Are Maori no longer indigenous to NZ?



Don Esslemont...expert on indigenous peoples



I have been listening to Don Esslemont yet again express, via his Access Manawatu programme, his views on Maori [They are no longer indigenous people, therefore have no treaty rights etc] , and those views are most interesting. His beliefs are [according to him] not unlike those of John Ansell  who was the ACT party PR man who had pushed his radical views regarding all things Maori, he was a great fan of Don Brash the ex Nats leader who hi-jacked the Act party and brought it tumbling down in a massive heap. He like Don Esslemont and Don Brash pushes the line that all people should be equal under the law. And they are correct; people should be equal under the law. But are they treated equally…now that’s a different question.



John Ansell...Acts leading light on Maori.



Of course those who would suggest that any other view is in fact supporting apartheid [White South African style] The two Don’s and John Ansell always fail to inform their listeners that the various issues being argued by Maori are not about the law itself but about the interpretation of the law and its negative effect on their situations. Important to Maori is the honouring of the law that was reached by agreement between two equal parties, the crown and Maori, in both a social and legal sense. Don E. would have us believe that since no real Maori now exist, then in his view no agreement or process should exist for governing that relationship, other than the one he subscribes to.

Don Esslemont would ask you to believe that there are no indigenous people left in New Zealand, why because Maori interbred with the settlers, and because they did, the rights that were negotiated since 1840 are now negated. I must admit that this sort of confused, childlike and prejudicial logic does little more than confuse even further any possible rational discussion on the issue. Think about it, if no Maori exist then with whom do you discuss?

In New Zealand we thankfully rejected that style of dictatorial practice, of simply ignoring what was agreed in earlier years, and changing laws accordingly to suit those who hold power. Instead we developed a more human process via the Waitangi Tribunal and that process is now the law.  Esslemont and like minded individuals should live up to their so-called trust in the present laws as they stand in New Zealand. Pandering to people’s prejudices as an excuse for halting the expansion and rejuvenation of peoples pride in their heritage is both wrong and dangerous and is a huge backward step.

My view is that Don Esslemont uses the age old technique of denying the past to justify his desire for a dictatorship. Scotland has and is using the Waitangi Tribunal model in its march toward a style of independence suitable to them. They are leaning toward, and making use of the New Zealand experience, not because it offers all the answers, but because it is attempting by peaceful means to harness the ability of correcting both past un-intentional and intentional errors [crimes] of the past. I call it the human approach.

Larry Haist wrote a very good piece entitled: “How shall we be governed”, on the last page he wrote these words: “We eventually act in ignorance according to our best judgment, in our prejudices, not knowing past, present, or future”.

These words are most apt in the case of Don Esslemont’s Radio programme for prejudice decides the human value he places on past agreements such as the Treaty of Waitangi, prejudice ignores the democratically agreed design of the Waitangi Tribunal process that is being used at present and lastly prejudice dictates his need to halt a future different to that dreamed of by Don Esslemont and those of a like mind. The public spoke in the last election and the Act party was tossed on the scrap heap of racist bigotry…

A unforgetable conversation with John Banks



Honest John Banks forgets who he is. 



Eavesdropper tunes in on a recent conversation between John Banks [the one with the memory loss] and Mr. Dotcom, [the one the FBI wants shipped to the USA]. The law states that if a candidate knows who made a donation to his or her Mayoral Campaign then that donation MUST be declared. A Wheeler’s Corner blog asked that question some months ago…it would seem that we now have the answer…money, heaps of it.

“Hi, take a seat, would you like a glass of red or white”, said Mr. Dotcom.

“Red would be fine thanks”, says JB.

“It’s nice to see you again”, DC

“We’ve met…JB

“Oh yes you remember you gave the toast at my birthday bash”. DC

‘I did, I don’t remember…JB

“Do you remember when I offered you fifty thousand for your mayoral campaign? DC

“No I’m sorry I don’t remember that…JB

“How can that be, you told me to donate it in two twenty-five thousand blocks”, DC

“I did”. JB

“Yes you did”, DC

“I’m sorry I can’t remember doing that you must be confusing me with someone else”. JB

Are you telling me that there were two John Banks running for mayor? DC

“I don’t know I just can’t remember it was so long ago”, JB

“Have you seen a doctor about your loss of memory? DC

“No but I’ll be seeing my lawyer shortly”, JB

“Good because I wish to tell the FBI that I donated fifty thousand to your campaign funds for the mayoral race”. DC

“Do you really have to”, JB

“It’s for your own good, I mean how can you be a Minister when you can even remember who I am and I’m not small like you, and that I gave you fifty thousand dollars, and that you wished me happy birthday not so long ago”, said Mr. Dotcom sadly as he patted John Banks on the head.

