaking of his 2025 taskforce and skipped back to Maori issues. Brash's speech was 4,276 words, 667 words were devoted to the section on Maori and 34 times was the reference to "Maori" used.

- This year Don Brash (like in other years) was invited by ACT as a popular guest to give a speech. Brash has given speeches at many ACT events as like Ruth Richardson, the members love him and wish that both would stand for ACT, which neither has ever looked close to doing, but dream a dream. This is the full content here of Brash's speech.

- Brash's speech has 4,618 words. There are only 32 references to the word Maori in that speech (less than his Orewa speech) and exactly 1,000 words (21.7%) on the section of his speech about Maori and how their underachievement is holding back New Zealand's economic achievements and how race based issues are also holding the country back. Read the speech from end to end and compare it to the November 2010 Orewa speech to the National Party, they are very similar.

- The difference here is Hooton scribes a paid NBR column and goes ballistic not at Don Brash, the speechmaker but at ACT for the content of Don Brash's speech. Don Brash, a non-ACT member who is free like Hooton's rent-a-bro, paid-like-a-ho mate, Willie Jackson to talk about anything he chooses. Brash stands up and rattles off a standard Brashesque speech similar to the one in November he gave to National, even with the same references to Eric Crampton's research on Youth unemployment in both speeches. The same structuring.

Hooton neglects to quote Brash's ACT speech and these lines:

"Don't get me wrong. Maori traditions are an important part of New Zealand culture and should be respected as such".

"It is my very strong belief that, unless we can get these tensions between Maori and other New Zealanders resolved in the right way - in the way clearly envisaged by the Treaty of Waitangi - we have no show of catching Australia. We will remain distracted by issues which were in fact resolved in the best possible way in 1840".

Both comments read in context are complimentary toward Maori. The speech Brash gave to ACT is very tame.

My personal view of Don Brash is very favourable. While now completely unelectable, if he had kept his trousers up and tightened and had equally tight political management focused and united on winning while in Wellington he would have been New Zealand's most principled Prime Minister ever. I blame everyone involved with Don Brash for being careless with emails and security and not locking him under arm guard at the Bolton Hotel each night without the company of women, for his demise. Race based politics didn't lose Brash the chance to be New Zealand's greatest ever Prime Minister, piss poor political management around him did. John Key is the Prime Minister we got eventually when the first choice didn't make it over the line because Helen Clark's team was superior. Not Helen Clark, but the team around her. Superior.

Imagine the economic changes that would have occurred had Brash made it to the PM's seat? The lack of compromise he would have made for stupid ideas, the lack of pandering to the ETS, Welfare for Families, interest free student loans, SOE's and the greenies on mining? Don Brash would have made a magnificent Prime Minister.

Hooton's column (fortunately hidden behind a paywall so only a lucky few of us can read this weeks utter nonsense) compared the reading of Latin at Auckland Grammar to karakia, and asked why "Mr Hide, nor anyone in his party, has expressed concern about them".

Simple answer, neither Mr Hide or anyone in ACT mentioned the karakia.

Don Brash, a non-ACT member and invited guest did.

This ACT member for the record thinks Latin is irrelevant in modern New Zealand society but notes that no one seems to have Latin forced down their throats other than the kiddies at Grammar when they are about to get a prize. Learning Latin at least allows you a gateway into the derivation of the most important language that any New Zealander has to learn, English. If my school taught Latin over bothering with attempting to teach us Maori I may have grasped grammar at an age early enough to understand it. Learning Maori is only relevant if you stay your life in New Zealand because no one outside a select few in New Zealand has a clue what it means. Maori is still my second language in terms of words used and internationally it is completely bloody worthless.

Hooton then attacks Brash that he should know better than to speak of Maori among a speech of "one of the world’s pre-eminent monetary economists". Problem for Hooton is that all the economics in the world cannot hide Maori failure. It is relevant. New Zealand's economic success will never come without Maori doing better. You cannot give a speech about the New Zealand economy without singling out Maori as underachievers.

Hooton neglects to mention in his paid NBR columns that Brash gave a near identical speech in November to the National Party at Orewa. Where instead of using the karakia theme, he questioned for heaven's sake why National's own coalition partner the Maori Party should exist at all and if Hooton applied the same confused reactionary ideals to at speech he would conclude that Brash was promoting a whites only party. Surely this was far more inflammatory? And National, a Party which he is a member of, hosted him for that!

