Save Radio New Zealand more popular than John Key

As at 9:30 am today Save Radio New Zealand, a group set up to oppose strangling budget freezes, cuts and the prospect of increased commercialisation of Radio New Zealand by the National government, has recorded more ‘fans’ on Facebook than that of Prime Minister John Key.

At the same time a rival group called “Don’t Save Radio new Zealand” has racked up an impressive 122 fans, for which they should be wholeheartedly commended (as the lack of support for their group simply hammers our message home even harder).

Frankly, I think the government will be forced to back down over suggestions of increased commercialisation or the introduction of sponsorship.  Public pressure wouldn’t allow it, and in any case, legislation rules it out without a law change.

Section 175 of the Radiocommunications Act (1989), which was intended to prevent state-owned networks competing with private stations for revenue, states that alternative sources of revenue are specifically prohibited for National Radio, and restricted so as to be commercially non-viable for Concert FM*.

What’s more, the recent Radio New Zealand Amendment Act (2010) specifically rules out commercialisation, stating that the network must be commercial free and provides a charter for Radio NZ which seeks to uphold the values of public radio.

So the real battle is now one of funding or, more specifically, the freezing of it.  As I said on the Facebook page a few days ago, a funding freeze is actually a funding cut unless its inflation adjusted.

Supporters must therefore demand that the National government, at the very least, provide Radio NZ with inflation adjustments on its annual budget for the foreseeable future, because if not we are literally carving off chunks of its funding each year.  This can only mean more journalists facing the sack, further shrinking newsrooms and with a reduction in the quality of services.

Keeping in mind, of course, that Radio NZ is already more than 20% underfunded, according the the independant 2007 KPMG report.

I also find it odd that Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman said on Radio NZ Mediawatch last weekend that he if went to Cabinet seeking extra money for broadcasting, that he’d be laughed out of the room.  Yet just days latter he announced additional broadcasting money for Rugby World Cup TV rights.

Do we really need to have used so much public money to provide the RWC games on 4 or 5 TV channels at the SAME TIME? Surely just having it on Sky Sport and on one free to air channel wouldnt have done the trick.

*Source: Last week’s Tom Frewen Mediawatch column in the NBR.

NZ Herald’s John Drinnan on Radio NZ

Following on from last week’s column in the Business Herald, Media commentator John Drinnan today raises some interesting questions about the future of Radio New Zealand and some others about the Save RNZ campaign and its supporters.  Under the heading “Death Warmed Up” Drinnan suggests:

Public radio folk can be pleased by the high-profile “Save RNZ” campaign that led to protest marches in Wellington and Auckland.

The campaign by Auckland University media studies tutor Jake Quinn revealed a groundswell of support from people who almost universally praised the broadcaster to the nines.

I like big chunks of National Radio too, but …

I thought I’d take the opportunity to respond to some of John Drinnan’s questions (which follow), some of which I think are quite constructive, others perhaps less so.

Auckland Save RNZ protest a success

Jake at today's Save RNZ Protest

This afternoon’s protest for Save Radio NZ in Auckland went well.  It had a good feel about it.  The approach was to have fewer politicians and more locals giving the speeches.

Chris Trotter showed up and spoke, as did Martyn ‘Bomber’ Bradbury, Dr Martin Hirst from AUT, a few local polly’s (Keith Locke and Carol Beaumont) and me.

TV3 reporter, Chris Whitworth, notes on the TV3 website:   “Let’s not let the sharks bite Radio NZ!” was protest organiser and founder of the Facebook group ‘Save Radio New Zealand’ Jake’s closing statement to the crowd. He says the Government is testing the waters with “nibbles” at RNZ and if the nation doesn’t react they risk a major blow to democracy.

This is an important point, and the reason why the Save Radio New Zealand Facebook group exists.  If we make enough noise, English’s scalpel will back off (or go elsewhere).  That’s what we are trying to achieve.

Extra funding would, of course, be great – the network, as the 2007 KPMG report noted, is already well underfunded to deliver on its job description set out in legislation.

More realistically, however, we just want to avoid the types of cuts and organisational changes which we oppose (things like sponsorship and advertising being the main culprits).

Christ Trotter claimed that he thinks the battle has been won.  He thinks there are too many Radio New Zealand listening National Party voters and supporters to let Coleman get away with seriously undermining the state funded public service broadcaster.  I hope he’s right, but I don’t think we are anywhere near there yet.

