Nats want to revisit MMP

So says the Sunday Star Times. Actually the Sunday Star Times (which has tended to be friendly towards Labour) said "MMP Future in Doubt undr National", implying the Nats would abolish it, rather than hold a referendum. Bit of spin there that Labour will be happy about.

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Well frankly I don't care much either way. Why? Because I can't get very excited about the different ways you can count heads, rather than what's in them. I opposed MMP for the same reason, and because most of its advocates were Alliance retards, xenophobic Winston groupies or academics. The fact the NZ media didn't for a moment ever probe how organised leftwing support was for MMP is a damning indictment on how uncritical it was in the early 1990s. The truth is the switch to MMP was a reaction to the reforms of the times, a referendum on politicians which ended up putting more in Parliament!

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What's crazy is that talking about abolishing MMP hands Winston Peter another "conspiracy of those rich bastards" story to wind up the talkback listening economically illiterate xenophobic mediocrity mob.

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Of course if the Nats want to make a serious difference with electoral reform they could just abolish the Maori seats - but that would require having courage of your convictions, but there is neither courage nor convictions with the Nats nowadays. Abolishing the Maori seats would improve proportionality, and better match constituencies to constituents, but it wont happen. The Nats aren't prepared to answer the inevitable gutter comments from the left of "racism".

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Another worthwhile option would be having runoffs or preferences for constituency seats. This means that any seats without 50% of the vote to a single candidate would see the top two have a runoff. Clearly if MMP remains, this could be bolted on and make little difference, except for parties below the 5% threshold relying on a single constituency (4 do at the moment).

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Meanwhile, the polls are showing the Nats may get a whopping majority. Of course this wont quite happen. The polls underestimate the support Labour has from those who don't answer polls as often as angry middle class voters - low income Maori and Pacific Island voters - the people Labour likes to frighten. Don't forget how National's win on election night 2005 was eroded away when the large south Auckland constituencies came through.

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It's worth noting some of the poll findings though. Clearly voters on the left have started to be a bit clever, with the Greens at 6%. Leftwing voters may have got the idea that if Labour is bound to lose, they may as well cast a vote for a party that reflects their beliefs. This could be the Green's best election in a while.

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By contrast ACT has inspired no one with only 1%. You'd think ACT could also take advantage of the same trend in reverse, as the Nats are guaranteed victory a vote for ACT could better reflect values of smaller government and reform. It isn't working yet.

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The more telling result is that the vast majority of voters want tax cuts, income, GST and fuel. Now setting aside the arguments about GST and fuel (which I think deserve greater scrutiny and I do not support as such), it shows a strong majority in favour of government taking LESS money from everyone. Those on the left who think the opposite may pause to think, whereas National and ACT might just wonder why they can't simply reflect, in one way or another, what people want?

Don't forget Zimbabwe, has Africa?

While the Presidential election run off is to happen on 27 June in Zimbabwe, the disasters in Burma and China have diverted global attention from the utter brutality Mugabe's Zanu-PF thugs have been inflicting upon opposition supporters. Morgan Tsvangirai says he will return to Zimbabwe for the campaign, but he is risking his life doing so.

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The Voice of America reports Amnesty International's concern about Zimbabwe "the beatings, abductions, arson and killings in Zimbabwe have reached crisis levels. It says at least 22 deaths and more than 900 assaults have been recorded."

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Harrowing images are emerging of the vile brutality the savage scum of Zanu PF are applying to Zimbabweans. The Daily Mail reports the story of Memory:

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"Robert Mugabe's paid assassins came hunting for 22-year-old Memory, a married mother-of-two. They burst into her home, seized her and her children, and took them to their temporary headquarters in the local village school. ...She told me how on arrival at the school (which she had attended as a child), she had been ordered to sit in the playground with a group of supporters of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - the opposition party led by Morgan Tsvangirai. On the dot of 8am, the beatings started. Groups of eight people at a time were ordered out for treatment at the hands of a band of around 200 members of Robert Mugabe's militia, each wearing Zanu-PF T-shirts and green, red and yellow bandanas signifying the national flag. Many of them were high on drink or drugs. She watched as four of her close friends were beaten and kicked to death. A fifth friend later died, and others remain unaccounted for. "

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If you can stomach it, the images of the state of her body after being beaten are here on the This is Zimbabwe blog. No one with any sense of justice can fail to be sickened by this, sickened by the vileness of Mugabe and his thieving murdering cadres. The US Ambassador to Zimbabwe reported on the BBC's Newsnight programme tonight reports of a woman in her 80s who was hit with an axe, because her grandsons were activists for the Movement for Democratic Change.

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Meanwhile, Mugabe still has his friends, such as Mohau Pheko who doesn't believe Mugabe is to blame, but then she's one of the great and influential in South Africa being one of the ANC kleptocracy . She's on a board of an organisation called People Opposing Women Abuse, but I bet she wont visit Memory and apologise for providing propaganda for Mugabe - sanctimonious evil bitch. She shares the blood spilt by the savages of Zanu PF.

