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Tuesday, September 28, 2004

If you thought our question time was funny... 


From The Star (Johannesburg) - date unknown as it was lifted from an old email (bit busy today!):
"The situation is absolutely under control," Transport Minister Ephraem
Magagula told the Swaziland parliament in Mbabane. "Our nation's merchant
navy is perfectly safe. We just don't know where it is, that's all."
Replying to an MP's question, Minister Magagula admitted that the
landlocked country had completely lost track of its only ship, the
Swazimar: "We believe it is in a sea somewhere. At one time, we sent a
team of men to look for it, but there was a problem with drink and they
failed to find it, and so, technically, yes, we've lost it a bit. But I
categorically reject all suggestions of incompetence on the part of this
government. The Swazimar is a big ship painted in the sort of nice bright
colours you can see at night. Mark my words, it will turn up. The right
honourable gentleman opposite is a very naughty man, and he will laugh on
the other side of his face when my ship comes in."
Not even Parekura could top that.

Monday, September 27, 2004

When is a comment not a comment? When it's a post! 


Got an email from Always, he was finally wound up enough to post a comment, and was informed he had typed too much (which with sausage fingers must have given him ample time to think). So, email reproduced below, Always Right debuts:
Mate - I tried to post this comment and got told to naff off cause it's over 1000 characters. Maybe you can post it yourself?

As a taxpayer, someone that participates in the democratic process and a born and raised kiwi - I consider that I am a stakeholder in the government of the day - regardless of whether I voted for them or not.

That being the case - I relate it to a private sector example where I pay for some shares in year 1 and four years down the track the company posts a 7.4 billion surplus and still hasn't paid me a dividend. Nup.

It's good politics from Labour - their voter base as historically and will remain the lower to middle class voters. So Cullen is making damn sure they stay in that bracket with his fiscal policy and sucks in their vote back with the social policy. The main thing is that this bracket remains the predominant one and those in it don't consider for a moment what a tax break could do for them and their families. Just offer the ambulance and they'll hitch a ride!

I commend my right for giving voice to his views - I share them and I wish National would come out and simply take my vote with a well thought out tax policy - it's there for the taking. Defence is another issue that concerns me - but that's a comment for another day.

Quality investigative research from ALAC 


My Right does not remember large parts of his university days, but it seems there must have been more going on than the head down, bum up scholastic endeavour to despatch of four years. Leaving with nothing more than two pieces of paper with letters on them, and an I O U to the government of the day with a five digit number on it, there must have been something more - surely?

That question has often disturbed My Right, which is why this morning I find myself forever indebted to ALAC for producing some quality investigative journalism that explains this mystery. ALAC have revealed that Students prefer drinking to a bit of good old fashioned library time (the most unsurprising revelation since Cher admitted she might have had a couple of running repairs done here and there).

Look out kids, the fun police are on the case, and making Friday classes compulsory could well be the solution to all of societies problems. Thank god for think tanks like ALAC I say, hic.


Friday, September 24, 2004

Question to all lefty types... 


Stuff reports that Cullen is fleecing us and is as happy as a lethargic burgler who has just found the back door ajar, or in the papers words;
Higher than expected tax revenue and profits have helped the Government post a massive $7.4 billion operating surplus which, at 5.3 per cent of gross domestic product, is a record.
Dr Don has issued the obligatory press release stating that the economy is booming and most of us are not actually better off as a result;
"For the first three years of this Government real wage rates actually declined, and only recently has there been a small rise. A less than 4% rise in real wages over almost five years is not much reward for working people.

"With no change in tax brackets, take-home pay has grown at an even slower rate," says Dr Brash.
My Right is realistic, and knows that the lefts fundamental abhorrence of dropping tax rates and letting people decide what is important to them for themselves will rule out a tax relief until after a change of Government.

So my question is this, can you at least look at raising the threshold for the top tax bracket to $80,000??


Is that remotely possible? Do you remember promising that only five percent of earners would be in the top bracket? Have you heard of inflation and real spending power? Can we at least talk about it?

Come on lefties, let sit down and have a chat...

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Alison Annan and dictionary.com - they just work together 


Go to www.dictionary.com and type in 'anticlimax'. I was going to use the definition to highlight my feelings towards the painfully predictable ending to her employment dispute, in doing so found a bit of humour. You would think this definition was penned with the whole sorry scenario in mind:
an·ti·cli·max Audio pronunciation of "anticlimax" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (nt-klmks, nt-)
n.