I do think that the Facebook site has a good bit of growth left in it yet.  Shortly, we will approach John Key’s number of fans, then we may exceed it.  If and when that happens, you’d think that might get the attention of the mainstream media – as it would be a story challenging Key’s epic popularity – but we won’t hold our breaths.

[Update: Check out the Don't Save Radio New Zealand campaign on Facebook, it has, after a week or so, just 103 fans compared to our 17,500.  Heh.]

The problem of Heatley’s resignation for National

Phil Heatley

National Party Minister Phil Heatley’s resignation from Cabinet, probably as a result of a mixture of fear, exhaustion and plain moral decency, has created a concerningly low bar from which to judge Ministers’ future decisions.  This will likely create problems for his colleagues Gerry Brownlee and Bill English now and in the future.

Phil Heatley, we are led to believe (and at this point have no reason to doubt), quit Cabinet over his misuse of Ministerial credit cards.  He signed for some food and wine which was actually just wine.  What’s more,  it was for National Party members at a conference – nothing to do with Ministerial business.

Former Press Secretary to Jim Bolger, now media commentator, Richard Griffen, last thursday blamed Heatley’s Senior Private Secretary (SPS) for the mistakes.  Griffen claimed that a SPS worth their salt wouldn’t have let the Minister get bogged down with looking after that level of detail.

Perhaps, but how is an SPS  to know, let alone control, what their Minister gets up to when at party gatherings, which non-political Ministerial staff are rightly supposed to steer clear of.

The real concern now though is not why (in terms of his thought process or logic) he resigned, but what impact this could have on his colleagues.  Many would agree that Heatley’s crime was less severe than English’s.  Heatley is, arguably, guilty of incompetence with regards to his ministerial credit cards.

English however, in rearranging his family finances and trusts to claim ministerial allowances he subsequently was forced to pay back, was not so much incompetent but conniving.  He deliberately took dubious actions to maximise his own payouts, while calling on the country and the public service to tighten their belts.  Heatley, unlike his Deputy leader, cannot be accused of being a hypocrite.

So what happens the next time a Minister, like Brownlee or English, gets into ‘a little bit’ of trouble over an expense here or an expense there?  The question will inevitably be asked: will that Minister follow the standards set by their former honourable colleague Mr Heatley?

Save RNZ protests and Media7 coverage

Today the protests to Save Radio New Zealand begin. Starting with Christchurch @ 12:15pm then Wellington @ 1:00pm. And on Monday, Auckland’s kicks off @ 12:30pm (follow the links for invites). Come along, bring ya lunch and a portable radio tuned to RNZ National, and help Save Radio New Zealand from the unwanted political interference and undermining cuts being proposed by Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman.

Yesterday, the Save RNZ group put out a press release explaining why we formed, how impressed we’ve been with the success of the group (14,000+ fans in a week), and letting the media know about our Wellington protest today. Read the full release here. I’d like to thank the few folks that were involved in putting it together and distributing it to media.

Tonight I am appearing on Media7, Russell Brown’s show on TVNZ7. We discuss the Save RNZ movement, Jonathan Coleman’s (poor) handling of the issue from a political point of view, and compare Radio NZ to Radio Live (the other guest is Radio Live’s program manager, Mitch Harris).  The Media 7 site promo’s the show:

“On Media7 this week Russell Brown looks at the RNZ imbroglio… the battle between “pure” public service values and commercialism which has engulfed the NZ media landscape.  Mitch Harris, Programme Director of Radio Live reckons that RNZ is ripe for change and needs to embrace some hard realities. Jake Quinn Political and Media Studies tutor at Auckland University has been leading the charge for RNZ on Facebook and he reckons that we risk losing a valuable public discourse which is vital to our democracy.”

PS. I understand that the Greens will be asking a question of the government (that’s if there is a question time today, the govt’s been pretty keen on avoiding them lately) on this topic, which is great to see.

[Update: Tonight's media7 show can be viewed online here.]

Save Radio New Zealand campaign goes viral

It’s fair to say that with 8,500+ fans in less than four days (updated stats) that the Save Radio New Zealand campaign has gone viral.

The trucker cap (two posts below) is, at least so far, just a photo shopped image.  A t-shirt, however, is now a reality.

