Posts by Mikaere Curtis
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They really do believe you vote for a bill "to send a clear message of support to people trying to rebuild in Canterbury". Do the Greens really think that the people of Canterbury won't forgive them for voting against bad legislation? In short, do they think people are stupid?
You're missing the point. They tried to improve the bill, but were opposed by Nats and Labour. They did manage to get OIA oversight on the Recovery Commission.
So, in the end, they'd tried everything they could, and were still facing a fait acompli. Since it is clear where they stood on the risks associated with the bill, I can see why they would want to adopt a stance of symbolically supporting the people of Canterbury.
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Will you lobby the government to clarify offensive behaviour under the Crimes Act in order to prevent parades involving nudity and/or offensive behaviour eg boobs on bikes, beach nudity
I wonder if this includes breastfeeding ?
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Craig, going from "that dreadful man" to "Certainly the person I have got to know in the past fortnight is a very fine man indeed." is quite a shift for Edwards.
Helen Clark has never even remotely come across as the vile person that Banks has in the past. However, I do concede that Banks appears to have mellowed since his first term as mayor.
Those Family First types are bloody dictatorial, aren't they ? I had no idea Williams was such an authoritarian, thankfully he has no hope of becoming mayor.
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We stayed in the Hermitage (with great views of Aoraki) this weekend. I estimate that it is about 100Km from the epicentre, but the hotel still shook enough to wake us up and give us a real fright. I couldn't help thinking of Emily Sanson-Rejouis, who is a friend of my wife.
My brother-in-law lives in Lyttleton, so he and his partner were understandably concerned about the state of their house, and also his partner's family, who live in Christchurch.
We got reports of houses being "completely trashed" inside, whilst still structurally sound. The TV reports seemed to confirm this as being typical, so we were surprised when we drove through Hornby and Burnside on our way to the ariport that there were very few houses or businesses that seemed to be affected. Traffic seemed normal for a Sunday afternoon, too.
It turned out that one of the "completely trashed" houses actually suffered two broken crockery bowls and the CD rack had fallen over.
I can understand being freaked out if your house has been rocking enough to cause things to fall over, but I can't square the "DOOMSDAY" reporting as seeming to apply to the entirety of Christchurch. If the PM has an onus to get down to the disaster zone quick smart, surely the MSM have a similar onus to provide, y'know, balance.
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That Timewarp attack ad was so lame it reminded me of that ill-conceived attempt at singalong parody those Labour MPs tried at their party conference in 2008.
Couldn't they have simply run the line "Staved off recession better than any other OECD country, and Abbott opposed our success at every step" ? Or something.
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Tailoring is totally the way forward! I got some suits tailored in Bangkok on my way up to the UK when I was on my OE, and have been hooked ever since. The comfort of a garment that is design specifically for your body is something else.
I've had some really nice shirts tailored here in NZ, but most of my tailoring has been from India, Nepal or Thailand. Also, when tailoring, you can choose some really different fabrics (such as the bright purple wool in my greatcoat). At I one point I had five tie-dyed silk business shirts.
Hmm, it's got me musing on the similarities between a tailored garment and a personally unique moko or tatoo, although one is more of a commitment that the other...
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There is lots of other existing spare rail capacity at Mt Eden and Grafton stations which can potentially be used to service the CBD and this can be utilised for $xbillions less than a tunnel through NZs most expensive realestate.
Can you explain how this is going to work in practice. Let's say I catch a train to Mt Eden station, how do I get to K Rd from there ? Walk ? Catch a bus ? Taxi ? Can you see that incorporating a modal change into a public transport solution is going to add friction ?
It seems that your main argument is not that PT won't work, but that it costs too much. Putting aside factors like future carbon cost being applied to transport and imminent peak oil, I'd rather we built a fully functional PT system (even if it is incomplete relevant to Howick/Shore/Airport) - just like we've built perhaps the world's best motorway system - and then have the argument.
"PT might cost too much" != "More motorways = good".
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IIRC, Gerry Adams et al were able to be absentee MPs at Westminster - they had a policy of never setting foot there. I think this was a factor in moving Northand Island politics from violence to dialogue. Full-time, paid activists are able to get a lot done.
This is an example of what Graham is proposing, with arguably positive outcomes.
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I'm grew up in Massey, and when I was 17 a short film called Universal Drive played on TV. I was really excited. Finally, a reflection of my part of Auckland, complete with a proper backyard party and road chase out to Bethells. I got the same feeling when I first started watching OF. Well done, James et al.
Then there's the chronic snobishness against the West by people who live in other parts of the city. The first time someone called me a "Westie" I was all "WTF is a Westie ?"
It didn't take me long to figure out that the best way to respond to a pegorative comment about the West was to say "yeah, totally sucks, rainforest, surf beaches, vineyards...".
So, I really appreciate seeing West Auckland in a good light.
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Well, didn't Shipley make a point of walking up to Bolger as he was about to catch a flight to attend CHOGM and conceitedly tell that she had the numbers ?
At least Gilliard had the grace to mount a coup whilst the PM was in the country.