Word of the day

List – a number of connected items or names written or printed consecutively, typically one below the other; considerable number; a long series; put oneself in a specific category;  furrow or plant; an inclination to one side, as of a ship; a tilt; palisades enclosing an area for a tournament; place of combat; area of controversy;  narrow strip, especially of wood; border or selvage of cloth; strip or band of colour; make a list of; lean or cause to lean to the side; recruit for or enlist in military service.

Labour’s list

Labour has announced its party list for the 2014 election.

Five sitting MPs Ruth Dyson, Kris Faafoi, Clare Curran, Trevor Mallard and Rino Tirikatene have opted off the list as has Napier candidate Stuart Nash. . .

Did those not on the list step aside voluntarily or did they jump when they learned their plaes?

Hamish Rutherford gives Curran’s  statement:

Dunedin South MP Clare Curran makes a short statement over the phone about withdrawing from the Labour list:
“I made a decision to withdraw from the list. I’m focused on winning Dunedin South for Labour and a hundred per cent committed to campaigning for the party vote. Not just in Dunedin but across the region, Otago-Southland region. And that’s all I’m saying, okay?”

This might be nearer the truth:

Clare Curran has withdrawn from the list. Possibly in the same way that I've withdrawn from consideration for the Italian football team.

— Giovanni Tiso (@gtiso) June 23, 2014

Rutherford  also lists the winners and losers:

Winners on the Labour list:
David Clark up from 49 in 2011 to 26 this year
Iain Lees-Galloway from 37 to 24
Loiusa Wall, not placed in 2011 is ranked 12
Chris Hipkins rises from 30 to 9 this year
David Shearer was 31 last time, ranked 13 for 2014
Megan Woods rises from 47 to 20.

Losers:
Carol Beaumont down from 22 in 2011 to 27 this year
Maryan Street, 7th in 2011 is ranked 15 this year
Phil Goff, leader in 2011 and number 1 in 2011, is ranked 16

Damien O’Connor who rejected a list place three years ago is back – at 22.

Is that a sign he’s back in the fold or that he’s worried about losing his seat to National candidate Maureen Pugh.

Have the people ranking the candidates followed the party’s rules that 45% of caucus should be female?

That can only be determined when the votes are counted.

They have however fallen one short of the 65 list candidates the rules stipulate they should have.

That seems strange when at least two electorate candidates lots – 16 men and 5 women by my count – who are standing in electorates aren’t on the list at all.

Mallard says he chose not to seek a list place:

No Trevor Mallard on the Labour Party list, electorate only. His choice. Wanted to give colleagues like Kelvin Davis a better chance

— Tova O'Brien (@TovaOBrien) June 23, 2014

You’d think he’d understand how MMP works by now.

Everyone who wins a seat will push those who are depending on a list seat further down so unless Mallard loses his seat his not being on the list makes no difference to anyone else on it.

Chris Bishop, National’s candidate will be doing all he can to help him.

On current polling there will be some MPs facing the knowledge their chances of staying in parliament aren’t high and hoping the party does lose some electorates.

The list is:

1 David Cunliffe   2 David Parker   3 Grant Robertson   4 Annette King    5 Jacinda Ardern   6 Nanaia Mahuta   7 Phil Twyford   8 Clayton Cosgrove   9 Chris Hipkins   10 Sue Moroney   11 Andrew Little   12 Louisa Wall   13 David Shearer   14 Su’a William Sio   15 Maryan Street   16 Phil Goff   17 Moana Mackey   18 Kelvin Davis   19 Meka Whaitiri   20 Megan Woods   21 Raymond Huo   22 Damien O’Connor   23 Priyanca Radhakrishnan   24 Iain Lees-Galloway   25 Rachel Jones   26 David Clark   27 Carol Beaumont   28 Poto Williams   29 Carmel Sepuloni   30 Tamati Coffey   31 Jenny Salesa   32 Liz Craig   33 Deborah Russell   34 Willow-Jean Prime   35 Jerome Mika   36 Tony Milne   37 Virginia Andersen   38 Claire Szabo   39 Michael Wood   40 Arena Williams   41 Hamish McDouall   42 Anjum Rahman   43 Sunny Kaushal   44 Christine Greer   45 Penny Gaylor   46 Janette Walker   47 Richard Hills   48 Shanan Halbert   49 Anahila Suisuiki   50 Clare Wilson   51 James Dann   52 Kelly Ellis   53 Corie Haddock   54 Jamie Strange   55 Katie Paul   56 Steven Gibson   57 Chao-Fu Wu   58 Paul Grimshaw   59 Tracey Dorreen   60 Tofik Mamedov   61 Hikiera Toroa   62 Hugh Tyler   63 Susan Elliot   64 Simon Buckingham

