Following the announcement of the World Cup All Blacks team the Dominion-Post, with as usual in quiet New Zealand, no real news to write about, devoted their front page to the public reaction.
It turned out there wasn’t any as the reporter, Olivia Caldwell, walked around the capital’s CBD and asked 30 people for their thoughts on the selection until finally managing to scrape up three who gave a damn. And one of those was a visiting Colombian woman.
The Dominion Post invited the three Upper Hutt mayoral candidates to submit circa 400 words on their credentials and policies.
Current longstanding mayor Wayne Guppy, befitting his pharmacy background, knocked out some straight‑forward rather dull comments then challenger Steve Taylor knocked himself out by commenting, “The reality is our rates need to increase.”
Steve may well be the first aspiring politician in entire human history to seek voters support by proposing to tax them more.
It’s unbelievable! The entire front page, plus another inside, is devoted to an argument going on over trivia in the grey power movement. To indicate its pettiness, a complainant in the movement has called for an “uncomfortable conversation about its culture.”
In fairness she’s an American migrant, probably from California where talking cock is normal, nevertheless when she gets that “conversation” started I’d be delighted to provide the discomfort with some periodic flogging.
There’s a bloke in Lower Hutt currently garnering publicity over his war with the Council. Specifically, he’s built a small house on an existing house site without a building permit, thus the Council is demanding he demolish it. Without going into a lecture, the justification for such compliance rules are overwhelming and should not need spelling out.
The fellow’s excuse is that it’s not a house but effectively a caravan as he claims it’s designed to accommodate wheels. If that’s the case, instead of moaning to the media he should put the wheels on it and drive away.
Now that will be a test of his sincerity.
Both the Herald and the Dominion Post, (and doubtless other newspapers) have done an absolutely first rate job impartially presenting the hundreds of (generally unknown) candidates for the forthcoming local government election.
Each have been accorded a photograph, biographic details and space to express their policies.
I say impartial but with one qualification. The Herald’s senior journalists, Bernard Orsman and Simon Wilson also presented a double‑page spread reviewing the existing Auckland Councillors’ performances. It was highly entertaining.
