National's 10 Point Plan

W are largely happy with National's 10 point plan for immediate action, but we hope repeal of the Electoral Finance Act is not overlooked....

NATIONAL'S PLAN
1. Meet leaders of Act, United Future and Maori Party over next two days, with first caucus meeting tomorrow morning.
2. Get economic briefing mid-week from Treasury and Reserve Bank.
3. Legislate by Christmas for further tax cuts. Next tax cuts to be on April 1 next year, then two more rounds on April 1, 2010 and 2011.
4. Instruct by Christmas that breast cancer drug Herceptin be available for 12-month course.
5. Call in public service chief executives, instruct them to undertake a review of all spending with a focus on finding savings. Establish "razor gang" type group to oversee review.
6. Request full December fiscal update from Treasury.
7. Legislate - if necessary - by Christmas for transitional package to help people who lose jobs in economic downturn.
8. Quickly introduce bill to reform Resource Management Act, aim to pass it within six months.
9. Prioritise law and order legislation for first readings.
10. Send Emissions Trading Scheme back to select committee, pass revised version within 9 months.

Why Has Homepaddock Been Blocked By The MOH?

If we wanted to view unclothed persons and content that only those over age 18 were supposed to view we would not be thinking of the blog Homepaddock as our first port of call. But our sources tell us that the latest blog to be banned by the Ministry of Health is indeed Homepaddock and it is for the reasons summarised in our first sentence. No Minister has also been blocked at Ministry of Health. It is interesting that both blogs tend to lean to the right of centre.....

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi To Stand Down - Good

The pressure from Anwar Ibrahim is too great. Malaysia's Prime Minister sees the writing on the wall and has announced that he is standing down so that his party, the party that has misused the ISA to lock up an anti-Government blogger, can fight Anwar with new leadership in place.

The Hive continues to demand the immediate release of Raja Petra Kamarudin and will continue supporting Anwar until Raja Petra Kamarudin is released. We note that our Malaysian readership is growing steadily. 70 Malaysians from 7 cities visited the Hive yesterday.

This from Bloomberg

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi may quit in March, four years before his term expires, as an emboldened opposition threatens his ruling party's 51 years of uninterrupted power.
``There were two or three members who felt the transition should be done early,'' he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today after an emergency party meeting postponed a December leadership election by three months. Abdullah, who will make a decision next month, said the delay will expedite the transfer of power to his deputy Najib Razak.
Abdullah has previously resisted calls from ruling party lawmakers for fresh leadership to fight opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who claims to have wooed enough support in parliament to seize power himself. Anwar has attacked the government's handling of the economy and increases in gasoline prices, which pushed inflation to 26-year highs in July and August.
Today's announcement ``doesn't really solve the overall political scenario'' of a ruling party ``that needs to be rejuvenated,'' said Mushtaq Ibrahim, who manages about $1.4 billion as chief investment officer at Amanah SSCM Asset Management Bhd in Kuala Lumpur.
Abdullah, who earlier planned to hand power to Najib, 55, in June 2010, said he still has work he wants to do, including pledges to reform the judiciary. Abdullah, 68, said today he will decide whether to compete for the presidency of the ruling United Malays National Organisation by Oct. 9.
Anwar's Opposition Gains
Political uncertainty has risen since a three-party opposition alliance won control of an unprecedented five of Malaysia's 13 states in March. Anwar fell 30 seats short of ending majority control of the 222-member parliament by Abdullah's UMNO-led coalition.
``They have lost the mandate of the people,'' Anwar, 61, told reporters in Hong Kong today after addressing an investor conference.
``The issue is not Abdullah or his deputy,'' the opposition leader said, repeating a call for the government to negotiate on a transfer of power to the opposition.
Abdullah and Najib have rejected Anwar's claims to have secured majority backing in parliament, and have called the opposition's campaign for power, including a pledge to scrap Malaysia's preferential policies for the ethnic Malay majority, a threat to the multiethnic country's economy and security.