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If African governments cannot collectively ensure that the Presidential runoff is free and fair, and Mugabe's thugs don't oppress the population to vote for them, then it will prove they are not fit mature members of the international community. It will show at best their impotence against great evil in their midst, at worst their complicity and appeasement while fellow Africans are murdered, tortured, starved, beaten, bullied and stolen from. The moral leadership and great hope of South Africa after apartheid will have evaporated, as President Thabo Mbeki shakes the hand and treats with respect a murdering tyrant who, if he were white, Mbeki would be demanding worldwide sanctions, and would be funding and arming his opponents.

Mugabe's reputation as an anti-colonial hero is protecting him from scrutiny, criticism and from being arrested, tried and imprisoned for his role in decimating his country and oppressing his people. The tinpot Marxists and collectivist kleptocrats who bully, bribe and connive their way to power in far too many African countries have enough in common with Mugabe to not want anyone to look in their backyards. South Africa is proving also that it is led by a tinpot Marxist who'd rather protect his mate than tell him to stop murdering the common people. Zimbabweans are being murdered and beaten, and South Africa continues to feed and support those commiting those crimes.

Obama and Clinton's pork stinking up world trade

So while the agricultural sector should be raking it in from record commodity prices, CNN reports the US Congress has voted to spend an additional US$40 billion (yes you read right, billion), with another US$30 billion to "allow farmers to idle their land" and offer so-called environmental programmes. Oh and it has been bundled into an increase in food stamps and food aid for the poor, so you can't oppose the whole bill without looking like you're mean to poor people.

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Yes, so those that continue to farm, who benefit from record commodity prices are to get more money from US taxpayers, which of course reduces the ability of efficient farmers elsewhere in the world to compete and produce. Meanwhile, forget the need for more food, they'll pay some farmers to not produce. Imagine if you paid manufacturers to let a factory lie idle, or a bank to not loan money, or airline to not fly. Actually don't because taking taxes to pay for this pork helps do just that indirectly.

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However, before you go "Oh not Bush again", the Bush Administration is opposing this.

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It's the Democrats, the party more people overseas want running the USA. However, there are undoubtedly plenty of Republicans cheering this on too, if they have large rural constituencies. This Bill will help reduce the incomes of farmers in New Zealand, Australia, Africa, Latin America and Asia, it will help keep up the price of food to people worldwide by subsidising poor producers and subsidising non-production.

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In short the US Congress has voted to screw the world over. Bush has threatened to veto it, but there are so many in Congress supporting it the votes are there to override it. You see this is about the 2008 Congressional elections, it is stinking fly infested pork of the worst kind. It doesn't just screw over American taxpayers and consumers, it screws over farmers the world over. It has been done in a way that means that agricultural subsidies can't be opposed without Democrats screaming "you're opposing food stamps for the poor too". It's filthy, unprincipled politics of the worst kind.

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So where do the main Presidential candidates stand on this. Associated Press reports Hillary Clinton castigating John McCain because he opposes it. USA Today reports Barack Obama supports the Bill.

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Hillary Clinton has said "I believe saying no to the farm bill is saying no to rural America", no Hillary it is saying yes to efficient farmers, consumers and taxpayers. It's not your money you thieving harpie.

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Barack Obama has said "I applaud the Senate’s passage today of the Farm Bill, which will provide America’s hard-working farmers and ranchers with more support and more predictability". No it rewards non production you vapid flake, it rewards inefficient farmers and steals from hard-working taxpayers AND consumers by taking from their taxes AND inflating food prices, and it punishes farmers in developing countries. So much for the poor.

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John McCain said "It's a bloated piece of legislation that will do more harm than good for most farmers and consumers". Quite.

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So leftwing activists around the world, who claim to give a damn about farmers in developing countries, who care about the increase in global food prices. Still going to cheer on Barack Obama like sheeple? Which Presidential candidate would be better for New Zealand and world trade in agriculture? It's a no brainer.

While Burma's people suffer, the NZ government profits

Don't forget that State Owned Enterprise Kordia is working in Burma to help the military junta build a cellphone network. Trevor Loudon blogged about this a few months ago. National condemned it.

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Yes I guess a Chinese company could have done it instead, but this is the government, trading with negligent murderous lowlife. However, because it is a contract for NZ$80,000, it's ok according to Trevor Mallard.

Obama mania needs to be looked past

Gerard Baker in The Times this morning writes about how Barack Obama is getting idol status from much of the media.

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"Mr Obama is portrayed throughout as an immanently benevolent figure. Not human really, more a comforting presence, a light source. He is always eager to listen to all aides of an argument, always instilling confidence in the weak-willed, resolutely sticking to his high principles and tirelessly spurning the low road of electoral politics. I stopped reading after a while but I'm sure by the end he was healing the sick, comforting the dying, restoring sight to the blind and setting prisoners free. "

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Indeed, I've long thought he was getting a free pass from journalists who should know better, who didn't look past his "change" message to ask "what into", his charisma impressing on man and woman alike in a way that no politician should ever seduce. Baker continues...

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"Some cable TV channels prostrate themselves nightly before him. Most newspapers worship at the altar. They have already set up a neat narrative for the election between Senator Obama and John McCain in November - the Second Coming versus Old Grouchy, The Little Flower of Illinois up against the Scaremongering Axeman from Arizona."

