Got to last night’s media7 taping. The subject was National’s broadcasting policy. South Pacific Pictures’ John Barnett and Christchurch Broadcasting School head Paul Norris joined National’s broadcasting spokesman Jonathan Coleman.
It was interesting to see important National policy clarified, and what looked suspiciously like policy-making on the hoof. Russell Brown posts on the most news-worthy bits, which I’ve held off posting about as I was there as a member of the audience only.
Sanity has prevailed. But only because George Hawkins managed to get Parliament’s consent last evening for his Private Member’s Bill to proceed by presenting it when both ACT MPs were not in the House. The Bill aims to restrict the number of liquor outlets.
The Nats tried to make political capital from the minor spate of violent, bungled crimes over the past week — each one a tragedy. In contrast to ACT’s view that Hawkins’ Bill is just a “cynical and transparent attempt” to make it look as though Labour cares about public safety,” National criticised the amount of time it had taken the Government to tackle the proliferation of liquor outlets.
Despite his professed concerns over delays, Key still proposed “a comprehensive select committee inquiry” to look at law and order taking in the liquor use and licensing issues.
Perhaps ACT’s MPs decided it would be better to, er, hide, while their colleagues unanimously let Hawkins’ Bill proceed. Apparently he was applauded for his efforts.
Around the blogosphere… Idiot Savant examines the basis for this “knee jerk reaction” with his/her/their customary perspicacity, while skinny on-sells TV3’s comparison of liquor outlets per capita, and gets confused about the issues. Maybe he should stick to identifying stock images.
Postscript: Got to last night’s (Tuesday) taping of media7, on the media treatment of the Police. Some very interesting stuff emerged, so catch it tonight if you have a freeview box, or download it tomorrow. Details on Russell Brown’s publicaddress blog.
Went to the taping of Media7 last night. The episode, which screens tonight, deals mainly with the Massey University lecturer’s paper that claims that Pacific Island immigrants are a drain on the NZ economy, and reporting of Pacific communities’ affairs generally. The panel is DomPost editor Tim Pankhurst, Barbara Dreaver and Oscar Kightley.
I can confirm that the episode is bloody good, tackling hard questions on important issues in an entertaining way. It’s well worth catching tonight on TVNZ 7 at 9.30pm (if you have a Freeview box — I’ll be getting one now) or downloading tomorrow. It’s also worth watching out for an invitation at Russell Brown’s blog to a recording session on a Tuesday evening at The Classic.
I’ve already posted on the Clydesdale paper, though without having a copy at hand. A pdf file of the paper is now available — not that I am suggesting that it is worth the effort of reading. And it is an effort. But I thought I should take a look myself having blogged on it, and my fears were confirmed.
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