Archive for May, 2005

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  Of kids and cookies - by frog

  
  
  
  There have been two good pieces of good news in the fight against child obesity today. First: the Government has come up with enough money to allow the Health Sponsorship Council to get back sole naming rights for the annual “Smokefree” Rockquest in which secondary school rock bands battle it out for supremacy. Coke was [...] read more
  May 26, 2005 11:48 am - 3 Comments
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  Freeing Tibet - by frog

  
  
  
  From time to time, frogblog will be bringing you first-hand accounts from MPs about stuff they’ve been up to. Today’s is from Rod, who has just completed a protest on the steps of Parliament. The occasion was the arrival of Mr Wu Bangguo, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress. He’s [...] read more
  May 26, 2005 11:34 am - 6 Comments
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  Don dishes the dirt - by frog

  
  
  
  BALONEY! Yes, Don Brash gave a much-trumpeted speech yesterday, in which he decried the Government as a peddler of baloney. This as part of National’s attack on the integrity of the Government generally and the Prime Minister specifically. The Herald reports that, in the text of the speech, BALONEY was written in capitals, to remind [...] read more
  May 26, 2005 8:20 am - 5 Comments
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  Show me your principles… - by frog

  
  
  
  Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Act (values not politics!) has released its tax policy and it is, well, remarkable only for its lack of audacity. A flat tax? Nope. People earning $38,000 or more would pay 25% tax under Act’s 2005 policy, and people earning less than that would pay 15%. They are, like [...] read more
  May 25, 2005 4:14 pm - 1 Comment
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  Green energy policy launch - by frog

  
  
  
  Jeanette has just launched the Greens’ energy policy for the 2005 election at a press conference in the Caucus Room. The key initiatives: The Government buying half a million solar panels, to take advantages of economies of scale. Some of these would be installed in state houses and government buildings, but the majority would be [...] read more
  May 25, 2005 2:48 pm - 12 Comments
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  The buying age? - by frog

  
  
  
  The term “drinking age” does annoy me. Because what you’re talking about is not the age at which it’s legal to drink alcohol, but the age at which it’s legal to buy alcohol. If a parent gives their seventeen-year-old child half a glass of wine to drink during dinner, no-one’s broken the law. But “drinking [...] read more
  May 25, 2005 10:54 am - 3 Comments
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  Come again? - by frog

  
  
  
  Yesterday, George Bush spoke at the swearing-in of a new Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. In his speech at the swearing-in, President Bush said: We’ll continue to vigorously enforce our environmental laws. We’ll encourage good stewardship of natural resources, and we will focus on results. We’ll continue to protect the health of our citizens, [...] read more
  May 24, 2005 4:17 pm - 4 Comments
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  Chomping on blubber - by frog

  
  
  
  Helen Clark’s off to China and Japan next week. It’s a pretty important trip because, according to her press release, those two countries represent our third- and fourth-largest trading partners. Of the Japan leg of the trip, the PM says: The bilateral relationship in all its aspects, and discussion on regional and international issues will [...] read more
  May 24, 2005 4:15 pm - No Comments
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  Show me your non-negotiables! - by frog

  
  
  
  The Greens’ kicked off this election year with a State of the Planet speech. Jeanette ventured to Waiheke Island on January 16, followed by a significant media posse. In the media scrum that followed the speech, the issue the journos were most interested in was whether the Greens had any “non-negotiables” or “bottom-lines” this year. [...] read more
  May 24, 2005 3:12 pm - No Comments
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  Game on! - by frog

  
  
  
  Right-wing bloggers and journalists gagging for a close election have been cock-a-hoop about the Budget. Or, more precisely, about what they perceive as Labour’s deep, dark mistake in not offering gigantic tax cuts. Tracy Watkins, the Dominion Post‘s political editor, expressed the consensus view when she wrote: It is hard not to look at the [...] read more
  May 24, 2005 11:15 am - 6 Comments
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  Saving whales - by frog

  
  
