The Sunday News Roast

On the Sunday News Roast tonight at 7pm, Sky Digital 65, Alt Tvs News and weekend newspaper critique show that is Unfair & Unbalanced, THE SPIN STARTS HERE with the best political news team on television with your host, Bomber - head of Current Affairs at Alt Tv, Blogger, Phoebe Fletcher from the Auckland University Media Studies department, Tim Selwyn - the last man to be convicted of sedition in NZ and Ben Thomas the Political Editor of the NBR.

Tim – Community Policing and Winston. John Armstrong is suggesting that Helen won’t execute the old fox and will let him whimper off to die quietly under the deck.

Ben – Was Winston lucky with Capitalism having chest pains this week?

News that caught the eye this week
1: Auckland City Council are holding secret meetings to run all their assets as a company, Westhaven, Auckland Airport shares, and all the cities recreation facilities are to be run like a business, will we see user pays for council services? John Banks was given a privatization plan by his friend Bill Birch and it looks like the good mayor is acting out Birch’s wet dream fantasy.

2: The financial market meltdown, was it a blip or a symptom of a full scale stroke? As Finlay MacDonald notes in his column today in SST, this is not the financial position of a Superpower. He points out Bear Sterns was leveraged at a ratio of 26 to one, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 80 to one. With a Trillion committed and another Trillion about to be committed by the States in a bailout, how precarious is the debt position of America now? McCain claimed an hour before the meltdown that the fundamentals of the American economy were sound, and an hour after the meltdown was trying to redefine the word ‘fundamental’ while Sarah Palin called for strong Government that deregulated the financial world even further.

3: Michael Cullen tried to tie John Key to Merill Lynch this week as an example of the dodgy fast money tactics he would adopt if Prime Minister. Why didn’t Cullen just stick to actual National Party economic policy rather than John Key’s CV to make his point because massive overseas borrowing to fund tax cuts and subsidize corporate public-private crony capitalism exploitation of infrastructure in a newly unregulated environment highlight the similarities of America’s current predicament with what National are proposing much better than throwing mud at John Key. Will Labour over cook the argument in this election by personalizing it too much?

4: Banning gangs? Really Phil? Has Phil been eating raw meat again? Isn’t this just electioneering crap, how could our under funded, corrupt, over stretched and violent prison system cope with 10 000 newly imprisoned gang members? Didn’t talkback rednecks gleam crimson with incandescent rage that gangs had applied under the Treaty of Waitangi this week and they even mentioned the dreaded ‘c’ word – Colonialism! Interesting to see Labour can decide when the cut off date for claims is AND they can determine which claimant is legitimate and which claimant isn’t.

5: The joys of bondage under National – smart move to look at bonding certain professions by wiping off debt for those Doctors and Nurses that stay in NZ rather than move overseas. This is as socialist as National get.

In the Weekend Newspapers
STORY 1 – Judge lambasts top cops in damning report - sst
THE ACTIONS of some of the country's highest-ranking police have been criticised in a damning Independent Police Conduct Authority report due out later today. The report - released after a two-year investigation - makes adverse comments about 10 Dunedin police, including four inspectors, a detective senior sergeant and two detective sergeants. Justice Lowell Goddard is understood to criticise police for their involvement in private investigations of ACC clients - and for how they handled their subsequent inquiries into complaints. The inquiry was launched after conflict of interest allegations that Peter Gibbons - a former Dunedin CIB head who became a private investigator working for ACC's fraud unit - used his police constable son-in-law to improperly obtain search warrants and seize property from ACC clients. The clients alleged that when they complained, senior police - including three of Gibbons' former CIB colleagues - failed to act. They also alleged that warrants were issued on false and misleading information.
In the same month that the Policing Bill passed unchallenged to consolidate power over the Police directly under the Prime Minister and in the same week we have new Police powers recommended that will give Police access to the SFO’s power of no right to silence with their intention to broaden that well beyond white collar corporate crime to citizens using da gangs as a smokescreen AND gaining the power to break and enter your home to plant spy cameras without Judicial oversight for 4 days, in the same week that we hear serious allegations of corrupt police practice by misusing the proceeds of crime act - we now get a damning report showing what can only be optimistically called a gross perceived conflict of interest. Why are the Police gaining powers when they aren’t properly using the ones they have? And hasn’t the Independent Police Conduct Authority shown they have a big pair of teeth?

STORY 2 – Fonterra "should have known"
FONTERRA AND New Zealand embassy staff in China failed to notice the looming scandal over melamine-contaminated baby formula despite months of rumours on popular internet sites, and a TV news programme about babies falling ill after drinking milk products. And a Christchurch political scientist says Fonterra's lack of understanding of the Chinese political and business environment meant the dairy giant was out of its depth before it had even bought its 43% shareholding in China's largest dairy company, Sanlu, in late 2005 for $US107m.
Well we were talking last Sunday about why we had to read about the story of one of NZs largest companies involved in poisoned milk in the world section, that evaporated as quickly as protein in Sanlu milk products as the national news media bothered asking some questions. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but is monitoring local media a hindsight too far? What about criticism of not being open eyed in doing business in China. Finally, and perhaps the most damning question –On their website, Fonterra boast a code of ethics that states they will show “moral courage and leadership”, was waiting 6 weeks to go public showing “moral courage and leadership”.

STORY 3 – By day a teacher ... by night a prostitute - hos
An Auckland primary school teacher is moonlighting as a prostitute, throwing her school bosses into a quandary over her future. The woman, a mother of two children in her 30s, is new to teaching and moonlights as a prostitute to boost her income. The Herald on Sunday understands her principal was alerted to the situation by a student's parent. It is understood the principal is now in a dilemma - prostitution is legal, but he is worried about the reaction of other parents and students if they find out about the teacher - and has referred the matter to the school's board of trustees.
The Teacher when asked about her moonlighting profession pointed out that it was none of the schools business and that she was regarded as a good teacher and it did not effect her teaching ability. Is she right?

STORY 4 – Sacked lecturer reinstated - Weekend Herald
A political science lecturer sacked by the University of Auckland for an angry email he sent to a student has been quietly reinstated. Dr Paul Buchanan was sacked after sending an angry email to a United Arab Emirates student, refusing her an extension in June, 2007. But after a recent meeting between the two parties, the university has confirmed that Dr Buchanan has been reinstated.
Paul Buchanan has been re-instated by Auckland University after his ill tempered email to a Muslim student, remarkable turn around when considering how dirty the Auckland Uni have fought to dismiss him with him winning $60 000 in damages. Was the University of Auckland out of line and why the sudden reversal?

FINAL WORD – The dirt in this campaign. With Helen playing up the trust issue right when her trust is at issue, my prediction is Labour have dirt on Key and the National Party and it will be dropped either 10 days out from the election or the Wednesday before the Saturday election. It will be John Key’s secretly taped comment from the infamous cocktail party and any evidence that links a high ranking MPs spouse to the Hagar hollow men e-mails. National also have their own bombshells regarding the Police and Labour – oh the filthy mud that will be sprayed. It’s gonna get very very very dirty out there.

PS – Bill Ralston’s new election show on Prime is easily the best on NZ screens right now.

Lets be Frank 10pm tonight, Oliver talks to Robert Fisk. Replay of this weeks amazing interview.

On Tuesday Let’s be Frank Judith Tizard and National Party MP Nikki Kaye face off on why Auckland should vote in Labour or National.