“Don’t do that! Shouted JB, “John Key does that to me all the time, he treats me like a pet poodle”…he was screaming as Dotcoms security team carried him from the room. The conversation was over

Len Brown pays his dues...



Len Brown asks forgiveness and is refused



Ever seen a rat leave a sinking ship…no. ever seen a prostitute cutting a deal on the street…no, ever dealt with a financial whiz kid selling you a Ponzi deal…no. That proves that you haven’t lived in Auckland.

Well Cathy Casey is an Auckland City Councillor and she fully understands sinking ships, street prostitution and Ponzi deals. Because one time so-called left-wing Mayor Len Brown displayed many of the fundamental characteristics of all three when he voted against her motion to oppose government legislation that will allow Shy City 500 more one armed bandits [pokies].

• Brown was like a rat leaving the sinking ship as he switched sides and climbed in to bed with Steven Joyce.
• He also acted like a street walker when he took $15.000 from Sky City for future services and for $15.000 bucks they demanded and got the full treatment
• Brown also joined the ranks of the Ponzi dealers when he, by his vote, allowed his rate payer citizens to be ripped off just to please NZ’s biggest gambling rip-off artists Sky City and their wee mate John Key.

I would not be surprised if John Banks was in the same cheap hotel room just across from Sky City…when Brown was paying his dues

Len Brown that once front man for the Problem Gambling Foundation after the vote must have visited the men’s toilets and been massively ill, at least I hope he was. I suppose now we can truly say that he and John Banks are living together in sin, because John Banks has publicly stated that he is against pokie machines yet he too like Brown took Sky City’s dirty money. The motion was lost by 12 votes to four.

A date for Brown’s political memorial service will be announced shortly.

Manfeild Part Trust Takes a king hit.

Heather Verry. 

This from the Manawatu Standards Jessica Sutton:

“Manawatu A&P fears the Royal show event in 2013 will leave "someone broke". Manawatu and West Coast A&P Association president, Maurice Pedley, said it was "completely unhappy with the budget". "The budget was way out of our league," he said. "Someone's going to go broke was our opinion and that's the simple answer to why we declined to be part of the consortium. We couldn't put the Manawatu A&P show at that sort of financial risk if the event didn't work."

The budget for the event was not publicly available as it was commercially sensitive.

Mr Pedley said leaving the consortium was not due to any other disagreement.

"It's always been our intention to hold a Royal Show, but we just can't afford to risk everything for this one.

Manfeild Park Trust chief executive Heather Verry [pictured] said the association's withdrawal was disappointing.

"Feilding IA&P had similar issues [to Manawatu] and they were resolved," she said.

"We did this to support the A&P shows and get them in partnership. They disappointingly turned it down. They didn't give a reason."

The trust has worked closely with both A&P associations since its inception in 2004. Under the initial agreement both associations were given the right to use the Feilding facility for free one weekend a year to hold their shows.

However, Manfeild Park Trust chairman Ben Vanderkolk said it was time the Manawatu A&P Association "strategically" mapped out where it was going. "Historical claims and rights are probably not relevant within the current environment," he said.

Mr Pedley said Mr Vanderkolk's comment about losing its rights to the facility was "scary". "I'm amazed they've raised this issue again," he said. "He's [Vanderkolk] alluded to this before. We retain the rights to use the facility. It's all in legal documents. They're [shows] our only asset."