Raja Petra Kamarudin Still Inside

So here is our daily post in support of Anwar Ibrahim. The Far eastern Economic Review has done a good article on Malaysian politics and Anwar's role. You can read it here

Malaysia's Future PM On The Arrest Of Leading Blogger

This from Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's next Prime Minister

September 12, 2008

ISA Detention of Raja Petra Kamaruddin

I condemn the arrest of social activist and blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin under the draconian and infamous ISA. By sanctioning the use of the ISA to avert the process of transformational change in Malaysia, the UMNO-led BN government is confirming that it has lost touch with the will of the people and is no longer capable of leading within the framework of a just and democratic society.

Raja Petra should be released immediately and any allegations leveled against him by the Ministry of Home Affairs must be resolved swiftly by the due process of the law. Raja Petra should be given access to proper legal counsel, and his wife and children should not be denied an opportunity to visit him while he is held captive under this illegal detention.

Raja Petra’s detention and the show cause letters issued today to Sin Chew Daily, The Sun and Suara Keadilan, and its earlier banning of prominent political websites, demonstrate clearly the government’s willingness to subvert the freedom of speech at a time when expression of dissatisfaction with the government’s policies is at an all time high.

In the aftermath of the March 8th elections and the Permatang Pauh by-election the Malaysian people have demonstrated their courage and commitment to building a mature democratic society. The dastardly act of detention without trial will do nothing to abate the current government’s declining credibility, and in fact will likely hasten its eventual collapse.

Keadilan reiterates its vehement opposition to the practice of arbitrary detention without trial. We have consistently called for the immediate release of all ISA detainees, as such practices have no place in a democratic society. The ISA is used to quash dissent and smother those who in exercising their right to free speech voice opinions contrary to the preferred views of the ruling clique.

Invoking the ISA just days before September 16th is clearly an attempt to engineer an atmosphere of fear and instability that would justify the government’s heavy-handed tactics against those aligned with the political opposition.

ANWAR IBRAHIM
Opposition Chief

David Farrar Look Alike Jailed For Two Years

This is an absolute outrage.

Raja Petra Kamarudin, a cross between David Farrar (looks) and Whaleoil (bite to his prose) has been jailed for two years by the Malaysian authorites using the draconian internal security laws, laws that were a hangover from the British rule and the Malayan Communist Insurgency. Note that he has been put in a high security prison!!

What is the New Zealand Government doing about this??????

The Hive is going to take up the cause of Anwar Ibrahim (the voice of democracy in Malaysia) everyday until Raja Petra Kamarudin is released.

This from The Guardian

A high-profile anti-government blogger has been jailed for up to two years in Malaysia, his lawyer said today.
Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin, who was arrested two weeks ago, was last night sentenced under Malaysia's draconian security laws.
The beleaguered government's long-time critic was taken today to a high-security prison where he could be held indefinitely without trial as the detention order, signed by the home minister, Syed Hamid Albar, can be renewed. Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin, a prominent Malaysian blogger, outside court in Kuala Lumpur. Photographer: Vincent Thian/AP
"This is definitely a big blow to the idea of civil liberties, especially at a time when everyone is asking for greater rights," said his lawyer, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar. "I don't think the government did itself any favour in attempting to regain popular confidence."Raja Petra, 57, is accused of insulting Islam and threatening national security by inciting racial tensions in the ethnically mixed country on his popular blog and website, Malaysia Today.
The site was blocked several times when Raja Petra was questioned by police and charged with sedition over material that appeared on his blog over the past few months.
In one article Raja Petra implied that a senior government minister was linked to the murder of a Mongolian model, Altantuya Shaariibuu. The ongoing trial of her alleged killers has kept Malaysia spellbound.
Raja Petra also said that the evidence against the opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, who will appear in court again tomorrow accused of sodomy, was fabricated. He refused to reveal his sources when he appeared before the high court last month.
To the fury of civil rights campaigners and lawyers he was detained on September 16 along with a journalist and an opposition MP, though the others were subsequently released.
Raja Petra is being held at the Kamunting detention centre, in the central state of Perak, which hosts about 60 other internal security law detainees, most of them suspected Islamist extremists.
Observers believe the home minister may have signed the order to prevent intervention by Raja Petra's supporters in the courts to secure his release.

