Posts by Kumara Republic
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If one can't be bothered with a separate set-top box, there's always the option of an internal DVB tuner card for your PC. It's a bit cumbersome for the non-computer techie, but it is a bit cheaper than getting a set-top box. In particular, Hauppauge make some decent Freeview-ready tuner cards for a reasonable price.
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Paul Williams: Compared with the the Australian public sector, NZ's is very efficient. I'm astounded at the size of some state's public service, NSW being particularly large. And, to echo Rob's post above, the professionalism in the NZ public sector is also comparatively high. Perhaps I'll leave it at that however.
Mind you, Oz does have an 3rd layer of Govt (State, in addition to Federal and Local) compared with NZ's 2-layer system.
For all his bluster about 'bureaucrats', I doubt that Key would be prepared to risk a 1951 with the PSA. Rodney and Roger might, though.
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WH:
Good point. Obviously there is only so much that governments can do to control things that are determined by international markets (the price of dairy products, international credit crises, rising price of oil etc), but I suppose that is cold comfort for people struggling to make their mortgage repayments, buy their groceries and pay their utility and petrol bills.
I do not see the slowing of the housing market as a bad thing, but perhaps that bubble should never have been allowed to develop as it did.
In America, McMansions were ground zero of the sub-prime meltdown. The little Machiavellian in me is tempted to think that a similar meltdown would be the prescription for NZ's housing bubble. Not to mention the ideal PR case against urban sprawl. It would certainly teach the Quarter Acre Cartel a few lessons.
The economy will certainly be an issue come election time. But I think a much bigger issue can be summed up in two words: culture war.
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Rest in peace, Finn. You will be sadly missed, and your intellect more so.
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The only downside is that we're going to have to endure a particularly toxic election campaign first.
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It's unfortunate that for every Lloyd Morrison, there are maybe 10 Fay Richwhites. The real culprits of the whole issue are the Dancing Cossacks.
The last time we had an upper house (the Legislative Council), it had become little more than a rubber stamp for the House of Reps by the time it was dissolved in 1951.
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At Welly Airport the wi-fi is free, as long as users stick to a measure of fair use (no BT'ing etc). A useful guide to wi-fi in WLG is Cafénet. The degree of cost is variable, and I don't know the details of every spot. But to cite just one example, I do know the Esquires outlet in Courtenay Central offers free Wi-fi with a coffee purchase.
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Neil Morrison:
I agree about Labour's sucess economically. they have a good team that have on the whole worked well. Anderton's been very good.
It makes life difficult for opposition parties the world over - a good economy plus fairly middle of the road econmic policies leaves little for Governments to be attacked on. It's the electorate's weariness with incumbents that gets to be a problem.
I agree about the policy of economic stability. Incumbent fatigue is an issue, but probably not the primary issue. I suspect the real bugbear facing the Beehive is the culture war doing an Operation Barbarossa on our shores - with issues like Section 59, civil unions, youth crime, the Brethrens and whatnot. And with fifth columnists like Bob McC and FTSoOC...
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Assuming they get support from the city council, a rink up there would rake it in. There's a lot of inline hockey players in Wellington, so there's an instant hockey club. Christchurch is a city of similar population, and their rink is busy until midnight some nights. Even if it was a private business they should be able to get a good return on their investment.
There actually was a council-backed ice rink proposal a couple of years back, which was to have been cross-subsidised by a bowling alley. However, the developer broke off the deal after The Lanes appeared on the scene, and couldn't extract any more concessions from the Council.
There's a Facebook group dedicated to getting an ice rink built in Welly that was featured in the Capital Times. And WellUrban has done some analysis on the issue.
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For some reason many of the cruise passengers (not sure if they were from the Queen Vic or another ship) got disgorged into Auckland hotels. The knock-effect meant that you couldn't get a hotel room all week and I wound up having to stay in the Formule 1 - at least it wasn't a backpackers..
Whenever I jet up to AKL I stay at the Rainbow Hotel on the corner of Nelson & Wellesley Sts. It's about as cheap & cheerful as it gets without coming across as backpacker-ish. Even the basic rooms are reasonably spacious.