Nov 30, 2007

Phoenix Do It Again

Phoenix let another game slip by tonight. Great fun, Becks at half time, but much hair was being torn out. Great to see a new football attendance record for New Zealand achieved. More will attend tomorrow.

Which Way Are The Polls Trending?

Labour and their friends on the Left should put the bubbly glasses away, the trend is not, as Fairfax was suggesting a couple of weeks ago, going their way. This week's Herald and Morgan polls show a big gap between Labour and National re-emerging. Alarmingly for Labour their lapdog friends in New Zealand First are in real trouble, and so are the Greens. If Queen Bee was a Labour Party back bencher, a Green or (perish the thought) an NZ First MP she would be pretty worried. Expect a turbulent start to 2008.

Where Did Beckham Have Dinner?

Queen Bee can now answer Wellington's most asked question. Monsoon Poon. All reports suggest that he enjoyed his meal.

What's Going On At Cityhall?

Wellington participants in the Digital Summit (those taking advantage of the City Council's great move to have proceedings viewable by videolink) have seen an interesting succession of delegations trooping to and from the mayor's office this afternoon. First Regional Council Chair Fran Wilde spent an hour with the Mayor, then a delegation led by the Chamber of Commerce President John Lumsden, and including the Weltec CEO Linda Sissons also spent close to an hour with the Mayor. Is something happening on the transport front maybe? Some announcements on the Inner City roading are due soon.

Separately The Hive understands that the other Chamber Vice President Jo Bransgrove has been campaigning hard to improve security in the centre of town, to provide better access to the city for cruise ship visitors, and to provide parking for campervans.

Is The Pressure Beginning to Tell?

Nick Main, Chairman of Deloitte and Chair of the Labour Party friendly Business Council for Sustainable Development might be beginning to distance himself from his CEO, Peter Neilson. Queen Bee understands that Main admitted at yesterday's meeting of the NZ-US Council in Auckland that the treatment of agriculture in the Kyoto Protocol was a complete mess, and that there was a misfit caused by agriculture being caught by rules designed to capture heavy industry. As the New Zealand Government is proposing to include agriculture in its emissions trading regime from 2013 (the only country to include agriculture in such as scheme) is Main implicitly criticising this policy? If he is, is Main not risking a bashing from his CEO for being a climate change denier?

Competition Is A Many Splendid Thing

Thank you Pacific Blue!! Queen Bee is looking forward to flying Air New Zealand again! Air New Zealand is going to start offering free award wining wine on flights between the main centres between 4pm and 7.30pm. See the media release .

Public Service Productivity

On the topic of the public service we enjoyed re-reading a speech given by former public servant and now National MP Tim Groser recently. Click here for his views.

Is The Public Service Still Neutral?

Some recent comments on Kiwiblog suggest that it might not be:


This saga, and the previous one involving DB-P have much deeper ramifications. MfE are clearly a part of the political arm, rather than public service arm of Government. How many other Departments have changed function under Labour? I suspect the answer is many. MSD, DOL, NZTE are increasingly becoming Government propaganda pieces. And are Treasury, MFAT and MED courageous enough to be providing free and frank advice to this Government??
Much as I hate the prospect, I am coming around to the view that we have moved to the American system through stealth. If this is true, then we are going to need the American solution when there is a change of Government - a complete spill of the senior ranks of Government Departments and agencies. Not all resignations need to be accepted, of course, but an incoming Government will not be able to function properly if the public service refuses to cooperate. Those that are Labour ideologues will need to go.
I am not saying that we are there yet, but this is looking a distinct possibility. Public service chiefs might like to do some reflecting on this. There is still time to prove that the public service is still independent. A good place to start would be Hugh Logan. He should resign and come clean about the extent to which he, and his Department has been forced by ministerial interference to become a political pawn. That way he will have some integrity left. If he doesn’t it looks to me that he is going to have to resign anyway, but there won’t be any integrity……………
Mark Says: November 28th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Indeed, it looks like Labour has been using more taxpayers money to do work for the Labour party.
Can’t say I am surprised.
Since we paid $10,000s of dollars for a couple of months work I wonder what is in the document(s).
gd Says: November 28th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Agree CharlotteM At least the US are upfront and transperant Not like here where we have a toadying civil servants fulll of arse lickers grovelling to their ministers frightened to death to act in an ethical and moral manner lest it gets them fired.
We need a Herculean cleanout of the stables with a high powered fire hose to wash the crap away.
PhilBest Says: November 28th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
I agree too, Charlotte M. Disagree as much as you might about the US system, at least you know where you stand with it. Labour pretty much has the same thing but are utterly dishonest about it, and it gets exposed too seldom by a compliant media.

Rod Oram Part Of The Conspiracy?

If Peter Neilson's Business Council for Sustainable Development is openly aligned to Labour as Trans Tasman is suggesting, what does this say for so called "journalist" Canon Rod Oram. Oram devotes much of his space in his column in the Sunday Star Times to promoting the virtues of membership of the Business Council for Sustainable Development. More worrying for The Hive is Oram's failure to declare potential conflicts of interest in his articles. The Hive would be interested in any analysis readers may have done on the amount of money that Oram has been paid to facilitate or comment at meetings on climate change, and how much money he has been paid by Government Departments or agencies such as the Asia Foundation?

Business Council for Sustainable Development a Labour Party Front Organisation?

That is what Trans Tasman is suggesting. This week's edition is well worth reading.

How Did The Metservice Win That Contract With The BBC?

One of Wellington's best export sucess stories in recent years has been the Metservice. One of their most important contracts offshore is with the BBC. How did they manage to win the contract with the BBC? Close to 50 of the capital's business elite attended a function last night to hear the BBC side of the story. Andrew Land, Manager of the BBC Weather Centre gave an excellent and very frank talk at the final Export Wellington seminar for the year at the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce. We understand that Andrew has agreed to share his speech notes and a summary of these these has been posted on the Chamber website sometime next week. Rather than summarising the talk here we recommend you read his speech when it is posted. By the way, the Chamber's meeting rooms must be the best in town.