Happy Easter

Posted by Lambcut (the Brunette is away).


Easter is irritating to an irritable perimenopausal atheist. It’s Good Friday. It’s cold in Wellington in a thin, dry, sunless sort of way. And, everything is fucking shut. We have ANZAC Day to look forward to. I like ANZAC Day. In fact I love ANZAC Day. I trundle down to the cenotaph at dawn in the cold and become warmly emotional remembering elderly relatives and brave countrymen who fought in the great wars. And, I feel patriotic. But be in no doubt the patriotism I feel does not extend to a love of government. This government is turning my waning oestrogen to vitriol.

This 5th National government rules by bureaucratic fiat. It’s not too far from a constitutional crisis. It’s running round sacking Councils, creating obese Czars and not listening to anyone who might know anything helpful. It is without proper advice from industry, commerce and critical stakeholders. Nat5’s approach to the Ultrafast Broadband initiative is a perturbing case in point. Vodafone, TelstraClear, CallPlus, Kordia/Orcon, 2 Degrees, Maori rural Broadband Initiative bidder Torotoro Waea and its partner Opto Networks, Federated Farmers, Consumer NZ, InternetNZ and TUANZ have joined to protest the potential monopoly created by Telecom’s advancement. Steven Joyce is not listening.

A quick glance around the House reveals with staggering clarity that the necessary knowledge and experience to know and decide absolutely everyfuckingthing for you and me cannot be found within the House. Even scant knowledge of the bureaucracy will tell you that appropriate experience and knowledge is not contained in there.

I can understand why there has been a strong reaction against the precious and costly over consultation of the 5th Labour administration, especially in relation to the RMA. But at the moment we have Minister’s Offices and entire Ministries completely disengaged from industry, commerce and other vital pools of knowledge that exist outside the bureaucracy and the Beehive. That didn’t used to happen under Lab5. Other preposterous pie eyed, bury-advice-in-an-avalanche-of-cluster-fucking over-consultation happened. But not this overweening-overconfident-I’ll keep-my-head-blindly-up-my-arrogant-ass sort of crap.

It’s creepy and it reminds me of Muldoon. Have a happy Easter.