Production down, price up

Widespread drought is already affecting milk production.

Fonterra’s overall production is up slightly on last season’s so far but this month North Island production is down 4.7% and South Island production is down 1.8% compared with December last year.

There have been years when lower production has been matched by low prices but so far this season the price of milk is holding up.

Prices in the globalDairy Trade auction are holding up:

The  trade weighted index went up 2.4% in yesterday’s sale.

The price for anhydrous milk fat .7%, butter milk powder was down .7%, skim milk powder increased 2.5% and whole milk powder was up 2.6%.

December 17 in history

942 Assassination of William I of Normandy.

1398 – Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud‘s armies in Delhi were defeated by Timur.

1531 – Pope Clement VII established a parallel body to the Inquisition in Lisbon, Portugal.

1538  Pope Paul III excommunicated Henry VIII.

1577  Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth on a secret mission to explore the Pacific Coast of the Americas for Queen Elizabeth I.

1583 – Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeated the troops under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg.

1586 – Emperor Go-Yozei became Emperor of Japan.

 

1600 – Marriage of Henry IV of France and Marie de’ Medici.

1637 – Shimabara Rebellion: Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rose against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu.

1773 At Wharehunga Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, 10 men who were with James Cook’s navigator Tobias Furneaux died at the hands of Ngati Kuia and Rangitane, led by their chief, Kahura.

1819  Simón Bolívar declared the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).

1834 The Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first public railway in Ireland opened.

1865 First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert.

1889 New Zealand’s Eifel tower opened at the South Seas Exhibition.

1904 Paul Cadmus, American artist, was born.

1915 André Claveau, French singer, was born.

1918 Culmination of the Darwin Rebellion as some 1000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin.

1935 First flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.

 

1936  Tommy Steele, English singer and actor, was born.

 

1937 Kerry Packer, Australian businessman, was born.

1938  Peter Snell, New Zealand runner, was born.

1939  Battle of the River Plate – The Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.

1944 Major Major, No. 1 Dog, 2NZEF, and member/mascot of 19 Battalion since 1939, died of sickness in Italy. He was buried with full military honours at Rimini.

1947  First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.

Boeing B-47E-65-BW (AF Serial No. 51-5257)during rocket-assisted takeoff test.

1961 Sara Dallin, English singer (Bananarama), was born.

1967  Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt disappearsed while swimming near Portsea, Victoria and was presumed drowned.

1969 The SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) began.

1969  Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closed its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of “A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, psychopathological persons, and misidentification of various conventional objects.”

1983 The IRA bombed Harrods Department Store killing six people.

1989 Pilot episode of The Simpsons aired in the United States.

2003  SpaceShipOne flight 11P, piloted by Brian Binnie, made its first supersonic flight.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

A DC-3 operated by Flygande Veteraner in Sweden

Word of the day

Cachinnate – to laugh loudly and immoderately, inappropriately or too much.

Thursday’s quiz

1. Who wrote: “I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”?

2. What line follows this one: “Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!”?

3. By what vehicles did Fred Dagg’s Three Kings travel?

4. Which country did King Wenceslas rule?

5. Name the Three Wise Men.

Survey for bloggers and blog readers

Bloggers and blog readers are bing invited to participate in the 2010 bloggers’ survey.

It is  a follow up to the 2008 survey which was conducted by Andrew Cushen as part of his Master of Arts in Political Studies from the University of Auckland.  The results of that are here.

An email from the researchers says:

 The original survey provided an amazing amount of data about who is participating in New Zealand political blogging, their interests and their motivations. This survey seeks to gain further detailed insights into New Zealand political blogging to inform academic articles and presentations. The 2010 survey has been shortened and improved from that used in 2008 to further assist your responses.

It doesn’t take long to complete.

The link for the survey for bloggers is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZPCCH3F  and the blog readers’ survey can be found at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZPWT22T.

The researchers are asking for responses to be completed by this Sunday December 19.

Regeneration strengthens a caucus

North Shore MP Wayne Mapp will not seek re-election next year.

The Minister of Defence and Science & Technology says he’s stepping down for personal and family reasons.

He is a popular electorate MP and has made significant progress in his portfolios. But in choosing not to seek re-election he is doing a favour for his party because regeneration strengthens a caucus.

New members bring fresh energy and a new perspective to add to, and sometimes challenge, the experience and views of longer serving MPs.