No Minister Still Banned At MOH

Access to http://nominister.blogspot.com/ has been blocked by WebMarshal™
This site has been detected as containing offensive material.
The web site was restricted by the rule 'Block Access\Standard Users\Blocked URLs\Block - Adult & Nudity'.
Your company's web gateway has been configured to control access to this site. Contact your local I.T. Department or System Administrator if you need access for business purposes.
Note: Your attempt to access this site has been recorded.
Your Logon: WebMarshal Server: V-MOH

This is what comes up this morning at MOH. We were not aware that No Minister has Adult and nudity content but will be reading even more regularly just in case it is true......

Labour First Paying Dearly For Electoral Finance Act

Page A 19 of today's NZ Herald and a short summary on the front page rub further salt into the wound cause to Labour First over the application of the rushed and poorly thought out attempt to stifle free speech through the Electoral Finance Act. Page A 19 carries the mug shots of all those who made the mistake of voting for this bad law.

Free Raja Petra Kamaruddin Malaysia's David Farrar

They even look the same!

What is New Zealand doing about this outrage?

Have we made representations have been made by the New Zealand Government on Raja Petra Kamaruddin's behalf?

Are we demanding free trade in internet news media services as part of our FTA negotiation with Malaysia? If not, why not?

All bloggers concerned about this outrage should e-mail our Minister of Foreign Affairs helen.clark@parliament.govt.nz

Labour's Secret Agenda

Hooton speculates about likely Labour policy in its historic fourth term, should it get one:

With Friday’s Roy Morgan poll suggesting that a Clark/Anderton/Norman (and, who knows, perhaps Peters) Government is now at least as likely as a Key Government, it is right that the same pressure be put on Labour to declare its policies (and any “secret agenda”) as has been put on National.
As of this morning, there is no 2008 policy on the Labour website, despite the last legal date for the election being just 68 days away. But Chris Trotter’s complaints about the Listener have got me thinking again about the Left’s attitude to the media.
The Labour regime is not friendly towards a free media or free speech.

Damning Criticism Of Electoral Finance Act

In a bold move Dr Helena Catt, the person resonsible for administering the Electoral Finance Act has delivered a damning criticism of the Act. This from the NZ Herald

The head of the Electoral Commission has warned that the law she is charged with overseeing is having a "chilling effect" on public participation in the election.
In a speech this week, Dr Helena Catt criticised the Electoral Finance Act for the first time since it came into law, saying it was confusing.
She said the rushed introduction, last-minute changes, and lack of political consensus had resulted in a "difficult law" and significant parts were "obscure" and hard to interpret.
"It is clear that having uncertainty remaining within the regulated period has had a chilling effect on the extent and type of participation in political and campaign activity."
The Electoral Finance Act was passed in controversial circumstances in December last year - just two weeks before its provisions came into effect - under heavy fire from its opponents, including a Herald campaign.
Although Dr Catt raised concerns about the bill before it was passed, her speech on Tuesday to the Lexis Nexis Electoral Finance Law Forum is the first time she has publicly criticised it since it came into force.

Note the criticism of the law's rushed introduction. Are any other laws being rushed? Biofuels, ETS???? What effect will they end up having???