1. A decline viewed in disappointing contrast with a previous rise: the anticlimax of a brilliant career.
2. Something trivial or commonplace that concludes a series of significant events: After a week of dramatic negotiations, all that followed was anticlimax.
3. A sudden descent in speaking or writing from the impressive or significant to the ludicrous or inconsequential, or an instance of it: “Waggish non-Yale men never seem weary of calling ‘for God, for Country and for Yale’ the outstanding single anticlimax in the English language” (Time).
So the short version is that Annan walks away with a stack of taxpayer cash and no doubt with her head held high.

But the Auditor General's report could still make her go peacock (or Ostrich even).

To be fair, I don't blame him 


Dick Hubbard is suing the National Business Review for what he refers to as a 'hatchet job' in the September 17 Edition. To be fair I don't blame him.

My Right read the full edition for the first time yesterday and was quite astonished at the vindictiveness and aggression of the onslaught. Many fair points were made about Hubbard milking his one off Triple Bottom Line report, but even by My Right's rather emasculated journalistic standards, you can go too far.

Following a man and his wife into church and, presumably due to Hubbard himself being fairly normal, launching into his wife is just cheap. I like the NBR, but I have the same issue with this as I do with the tosh Michael Moore comes out with.

Message to the NBR - when you have that much legitimate material, there's no need to edit, splice or go looking for peppy personal attacks to make your case.

Monday, September 20, 2004

Newman on Maharey 


Muriel Newman issued a press release today slamming Steve Maharey for being a suited spineless social engineer without the bollocks to admit that throwing other people's (i.e. yours and My Rights) hard earned coin around is what flakes his pastry. She is also not impressed that he runs for cover when a bad idea (however well intentioned) and a dodgy scheme is exposed as, well, a bad idea and a dodgy scheme. Or as the good Doctor puts it;
"Mr Maharey set CEG up to fail. He took it out of WINZ, where it was part of a bigger employment strategy, and foisted the dubious high-risk Social Entrepreneur programme on it. Further, it has had to administer another failed Maharey flagship: the $8 million Community Employment Organisation strategy.

"Then, when the failures hit the headlines, the Minister ducked for cover. He even left the Labour Department to do his dirty work and announce the cancellation of his Social Entrepreneur scheme. As CEG Minister, it is Mr Maharey's future that should be under review when Cabinet meets today," Dr Newman said.
The whole release is worth a read and is hard to disagree with. If Maharey was in opposition he would be calling for a resignation I'm sure.


Finally, the right questions are going to be asked 


And by the Auditor-General no less. Trevor Mallard has "asked the Auditor-General to investigate whether the Annans' overseas travel, which benefited the international college, had been paid for by the Cambridge High School board of trustees."

Quite how this may come into play in relation to the employment dispute is hard to tell at this point, but at least the focus has moved on from the dodgy credits 'scandal' (trivial by comparison).

NZ Herald - Auditor-General to investigate Cambridge High

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Blog Lite - off to see Always 


Things could be a little quiet for the next few days. Heading to Wellington to see Always Right and all his little 'to young to know they're Rights'.

But just before I go... 


For some strange reason My Right found Wellington-based "human rights lawyer" (read - any punks Mr 10%) Tony Ellis's mad dash to lodge 18 more claims for Prisoner compensation more than a tad opportunistic. A quick google, and My Right quickly discovered that this was small fry against previous ventures into the realm of "win one, lodge a bundle" compensation battles for Tony Ten Percent.

This from the Wairarapa Times Age, Friday, 26 April 2002:
Smith was found guilty of murdering a man in Johnsonville on December 11, 1995, and of sexual offences against the man’s son. Smith, then 22, was sentenced in August 1996 to life imprisonment and ordered to serve at least 13 years before being considered for parole.

Wellington lawyer Tony Ellis is taking Smith’s case back to the Court of Appeal as a test case for about 1500 convicted criminals who were refused legal aid for appeals.

Last month the Privy Council in London overturned the convictions of 12 New Zealanders who it said didn’t get a fair appeal after they were refused legal aid. The 12 included two convicted murderers, two convicted rapists and two convicted robbers.
In fairness, he may have a case in law. But My Right is often unfair and would have to declare this an unprincipled cash and carry case.

I give it an hour before someone informs me that he is doing it pro bono!