"What would be the reaction, for example, if a group of New Zealanders of European background decided to set up a “European New Zealanders Party”? There would be an outcry, and rightly so. Why do we deem it acceptable to have a Maori Party in Parliament, a party which makes no attempt to hide the fact that its long-term goal is to build a “partnership” between Maori and the Crown, in clear contravention of the Treaty of Waitangi (which of course promised no such partnership)?

If Don Brash is so appallingly racist and promoting race based politics when he trots out these structured speeches time and time again to both National and ACT, it is time Hooton attacked Don Brash and more importantly Hooton, stopped taking money to work for anything associated with Don Brash.

Perhaps if Hooton is so disgusted with Brash's speeches that he like Beyonce and Mariah Carey did with money gained from singing for Gaddafi, should return all the money he received promoting the 2025 Taskforce?

Until these principled moves occur Matthew Hooton needs to decide which way his principles will actually take him. In the direction of his right-wing principles? Or on the side of his new-found Radiolive media bro-pals who are leaning him to the left and in favour of assisting the brotocracy slurp at the trough where he takes his brown cut?

Because right now guess who folks is being paid to front for the race based Statutory Board?

That's right

Matthew Hooton is now fronting the anti-ACT and Rodney Hide crusade his new friends and old sugarbros, the Supercity Maori Statutory Board.

The funds available where one's snout could potentially be inserted in the trough because the descriptions are so "waffly" but Bernard Orsman did drag them out for our benefit. In bold are the waffly bits up for contract grabs.

* Pay and expenses for nine board members: $494,500
* Pay and expenses for non-board members sitting on council committees: $50,500
* Staff costs: $946,500
* Legal, communication, professional advice, tikanga: $470,000
* Engaging and reporting to Maori community: $280,000
* Audit of council performance relative to Treaty of Waitangi: $175,000
* Research on wellbeing of Maori: $650,000
* Council support services: $369,000
* Total: $3,435,500

Matthew Hooton is a highly intelligent, humourous and witty media commentator. He is extremely good on television and radio.

However I would take his political analysis in the media a hell of a lot more seriously if he separated his wallet and personal fiscal interests as owner of "New Zealand's most successful corporate and public affairs consultancy" from the results of it and separated his own powers accordingly.

Update: Hooton's response is in the comments.

Chinese Cheek

The Chinese are known world wide for bare faced cheek when it comes to money and doing business. They push the patience of even those the most well-versed in doing business in China. This current situation takes the cake in New Zealand for bare faced cheek.

Through their Embassy, parents of the deceased want New Zealand taxpayers to pay special compensation because of the "one child" policy of theirs and the apparent value of only children so their parents can bleed them dry in their retirement. That is, Chinese children's lives should be considered more valuable than any other person's lost in the earthquake solely because of their own Little Emperor policy. Don't laugh, because next we will have similar reasoning from you know who in New Zealand as to why their you know who group should have more compensation than others...

Because of China's one child policy New Zealand should make special arrangements for added economic assistance, on top of provisions like ACC, Chinese Embassy disaster relief head Cheng Lei said.

Fortunately John Key didn't smile and wave, he remained stern and raised the middle finger as much as one can do diplomatically.

"Our greatest sympathy goes to those families... we have a policy under ACC that applies to international citizens as much as it does to locals," he told reporters this afternoon.

Apart from ACC many of the students had insurance.

"The Government's made it clear it will help in terms of repatriation of bodies and helping families so outside of that, at this stage we don't have any intention to make any other changes."

Lets hope he stays like that when the Chinese Government apply pressure. I'm pro-Chinese but really this just takes the piss.

Sichuan had an earthquake, remember that? The one where shonky construction led to mass destruction. Lets see how much the Chinese government forked out to each victim's family.

The compensation for a death in the earthquake is just 5,000 yuan ($US730) from the central government plus an equal or smaller amount from the local government. For many in a rapidly growing China, the amount is almost token.

With ACC of a funeral grant of a whopping NZ4,500, a survivors grant for spouse of $NZ4,700 and for children of $NZ2,351 per child and repatriation of remains exceeding this level of compensation that Mainland China thinks its own citizens deserve in identical circumstances, New Zealand really needs to send China only one thing -

An invoice.