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This is even though John McCain has long been the acceptable face of the Republican Party to many, he took on George Bush, so a new tactic will now be taken.

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"now that he's up against Oh! Bama! he will have to be recast in the more familiar Republican mould of villain and scaremonger-in-chief."

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So it is time, after some of us have been saying it for months, to put Obama under the spotlight. He has far less experience than either "damn those Commies" McCain or "born to rule" Hillary. However as Baker says...

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"He is a smart and eloquent man with a personal history that is startlingly shallow set against the scale of the office he seeks to hold. It is not only legitimate, but necessary, to scrutinise his past and infer what it might tell us about his beliefs, in the absence of the normal record of achievement expected in a presidential nominee. If the past 40 years have taught us anything they have surely taught that premature canonisation is an almost certain guarantee of subsequent deep disappointment. "

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He may make good television, but he may well be the most leftwing major party nominee for the Presidency since George McGovern. It's about time this was made clear.

Happy Birthday Israel but...

The 60th anniversary of Israel was always going to provoke strong responses from those who align themselves to both sides of the Arab-Israeli dispute. Many Jews will celebrate that Israel has survived 60 years surrounded by those committed on its destruction. Palestinian Arabs condemn it as 60 years of occupation.

So this post will be controversial.

The founding of Israel was a political decision, a decision that the British governed territory known as Palestine should be divided into states based upon nationality, and implicitly by religion. It was one of the first actions by the UN. Words are important here, after all arguably everyone living in the territory of Palestine is Palestinian, although the word is only used to describe the Arabs living there. There is no other distinction for the word "Palestinian". However, equally all Arabs living in Israel can be said to be Israelis.

What is clear is how much isn't clear about the years leading up to the creation of Israel. Zionists did act, violently, against Arabs. Arabs responded in kind. Quite simply, bald nationalism drove both sides, and still does - the notion that because one belongs to a certain nationality, there is some greater entitlement to land than that of others. It divides people who wish to live side by side on the same land, and it is a division promoted by the UN from day one.

So Palestinian Arabs have wanted to destroy Israel from day one, although Fatah in recent years has recognised Israel and accepted a "two-state solution", it would be fair to say that many Palestinian Arabs want Israel eradicated. On the other side, many Israelis also sought the end of any notion of a Palestinian Arab state, some wanting the West Bank and Gaza to be part of a greater Israel. However, many also today accept that a "two state solution" is probably the only way that Palestinian Arab aspirations will be met. Having said that, Jerusalem will remain a problem, because of the different ghost intepretations that Jews, Muslims and Christians have and conflicting claims to that city for the same reason.

The right approach would have been to grant independence to all of the Palestinian territory, but for it not to be Israeli or Arab, but a secular state comprising Jews, Arabs and others. Zionists did not seek this, but then neither did many Arabs. Arab nationalism and Jewish nationalism both held the same collectivist malignancy. Had Palestinian Arabs had secure private property rights they could have justifiably held onto their own land, or sold it to others including Jews. State land could also have been sold. The displacement of Palestinians, by fear or by force was wrong - but that was then.

Palestinian Arabs rejected the UN partition plan of 1948, and sought to destroy Israel from that day forward. Since then Israel has created a modern liberal western democracy, light years ahead of the authoritarian Arab regimes that surround it. However, the issue of what to do about Palestinian Arabs has been the thorn in the side of Israel ever since, and especially for the Palestinian Arabs themselves.

So on the one hand Israel has reason to celebrate, having been attacked numerous times by those willing to destroy it, it survives, flourishes, maintain an average standard of living that is the envy of its neighbours, and has a relatively high level of freedom and corrupt free government. On the other hand, the West Bank and Gaza are disaster areas. Israel's occupation of both long made sense while neighbouring states vowed to destroy it. However, the creation of settlements, and the virtual martial law endured by Palestinian Arab in those territories has antagonised, and seen much suffering. It is clear that this must be addressed.

Israel has always said it was prepared to trade land for peace. It exchanged the Sinai Peninsula territory that it held after the Six Day War for peace with Egypt. It made peace with Jordan after Jordan recognises its right to exist, and relinquished any claim of the West Bank. Peace with Syria remains elusive, partly because the totalitarian one party state in Damascus finds it convenient to be a haven for terrorists and a rallying point for Islamists (ironic for a secular socialist party). No doubt peace with Syria will involve a settlement regarding the Golan Heights in one way or another.

The rest of the Arab world wont make peace until the Palestinian Arabs do. Much has been surrendered to them in recent years as overtures to make progress were made, by granting autonomy.

Palestinians were granted a chance with the withdrawal from Gaza, a chance they squandered. Gaza could have become a focus for reconstruction, the building of infrastructure, education, a free trade zone, a place for Palestinians and those who govern them to build an enclave of success. Somewhere to say to Israel - "Look we can look after ourselves peacefully, now let us have the West Bank too".

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Palestinians voted for Hamas, Hamas chose to use Gaza to launch attacks on Israel proper. Palestinian Arab's chose politicians who are vowed to destroy Israel. Who is surprised that Israel wont concede anything to these people?