In October 2004 three landowners – Manawatu District Council, Feilding IA&P and the Manawatu Car Club – deeded their land and formed the Manfeild Park Trust. During this time, the Palmerston North City Council said it would help to fund the park as long as the Manawatu IA&P Association could hold its show for free each year at the park”. [Standard report ends]

Well, well, the seven candidates for the upcoming by-election have a real live issue to debate, now that the ship has hit the rocks…will the pokie machine trusts be able to pump another couple of million dollars into the Manfeild CHARITABLE Park Trust to keep it alive, or will the rate payers of Feilding be forced to bail out the trust yet again and when will the trust start to pay back even some of the interest and capital it owes both the MDC and PNCC…or is that a pipe dream. And will Big Ben Vanderkolk ignore his promise made about one weekend show per year for the MA&P association that he used to drag money out of the people of Palmerston North. It would seem that some just enjoy getting ignorant country folk like those in Manawatu and Horowhenua district councils to pay their wage bills and prop up unsustainable financial dreams and schemes by Charitable trusts that have simply lost their way.

NZ's biggest gambler...

Key a big pokie fan…fails to front on Q&A.

Paul Holmes must be heading towards forced relocation [words used by Talley’s for sacking staff] his effort on Q & A was about 4 out of 10, of course he wasn’t helped by that strange woman from Massey, Dr. Claire Robinson who is simply a future Nats candidate in waiting based on her defence of the PM’s idiotic behaviour in regard to the Sky City stuff up. She lacks even a fraction of ex-panelist Dr. Jon Johansson knowledge and foresight he is a political analyst worthy of the name.
Things are going from bad to worse when Steven Joyce, the king of political spin has to front up to spin his yarns so as to protect the PM and his bad night at the Casino tables. He even suggested that Goldman Sachs were nothing more than failed money brokers and often got things wrong…true…the PM was one of them as I recall…and he got a hell of a lot wrong. So much for Steven Joyce’s future as a Nats leader…Bill English must be having a good laugh watching him try to spin his way out of harms way while fronting for the PM. Still we now all know that Joyce and Key…just love pokies.

Key the king-pin deal maker seems to have forgotten that while you may get away with shonky deals on behalf of other rip-off artists, this is New Zealand and we demand decency, transparency and honesty, a trait not obvious in his Government.

ANZAC Day = Different things to different people...

The day that the 1st Bn of the RNZIR presented its colours in Malaysia back in 1961 [pictured] I felt proud to be a member of that military unit, naturally I was younger then [21] but still a sense of pride existed because we were helping people introduce a form of democracy they had asked for and because our role wasn’t to destroy but to help create. I believe we succeeded because we had no hidden agenda and we kept command in our own hands.

There were no Americans there and that made a world of difference.

Tonight [Monday] I read of the death of SSgt Les Kereama a retired member of the RNZIR, it brought ANZAC day even more into a stark and more meaningful perspective for me, but ANZAC day is not about me it is about all of us…

ANZAC day means different things to different people, and so it should. Some suggest it commemorates war and thereby glamorises it. Some also suggest that it demonstrates the stupidity of war. Both may be correct to a lesser or greater degree. While others may see it as the human defence of peace and that war is the real learning curve toward peace.

They would suggest that without experiencing war how can we possibly understand peace. And there maybe a slight truth in that, but it’s only slight because in actual fact, it is an excuse rather than a reason. Leaders use wars for their own ends…

·         It is little known that after the US dropped the Atom bombs [2] on Japan and the 2^nd world war ended, they sent doctors to the blasted and wrecked cities not to help the population survive, but to measure the success of the bomb so they could build bigger and more destructive ones. There had been secret discussions in the US about the use of Atom bombs…it was decided to use them so they could learn about there power and how best that power could be controlled and developed.

Some suggest that wars have been fought in the defence of democracy and even increasing democracy through sacrifice.

By democracy I presume they mean among other things, the right to vote and participate in the running of one’s country. All of these are worthy thoughts but we have to question if the outcomes of various recent wars have actually achieved such worthy goals. We can each have our view.

·         Is The Afghanistan war leading toward more democracy or less? And if so for whom?

·         Was and is Iraq simply a waste of life rather than protecting democracy? Was it for freedom or oil, since there were no Weapons of mass destruction?  

·         Did Vietnam achieve any great change to democracy, or freedom, and if so what freedoms?

