Parliament has adjourned for the day as a mark of respect for the people of Christchurch. Police are now reporting that there have been fatalities and many, many injuries. Buildings have collapsed, water and power are out. It is a devastating scene. The sight of the Cathedral collapsing was particularly poignant.
Our thoughts and best wishes are with all the people of Christchurch, and their friends and families. Many people, including Christchurch MPs are trying to get hold of loved ones, and we feel for them at this time. Labour Leader Phil Goff was in Christchurch at the time, and he is there offering whatever practical support he can. The whole of New Zealand stands ready to provide all the practical and emotional support that we can. We all stand alongside the people of Christchurch. Kia Kaha.
Politicians, me included, have been known to be pretty negative about the media in New Zealand, so today I wanted to offer a bouquet to the new look Sunday Star Times. The focus section in particular has been beefed up, starting off with a great feature by Kim Knight on poverty in New Zealand. As the Christchurch City Missioner says
?It is not a matter of the poor making poor choices, but of the poor having few options from which to choose.
The article should be required reading for the government. Also a very interesting interview with Paul Callaghan, and in the business section, as ever a good column from Rod Oram.
The only black mark for the paper is another ridiculous Jonathan Marshall story that states that Kanwaljit Bakshi is a “senior National MP”. Ah, not sure that even Bakshi himself would make that claim!
While the Herald on Sunday seems to be attracting more readers, it is good to see a Sunday paper with some detailed features. On the subject of the HOS, their editorial today is a cracker. As they say
We’ve all come across beneficiaries whose spending was questionable but the vast majority are trapped in a poverty cycle not of their making and the PM’s dismissive comment was that of a man seriously out of touch
In the comments on Trevor’s post there are a few things being discussed re the purchase of a new fleet of BMWs that need to be cleared up.
First that National was “locked into” upgrading the fleet after three years. The PM said this yesterday and various cheerleaders have carried it on today. It is simply not true. Listen to the interview on Checkpoint (starts at 17.50) where a DIA spokesperson confirms that the contract had an option to renew and there was no financial penalty for not doing so.
Second, the spin about this being an “Internal Affairs” matter. That is an important choice of words from Nats to distance John Key from what is becoming a major issue for them. The part of Internal Affairs that deals with the VIP cars is Ministerial Services. The Minister responsible for Ministerial Services is John Key. This is his patch.
I agree with Trevor that it is an absurd notion that no-one in the Beehive knew that this was going on. When I worked in the PMs office we had very regular contact with Ministerial Services on all manner of things, and a major purchase like this would have been one of those things. I know that the level of coordination in the Prime Minister’s office these days is pretty sloppy, so I guess its possible they are simply not thinking about these kinds of issues, but still find it incredible if it did slip through.
An interesting post by Tim Watkin over at Pundit on being polled by Curia Research, David Farrar’s polling company. Now, its important to say that pretty much all political parties do polling, so there is nothing underhand going on. And its also very well known that Curia do the polling for the National Party. It’s what makes David such an unbiased commentator
What is interesting is the type of questioning that Tim reports. For instance not just asking which party is best in terms of environmental issues, but who is more ‘balanced’. The only logic in that is that the Nats know that no one would actually say they are the best for the environment, so they are looking for some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. Anyway, looking forward to a response from David to Tim’s blog….
I hesitate to single out speeches by my colleagues, but I sat next to Iain Lees-Galloway yesterday when he gave his contribution to the debate on the PMs Statement. It was a great speech, mixing humour and some very clear messages. Well worth a watch.