Meanwhile Israel is a prosperous country with Western standards of living and a modern technology driven economy. It benefits enormously from US taxpayers, but is, if Arabs paused for a moment, an example of freedom, prosperity and tolerance in that region. The weeping sore of the Palestinian Arabs needs to be healed before Israel can live in peace, but as long as they follow Islamists or socialists, they will remain impoverished. The incompetence of their leaders will be hidden by blaming Israel for their woes, whilst their leaders continue to gain the benefit of subsidies from their oil rich Arab neighbours.

Israel still lives in an environment where many of its near neighbours don't believe it should exist, and almost the whole Islamic world follows this from Sudan to Indonesia. It has Iran, breaching IAEA rules and wishing its annihilation. Perhaps the only UN member state where other members explicitly call for its eradication. It deserves congratulations for surviving against wars that tried to destroy it, and neighbours that wanted it replaced with a Marxist or Islamic dictatorship. In that process of fighting for survival, it has accidentally killed many, and nobody can pretend Israel has not made many mistakes in how Palestinian Arabs were dealt with (indeed until 15 years ago mainstream Israeli politicians were still advancing a greater Israel). However, despite these mistakes Israeli citizens can be proud of the state they have defended, while they have been fighting they have built a livable modern society - when given the chance, Palestinian Arabs have so far failed. Israel is never going to go away, it's about time all its neighbours recognised this.

Oh and by the way, Israel knocked out Saddam's first nuclear reactor, supplier by the ever peace loving morally uplifting French in the 1980s, and last year knocked out Syria's. Nobody else had the courage to do either of those actions, and the world is undoubtedly a better place since Israel prevented Saddam and Assad junior from obtaining nuclear weapons. Something I doubt anyone in the so-called peace movement has ever cheered, because after all none of them really care about peace.

Endorsement of Edwards boosts Obama

After Hillary's winning of West Virginia, John Edwards's endorsement of Barack Obama should be decisive in confirming Obama's candidacy for the Democratic Party.

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John Edwards was an earlier candidate in the Democratic Primary race, but pulled out on 30 January. He had won 19 delegates in the early primaries in January and was considered very much the third place runner. He was Vice Presidential running mate for John Kerry in 2004.

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If Obama can shore up those who support Edwards, who is from South Carolina, he may have every reason to weaken Clinton's professed claim on the "white working class". A claim that is implicitly racist (white working class voters wont vote for a black man).

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Hillary wont back down though will she? It will drag on, and I am far from unhappy about the contest between two statist believers in big pork-barrel government continuing.

Manchester endures rioting Glaswegians

100,000 Glasgow Rangers fans arrived in Manchester today, where the UEFA cup final was being held, with Rangers playing Zenit St Petersburg. You might think, yes sensible for a sports fan to travel to the city where a key game is being held.

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Ah, they went to watch the game. Well yes, but on big screen TVs. You seen maybe a fifth of the fans have tickets to the match, the rest came to get bladdered and watch the game on big screens in town. Yes, they travelled to watch the game on TV! (yes they could've done it at home or at the pub since it was on ITV(free to air)).

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Uh oh.

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The city is packed with drunken Scots, it got so bad the city's tramway had to be shut down because it couldn't get the fans out of the way of the trams, despite the whistle and horns that blast very loud. Thousands of Mancunians couldn't get home from work as a result.

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The Manchester City Council, believing the event was making a fortune for the city, set up three locations with huge TV screens so fans from Glasgow and Russia could watch the match and party. Then one of the screens fails five minutes into the match. What do the fans do? Throw bottles and cans at the screen (because that will help). Then, the BBC reports "there's Rangers fans throwing balls and cans at each other because the game's not on."(sic)

See Glaswegian soccer fans don't need supporters of other teams to fight, they just fight each other when they're pissed off!

Zenit beat Rangers 2-0, and a Zenit fan was stabbed as the congratulatory gift from a Ranger's fan. The Manchester Evening News website reports only eight arrests, and Greater Manchester Police consider it a success. Frankly, besides the angry crowd around the failed screen, it was!

Qantas stuffs up A380 cabin release

When Singapore Airlines highlighted the new cabins as the first airline flying the Airbus A380 "whalejet" it got accolades. From the Suites providing proper beds in cabins with sliding doors, being undoubtedly the best first class in the air, its fully lie flat wide business class seats (as wide as the pitch between typical economy class seats), and its slightly wider economy class seats with bigger entertainment screens. Singapore Airlines has something to show off and rightfully so.

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Emirates is the second airlines to fly the A380, but has not released interior photos. Qantas will be the third, but has.

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It's so underwhelming, some commentators think the airline has screwed up. I'd have to agree. Here are the publicly available photos. The first class looks no better than Air NZ's Business Premier but reversed the other way, the business class looks like current Qantas business class but the seat cushioning looks dishevelled and uninspiring. Economy class, yawn. Now it might be better if professional photographers and the PR wonks tart it all up (as they should've, not just let some journo take some pics), but look for yourself. Would you choose Singapore Airlines or Qantas? I don't think there is any contest... Singapore remains supreme.

Abandon the railways or just the facts?