A Wheeler’s Corner reader stated the following;

·         “What planet is the PM on to say something to the effect that another two years of NZ troops in Afghanistan will see the country in good shape? He obviously thinks that a magic wand is in the offing. I can’t see any likelihood of that and can’t wait for NZ troops to leave the country so the Afghanis can get on with the job of recovery”.  

This reader clearly proves how our military are not fighting to right wrongs or stabilise a critical situation because our troops in Afghanistan are both commanded by and directly controlled by a foreign power for its political and economic purposes. Nicky Hagar gives absolutely undeniable evidence of this fact in his latest book, as have others.    

Regardless of our views on these issues they don’t lessen in any respect; the bravery and heroics displayed by those soldiers who fought those wars, on all sides. They were not responsible for the stupidly of the various political leaders that forced their servicemen and women and the nation to war.

As a vet I attend the dawn parade and when I march from the RSA to the Square I march for the white poppy, the peace poppy, and it was peace that drove me during my time in the military.      

Ponzi Like Deal in the making...

So now we know…John Key and his lobbyist mate Mark Unsworth are sleeping in the same bed. Unsworth, he is the guy with the free pass into parliament to chat with whom ever he wishes, and is a great mate of Smirky Key, they even relax together so I’m told. He is also the chief lobbyist for Sky City…who Key just happens to be selling our legal system to so they can make heaps of dollars off the backs those crooked pokie machines that John [Smirky] Key just loves. Strange that don’t you think…well you shouldn’t be after all Smirky did the same sort of deal with Warner Brothers when he sold off our industrial laws and for what…”to be seen shaking hands with Peter Jackson”.



Sky City Smirky Key do some back scratching



John Key seems to think that because he was successful at ripping off the so-called financial markets some years back and gaining millions, not through hard work, but through manipulation of shonky deals, that he can do the same thing today. Back then his bosses were international corporation rip-off king pins but now his boss is you and I and we shouldn’t allow our laws to be used for such Ponzi like deals. For a Ponzi like scheme it is because the masses that do the paying get nothing back…name any convention centre that’s paid its way?

Have a close look at who gets what out of this secret deal between Key, Unsworth and Sky City.

Sky City converts a building into a so-called convention centre, and in return they are given hundreds of one-arm-bandits to add the thousand they already have which allows them to make an extra forty million dollars per year. I estimate that it will take them about three years to pay off their building. What do we get, well we get the increase in crime that always follows pokie machines, we get the harm that’s always increased with one-arm-bandits, and we get the social upheaval that always follows the gamming industry which always has a close connection to and with loan sharks, crooks and the under-world that’s involved in money laundering and such like.

This deal stinks of corruption, of gifts for mates, and should be investigated by the police. If Key can set the police on a public conversation between him and John Banks, who just happened to take thousands from Sky City without declaring the fact, then he could set the police the task of sorting out this shady deal with Sky City. His late revelation that he was doing this deal as the minister of Tourism simply won’t wash; it is simply bull-S…   

Current Affairs on TV a thing of the past.





What’s happening to our so-called current affairs programmes on TV?

Firstly TV, The Nation on TV 3 funded by NZ on Air shows at 9.30 on a Saturday and repeats on Sunday at 8am. This is certainly not prime time viewing, would you put off your Saturday shopping or taking your kids to their Saturday morning sports events just to watch The Nation, or would you give up your Sunday morning lie in, I think not. Well you are not missing much because the programme has become nothing more than soft centred interviews that are not much more than political broadcasts, justifing government behaviour. They are certainly not debates or hard hitting interviews.

Rachel Smalley’s interview with Cedric Allan and Mark Unsworth on lobbying was a clear example of just this. She failed in all respects to get these two lobbyists to accept that there is a huge divide and difference between seeking help from and influencing politicians; basically lobbyists are paid massive bucks to influence.