Although, as Rob Hosking pointed out, that doesn’t happen if a party chooses replacements from the same limited pool as Labour does.

One of National’s strengths is its MPs come from a wide range of backgrounds with different skills and experiences. It has always been a broad church party and continuing regeneration helps keep it that way.

Economic impact of drought not just local

Agriculture MInister David Carter has declared a medium level drought in the Waikato Region and Ruapehu District  which is concerning not just for these areas but the wider economy.

Less production on farms means less employment not just on farms but in businesses which service and supply farms. It also means less export income. As Quote Unquote says:

Slightly more seriously, this affects everyone in New Zealand because the Waikato is the main part of the NZ dairy industry which is the main part of NZ’s exports which are what pays for our imports.

There is dairying in many other regions now but some of them are on the brink of drought too

Declaration of drought triggers government assistance but as Federated Farmers Waikato Provincial President Stew Wadey points out this doesn’t mean hand-outs to individuals.

  “There is no direct financial support to farmers because of this drought declaration. It bothers me when I see letters to the editor making this false point.

“The only way a farmer will qualify for welfare is if they were already eligible for welfare payments. It’s means tested, same as any other WINZ payment, and a drought declaration makes no difference to this criteria.

“There are around 30,000 working farmers nationwide, and less than 100 are actually receiving support. But the facts of life are that with two consecutive droughts some farmers can’t survive.

“This adverse event declaration also gives us access to advisory services that are extremely beneficial for us. That’s not just farm management advice, but also counselling services and Rural Assistance Payments.

“RAPs basically advise and assist extremely marginal farmers who need to exit the business. It’s similar to a small business manager being appointed by a Ministry of Economic Development body to a struggling company in the city.

“The drought declaration also allows Inland Revenue to give farmers the ability to file accounts later, so that’s one less thing to worry about. . .

There is nothing we can do about the weather but more irrigation would help temper the worst effects of a lack of rain.

“But what I think we need to do now is work with the councils and Government on water storage options to help reduce the risk of drought in the future. You can never be too prepared.

“Basically, pasture needs three things: water, sunshine hours and decent soil temperatures.

“Rather than riding the rollercoaster trying to guess what each next season will bring, we can control these conditions much more readily with a reliable and steady supply of water.

North Otago now has sufficient area under irrigation to ensure production continues and money will keep flowing in to town. But there is potential for more irrigation in our area and in many other parts of New Zealand.

Our problem isn’t lack of water, it’s just some of the water isn’t where it’s needed, when it’s needed and storage would help solve that problem.

Irrigation isn’t as good as rain but it is far better than no water at all and the more irrigation there is, the less harm drought does to agriculture and the wider economy.

December 16 in history

On December 16:

1431  Henry VI of Englandwas crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.

1485  Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England, was born.

1497  Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

1653  Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1707  Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.

1770  Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer was born  (d. 1827).

 Portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820

1773  Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.

 This iconic 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier was entitled “The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor

1775 Jane Austen, English writer, was born (d. 1817).

 

1787  – Mary Russell Mitford, English writer, was born  (d. 1855).

1790  King Léopold I of Belgium, was born (d. 1865).

1850 The Charlotte-Jane and the Randolph brought the first settlers to Lyttelton.

1882   Sir Jack Hobbs, English cricketer, was born (d. 1963).

 Jack Hobbs (left) walks out to the SCG with his opening partner Herbert Sutcliffe.

1883 Max Linder, French pioneer of silent film, was born (d. 1925).

1888  King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, was born  (d. 1934).

 

1893  Antonín Dvořák‘s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, “From The New World” was given its world première at Carnegie Hall.

1899  Sir Noel Coward, English playwright, actor and composer, was born  (d. 1973).

 1905  Piet Hein, Danish mathematician and inventor was born (d. 1996).

1905 A great rugby rivalry was born when a last-minute try to All Black Bob Deans was disallowed, handing the Welsh victory.

1907 The Great White Fleet (US Naval Battle fleet) began its circumnavigation of the world.

 

1915  – Turk Murphy, American trombonist, was born (d. 1987).