More EFA Pain For Labour

This from NZPA and the Dominion Post

A State Service Commission investigation has found government websites contain 13,600 references to the "Labour-led Government" which should be removed because of the Electoral Finance Act.
National deputy leader Bill English said the SSC had sent out a memo to 120 state agencies saying "Labour-led government" was not appropriate under the EFA.
A search by the SSC had found the offending phrase 13,600 times on taxpayer funded websites, Mr English said.
Cabinet Minister Pete Hodgson said the SSC had advised departments of their obligations under the EFA and he hoped they were well followed.
He said as time went by the references would be removed.
Mr English said departments seemed to ignoring the SSC advice.
Treasury recently removed all references to a Labour-led Government in budget material.
Mr English also claimed that a Labour MP was distributing stickers with the phrase "Labour-led Government" and featuring two ticks.
These were funded by the Prime Minister's office and in clear breach of the EFA, he said.
Mr Hodgson did not respond to the substance of Mr English's allegation.

Great Firewall Of China

We missed an interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal on how Chinese language bloggers are getting around the Great Firewall. They have taken to writing backwards or typing in columns. The automated systems don't pick things up as easily when in non-standard forms it seems. This is a bit dumb as columns are common in Chinese (a traditional form of writing) and back to front is common also.

Chinese bloggers are, or course, writing in Chinese characters. But New Zealand bloggers in English might like to think creatively. Maybe similar tactics will work in English. Aside from writing backwards maybe some creative spellings might work - humin rites? T'bet?

At present we are back down to one reader in China. He/she reads every day from Beijing.

Did Pat Demand Some Censorship?

The link we had to Monday's Nine to Noon's discussion about hollow Nicky Hager has been removed from the Radio NZ website - we wonder why? We apologise to those trying the link that was working until the removal of the item. We have replaced the link with a podcast of the same discussion. Lets see how long this continues to work.

Has Patricia demanded the removal of the discussion? And, if so, why would Radio NZ agree to its removal? Or is this just some form of technical glitch?

Update: The original link may be working again.

UN Human Rights Council

Interest in New Zealand's candidature for the UN Human Rights Council is growing. Both Murray McCully and Stephen Franks have speculated that there might be more to this candidacy than meets the eye. McCully suggests that Helen Clark, because of her role in drafting our Electoral Finance Act, will be a shoo in to replace Nigeria as Chair of this Council. He goes further and suggests that Clark might be wanting to replace Don McKay as the NZ Rep on this Council (well Labour did send Anne Hercus as Ambassador to the UN in New York, why not Helen Clark to Geneva??). We feel that Miss Clark has higher ambition within the UN that Chair of the Human Rights Council. ILO comes up too soon so the next big job is the UN Environment Programme. Could this be why the PM is so determined to pass the Emissions Trading Scheme? Bugger the economy, but it will make my CV look good for that job?

So we doubt that McCully is right. But if he does have some inside info he might like to call Dell Higgie at MFAT as she is in the process of preparing for the move to Geneva the moment McKay moves on.

Why Won't This Government Listen?

Readers may recall how many bloggers and media commentators were advising Labour not to proceed with passing the Electoral Finance Act, that it was rushed and unworkable. The proposed Emissions Trading Scheme legislation is in exactly the same condition. It has been rushed, and in its current form is going to come back to haunt future Governments.

Labour must secretly wish it had listened to advice on the EFA and rethought strategy before it was too late. In the case of the EFA it is too late. But with the ETS there is still time to do the right thing.

Reverting to the EFA there is an interesting article in the NZ Herald by Dr Claire Robinson on Party logos and the EFA. She suggests "What is inconvenient is the ramification. Once it is acknowledged that party logos are election advertisements, the Electoral Finance Act will be rendered absolutely, unequivocally dead in the water."

Bill Ralston On The EFA

The HOS is full of stories about people with backbone, prepared to stand up to attempts at Government interference. Fran O'Sullivan lauds John Palmer. Bill Ralston lauds IRD. But he laments that all Government agencies are not so willing to push back.

Sadly, other Government departments don't have the same strong backbone. Just look at your TV tonight and count the commercials that carry a departmental logo as they push some marvellous initiative.

Ralston's focus is on MSD with its 61.5 media staff.