If you can get TV7 [the government is about to give it the chop] you can watch Right-Wing Paul Holmes if you make it out of bed on a Sunday by nine, you can watch TV One’s Q & A. show as you munch your corn flakes and toast. You should eat your breakfast first otherwise you could be put off your food by the anti Maori and women ramblings of Paul Holmes as he attempts to copy talkback radio ex-host Paul Henry now residing in Australia [Thank God] in a bias based discussion with a guest panel of strange individuals one of which is often Dr. Claire Robinson of Massey, some of her views are so far from reality that I get the weird feeling that she lives on a different planet to the rest of us. But when she is matched with Phil O’Reilly you get a strange mix that sounds just like Steven Joyce, the government lobbyist for MediaWorks and the Road Construction industry with Talley’s tossed in for good measure. No it sad to have to say it but current affairs is a dieing art, and we must thank God that Maori Television has become NZ’s only real public broadcasting TV station.

Parental leave veto from father of six...

Bill English, the father of a rather large family and many houses has said "that the government will veto a bill introducing parental leave increases". [From 14 to 25 weeks]

Why because we can’t afford it. Now this is strange when you consider for just a moment, that the government has agreed to spend an extra two hundred million on defence equipment for our army and navy as it assists the US fight its many wars.

Bill English the minister of finance is also on a committee studying the harm being done to children yet he seems to not even understand that the first few months of a child’s life is when bonding takes place.

Many mothers are forced to return to work quickly because of the state of their finances. It sounds as Bill English is saying that if you are in some financial difficulty you should not be having children. Just imagine if our parents did that, half of us wouldn’t have been born. English failed to recognise the backlash now taking place and with John Key [Smirky] no doubt on holiday in Hawaii yet again, he has had face the music on his own and he is now attempting to justify the unjustifiable. New Zealand lags behind the rest of the world in regard to paid parental leave. Even Jerry Brownlee’s favourite country Finland has a much better record than New Zealand in this field, but hey what’s new…English knows that a Majority of parliament supports the bill, even that lap dog ‘puppy’ Peter Dunne, although its likely that he knew English would veto the bill, hence his support for it, he likes to cover his bets. One last thing when the majority of Parliament approves something isn't that democratic rule...or do I not live in NZ...

Buying political favours

Do donations buy political favours? This is a question that’s been asked for years. Of course politicians will naturally tell you that they don’t… fact or fiction? You decide. In this region

Talley’s are well known for their anti-union behaviour, while they are worth around 500 million they seem to have a massive desire for more…they locked workers out so that they would not have to pay those workers over the Easter holiday period, beat that for meanness and greed gone mad. Yet they donated $5,000 each to Eric Roy, Colin King, Chris Tremain, Joanne Goodhew, Todd McClay, Lindsay Tisch, Chris Auchinvole, and Chester Borrows. All these people were very average National backbenchers yet Talley’s spent $40.000 to get them elected. Goodhew is the starry-eyed MP who looks at John Key during Parliaments TV broadcast of question time like a love sick duck while she nods her head…over and over and over…

The Road Transport Trust donated $5,000 each to Ruth Dyson, Bill English, Judith Collins, Joanne Goodhew, Todd McClay, and Phil Heatley. They also reportedly offered money to Clare Curran, but she turned them down.

Maori Party Co-Leader Pita Sharples brought in the big bucks from the construction industry, collecting $20,000 from Fletcher's Construction and $10,000 from MainZeal director Richard Yan. He also scored $25,000 from MainFreight chairman Bruce Plested.



Leonie Hapeta



Here in Palmerston North, Nat’s lightweight candidate Leonie Hapeta got $45,735.15 in donations, the largest being from Rewa Valley Ltd, of $25.000 a company that she is a share holder in. She spent $22,099.02 on advertising.

According to media she felt this was money well spent…I can only hope that the share-holders in Rewa Valley Ltd. Feel the same way because the local sitting MP, doubled his majority and won the seat at a canter…so she can’t offer any favours.

Iain Lees-Galloway of couse was the winner he received $23,750 in donations and spent $17,871 on advertising, so he spent less on advertising but won with an increased majority even though Labours party vote fell, and tell us that voters knew who they wanted.

Where are we going?