Rural round-up

Leave TPP slowcoaches behind, New Zealand farmers urge

With Prime Minister John Key and President Barack Obama showing strong support for a comprehensive Trans Pacific Partnership, New Zealand farmers will support leaving countries behind that are not prepared to eliminate agricultural tariffs.

“The Trans Pacific Partnership was established to eliminate all tariffs and bring a new level of discipline to the use of non-tariff barriers,” says Bruce Wills, the National President of Federated Farmers of New Zealand.

“If we have a country that is not prepared to accept this reality, then they should not be allowed to slow down progress for all. . .

US milk exports affecting NZ farms – Tim Cronshaw:

Fonterra’s milk suppliers are wary of the ability of United States feedlot farmers to step up or slow down milk production faster than they can.

When grain is cheap and commodity prices are high, as was the case in the soon-to-finish 2013-14 season, this can be to the advantage of operators keeping cows in confined feedlots. As they ramp up milking, this has a bearing on world supplies and the prices Kiwi farmers receive.

Logic would say they will ease off as global commodity prices falter, but narrowing down their next move is complicated. . . .

The noblest of farmers – Bruce Wills:

The word nobility, to me at least, describes people who give of themselves without thought of personal advancement or enrichment.

As this will be one of my final columns as the President of Federated Farmers, I am in awe of the people who work incredibly hard for this organisation and farmers in general. To be fair, having a good team makes leadership easy and in our provinces and branches we are blessed with great people.  People who meet councillors and officers on plan changes one day, maybe Worksafe NZ the next and then may help to resolve a dispute among neighbours.  Being available 24/7, they work with the Rural Support Trusts when either we don’t have the right kind of weather or too much of it. 

Throughout it all, they still have their farm to run and their family to care for.

Our people do this because they are not just passionate about farming but they care for its future. They believe, as I do, that farmers and farming are a force for good in our country. While farming defines part of our national identity we are not immune from the odd ratbag.  In saying that, farmers are overwhelmingly honest, decent and generous folk who genuinely care. . . .

Techno Expo gets off to a flyer:

AN INAUGURAL Technology Expo run as part of Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Central Otago ‘Farming For Profit’ programme has been hailed a success by organisers.

The event, in Alexandra earlier this month, featured parallel presentations from a string of companies and organisations with products, services, and – in the case of Otago Regional Council – regulations, which are set to change the way we farm.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the turnout,” BLNZ central South Island extension manager Aaron Meikle told Rural News. “Both seminars have been busy all day. I’d suggest there’s been well over a 100 people come through during the day.” . . .

Couple getting in the olive groove – Gerard Hutching:

There are several ways to harvest olives: laboriously beating the trees with sticks, using a hand rake, or using a mechanical rake.

But Helen Meehan, owner of olive grove Olivo in Martinborough, in the Wairarapa, prefers the relatively new method of mechanically shaking the tree until the olives drop into nets.

It’s all about saving time, she explains, even though about 20 per cent of the crop stays on the tree. . . .

