Asleep At The Wheel

National oppose Monday-ising Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day, when they fall on a weekend.

Prime Minister John Key said he did not know what the party's position was.
Other Ministers said they would not comment until caucus had made a decision on the issue.
Deputy Prime Minister Bill English said the Government would veto the legislation.

So the PM "doesn't know" and the Deputy PM says it will be vetoed.  That's hardly singing from the same song sheet.  The Bill is to be debated tomorrow, so it looks like the PM is asleep at the wheel.

But wait, there's more.

Not so long ago (a little under 100 days, in fact), the government and CERA announced a 100 day plan for the CBD of Christchurch.  Now it's the 103 day plan - 3% over its time budget.  Why?  Today the Press quietly reported:

The blueprint needs Cabinet sign-off before it is released publicly, but ministers are not scheduled to meet again until Monday morning.

How long have Cabinet met on Monday?  Ages, so it's hardly a surprise, and it's hardly a surprise that Cabinet would have to sign the work off before Regular John had his next photo opportunity.  So basically the government didn't know what it was doing - asleep at the wheel again.  It's hardly like the CBD of the second largest city in the country is a minor issue either, it's the kind of thing I expect the government to take seriously and be organised for.

In researching this post I found a blog at the Press asking "what happens next?" and at the bottom there are a few comments.  Matt at #5 says that any consultation on the plan is unnecessary, because most of the land in the CBD is privately held.  Which is true, but this government has not had much respect for trivialities like fundamental rights like democracy (hence the take-over of ECan), or property.  I understand, having read the brief via the government tenders website, that there is no need to respect property rights in the Christchurch CBD, and confiscations are allowed.

Bloodhound Gang - One Fierce Beer Coaster, 1996

Luna

Jim Mora interviewed Alan Gibbs this afternoon, in what was a bizarre and, at times, uncomfortable discussion.
Apart from finding that the world is, according to Mr Gibbs, terribly underpopulated, and that everything that has ever gone wrong is the fault of "the socialists" (whoever they are, evidently they were the last Labour government), the overwhelming message was that if Alan could do it, anyone can.  And if we don't, and if we can't blame the socialists, it must be entirely our own fault.
I didn't sit there and wonder why I my success is yet to match Alan's, I just wondered why anyone would give his political and philosophical views any air time at all.

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream, 1993

Saint Nick's Last Kick

Where there's smoke, there's fire, right?  It wasn't so long ago that the smoke was streaming out of ACC, and the fire consumed the minister responsible.

Here's some more smoke.  Nick Smith signing off on $180,000 of expenditure to a consultancy run by one of his mates.  Regular John might look into it.

The Hasselhoff Experiment - Christmas on the Rocks, 2001

NOTE - any comments on the theme of "the other lot did it too" will not be published, unless they are accompanied by other exceptionally useful commentary.

Shivers

Regular John's most ardent fan has become openly critical.  Not scathing, yet, but openly critical.

The comments from the acolytes of Fran and John are numerous, and have a common theme of "it's ours, we earned it and you can't have it".

There's a theory that the government is a few months away from collapse.  It's possible, but I'm not convinced.  However, ignoring the truism that a week is a long time in politics, National have lost the next election.  Labour can sleep-walk to power.  And that's not a good thing.

Hallelujah Picassos - Hateman in Love, 1992

Water

A brief thought on the subject of whether or not water is capable of being owned.

Water is a physical compound and can be found in gas, liquid and solid forms.  Just today I found the gas form evaporating off the top of my coffee, and I often find the solid form over the windscreen of my car before I leave for work.  The liquid form is everywhere, it even pops out of taps.

It is well accepted that things that are much more abstract can be owned.  For example, things that are yet to come in to existence may be owned, and traded on a futures market.  Things that will never have physical form, such as ideas, may be owned via patents under intellectual property and copyright law.

I am certain that water can be owned.

PJ Harvey - Dry, 1992

Sleeping During The Day

The government have budgeted to spend another $200million on investigation and design for roads in the next four years.

Back in 1996 the then National Government approved the sale of the old Ministry of Works for an estimated $108million.  Of that, about $45million was for the part that does investigation and design for roads, amongst other things.  Skip ahead 16 years and what became of that part is listed on the sharemarket, worth about $100 million and returning around $20million a year on the investment.


In the spirit of the Mixed Ownership Model, the government must be considering a 51% stake.  Surely.


It's not like the work disappears, there's an average of $50 million a year.  Coincidentally that's about the same price for the aforementioned 51% stake.  Sure, the companies that are contracted to do the work change from project to project.  But the truth is that companies get very little done; all the work is done by people.  When a company runs out of work, its staff move to a company that has work.


That is to say, it's pretty much the same people doing this work.  They spend a few years training at university, and decades getting the experience, and they can't and don't just go and do something else when their company can't win enough work.  They go to the company that won the work.


Or they go to Australia, and we lament the loss of skilled people overseas.


Mint Chicks - Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!, 2006


FOOTNOTE
In one of the links above, the Ministry of Works was described, in a letter to the Herald in 1996, as follows:

"… an organisation that was instrumental in building an infrastructure second to none for a country of this size, and the envy of overseas agencies…No more will we have an agency able to respond immediately to natural disasters with the technical resources to cover anywhere in the country; provide apolitical advice to Government ministers free from any vested interests; provide the standards and technical advice for other departments (including the Department of Conservation), local authorities and the private sector; provide a first-rate training ground for technical personnel; and maintain a workforce in all rural areas that are part of the overall national scene."

Would the response to the earthquakes in Christchurch have been better with a Ministry of Works?  We can only guess, so I will.  It is my opinion that it would definitely have been better.

Mysterex

On Wednesday it was the turn of another Green MP to help a National MP look dumb.  In Question One, Russel Norman took on Regular John, on the subject of prices for houses.

Again I was astounded by many of the answers, though unlike Mr Brownlee yesterday, I am sure the PM understands that he showed all the depth of a swimming pool with a "No Diving" sign, and no plug.  The best exchange was this one:

Dr Russel Norman: When will the Prime Minister stop blaming the last Government and accept that we have a housing affordability crisis right now in this country, that young people are struggling to buy their first house and are leaving the country to get better opportunities somewhere else, and that his Government has a responsibility to do something about it, rather than just blame the Labour Party?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: If that member really thinks that we have a housing bubble at the moment in the way that we had under the previous Labour Government, then, firstly, he is deluded and, secondly, he might want to ask the then Labour Government why it bothered to commission a whole report on housing affordability, of which it followed very little.

I understand that's what's called "caught red handed".  Or maybe blue handed.

Though the most amusing moment of the day happened in Question Six, in an exchange between the Speaker and the Minister Impeding Social Development.  In response to the primary question:

Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development) : I am pleased that the first 50 of 149 extra social workers in schools will begin as schools start back this term. The first 50 additional social workers will cover 95 schools in Northland, South Auckland, and Hawke’s Bay. We announced the expansion of Social Workers in Schools to all decile 1 to 3 schools last year, expanding the coverage from 285 to 675 schools by mid—[Interruption] Hey, are you done? [Interruption] A bit more? Let us go. [Interruption] Are you ready?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I would ask members to be just a little more respectful, please. The Minister is only feet away from me, and I struggled to hear her answer. I just ask that interjections be a little more reasonable. I call Scott Simpson.
Hon PAULA BENNETT: No, I just thought I would take a moment to—I have not quite finished my answer.
Mr SPEAKER: But the Speaker determined the Minister had.

I laughed loud enough to alarm some of my colleagues.

Scavengers - AK79, 1979