You Wanna Be The Gimp, Get In The Gimp Suit

A week of studyless days can almost be excused when they are punctuated by a series of timewasting, but nonetheless enjoyable, outings, as well as two of the funnest gigs of the year -- Electric Six at the End of Daze festival on Friday the twenty-first, and a superb birthday gig on the same day last week. Happy birthday Hanharrr and Hayden! The party took a while to get going, but once it took off, it really did take off. The two bands both provided great performances and reinforced an ever-building positive and good-natured atmosphere.

Two-piece act Johnny Lightning and the Thunderbolts (thanks for the link Hanharr) treated the audience to a series of slick, sharp and catchy numbers that proved to be delectably danceable. It's performances like that that help me remember just how enjoyable simple can music be. After having listened to so much complicated material laced with time signature changes and challenging lyrical concepts in my free time, it's almost refreshing to get back to the basics and enjoy some straight-up rock. The fact that Johnny Lightning and the Thunderbolts -- featuring Rebecca on the drums and Hannah on the guitar, with both putting in awesome vocal efforts -- are a two-piece band, only serves to accentuate the numerous merits of the performance. They produced a very impressive sound indeed. As their experience builds they're bound to evolve into a great, polished act. I'd be very keen to hear them play again.

Hayden's band Alphajazz also put on a great show in the latter half of the night, providing the audience, for the most substantial part, with a much-needed and thoroughly welcome sprinkling of soothing rhythms. Not only was it pretty much my kind of music, but Hayden was the lead singer. A number of Alphajazz's members are also part of a band called Inverse Order, and my friend Eric is quite familiar with them. He even texted me asking me to get something off of one of the musicians for him; unfortunately I had already headed home. Nonetheless the aforementioned factors established within me a weird sense of connection and affinity with the band. The excellent music sure helped too, being skankable in the sheerly salivatory sense.

Studyless days, however, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be excused when they are taking place outside of the time period between the two gigs that I have cited. Having spent the weekend watching Air New Zealand's new Boeing 777 arrive, driving around the South Auckland country backroads relatively aimlessly, making a row at a Halloween party -- also for no apparent reason -- and riding the first Sunday train to have travelled the Western Line in forty years or so, it is not very good that I have just spent virtually the whole of today visiting the construction site of the largest house in New Zealand (which I had access to because my dad's company is one of the contractors). Without a doubt, seeing that place was one heck of an experience, but the fact that I have done exactly one hour's study so far for my anthropology exam that is scheduled for Wednesday has the effect of putting a slight dampener on things at the moment.

Wayne Mapp And The Tyranny By Majority

Differences in perception, as well as a possible lack of organisation post-election, have become apparent within the structure of the National Party, in light of the words of MP Paul Hutchison appearing to be a direct contradiction with those of the newly-appointed Political Correctness Eradicator, North Shore MP Wayne Mapp, who was placed into the new position yesterday by Don Brash. Our dear friend Rodney did well to highlight the overbearing tone that was present in Wayne's speech that lead to his inauguration, going so far as to nobly concur with Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen's comment that the title of the new role is "chillingly fascist-sounding."

When one hears this sort of thing coming from someone such as Rodney, who is a vehement opponent of the alleged threat of political correctness, one can find themself becoming aware that this is a particularly exceptional circumstance that National has introduced. However, Rodney has pointed out a deeper aspect of the situation that is important to take into account. The speech made by Wayne that lead to his appointment would certainly serve to suggest that he is not just opposed to political correctness, but he is a forthright proponent of majoritarianism. Needless to say, majoritarianism is not a good thing, particularly in this situation, because as Rodney states, "The antidote to PC-ness is not a politician setting out to eradicate it as an idea but rather free minds, plain speaking, and the critical testing of ideas against the real world, not political ideology."


Wayne's words certainly make it seem as though he wishes to sideline minority opinion altogether -- as opposed to engaging in intelligent discussion with its proponents -- which would definitely not be a positive occurrence in a supposedly democratic society. Of potential further detriment to Wayne's credibility after making these statements is the fact that MP Paul Hutchison has laid out a buffet of apparent contradictions in saying that "The Clark/Peters Government must act on the recommendations of a Human Rights Commission report and improve access to public transport for the disabled." These words contrast greatly with those of a National Party member heard on Newstalk ZB this morning, saying that he wants us to be able to call disabled people "handicaps again." It all certainly appears to be in a bit of a mess at this stage, especially given the somewhat disconcerting use of the word "eradicator" in the title of the position that Wayne has been placed into.

What I thought was a surprisingly unashamed incidence of partisan journalism, being expressed in regards to this issue, was exhibited on TV3's six o' clock news yesterday. In an interview with Don Brash, in an action decidedly reminiscient of his frequent "My wife is Singaporean" catchphrase, the leader of the National Party pointed out that Wayne "is actually married to a Maori person." The reporter presenting the piece immediately cut in, providing a voiceover that placed heavy emphasis on what he would allege to be Don's attempt to put across the impression that National are not bigoted. "What was that? Not just a Maori woman, but a Maori person?" the reporter said. In doing this he was effectively commenting on the apparent political correctness that existed within Don's statement, citing in particular the avoidance of sexist language. The idea that was projected upon this viewer was that the reporter was pointing out Don's use of the "some of my best friends are brown" card. I must say I was somewhat surprised to see this sort of informal carry-on happening on the evening news.

