PITCH IT HERE

Well we did say that the " tent " rumoured to house Party Central for the Rugby World Cup was a bit grander that the teepee that the Herald reckon was going to be ptiched on the Queens Wharf in Auckland - and we were right...

So if the Aucks aint interested we would be more than happy for the   "tent"  to be pitched at our place.

RUDMAN GETS IT WRONG

Normally Brian Rudman gives a reasonable view of the world. He's not the best writer or the best analyst but his points of view are nearly always well reasoned.  But todays column he says that  Maori putting their hands up to run prisons on the back was not an ethical investment .  That raised our ire.

Its plain crap. running drugs is not an ethical investment. Running stand over operations is not ethical. Running casinos is not ethical. All leave Maori worse off.

Running prisons would show that Maori are willing to own the problem. They can institute some of the tough love, restorative justice type programmes that they know work. They will be much harder than pakeha running jails simply because they will have so much to prove. It is very ethical for Maori to run prisons. And if they make money doing it good on them. It is no less ethical that they get paid than any multinational private prison company.

Rudman seems to contend that Maori should not be making money out of the sorrow of their own people. Wrong, to coin a much used phrase  - If they own the problem they will be better placed to find  the solutions to the high incarceration and recidivism rates of their own people