The former editor of NZ Trucking Magazine Jon Addison has written in the NZ Herald proposing that the rail network be ripped up and the corridors used to build dedicated trucking roads. I don't agree, I think the cost of that is prohibitive in itself and much of the rail network is too narrow to make that worthwhile (don't forget most railway lines are single track, which means one way roads!). I also think that some railway lines are economically viable (2 hourly freight trains on the main trunk line isn't a bad use of that corridor).

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However, he has made some very good points that those who worship rail as a religion, than simply a technology, often ignore:

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"New Zealand's rail network is constrained by more than its ageing bridges and locomotives. Its 3ft 6in (1067mm) narrow gauge tracks limit the speeds at which trains can operate and its 150 tunnels are too small to accommodate double-stacked containers, which have boosted rail efficiency overseas."

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"Taking the last of these first, the introduction of Euro 5 emissions standards in Europe this October and inevitably eventually in New Zealand will mean that in some urban environments the truck exhaust will be cleaner than the air entering its engine. Truck noise levels have also reduced significantly.

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While the fuel used by an efficient train will be less than that used by trucks carrying the same weight, this ignores the fact that freight is invariably carted by trucks at one end of the train trip and often at both ends. And at the transition, fuel is used by forklifts or container cranes and increasingly used to maintain the temperature of freight while its waiting to be moved.

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As far as driver efficiency is concerned, change is on the way. Most of the major automotive manufacturers are working towards driverless vehicles and some are predicting that they are less then 20 years away. All of the technology exists now, and some of it is already appearing in production vehicles.

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Interesting stuff indeed. He concludes by suggesting that maybe converting the rail network to roads wouldn't add up, but it is worth investigating. Perhaps so. I am more convinced it could be worthwhile using the rail corridors in cities for roads, but in Wellington and Auckland too much money has been poured into passenger rail for this to be worth considering for now.

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Meanwhile, Keith Ng in the NZ Herald has a column called "Just the Facts" where this week he challenges Richard Prebble's assertion that "it was a myth to say rail was environmentally friendly if the production of rail, locomotives and the need for trucks to take goods to destination were counted". He claims an EECA study is the most authoritative, because it claims the energy intensity of road vs rail is a factor of around 5 to 1. What he doesn't say is the basis for this comparison, because the factors vary wildly. For example, a truckload of freight from Wellington to Petone by rail will burn a lot more fuel per tonne km, than a trainload consigned from Wellington to Auckland.
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but then he goes to Chris Kissling of Lincoln University. Yes, the same one I fisked a month ago for advocating bullet trains in NZ, "smart clothes" that automatically open doors and "steer people around hazardous places" and that the future of flying is that passengers will be drugged and stacked horizontally on beds! Kissling presumably supplies him with a European study about environmental costs, which makes rail look good, failing to point out to Keith the most recent comprehensive New Zealand study directing comparing rail and road freight environment costs -
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I've quoted it before, the Ministry of Transport's Surface Transport Costs and Charges study.

It contradicts what Chris Kissling and Keith Ng says, showing that Keith isn't showing "just the facts", since he ignored one of the most authoritative studies. What did it say? Well it compared the environmental impacts of freight between Wellington and Auckland, Napier and Gisborne and Kinleith and Tauranga. The comparison is as follows:

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Environmental costs per net tonne km in NZ$

Wellington-Auckland rail NZ$0.008, road NZ$0.006

Napier-Gisborne rail NZ$0.002, road NZ$0.002

Kinleith-Tauranga rail NZ$0.001, road NZ$0.004

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So in other words, on average it is more environmentally friendly to send freight by road between Wellington and Auckland than by rail, but the opposite between Kinleith and Tauranga. In which case, Richard Prebble is pretty much right.

How to help stop the outflow to Australia

Not PC has said much of what I want to say about the first Rudd government Budget in Australia.

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Difficult to argue with tax cuts that are matched by spending cuts and a budget surplus. This is the sort of language that the National Party can't understand, and this is a Labour government using it. Just shows how far to the left mainstream politics in New Zealand has been dragged by Helen Clark and Michael Cullen, and how meekly John Key and Bill English have followed them there. The fact the Australian Greens are moaning that defence spending is 40x that on climate change shows the budget is still sensible.

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Of course a fortune of middle class welfare and industrial pork is being spent too, as Australia squanders the good times, and the spending cuts are relatively modest, but nevertheless there is a lesson for National. How DO you close the gap in GDP per capita between Australia and NZ and how do you encourage NZers to stay?

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Australia has a A$16,000 tax free income threshold. Adopting the Libertarianz (and now ACT) policy of a NZ$10,000 tax free threshold would be a start. However, what else does the Australian income tax regime show?

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I used the Australian tax office and NZ IRD tax calculators to find out, using the 2007-08 year as my base.

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A present it is as follows:

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A person on A$180,000 (NZ$221,000) pay A$61,350 (NZ$75,258) in tax. In NZ the same amount (NZ$221,000) would see income tax of NZ$77,412. In other words you pay NZ$1,884 a year more in income tax in NZ compared with Australia.

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The second tax rate is 40%, it cuts in at a threshold of A$80,001 (NZ$98,147) from this year.

