Bob Edlin: The “hatred” which upsets Weenink.....

.....might reflect National supporters’ disappointment in a soft Treaty stance

PoO recalls suggesting – in an article about the passage of the English Language Bill – that National MP Vanessa Weenink should think about raising her profile.

Too late to keep her Banks Peninsula seat, she has been raising it this week.

Bob Edlin: TVNZ’s including Paul Henry on election-night panel.....

......shows that Michael Laws can hope to be rehabilitated (some day) too

Few would be surprised to learn that TVNZ big-wigs stood by the decision to put an ACT candidate on its election-night panel.

There should be scant surprise, either, that his place on the panel was defended by the candidate, former broadcaster and TVNZ board member Paul Henry.

Bob Edlin: It’s a name known to the hundreds of people who attended her funeral.....

....but the police don’t want you to know it

Stuff reports some bemusing law-and-order thinking in an article headed –

She died violently in her home. Why police don’t want you to know her name

Police have moved to block Stuff from revealing the name of a highly respected mother and grandmother who was the victim of a homicide in the small Bay of Plenty community of Kawerau.

Bob Edlin: Nurse is suspended for stealing from a patient.....

.....but is that more forgivable than a Treaty breach?

PoO is intrigued by the case of the nurse who says he is extremely sorry for stealing a disabled patient’s debit card to fund his gambling proclivities.

NewstalkZB reports

Bob Edlin: A reminder of the Dickson case....

......tribunal is ruling on real estate agents’ work for reasons unrelated to their beliefs

PoO has noted this news from Stuff:

Two real estate agents committed unsatisfactory conduct by assuring buyers all earthquake damage was repaired and failing to investigate red flags that would have revealed an uncompleted retaining wall claim and a $37,350 Earthquake Commission payout.

Bob Edlin: Simeon Brown would be struck out as a candour-date (if PoO was umpiring)....

.....but the Nats are more tolerant on transparency

Three strikes and you are out.

That’s the principle which the Luxon Government has endorsed when it comes to law and order and sentencing policies.

PoO ventures that maybe it should be applied also to politicians who persistently flunk the candour test.

Bob Edlin: Elijah Pue – the councillor who can’t see the logic....

.....of depriving unelected committee members of voting rights

A Horizons Regional Councillor has declared he “fails to see the logic” in the law change that removed voting rights from non-elected members on council committees.

The councillor is Elijah Pue. The law change which bothers him was designed to fortify democratic arrangements that had been impaired by non-elected members – unaccountable to voters – voting on local authority committees.

Bob Edlin: Rongo Wetere’s stance on discrimination suggests ACT should recruit him...

....in promoting needs-based govt policies

PoO has been alerted to the “impassioned speech” of Rongo Wetere, founder of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, which he delivered after award-winning historian Vincent O’Malley spoke in Te Awamutu last week about the 1864 Invasion of Waikato.

Wetere described the invasion by British forces in 1864 as a land grab that had never been fully compensated for.

Bob Edlin: No, Luxon can’t boast a Budget surplus – not yet.....

....but NZ First’s fiscal plan is murkier

An email from Sir John Key, which landed in the PoO in-tray this morning, obviously aims to whip up votes for a National Party which desperately needs support if Christopher Luxon is to remain Prime Minister.

The latest poll shows support for the Nats at a parlous level while businessman Harry Mowbray is encouraging vote-splitting, to discredit MMP and “show people how bad it is”.

Bob Edlin: Alistair Boyce.....

.....the bloke whose (improbable) move from the Backbencher to the back benches has been blown away

If you have ever wondered what cannon fodder looks like in politics, check out the news from Hutt South today.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has urged NZ First supporters in that electorate to give their candidate votes to National’s Chris Bishop to ensure he retains the seat. He is focusing on securing the party vote for NZ First.

As RNZ tells it:

Bob Edlin: “Freedom” group voices dismay at Dame Jacinda’s new job.....