On the EFA Ralston has the following to say:

With this in mind, the Government last year published, at your expense, a brochure subtly called We're Making a Difference. It is designed to tell you how good the Labour Government has been for you and, not surprisingly, the courts and Electoral Office came to the conclusion it was campaign advertising for the Labour Party under the Government's stunningly stupid Electoral Finance Act.
However, last week the Government started ducking and diving in Parliament about whether the brochure would be counted against Labour's spending cap for the election. Labour Party secretary Mike Smith has been telling the Electoral Office that the breach of the act wasn't committed by the Labour Party, it was committed by the Labour Government, or more precisely, the Prime Minister's Office, which is entirely different, says Mr Smith.
Quite how the Labour Party's Prime Minister and the Labour Government is divorced from the Labour Party is not clear, but members of the Labour Party must be wondering if this is final confirmation of what they have felt for years, the party's parliamentary wing is a law unto itself and no longer has any connection with its rank and file.
Under questioning from National's Bill English, Justice Minister Annette King fudged the issue. Instead, she gave us an insight into the amazing pettiness that drives the Government's thinking behind the Electoral Finance Act. Apparently referring to National's quite effective and often funny billboard campaign before the last election, she dismissed English's questions, instead talking of "the whining and whingeing from the National Party because it cannot spend the millions of dollars that it had planned to spend on its election campaign, right up to three months before the election, pretending that it did not count as election advertising. Its billboards would have been right around New Zealand. National is not able to do that. What we get now is its whingeing and snivelling about it."
What she is saying is that the Government rammed through an act of Parliament, put the Electoral Office to enormous expense, tied up endless amounts of police time investigating alleged breaches of the act, and further troubled the overburdened court system with litigation about the meaning of the act because Labour was worried National might put up billboards attacking the Government this election year.

EFA To Bite Again?

Can the Government nightmare that is the Electoral Finance Act get any worse? Maybe it can.

Electoral officials will be asked to consider if press statements on the www.beehive.govt.nz website are election advertisements under the Electoral Finance Act, as National continues to highlight difficulties with the new law.
The status of press releases issued by ministers was raised yesterday during a select committee appearance by the heads of Ministerial Services, a unit of the Department of Internal Affairs that administers ministerial offices.
Brendan Boyle, Secretary of Internal Affairs, revealed that his department had sought legal advice on how to handle press statements put out by ministers' offices since the new law.

Our reading of the law is that the Government could have another problem here. We told you so.

This from Paula Oliver.

Labour Caught by Its Own Legislation

When the history is written we are cobvinced that the Electoral Finance Act and The Emissions Trading Scheme will be seen a huge blunders by the 5th Labour Government. John Armstrong has another look at the problems that the EFA has caused Labour in today's Herald.

If the law is sometimes an ass, then the Electoral Finance Act has proved to be a real donkey when it comes to stupidity, inflexibility and sheer unworkability.
If anything, last year's dire predictions of the measure's potential impact on political discourse have proven to have been on the conservative side.
Things have reached truly Kafkaesque proportions when it is considered necessary to remove references to the "Labour-led Government" from Budget press statements for fear they will be deemed to be election advertisements and breach the act by not being properly authorised as such.
Such rich ironies abound. Labour thought that by getting the legislation through Parliament last year, the public fuss would die down going into election year.
To the contrary, Labour has suffered continuing embarrassment as Justice Minister Annette King, her officials, the Electoral Commission and the courts have grappled with what interpretation should be given to the act's wording.

UN Human Rights Council Membership

David Farrar raises further concerns about the UN Human Rights Council - this time over concerns about UK still having a monarchy (Sri Lanka raised some kind of complaint!!!).

Farrar ends his post as follows: There is a rumour NZ is going to seek a place on the Human Rights Council. I sincerely hope we do not. We should not add legitimacy to this farce.

David, this is no rumour. Have a look at this. New Zealand is formally declared as a caandidate for 2009-2012. Unfortunately the extra staff at MFAT have not improved the Ministry's IT skills - the brochure doesn't seem to want to open.