I sometime wonder about just what direction our city and region is heading, I know people who are really struggling to make ends meet, pay their every day bills like power, mortgage, rates or rent, transport and medical charges. I met a couple of pensioners who had to cancel a long planned and awaited trip to Australia to visit their grandchildren because of an unexpected dental bill; the bill was equal to their airfares. So I make a plea to the various councils in our region to think carefully about the increases they are about to impose on their rate payers. I know that for years the Horowhenua District Council has neglected to update its infrastructure and is now confronted with the huge cost of lifting itself into the twenty-first century. It has failed to get consent for many of its waste water operations over many years which have led to health problems. Councils’ have to now choose between the massive subsidies they fork out to Manfield Park Trust like organisations which in turn then default on their agreed plans to repay back the millions borrowed. The reality is that this weak kneed enforcement of financial control comes back to bite the backsides of thousands of good citizens who simply can not afford to pay for the economic mismanagement of council funded so-called charitable trusts.

Our citizens took a massive hit when GST was lifted and road user charges sky rocketed upward. One chap I know informed me that the cost of reregistering the family’s two cars was like buying a new one these days, he lives outside of the city and there is no public transport for him and his wife who works part-time.

Project Taukana rocks...

Project Taukana in Action. 

Palmerston North has a wonderful project that leads the way toward better social community values and self sufficiency for those fortunate enough to share in its operation. It brings together all the elements that lead to cooperative learning between a mentor and the mentored. It is an amazingly simple but most effective way to introduce behaviour change…the mentor learns while guiding…and the mentored learns by having a model…each learns because each wants to…and this of course is the right climate for learning. “Learning because you want to and when you want to”, is the key ingredient in life long learning. It is also learning while doing rather than rote learning and so the balance of skills learned are far more embedded and remembered for future use.

You may not have heard of Project Tuakana; it’s a project that seeks Maori males who are living a healthy life style giving some of their time in mentoring Maori youth. What they do is to provide Taiohi [Maori male youth] with some of the more practical tools so as to be able to engage in everyday life. It’s not easy… but it is greatly rewarding. Last Wednesday night clear evidence was presented that proved the projects future success. It proved also that there are some potential chefs in our community. Teams made up of Mentors and their mentored   partners took part in a Master Chef Kai cook off at the Youth Space building in

George St.

It was without doubt a successful demonstration of the creative and innovative application of Mentor type learning outcomes as the parents and families will attest. It was also fun to enjoy both the entertainment and food that was supplied.

It was most educational to watch how the teams working in the kitchen to prepare their various dishes in the time allotted mastered that task. There was no room for sleepy kiwi hobbits here. Out front were three judges [pictured] waiting to judge the quality of each dish…it was better than the TV version of Master Chef.

The Whaioro Trust via its Project Tuakana project is a mover of this new enlightened and progressive approach to teen development. The person who organised the Master Chef event as a conformational step in the learning process was Coordinator Dale Anderson aided by her team of willing helpers.

The enlightened creation of the Youth Space Centre as a part of the library has proven yet again its value for activities such as this and the manager of the Youth Space Center and her team is to be congratulated. The Library is truly the living room of the city.

SKY CITY CASINO RIP OFF

How does our Prime Minister justify and defend gambling and secretly trading off our laws to make a few bucks from his Mafia style bribe offer with a Casino that rips off people in their thousands on a daily basis. His behaviour makes one ashamed to be a New Zealander.  

Secretly Steven Joyce is discussing with Sky City Casino the ways and means of ensuring that Sky City makes heaps more in gambling profits. This deal is even worse than the deal done with Warner Brothers when the Nats sold off our labour laws to Hollywood.

Sky City is the crowd that gave John Banks and Len Brown $15000 each for their Mayoral election campaigns. At least Brown declared the donation whereas Banks failed to do so.

Changing gambling laws to increase pokies numbers by up to 500 at the overseas owned casino and loosen advertising restrictions and pay out ratios which will lift Sky City income by up to forty million per year… just so we get an cheap and nasty convention center that looks like a child’s worse nightmare, and with a brothel just across the road, which is most appropriate since our Prime Ministers pimping for the gambling industry is so obvious and not unlike his past career in the now collapsed murky and Ponzi type finance industry. Pimps come in various shapes and sizes but regardless they are pimps never-the-less.

