The first debate...

...was won with the parting shot.

Key running scared

Invited to debate Phil Goff on Morning report today - Key fled.

Is water important to Southlanders?

3-way fun with Keys

The wonderful crib

The crib we stayed in was beyond cool. It had pictures on the wall like this one:

Lots of kids books with illustrations like this:

Ornaments in shadow boxes on the wall like these wind-up toys:

and these three musical nuns.

There were board games to play, jigsaw puzzles to piece together, models to assemble, train-sets to build,  a fire to sit beside, comfy armchairs to lounge about in and an air rifle to fire at paper targets with. The wall papers and carpets competed for pattern dominance and the beds for softness. Grape vines grew across the north facing walls and the backyard was planted in boysenberry canes..
It was a lovely place to stay - a genuine crib that has been 'in the family' for generations. I was pleased to get back to the green oasis that is my home, but I was equally pleased to have spent two nights at the wonderful crib.

Kingston special

We loaded up our bikes and went to Kingston.

We were to be 'heritage' figures, greeting passengers of the steam train and providing a moving background of old-fashioned costume and technology. We did just that.

We chatted with people in the crowd and posed for lots of photographs. At one point, a red-headed girl with Downs' Syndrome clambered onto the carrier of my bike (that doesn't happen every day!). She was hard to shake off :-)

Plenty of people asked if they could ride the bikes 'for old time's sake'. This 84-year old had no trouble staying upright!

This handsome couple posed beside the train...
 

...as did these young'uns.

We had a great weekend. Our other mission there was to provide 'old fashioned' games for the children. We brought skipping ropes, stilts, quoits and spinning tops, all of which were used throughout the day. As well, we had our old wooden pull-train painted-up to resemble the steam train, and we pulled tiny children around on the grassed area for hours, or at least, encoureged their parents to do the towing in our stead. It was a much loved experience for the pre-schoolers, I can tell you!

All for free too! The comments from parents about the lack of cost and the way that made them feel made our day.

English steaming

Bill English was one of the hundreds of people who turned out for the re-launching of the Kingston Flier steam train on Saturday. Bill had an official duty to perform - cutting the ribbon.

English makes authentic 'whooooooo-ooooooo' sound

From his perch beside the coal tender, Bill declared, "I won't talk politics, but I hope the ribbon is blue!" then set off, scissors in hand, to cut said ribbon.

Fate turns tables on Bill.

Seeing the result of the coming election before his eyes, Bill gave vent.

Realizing that all was lost, Bill retired to the refreshments tent for a couple or one muffin (in joke, eh Addy!)

Key and English receive drubbing in the South

Just outside of Dipton, I saw Bill and John in a paddock, so I stopped and poked my fists under their noses. Both continued to grin inanely and had nothing of substance to say for themselves. I left them to it, having better things to do with my time.

Deniers denied

Yesterday's public meeting in Invercargill with Rod Oram and Jim Salinger was a great success. The two men delivered an in-depth argument that convinced all but the daft, of the validity of the science that shows that anthropocentric climate change is real and happening now. There were flat-earthers in the audience and one in particular was rude enough to try to disrupt the meeting with his ridiculous interjections, but he hadn't met Ali Timms before. Our bold and brassy chair bounded to her feet, feathers ruffled like a wee banty hen, and stopped him in his tracks. Three cheers for the chair! Slow learner though, that ignoramus, he tried again and again to hog the floor, until Rod Oram fixed him with his wry eye and slew him with a dry observation about diarrhoea and farting, that perhaps flew over the interjector's head, but had the rest of us snickering.
I spoke with both Rod and Jim before and after the meeting and found them to be lively thinkers and great conversationalists. Both made it crystal clear, then and during their talks, that Solid Energy's plans for Southland are wrong and should not be accomodated by Southlanders. The same applied to off-shore drilling for oil. It was very encouraging to hear such learned men describing the situation in such clear terms.
Today, I meet with the Fonterra big-wigs at the ES boardroom. I wonder if I'll come away from that meeting as impressed as I did from yesterday's.
I'll let you know.

Where Key failed, Turei triumphed!

