OF PHILANTHROPY AND INVESTMENTS

Brent Wheeler has an interesting piece on Canterbury University's little fund raising effort. Well worth the read as usual.

FONTERRA GIVEN ALL CLEAR BY FOOD SAFETY

Fonterra has been facing an issue over posssible melamine contamination in NZ milk. Food Safety has given them the all clear. Phew.

LINE BY LINE DOLLAR BY DOLLAR THEY GO

People in and out of Government departments are head down and tushes up as they pour over the books of each and every Government department and Ministry. Line by line the go, project by project, programme by programme, trimming , snipping , biffing out , asking why, asking how and asking "what the fuck?"


Up they front to Ministers with weasel words, fawning over their new masters whispering n how good they have been and how much they have trimmed, offering up only dust, only to be told to go away and come back with more. Some have been told twice already that they must do better. CE's stare at you with the eyes of the hunted in the lift. It is a new dawn and the cold light of reality sees them shiver.

It is a beautiful thing to behold. People in the hinterland should be allowed to come to Wellington to watch to give them some satisfaction that this government that they gave their good votes to, is performing financial liposuction on the bloated beast that is the public service.

Over coffee you hear the whines and the howls and see the tears from some as their little fiefdoms are sucked of fat. In other corners rivers of joyful tears run down the faces of the pragmatic as finally they see the waste being put in a bucket and turfed out. Gone are the raspberry and white chocolate muffins, gone are the two course luncheons for little meetings, Going are the Koru Club cards, gone are the oversized rentals. Going are the spurious overseas conferences for " networking." Going are the crap documents in huge storerooms that serve no purpose, remain unread, never distributed.

All is Bliss - just bliss.

STIMULUS PACKAGE

Keys stimulus package is a good start - all good projects with lots of spin off benefits. Hosking will be pleased

HOSKING CALLS FOR FINESSE

And rightly so. Rob Hosking of the NBR , one of the smarter financial and economic journalists around the traps always offers a wise and considered opinion on the meaty issues. His article today on the Stimulus package is on the button. We dont need flashy - or we will get lots of inflation and that will put us into the death spiral we think that the US is headed for. We need smart thinking. Now girls know all about stimulus - its something that needs to be done with finesse and something that should not be done in a hurry.

JOHN KEY TALKS DIRTY

And we are all aswoon.....

We might employ a person to help us now...

Full details of the stimulus package here

COME ON JOHN WE NEED SOME FOREPLAY

Has anyone else noticed the similarity between sex and the economic stimulus packages touted by world leaders ?
We have and as much as our elderly aunt - (see pic left) thinks that John Key is sexy, we think he is falling short on the stimulus package foreplay. So far the lead up to what National is going to do to excite the economy has been like a a bit of a fumble behind the bike sheds. So John , before we can get stimulated we need a bit of warming up. Time to start talking dirty to us to us big boy or we will lose interest

GOOD ON YA ARCHIE

Now more that ever we need Maori to work together.

Archie has always been one of our favourite Maori leaders, he is a quiet but steely man and very gracious.
It ia times like these we need leadership..

Press Release by Te Ohu Kaimoana - The Maori Fisheries Trust at 10:02 am, 30 Jan 2009

Te Ohu Kaimoana has now transferred more than $440 million worth of Fisheries Settlement assets to iwi - a resource that could play a key role in helping Maori come through the current global economic crisis, the organisation's Chairman Archie Taiaroa told Maori leaders today.

Speaking at Te Ohu Kaimoana's annual meeting which was opened by Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley in Wellington, Mr Taiaroa, said wise use of the Settlement resources by iwi, particularly in the regions, can help keep Maori employed.

"We must look at ways of assisting our people through these tough times - and by doing so look after our country - through putting our economic resources back into the regions to allow our people to manage their own economic base.

"Maori and iwi are significant players in fisheries, and we should all be looking at how we can utilise Settlement resources to support our people at this difficult time," Mr Taiaroa said.

He told delegates that 48 of the nation's 57 iwi now had Mandated Iwi Organisations (MIOs) to which assets could be allocated and, crucially, 25 iwi now had full or partial coastline agreements.

Under the Maori Fisheries Act, the Fisheries Settlement is allocated to MIOs on the basis of an iwi's size and the agreed length of its coastline.

"Te Ohu Kaimoana is putting a tremendous amount of work into assisting neighbouring iwi reach coastline agreements, and a lot has been achieved in the last year," Mr Taiaroa told delegates, including Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley.

Mr Taiaroa said Taranaki had been a particular success story with the first big group of six adjoining MIOs - Ngati Mutunga, Te Atiawa, Taranaki, Nga Ruahine, Ngati Ruanui and Nga Rauru - having "come to the very wise conclusion that co-operation was in their mutual best interests".

He said after many years, Ngati Kahungunu and Rangitane on the North Island's east coast have come to agreement, and Ngapuhi have settled all their coastline through a number of agreements with other iwi.

"I can't emphasise enough that our future success is all about how we co-operate as iwi," he said.