Trademe and The Mad Rooter

No Stuart Nash isn't been sold on Trademe, sorry girls.

Brunette has been having trouble listing her ram on Trademe. The correspondence is absolutely hilarious as Brunette is as rough as guts but a complete front-end loader of contradiction at the best of times. Brunette of course has a good logical point, however Fairfax need to pay for Trademe somehow and they are within their rights to charge fees as the fees are clearly published.

The animal costs $10 to list and $29 success fee. Brunette estimates her top price would be $60. Leaving Brunette with a profit (pre-tax) of $21. That's barely a glass of Veuve if you weren't buying it at the party her mate Busted Blonde is yet to throw.

Apart from Brunette's tightness in wasting valuable billable hours for stuff all reward, of most amusement to me is that the person Brunette is corresponding with is a very polite person named Hashim. Hashim is according to Wikipedia, a male Arabic name for "broker or destroyer of evil".

This is what Brunette is capable of doing to an animal.



Hashim is merely living up to his name "destroyer of evil" and assisting evil Brunette in deciding that she should be kinder to animals.

It's a sign from Allah Brunette - free the Mad Rooter!

Or at least show some creativity woman:

Re-list him for sale with one of those NBR Veuve Clicquot boxes of Busted Blonde's (as you can't sell alcohol on Trademe). Buy the box and get the Mad Rooter for free!

Considering you will be donating the proceeds to the Christchurch Earthquake Fund it won't really matter will it?

Speedo Actually Raising Funds

Mark "Speedo" Weldon has put his hand up put his hand up and offered to help the Prime Minister's Earthquake Fund. Critics of Speedo have absolutely laid into him in the NBR thread.



I am as you all know, a firm critic of his, but not for this benevolent act which will see him take 4-6 weeks of his own annual leave to we can assume, run around leads for funds created by politicians that they cannot be seen to be closing.

The best thing Speedo could have done for New Zealand is instigate more listings on the NZX and bring more business to New Zealand. With just three listings in 2010 and three others delisting his net gain was zero.

Anyway I am a great believer that any solution should kill two or more birds with one stone for efficiency so I wish to discuss Speedo's contribution to the future of Christchurch now the Prime Minister is down the financial markets line of thinking.

Here is the Prime Ministers pet project in the finance industry. The Super fund hub. It seems to have been forgotten about. So let me briefly revisit it. Forget all the pinkos, nothing will change for them, they can keep their high tax welfare state of Aotearoa to themselves.

Why not dovetail this idea into the rebuild of Christchurch and create a special economic zone consisting of Christchurch whereby this industry would be solely regulated to be located?

John Key states 3-5000 jobs would be created in this industry. But why stop there?

New Zealand is often tagged "the Switzerland of the South Pacific". Not just for its scenery. Try as you like to hate the offshore industry, New Zealand ALREADY has a booming offshore industry that foreigners are using to structure their affairs. I have blogged about this before. That's right, while you are all subject to tax, an entire industry in New Zealand exists whereby foreigners can use it and New Zealand's OECD status to in many cases, not pay a bean. And it is all perfectly legal.

A QAR - Queenstown Administrative Region and a CAR - Christchurch Administrative Region should be created. New Zealand politicians should have as little to do with both as possible. Christchurch should host the Funds industry and the offshoots of the Offshore industry, Queenstown should host the wider more advanced part of the offshore industry. That is all the current offshore industry located all through New Zealand should be made to relocate there.





Remember corpses of those dud property developments down South that couldn't sell? SCF, Hanover, Allied, David Henderson, Nigel McKenna, the list goes on. Well create tax incentives along the lines of Switzerland with controlled immigration and investment for people to live in Queenstown or even Christchurch and you would solve the issues immediately as the demand for property would increase. New Zealand would experience a boom in property development due to those foreigners seeking to take advantage of the tax free residence status, requiring to have a house there. If Allied haven't already flogged off their South Island developments by then the price of their shares may just return back towards what is required for the complaining from them to stop.