Smiling, waving clowns

 








Bryce Edwards at Liberation calls it 'policy over personality'. Thomas at Keeping Stock says, 'Policy. Not Celebrity.' Both describe the different approaches being taken by National and Labour during the campaign; the Goff-free Labour billboards and the Key-drenched hoardings of National, the fliers, the television advertising. It's a very interesting contrast between the two lumbering oafs of parties, which contrasts again with the elegant style of the Greens :-)
Here, Edwards explores the ramifications of the policy focus Labour has taken and its potential to aid New Zealanders in making a good choice and how it might improve New Zealand politics which is fast becoming as shallow as the cover of Womans' Weekly.


"Regardless of Labour’s motivations for putting a greater emphasis on policy in its electioneering, it’s a positive step forward (albeit only a tiny one) in the need for robust and meaningful election debate. For decades now, New Zealand political parties have moved from stressing comprehensive programmes to emphasising the importance of leadership – with parties promoting the technical and managerial qualifications of their candidates and leaders. This form of electioneering also made for politics based around individual political personalities – and even celebrity endorsements. In this new schema of party politics, elections revolve more than ever before around a choice between politicians rather than between policies or programmes. This trend hit a peak at the 2008 election campaign which was both highly professionalised and bland. More than ever before, the New Zealand parties relied on professional campaign tactics and strategy, with the result that the campaign became meaningless for many voters, and because there was little to excite or enthuse the public, voter turnout was one of the lowest in over a hundred years. So let’s hope there’s a continued shift away from the meaningless electioneering, with a much greater scrutiny put on the actual policy pronouncements (and lack of them) from the parties. But we’ve still got a long way to go before we get to a point where substance outweighs style in the campaign."

Fruit of the toii

Every year I marvel at the fruits of the toii (cordyline indivisa) that grows beside the steps of the veranda.

Talking to the occupiers

I called in to see the young people occupying the Gala Street Reserve in Invercargill. I was warmly welcomed and recognised (Southland's a small place :-) and asked to sign the visitor's book. I was one of many people that had stopped to wish the occupiers well, though the police hadn't left their signatures, I was told.
The campsite looked quite exciting, having been erected amongst the trees and covered all over with tarpaulins of various colours. Looked quite 'springy'. I told them I'd bring in some fresh vegetables for them tomorrow, so long as they promised to vote Green, and they seemed to agree that was a fair swap. There's talk of a smaller Occupy Riverton tent site going up on the viewing platform beside the town. That'd be a hoot. I'd take vegetables to them too :-)

It's a gas, gas, gas!

(Hat-tip Simon)

Coal-powered steam train

We've been invited to be part of the celebrations for the re-launching of the Kingston Flier this weekend. I'm oiling up the ol' bicycles in preparation; banging in Cotter pins and replacing valves as well. The Triumphs and BSA's need tender care when they reach the grand age these ones have. There'll be six of us, dressed in our heritage finery, astride our 28-inch classics. They will be blow-outs, lost nuts and bolts and dresses caught in chains - it'll be great!

Bob's dog

Bob came visiting and brought with him, his tiny Chihuahua.

Idle thoughts on occupation

Robert Winter hits the nail square on the head with his post on the Right wing's teeth-gnashing over the Occupy movement. The following quote from Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, perfectly describes the 'thinking' that I see elsewhere on the interweb and in the board room and I thank Robert for distilling the view so subtly.

"In part this is because the Right only just allows their support for the vote, which many of them think is itself a step too far in terms of democracy. They do not like at all the idea of a popular voice beyond the vote - civil society raising its head from an otherwise decreed position of submission."

The Quiet Wisdom of Dunne

This letter from today's 'letters' section of the Southland Times is a doozy!
Can't remember when I got such a lift from a reader's letter as the one I got from this quaint message from Billy Joe Devereux of Invercargill. 

Quiet wisdom
 
Both National and Labour parties have major faults in reasoning. 
  National has overspending as its policy - yet Labour has nothing but cheap jibes at its opposition.
Labour has no policy.
The only quiet one leads another party.
  When he speaks, look out because he not only speaks well but he speaks with thought.
  It's Peter Dunne and I'll vote for him.
  Vote as usual and get yourself into another huff huff, or vote for New Zealand - not for yourself.
  We need a leader not a calf on the tit.

Billy Joe Devereux

To top off this pearler of a letter, the editor added a photograph of Peter Dunhill, mop resplendent,  and captioned it "Listen carefully to the quiet one."

Magic.