This guy, Neil Watts (pictured, right), has had a Save Radio New Zealand t-shirt printed*

You can get one if ya fancy.  It could only help to spread the message right?

Phil at Verboom on Left Bank Arcade (off Cuba Street) has the design, he’s done badges too.  Logoland in North City Mall also have the t-shirt design.  Neil will be wearing his to Homegrown today in Wellington.  If you see him, tell him he’s a legend.

Before you go, check out this blog from Radio NZ legend Brian Edwards.  Brian explains why Radio NZ is so important to our country and our democracy.

*Note: this t-shirt was not organised by me (I don’t even know this guy) and I imagine any profits from the sale of such t-shirts would just go to the individuals that print and sell them.

[Update: we hit 10,000 fans this morning (Monday). A remarkable effort - and we're still growing!]

[Update: we are still growing strong, approx 12,500 fans around 2:30pm Tuesday]

Radio NZ staff robbed of chance at Radio Award

On the Save Radio New Zealand Facebook page I asked: “Any Radio NZ staff please correct me if I’m wrong, but did you guys lose the right to submit your work to the Radio Awards last year because of budget cut backs, thus being robbed of an opportunity to be acknowledged for your work and progress your careers?”

Some helpful little broadcasting beaver sent through the info:

Radio New Zealand announced last year that it would withdraw from the New Zealand Radio Awards.  Radio New Zealand will not be making an entry in any categories of the awards in 2010, nor will it be paying a contribution towards the administration or sponsorship of the awards.

This decision was announced as one of several measures to reduce costs in a year when funding constraints will put severe pressure on Radio New Zealand’s operating budget. Money saved as a result of our withdrawal from the awards will be used to support core Charter requirements.

Radio New Zealand staff may choose to submit an independent entry to the awards, however, anyone considering an entry on their own behalf should first discuss those intentions with their manager.

So the answer was yes.  And this decision was made last year.  Professional development is clearly OK for Minister’s office staff, those working in core government departments, but sheesh, if you work at Radio NZ, not only do you have to settle for about two-thirds the salary of the average advisor level public servant, but you have to put on bloody sausage sizzles to raise enough money to submit your work (that’s if your manager allows it) to the annual awards ceremony.

The Radio Awards are there to recognize that work publicly – remember, not everyone that works at Radio NZ is a prime-time broadcaster with name recognition like Sean Plunket or Jim Mora.  There are many workers behind the scenes who miss out even more from the lack of funding to take part in their industry’s annual awards; the production engineers, writers and producers whose names you’ve never heard.

Save Radio New Zealand

The Save Radio NZ Trucker

Incredible.  Last night I read the news that the National government had put the screws on Radio New Zealand, hard.  I really like Radio New Zealand National, Radio NZ’s flagship program, which I listen to every day.  I also really appreciate the service both Radio New Zealand International and Concert FM provide both local and international communities.

So I blogged on it and I started a simple Facebook group.  Fast forward a day and half and the fan page has nearly 4,000 supporters and is rapidly growing and is now being reported on stuff.co.nz, Radio NZ, and on a number of high profile blogs.  I’ve received requests to front media interviews, but for now at least I think I’ll leave that to the politicians.

I’m astounded by the out-poring of support the page has been getting.  All day folks have been commenting, posting links and generally sharing their love and support for all things Radio NZ, their disdain for the actions of the Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman and his Cabinet colleagues in the National Party.

I think the National Party wildly underestimates the support Radio NZ has across the country.  From farmers to pensioners to urban liberal students, Radio New Zealand National is the news of record.  It’s where you know the story is straight.  They don’t have to shock for ratings or appease advertisers.  They just give us hard-working decent honest journalism.  Long may it continue.

Radio NZ on the scrap heap

The news that the National government is putting the very existence of Radio New Zealand at risk makes for sobering reading (I’m not exaggerating, one suggestion is – quite seriously – to ditch the FM frequency outside of Auckland).  Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman says he will sack the board and appoint his cronies if they don’t tow the line and radically cut costs.

Radio New Zealand costs the country about $38 million per year, according to the TVNZ report (correct figure, however, is $34 million).  Lets, just for shits and giggles, grab some perspective.  The government has just launched a $26 million charm offensive to try to convince the nations’ parents that national standards are *like* totally awesome.  That’s a PR campaign costing about two-thirds of RNZ’s annual budget.  Seriously.