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral System

The decision was made by the voters of New Zealand, and made official through a series of binding referenda that concluded around the time of the 1993 General Election, for the nation's former electoral system known as first-past-the-post (FPP) to be replaced by a new way of doing things that, as far as everyone knew, would serve to be a great deal more representative. As a result MMP, or mixed member proportional -- our current electoral system -- was introduced, with the first election taking place under it in 1996. MMP was perceived to be a breath of fresh air by many of those who had voted for it in the referenda. Its introduction of the party vote, which brought the total number of votes that a single voter is able to cast to two -- "one for a party, and one for a person [electorate candidate]" -- greatly decreased wastage.

Under FPP, virtually every electorate vote that was cast in favour of a candidate that did not make it into Parliament was effectively a "wasted" one. The MMP system essentially makes it so that the only "wasted" votes are those given to parties that fall underneath the five per cent threshold required to gain seats in Parliament -- and even then, if one of such a minor party's electorate candidates manages to secure an electorate seat, then the party votes will count despite the fact that they amount to less than five per cent of the vote. This is what happened in the case of Rodney Hide and the ACT Party this election. It was crucial to the party that Rodney gained that seat, because if he didn't ACT would have been out of Parliament altogether for this term.

During the time that it was in use as New Zealand's electoral system, FPP was criticised in some circles for being misrepresentative, as it failed to make room for minority voices in the guise of "left-field" MPs (in other words, candidates who did not either hail from the National Party or the Labour Party). Due to the horse race nature of the system, as reflected in the name "first-past-the-post," it was very difficult for small parties to gain seats in Parliament, because in order to be elected a candidate would require a large concentration of support in a given electorate. In the case of parties such as Social Credit, essentially the ancestors of today's Greens, they had such a narrow national support base that it was unlikely there were going to be enough supporters in any specific electorate to ensure one of their candidates a seat. Like the Greens, Social Credit's support was thinly spread across the country and this meant that they were greatly disadvantaged under FPP. Thirty per cent of the country's votes could well have gone to Social Credit, but if they didn't win an electorate then they would have zero representation in Parliament. This is just one example of how FPP failed to be representative.

It is interesting also to consider what the parliamentary make-up would look like if FPP were in place at the present time. United Future would have only Peter Dunne representing them in Parliament, ACT would have only Rodney, the Greens and New Zealand First would not even be present in the House despite the fact that they both could have gained more of the nationwide vote than United Future and ACT -- and most interestingly of all, Don Brash would not even have a seat. In recognition of these facts it can be said with reasonable justification that MMP has performed its task of being far more representative than FPP ever had the scope to be. When one looks at things on an even deeper level, it could be perceived that under FPP, Rodney would actually not be in Parliament, because he was essentially voted in by his Epsom electorate to ensure that party votes for the right-wing ACT would count -- under FPP there is no such thing as a party vote, so there would be no need for such tactical voting. Thus, realistically, it could even be said that under FPP, the present Parliament would consist solely of Labour and National MPs, along with the four Maori Party electorate candidates who succeeded in securing seats, and Jim Anderton and Peter Dunne who made it through via the Wigram and Ohariu-Belmont seats respectively. Votes for candidates from other parties would have been completely put to waste.

Regardless of FPP's extensive shortcomings, the four elections that have taken place under MMP have yielded questionably representative outcomes in themselves. Indeed, over the years MMP has provided much-warranted representation to a significant number of parties including New Zealand First, ACT, the Alliance, the Green Party, United Future and Jim Anderton's Progressives. However in a number of circumstances it has imbued particular politicians and parties with vast amounts of governmental swaying power, outrageously disproportionate to the share of the vote that said entities secured in those cases. The first example of this was in the 1996 election where New Zealand First received an admittedly significant thirteen per cent of the party vote. The Alliance also gained ten per cent, and ACT took out a further six per cent . Judging by the large proportion of the vote that was distributed to the minor parties in this circumstance, it is clear that New Zealanders were happy to take advantage of the MMP system at this stage and use it as a means to get minor parties, in correlation with their respective views, represented in Parliament.

It was to emerge that the post-election period would be riddled with complications. The fact that the minor parties had taken out such a large proportion of the vote, of course meant that the two major parties had fallen significantly short of the sixty-one seats that they each required should they wish to form a government on their own. As such the cruciality of the coalition negotiations was brought to the fore. Similar to the case of this most recent election, New Zealand First essentially held the balance of power -- whether they took up Labour's or National's coalition offer would determine who would be the next leaders of the government. Also in the vein of what happened this year, Winston used this to great advantage, wheeling and dealing as much as was necessary to put his party in a highly influential position. The negotiations following the 1996 election continued for an even longer duration than the ones which have concluded in recent days. In the end, New Zealand First entered into a coalition with the National Party that was destined to be unstable. A lot of New Zealand First's votes had been received from conservatives dissatisfied with National's policies on economic reform, essentially meaning that in many cases they would have been expressions of protest. As such many New Zealand First voters did not welcome their party of choice's coalition with National -- they felt betrayed. For a significant proportion of voters this was seen as a rather harsh first experience with MMP, as Winston's power of selection as to who would be the next government was highly disproportionate to the share of the vote that New Zealand First had secured. MMP had not proven itself in the first instance to be truly representative. The party has never made up the ground that it lost after it suddenly committed to prop up a National government after over a month of tedious post-election negotiations.