Farming isn't the easiest lifestyle but I wouldn't change it for the world pic.twitter.com/0xn15dt8hY

— Farmers Of The UK (@FarmersOfTheUK) June 21, 2014

Leaks sign of unhappy campers

Claire Trevett tweets:

Reports that Tamati Coffey is top new male on Lab list – above @NgatiBird

— Claire Trevett (@CTrevettNZH) June 23, 2014

Followed by this:

Cancel previous: @NgatiBird reportedly at about 18 – above Tamati Coffey. Coffey highest non MP male.

— Claire Trevett (@CTrevettNZH) June 23, 2014

The real story isn’t who’s where – it’s that this is being leaked before the official release which is usually a sign of some very unhappy campers.

 

Clear choice

The choice in this election is stark.

There’s a centre right government led by a strong and popular National Party with John Key, the most popular Prime Minister in many, many years, with several capable new MPs.

It will almost certainly need support parties but their influence will be as minor as they are.

Then there’s the alternative – an unstable left government led by a weak Labour Party with the unpopular David Cunliffe heading stale faces supported by the Green, New Zealand First, Mana and Internet parties who will exert far more influence than their minor status.

That’s a choice between stability and progress from a National-led government or instability and regression from this:

 

 

That looks like two white businessmen which is a strange image for a coalition that includes a radical Maori separatist and several feminists.

Whatever the gender and race of the people behind the hands, I hope we see more of this because this clearly shows the prospect of government by what Bob Jones so accurately described as a rabble of dissimilar, mutually antagonistic parties, all with unpopular leaders and wildly different messages. . . 

If a picture is worth a thousand words – every one in this is telling the undecided in the middle to vote for National.

Yesterday, this morning, this afternoon . . . .

Labour said it would announce its list yesterday afternoon.

That changed to this morning.

Now former party president Mike Williams has just told Kathryn Ryan that the list will be released at 3pm this afternoon.

The timing isn’t significant the party management is.

One suggestion for the delay was that the party couldn’t handle the list ranking while dealing with the fallout from the Liu donation allegations.

It is just as likely to be a problem with telling MPs and candidates

Whatever the cause for the delay, how can a party that is once again demonstrating problems running one of its most important internal activities smoothly hope to convince voters it can run the country?

Higher dollar lower costs

The higher value of our dollar means our exports are more expensive for the people who buy them but it also lowers the cost of imports.

The positive side of that is illustrated by  Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Economic Service Sheep and Beef On-Farm Inflation report:

Prices for inputs used on New Zealand sheep and beef farms decreased 0.6 per cent in the year to March 2014, following no change in the previous year according to the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Economic Service Sheep and Beef On-Farm Inflation 2013-2014 report.

The decrease has been driven by the decline in the cost of fertiliser, interest and fuel, says B+LNZ chief economist, Andrew Burtt.

Fertiliser and fuel are imports and their price is very sensitive to the value of our dollar.

Of the 16 categories of inputs, prices for 12 increased and four decreased, however the size and weighting of the decreases more than offset the increases.

Prices decreased by 6.1 per cent for fertiliser, lime and seeds; 3 per cent for interest; 2 per cent for fuel; and 0.1 per cent for weed and pest control. Electricity and repairs, maintenance and vehicles accounted for the largest price increases during the 12 months to March 2014 and were up 4.9 and 2.6 per cent respectively.

Over the most recent five-year period, on-farm inflation was 2.9 per cent, and 36.2 per cent over 10 years. In comparison, consumer prices increased by 10.9 per cent over the last five years, and by 28.5 per cent over the last 10 years.

Excluding interest the underlying rate of on-farm inflation was -0.1 per cent and was down from 0.7 per cent for the previous 12 months. It is only the second decrease in underlying on-farm inflation since this report started in 1972-73.

The full report is here.

The opposition keep saying they will bring down the value of the New Zealand dollar.

They won’t be drawn on what the right (or given their view the left) value should be.

Nor do they talk about the costs of that policy – decreasing the purchasing power of all of us and increasing the costs of many necessities.

Wrong too long to be right

The Southland Times says David Cunliffe’s in a mess of his own making and it’s right:

There’s a Watergate-era poster of Richard Nixon as a wee boy, looking back over his own shoulder and complaining: Somebody poohed my pants.

