hikoi II - the return

Well very interesting this was - I missed the first one (shame, i've always wanted to walk across the harbour bridge) so even though I was feeling moderately poorly i was up and at 'em at a disgustingly early hour for Saturday (9am).

What was basically a first for me was being a white face in a mostly brown protest. My activist history has mainly been around student stuff - free education campaigning etc. It took a little while to adjust, not so much to being one of a small number of honkies, but to knowing that this meant more to most of the other protesters than it did to me. And that they knew a lot more about it than i did. I went with other PC white breads - one was even a Brit - and there was absolutely no hostility towards us. Our Maori friends were just stoked to see us.

It was a cheerful march - singing, chanting, chatting. If you accidentally walked into someone or stepped on their heel you would apologise and they would apologise back. Lots of kids, some really great placards - my favourite, which unfortunately I didn't get a shot of, simply said "Whakarongo" and was carried by a young boy, probably about 10.

The media coverage of this hikoi has been much diminished, and with Tamihere in the news I guess the quota for covering "maori" politics is already met each day. But this foreshore and seabed issue is not just one for the tangata whenua - those of us who are tau iwi are only able to be here because of the Treaty - we have no rights without it. We have had generations of ignoring and dishonouring the Treaty and if we continue in my generation then we are only creating yet more grievances for our children to (try to) solve.

probably best to stay on the ground tomorrow

big time strike action at air nz tomorrow - there will be pickets at their tower block in the city centre, out at the international terminal, and at the domestic one too (all in Auckland). Not sure what is happening elsewhere in the country, but it should be a doozy.

more puss pulchritude

time for another pic of the quintessential cat, Mara. all gaze in wonder upon her marvellousness.

the perfect food

i've found it, at last, and it is popcorn.

i defy anyone to suggest a superior foodstuff.

"the sky is falling!" (again)

listening to some of the debate on the ERA Amendment Bill, i have been struck by the Chicken Little attitude of most of those i heard speaking against. honestly you would think it was the end of capitalism or something (i wish).

the indignance from particularly National speakers that Labour was doing something for unions and workers was quite bizarre - as if passing laws that support the people who vote for you was not something National did when it was in power.

the cry of "compulsory unionism" was disingenuous. even the bargaining fee is not compulsory unionism - it requires a ballot of all the workers on the site and then agreement with the employer. hardly unions enforcing a closed shop.

Peter Brown, who opposes parts of the Bill, actually spoke quite sensibly. he didn't get all ridiculous, or play to the galleries, although he got a great deal of heckling and interjection. he calmly stated his case and rather than just turning up with a canned speech he actually responded to the previous speakers. this may not look as good on television but it showed a thoughtful approach to debating (rather than just shouting) and although i disagree with him on a great deal it cemented the respect i have for him that began to grow when i spoke on the same podium as him at an election meeting in Mt Eden back in 2002. i'm fond of the old guy, even though i think he's really rather misguided. and no doubt he would think the same of me, if he could remember who i was ;-)

wellington mayoralty closer than it appears

word is that Prendergast only got back in on the 7th preference and is in fact about 1000 votes ahead of Pepperell...

given the revelation about the 800 uncounted votes, the ensuing recounts, and the special still to come there is a very slim chance she may in fact be unseated like her Auckland compadre.

a bit more local bod news

firstly, i made a few errors in the elections posts below, due to my haste in posting in some cases and in others due to results not being quite final and things changing slightly in a few places - with small margins slight changes can be significant - i'll come back and fix them on the morrow.

secondly, Hubcaps rocked up to the City Vision function this arvo - i'd already gone home to rest up before Caligula, but The Man Who Sits In The Comfy Chair reported back that Hubbsie was much more savvy than he has been portrayed in the media, in particular not giving too much away in his speech to the CVers. there were no loud proclamations of Hucker as Deputy Mayor, so clearly that's not in the bag just yet.

Hubcaps did however speak about the importance of the community boards, and that he thinks they are crash hot (probably not in those words). Given that there is a review of ACC's electoral arrangements coming up during his mayoralty, and CRN has expressed a desire in the past to do away with community boards, this could be reasonably significant.

thirdly, interesting to hear NatRad announcing that the centre-left has taken 13 of the council votes - this is rather generous as it must include Hubbers and the two Action Hobson people (none of whom are going to vote with the centre-left on everything I expect) and Faye Storer
from Waiheke, who has certainly worked with the centre-lefties in the past, but again, not 100% of the time.

the big game in town

well the Auckland Regional Council is basically now confused. i texted a friend of mine who works for them and he said it's an interesting mix...

Auckland City gets 4 spots - Citizens and Ratepayers Now (CRN) took the top three (Michael Barnett who you may remember from the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and that grand flick "When Bowties Go Bad", Judith Bassett who I know next to nothing about, and David Hay who was deputy mayor for ACC and (in)famously opposed the Hero parade) and City Vision took out the fourth spot with Mike Lee, who was elected in a by-election after the death of Phil Warren and was returned this time.