Come the next election in 1999, with National's leader Jim Bolger having been replaced by New Zealand's first female prime minister, Jenny Shipley, the government was a decidedly shaky one, not helped by Winston's actions of withdrawing New Zealand First from the coalition. This lead to the virtual inevitability of an election result that was more in Labour's favour than National's. However, Helen Clark, seeking to "make MMP work" and also to avoid a repeat of the previous election's coalition negotiations that had so frustrated voters, made a concerted effort to pull a coalition together remarkably quickly. The left-wing Alliance party did not even have to provide Labour with a policy statement in order to be invited into a coalition -- Helen was desperate to get a government formed and as such it appears that she was willing to take potential risks. The Green Party, having entered Parliament for the first time as an independent entity -- it was once a part of the Alliance -- provided the additional seats required to solidify the Labour-led government. It was to turn out that the Alliance was going to go through significant inner turbulence throughout the parliamentary term, which ultimately led to the party's electoral downfall. The Alliance's constituency, along with many individuals within the party organisation, were sceptical as to their party's compatibility with Labour -- it was apparently perceived that the Alliance was becoming subservient to its much larger coalition partner. MMP had again yielded a questionably stable and questionably favourable election result. Had the schism within the Alliance occurred much earlier on in the parliamentary term, the fact that the government was so dependent on its support could have produced a very ugly situation. There are certainly risks that exist in a hastily-assembled coalition government. Of course, one cannot blame Helen for wanting to avoid a repeat of the events of 1996. She was determined to make MMP work, and another negative experience could have been detrimental to its future success. Unfortunately, the slight wobble that the coalition experienced towards the end was enough to convince many people that maybe MMP wasn't such a good idea after all. There had essentially been two far-from-tidy coalitions consecutively.

As the term was reaching its end, Helen called an early election for July 2002. One presumable reason for this happenstance was that it was obvious that the Alliance's inner turbulence was likely to disrupt the fabric of the coalition. Shortly before the election, Jim Anderton vacated his position as a member of the Alliance and formed the Progressive Coalition Party. He subsequently achieved greater success in the 2002 election than the Alliance party. Less than five per cent of the party vote went to the Alliance, and they also did not gain an electorate seat. As such they were out of Parliament altogether and it was effectively electoral oblivion for the party. The Progressive Coalition did not receive more than five per cent of the vote, however Jim Anderton successfully defended his Wigram seat under the new party's banner, thus bringing the Progressives into Parliament. The Alliance's downfall had been largely due to conflict within the organisation as to its subservience to its larger coalition partner, the Labour Party.

2002's election result and the coalition that formed thereafter went reasonably smoothly compared to the previous two occasions in 1996 and 1999. Now, in comparing it with the all the other MMP elections including 2005, it can be rather confidently said that 2002 is the "least messy" MMP election yet to have occurred. This was helped, no doubt, by National suffering the most brutal defeat in its electoral history. Helen was not under great pressure to put a coalition together quickly -- however, Labour had received such a significant amount of the vote, that it was quite simply a case of forming an agreement with the Progressives and United Future, both parties being relatively centrist in comparison to the Alliance. Thus a government was formed reasonably quickly and effectively, and proved itself to be probably the most stable coalition yielded by MMP since the first election under the system took place in 1996.

However, the 2005 election has again highlighted the potential cumbersome and flawed nature that exists in MMP, with a scenario similar to -- but perhaps even more complicated than -- that of 1996 emerging. A revitalised National Party under Don Brash bled the minor conservative and right-wing parties of their votes. ACT, New Zealand First, and United Future all found themselves in relatively precarious positions. ACT and United Future only made it through due to their respective leaders winning electorate seats. New Zealand First received a marginal portion of the party vote, but enough to put them over the five per cent threshold. This is good luck for the party because with Winston having lost his Tauranga electorate seat, New Zealand First would have been out of Parliament had they not reached the five per cent threshold in the party vote. The Green party vote also suffered due to National's comeback. Left-wing voters, unnerved by the prospect of New Zealand ending up with a National-led government, shifted their votes in large numbers over to Labour.

In effect, the make-up of Parliament has essentially been reduced almost back to the old two-party fare, as was virtually the constant case under the old system of FPP. The fact that neither of the two major parties received a majority, though, and also that the minor parties had been so badly mutilated in the election, meant that a coalition was hard to piece together. New Zealand First found themselves in a position where they could exert tremendous amounts of power over who would be the next party to lead the government. This power was greatly disproportionate to the party vote that they achieved. It is not right that, especially under a supposedly truly representative system such as MMP, such a minor party could effectively hold Parliament and the nation's voters to ransom whilst it engaged in blackmail to secure a position of optimum influence.

It's blatantly evident that MMP bears a significant number of glaring flaws that have rendered it as not quite the system that the voters thought they voted for last decade. True, representation for the minor parties had been sought, and that has been delivered. Were it not for MMP there would be a far narrower range of views being expressed in Parliament today -- no Greens, New Zealand First or ACT. United Future would have only one MP. However, the sheer importance that potentially-far-leaning-to-one-side minor parties play in the propping up of coalitions could be seen to be somewhat dangerous, particularly after what happened in the terms beginning 1996 and 1999. Also, as illustrated by the 1996 and 2005 elections where on both occasions Winston has been imbued with the power to essentially choose the government, it is unrepresentative to a highly significant level.

FPP could not be argued to be much better in regards to the representation stakes. There is, it could be perceived, a somewhat pleasing "direct democracy" element that lies in the fact that, under FPP, all MPs gained entry into Parliament via an electorate seat. This likely increased the level of local involvement that people were inevitably going to have with the politician that correlated with their electorate. It could also have meant that MPs were democratically elected on the basis of their individual merit, as opposed to that of their party. Under MMP, a large number of the politicians that make it into Parliament do so because of being on the party list and making it through as a result of the party vote. In such cases the MPs have effectively not, on the individually specific level, been given a mandate to represent any community of New Zealanders in Parliament. In this particular sense it could be argued that FPP was, to a degree, a more democratic system. The reason that Labour's John Tamihere is no longer a member of Parliament is because he insisted to run for Parliament solely as an electorate candidate, citing the personal ethical reason that he wished to be chosen by a constituency to represent them in Parliament, as opposed to just being drafted in via the party vote.