1917  Sir Arthur C. Clarke, English writer, was born (d. 2008).

1920 The Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5, in  Gansu province killed an estimated 200,000.

1938  Adolf Hitler instituted the Cross of Honor of the German Mother.

 

1943 Tony Hicks, English guitarist (The Hollies), was born.

1944 The Battle of the Bulge began with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.

1946 Benny Andersson, Swedish musician, singer and songwriter (ABBA), was born.

1947 Ben Cross, English actor, was born.

1947  William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain built the first practical point-contact transistor.

1949 Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, later knons as SAAB, was founded in Sweden.

1952 Joel Garner, Barbadian West Indies cricketer, was born.

1955 – Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este, was born.

1960  1960 New York air disaster: While approaching New York’s Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collided with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.

1971  Bangladesh War of Independence and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan army brings an end to both conflicts.

1971 – Independence Day of the State of Bahrain from British Protectorate Status.

1972  Angela Bloomfield, New Zealand actress, was born.

1991 Independence of The Republic of Kazakhstan.

1997  Dennō Senshi Porygonan episode of Pokémon, was aired in Japan, inducing seizures in hundreds of Japanese children.

2003  President George W. Bush signed the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 into law. The law established the United States’ first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Faculative – discretionary, optional.

Does iPredict understand MMP? – UPDATED

iPredict’s weekly election update #7 had good news for those of us political tragics at the blue end of the spectrum:

John Key will lead a National/Act/UnitedFuture government with 62 seats and a two-seat majority in a 122-seat Parliament after the next General Election, this week’s snapshot of New Zealand’s prediction market, iPredict, suggests. Were the Maori Party to continue supporting this National-led government, the government would have 67 seats and a 12-seat majority. . .

. . .Forecast party vote shares are: National 44.5% (down from 45.6% last week), Labour 35.4% (up from 34.4% last week), Greens 7.8% (up from 7.5% last week), New Zealand First 4.1% (down from 4.6% last week), Act 3.6% (up from 2.8% last week), Maori Party 2.5% (down from 2.7% last week) and UnitedFuture 1.1% (up from 0.3% last week).

But I think there’s a mistake in the writer’s understanding of MMP: 

For the first time, UnitedFuture Leader Peter Dunne is forecast to be re-elected in Ohariu, with 37% probability compared with 35% probability for National to win the seat and 30% probability for Labour. . .

. . .   The result in Ohariu does not affect the likelihood of a National-led government, with National having 56 seats if Mr Dunne wins his seat and 57 seats if he does not.

It’s the party vote not electorate seats which determine the number of MPs a party has in parliament. If National got 44.5% of the vote it would get that percentage of seats in parliament regardless of whether or not it won Ohariu. Winning the electorate seat would mean it would have one less list seat and so would end up with the same number of MPs.

If Dunne lost the seat the party votes for United Future would be redistributed among all the other parties. That’s not many but if he commits to supporting  a National led government rather than a Labour one it would give the centre-right one more seat if he wins than if he doesn’t.

The iPredict website is here.

UPDATE: Comments from Matthew and Graeme below show iPredict was right, I hadn’t taken into account National getting an extra list seat if UF didn’t get an electorate or 5% of votes.

To Stuart

This Tuesday’s poem is To Stuart by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell.

Other Tuesday poems linked in the sidebar include:

Mary McCallum’s Notorious Veins

Alicia Ponder’s This Way to Grandma’s

And Saradha Koirala plays Whisper Down the Lane – fun with synonyms.

More political tragics needed for strong democracy

The good news is that The Nation and Q&A are going to be funded to broadcast next year.

The bad news is they will probably screen at inconvenient times as they did this year.

Do few people watch these programmes because they’re broadcast at unpopular times, or do they get those time slots because few people watch them?

An ABC interview of  Dr Sally Young, senior lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne,  by Mark Colvin might have the answer:

 Sally Young:  . . . Who is the political news audience?  . . . basically the people who are really political news tragics – people who watch Parliament Question Time or subscribe to Crikey, for example, or watch Sky News press conferences and so on live – that’s about 0.5 per cent of the Australian population. So they’re your real political tragics and it’s a very small percentage.

MARK COLVIN: And so politicians have a real dilemma there. I mean, they’re speaking on two levels and if they engage too much with the Twitterarti etc, then they’re in danger of ignoring the vast majority of the population.