Radio New Zealand National are the only public service broadcaster left in New Zealand.  TVNZ was doing a pretty poor job even with the charter, now that that’s been scrapped any notion of public service broadcasting, that is news rather than profit values, will surely to be lost.

Radio New Zealand National is the country’s most popular radio station.  It is the highest ranking Station out in the regions (rural NZ), it’s the highest rating in Wellington, and I believe the second or third highest rating in Auckland (RNZ don’t enter the commercial surveys, which they would dominate).  Jim Mora’s Afternoons is the highest rating afternoons show for god’s sake.  This is with pretty much no promotional budget and, refreshingly, with no twenty-something offensive smack-talking shock-jocks.

The problem is that death by a thousand cuts doesn’t get noticed much by the public.  The government can get away with systematically undermining a state funded service like RNZ and no one notices until it’s too late.  That is why we people need to take action.

Radio New Zealand National and its sister channel Concert FM are bloody national treasures.  If you agree, please show your support by writing to your local National MPs explaining how much you appreciate Radio NZ’s service and how disappointed you’d be if their service suffered under this government’s watch.  And while your at it join these Facebook groups.

Everyone should be able to vote

National MP Paul Quinn’s (no relation) Members Bill, The Electoral (Disqualification of Convicted Prisoners) Amendment Bill, has been drawn from the ballot.  This is a bad Bill, which should, but won’t, be voted down.

The Bill seeks to remove the right to vote from the 80-90% of prisoners who are serving sentences of less than three years (current law already blocks prisoners serving more than three years from voting).  The Bill was put there with National’s blessing and would no doubt  receive Act Party support, thus giving it a majority.

This is populist piece of legislation, another ‘do nothing’ piece of legislation, that helps to create an impression that National is tough on crime and criminals, which, for some strange and completely illogical reason, is a hugely awesome way to be in western countries and particularly New Zealand.

We are talking here about around 8000 people that could be effected by this legislation, which is about the same number of people who at the last election voted for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party.  In the last election National received 256,518 more party votes than Labour, yes… a quarter of a million.

What I’m getting at is, unlike what some might say, this amount of people is rather unlikely to have any substantive effect on the outcome of an election (assuming they all voted one way, which they wouldn’t).

So, opposing this legislation, as I would hope all parties of the Left would do (on human rights grounds), is NOT about “protecting votes” (on the logic that prisoners who are more often, young, poor and brown, are more likely to vote for parties of the left), but about recognizing that protecting the universal franchise is an important thing to do.

There was a time in this country when only single-title land owning men could vote (thus omitting most Māori men from the privilege).  There was a time when women could not vote.  We’ve fought quite hard to get people the vote, lets not take it away, from anyone.

Politics in the Prime Minister’s Back Yard*

Last night the Kumeu-Huapai Residents’ and Ratepayers Association held a meeting on the third Super City Bill where Phil Twyford and David Clendon spoke. The meeting was organised by Rodney District Western Ward Councillor Suzanne Weld. About 50 locals attended, including Deputy Mayor John Kirikiri, Western Ward Cnr Grev Walker, and ARC Rodney Ward Cnr Christine Rose.

Now, Kumeu is in the heart of John Key’s Helensville electorate. By almost any definition it would be classed as a ’safe National’ seat – in the 2008 election, Helensville electors voted overwhelmingly for the Prime Minister – he won 71% of the votes. Locally, it’s even more impressive – Key won the Huapai District School Hall booth with 78% of the vote, and the Kumeu Baptist Church with 81% of the vote. Labour isn’t likely to lift this seat any time soon.

However, the mood of last night’s meeting would suggest that National’s heartland vote isn’t happy with the Super City. In short, Kumeu residents think they’re currently being screwed by the Rodney District Council in Orewa, but fear worse when their local council is based on Queen Street. An example was raised by an audience member who had tried to get a road at the top of the Kaipara Harbour’s South Head tar-sealed – he had had next to no luck with the Rodney District Council, and expressed dismay with the prospect of having to compete with roads across the Auckland region.

There was general dissatisfaction with the undemocratic nature of the Transition Agency, and the fact that no Government MPs had been out to meet with residents in the North West (evidently, several local National MPs called a public meeting after submissions had closed on the first bill, but subsequently cancelled the meeting for no clear reason). At one point, an audience member encouraged Phil and David to “give ‘em hell” over the Super City bill. Someone else retorted that John Key would stand up for their local interests, which was followed by embarrassed laughs.