A person on A$80,001 would pay A$19,850 (NZ$24,352). In New Zealand someone on NZ$98,147 would pay NZ$29,547 in income tax. You pay NZ$5,195 more in income tax in New Zealand compared to Australia.

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If you earn A$40,000 (NZ$49,058), in Australia you pay A$7,350 (NZ$9,015). In NZ you pay NZ$11,059 in income tax. That's NZ$2,014 more than in Australia.

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For A$20,000 (NZ$24,532) in Australia you pay A$2,100 (NZ$2,576). In NZ you pay NZ$4,784, NZ$2,208 more than in Australia.

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You get the picture. That's BEFORE the current budget. That budget cuts the second highest tax rate from 40% to 37% in stages by 2010, and the raises the threshold for the 15% rate. Dr Cullen cannot even start to pretend that income tax in New Zealand is competitive with Australia. The left can go on about wages, but if wages increase in New Zealand so do the taxes - you are better off - dollar for dollar - earning the same wage in Australia compared to New Zealand.

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So how DO the rates compare.

In Australia the first A$6000 is tax free, New Zealand has no tax free threshold.

After A$6000, Australians pay 15% until you get to A$34,000.

In New Zealand you pay 19.5% on every dollar up to NZ$38,000.

After A$34,000, Australians pay 30% until you get to A$80,000.

In New Zealand you pay 33% for every dollar after NZ$38,000 until you get to NZ$60,000.

After A$80,000, Australians pay 40% until you get to A$180,000, after which you pay 45%.

In New Zealand you pay 39% for every dollar after NZ$60,000.

Of course, the tax free threshold does mean that you have to earn more than A$180,000 before you pay more than you do in New Zealand. So you might wonder why tax policy in New Zealand is to penalise around 99% of the population, relative to Australia.

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So while political parties wonder what might help stop the brain drain, they may look plainly at tax rates.

UPDATE: And the Dominion Post reports that someone on NZ$30,000 would pay 37% less in tax living in Australia compared to New Zealand following the Australian LABOUR budget. How wilfully blind can the left be that tax isn't an issue? It was also noted that with that budget, Australians have had ten years of continuous tax cuts, whereas New Zealand has had eight years of no tax cuts and one year previous of a tax increase. Nevermind, New Zealanders really don't know best how to spend their own money compared to Dr Cullen do they? That, after all, is what Labour and the Greens believe, do you?

Rapist has a right to housing in the UK

The Daily Telegraph tells the tale of Michael Clark. He is a charming fellow, he's a welfare beneficiary. Until recently, his criminal portfolio included the following:

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- Three years for sexual assault of a woman:

- Seven years for raping a woman in her own home;

- Three years for sexually assaulting another woman;

- Conviction for assault;

- Two convinctions for assaulting police officers including biting the testicles of one.

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After completing his sentence for the sexual assault he moved to Leeds. Like the useless man he is, he went to the local council wanting to be housed. The council refused. He hadn't been a resident before, besides his criminal record hardly made him a priority. However, the charity "Shelter", who he apparently approached, told the council that it couldn't refuse him as it could face judicial review for - wait for it - infringing upon his human rights.

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You see, in the UK, a convicted rapist has the right to force the rest of us to provide him with housing. Whilst others struggle facing mortgage foreclosures, and paying rent, they are forced to pay council tax so criminals can have somewhere to live. That's the caring loving embrace of socialism, embracing the criminal whilst a clasped fist is ready to threaten you if you don't pay FOR him.

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So the council found him privately provided accommodation and he went on a benefit. Parasite is the correct word. He became friends with a family two houses down from him. Although he was on the Sex Offenders' Register, they had no idea who he was. His sentence included no post release supervision or probation, so he was free. So one day, he entered the family's home, inside was Zusanna, 14, who he sexually assaulted, then he stabbed her, stomped on her head and slit her throat. After doing that he went to the Post Office to get his benefit and took a trip to Blackpool.

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He is now doing thirty five years for her murder and sexual assault.

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So who is responsible for this monster being funded and housed to commit crimes, again and again?

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Well the Police claim that "regular checks" were being made on him and he was being "managed in the community". Clearly. It would be easy to blame the judiciary for not sentencing him to preventive detention with him already having a string of violent offences including those of a sexual nature. After all, how many times should someone be allowed to ruin people's lives before they should be locked away for good.

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Leeds City Council claims it was not concerned about his rights, but mentioned that Shelter warned of judicial review if it continued to refuse to house him. So the council capitulated. Of course it should have refused, but if its legal advice was that it is futile then it had to find a place for him. Placing him close to a family could be seen as negligent, although where DO you put a convicted rapist?

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Shelter denies asking or threatening a judicial review, although it did say "Questions need to be asked as to why this young girl and her family were housed next to a known sex offender" as it appears they moved in after Michael Clark had been housed. Why should they be the ones who are inconvenienced because of a piece of pond scum? I'd prefer if Shelter actually used its OWN money to pay for him to live somewhere if they give a damn.

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So who is to blame? Well it is political. Politicians pass the legislation for sentencing. 35 years for murder of a young girl is a nonsense. The man should have life, the man should have had tougher sentences for being a repeat violent offender, and he should have been monitored given he was already determined to be too dangerous to release back into his home town! However, there aren't enough prisons (politicians decided that one).

