Death of an Ombudsman

Chief Ombudsman John Belgrave died last night after a long battle with cancer. Other people are praising him as a public servant and a gentleman, and I can attest to the latter: I interviewed him a few months ago for a project which has since been buried in slack and distraction, and was surprised he'd spend his time on a mere blogger with an interest in OIA issues.

I'll see if I can post the interview later.

Time to buy back the trains too

A few years ago, the New Zealand government bought back the track, repurchasing the vital infrastructure flicked off for a song by the Nats in the 90's. Now they're apparently looking at buying back the trains as well, after repeated failure to reach a long-term agreement with Toll Holdings (the railway operator) on track access fees.

IMHO this is a good idea. Rail services are vital infrastructure, and its entirely appropriate for the government to own them. While the partial model did partly resolve the key problem of private ownership - the tendency of private owners to cut back on maintenance spending and run down the infrastructure, effectively mining the company for short-term profits - it was only a partial solution. While Toll is supposed to be paying access fees sufficient to maintain the track, they have consistently refused to do so, and even rejected a mediated settlement and an independent assessment of reasonable fees. So in short, we're effectively subsidising them, and paying for their profits, by maintaining the infrastructure they depend on to run. Buying them out - effectively paying them to go away - will taste bad (who wants to reward a bunch of asset-stripping corporate pirates?), but it will finally solve the problem created by the ownership model, and allow us to have a properly planned rail network and services again.

Climate change: Australia is in

Australia's newly elected Prime Minister has been true to his word:

Australian Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd has been sworn in as prime minister, following a landslide victory in parliamentary elections last week.

Immediately after the ceremony, Mr Rudd signed documents to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, reversing the previous administration's policy.

"This is the first official act of the new Australian government," he said.

The US is now totally isolated as the only developed nation opposed to taking action on climate change. Unfortunately, we'll still have to wait until january 20th 2009 for their policy to change.

Democracy wins in Venezuela

Hugo Chavez's constitutional referendum has failed, 51-49. So, no presidency-for-life for Chavez; he'll have to reconcile himself to passing on the reins of power, according to the existing constitution.

As for the other reforms, while there's a lot there I agree with, a constitutional referendum is not the place for them. Rather, they should be debated and enacted by the legislature. Chavez has an overwhelming majority there (thanks in no small part to the opposition boycotting the last elections - a stupid, counterproductive tactic), and half the reforms were added to the list by the legislature in the first place, so its not as if he won't be able to get them through. But he'll have to do it constitutionally, according to the normal legislative process, rather than being able to change the world in an instant. And while that may be slower, it will also give the reforms he does manage to enact far more democratic legitimacy and durability than the referendum would have.

Embarassing

Oh dear. John Key has had to withdraw his much hyped "Ambitious for New Zealand" DVD for copyright reasons; it seems that - despite National's claims to the contrary - it does in fact make unauthorised use of Coldplay's "Clocks" (or at least is close enough for Coldplay's record company to send them a cease and desist).

This is highly embarassing - and all the more so because National is supposed to be the party of private property rights (except, it seems, when it suits them). But its also a warning that we should be careful about electing them next year. After all, if National can't even organise a campaign video properly, how can we possibly trust them to run a government?

Something to go to in Wellington

Transparency International NZ is holding a seminar before its AGM this Wednesday on Strengthening Trust and Reinforcing the Spirit of Service in the State Services [PDF]. The speaker will be Mr Beith Atkinson of the State Services Commission.

When: Wednesday, December 5, 17:00
Where: Lvl 2, James Smith Building, Cuba St

So, if you're interested in public sector values and the Public Service Code of Conduct (hot issues given the Setchell affair), why not go along?