Looking at it from most angles, though, FPP would appear to be relatively unrepresentative on the national level. As I mentioned earlier, minor parties were greatly disadvantaged under the old system. The fact that their size tended to mean that their votes were thinly spread across the country and not concentrated in a single electorate meant that it was extremely hard for them to gain seats in Parliament. Indeed, under FPP the elections were essentially a two-horse race on an electorate-by-electorate basis. Also contributing to the system's unrepresentativeness was that often a scenario would occur where, for example, Labour gained more votes nationwide but National gained more electorate seats. This particular occurrence would inevitably result in a National government coming to power, despite the fact that more people in the country had pledged support to the Labour Party.

It is obvious that for all its shortcomings, MMP is a significant degree better than what was in place once before. However, it's proven itself not to be good enough. The only way from here is up. There is no way that there could be a return to FPP as so many major party supporters are asking for. Thorough consideration of alternatives to MMP needs to take place. Perhaps New Zealand could even formulate its own electoral system suited to its specific needs, as a political climate exists here that is unique to anywhere else in the world. Doing such a thing would remove the risks of taking up the already-proven-less-than-perfect electoral system of a country on the other side of the world.

The Political Equivalent Of Something Superlatively Hypocritical And Bigoted

It was always perceived as a practical inevitability that Winston Peters of New Zealand First was going to end up being the kingmaker -- the man whose crucial post-election decision would determine which party would lead the government, and in turn which direction the country would take for the next few years. There was never a shade of doubt that given such a situation, he would milk it for all that it was worth to achieve maximum gain for himself; preferably a position from which he would be able to further his and his party's overbearing nationalist agenda. The observer was even relatively prepared for the event of Winston being given an influential ministerial position. However, the sheer self-important idiocy that he has exhibited since laughably taking up the role of Foreign Minister could not have been foreseen. The man really has crossed a line.

The first publically visible thing that Winston did after the announcement was made that he was to be sworn in as Foreign Minister was begin rabidly contesting the prolific claims that he had gone back on his word and betrayed his constituency by going with Labour, going as far in an interview with TVNZ as to accuse the media of lying about the nature of his decision. He claimed that the mainstream media's exhortations that he had sold out were "categorically untrue" and commanded TVNZ to "tell [the people of New Zealand] the truth for the first time, in a long time." As a part of the same interview segment, Winston held himself up as having saved New Zealanders from "a snap election in two months" with his decision to trigger the finalisation of coalition negotiations. He made a decidedly clunky attempt to assert that he had done what the public had wanted, by saying in regards to a potential snap election, "Do you want that? No, and neither do the people of this country." With all this taking place at the swearing-in ceremony at Government House, it was evident that Winston was already intent on engaging in extensive antagonism, regardless of his having successfully sealed the lucrative agreement that he was lucky to have had farcically slipped to him by Helen.

Winston was in no way seeking to cease making these same claims throughout the subsequent days. He was determined to make the New Zealand public believe that he was not in fact a traitor to his constituency and a self-interested, situationally exploitative opportunist completely bereft of electoral morals. A second tactic that he introduced with the intent of repairing the headless cardboard cutout that was his image, was to insist that Helen had effectively forced the ministerial position upon him in her desperation to scrape a government together before National could do so. It can be quite straightforwardly perceived that Helen would not do such a thing, having been admirably clear on her opinions of Winston during the past term. She has for a very long time been well aware of Winston's power-hungry motives and also of his potential danger to New Zealand politics in light of his decidedly disagreeable racism and, possibly now even worse, his sheer cunning and his inability to keep his word. Helen would not have handed the position of Foreign Minister to Winston with much willingness at all. The real case is that Winston found himself in a position where he could engage in an awful, cynical electoral blackmail of the then-caretaker prime minister to achieve the optimum position in which he could exert disruption upon the tolerant nature of this country.

That's not where it ends though. In a further attempt to assert himself as a man who is true to his word, Winston has made a request in recent days that is, in most level-headed observers' eyes, among the most heinous crimes against electoral morality that this most devious of men has ever committed. If anything, it serves to achieve the reverse to anything that Winston wished the effect would be. It is undoubtedly to the exponential detriment of his credibility, that it has emerged that, despite his ministership, Winston believes that the New Zealand First is still a part of the opposition to the government and in correlation with this farcical stance the New Zealand First deputy leader, Peter Brown, wants the party's MPs to be seated on the opposition benches next to the National Party. This is inarguably the most heinous attempt yet by Winston to establish himself as not a sell out, but a credible parliamentary individual. Fortunately, it is clearly evident that it has not worked. National, the ACT Party and the Greens have all expressed their dismay at New Zealand First's actions. The Greens of course are in a position where they are particularly outraged, as New Zealand First is requesting that the Greens sit on the government's side of Parliament despite the fact that New Zealand First prevented the Greens from actually being a part of the government. In saying that she considers New Zealand First to not really be a part of the government, but merely on a confidence and supply agreement -- thus attempting to show sympathy towards Winston's plight -- she is showing her lack of willingness to offend the coalition partner and thus her dependence on the nationalist party to maintain the government. Practically all of the electoral events that have occurred since the shape of the coalition was confirmed have been a testament to the devious nature of Winston Peters and his party, and the fact that they not only want to have their cake, but they want it to be fed to them intravenously.