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Secondly, politicians granted everyone, including convicted violent criminals, the "right" to housing. What this means is that everyone else is forced to pay for those who aren't able and/or willing to work to make enough to pay for somewhere to live. It's not a right at all of course, because if everyone claimed it - it could never be delivered. It only "works" because the majority of people can pay for their own housing and their incomes can be pilfered to pay for others.

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So what should happen? Recidivist violent dangerous criminals shouldn't be free -simple as that. They should be in prison, for life, to protect the rest of us. All those with convictions for violent offences should have no claim on the state for welfare or housing. You are worried they will starve or steal? Go give them some of your charity, go on, help them. I couldn't care less if the likes of Michael Clark were found drowned in a stream, he has no interest in living a peaceful existence leaving others alone - he is a threat, but if someone wants to save them, go for it.

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However, in the UK, you can be a rapist, come out of prison and you can expect everyone else to pay for you to live and be housed.

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Socialism is so fair isn't it?

Chavez calls Merkel a Nazi

According to the BBC he has now effectively called German Chancellor Angela Merkel a Nazi saying "She is from the German right.... The same that supported Hitler, that supported fascism. That's the Chancellor of Germany today."

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so there are still people on the left who are sycophants to this lunatic? All she said was that he doesn't speak for Latin America, and unless Venezuela is some great new imperial power, she is right.

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Another thieving leftwing autocratic maniac.

Why liberation from Saddam isn't enough..

Whilst one of the most widely understood mistakes of the invasion of Iraq was to fail to have a comprehensive, well armed strategy to control the country, impose law and order and confront the Islamist insurgency, a less well understood one is the more complicated one, the more delicate one - the need to confront the sexist violent culture than lay underneath. It is this that the Islamist insurgents are taking advantage of.

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Take the case of Rand Abdel-Qader. She's 17 and dead. She used to live in Basra in Iraq.

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As the NZ Herald reports, her father stamped on her, suffocated her and stabbed her to death. He remains free.

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What did she do? She fell in love with a British soldier, who she had had merely conversations with over several months. She dared to talk to him in public, so, it appears under Iraqi culture, it was ok for her father to murder her for the "disgrace she brought".

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The police approved of his actions. After he killed her, her corpse was thrown in a makeshift grave and her uncle spat on her before she was buried.

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"it has been alleged by one senior unnamed official in the Basra governorate that he has received financial support from a local politician to enable him to "disappear" to Jordan for a few weeks, "until the story has been forgotten" - the usual practice in the 30-plus 'honour' killings that have been registered since January. Such treatment seems common in Basra where militias have partial control."

Her mother supported her, but is paying the price. "Rand's mother, 41, remains in hiding after divorcing her husband in the immediate aftermath of the killing, living in fear of retribution from his family. She also still bears the scars of the severe beating he inflicted on her, breaking her arm in the process, when she said she was going."

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So you see that's what the insurgency brings to Iraq, but it is also what appears to be culturally and legally "ok" still. It is unclear if this young woman would be any better off under the secular government, but what is clear is that fundamental values of life, freedom and decency remain absent from many in Iraq. Short of full scale occupation and imposition of a constitution and individual freedom (ala post war West Germany and Japan), this cannot be achieved. The benefits of making Iraq into a liberal democracy that respects individual rights and freedom would be high, but the costs are also very high, and sadly US foreign policy has been obsessed with democracy as the answer - when democracy can often deliver the sad fact that a majority of people in a country may be sexist, racist and want the government to do violence to minorities.

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Under the status quo there is no easy answer. Westerners could help fund and support Arab womens' groups and those fighting for individual rights in Iraq. Western governments could pressure Iraq's government to act against honour killings. However, one of the most important actions is to continue fighting the Islamist insurgents. They are the enemies of the West, but as importantly they are enemies of many ordinary Iraqis.

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Of course, ignorant so-called peace loving anti-Americans who apparently care about women's rights will still support the insurgency. Barack Obama meantime would just sit by and let Iraq go Islamist.

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Hat tip: Jameson's blog on Solopassion

Is it real?

OK, whilst Hillary Clinton has won, as expected, in West Virginia (country roads, take me home, to the place, I belong) large parts of which are the "hicksville" that Obama so deftly insulted. Hillary is claiming that working class white voters are what counts (and with a poll saying 35% of her supporters would vote McCain rather than Obama she might be right, although it may be exactly the same with Obama I suspect).

However, to digress look at this photo. Hillary constantly does this faux "grin of recognition and point" action when on a podium. I know it's petty, but the lying power hungry shrew does it EVERYWHERE, as if she has friends in every state and every town. Is it fake? Or is she laughing at the poor dress sense of her supporters, or their messianic banality to want this compulsive liar run their lives?

The murdering thieving scum in Rangoon

Associated Press is reporting the following:

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"The United Nations said Tuesday that only a tiny portion of international aid needed for Myanmar's cyclone victims is making it into the country, amid reports that the military regime is hoarding good-quality foreign aid for itself and doling out rotten food."

