iamaelephant

I know this is probably the wrong place to try and get a balanced argument, but I have a question to put forth.
With all this new Supercity stuff going on, the whole idea of Maori seats is a big thing.
However, and this may just be me, I have never been able to work out what the other side of the argument is, I honestly have no idea why there should be separate Maori seats on a council (or the government for that matter), it's not me being racist or anything, I'm actually just looking for someone to please explain what their argument is. I honestly would just like to know so it makes sense in my head.
I thought I had finally found the answer in a Herald article this morning but by the time I got to the end of the article I'd just decided that the author was a complete fuckwit and I actually had no idea what he was trying to say.

Anyway back to the point, why do they need their own seats? I'd really actually like to know.

We're approaching the end of this Government's first year, and it's time to appraise their performance. I'd be extremely interested to hear your views on this. As you can probably tell by my ranting to date, I think this National government has ben limp wristed, arrogant and totally dishonest. I'm not being partisan about this, because I'm not a sicophant of either party, so I consider my point of view reasonably neutral.

Rather than rant for pages and pages, here's my summary:
- Key et al constantly accused Labour of failing to listen to experts and their constituents. Key's government has ignored the Royal Commission at every step of the "Super City", and their so-called consultation process is a running joke. He's also not listening to the experts on his absurd "boot camp" idea. And further to that, even though I find the pro-child abuse lobby deplorable, they have a very strong following which he has decided to ignore entirely. He also ignored the cheif justice on her speech regarding major prison issues, and instead of addressing her points, admonished her for a breach of the separation of powers, an interpretation that was contrived at best.

- His handling of the recession is an absolute joke. He has implemented just two policies - building a bike track (ugh) and the 9-day fortnight he's taking credit for. Both of these have had no effect whatsoever on the recession, which is now in recovery. Another testiment to the ineffectiveness of counter-cyclical fiscal policy.

- He lied about the tax cuts. I give him zero leeway on this. I agree that tax cuts were unaffordable - but like many others I was saying this way before the election. Let's not forget that we were in recession during the campaign. John Key lied through his teeth, knowing that the tax cuts weren't affordable, but he chose to buy the election anyway. When asked whether economic conditions would affect this promise, he responded that his tax cuts were "fully costed and funded". He lied.

- While accusing the Labour party of being a nanny-state, he has proposed or implemented a hand-held cellphone ban while driving, the ludricrous new Financial Advisors act, fining people for running out of petrol, raising the driving age and increased tax on alcohol.

- So far their promises on law and order have been nothing but talk. They promised before the election that some law and order bills would be top priority. This hasn't happened. The nearest thing we've seen is crushing boy racers' cars, a proposal which cannot get past a second reading, and is an irrational knee-jerk reaction.

I'm sure there's a hundred other things. In fact I can't even remember what it was that sparked this thread. Does anyone feel as if anything has changed significantly from a policy perspective since John Key got in? Have they managed the country well? Have they lived up to their promises?

I rate this government 2/10.

So I see convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby is back in the media. I'd love to hear people's opinions on this case. My opinion has swayed one way or the other since she was arrested, mostly due to not really following the trial that closely. I've just read the wiki article on it, and it seems pretty clear to me that she's guilty. During the trial, there was a clear anti-Indonesia bias by NZ and Aus media, but when you really break it down, it looks as though she had a generally fair trial. There's some pretty damning evidence against her, and basically no evidence to support the claim that she's innocent.

I'm not claiming her guilty by association, but I found her family background quite interesting. She obviously comes from a family of winrars.

I believe that either Schapelle herself or one of her dropkick brothers is responsible for this crime. There's no evidence that baggage handlers had anything to do with it, despite a thorough investigation by the Australian Federal Police.

I also want to address a point that was ubiquitous during the trial - a lot of people said that the drugs had to be planted and accidentally allowed through the international terminal, because no one would bother smuggling cannabis into Bali where it's extremely cheap compared with Australia. However, I havent found any evidence to support this claim. If someone can find a source I would be grateful. Also, doesn't the alternative seem also extremely implausible - who would use the airlines to shift cannabis domestically through Australia, where surface travel is completely unrestricted?

Anywho, your thoughts?

Ah yes the debate on what the average gamer is really like. At times it looked like a nerve was struck but in the end we did eliminate some misconceptions. I for one would of knocked 20 years off the average age of the average gamer. We established that he was older, actually I think Martin best summed it up below:

This thread is entirely a vent of frustration so you can stop reading now. I'm so god damn sick of being the "go to" person for technical problems by the computer illiterate morons everywhere I go. Here's my suggestion for all of you that are even mildly computer illiterate - when you start a new job with colleagues who are not computer literate, do everything you can to hide the fact you know about computers. Otherwise, they'll come and bug you every other morning about their technical issues.

Here's what I had this morning (from a lady who is always approaching me for this crap).

Her: Chris, for the last two days my computer at home hasn't worked.
Me: OK.
Her: I start it up and my widgets say they're not available and if I go into my internet it doesn't send or receive.
Me: Sweet.
Her: On my modem this light is flashing [shows me a peice of paper with four dots in a row and an arrow pointing at one dot]
Me: What's the label on that light?
Her: I dont know.
Me: Have you tried restarting your modem?
Her: No I don't want to break anything.
Me: Restart your modem.
Her: How?
Me: Unplug it and plug it back in.
Her: At the wall?
Me: Yes
Her: Which plug at the wall?
Me: The power plug.
Her: That won't be at the wall will it?
Me: Yes.
Her: But that will shut down my whole computer, won't it?
Me: Just unplug it and plug it back it. It will be fine.
Her: OK I will let you know how it goes.
Me: Sweet.

/facepalm.

In isolation things like this aren't that bad, but when it's every other day tedium ensues. There's another lady at work who keeps telling me I need to come to her house to fix her computer that doesn't work. Hells no, I'm sorry but I am a busy man - do these people have any idea how many hours I have to play to go up a level in COD4 these days?

/vent

Hey Guys,

Well I'm in Brisbane and although permanent work is hard to get, temp work is still here. I've been picking up a fair bit of it, and about to start a 7 week stint for a web marketing company. The only thing is pay rates for temps (well, the agency that's giving me work) is down from when I was last here but still picking up around $20 an hr. Brisbane is like Tauranga summer at the moment, 28 degrees so its quite nice and I'm about to put my hard earned dollareedoo's into a bicycle to get around the city.

Brad, if you're thinking of coming over you should be able to get work but some temps are going a little light on it so come with some savings/borrowed money just in case and you should be fine, just bullshit some admin/temp experience and put me down as a referee! Anywho, I'd like to be back to catch up with you guys in the next few months so as soon as I find a cheap airfare and a long weekend ill be there.

Take care guys

Scott

Hey is anyone interested in starting a small-time share holding syndicate? I'm getting ready to make my next share parcel purchase, and thought others here might be interested in pooling funds together for long term growth investments? I'm thinking something like a minimum buy-in of $500, easy entry and exit on request and annual financial statements (prepared by yours truly). Shares bought and sold can be done on a collaborative basis, and members (partners) can have as much or as little say as they want. The investments would generally be geared to provide little cash return (eg not much in the way of dividends/interest) but good positive growth, which is tax free.

Obviously lots of details to hash out, but is anyone interested?

So we ought to organise a good weekend together at some stage, and because half of you live in dirty stinky Auckland, and because it's cheap to fly there, it's the logical place. I can make it up pretty much any weekend, so it's pretty much a matter of when Mike and Martin can score some cheap flights and make it up there.

I was thinking of going this weekend for Dave's birthday, but not sure if my car will be back at this stage. What's the plan this weekend Dave?