SALLY YOUNG: Mm, that’s right and I mean, even just broadening it out. When I looked at the percentage of people who buy a broadsheet in Australia, it’s about 2 per cent of the adult population. So, you know, it broadens out to things like, if you count people who watch ABC or SBS news and current affairs that’s about 10 per cent, or 12 per cent might listen to ABC Local Radio. So it’s somewhere between 0.5 to 12 per cent. That’s the core audience you think are interested in detailed information about politics, that sort of public affairs.

MARK COLVIN: So you’re left with 80 to 90 per cent who get everything they know about politics from the first couple of minutes of one of the commercial channels’ news bulletins.

SALLY YOUNG: Exactly. That’s right. And one of the findings I was looking at in the book as well is that those people who are reliant, as you say, particularly on commercial television news programs, those news programs will devote possibly two minutes a night to the election…

If it’s only political tragics like you and me who watch, read and listen to serious political analysis, what do politicians do?

MARK COLVIN: Alright so put yourself in a politician’s shoes. Or let’s say, the communications director of one of the major parties. How do you deal with this?

SALLY YOUNG: Well you can see one of the ways they deal with it is that they try to, if they’re brave enough, that the politicians will go on some of the more popular news programs as with Kevin Rudd going on Rove, for example. You know, that they’ll try and engage that audience and reach that audience that isn’t the hardcore political news junkies. They’ll try and get to them through the media they actually use. So that’s one of the ways.

MARK COLVIN: As a professional journalist, we tend to see that as “Oh, they’re trying to avoid the hard questioning”. But you’re saying that it’s just a logical reaction to what’s going on.

SALLY YOUNG: And it would be anti-democratic if they didn’t try to engage those people who don’t access that sort of hard news media, really. I mean, I know that journalists do – especially in those elite media, if you want to call them that – don’t like it when politicians avoid them to go on popular media like FM radio or comedy shows or whatever it is.

This explains a lot about why politics has become much more about personalities and why election campaigns are much more presidential with so much resting on the leader.

But it doesn’t mean there isn’t still a place for hard news journalism and political analysis. The problem is, if not many people are interested in it, advertisers won’t be keen to pay of it which is why New Zealand On Air is helping to fund both The Nation and Q&A.

 Hat Tip: Larvatus Prodeo   who got it from Trevor Cook who concludes:

Twitter, Facebook etc are only going to be important when they break stories. Sure they are entertaining, but they are not journalism . . .

To paraphrase Colvin, I think we will be left with 80 to 90 per cent of the population getting their political news from the first two minutes of the evening bulletin unless Mark Scott, or some other saviour, can turn some of that social media into (research-driven) journalism, rather than turning journalism into social media.

The challenge isn’t just how to fund serious  media, it’s also how to turn more people into political tragics. That will not only ensure a bigger audience for political news and analysis it will engender more participation in the political process and membership of political parties.

Both are important parts of a strong democracy.

12/15

12/15 in this week’s Domini0n Post political quiz.

Nothing to fear in careful sale of some assets

The government’s first investment statement is a welcome addition to open government.

“Effective management of the Crown’s assets and liabilities and making the best investment decisions is important if we are to realise our economic goals and deliver better public services,” Mr English says.

“The first annual Investment Statement clearly shows the Government’s assets, liabilities and future investment intentions and brings this important aspect of financial management into line with other regular fiscal reporting.

“It forecasts Crown assets to grow by $33 billion over the next five years to $256 billion – about five times the size of the sharemarket. That growth comes from a combination of investment in new infrastructure and social assets, alongside forecast accumulation of financial investments.

“At a time when we are borrowing for all new capital investment, we need to get the most out of our existing asset base and ensure new investment goes into areas where it can provide the largest improvements in public services.

When so much money is invested in these assets it is vital they are operating efficiently and giving the best possible return.

“We believe this level of transparent information allows the public to demand a much greater level of accountability from the Government and will lead to sharpened incentives and significantly better public sector decision-making.

“One of the big challenges is to get our capital moving to where we think it will have a positive impact – for example, newer better schools, modern well-organised hospitals, upgrades of our national electricity grid and the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband. To do this we need to look at ways of reprioritising poorly performing capital.”

Some of the areas identified in the Investment Statement, where capital is not being used efficiently, include:

• Social housing: About 27,000 state houses are the wrong size, location or quality to meet the needs of high-priority Housing New Zealand clients. There are also 5,000 tenants currently paying market rent who could afford to rent in the private sector. 
• Defence: Opportunities exist for base consolidation and divestment of housing stock, which would reap significant gains. 
• Education: The Ministry of Education holds 244 surplus schools, teacher houses, vacant sites or other assets worth $96 million. 