  
  “Whale huggers” is one of the many epithets thrown at the Greens from time-to-time. It’s up there with “hippies”, “supporters of land rights for gay whales” and “jandal-wearers”. But most Kiwis, whether Green or not, have a soft spot for whales. That’s why I’m expecting very loud opposition to Japan’s plans to expand their whaling [...] read more
  May 23, 2005 3:16 pm - 6 Comments
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  The madness of working too much - by frog

  
  
  
  Working too hard makes us crazy. Well, not quite, but that’d be the simplistic way of putting the argument Observer commentator Will Hutton made in a column recently. In it, he argues Britain’s “stressful work culture” is causing mental illness, which leads to higher levels of criminality (and thus prison costs) and more people collecting [...] read more
  May 23, 2005 11:02 am - 7 Comments
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  Diplomacy, Sutton-style - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s a strange week that starts with me agreeing with Rodney Hide, but that’s apparently where we’re at. Trade Minister Jim Sutton has yelped “betrayal” at the decision by New Zealand’s Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation to stand as a list candidate for National at this year’s election. Rodney Hide’s called this “pathetic”, noting [...] read more
  May 23, 2005 10:12 am - 4 Comments
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  Flying Kiwis! - by frog

  
  
  
  Close the borders! Too many Kiwis are taking flight! National has been making a lot lately of the fact so many New Zealanders have left overseas in the past year. They’ve tried to claim that it is an inevitable consequence of Labour’s “high-tax policies”. This line of argument seemed to be bolstered by a story [...] read more
  May 22, 2005 1:46 pm - 1 Comment
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  Icebergs, anyone? - by frog

  
  
  
  When John Armstrong, that old sage of the Press Gallery, is calling Michael Cullen’s sixth Budget a great disaster akin to great disasters the Titanic, the Hindenburg and Michael Jackson’s marriage to Lisa-Marie Presley, you know it’s been a PR disaster for the Government. Armstrong’s pen is not one from which exaggerations flow profusely. Though [...] read more
  May 22, 2005 1:45 pm - 2 Comments
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  My personal story revealed! - by frog

  
  
  
  A few readers have been wondering, in this blog’s comments thread, about my “personal story”. Well, part of the answer may lie in a story in this morning’s Sunday Star-Times. It reads: Canterbury University’s frogman and guru of native frog research, Bruce Waldman, has lost his permits to collect endangered native frogs. The Department of [...] read more
  May 22, 2005 1:44 pm - 1 Comment
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  Of compromises and hitchhiking - by frog

  
  
  
  The life of a politician is full of compromises. Green MPs who talk about climate change and peak oil wouldn’t be able to do their jobs adequately if they didn’t catch planes, so they do. National MPs who talk about family values wouldn’t be able to do their jobs properly if they spent adequate time [...] read more
  May 22, 2005 1:43 pm - 5 Comments
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  Morality in politics - by frog

  
  
  
  The DomPost‘s religious columnist, John Bluck, has a very good piece in today’s paper about the “moral witch hunts” that have pervaded our political scene of late. His is a lament against the concentration on “character” which obscures the real issues he believes our political debate should about. He writes: Voters need to start declaring [...] read more
  May 21, 2005 4:33 pm - 1 Comment
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  Of smears and paedophiles - by frog

  
  
  
  My amphibian heart dropped when I hopped outside this morning, ripped open the plastic covering of my Dominion Post, and saw the lead story, headlined: HOUNDED OUT BY SMEAR CAMPAIGN My unease about the precedent set by the Blackball vigilantism of last week seems to have been justified. Already, we have a case of hysteria, [...] read more
  May 21, 2005 4:33 pm - 12 Comments
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  McDonalds’ rolls - by frog

  
  
  
  A lot of you will have seen McDonald’s recent advertising campaign for its DeliChoices range, which the company calls: A delicious new range of toasted rolls with premium fillings freshly made when you order. The DeliChoices range seems like a not-too-subtle play for the consumers who go to Subway – the people who like the [...] read more
  May 21, 2005 4:32 pm - 4 Comments