So Little Space, So Many Men

It can be confidently said that the ultimate decision to attend the free End of Daze festival, which commemorated the official end of lectures for the 2005 academic year, was a wise choice made indeed. The spirit that was present throughout the entire year and which has made my time at university such an exciting experience so far was out in force and embodied in the party atmosphere that the numerous bands produced. Copious amounts of cheap alcohol only served to amplify the revellers' ecstacy at their newly-achieved pseudo-freedom (with exams still to come, it's not quite time to completely let one's guard down just yet).

The absolutely vast majority of people were unflappably happy -- my seemingly-generalised statement can be justified as most probably true, by the fact that I do not believe I came across a single person yesterday who was anything short of exponentially excited. Perhaps in Darcy's case he could even be said to be dangerously excited, in light of the fact that he was performing various loud exclaimations whilst resplendent in a security guard uniform. However, this was not exactly the textiled status of Darcy for all of the day, as you will undoubtedly hear somewhere along the grapevine.

A marquee spanned the raised, grassed area in the quad and provided the venue for the musical acts, as well as a hotbox effect that one cannot discern as being intended or not. Early on in the piece, shortly after things commenced at two o' clock in the afternoon, numerous DJs along with pop-punk bands provided the soundtrack -- which was relatively ambient compared to that which was to come -- essentially providing a build-up, allowing the hundreds of attendees to get into the groove and drink as much as possible in preparation for the act that everyone had really come for.

The performance of indie pop musicians The Sneaks, with their interestingly-utilised raucous casiotone, along with the thoroughly impressive show put on by Wellington-based funk band OdESSA, both heralded in a significant hyping-up of the audience as the afternoon drove on towards the inevitable climax. OdESSA's energetic and danceable rhythm, powerful and polished vocals, and seemingly arty attitude was particularly well received by the now-massive crowd. As their vocalist called out "Hands up who's drunk yet!" just about the entire audience standing immediately in front of the stage under the marquee threw their hands in the air and yelled cacophonically in acknowledgement.


It was just past eight o' clock before the long-awaited headline act, the almost-ubiquitous Electric Six, hailing from Detroit in the United States, took the stage to a deafening reception from members of the crowd, now all in varying states of intoxication and obviously present in their largest numbers yet. The quirkily-dressed and fittingly-mannered rockers proceeded to rip into their fantastic and energetic set which was also to turn out to be an epic one. Complete with lightning bolt-bearing guitar straps, white suit jackets, wiry hair, deliciously oversized sunglasses and comical expressions and poses, the Electric Six were virtually picture perfect.

As expected it was the anthemic hits Dance Commander, Gay Bar and most of all Danger! High Voltage that involved among the most enthusiastic performances from the band and the spectators alike. Suddenly everyone's inhibitions came loose -- even looser than throughout the hours beforehand -- resulting in an orgy of pogo dancing, beer throwing and elbow-in-facing. Overly vigilant security guards attempted to subdue the masses' sheer happiness to virtually no avail, frequently reaching into the crowd and grabbing random revellers, who then simply shrugged the presence of authority off to continue on their quest for absolute fun. A lesbian couple danced furiously to Gay Bar, assuming a significant area of space on the "dancefloor" (which was actually merely grass) as their own. When they began to hook up they were pulled apart by a security guard but then insisted on continuing, in their new position a further metre away from the guards.

The mindblowing, climactic performance proper of the Electric Six continued for a solid hour, only for the inevitable -- that is, the band being cheered on to perform an encore -- to emerge, extending the show by a further twenty minutes. The wonderfully eccentric vocalist Dick Valentine colourfully explained to the audience that Americans are envious of New Zealand, and dramatically announced that "Americans will be coming to New Zealand on vacation for centuries!" As the performance concluded, heavy thrashing on the drums was accentuated by Dick Valentine's epileptic flailing of his arms, the most aggressive guitar work by John R. Dequindre, Johnny Na$hinal and The Colonel, and Tait Nucleus's amazing swirling keyboard effects. "I think you're very special," Dick Valentine casually and straightforwardly told the audience for the umpteenth time that night, as the Electric Six made their final departure from the stage. Those present at the End of Daze festival had not been left disappointed. Electric Six had delivered a fitting end to the academic year and quite possibly established themselves as the first great event of a fantastic summer to come.

Synth-Soaked Rhetoric

After departing from Pink Floyd sometime after the release of the band's 1983 album The Final Cut, bassist, singer and songwriter Roger Waters embarked upon a notable solo career that continues to a significant degree to this day. During the past twenty years or so since Roger initially established himself as a solo artist, he has seen three studio albums, two live sets, a film soundtrack, a compilation, and most recently a three act classical opera composition called Ça Ira, all released under his name. His 1987 rock album Radio K.A.O.S. was brought to my attention when I heard a live version of it aired on Mike Curry's "Think Pink" Floyd showcase that usually airs on Radio Hauraki (99FM) at ten o' clock on Monday nights.


The first solo work of Roger's that I have yet given a proper listen, Radio K.A.O.S. unsurprisingly appears to find no shame in sounding overbearingly eighties. Needless to say, in my books such a sound is a strong point. I have heard expressed by many people the opinion that the dated effects ruin the compositions, however, I would beg to differ. I would go as far as to say that the eighties sound actually accentuates the material contained on this album by instilling it with a great sense of period charm, so-to-speak. Radio K.A.O.S. is a concept album about -- strange though it may seem -- a wheelchair-bound young man named Billy who can hear radio waves in his head. The appropriately-named, bouncy opener Radio Waves sets this scene effectively, serving to prepare us for the journey into the eighties political climate that is to follow.