The primary school our daughter, her father and grandmother attended closed several years ago. It was sold last year and I haven’t heard a single complaint or question over the sale. There ought to be loud complaints and continuous questions over why so much other capital isn’t being used efficiently.

“Disposing of these surplus assets faster would provide additional capital for new schools, more appropriate social housing and modern defence equipment,” Mr English says. “We are asking other agencies to investigate a similar approach.

“The Government is committed to new capital investment where it can be shown to improve public services. But over the coming years, most state agencies will be expected to first show their existing capital base is being fully and effectively used before being granted additional capital.

“The Government is focused on getting better performance across our entire asset base. With regard to major asset sales, our position is clear – there will be no sales this term and if that position changes we will say so and campaign on it at next year’s election,” Mr English says.

In a recent speech, Don Brash said:

As a Party, we need to be at the forefront of challenging why the state should be:

• The biggest owner of dairy farms in New Zealand;
• The biggest fund managers in New Zealand;
• The 50% owner of a large chain of petrol stations;
• By far the biggest owner of rental properties;
• The dominant generator of electricity;
• The dominant owner of our trains and planes;
• The owner of our most aggressively growing bank.

And the list goes on. Nothing in history or experience suggests that ministers and officials and their appointees have the incentives to get the decisions right in managing those assets to their best potential.

Asking the question doesn’t mean the answer is to sell all of these assets at once or even ever. Nor does it mean all of those which are sold should be sold in their entirety.

Partial floats may be better for some of them, getting an injection of capital and providing new investment opportunities for individuals.

But I wouldn’t include Landcorp among them. Most investors would want a much better return on capital than it gives.

However, I am not advocating selling the company as a whole or all its farms at once while the rural real estate market is sluggish. A gradual sale of individual farms over time would be the best way for the state to divest itself of these low performing assets.

Any mention of possible sales will inevitably engender howls of rage from the left but it is the least painful way to help return the government books to surplus.

The half-year fiscal and economic update made gloomy reading.

The state either has to spend less or earn more. A careful sale of surplus assets will be an important ingredient in the recipe for recovery.

December 15 in history

37 Nero, Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, was born  (d. 68).

1791  The United States Bill of Rights became law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.

1832 Gustave Eiffel, French engineer and architect (Eiffel tower), was born (d. 1923).

1863 The mountain railway from Anina to Oravita in Romania was used for the first time.

1891  James Naismith introduced the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school’s gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.

 

1892 J. Paul Getty, American oil tycoon, was born (d. 1976).

1905 The Pushkin House was established in St. Petersburg to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin.

 

 

1906 – The London Underground‘s Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opened. 

 

1915 – World War I: Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig replaced John French, 1st Earl of Ypres as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.

1930 Edna O’Brien, Irish novelist and short story writer, was born.

1933  – Donald Woods, South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist, was born.

1939 Cindy Birdsong, American singer (The Supremes), was born.

 

1939  Gone with the Wind received its première at Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

1944 The Finance Act (No. 3) abolished the Chinese poll tax, introduced in 1881, which was described by Minister of Finance Walter Nash as a ‘blot on our legislation’.

1951 The towering Belmont railway viaduct, which bridged a deep gully at Paparangi, northeast of Johnsonville, Wellington, built in 1885 by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, was demolished by Territorial Army engineers.

1955  Jens Olsen’s World Clock started by Swedish King Frederick IX and Jens Olsen’s youngest grandchild Birgit.

 

1965  Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida.

1973  John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, was found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10, 1973.

1978  President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would recognise the People’s Republic of China and cut off all relations with Taiwan.

1997 The Treaty of Bangkok was signed allowing the transformation of Southeast Asia into a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone.

2000 The 3rd reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was shut down due to foreign political pressure.

2001 The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.

2006  First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Refudiate - reject. ( Oxford American Dictionary ‘s word of the year).

Aitch or Haitch?

Today’s Critical Mass discussion with Jim Mora of on-line discoveries started where last weeks finished : Haitch or aitch how do you pronounce h?

From there we moved to Latitude 44 where Alex posted on a gliding mishap in Mayday Mayday for Sierra Lima.

