Alden Bates' Weblog

According to a news story on TV3 news tonight, smoking rates are up, despite the government spending money on trying to encourage smokers to quit. Tariana Turia, Associate Minister of Health, says that the government doesn't care about the revenue from tax on tobacco, as the health costs are outstripping revenue from same taxes.

But hey, then she's talking about increasing the taxes on tobacco to encourage people not to smoke. Because that worked sooooo well last time.

Here's an idea: BAN TOBACCO! If the government really doesn't care about the taxes from it, then ban the stuff.

Turia herself says in her speech that she wishes tobacco was a relic of the past, yet she doesn't seem to have considered making the stuff illegal at all - surely a vital first step.

BAN TOBACCO!

Two of the stories on the front page of the Dominion Post are about how Palmerston North has an obscure bylaw which makes house numbering skip the number 13, and about how the winner of last weekend's Lotto jackpot bought Chinese takeaway for dinner.

I mean, kudos to whoever managed to spin the latter out to a couple of hundred words, but how did that make the front page? Are they trying to take our minds off the looming recession or something?

So, perhaps spurred by the massive change in American politics, New Zealand has also swung massively, though in this case it swung from left to right.

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark: Gone!
Finance minister Michael Cullen (no relation): Gone!
Mischief-maker Winston Peters: Gone!

In the latter case, Winston's party, NZ First, didn't reach the 5% vote threshold or win any seats, so they got no MPs in, unlike ACT, United Future, The Jim Anderton Party, and the Maori Party, who all got fewer party votes but won electorate votes. You can see the complete party votes and MP tally on TV3's Decision '08 site.

Much as I don't like Winston and was actually quite pleased he didn't get in, it somehow seems unfair that NZ First's party vote should theoretically have gotten them 5 MPs in parliament but didn't due to the 5% threshold. I can't argue with the results though.

Though politics may be a bit more boring for the next three years, I hope this allows the government to actually get something done, rather than messing about trying to keep Winston in line.

No, not the American ones, though they've started voting today.

We're only a few days out from the NZ general election and predicting a winner is not as clear cut as it once might have been. National isn't polling high enough to form a clear majority, and neither is Labour, so if the votes follow the polls, ultimately they'll have to rely on the support of minor parties. At the moment this looks like it may be down to whoever the Maori Party is willing to team up with, so at the moment both Helen Clark and JohnKey* are trying to outdo each other with platitudes in the hope of making their respective party a more attractive prospect.

I'm still largely undecided on who I'm going to vote for. I'll probably decide on the day (if I bother at all).

*One thing I have decided on is that "JohnKey" should be pronounced the same way as Donkey from the Shrek movies.

Continue reading "Wordless Wednesday: Stay Frosty"

Yeah, another political post. This will be the last one for a while, hopefully. I hate politics.

Recently the NZ government has been working towards a Free Trade deal with China. A bunch of people, including the Green party, have said the Trade deal should be thrown out due to the way China keeps killing Tibetans, and their crumby human rights record in general. Also, there's talk of boycotting the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

Leaving aside the fact that the Olympics are actually nicely bringing attention to Tibet (and I'm sure some of the athletes will defy the ban on mentioning Tibet), I point you to Statistics New Zealand's External Trade Statistics page.

In 2005, New Zealand imported 3.67 billion dollars worth of stuff from China. In 2006, it was 4.44 billion, and the projected total for 2007 is listed as 5.28 billion. For contrast, in 2006 we exported only 1.74 billion dollars worth of stuff to China, and in 2007 the projection was 1.88 billion. So we're already dropping a fair amount of money into the Chinese economy, and whether or not we get a free trade deal with them isn't likely to change that. We'll go on buying their stuff and giving them money, and they'll go on doing what they're doing.

Or is there something I'm missing?

No, not the US elections, the New Zealand ones. For while the Americans try to decide whether they want Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John "Dubya II" McCain as president, New Zealand is gearing up for the 2008 elections. Unlike the US elections we vote all at once, so the buildup is purely campaigning.

Last election I posted about the current political parties so I guess it's time I did so again...

Continue reading "Predicting the election outcome"

Why is the focus necessarily on cutting personal tax rates. If they took some of the tax off petrol, or necessary food items such as bread, they could probably help a lot more...

A thing of the past - this old-style NZ phone box graces Post Office Square in Wellington. I took this picture on Saturday, after the book launch for Newtons Sleep.

I should start a photo blog category, really.

I've noticed a few of these along State Highway 2 on my way home:

Not the 2 shield, the thing under it that looks like a bunch of grapes (Yes, I stopped and took a picture. Because I could).

I couldn't find anything about it on the LTSA's page concerning signs. On the back was a sticker indicating it had been manufactured by Approach Signs Ltd, as did the 2 shield. I couldn't find anything about it in their catalogue, but brown appears to be the colour for touristy signs.

Current best theory is that it's a reference to the Wairarapa vineyards as there aren't any vineyards in either Upper or Lower Hutt. I would have thought that the Wairarapa would be a bit far for informational signs like that though...

Second best theory is it means "1,000 point Pacman bonus ahead".

Edit: Aha! It looks like it's The Classic New Zealand Wine Trail!

It was a criminally nice day on Friday, after weeks of dreary weather. I therefore walked to the middle of Melling Bridge and took some pictures of the Hutt River.

In the one looking south (on the bottom) you can see Wellington on the hills in the distance. I also tried using my camera's stitch feature to do 180° views, but this met with limited success. Here's the stitched together view from the north side of the bridge anyway:

These chaps, last week, started setting up scaffolding down the side of our driveway at work, telling us that they would try to do as much work as possible on that side of the building, so that they could get the scaffolding down in a week or so. See if you can spot them:

Evidently I was wrong - they're not cowboy builders; They're ninja stealth builders! Seriously, I haven't seen that scaffolding used once since it was put up.

*plays taps*

Recently, a bunch of workers moved in to work on the building next door to where I work. Between the two buildings is a driveway and our parking places. The building wasn't in the best of shape so I had been thinking it was about time it had some work done on it.

However there were signs all wasn't well. At one point a builder was throwing bits of wood off the second floor onto a trailer parked in the driveway mere feet from our cars. Words were had and they stopped. Next thing, the builder was at it again, though this time another of the builders was standing between the trailer and cars, presumably to stop anything hitting them. None of the builders, I should add, were wearing hardhats or visibility clothing.

After more checking by my boss, it turned out that they didn't actually have the building consents required by the council. Cue the Man from the Council with a Cease and Desist order.

Not that it actually stopped them working. They just did it when no one was looking.

I suspect they weren't too happy about the whole thing. Last Tuesday they decided to repaint their cargo container which they were using for a site office. This involved using an industrial-strength grinder on it. Since my car was parked about ten feet away from it, I came out after work and found it covered in a layer of paint and/or metal sandings. I've been parking elsewhere since...

More news as it (hopefully doesn't) come to hand.

I was walking back to work from a shop this afternoon when a random passerby asked "Are you into feijoas?" and opened his bag to show off a plastic bag full of them. At that point I was starting to wonder if I'd stepped into a bizarre Twilight Zone where fejoas were illegal street drugs and was going to ask if they were pure. Instead I opted to say "Uh, no thanks" and walk on before he started pushing oranges or something. Surreal!