It's all about water

The Green Party are first out of the blocks in the political race in Southland, taking today's front page of The Southland Times with a feature on the Waituna Lagoon and their plans to save it from destruction. Green MP Kevin Hague was at the lagoon yesterday, along with Invercargill Green candidate Dave Kennedy and Environment Southland CEO Ciaran Keogh, to see the lagoon  up close, meet the scientists working there and hear from those most closely involved in the work that's being done now to save it. Mr Hague wasted no time in declaring what he believed his party would do following a successful election and showed that the Greens are supportive of the farmers who are committed to farming in the catchment, and aware that central government has an obligation to sort out the issue.
The article by Alex Fensome is here and this extract represents some of the useful observations the Green MP made. The National and Labour candidates of the area will need to pull their socks up and get busy, or the Greens will trump them again and again, on the issue of water and its quality!
(Mr Hague) believed destocking was needed in order to reduce the levels of nitrate and phosphorous flowing into the lagoon, although the farmers themselves had not been at fault.
"Farmers involved here have been complying 100 per cent with the consents they were originally given. It's not that they are breaking rules but the rules were wrong in the first place," he said. "They have done nothing wrong."
However, much more was now known about the impact of intensive farming on fragile ecosystems such as Waituna Lagoon and the situation now required urgent action from the Government, he said.
Farms that had to destock would be compensated by the Crown, he said. "There needs to be some kind of compensative package and the logical place for that to come from is central government. "A lot of these guys have massive capital investments [in their farms]."

Touch. Pause. Engage!

Who loves water the most?

The Editor of the Southland Times, Fred Tulett, has set the ground-rules for the southern candidates in next months general election, by declaring that they and their parties will be judged according to their positions on water and its protection. Three cheers for Fred! That's calling the shots and putting a stop to the petty nonsense that comes when it's a political free-for-all. The water issues of Southland are central to our well being and if political wanna-bees and incumbents alike want to be considered worthy of support from Southlanders, they'll have to show they are worth it, by fronting up to the challenge set by Fred. Some will struggle. Eric will have a lot of work to do to convince the voting public that he and his industry-friendly National Party even know what the values of water are, let alone show that they have done something to protect them. Dave Kennedy of the Greens, will find it very much easier to show that he and the Green Party have the well being of the water at heart - environmental protection is central to their existence and the work done over the years will be easy to demonstrate to the public. The Southland Times has already begun their in-depth exploration of the water in our region and the ways in which it is used and abused and the quality and depth of their reporting and research is admirable and entertaining. The election at this end of the country will be very interesting indeed to watch. Getting a heads start today, were Dave Kennedy and Green MP Kevin Hague, who went to Waitauna Lagoon to see first hand what the state of that water is like now, and to speak with ES scientists who are working out in the field, monitoring the threatened and fragile lagoon. One of Fred's journalists and a photographer were there too, so tomorrow's paper should contain the opening salvo, most appropriately, from the Greens.

Oram and Salinger in the South

Tomorrow it's the turn of Rod Oram and Jim salinger to grace our fair city and share their combined learning with Southlanders wanting to get the real oil of climate change and the effects it will have on Southland. Here's notice of their meeting from the Environment Southland website. I'll be at the meeting, so if you are there also and have an interesting point of view that you think might stir me up, please say hello and let rip :-)

How will climate change affect the rural sector?

 

 

Environment Southland is hosting the free public seminar in Invercargill on October 27 when renowned climate scientist Dr Jim Salinger together with business commentator Rod Oram will discuss the prospects of maintaining farm profitability and profits in the face climate change.
Dr Salinger, who was the lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said the seminar will inform the public on the latest information about climate trends and how they could affect the agriculture sector in the future.
Predicted changes to New Zealand’s climate, including in Southland, will have both benefits and disadvantages for the sector, he said.
It could be a very different place even within even the next decade as climactic variation has an increasing influence.
Climate volatility was likely to increase but there could also be slightly warmer temperatures and wetter weather because of more easterly winds, he said.
In that context the growing season could lengthen for pastoral agriculture in areas at higher elevation but there would also be more exposure to flood events, Dr Salinger said.
As well as a more in depth analysis of the climate by Dr Salinger, Mr Oram will venture into the economic implications of climate change targets, how government policy might address them and how rural communities could be affected.
That includes what could happen to agricultural trade and steps could be taken by farmers to protect economic viability while reducing emission levels.
The pair are usually accompanied by Lincoln University Professor Caroline Saunders however she will not attend the Invercargill seminar.
Dr Salinger said Mr Oram would ably present her material during the presentation on carbon foot-printing and the agricultural export sector in her absence.
He said during the sessions held across New Zealand there had been a good response from people wanting to be informed about the big issues that could affect them.
“Over the last 50 years agriculture has made adjustments to keep up with change and it will have to again.”
The seminar will be held at the Invercargill Workingmen’s Club on Thursday 27 October at 1.30pm.