As for living in Christchurch post-quake, those of us in the offshore industry are hardy souls. Many live currently on Islands with intermittent water and power and limited services so it's no different once things are back to "partially" normal. My first posting overseas was to a place where termites were eating the house next door, I was in a constant hurricane zone, water didn't always turn on when you moved the tap, the rugby channel was often down because the satellite cut out when it was wet, all sorts of insects slipped under the cracks of the door and you didn't purchase anything nice for yourself or your house due to constant dripping humidity, ruining clothing, tradewinds and the chance that one day your house would be blown off its sticks anyhow. Consumerism was therefore impossible. Lets not forget the constant power surges whereby your television and dvd would be blown from the socket.

The QAR was always an idea waiting for its time to come. With the implementation of the CAR, both are ideas worth now exploring. Happy to be a consultant to the advisory committee.

Yearly Confessional

I think it is time for my yearly blog confessional.

I haven't written much about my private life on the blog as of late, well a long late, perhaps even really since I had the Dominion Post column. You could be excused for thinking I had a new policy of not blogging about it, which I kind of had. Until now because it would be fraudulent not to.

I have been seeing this chap who to most of my friends' amusement (when they read this) is actually only eight years older than I am, divorced so not married and actually spends most of his spare time in Hong Kong. He works as a dermatologist. Which has the added benefit of ensuring that I have as of late had very good skin. This has all been going fine. No problems nothing to report and I have kept rather successfully the whole thing rather quiet.

As of the start of the year I have taken on a new job with extra responsibility which means I have to work late. Unlike many people who work late hours to avoid those at home, I actually am in the office working late and then at home, working late. This has naturally messed up the private life because I cannot go out at all at night and have to get some sleep, uninterrupted.

Said Mr X has taken this as well as a child ingests broccoli and has got to the female tantrum stage. Coupled with my refusal to allow him to come to Paris, the Caribbean and Italy with me. Well lets be fair, my refusal to pay for him to come precisely. You know as I apparently earn more than him and should be grateful to pay for his company.

I do though wish for all women reading this to stop and think next time before harassing a man similarly.

Last Thursday he insisted he walk me home from work. I thought at first this would be a pleasant novelty as no man has ever done that for me before. Hong Kong is perhaps one of the safest places in the world for a woman to walk alone after hours, but anyway I thought it a pleasant gesture so called when I was finished at 8.15pm and told him I would be downstairs shortly. Nothing else happened, walk home.

Then Friday came and I got the same treatment. Only he insisted he stay. Which wasn't going to fit my requirement to work the entire weekend to complete my work related duties. Again when I said I was working, it doesn't mean he can sit quietly in the room and stare at me while I worked, watch TV in the same room as I was working, it means "piss off go away I am working".

Ratty on Sunday, I completed the work not in the afternoon, but it was 10pm before I was done.

After ignoring 17 phone calls and 12 text messages and pins that weekend after saying three times in reply that I was still working, Monday I started getting texts "are you ignoring me?". Well after 17 fucking calls and 12 texts? Ya think? Then the texts started getting a little stronger like "don't you like me anymore". Well actually I had worked the entire weekend without raising a thought in anger against the man but now the whole thing was pissing me off. I explained politely at first that I was actually working and still am. Then we got to the inevitable "are you seeing someone else?". Which of course I haven't been. How the hell would I have the time or the energy? And as a strident follower of the first rule of seeing someone else I would always keep up the output with the current object of affection so no suspicion is raised.

So Monday at 7.30pm I leave to go home and who is waiting by the exit? Yep Mr X. To walk me home. I still had a conference call to complete at 9pm so there was no point in inviting him upstairs. Instead I said to him that I was working late, have been every night I said I was and that when work slowed down I would call him.

He didn't accept this and has kept the calls and texts "what are you doing" right through until today. Seeking an end to the inevitable when I received a text "no woman I ever go out with works this late", I texted back "and still no women you are going out with does".

Perhaps that was too subtle?

Hard Facts in Botany

Well done Jami-Lee for thumping the limpet of opposition put in front of you.

The real stats were rolled out by the Whaleoil:

National Party: Jami-Lee Ross — 54.65% (Pansy Wong – 56.22%)
Labour Party: Michael Wood — 27.85% (Koro Tawa 21.06%)

The Stranded are on a drug I want grams of quickly if they think that is a victory to Labour.

