The verbal apology that was given notwithstanding, this incident is very disturbing. As a former girl who formerly wore very short skirts because I thought I looked cool, I would be grateful if young women were not subjected to moralistic abuse about their appearance. Uniform policing is an almighty waste of time; if you want to incite rebellion, attack young people about their clothing identity.

Speaking of high school injustices, check out this story about two young Melbourne women who were refused the right to go to their school ball because they were same-sex partners. Hasn’t the school heard of human rights? One of their dads has lodged a complaint with the Australian Equal Opportunity Commission.

But my pick of of the week has to be this young hero from Timaru. William Struthers won the Lions Club Young Speechmaker of the Year competition, and will get to go to the USA and Canada. His speech was about “women and why they should stay in the kitchen” because children need a loving and caring mother at home to raise them.

Thanks William Struthers for your profound analysis of women and what’s best for children. I am sure the girls in your class were thrilled to know their job is cooking and staying at home with the kids. Of course children need loving and caring parents at home with them but it’s not a gender specific role. Have fun being a young expert making speeches about women and being rewarded by the Lions.

Lastly, I found out today via facebook that the Gender and Women’s Studies Department at Victoria University is under threat (again). We have until tomorrow lunchtime to write something in support of this vital centre of analysis. Otherwise the stereotyping and the discrimination will not stop!

Send submissions in support to lilian.loftus@vuw.ac.nz

It was mostly the Rick[Barker, Labour] and Craig [Foss, National] show, with an occasional reminder from expert witness Quentin [Duthie] that without the Greens around as babysitter, the children in Parliament could be up to even worse mischief.

But Barker and Foss didn’t entirely succeed:

All in all, I came away with the impression that only one of these five candidates wakes up most mornings thinking about what he might do to protect or nurture the environment … that would be Quentin.

Quentin has got his own report of the debate here. Meanwhile, a bit further away we’ve also been getting coverage in Victoria for our Braybrooke candidate Rayna Fahey.

Political strategy is a cynical business by its nature. Labour’s people were not appealing to higher ideals when they ran the “slippery” campaign against Key this year. Even the Greens once (in 2002) hired themselves an electoral shitkicker from Australia.

I have to admit I’m a bit confused.  I’ve asked around and can only assume he is referring to Cate Faehrmann who was hired to be the Green’s Campaign Manager that year.  At the time Cate was a Green Party activist in Australia leading election campaigns in both South Australia and at the federal level. In other words she was a Green Party member hired to run a Green Party campaign – a campaign during which the Greens were incredibly open about what we did and did not believe in and intend to do – genetically engineered corn anyone? (And incidentally had our best polling result to date.)

The Australian and NZ Greens have a close working relationship which has also seen several NZ Greens help organise Australian election campaigns in the past. I cannot see what this has to do with secretive consultancy companies that are using polling data to advise politicians how to avoid telling the public what their real agenda is.
However,we do currently have some not so secret Australian political operatives

For instance check out our Melbourne based candidate, number 28 on our list, Rayna Fahey, her facebook campaign page and her Radical Cross-stitch blog. Crosby Textor she ain’t:

This seemed like it would be bad news for several endangered species including a striped legless lizard, the growling grass frog, the spotted tail quoll and a matted flax lily who currently live in the path of the proposed pipe.

But then Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett stepped in and demanded that he now have the final say on whether the pipe gets built or not. So the growling frogs get a possible reprieve.

Meanwhile, further up north on the Gold Coast things are not looking to hopeful for frogs. Developers there want to build a multi-million-dollar development at Bokarina, right on top of the habitat for the vulnerable Wallum Froglet and the Freycinet’s frog.

Jill Chamberlain, of the Wildlife Preservation Society told the Sunshine Coast Daily:

“Once development goes in, they’re gone.

“Even if the developers could keep it as a wetland, eventually it will silt up and the pesticides from people’s gardens will kill the frogs anyway.”

And the ongoing ‘frog versus development’ debate continues…

Photo Credit of Growling Grass Frog: Brenda Anderson from Flickr