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

"The best interest of the school..." 


Alison Annan has declared that Cambridge High is better off now that it is paying her $100,000, despite the fact that she is not allowed back on School property. In what bordered on a victory speech:
"I am determined to prove at the full hearing that I should be restored to my full duties as principal of Cambridge High School.

"I believe that the best interests of the school will be served by my return. I am confident that I can work with the commissioner and a new board," she said.

The decision means Mrs Annan is employed by the school's commissioner, Dennis Finn, and is not authorised to return there unless asked to by him.

Mr Finn, who was appointed to the role last week after Education Minister Trevor Mallard dissolved the board, said: "That's not going to happen under any circumstances. As far as the school goes, it's business as usual."
Unfortunately, what this puffed up Pollyanna may be missing is that she has been reinstated for just long enough to lose her job 'properly'.

The Authority ruled that she had "an arguable case" and she will be given the oppotunity to argue said case. Unfortunately her arguable (read - laughable) case is coming up against a concrete one. More to follow...

Monday, September 13, 2004

Compulsory viewing - sometimes 


Speaker Jonathan Hunt has announced that Parliament will be televised live next year. Whilst it would be facetious to speculate as to who will actually tune in (sad types like My Right), I think it is hugely positive move.

Although Question Time is entertaining and depressing in equal measure - it is the debates that will provide some highlights for My Right. Anyone who saw Georgina Beyer's speech during The Prostitution Reform Bill debate would have been contented that impassioned and constructive oratory still exists in the Beehive - now we can all see. Good stuff.

New Kiwi Blog 


Head on over to SageNZ for a good old fashioned right leaning (to the point of falling over) rant. A taste from his first post:
Stepping above the parapet

Sage ventured out into the void. Here I am. opinionated white male. driven from the shores of helengrad by the need to care for my family. driven to distraction by the incredible hypocrisy and nanny statist of pricks like Marjorie Maharey with his Hugo Boss suits, provincial college professor in sociology or some other inane crap.
Welcome Sage - and remeber to keep breathing.

Friday, September 10, 2004

Work with me on this one 


Take a few pieces of A4 paper and put some words on them. Hell, lets even put a picture or two on them. Let's go nuts - make them glossy. Fold them up - put them in envelopes and send them to every single address in New Zealand.

At $1.00 for the printing and paper, 40 cents postage for around 1.5 million of these, My Right gets a total cost of around $2,100,000 (the bureaucratic bunkum intellectual property is paid for already).

Sound simple? So it should. But if you're Labour, you call in the ad agencies to maximise political capital from this venture and throw a tax payer donated zero on the end of that figure - to get a lazy $21,000,000. Don't you love giving them a nice surplus to play with?

From today's Dom: Advertising its extravagance.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Just go away 


Alison Annan wants her old job back because she claims she didn't resign. The Waikato Times Editorial today is pretty much in line with a previous post by My Right. The point is, if she didn't resign she should have been sacked.
Mrs Annan's lawyer claims she was under intense pressure and in a "very distressed state" when she announced her resignation last month. Whether this argument will be used in tomorrow's Employment Relations Authority hearing has not been confirmed, but it must be noted Mrs Annan is no stranger to intense pressure and has been unrelenting to the point of tyrannical in her belief that her methods of running a secondary school were the right ones.

This newspaper has previously stated that by resigning, Mrs Annan took the right, and only, action open to her following the damning report on the school by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority report. Nothing has changed.

The over-riding priority in Mrs Annan's bid for reinstatement is neither the semantic argument nor the emotional circumstances that may have contributed to her decision to resign. It is what is best for the students of Cambridge High School, some of whom have been the victims of an education method exposed as a fraud.
As Russell Brown has said, this smacks of Christine Rankin syndrome. Retain some dignity lady and let it go - there are other ways to get into the Woman's Weekly.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Tuhoe shooting for the stars 


Apparently you need the consent of the Tuhoe people to fly a kite in the King Country. At the select committee hearing in Auckland today some Tuhoe representatives claimed ownership of the air space to the heavens above their land. This from a Ken Shirley Press Release:
"Sitting in Auckland today, the Select Committee heard a submission from representatives of Tuhoe, who claim absolute sovereignty through their rohe with title over the sea extending 400 nautical miles offshore," Mr Shirley said.