Roger uses this release as an opportunity to provide some extensive social commentary in a vein similar to that found in the 1977 Pink Floyd album Animals. The most notable difference is that his delivery is distinctly less angry and acidic. The lyrics, however, are classic Roger Waters -- the stinging, cynical sarcasm that made many of Pink Floyd's pieces such as Money and Have A Cigar such hits among the public maintains its presence in many of the tracks on Radio K.A.O.S. Some particularly memorable pieces include Who Needs Information, which could be perceived to be a comment on the questionably positive things that the media had to provide to society at the time; and The Powers That Be, the tale of Billy's brother Benny who lost his job in the mines due to the actions of "the market forces."

Probably the strongest aspect of Radio K.A.O.S. is its stark depiction of the political goings-on of the late eighties in a unique format. The tracks on the album are laid out and segued together as if they are being played on a radio station, of which the album itself is the namesake. This provides an excuse for actual dialogue to be included between the pieces, with the purpose of facilitating an increased understanding of the character Billy and his involvement with the Radio K.A.O.S. host, Jim. It not only allows for the inclusion of a great degree of humour but it also pulls the concept of Radio K.A.O.S. together and adds a substantial amount of perspective to the pieces. The primary bearers of Roger's lyrical wrath include Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, the media and the ideology of monetarism. The similarities between what was happening then and what is happening now add a great degree of weight to the album. Despite the fact that it was written eighteen years ago, Radio K.A.O.S. has not lost its relevance and is surely worth a listen.

May I Present To You The Morass

One month on from the date of the General Election and now it turns out that the so-called resolution that has been reached is quite possibility just as frustrating as the entire coalition formation process that the New Zealand public, as well as the politicians themselves, have had to endure during that time. You will most probably have heard by now that the government is officially comprised of a coalition that gives inclusion to Jim Anderton's Progressive Party, New Zealand First, and United Future. The Greens have ended up being shut out of the loop despite having campaigned, rather unashamedly mutually, with Labour. In light of the campaigning that took place, the ultimate sense of success would have been felt by the left had Labour been able to patch together a coalition that included the Greens. Unfortunately for the left, such a success has certainly not been achieved.

It could be seen in fact that the new government takes a step back in terms of progressive politics in relation to that which has existed for the last three years. For all the promise of a collectively-functioning, strong left-wing force that the campaign before the election may have suggested, it is surprising that such a result has emerged after the month-long process of deliberation and negotiation. What is particularly unfortunate is that, had the Greens only gained an extra seat in Parliament, they may well have stood a significantly larger chance of being integrated into a coalition deal with Labour. There then would have been a possibility that the New Zealand public would not now have to endure such political peculiarities as they do now, such as Winston Peters holding the position of Foreign Minister whilst being outside of Cabinet. Our new Foreign Minister is not only a dangerous bigot, but indeed he's not even a part of the government proper.

The Greens' omission from government certainly doesn't bode well for the relations that exist between left-wing parties in Parliament. The events that occurred during the lead-up to the election suggested that the reasonably long-established divide between the Greens and Labour, which was primarily spurred on by the GE issue, was at last being closed. As a result one was seeing the meshing-together of a more potent left in New Zealand. It was clearly evident that the two parties would have worked very effectively together in coalition, with it being rather obvious that even if they don't have the same policies, they could be perceived to share the same underlying philosophy on most issues. A Labour-Greens coalition would have been a venerable and stable one. The Labour Party, however, has discarded the potential of such a pairing coming together anytime in the near future, having yesterday made the official statement that it is turning its back on its recently-faithful friend, and needless to say this is a very heavy blow for left-wing politics in New Zealand. I pick that the concessions granted to the Greens by Labour regarding solar heaters and the launch of a Buy New Zealand Made campaign will not do a substantial amount to heal the relations between the parties.


Only contributing to the sense of farcicality surrounding the Greens' omission from government is that Labour chose the coalition partners that had, for the most part, played the game somewhat sourly -- with the exception of Jim Anderton's Progressive Party -- and shunned the Greens altogether despite the fact that the smaller party had consistently engaged in thoroughly good-natured and dedicated pledges of commitment to a Labour-led government throughout the election campaign. For a start, Winston of course blew the pre-election trumpet for New Zealand First in widely varying pitches, making a multitude of apparently-one-off statements, before finally settling on the idea that in the interests of maintaining its integrity and to "Keep Them Honest," his party would sit on the crossbenches and enter into coalition with neither National nor Labour. He also expressed on several occasions his intent to not allow New Zealand First to enter into a coalition agreement that involved the Greens, presumably for the aforementioned reasons of maintenance of integrity. In what is needless to say a futile attempt to cover his arse and make it seem that he has not comprimised his integrity, Winston is now insisting that Helen offered him the ministerial position -- he didn't ask for it. That Rodney makes known his distaste towards Winston's actions, in a reaction that shows strong similarities with the general vibe that is coming from the left, proves that both sides of the political spectrum alike are perceiving yesterday's announcements as somewhat shockingly ridiculous.

Winston has of course not only cheated the core values of his party but, as Rodney noted, he has cheated New Zealand First's constituency, and indeed the entire public of New Zealand in light of the wheeling-and-dealing actions that he has executed throughout the past month. It is interesting to note that, despite the concept that Winston was going to become the kingmaker and end up being desperately required by the government being perceived by most political observers as an inevitability ever since attention was first directed at the impending election, people are still fittingly appalled now that it has really happened. This could serve to emphasise the fact that the whole notion of such a finality being reached really is an exponentially bad joke. That is why we are cringing and swearing as opposed to laughing. As was kindly pointed out at Whale Oil Beef Hooked, The Australian has published some very interesting views on this particular aspect of the newly-formed coalition, accompanied by an excellent cartoon.