Listening to John Key defend gambling by trading off moral principles makes me wonder if he knows what day it is…or that he is in fact Prime Minister, after all he did a deal with the Māori Party to look at ways of controlling gambling by reducing the harm it does in our communities, in fact just the other day the Māori Party introduced a Bill on the subject to Parliament where they said:

”Umpteen pieces of research tell us that problem gambling can have devastating consequences on individuals and whānau. Those consequences can be demonstrated in relationship breakdowns, financial ruin, psychological distress, criminal offending, imprisonment, and suicide. So you could say that it severely compromises the potential of whānau.

The Māori Party takes this issue really seriously, so when we had the opportunity to enter into a relationship agreement with the National Government we made social hazards part of our negotiations. So we are really thrilled that National agreed to support this bill’s referral to the select committee, and we hope that it will do so through subsequent phases”.

Since this bill was introduced on a Thursday the Prime Minister wasn’t, as is normal, present in the house, he doesn’t work on a Thursday, or at least he never appears in the chamber on a Thursday. So our part time PM will likely claim that he didn’t know about the bill…

Sky City's pokies only return 2% to the Community whereas pub charities have to return 37%. So Smirky Key’s is not doing our needy communities any favours…it would seem based on what few comments the media has managed to wring out of Key or his front man Steven Joyce on this issue is that he didn’t know that vital and very important fact.

Seriously folks I’m beginning to wonder if Key is a Kiwi or an US Citizen here on holiday, you decide. We’ve got the Sky City secret deal, the Warner Brothers pay off, the soft loans to Media Works, the Mr. Dotcom affair on behalf of the FBI and our military handing over prisoners for torture in the US where torture has been made legal. What the hell is going on in our fair country? It’s not just about what Key and Joyce are doing is legally correct but also about if it is ethically and or morally correct. And that is a very serious question.

Corporate Media, Journalists constrained...yes. no

Robert Jensen wrote: "These days, there's one political point on which one can usually get consensus: Mainstream journalists are failing. In common parlance, most everyone 'hates the media.' But there is little agreement on why journalism might be inadequate to the task of engaging the public in a democratic society. More than ever, it's important to understand the forces that constrain good journalism."

Robert Jensen wrote those words about the US corporate media, [Fox News and Rupert Murdock style journalism] but they could equally apply to the New Zealand Media. This is especially true because our news media in the most part is owned overseas by two corporations.

Our present political elite have close connections to various media outlets and it could be said have used those connections to push their political objectives. Steven Joyce’s arranged loan [gift] of public funds to Media Works was one clear example, John Keys hour long advertising stint on talk back radio was also a clear example of the misuse of the media.

Journalists these days are in many respects not those who go out and investigate news stories but those who simply print propaganda contained in press releases after correcting the grammar. This means that journalist need to be less skilled in getting at the truth but more skilled at where the full-stops are placed. This in turn means they can pay lower wages and therefore increase their bottom line.

And this is the major reason why corporates are buying into news media because it gives them control over what is printed. Of course editors and others will claim that they actually control what news is worth printing. And this doesn’t mean that editors are dishonest although after seeing what has happened in the Murdock media empire one must begin to wonder.

Of course we live in Palmerston North NZ and we like to believe that we are exempt from this trend towards disproportionate, sensationalist, commercialism and profits rather than sound journalism practice. But we are not and we should never cease to remain alert to the manipulative practices used by the media to influence our political or social beliefs.      

Jerry new Ambassador to Finland

With all our ambassadors on strike and flying home to meet with the Foreign Affairs Minister to discuss their industrial action the Prime Minister has decided to send temporary Ambassadors to various key locations. Jerry Brownlee [pictured] will take up the post in Finland; he was considered the most suitable person for the role because of his deep understanding and knowledge about the Finnish people, especially the female gender and the criminal system. His deep and caring nature was another trait that was considered as a prime skill for this important post. The New Zealand people are very keen to see Big Jerry represent them that they are offering to help purchase a one way ticket to Finland since Foreign Affairs have run out of money.  In a statement to the media Jerry Brownlee said, “that he was deeply honoured by the PM’s selection of him, and that he would put his best foot forward in this new task allocated to him, once he found out just where Finland was he’d work out his travel arrangements so as he could quickly help lift Finland out of its third world status”. Judith Collins is going to Russia and Nick Smith to Afghanistan…the new minister of ACC is presently being auctioned off to the highest bidder and the Minister of Local Government position won’t be filled to save money.