....but what does a Professor of Practice do?

Big-wigs at the University of Sydney this week expressed their delight at hiring Dame Jacinda Ardern.

Their press release said:

Bob Edlin: Maori trust’s beach barrier was blessed with a karakia....

......but it didn’t have the blessing of the local council – or the law

Uh, oh. Tensions between beach-going motorists and beach-protecting vigilantes were reflected in a report headed Kāwhia landowners face threats to burn down marae over beach closure.

The report explained that significant numbers of landowners supported the blocking of vehicle access to the Kāwhia Hot Water Beach beach to protect Te Arai ō Wiwini, a breeding ground and nursery for pātiki and other fish.

Bob Edlin: Reserve land gift, a $200,000 rift.....

....and when the Mayor was miffed, a councillor was given short shrift

Good questions were raised at a Rotorua Lakes Council meeting this week about the proposed surrender of more than $200,000 in annual lease revenue.

But some questions are best not asked – at least, not when Mayor Tania Tapsell is chairing a meeting.

Bob Edlin: What Rusty can teach the smaller parties about grabbing the attention of mainstream media

RNZ has reported on the headline-grabbing exploits of an independent candidate in the campaign to win the New Plymouth seat.

A red-faced New Plymouth electorate candidate has apologised for causing an accident between the SUV he was driving and a logging truck in the city last week.

The candidate, Rusty Kane, and a passenger were uninjured when their car collided with the truck at the intersection of Elliot and Leach streets.

RNZ tells us:

Bob Edlin: The Parents’ Alliance - Post puts a spotlight on Jonathan Ayling....

.....but what are we supposed to see?

The headline on a report in the Post aroused PoO’s interest:

Former Free Speech head’s ‘useful skill set’ helped set up parent lobby group

The headline echoed the content of the first two sentences:

Bob Edlin: Champions of Maori flag raise questions about their grasp of sovereignty and history

RNZ’s audience might have been left wondering about the nature of the curriculum at St Stephen’s School, when they heard the reasons that students were giving for championing the Tino Rangatiratanga flag.

The students’ thinking about identity, history and culture is recorded in a report about a campaign to have the flag flown permanently alongside the New Zealand flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Campaign supporters are reported as saying this would recognise Māori identity, history and “the dual heritage of Aotearoa”.

Campaign organisers aim to gather 80,000 signatures in support of permanently raising the flag from Waitangi Day next year.

The flag now flies on the bridge each Waitangi Day before being removed the following day.

Bob Edlin: Family centre’s boss sits on Wellington City Council....

.....and three staffers soon may be sitting on the Porirua council

An article on the Scoop website reminded us that more than one election campaign is under way in one chunk of Porirua. A by-election is being fought in the Onepoto General Ward.

The Scoop article drew attention to Sāmoan educator and community services leader Lealamanu’a Aiga Caroline Mareko, who is running in the by-election.

Bob Edlin: The fast-track “beast” that bothers Shane Jones....

.....is the work of Parliament and its committees

Thoughts of Mary Shelley’s best-known creation were generated by Regional Development Minister Shane Jones’ denunciation of the time taken to decide on a mining application in Central Otago.

Always good for a colourful quote, he referred to the work of a ‘constipated bureaucratic beast’.

Bob Edlin: How Maori have thrived in the Royal Society environment

The champions of diversity policies for long have been bothered that Māori students and academics are under-represented in science courses and science departments in the country’s universities.

Overall Māori participation in higher education has increased over the years, but Māori make up less than 5% of total academic staff in science faculties.

Google steered us to papers published in 2020 and 2021 to support those figures.

One of the papers (pictured below)

Bob Edlin: Royal Society paper flaunts the Treaty....

......(in call for more govt funding for science) and bats for mātauranga Māori

Only in the past few decades has the Royal Society of New Zealand included the social sciences as an official class of scientific disciplines.

That shift controversially allowed a slew of professional social science organisations to formally affiliate with the society.