This blog endorses Jami-Lee along with Judith "Crusher" Collins, (our favourite), Amy Adams, Craig Foss, Tim Groser, Steven Joyce, Todd McClay, Chris Tremain and John Key (post earthquake) as the few acceptable purely centre-right National Party MP's. The others are still to prove themselves other than as stinking pink tories.

Jami-Lee is one of the few young potential up and comers who can speak and not sound like a John Key soundbite recording.

I look forward to hearing his maiden speech as long as he doesn't dwell on his background and compare himself to John Key's as so many of the other newbies did.

Asshole of the Week - Me

Winning!!!



Some ultra obscure, terribly written leftist blog with this "Welcome":

Please refrain from personal attacks and bad language.

Has awarded me "Asshole of the Week".

This in a week folks where we have had Charlie Sheen run rampant, John Galliano endorse Hitler, Ken Ring or John Campbell depending on your view, Ashley Cole discharge a gun in training and shoot an intern, John Key held hands in public mourning with his wife, Gaddafi tank billions out of his country, Bernie Madoff mouth off that he created wealth, Whaleoil being himself and of course Business Roundtable member Owen Glenn wave a $1 million in the air.

The competition this week could only have been greater if Mark Hotchin made the news.

This won it for me -

Catcus Kate has this to say: Let us see how much New Zealand has overspent on welfare in the past decade whereby we cannot afford to help those most in need. Let us have the figures.

OK Catcus, firstly that is a contradiction in terms. The welfare dependent are the most in need. Here’s a few calculations to see where all the money has gone:

Then some poorly analysed completely irrelevant reasoning about John Key's payrise (aka "Kenvy" or "Key Envy") compared to beneficiaries.

Personally I find this absolutely awesome. An anonymously authored blog whose author(s) can't even spell "Cactus", bans personal attacks and bad language but has called me an asshole.

Haven't University students got anything to do at the start of the year? They should all be working to pay interest off their loans instead of bludging off taxpayers.

If I recommend that student loan interest should be charged and accrued at a credit card rate of 17% can I win again next week as well?

You can max out your student loans or ask your Mummys for some money and fly to Hong Kong to present me the award. Because let me guess - you all have no money of your own.

Note: And no kiddies, increasing your traffic 100% from yesterday isn't winning when you won't keep your audience.

Update - I am informed that the "Jackal" is in fact the same twat "Todd" who threatened to sue David Farrar and was banned from the meek and mild Farrar's blog until 11-9-32. Which is a bastard really as Farrar has first dibs on the smackdown. Todd - you are a severe fucktard. Unless you have more money than Farrar and myself combined, shut the fuck up about suing either David or myself.

P.S: How is Mummy's overtime getting on to afford your flight to Hong Kong to see me?

Anyone with more information about the age, occupation and twatness of this "Todd"/Jackal, feel free to comment.

Good Links

MacDoctor Schlock Doctrine - the good Doctor's perspective.

Roger Kerr - Capitalism, Caring and Canterbury - Roger Kerr, academically the leading blogger in the whole blogosphere in NZ by a mile, where it is noted Owen Glenn, BRT member gave $1 million.

David Farrar on the offensive - ghastly opportunism he calls it

Oswald Bastable on the consequences of crime.

Homepaddock on no money to spare for wants.

Not PC who has a whole series of awesome alternative-thinking posts here.

Whaleoil suggests JK call in special forces.

Chris Trotter, forever the critic but we kind of love him anyway, as in the same way we love a pair of Italian shoes we first bought in Rome for no other reason than we could afford to. He's compiled a post whereby I have no idea what he is actually talking about.

Lindsay Mitchell, because welfare is her topic.

Keeping Stock on "political unity".

Clint Heine on the "O" out of country.

Roarprawn who appears determine to hook me up in 2011. Be afraid.

And rounding it off in an act of Earthquake benevolence I am very nice to a man called Tim Watkin. But ask for The Stranded to front up and name their posters. Their excuse is Whaleoil is a bully? Weak. That's like telling a woman she shouldn't buy Prada because it is expensive. Duh... Bad Whale, no Scooby Snack.