United Future have also capitalised rather lucratively on the opportunities with which the election results provided their party. Like Winston, Peter Dunne has been granted ministerial posts outside of Cabinet -- Revenue Minister and Associate Minister of Health -- in return for supporting the Labour government with a confidence and supply agreement. Peter also took a stance against the Greens similar to that which Winston did, a display of pomposity and sheer nerve that essentially suggests United Future and New Zealand First were quite intent on both having their cake and eating it too. The combined pulling power that was exerted by these two parties taking up that same stance was undoubtedly a prime contributor to the Greens' outright rejection from any governmental arrangement. Again I wish to point out that it certainly appears to me that those who were ruffians, and perceptibly came in with the intent of completely taking over the show, are the ones who have received a coalition deal. Meanwhile the Greens -- who engaged in none of the cynical tactics that New Zealand First and United Future chose to employ, and who were also relatively ideologically compatible with Labour -- have been sidelined. Something just seems wrong about this picture.

To Peter's credit though, he hardly seemed to dart from one side to the other, in an attempt to get the most lucrative deal for himself sealed, as New Zealand First did. He stuck to his guns for most of the time and it was pretty clear who he was going to go with, so long as one applies exception to the occasion where that little bit of spin was so kindly offered up by National's Gerry Brownlee. It can be rather safely assumed that it wasn't the prospect of gaining ministerial posts that caused Peter to firmly plant his measure of support on the side of Labour. This is certainly not what one would have expected from the decidedly centrist, on-the-fence United Future; if anything they should have been the single party whose allegiance was the most fluid. It's something of a testament to Peter in this circumstance that he was able to stay committed to one particular goal as opposed to partaking in wheeling-and-dealing in the vein of many of the other minor parties.

Ultimately, however, the coalition government that has finally emerged from the month's worth of negotiations is an undeniably polarised and unstable one. With the conservative influences of New Zealand First and United Future hanging over the Labour Party, it is to be expected that the leaders of the government will have a significant degree of difficulty maintaining a coherent vision which will ensure that progressive policy initiatives can continue to be implemented during this, Helen's third term. There is a distinctly disturbing sense that there is a significant amount of truth in Don Brash's statements about this government being "a dog's breakfast", accentuated by the fact that, as Don also pointed out in interviews with TVOne, Winston has a history of pulling out of tough situations. The 1996 National government in which Winston played a significant part, of course, fell apart a notable time before the full three-year term was seen out, as a direct result of Winston's actions. John Campbell really did put it well when he said, in response to negative allegations towards the nature of the media campaign for this election, "The greatest amount of cynicism this time around is in the political establishment." Perhaps the announcements of yesterday are not so much a resolution as they are the beginning of a whole lot of trouble.

Just Keep Trying To Dupe Us

It has emerged yesterday that National deputy-leader Gerry Brownlee is yet another individual on the political scene that is quite simply full of it, having carefully chosen his words so as to make it seem that National were on a good footing to beat Labour in forming a coalition. He was quoted in the Herald On Sunday as saying, "The situation is that both major parties can at this stage rely on 57 votes." The implication of such a statement would essentially be that the National Party had ACT, United Future and the Maori Party all devotedly on-side, to help the major party become the next government. That is what everyone had ended up thinking.

Of course, it is not the case, with both United and the Maori Party yesterday having "denied guaranteeing any such support." This means that as things stand at the moment, National can only truthfully say that it can rely on fifty votes -- those of its own party, plus those derived from the two committed ACT MPs. In this light, Gerry's attack on Helen yesterday for allegedly having "completely failed" to seal a deal seems slightly hypocritical in an almost completely farcical sense. Gerry's statements are the words of a politician who knows that his side is beat, at least for now.

Upon closer inspection it would actually appear, quite the contrary to Gerry's brash statements -- no pun intended -- that Helen is faring very well in her attempts at pulling a coalition together, considering the hand that she has been dealt by the voters this election. Peter Dunne of United Future told the Herald On Sunday that his party is negotiating "in good faith" with Labour and that it "would not be talking with National on the same basis" unless it comes to the point that it is apparent that it is going to be impossible for Labour to pull a coalition together successfully.

The events of today would also suggest that New Zealand First has pretty much established itself as on the side of the Labour Party. The party president Doug Woolerton wouldn't have resigned in apparent protest like this were it not for the fact that he believed Winston was nail-bitingly close to taking up Helen's offer of a ministerial post -- which happens to be Foreign Minister, goodness forbid. If what currently appears to be inevitable turns out to be true, then Helen has already successfully laid the groundwork for the Labour-led government. With the support of Jim Anderton's Progressive Party, New Zealand First, United Future and also the Greens on confidence and supply, a Labour-led will have amassed sixty-seven of the one hundred and twenty-one seats in Parliament. It's practically the best result that Labour could hope for.

Participatory In Theory Only

With the election having taken place just under a month ago, it is already significantly evident that the Maori Party, being a special interest electoral organisation supposedly committed to specific ideals, would appear to be barely as hardline -- and possibly therefore less politically potent -- than they ought to be given the circumstances that led to the foundation of the party. Ever since Tariana Turia broke away from Labour to form the Maori Party as a result of distinct differences in opinion regarding the foreshore and seabed issue, as well as indeed particularly throughout the election campaign, the Maori Party has prided itself on being "an independent voice for Maori in Parliament" that they claim has long been needed.