Democracy loses in Russia

Last week, the Guardian reported that the Kremlin was working hard to rig this weekend's Russian Parliamentary elections, calling government workers in to vote on their day off, and threatening university students, doctors, and bureaucrats that they would fail their exams or lose their jobs if they failed to vote for Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party. Here's one example:

Another in Yekaterinburg wrote: "Today my wife came home in shock. As the boss of a state company she has been told that all her workers living in different parts of town must take absentee ballots and go to vote in Kirovsky district. She has to go and sit all day on December 2 and call round everyone in her collective. Then she has to provide a list of who has voted." She then received a directive warning her to add anybody who didn't vote for United Russia to a list, and later those people would be "called to the office" of the local administration.

Unsurprisingly, preliminary results show United Russia winning a landslide victory, amid reports of arrested opposition activists, multiple voting, and mass fraud. Democracy, it seems, has lost in Russia.

Shrinking coalition watch

Australian Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd has promised that Australian combat troops will be out of Iraq by mid-2008. The US doesn't seem to have many friends left, does it?

OTOH, the way Canada is going, adopting Bushite positions on climate change and the death penalty, I'm sure it'll be no time at all before Harper is sending Canadian troops to die for Halliburton.

Defeating paedophobia

The Law and Order committee has reported back [PDF] on Ron Mark's Young Offenders (Serious Crimes) Bill, and recommended that it not be passed. The bill would have lowered the age of criminal responsibility for "serious crimes" (anything with a penalty of over three months imprisonment or a $2000 fine - which translates to pretty much anything in the Crimes Act) to 10, allowing kids to be railroaded into the District Court and jailed for anything beyond the most minor shoplifting. It was a vicious expression of the growing paedophobia of NZ First's elderly voter base in reaction to a few nasty cases, but as the saying goes hard cases make bad law. In the end the select committee was not convinced of the need to overturn the entire youth justice system and the longstanding principle of doli incapax simply to satisfy Ron Mark's reactionary and authoritarian impulses. Instead, they're pointing at the current review of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 as a way of addressing some of the issues raised by the bill.

The interesting question now is whether NZ First will throw its toys out of the cot. Labour support for sending the "kids in jail" bill to select committee was a centrepiece of the Labour - NZ First confidence and supply agreement [PDF]. Wil NZ First jerk the chain in order to push its vicious agenda, or will they accept that their bill was so flawed that not even National would support it and resolve to try again some other time?

Literacy and headlines

New Zealand reading skill takes a drop, reads the headline in today's Herald, reporting breathlessly that New Zealand has fallen from 13th to 24th place in the Progress in International Reading Study. But then it goes on to say:

But despite dropping on the list, New Zealand students have maintained a consistently high standard of reading in the past five years.

Their average reading score was 532, higher than the study's international average of 500.

The average score for New Zealand students in the first study in 2001 was also high, at 529.

So, while the headline says we got worse, reading skills actually improved. Except, obviously, for those of the people responsible for the Herald's headlines...

Democracy may win in Venezuela

Venezuela will go to the polls this weekend in a constitutional referendum. While the referendum will amend large parts of Venezuela's constitution, the primary aim is to extend the Presidnetial term and repeal the existing two-ternm limit, allowing President Hugo Chavez to run for further terms rather than having to retire at the end of 2012. No matter what you think of Chavez's policies, this sort of self-interested constitutional tinkering is deeply undemocratic and constitutionally dangerous, and something no democrat should endorse. While no constitution is carved in stone (and neither ought they to be), changes of this nature need to be done for some reason other than prolonging your own time in power.

The good news is that according to recent polling, the referendum may fail:

A survey for Datanalisis, a polling company, said 49% of likely voters would vote no and 39% would vote yes. A tracking poll by the opposition-linked Hinterlaces pollster predicted a technical tie.

The bad news is that Venezuelan polls are notoriously unreliable, given that they tend to be performed by partisan agencies and avoid poling the poor. But there's at least some hope that democracy may win in Venezuela, and it may avoid further sliding into authoritarianism.