It is the urban fringe areas of Auckland that are going to be hardest hit by the Super City. These are the coal-face of urban sprawl and zoning changes. And these are the areas where the government has some of the strongest support.

* Figure of speech, obviously, as the Prime Minister lives in Parnell.

UPDATE: Phil has blogged about the meetings here.

Key admits to doing less than a half decent job

Apparently from Key’s speech:

Ruled out: Land Tax‬, RFRM (risk free rate mechanism)‬, Comprehensive Capital Gains Tax (note – this could still mean some sort of CGT), Major changes to Working for Families‬

Still on the table: Increasing GST to 15%‬, Cutting top tax rate and other tax cuts, Some sort of property tax.

So of the three potential major streams of revenue to pay for tax cuts for the rich, they’ve gone for the one that hits the poor hardest and that their mates (farmers, property developers, investors) didn’t complain about.  How utterly predictable.  How typically National.

Especially interesting, seeing as during the 2008 election, John Key ruled out raising GST, as the Herald reported back in October of that year:

“National leader John Key said told (sic) a press conference this morning that if National is elected and does a “half decent job” at growing the economy, then increasing GST and the top tax rate will not be necessary.”

I’m no big city logician but by his own account, does that mean that Key has done less than a “half decent job”?

[Update: full text of Key's statement to parliament is here.]

[Update 2: excellent to see that a political story broken on this blog is now running rampant all over the mainstream media.]

The ball game is well and truly back on

Over at the Standard Marty G says:

What a remarkable turn-around in the mood of the Left the last few weeks. People are seriously talking about 2011 as winnable. Key’s spark is gone, the media have said ‘enough grins, John, time to actually do something’, Phil Goff suddenly looks much more like a PM in waiting, and his speech, when you see it for what it actually is – the policy/strategy plan for the remainder of the term – has given Labour supporters something they can really get behind. I haven’t seen people this positive in years.

I would tend to agree.  When people asked me about Labour’s hopes for 2011 in the months after the 2008 election I would have said that they probably didn’t have a chance.  National had just cobbled together what looked like a cunning balance between the Māori Party and ACT, where no single tail could wag the dog.

It was a seemingly genius arrangement that allowed them to play each of their governing partners off against each other, while they would always look like the moderate sensible mediator.

What’s more, the economy was terrible and no one blamed National.  Every month their polls just kept going up, while newspaper editors the country over were talking about a three term National government.  Meanwhile, Labour was battling hard to just be heard, let alone have anyone agree with them.

And Key really did seem like he might just be a leader, like he might just do something bold, something outside of the tired and predictable National play book of the 1990s that would truly benefit New Zealanders.  I, like many Kiwis, was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Fast forward to February 2010 and the game has really changed.  National’s record stands at cancelling middle-class tax cuts and superannuation savings, halving kiwisaver, an announced but undelivered cycleway (to nowhere), increased ACC levies and cuts to its services, cancelled adult education classes (to find extra money for those struggling private schools – you know the ones, with NBA standard basketball courts!), hoisting a flag whose logo appears uncomfortably similar to that of the Maori Party’s all over government buildings, and some talk about mining the conservation estate.  Hardly ambitious, more like depressing.

Then along came the Tax Working Group and with it an orgy of suggested new taxes to slap on the middle class, none of which were ruled out.  Even just talk of new taxes is bad for the government, hence why Mr Key will probably (hopefully for his, the country’s, but not the opposition’s sake) rule out a GST increase tomorrow rather than letting that cancerous stick continue to be used to beat him.

All in all, the shine really seems to have come of this popular government and I fully expect the polls, particularly as the year progresses, to start to reflect this.  2011 is no longer a forgone conclusion, and the more the Labour leader realises this, the more forceful and energised he will become.  We’ve already started to see it with his speech ‘the many. not the few‘ delivered two weeks ago in Hamilton.

Economic Benifit of the RWC…?

Remember when the British and Irish Lion’s came to town? They closed Courtney Place, and we all had a party? It was awesome, and I hope next year’s Rugby World Cup will be somewhat similar (although now living in Auckland, I’ve come to the realization that no one does a party quite like the Capital).