Green MPs in the South

My daughter and I just spent a very enjoyable evening in the company of Green MP Gareth Hughes, having a meal at Zookeepers in downtown Invers. It was Hollie's first meeting with the dynamic (and apparently, charming) youngish Green and she was mightily impressed by his manner and exuberance. I think the photo of his wee girl on his phone was the icing on the cake for my 17 year old, who spent the drive home talking about her possible future in politics.
Gareth was a mine of information and opinion on all sorts of issues, most interesting perhaps being the Rena grounding and his research and involvement there. He talked of Steven Joyce, his behaviour over the issue and we did smile wryly.
Tomorrow, a second Green MP, Kevin Hague is in our city and meeting friends and associates we have in common. I hope to speak with Kevin at the council, where he is meeting with our water scientists and seeing the Waituna Lagoon from the shoreline, in order to get a real picture of what's happening there.
It's very gratifying to have these guys down here, in a part of the country that is sometimes overlooked by parliamentarians (I'm looking a you, Bill English!)
So, the political scene in the south is as Green as, just now. Long may that continue.

Booze up

Prime Ministerial moments

"With the trophy finally in McCaw's grasp, Mr Key moved to shake his hand but Mr Lapasset swiftly intercepted and got there first. Mr Key, however, was fully committed and snagged a couple of McCaw's fingers. For a few awkward moments the trio were joined in an unconventional three-way handshake."

'Fully committed'?

That doesn't explain Key's weird finger stroking, 'milking' thing.

That was something altogether else!

'Parently it's a youtube hit of the viral sort.

I dug, Robyn planted

The wonderful plantain and seabeet bed.

Fire, then rain, then wind.

Rose sees red

Federated Farmers spokesperson David Rose makes some interesting claims in the Hot Topic column of last week's Fiordland Advocate. He levels his aim at 'some' councillors of Environment Southland and makes unsubstantiated claims about their ability to do the job they are elected for, and trained to do. Councillors, I can reliable inform you, undergo professional development to enable them to make good decisions, judgements that are informed by evidence and tempered with fair decision making process. The training is rigorous and time consuming, and results in a recognised high standard of unbiased decision-making, to the extent that training can do.
David Rose appears not to accept this and claims that some councillors 'want to act on emotion, not science' when deliberating on the problems Southland faces as a result of farming. He talks of Waituna and the serious issues the lagoon faces and how Environment Southland councillors plan to deal with those and the wider Southland issue of intensification of farming. Rose clearly favours some members of our council and says that 'part of the council wants to work with the community on a factual science-informed response', but goes on the smear the 'others' who are 'want to act on emotion, not science' and even worse it seems, to Rose anyway, these errant councillors who don't want to work with the community, who don't want to 'act on science', the emotional decision-makers, want to do it NOW! And what they want to do is MAKE RULES! This, it seems, is very bad, according to Rose's way of thinking.
How Mr Rose knows these details of councilor thinking is a puzzle. Has he been a fly on the wall at our meetings? Mr Rose has not been sitting in the public seating area during council meetings, so far as I have noticed, so he must be relying on second-hand opinion. He's very confident of his sources then, so willing is he to go public with his opinions.
Mr Rose makes another interesting claim. He says, "Federated Farmers have lobbied hard to have a process where farmers' input will be sought while considering the changes ." This puzzles me also. I've not been subject to hard lobbying from the Federated Farmers, either in the boardroom or in private so I'm wondering who has? Mr Rose may well have been lobbying other councillors, but I've seen neither hide nor hair of him. I'll ask tomorrow, who it is that's had the pleasure of his lobbying and I'm guessing, that of his brothers in arms. 
I often hear about the need for all parties involved in the management of Southland's resources to work collaboratively, sing from the same song-sheet and get together around the same table. Federated Farmers' Mr Rose, who should know better, seems determined to take pot-shots from afar, create division and mistrust and subvert the good-faith process. A cynic might wonder if Mr Rose is simply trying to derail the process that's under way to protect Southland's environment and thereby it's economy, from harm, by delaying or even preventing the regional council from doing its job. I suspect that's something that the majority of Southlanders won't look favourably upon.