Manukau City gets 3 spots - the right have taken two spots (Craig Little, Advancing Auckland, and Bill Burrill, Independent) and RAM have taken the third (Robyn Hughes).

North Shore City gets 2 seats - couldn't find their results online, but it's expected to be two of Joel Cayford (centre-left), Wyn Hoadley (centre I think) and Ian Bradley (right and incumbent).

Waitakere City gets 2 seats - also couldn't find their results online. But Sandra Coney and Paul Walbran, centre-left incumbents, are expected to be returned.

Rodney gets 1 seat - Christine Rose has won - the incumbent Brian Smith was second, but not sure about Ms Rose's affiliations.

Franklin gets 1 seat - and who knows who it went to, I can't find it online.

So best case scenario (for the left):
Centre-left - 4 (Lee, Coney, Walbran, maybe Cayford)
RAM - 1 (Hughes)
Centre-right - 6 definite (Barnett, Bassett, Hay, Little, Burrill, Bradley)
Unknowns - 2 (Rose, whoever wins Franklin)

Clear but control to the right, so I guess David Hay will be the next ARC chair. Arguably this is worse than Gwen Bull.

Interesting to consider is the spoiler role that RAM may have played. In Auckland City they may well have knocked Marie Leadbeater (CV) out, and in Manukau City they have won their only seat on the ARC, which might have gone to Steve Bayliss of centre-left ticket Manukau Vision had they not run. Not sure if the RAM rep and the other centre-lefters will be working together as RAM seemed to cover a pretty wide range of the political spectrum and didn't strike me as "left" so much as "we don't want to run with any of the other tickets".

Helpfully the ARC actually has the results that are known on their site here. Shame on those councils that haven't been up there on the interweb thing - including those who have published other results but not the ARC!

those important little people

theme music: in the neighbourhood (sisters underground)

let us not forget our community boards in all the kerfuffle about mayors and councillors!

in Auckland City the centre-left has clear control of four of the nine community boards - Avondale (5 total - 4 City Vision, 1 Citizens and Ratepayers Now), Eden-Albert (6 total - all CV), Tamaki (5 total - all Labour), Western Bays (5 total - all CV).

Of the other boards, I know basically nothing about Great Barrier (5 independents out of 5 seats) and Maungakiekie (5 Team Maungakiekie out of 5 seats). I suspect that Maungakiekie must be centre-left though, as C&R stood against TM.

Hobson is an even split between C&R and Action Hobson. The highest polling candidate last time, C&R's Aaron Bhatnagar, has lost his seat - not sure what that's about! This will certainly be an interesting board to sit in on from time to time. (Not that I will)

Mount Roskill has 3 C&R and 2 CV. This is no change from last time. The Man Who Sits In The Comfy Chair can sit in it a while longer, having come second to last, but with a smile on his dial.

And Waiheke has 1 CV, 1 C&R and 3 Independents. At least one of the independents, Faye Storer has centre-left tendencies. Not sure how this will play out.

muesli mayor

Hubbard appears to have caned Banks, in provisional results for the Auckland City Mayoralty.

Interesting to see the size of the majority (approx 17,000 votes) and the size of Fletcher's share - only 11,000-odd, so considerably less than the difference. i wonder how she will really feel about this result - it can't have been a surprise, and she has seemed to be very emotionally involved in the race (but then that is often the story the media run about lone female candidates).

Rumour has it that Banks was seen cleaning out his office yesterday, but i take that with a whopping great grain of salt - he doesn't seem to me the kind of man to do that, and i'm sure there will be a transitional period to ensure good governance.

Given that the centre-left has basically taken control of the council (6 City Vision councillors, 3 Labour, plus the mayor on most things maybe?) the anticipation is that Hubbard will pick up Bruce Hucker as his deputy mayor, and the centre-left will be a heavy influence on him. Both left and right will be scrambling to get in the ear of a man who may be much more aloof than many suspect. While I think Hubbard will want advice, I don't think he will be naive about attempts to control him (or at least not for long).

The 2 Action Hobson councillors could also play a pivotal role. Christine Caughey ran under a joint CV-Team Auckland ticket in a by-election (which she lost) so she must be reasonably centre to have been selected for that. I suspect moves will be made early on by CV to bring them into the left fold.

The reality for the centre-left is that they will disagree - in particular there may be disagreements with the Greens (Neil Abel in Eden-Albert, and others on community boards) over the various roading projects. But if a process can be agreed early on to allow "agree to disagree", within certain limits, then the team should be able to hang together and build for next time.