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"A longtime foreign resident in Yangon told the AP in Bangkok that angry government officials have complained to him about the misappropriation of the aid by the military. He said the officials told him that quantities of the high-energy biscuits rushed into Myanmar by the WFP on its first flights were sent to a military warehouse. They were exchanged by what the officials said were "tasteless and low quality" biscuits produced by the Industry Ministry to be handed out to cyclone victims, the foreign resident said."

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There is only one answer - it is direct intervention. If government wont do it, why not let mercenaries? Oh that's right, it was banned by Labour, and supported by the Greens. No doubt because some mercenaries are questionable, but what would be better for Burma now than a private army going in and taking control of the devastated areas in the country, and pointing guns at the kleptocratic dictators to get them to pull back and let these destitute people be saved?

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There is no legitimacy in the Burmese government, it deserves no respect - contrast it even to the communist party led dictatorship in China which DOES care for the people devastated in the recent earthquake. That's why, despite what is bad about China, it has come a very long way in recent decades and nothing compares China to Burma.

What did Peter Brown think before he went there?

According to the NZ Herald when asked about the junket to eastern Europe you paid for and the personal highlight of the trip, he said it was Auschwitz, and of it said:

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"I didn't believe it would be so evil....."

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What does it take Peter? Seriously. How fucking evil does genocide have to be? What did you think it was, a prison camp?

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then to top it off, he just doesn't get it.

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He said "it just reinforced for me the importance of democracy"

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Why, because the Nazis got elected? You honestly think the Nazis would have lost elections in the 1930s? Would it have been ok had the Germans voted to gas the Jews (they voted for anti-semitic policies)? Pick up Daniel Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners... I doubt democracy would have saved the Jews Peter. The word is freedom, but you belong to a nationalist xenophobic party that has been propping up the Clark Labour government, you don't really understand that concept.

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This, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of one of those people you trust to make decisions on your retirement income, your healthcare, your kid's education and how to spend around 40% of your income. It's not his fault, he's just not very bright.

British Labour increases tax free threshold out of desperation

Following on from the fiasco of abolishing the 10% income tax rate (putting thousands of people on low incomes on a higher tax rate), the absolute gutting of Labour in the local body elections, polling for the Crewe-Nantwich by-election (a safe Labour seat) that shows a 7000 vote majority being overturned with a Conservative victory, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced a "compensation package". He had to, as Labour backbench MPs were threatening to vote against the Budget legislation because of the abolition of the 10% tax rate, quite simply Brown's government was risking losing supply from its own party! The days of Labour being trusted with the economy in the UK are over, but it is two years till the next general election.

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The package is simple. The low income tax free threshold is to be raised by £600 per annum to £6035 a year. However, the so-called "rich" get none of it, because the threshold for the 40% top tax rate is being reduced by the same proportion.

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Of course none of this comes from cutting spending. No, another £2.7 billion of borrowing to fund this tax cut. Never mind, Labour wont be in forever, they can let those nasty Tories clean up the finances and get them blamed for cutting spending.

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Labour under Gordon Brown is running bigger and bigger deficits and an ever more complicated tax system. How long can Labour in the UK overspend and overspend? Could it ever consider that its heavy borrowing programme contributes to the credit crisis and the level of interest rates?

Meanwhile, New Zealanders might wonder why neither major party believes in income tax free thresholds, when their family and friends in the UK can earn around NZ$15,000 and pay no income tax. Libertarianz and ACT are advocating a $10,000 tax free threshold and even the Greens advocated a $5,000 threshold at the last election.

The lesbian threesome that wasn't

Got to love "Flight of the Conchords" Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie. According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

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"Scruffy New Zealander Jemaine Clement from the folk-parody group Flight Of The Conchords was approached by a girl at a party in Scotland, who invited him to a spit roast. She wanted to know if Bret McKenzie, his band mate, would also attend. Thinking she was referring to a barbecue, Jemaine said yes. Hey, they both liked meat. "She said, 'I wouldn't usually ask. I'm a lesbian,' and I thought, 'Why would that stop you asking for a barbecue?"' Soon after, Clement discovered a spit-roast was British slang for a threesome and declined, mightily embarrassed."

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What can you say to that? They probably didn't want to see each other's meat or else she really wasn't worth it, plus it might have helped had she brought along three friends - you see THAT's the threesome famous guys want.

Party pill regulation continues

Having succeeded swimmingly in not reducing harm by banning BZP, the Dominion Post reports that the Health Ministry is now proposing a different approach to other party pills. Age restrictions, labelling requirements and licences to sell them (all stuff to make a bureaucrat wet himself). Now while I'd agree with an age restriction, labelling requirements seems over the top and having licences to sell something isn't proven to do much other than put up the price and start creating a black market - BUT my big question is this. Why hasn't BZP simply been treated the same way? Why not legalise BZP, put an age restriction on it and regulate it?

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If ACC was abolished, then those who sell such products would face the risk of damaging lawsuits for causing personal injury by accident - in other words, just like most countries in the Western world. Whilst the ACC folly continues, the arguments for some regulation of substances remain.

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However, my question remains - if party pills are to be controlled like alcohol, why not make extend this to BZP, and remove the ban?