Deep water oil exploration - it's rigged

Therefore, when Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee is giving out assurances that industry best practice will be observed and would be enforced with respect to the likes of Petrobras and Exxon-Mobil, he is uttering empty assurances in a void.

Gordon Campbell unravels the tangled spinning around the Rena and it's oily excrescence and the attempts by National to distance that oil spill from the drilling rigs they plan to litter the off-shore with.


At the level of technical expertise, no one knows how to devise BOPs (blowout preventers) guaranteed to work at such depths and in such open sea conditions. In addition, there are no international or local framework of design standards and operating procedures that can be enforced, even if there was a will to do so.

As well as quoting the relevant passage from the Bunker Convention, Gordon Campbell makes a number of deeply concerning observations with regard the proposed Petrobras activity in the Raukumara Basin and it applies too, to the Great South Basin off our southern shore:


"That leaves communities on East Cape with even less protection – regarding liability and insurance – than the people of Tauranga.. (In the coming weeks, this column will be seeking to clarify whether the legal position regarding oil platforms has changed substantially in the ensuing 18 months.)
The other main ground for concern is a purely practical one. The response to the Rena grounding has given New Zealanders no reason to believe there would be a properly equipped and co-ordinated response from local and central government if and when there was a major oil spill triggered by Petrobras operations in the Raukumura Basin."

Interesting day

Beginning with a visit to a friend's property that backs onto Lake George and has 7 hectares of neglected pine forest in need of pruning. I took this photograph, not very successfully as the light in there under the trees is so subdued - very Blair Witch or Narnian, depending on the mythologies you hold to.

Around noon, I drove to Anderson's Park for the Fonterra love-in, where thousands of Southlanders listened to the bands, threw bean bags at pyramids of coloured milk cartons, raced in relay to fill a fridge with plastic bottles of milk and thrilled to other such dairy-based entertainments - it was whizz-bang fun for the whole family. This image epitomises the day and rich cultural heritage Fonterra is building for us.

Even better, and perhaps more subtle, was the sign that alerted all those who entered 'Dairy World' to their responsibilities as citizens of Fonterra. I wondered which bright young social engineer conceived of this one!

To my delight, one little Indian girl, walking with her dad said, as I passed on my way out,
"We're walking on the wrong side!"
All is not lost.
I'm guessing that the format and the message was the same throughout the country but the difference in Invercargill will have been ... the wind! It was intense and threatened to down the stage on which the musicians twanged and yodelled.
I saw this nest, blown clean out of its tree and nearby, the three yunker thrushlets, blown clear of their nest. They piped piteously.
I was reminded of the crowd.

Labour candidate's face slashed

Who would be so nasty as to be slashing the image of Invercargill Labour candidate Leslie Soper's face from her billboards around the town?
Leslie says it's sinister, and it must be upsetting to have your image 'defaced', but I think less sinister, more stupid, given that Leslie got a colour photo and coverage from the Southland Times, the raise in profile that brings, and, I suspect, a swelling of sympathy that may help her chances come polling day. Nice work, under-cover-of-darkness defacers.

Very, very, short-term, benign neglect

New Zealand needs to review its policy on intervening in the currency markets, says Dr Michael Power, global investment strategist.
Mr Power, speaking to government officials yesterday, also said, of the management of our economy by Bill English and John Key,
"This sort of hands up in the air, let the chips fall where they may, and let the currency fall where it will, is actually very, very, short-term, benign neglect."
The article reporting Mr Power's words of warning to National, observed this, of our Prime Minister's attitude,
"The Kiwi dollar hit a series of post float highs this year, peaking above US88c in August, and it remains well above its long-term average at about US80c.
  The rise has strengthened calls for the Reserve Bank to intervene in an attempt to weaken the dollar. However, the bank declined to take action, with Prime Minister John Key saying he believed such a move would have little effect."

Key bungles Big Moment

You know what I mean.

The Result

The All Blacks limped over the line, a mere one point ahead of a rampant French team, to win the cup.

Rugby World Cup Madness!!!