Links to others on this:

• DPF - Banks out and Full Auckland City details
• Aaron Bhatnagar - Centre-left swing in Auckland City
• Whiggy - New Dawn Fades

the water and the air above

theme music: anchor me (muttonbirds)

interesting piece on Nat Rad this morning - interview with a Govt lawyer about the Tuwharetoa situation (ie they were "given" the lakebed back in 1992 as part of their settlement, and are now preparing to charge for use of the water and the air above said lakebed) which basically said that all that can be done is to ask Tuwharetoa to be nice, because the law is all on their side.

which of course was totally ignored by Brash in his media work on it - it's those nutty Maoris again, demanding the air we breath and the stars and the moon.

this is not the case at all. there is a clear common law situation that the air (and in this case probably the water) above a piece of land is owned by the owner of the land. if my neighbour (a church in fact) wanted to build something that overhung my land they would need my consent and i would be entitled to charge them for this opportunity. i guess it would be up to me whether that would be a one-off or rent.

National get all uppity and try to take the moral high ground when accused of Maori bashing - if you actually look at the history of a lot of Treaty settlements the iwi involved has often been incredibly generous to the Crown and the community (the Tainui settlement comes to mind) often giving back land to DOC or the Crown when it is part of a settlement, or agreeing to radically reduce their original settlement claim, dollars wise, once it is recognised that it is a legitimate claim.

maybe it's daylight savings

quite a few of the regulars seem pretty light on the ol' blogging lately (Jordan i'm looking at you in particular) - why is that? some of them are still high in the comment count, but do they think they suddenly have not much to say after all this time spouting off on things high and low?

homer over ned anyday

why is it that most people probably prefer homer over ned? i was sitting there tonight, having usurped the Comfy Chair from The Man Who Usually Sits In It (he was using the puter), and i realised that ned is basically a good man, although i might disagree with his religious choices, and yet i really want homer to triumph over him, 9 times out of 10.

i'm no big fan of homer - but i'm damned if i'll see that do-gooder win over someone with human flaws!

unfortunate pun time

Nat Rad referred to the forestry jobs that have been axed at the East Cape on the 6pm news. ba-dum-dum.

decision reserved...

well the first case in the Supreme Court was heard today - yup that pesky Act v Awatere Huata one. arguments were heard, the five judges have retired, and are now reserving their decision.

given that this is the first case the Supreme Court has heard will be interesting to see if they overturn the lower courts - will they want to throw their supreme-ness around?

anyone have any ideas about when we can expect the decision? i have a vague memory that it took about two weeks last time?

speeding - the new drink-driving

theme music: going the distance (cake)

is speeding as bad as drink driving?

fifteen years ago many people would have said drinking and driving wasn't that big a deal - if you can get the keys in the ignition you can drive - but few would now. will this happen to speeding too?

like most people, i really love to drive fast, really fast. but it's a guilty pleasure very rarely indulged - i fear an accident, and i fear a ticket. i know if i hit something when i am driving fast then i will probably hurt myself and definitely hurt what i hit. i've had one near head-on accident already when i wasn't driving fast (someone else ran a red light) and that was bad enough, even though neither of us was badly hurt.

The Man Who Sits In The Comfy Chair thinks the "if you speed be prepared to kill" line is a crock. But then he speeds, frequently, and he drives a lot. Is this any different from the attitude of drink drivers in years gone by - "i can handle it", "it's not me, it's those other people, they don't know how to drink (speed) responsibly" etc.

i think there are other factors that contribute to speed being a killer on our roads - recently there was an Australian expert reported talking about the need to eliminate roadside hazards that can be hit, eg trees, for all our roads where the speed limit is high. maybe if we had done this Michael King and his partner would still be alive as that is what killed them - simply driving into a tree, not even breaking the speed limit.

but until we fix those kinds of hazards clearly driving fast is not as safe as we all like to think.

mr tiki

i'm not sure if this is just aesthetically offensive, or culturally offensive as well...

(spotted in rotorua at hell's gate, sept 04)

feeling a bit icky about this

so coddington and kerr have had some kind of weird falling out. Whiggy, amongst others, have blogged on it already and I know i should be happy, as a leftie, that two of the most right wing people in public life are in this situation, but i have to say i feel quite a high level of discomfort.

perhaps it's the personal nature of it, and the fact that it sounds very similar to an experience i have had - but i don't think anyone benefits from this kind of thing being dragged through the papers. yet another example of gossip being reported rather than news :-(

i have to say if i was Catherine Judd i probably would have denied it too - even right wingers deserve a bit of privacy in these circumstances.

does that make me a hypocrit or just a decent human being?

missing in action

this week i've been struck by the lack of Banksie billboards up on my usual routes. today confirmed their absence, as i didn't see a single one driving out to the airport and back from Kingsland. anyone know why they've come down over a week early? or have i just been uncommonly lucky not to strike any?

Update: It looks as though it's just Roskill-Avondale who has been cured of the great Banks Rash - Eden-Albert certainly had billboards, on both public and private sites.

it's as if 2002 never happened

in the detail of the Herald poll today i see they have lumped the Progressives and the Alliance together. (i only noticed because i was stunned to see us polling at all)

why don't they lump Labour and Act together too? or the Greens and the Progs and the Alliance?

i just despair when the major daily of our biggest city makes these kinds of mistakes.

*bumps head against wall repeatedly*