Update: And OTOH, it looks like the CIA is up to its usual dirty tricks again. It would be nice if the "exporter of democracy" actually lived by its rhetoric and let the people of other countries make their own decisions, rather than seeking to covertly influence or even overturn them [Hat tip: Dawg's Blog].

New Fisk

A different venue, but the pious claims and promises are the same

First life intervenes

As you may be able to tell from the lack of posts, I'm a bit busy at the moment. To steal Russell's phrase, first life is intervening.

Hopefully posting will return to normal next week.

In the meantime, things I'd like to blog about: the Information Commissioner's conference happening in Wellington this week (there's been little mention of it in the news, but I've been getting some interesting press releases about what's being discussed there), another edition of "In the ballot", the recent child health report, and of course more on the Electoral Finance Bill.

Climate change: "a massive threat to human development"

The United Nations released its annual Human Development Report [PDF, large] on Tuesday, and in amongst the rankings, it also delivers a pretty stark warning about the effects of climate change. Calling it "the defi ning human development issue of our generation" and "a massive threat to human development", it goes on to say:

Climate change is already starting to aff ect some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities around the world. A worldwide average 3° centigrade increase (compared to preindustrial temperatures) over the coming decades would result in a range of localized increases that could reach twice as high in some locations. The effect that increased droughts, extreme weather events, tropical storms and sea level rises will have on large parts of Africa, on many small island states and coastal zones will be inflicted in our lifetimes. In terms of aggregate world GDP, these short term effects may not be large. But for some of the world’s poorest people, the consequences could be apocalyptic.

[...]

This development progress is increasingly going to be hindered by climate change. So we must see the fight against poverty and the fight against the effects of climate change as interrelated efforts. They must reinforce each other and success must be achieved on both fronts jointly.

And otherwise, we are going to condemn half of humanity to a future of diminished opportunity and life expectancy, and increased danger of drought, famine, or extreme weather events. And that is not something we can morally do.

(Oh, and for those who care, NZ ranked 19, one place up on last year, and 9 places ahead of its GDP ranking. Progressive social policy makes all the difference in the world. Meanwhile, Norway was toppled from its six-year reign in the top spot by Iceland).

The numbers on member's bills

FrogBlog has an analysis of the member's bills passed, defeated, and discharged so far this Parliamentary term. The short version: three bills have been passed, and thirty failed. All of those passed have been from the Green Party, demonstrating their ability to "build a democratic coalition, negotiate and put forward sensible pragmatic solutions to problems" (though its worth noting that at least two of National's bills resulted in the desired changes, despite being defeated). It's a lesson the other parties should learn. In an MMP Parliament, with no fixed balance of power, there is a real opportunity for opposition parties to pass legislation, if they pick their issues carefully and do the hard work of building a coalition behind it - in other words, for the legislature to act like a legislature, rather than a rubber-stamp for the executive. Unfortunately, I've yet to see other parties exploit this to the same level that the Greens have done; instead, they've focused primarily on highly ideological bills aimed primarily at making public statements rather than being passed. While there's certainly a place for that ("here's what we'd do differently"), it does represent a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Raise the refugee quota

Paris Aristotle, director of the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, says that we are not pulling our weight on refugee policy, and that we should raise our annual refugee quota. I agree. New Zealand accepts a derisory 750 refugees per year [PDF], or around 179 per million people. By contrast, Australia - who we all like to deride as racist and xenophobic in the wake of the Tampa affair and Howard's internment camps - accepts 6,000 per year, or 285 per million. As a country which prides itself on our commitment to human rights, shouldn't we aim to be at least as good as the Aussies?

Unfortunately, Immigration is still firmly in denial:

An Immigration Service spokesman said that, in proportion to its population, New Zealand had one of the highest rates of refugee acceptance.

Maybe they should go into business making Tui billboards?

American homophobia

How low can American homophobia go? I think it'd have to get pretty low to beat the policy of Palm Beach Community College in Florida, which gives its staff discounted medical insurance for their pets, but not their gay partners. So, in their eyes, gays aren't just subhuman - they're subcanine, subfeline, and subanurine as well.