I was somewhat intrigued by this frontpage article in Saturday’s Herald:

Home available for World Cup – for a cool $120,000

Orakei resident Danny Gelb plans to rent his 454 sq metre house out for $120,000 for the two months of the Rugby World Cup. I find it mind boggling that someone would have $120,000 to spend on a two-month holiday in New Zealand. I don’t think I know anyone that could realistically afford that, but then, Mr Gelb is obviously reasonably successful at whatever he does for a living (a google search would suggest he’s a commercial mediator), he probably knows this market pretty well, and I suspect is hardly pitching it towards the domestic punter (even if the Herald was giving him a prime weekend advertising spot). If he is able to pull this off, good on him I guess – I wish I was in a similar financial position.

But it made me wonder how much the economic benefit is going to be shared around the rest of New Zealand. The Herald puts the economic benefit of the Rugby World Cup at $1.15 billion, but how much of that is going to trickle down to the working class? Or those living outside of the major centres? I seem to remember pub owners on the main road between Auckland and Wellington setting themselves up to accommodate the influx of English camper vans that were going to visit them during the Lions tour – many of these pub owners where incredibly disappointing when the influx never happened. You have to wonder whether the World Cup will bring a similar result.

And for those lucky enough to secure the high-rents like Mr Gelb is hoping, how many of them are going to spend the aditional money in New Zealand, and thus helping to stimulate the economy? Not Mr Gelb – after paying for a host, chaufeer and a chef and filling the Merc with petrol, Gelb will be taking his wife and three children to Europe for two months.

It’s great that New Zealand is going to be hosting the Rugby World Cup. It is our national sport, and will bring  economic benifits. But let’s not get carried away about expectations, as reality may not be quite as rosey.

UPDATE: As an aside, I’ve just read David Farrar’s post about the threat of the Sevens coming to Auckland. God, Auckland would be brilliant for the Sevens… if they’d built the Waterfront Stadium. Holding the Sevens at Eden Park or Mt Smart would be a fizzer. Keep it in Wellington.

Youth criminal unit closure plain stupid

The decision to cut the funding to a massively successful youth justice facility in Hamilton, Te Hurihanga, just weeks after announcing support for a three strikes sentencing policy is the kind of decision we would hope not to see but may come to expect from the supposedly ‘centrist’ National-led government.  What’s more, that the Māori Party can stay in support of this government after such action is a blatant insult to their supporters.

The Justice Minister, Simon Power, on Monday trotted out dodgy figures to soften the landing for this funding cut announcement.  He said the programme cost over $600,000 per person, where really it was closer to a quarter of that sum.  A closer look showed that he chose to divide the total spend on the project, buildings included (a one-off cost), by the amount of people who’ve graduated, thus ignoring the many more youths still in the program or approaching completion.

The real figure (still including a stack of costs for establishing the thing, which are not ongoing) is closer to $170,000 per youth. What a difference the political spin makes.  One figure makes the thing sound pretty damn expensive, the other quite reasonable.  You see, prison costs the taxpayer about $100,000 per person per year, and that doesn’t even begin to factor in the costs of crime to victims, the Courts and other social service providers like the Police.

These youths, none of which have re-offended since graduating the program, had each recorded dozens of offences before entering it.  They were becoming hardened criminals.  But not since.  This is simply an astounding result, which we should be celebrating by rolling out this program all over New Zealand.  So why on earth cut it, like National just has?  Was it because it was a success story of the last government’s slightly more progressive approach to corrections and justice policy?

Or was it because Minister Collins needed a few spare extra dollars for the over priced PR exercise that is shipping container prison cells, which aren’t even cheaper than building normal rooms – they just look tougher on crime?  Or was it that Mr Power forgot that Māori make up over half of the prison population (and that three-quarters of those have their first prison sentence before their 20th birthday) and that targeted programs that actually work for Māori youth offenders are probably the single best thing the country could be doing to reduce crime?

That the decision to cut this proven-to-work youth criminal intervention program was made by a Justice Minister who we know has at least half a brain, is simply depressing.  That it came a few weeks after a three-strikes policy was announced to placate the ACT party, which will probably have the unintended consequence of leading to more rapes and murders (in prison) because without the possibility or parole life-timers will have absolutely nothing to lose, is depressing.

That we are not in a position yet, as a society, to see that the fence at the top of the cliff is preferable to the ambulance (or more fittingly, the howling mob) at the bottom, is depressing.  We can do better.