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, Phoebe Fletcher from the Auckland University Film, Television and media department, Tim Selwyn - the last man to be convicted of sedition in NZ and Ben Thomas the Political Editor of the NBR.

Tim & Ben – Greenspan – oops I got it wrong there’s a once in a century credit tsunami hitting us. Are we all Keynesians now?

The Political Wrestlemania rumbled all week,
The Greens this week forfeit strategy for idealism by openly stating their preference for Labour. It might give them less muscle at negotiation time but if the Greens wins those Labour Party Electorate voters who give the Greens their Party vote knowing it will back Labour, then the election result might hand the Greens a stunning increase in MPs and that in itself will carry muscle at the negotiating table. The Youth vote this time around seem as likely to vote National as they are Greens, because most are too young to remember life under National, so the stoner curse of low turn out on polling day may dissipate as the Greens, through the best billboard campaign this election, have broadened their support base well past just youth. Party preference before election day, smart move or dumb move?

Maurice Williamson – mugging Peter to bribe Paul and then charging Paul a road toll. So money National steals from our retirement fund will be used to build roads we will have to pay a toll on and Maurice can’t wait to bizarrely crow how much that toll will be. Is Bill English dying to tell John Key I told you so about Maurice?

Lockwood Smith – bitching to a newspaper that it wasn’t fair that employers who bring cheap migrant labour into the country should have to pay to educate them on how to use modern toilets and bathrooms while quipping that it’s better to bring in Asian workers because their small hands were more nimble at picking fruit. Is Lockwood
a) In denial
b) Hanging out too much with Millie Holmes?
c) A Labour Party deep cover agent?

Electoral Commission clears Winston but ironically pulls up Rodney Hide and ACT for not declaring $20 000 – is it a case of Rodney calling Winston black? Is Winston going to get over 5% and is John Key kicking Murry McCully for the whole dump Winston strategy?

John Key warns the country about the 5 headed monster of Labour-Progressives-Maori-Green-NZFirst but National may need Nation-ACT-United-Maori party meaning he’s a 4 headed monster. Doesn’t this line of thinking show National still has a FPP bias in an MMP environment – Helen is the Queen of MMP, but John is National No Mates. Helen has run MMP governments and can do so well, National having little experience with having to share power see the process as a 5 headed monster, Key's description of MMP Government as a 5 headed monster says more about his shortfalls than the systems. At 45% National have all the angry white vote it’s going to get, it won’t get over that forcing Key to find coalition partners, why hasn’t anyone in National seemed to have understood this fact?

NZ First Editorial that effectively threw any pretence of objectivity out the window this week with one of the most biased editorials ever calling the election for National with the simplicity of thinking Garth George or Jim Hopkins can normally only muster. There is going to be a lot of furious National Party supporters if National don’t win this election, the Herald will be one of them. Some pretty one sided Polling by Herald, Fairfax and TV One have created an expectation well out of synch with the historically more reliable Roy Morgan and the TV3 Poll which called it right last election – if National lose this election is John Key gone and will the National Party implode?

Week 2 of the election campaign – who is the winner?

In the Weekend Newspapers
STORY 1 – Contact directors' big night out - hos
Contact Energy directors enjoyed an expensive dinner at one of Auckland's headline restaurants the night before facing the wrath of shareholders over plans to boost their pay packets. As their customers fume over increased power charges, the six Contact directors and about nine senior managers spent an estimated $2000-plus at Soul restaurant on Wednesday night.
At the following day's annual meeting, small shareholders expressed disgust at the increase in the pool for directors' fees from $770,000 to $1.5 million, when the company's power prices increased 10 per cent. The public backlash, which included accusations of greed from Prime Minister Helen Clark, prompted the directors to drop the plan.
This story is delicious isn’t it? Greedy Contact directors boozing it up at $130 per head swanky meal while good honest kiwi battlers have their backs against the wall because of an SUV, Plasma TV, Plastic surgery on credit property speculation consumer lifestyle that’s gone pop, Mercury had to cut off the power and kill a sick Pacific Island woman to get this hated.


STORY 2 – Want Labour? VoteWinston, experts say - sst
VOTERS WANTING a Labour-led government should vote tactically for Winston Peters, say political scientists Nigel Roberts and Barry Gustafson. Labour voters in Tauranga had enough votes to swing the seat to the New Zealand First leader, guaranteeing the party a presence in parliament and providing a coalition partner for Labour, Roberts told the Sunday Star-Times. And if enough Labour voters outside Tauranga switched their party vote to New Zealand First, the party would exceed the 5% threshold and provide at least six seats for a Labour-led coalition.
Doesn’t this show how important the minor parties have now become – NZ First, The Greens and The Maori Party are now all pivotal in the formation of the next Government - is NZ smart enough to tactically vote?

STORY 3 – Back-stabbing and recriminations begin but McCain team insists he can still win - sst
John McCain's closest advisers claimed yesterday that he is still capable of winning the presidency in spite of low morale inside his headquarters and infighting over who is to blame for the campaign debacle.
It looks like a total landslide to Obama and the Democrats will have real muscle to force through progressive legislation the way I hope a Maori Party-Labour-Greens Coalition might be able to achieve – was the focus on Palin’s wardrobe costs sexist? Would a male politician be judged on the cost of their wardrobe? Palin started the week calling Obama someone who pals around with domestic terrorists and ended the week claiming Obama wants to implement Socialism - is she really the hope of the Republican Party?

FINAL WORD – News this week at an Employment case ruling that a large construction company who has shockingly been given name suppression claimed that sexualized bullying like getting dry humped by your managing director, having other workers flick your genitalia and being told by your boss what your boss would like to do sexually to your daughter is actually not only endemic on construction sites all over NZ, but that such sexualized bullying is an important part of male bonding on construction sites. Being dry humped by your managing director, having your genitalia flicked and the sexual designs of your boss for your Daughter are acceptable is it? Shouldn’t we publish the name of this company – how can they hide who they are if they think this behaviour is acceptable? Note the company doesn’t deny any of this has happened in the Emplymoent Court case, they actually try and defend it they suggest this level of unacceptable behaviour is not only rampant but so entrenched that it has its own set of justifications? If that is true, if what this large Construction Company who have their name suppressed is true, then the full weight of Public disgust should be vented and noted and the loss of business and scrutiny be allowed to roast them the way it has roasted Contact to pull back from their greedy and ugly pay rise. If this level of sexual bullying is as widespread as this Company claims it is, then shouldn’t this Company’s public crucifixion be a very clear signal to the rest of the Industry that this level of behaviour is simply not tolerated in the same way racism or homophobia or sexism is not tolerated in the workplace – or have we given up on those progressions, is that too, how does Talkback put it, ‘Politically Correct’ – basic respect and treatment towards eachother is too ‘Politically Correct’ is it NZ? Is there some other level of behaviour that is acceptable to working class men that isn’t acceptable to the rest? Basic human respect for one another demands much better treatment than this disgraceful and debasing behaviour and demanding that basic human respect shouldn’t be decried as nanny state, and it should be recognized that those accusations of politically correct are actually part of the problem.

Lets be Frank 10pm tonight, Oliver Driver asks what has Labour done for the environment, Environment Minister Trevor Mallard and the Director of Greenpeace go one on one and debate if Labour has walked the walk.

Let’s be Frank Tuesday 8.30pm – Alt Tv Exclusive! He turned down Bill Ralston and TVNZ but NZ First leader Winston Peters is one on one with Oliver Driver for 30minutes on why the country should be concerned about a National Party Government, the SFO and Electoral Commission reports, Mathew Hooten’s foul mouth and why the media don’t like Winston.

Stay classy Alt-eroa, here’s this weeks moment of media zen