Then, a couple of weeks too late for Movember, - An Ode to the Beard at Will Type for Food.

Robust politics or personal persecution? UPDATE: Pansy resigns

A media advisory gives notice that Botany MP Pansy Wong will be holding a press conference this morning.

Could it possibly have anything to do with the Pansy Facts website launched by Labour?

Labour has said the investigation into the use of travel subsidies by Pansy and her husband Sammy wasn’t thorough enough and that it should be investigated by the Auditor General.

Auditor General Lyn Provost is expected to announce this week whether or not she will do anything.

Had the call for an investigation been ignored or turned down there might be a case for Labour’s continued attacks on the MP.

But when an investigation is still under consideration the efforts they’re going to look more like personal persecution than robust politics.

Hat Tip: NBR

UPDATE: The media release form the conference says:

Pansy Wong, MP for Botany, has today announced her intention to resign from Parliament following 14 years of public service.

 ”This was my decision. I have not taken it lightly but I feel now is the right time for me to step down,” Mrs Wong says.

 “Over the past month, I have felt that the allegations directed at me have been a distraction to the Government and have put undue pressure on my family and friends. I strongly refute these allegations and do not want to tie-up the Government’s and my time continuing to do so.

 ”I want to ensure the National-led Government can progress its agenda without unnecessary distractions.”

 Mrs Wong said it was a privilege to be the MP for Botany and she thanked her constituents for their support and patience.

 ”I believe Botany is the best electorate in the country. They deserve an MP who is able to fully focus on their needs.

 ”The past 14 years have passed without me having time to stop and reflect. But the past three weeks have given me the opportunity to do so, and it will forever weigh on my conscience that my continuing political pursuit has placed huge demands and constraints on my husband. I have decided this will no longer be the case.

 ”It is also time for me to turn a new page in my life’s journey to focus on personal and family priorities.”

 Mrs Wong’s resignation is effective from 17 January 2011, but she has made the decision not to receive any salary or personal entitlements from 20 December to the effective day.

 ”I have timed my resignation to ensure that the by-election will not impact on the holiday break of my Botany constituents, and I have also taken into account the work agenda of the National-led Government,” Mrs Wong says.

 ”I am looking forward to spending more time with my husband Sammy, and my extended family, who have been a great support to me during my career in Parliament.”

 Mrs Wong wishes to deliver her valedictory speech this afternoon, subject to the leave of the House.

I am very sorry about this and admire the way she has put her constituents and the government first.

For the sake of the children

“If you really want to do something “for the sake of the children” then get their parents employed.”

This comes from Macdoctor who does his usual thorough analysis of stats showing more children were admitted to hospital during the recession.

Lindsay Mitchell comes to a similar conclusion:

Children in families with work do better than children with families on benefits despite both being on low incomes.

Children in families that work suffer the least abuse or neglect.

Children in families that work grow up with similar expectations for themselves.

The first aim of welfare reform must be to get people who can work into work. It is best for them, their children, society and the economy.

A caring society has a responsibility to look after those who can’t look after themselves. But a caring society must also help those who can help themselves to do so.

This could well be more expensive than just giving people benefits in the short term but it is the only way to halt  benefit dependence and the vicious circle of deprivation it leads to.

Stop means stop but why stop here?

The intersection of the road we take to town and State Highway 1 used to be controlled by a Give Way sign.

A few weeks ago that changed and it’s now controlled by a Stop sign.

If there was any consultation or advertising about this I missed it and so did a lot of other people, including several who have been ticketed for not coming to a complete stop.

It’s a driver’s responsibility to notice signs. But when you’ve been driving the same route hundreds of times, have a clear view of on-coming traffic for at least a couple of hundred metres and turn to look right for that traffic rather than left where the sign is, it’s easy enough to miss it.

That’s made it easy picking for the cop, or cops, who’ve been issuing tickets.

Not surprisingly those ticketed aren’t very happy. Stop means stop but no-one understands why this one has to be a stop and not a give way. It hasn’t been an accident trouble spot and there’s a merging lane which allows turning traffic to enter the main road without interfering with on-coming traffic.

Given that, it would be much better PR if the police tried education and warnings to ensure people knew the sign had been changed and understood why before they issued tickets. In the absence of this, it is this looks much more like revenue gathering than road safety.