Stranded Should Have Their Pay Docked This Week

The paid Labour lap-bloggers at The Stranded realise their own blog is such utter shite these days that they do not even read it themselves:

Marty G writes -

You’ll see there’s been no posts on The Standard criticising the government’s emergency response to the earthquake

and this one

I’m really pissed off that politics has come into the Christchurch earthquake so quickly.

Really? You are having a laff? The whole post titled "The Shock Doctrine" was political and anti-government.

Every post they have written mentioning John Key since the first shudder of the Earthquake has been critical of government AND political. They didn't even wait a week and the two minutes of silence to start espousing their political views, welfare, that taxes should immediately be raised and the "rich" should pay for all the damage.

On 24th February Marty G even proposed a policy platform:

I would suggest the government, when Parliament resumes in March, moves to pass tax legislation instituting a one-year income levy of 1% on incomes over $50,000, 3% on incomes over $100,000 and 6% on incomes over $200,000.

This after name-calling Brownlee:

Where Brownlee is autocratic and heavy-handed....... Brownlee has failed to deliver on any of his policy initiatives and doesn’t show a good grasp of detail, .......... Where Brownlee is lazy and pompus

And encouraging political debate on the issues in their General debate thread:

Comments on the political ramifications of this disaster will be moved to today's open mike post. We're not going to stop you making such comments but these posts are not the place.

Yeah right.....

Then there was more left-wing hate speech against the "rich". Where yet again Paul Reynolds (who btw didn't cause the bloody earthquake) is again named

How does Key pocketing at least $23,000 a year and Telecom’s Paul Reynolds pocketing more than $420,000 a year

What Marty G really means to say is that the left can say whatever they like about the earthquake and welfare reforms and Christchurch's future and slam John Key for "smiling and waving"and the right cannot say anything because they are being "political".

Fuck that.

I call on all centre-right blogs to take these arsewipes head on and debate the issues because they are ALL about politics, The Stranded are a bunch of anonymous lap-bloggers in the pay of the Labour Party. Call them out in their desperate attempt to attack John Key, the most popular Prime Minister who is handling the task like the Statesman he is.

Smiling and waving is preferable in the early stages of disaster than being a snarl and cave, disaster tourist confined to the UN who was replaced by a Labour Leader destined to become less popular this election than Bill English when he stood for PM.

The Left's Deluded Monopoly on Caring

Update: Not PC has this to say and it is good.

It hasn't taken long for left-wing blogs to compile meaningless attacks on the right and pump their pet loves of higher taxes and more welfarism as the answer to all things earthquake.

I have respectfully and patiently waited the full week + 2 minutes silence since the earthquake. Which has been hard reading the muck that has been posted on various left-wing sites and from commentators who should know better.

There isn't any need to defend capitalism after an earthquake, however I will do something that you've never heard from me before - I will defend the real welfare state.

Many people ask me about my political views and whinge at me under what conditions do I believe that welfare should exist.

It has been a long time coming but I can safely answer - right now.

Welfare serves only one purpose and that is as a temporary stop-gap for people who genuinely need it through circumstances that they cannot avoid. Polls suggest New Zealanders do not mind paying for the earthquake. Problem is that they already have paid for the earthquake.

The EQC and private insurances should cover a lot of it. As should prudent government spending and years of "saving for a rainy day".

Well look outside in Christchurch and its rained and is still raining.

Years of generous over-spending on welfare to those who haven't really needed it, have led to a position now where John Key is going to the world with the begging bowl and asking for help. The true state of New Zealand's finances will be commentated by business journalists for many a column inch. Let's have it folks. Let's see just how wealthy New Zealand is to cover the largest every test of New Zealand's financial strength.

Let us see how much New Zealand has overspent on welfare in the past decade whereby we cannot afford to help those most in need. Let us have the figures.

The cost of the earthquake may never truly be known. Right now businesses in Christchurch have no premises for their employees to work from, sole business owners have their families to look after rather than their clientele. Company records have been ruined, buildings are in a questionable state of safety and even if employees can make it into town over broken roads, through broken streets and broken churches, how broken are the poor souls to start productive output so soon after their trauma?

This is what the welfare state should be about. Providing temporary assistance to those who need it for acts truly beyond their control. Welfare for Christchurch doesn't even need a question. The answer is "yes".