David Cunliffe is scarcely more plausible as he tries to represent himself as the victim of a Government smear campaign.

He is conspicuously besmirched, all right, but however much the Government may have benefited from the process, enjoyed it, and perhaps even at prime ministerial level taken Bonaparte’s advice not to interrupt an opponent when he’s making a mistake, none of this changes the fact the Government’s role was, at very worst, peripheral to the self-inflicted damage.

Cunliffe was guilty of the same offences he had loftily criticised. His accusations against Maurice Williamson for meddling with a police investigation into Donghua Liu, a party donor, turned rancid when it emerged that he had himself written in support of Liu on a residency matter, which he initially denied. And Liu had donated to Labour as well as National. . . .

Even a political novice should know you don’t start throwing stones until you’re quite sure you’re not in a glass house.

There is an explanation for the party’s own lack of records about the letter Cunliffe wrote but someone should have thought to do an OIO about the matter in case there was a record in the public service, as it turns out there was.

At the moment its Liu’s word against Labour’s on the matter of donations. But if a newspaper could get a photo of the donor’s wife receiving a bottle of wine from an MP at what looks suspiciously like party fundraiser, surely someone in the paper must have had some knowledge of that event and drawn some dots which would have advised caution?

Now he talks darkly of the Government managing the release of this – less face it, entirely accurate – information about his own follies.

This was a case of “playing politics” he said, and people were starting to realise he was the victim of a “political beat-up”.

So here we have a politician complaining that rival politicians have been playing politics in response to his own political recriminations. Does he mean to astonish us? . . .

He’s been throwing mud for months, continuing the party’s desperate attempts to dent the popularity of Prime Minister John Key and National and now he’s splattered himself and his own party.

It is dirty politics and it’s his own dirt he’s covered in.

Every time one of these sideshows which exercise political tragics comes up the PM has said that’s not what really matters to voters.

It works for him because he’s been concentrating on what does matter – running the country to make a positive difference to the economy, health, education, welfare and the other areas which resonate with people.

Cunliffe is now, belatedly, trying to say the same thing but he’s been wrong about that too long to look and sound right when he’s in a mess that’s very much of his own making.

Even better without boxing

When Sally-Ann Donelly of Fat Sally’s and Portside decides to raise money for a good cause, she doesn’t muck about.

On Saturday night she did it superbly with the Portside Punch Charity Boxing event.

As always with a successful event there was a team  who worked hard, but she led it and it is thanks to her it went so well.

An empty wool store at the harbour was transformed into a warm and welcoming dinner venue with a full-size boxing ring in the middle.

Tables of 10 were sold for $2,5000 and there was a full house.

Ten locals had been training since January to provide the entertainment.

Among them was mayor Gary Kircher  who posted this photo on Facebook:

It was the first boxing match I’d attended and my preconceived notions about it were confirmed.

I can understand how you can injure someone by accident in sport but can’t understand how hurting your opponent can be the object of the exercise.

A friend shared my view that the whole night would have been even better without the boxing and said next time she’d prefer to watch jelly or mud wrestling where no-one would be deliberately hurt.

That said, I have a new respect for the agility and fitness of boxers.

The competitors had taken their training seriously but even so were absolutely stonkered by the end of three three-minute rounds.

And there was no doubt the evening was a success.

The entry fee and half-time auction would have raised around $100,000 which is a very good foundation for the Otago Hospice Trust’s campaign to build a hospice in Oamaru.

That is a very large sum of money to be raised in a relatively small community with a single event and there’s no doubt the hospice was the winner on the night thanks to Sally-Ann’s leadership and hard work.

June 23 in history

47 BC Pharaoh Ptolemy XV Caesarion of Egypt was born  (d. 30 BC).

79 Titus Caesar Vespasianus succeeded his father Vespasianus as tenth Roman Emperor.

1180 First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan.

1305 The Flemish–French peace treaty was signed at Athis-sur-Orge.

1314  First War of Scottish Independence The Battle of Bannockburn, south of Stirling, began.

1532  Henry VIII and François I signed a secret treaty against Emperor Charles V.

1565  Turgut Reis (Dragut), commander of the Ottoman navy, died during the Siege of Malta.

1611  The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson‘s fourth voyage set Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they were never heard from again.