[Hat tip: Galloping Beaver]

Another funding scandal for UK Labour

Just when the cash for honours scandal has died down, the UK Labour Party has been hit by another funding scandal, with the revelation that a wealthy property developer donated for than 600,000 pounds through four intermediares over the last few years. Some of the intermediaries apparently did not even know of the donations made in their names. This is a clear violation of the UK's election funding laws, which ban this sort of laundering, and it has already claimed the scalp of Labour's generla secretary. But no-one thinks he was the only person who knew about it, and questions are now focusing on how much other top party officials and senior MPs colluded in this flagrant violation of the law. Despite its promise to clean up politics and restore trust to the political system, it seems New Labour has behaved in a deeply corrupt manner to disguise the identity of its donors, and that this rot may go all the way to the top.

Coincidentally, we will be passing similar provisions to the UK in the Electoral Finance Bill (though there will be some scope for anonymous donation, laundering is banned). And it will be interesting to see whether National's rich donors will obey the law, or go to similar lengths to disguise their donations and influence.

Climate change: saving the rainforest

When we think of the causes of climate change, we think firstly of the burning of fossil fuels for electricity and transport. However, deforestation, primarily of tropical forest in the developing world, is also a significant cause, and is responsible for 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions - more than the entire transport sector. So if we want to solve this problem and bring our environment back into a sustainable balance, we need to find a way of discouraging poorer countries from cutting down and burning their trees. The problem, though, is that this is grossly inequitable. Timber and agriculture are significant industries in those countries, and usually their primary path to development. The west developed and insustrialised by cutting down its forests (look at how denuded Western Europe is), and we can't really deny that right to developing nations. If we want them to stop deforesting, we need to provide an alternative way for them to raise living standards and develop economically.

This has led to calls from the Rainforest Coalition for the west to pay them to preserve their forests. And this week, it has seen a dramatic offer from the former UK colony of Guyana to place its entire standing forest under international control as a carbon resevior. That's more than 16 milion hectares (37 million acres, for people who like archaic units) of tropical rainforest, holding as much carbon as the UK emits in 40 years, and (based on the data in their Initial National Communication under the UNFCCC [PDF]) absorbing around a quarter of the UK's annual emissions every year.

Naturally, they want something in exchange: a bilateral aid deal with the UK government, technical assistance, and help with encouraging private sector investment. If the absorption from Guyana's forests was priced at US$10 / ton (which may be a low estimate), they would be worth about US$300 million a year, or 10% of Guyana's GDP, which would be a welcome addition to Guyana's economy (they could also benefit from ecotourism, with the right investments). But the real value is in the resevoir, in stopping the trees from being cut down and setting them aside as a permanent carbon store and biodiversity reserve.

The bad news is that none of this counts under Kyoto. Guyana is a non-Annex I party, so has no Assigned Amount, therefore can not sell its absorption on the international market (there's an answer to this, of course - become an Annex I party). And avoided deforestation isn't considered solid enough to receive CDM credit (and for good reason). Despite this, the UK government is looking seriously at the offer as a way of sending a strong signal on the need to fight climate change and establish a model for bringing forest protection into the post-Kyoto framework. And if they don't take it up, I strongly suggest the New Zealand government starts looking at it (in combination with other nations). If we are to tackle climate change, we need to save the rainforest as well reducing our emissions, and this seems to be a good way of starting to do it.

It is time to end the occupation of Iraq

Well, that's what the Iraqi government is saying anyway. The UN mandate governing the occupation is up for its annual renewal, and the Iraqi government has made it clear that this is the last time it should be rolled over. After 2008, foreign troops should leave, or normalise their presence by bilateral treaties rather than UN-imposed diktat.

I take it as a given that the Iraqi government's wishes should prevail on this - it's their country after all. But it will be interesting to see whether the UN - or the US - agrees.