Welfare isn't to subsidise earnings of those on the top tax rate due to WFF. It isn't to pay for those to breed more children into the world when they cannot afford it. It isn't to pay for interest free student loans to children of those who can most afford to assist their children through a University education. It isn't for lifestyle choices of knowing the taxpayer will always prop them up no matter what. Or state housing for life in areas most New Zealanders can't afford to live.

Left-wing hate speech proponent Martyn Bradbury likes to claim that all this outburst of community caring can only attribute itself to anti-capitalist behaviour. In other words using the earthquake to pimp his little faux Hone-loving "left-right-out" left wing party he's going to try to form in seven months.

That is the usual left-wing hate speech spin that capitalism doesn't care or have its own community or support links. Which is nonsense. Some of the strongest ties are forged out of capitalist endeavour.

Try telling that to all the corporates who have refused to price gouge thus far? Or offered things for free. Try telling that to entrepreneur Owen Glenn who has dipped into his pocket equalling a donation of $1 million with that of New Zealand's largest protected corporate Fonterra. Owen Glenn, despite all the noxious hatred directed towards him by those in New Zealand still cares enough to put that aside and donate a million. Many will follow with equally generous donations.

Try telling that to all the Christchurch based business owners who will go back to Christchurch or the other private sector businesses around New Zealand who will relocate and re-employ those displaced from Christchurch.

Government will not save Christchurch, private enterprise will. And in the meantime it will be private enterprise that keeps the rest of New Zealand running while the government has to spend.

To our dear leftist "friends" who have spent all week politicising the earthquake from the first second the ground shook, just shut up. You are embarrassing yourselves.

Capitalism seeks to create wealth. Socialism seeks to buy votes by spending it. For years leftist tilting welfarism has destroyed New Zealand's chance of a nest-egg for this rainiest of days. Over-generous dollops of welfarism has spent up the nations inheritance for moments like these.

Poorly analysed pieces blaming tax avoiding companies from the likes of financially illiterate No Right Thought, only seek to add to the debate more left-wing hate speech and make those not dragging their end of the social contract believe that evil corporates are not paying enough taxes. Taxes are calculated based on income earned. If companies are not making profits they cannot pay taxes. They also cannot provide jobs or higher incomes to workers. Raising their taxes will not help their profit margin or the chances of employment opportunities increasing, let alone real wages.

Welfare is needed right now in Christchurch. Those proposing higher taxes miss the point. Taxes have been paid, levies have been paid, insurance has been bought, but welfare has grown to a level now when it is genuinely needed, John Key has to beg bowl to the world. Most of the world that knows their nations cannot afford such a generous welfare system that New Zealand has. Their people, many whom wouldn't earn even a tiny proportion of New Zealand minimum wage, will be asking what on earth New Zealand needs a fund for? New Zealand isn't Haiti, although our UN representative Helen Clark considers the damage as great from her brief stint as a "disaster tourist".

It was poignant that the Rebstock led welfare reforms were hidden that day from public view in the dust of Christchurch's CBD. Never before have such reforms actually been needed.

Time has passed, being a full week + 2 minutes of silence, when its proper for us now to call "bullshit" on the insensitive politicised ramblings of Tumeke, No Right Thought and The Strandard of this week right from the moment the first stone fell. They never even waited until the weekend. Even Red Alert had the sensitivity to wait a little bit before even a post was made in response from Annette King.

If they want to politicise the earthquake to show the "caring" left over the "uncaring" right well they can sink their words in liquefaction.

The left doesn't have a Monopoly on caring for Christchurch.

If it did, their board wouldn't have been able to afford to rebuild Old Kent Road let alone attempt to have a go at Christchurch.

I am not the largest John Key supporter however there is no point being anything other at present because he is doing a mighty fine job. The economy has been blown wide open as large as cracks in Christchurch's streets. There are no rules anymore, no policy guidelines, Treasury estimates are all poked.



John Key has the opportunity, because he actually has to, of leading a massive restructure of the entire New Zealand economy to cope with this crisis.

It is not only Christchurch that has the chance to rebuild, stronger and better than before, the whole New Zealand economy can as well. But not before some very tough decisions are made and swallowed by the electorate.

And he can start by deciding post February 22nd, who actually needs welfare in New Zealand.

Men of the Earthquake Day 6

Baxtor Gowland. Who never had the chance to grow up to throw bricks.