1661  Marriage contract between Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza.

1683  William Penn signed friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.

1713  The French residents of Acadia were given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia.

1757 Battle of Plassey – 3,000 British troops under Robert Clive defeated a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj Ud Daulah at Plassey.

1758  Seven Years’ War: Battle of Krefeld – British forces defeated French troops at Krefeld in Germany.

1760 – Seven Years’ War: Battle of Landeshut – Austria defeated Prussia.

1780 American Revolution: Battle of Springfield.

1794  Empress Catherine II of Russia granted Jews permission to settle in Kiev.

1810  John Jacob Astor formed the Pacific Fur Company.

1812  War of 1812: Great Britain revoked the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war.

1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon I of France invadesd Russia.

1860  The United States Congress established the Government Printing Office.

1865  American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie surrendered the last significant rebel army.

1868  Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for Type-Writer.

1887 The Rocky Mountains Park Act became law in Canada, creating the nation’s first national park, Banff National Park.

1894 King Edward VIII was born (d. 1972).

1894  The International Olympic Committee was founded at the Sorbonne, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

1914  Mexican Revolution: Francisco Villa took Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta.

1917  In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retired 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.

1919  Estonian Liberation War: The decisive defeat of German Freikorps (Baltische Landeswehr) forces in the Battle of Cesis (Võnnu lahing). This day is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia.

1926 The College Board administered the first SAT exam.

1931 Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane.

1937  Niki Sullivan, American guitarist (The Crickets), was born  (d. 2004) .

1938 The Civil Aeronautics Act was signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.

1940 Adam Faith, English singer and actor was born, (d 2003).

1940 Stuart Sutcliffe, English musician (The Beatles) , was born (d. 1962).

1940 – World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France.

1941 Roger McDonald, Australian author, was born.

1941 The Lithuanian Activist Front declared independence from the Soviet Union and formed the Provisional Government of Lithuania.

1942 World War II: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz took place on a train load of Jews from Paris.

1942  World War II: Germany’s latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 was captured intact when it mistakenly landsedat RAF Pembrey in Wales.

1943  World War II: British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sank the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoed the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.

1945 World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ended when organised resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapsed.

1946  The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake struck Vancouver Island.

1947  The United States Senate followed the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.

1956  Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt.

1958  The Dutch Reformed Church accepted women ministers.

1959  Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs was released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden.

1959  A fire in a resort hotel in Stalheim, Norway killed 34 people.

1961 Cold War: The Antarctic Treaty, which set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and banned military activity on the continent, came into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959.

1965 Paul Arthurs, British guitarist (Oasis), was born.

Oasis, 1997. L-R: Alan White, Paul McGuigan, Noel Gallagher, Paul Arthurs, and Liam Gallagher.

1967  Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference.

1968  74 were killed and 150 injured in a football stampede towards a closed exit in a Buenos Aires stadium.

1969 Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring chief justice Earl Warren.

1972  Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman were taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.

1972 45 countries left the Sterling Area, allowing their currencies to fluctuate independently of the British Pound.

1973   The International Court of Justice condemned French nuclear tests in the Pacific.

1973 A fire at a house in Hull, England, which killed a six year old boy was passed off as an accident; it later emerged as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale.

1985  A terrorist bomb aboard Air India flight 182 brought the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.

1988 James E. Hansen testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that it is 99% probable that global warming had begun.

1989 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a law passed by the U.S. Congress banning all sexually oriented phone message services was unconstitutional.

1991 Moldova declared independence.

1998 – Paul Reitsma resigned his seat in the British Columbia legislature; the first elected politician in the British Commonwealth to be removed from office by legally-binding petition.

2012 – Ashton Eaton broke the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials.

2013 – Nik Wallenda became the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia