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Good

Bad.

Bad and...

...kinda dumb if you are trying to claim that the Tino Rangatiratanga flag is a symbol of a dived nation when the logo of your own party has at its core the flag of a foreign nation, and kinda dumb to now be campaigning to dump the Labour Party logo that you've made such a prominent part of your blog. Kinda dumb. So he's trying to be racist again, but it just looks silly - and now the decision has been made it also looks a bit petty.

John Key's talking about unity and maturity and the future and national identity with Maori and the Crown constructively working together with harmonious race relations - as a Tory and as a leader of a conservative Pakeha party. That is a smart move. And Phil Goff and the Labour party? They are talking about "division" and hating on Maori - as a party of the left and kept afloat by Maori. That is so dumb. That is so fucking dumb it just checked into the Thicko suite at the Hotel Idiot and started drinking from the bidet.

Labour are alienating their own voters and the conservative red necks they are trying so desperately to attract will always vote for the real Tory - not the poor imitation Tory-lite Labour version. Trevor is ploughing ahead regardless in the hope of an opinion poll bounce - and the spectacle is going to see Goff have to squirm a little more before they drop it. The next target is...

Ugly

The "Whanau Ora" policy and the roll-out of it will be the next race-bait issue for Labour in the new year.

And in related news:Simultaneous translation is something most people who have witnessed parliament (and probably the MPs themselves) have wanted and now it's happening. Great. But it does not sound like the 99% of English spoken is going to be translated into Te Reo though - which is a shame.

The translators will probably find it easier than now - I think for the longer speeches they write notes and then at the end read from them.

They should have both translations as audio options on Sky and Freeview - that would be very cool. In some countries they have a sign language translation in an inset. NZ sign language is an official language and earlier this year they had a week when someone was signing. It was often very entertaining seeing the live juxtaposing of what the politicians were saying with what the physical expression of it translated to. They made it quite clear when the speaker was just waffling for example.

The other issue this raises is whether Hansard is a transcript of what is said or is a journal that must be transcribed into English. Either way it should be translated into Maori and now they have that ability via the translators.