"In answer to my questions, they also confirmed their claims of absolute sovereignty over all air space to the heavens above. It was specifically stated that, once the Foreshore and Seabed legislation is resolved, they would be approaching Air New Zealand and other airlines to negotiate compensation for all incursions into their air space.

"They drew the parallel of other sovereign states where missiles are deployed to shoot down unauthorised aircraft. The group also confirmed that it would be approaching NASA and other authorities in respect of their satellites that orbit the Earth.
Shirley finished by stating; "These farcical examples are real, and underscore the folly of the Labour Government's attempts to codify and create an instrument within the Resource Management Act that is based on spiritual belief,".

Can't really add anything to that.


Tuesday, September 07, 2004

A Coro fans 'perspective' 


From today's Herald:
TVNZ received numerous complaints about its decision to cut into TV One's scheduled programmes to screen live the explosive end to the Russian hostage siege.

However, Friday's bloody climax to the hostage drama was a ratings winner, according to ACNielsen media research. The coverage attracted 13 per cent of the potential national audience - 2 per cent behind Holmes and Rick Stein's Food Heroes, which screened earlier on the same night - and 44 per cent of all viewers watching at that time.
I suppose if "The Street" is your world, you don't much have time for an atrocity that quite rightly shocked the world.

Saturday, September 04, 2004

Be it race, religion, whatever 


My Right has been as guilty as others recently when it comes to throwing up a bit of rhetoric. Hopefully the horrific events in Russia last night should remind us all that race relations in New Zealand are actually very good on the whole. There are issues, sure, but on the whole we are a harmonious lot.

The Russian hostage crisis is a sobering reminder of why we should all be more responsible when throwing around phrases like terrorism and civil war.

200 killed in Russian hostage crisis

Thursday, September 02, 2004

The crux is in the title 


Idiot at No Right Turn has taken objection to the fact that My Right spends most of his waking hours trying to do his thing for NZ's GDP, and can only commit limited resource to offering thoughts for you atypical folk who come here to read them.

Accordingly, after taking the time to devour the entire Terrorism Suppression Act 2002, he has quite rightly pulled me up on a couple of points of law in order to have a dig. All fair in love and blogging I suppose.

Accordingly - My Right is happy to concede that Margaret Mutu (although as misguided as Helen Clark's stylist) is not a terrorist according to the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002.

But My Right feels the criticism (it's the tone that hurts Idiot) is a touch disingenuous. Take this piece:
"I'm constantly appalled by the right's eagerness to fling charges of "treason" at anyone who disagrees with them, and sadly our local right-wing bloggers are no exception. In response to last week's comments by Margaret Mutu, MyRight suggested that she be prosecuted for terrorism, under the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002." [My Right has not been spoken to like that since the infamous - "I'm not angry, just disappointed" speech from Forever Right Snr in 1989]
At no point did I suggest she should be prosecuted, merely that her ludicrous outburst made a certain piece of legislation "ring a bell". My Right then cautions himself!! Admitting that relating Mutu's words to terrorism may be 'considered reaching' - but no more so than relating NZ to Palestine.

All this under the title "Since sensationalism is the order of the day".

Never let it be said that Idiot does not take himself seriously, very seriously indeed.

We are being robbed people 


John Key has started on what should be a year long campaign to demonstrate what is essentially one of the last defining differences between 'the left' and 'the right' - tax.

National - you take what you need to ensure essential infrastructure, to provide public services, to provide welfare safety net and let people get on with life.

Labour - tax the bejesus out of 'the rich' to 'redistribute' to anyone that will vote for you next time.
Labour increased the top rate of tax by 6c to 39c after the 1999 election saying it would use the money for health and education and promising that only the wealthiest 5 per cent of taxpayers would be affected. That has since risen to 10 per cent with wage hikes.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday a booming economy was the reason. She indicated Labour was unlikely to alter the top rate.

"In the end you have to weigh up whether you want to give tax cuts or keep pouring the benefits back into health, education and the services that the New Zealand public like and want and deserve and should have."
The doctors no cheaper for me than it was yesterday Helen, I am still repaying my student loan and the only other 'increased service' I have noticed is an increase in people ready and waiting to give me a speeding ticket. Leave enough money in people's pocket for them to afford a decent heater and the power to run it - and they may not need your doctors subsidy.

National need cogently demonstrate that this Government is making life as costly as possible for middle New Zealand. This is John Key's task for the next 12 months, he has started, good luck to him.

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