In light of the fledgling party's bold confidence and its apparent openness in terms of its policy directives that it has exhibited, it comes as a significant surprise that one now finds the party giving off the impression that they are cunning political wheelers-and-dealers; almost perhaps in a similar vein to Winston Peters. The Maori Party's apparent newfound non-commitment to their core ideology, emphasised as they flirt with the neo-liberal parties that generally choose to take the none-too-frequently-proclaimed-racist "one law for all" stance, is not a promising indicator of a party that is going to put their message forward significantly at all in Parliament. Regardless of the observer's ideology, one can acknowledge that this is a desperate shame for a party that holds such a potentially advantageous status as a result of their image of being the first independent voice that has been present in Parliament for Maori people.


Another aspect of the organisation of the movement that the Maori Party was particularly enthusiastic about from the offset was the notion that it was going to make its decisions according to feedback that it received through what it viewed as a truly democratic system. The party made an early attempt at putting this system to use during the past few days, in the form of a series of hui that were intended to bring forth dialogue from those who voted for the party around the country. The idea was that the Maori Party would select which of the two major parties they would pledge their potentially coalition-forming allegiance to based on the general consensus of opinion that they received from party supporters at these hui. However, it so emerged that the apparent consensus was that the voters don't really understand politics, and as such they place all of the decision-making responsibility in the hands of the Maori Party MPs.

Allow me to reiterate again that before the election, in a televised party leaders' debate, Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples issued a "guarantee" that if either of the major parties were to come to his party with a coalition offer, the Maori Party would make its response known within six days. This promise has, of course, not been delivered upon. A party could certainly be forgiven for the fact that they are taking such a long time to handle negotiations, as the hand that the members of Parliament have been dealt following this election is, needless to say, a substantially difficult one to work with. In contrast, though, it is not acceptable for a party to go back on a promise that it has pledged to the people of New Zealand, or at worst its actual constituency. Effectively, the Maori Party have performed the latter act, and Pita Sharples's badly-thought-out statement serves to place emphasis on the lack of Parliamentary experience that he, along with fellow Maori Party MPs Te Ururoa Flavell and Hone Harawira, possesses. The Maori Party have a lot to learn during this term, and they're going to have to learn fast.

Name Your Price

The prospect of a government-establishing agreement being finalised this week had seemed tantalisingly close. Alas, it has emerged that there is a distinct absence of a cigar. The thanks for this could be particularly deservingly directed at Winston Peters who, in his typically underhanded manner, has insisted on swinging backwards and forwards, playing the two major parties off against each other in, as numerous reports would suggest, an attempt to achieve the best deal possible for himself.

Despite Winston having contested speculation by Herald journalists a few days ago that he was being offered ministerial posts by Helen as an incentive to flirt with Labour -- which could potentially result in the compromisation of New Zealand First's integrity -- for the sake of securing his support for a Labour-led coalition government, the idea has been floated again today. It is touched on in the article that Helen "is understood to have pressed Mr Peters for some time to accept a ministerial post." This of course raises the strong possibility that Winston was simply full of it in earlier days when he assured the New Zealand public, via the media, that this sort of bribery was not going on.

Reflecting even worse upon Winston is the fact that he is now reported to have taken up Labour's offer, in an essential cop-out from another significant promise that he made. He promised that he would not be bribed in such a manner. Indeed, before the election he switched stances several times as to what action he was going to take in terms of forming a coalition, in addition to alternatively suggesting that he may keep off both of the major parties' sides altogether. Topping it all off, Winston is meeting with the National Party today, a situation in which he is going to allow himself to be offered a "counter-proposal" to Labour's offer of a ministerial post despite the fact that he has agreed with Labour already. It is almost to be expected that there is a significant probability that he will use the offer that National provides in order to try and get Labour to cough up a more beneficial scenario with which they can provide him.

Somehow it was entirely forseeable that the 2005 election would come down to a situation such as this. Admittedly, Winston isn't exactly the kingmaker, as it is all but impossible for a National-led coalition to be constructed without the support of the Maori Party, whose constituency likely wouldn't have a bar of such an agreement; it would be electoral suicide on their part if they made themselves responsible for lifting National to victory. However, numerous experts and regular political observers have acknowledged for a fairly long time that it was a virtual inevitability that Winston would be playing the parties off against each other like this come this stage of the democratic process. It may be a decidedly static and, as a consequence, a not particularly lucrative situation for the New Zealand public; but the case is definitely not the same for the man himself. What is happening now is a bidding war to achieve the electoral support of Winston Peters, and he is loving it because he stands to gain a lot if he succeeds in playing things right.

What Went Wrong

Further to the Greens' apparent anxiety expressed in recent days, it has now been reported that the party are, possibly feverishly, undertaking the task of performing a post-mortem on their election campaign in an attempt to figure out exactly where it all fell apart. To me it seems that they are making too big a deal out of it and as a consequence making it harder for themselves. From what the party co-leader Rod Donald has said, it appears that the organisation has already successfully identified all of the things that could have possibly attributed to the election result with which they are so disappointed.

What's rather puzzling is that at the same time, there seems to be a feeling within the Green Party that there exists some kind of singular, magical answer; an ultimate totemic final nail in the coffin that will prove to be the reason why they are now three MPs down on the election of 2002. Of course, it doesn't require rocket science for one to realise that the Greens' relatively poor level of support that they've received this time around is simply due to the factors that they have already highlighted.

Perhaps the most significant of these was the so-called "two-party squeeze." It's not so much that the downfall of the minor parties -- which would inevitably lead to the practical end of MMP -- is occurring, but merely that National has made its comeback. I know for a fact that many left-wing voters, stricken with fear of a centre-right coalition gaining power and who were potentially going to cast their votes in favour of the Green Party, instead chose to push some support Labour's way for the sake of ensuring a solid defence was put up. A significant number of those who swung would have been youth voters, and it is the whole truth that the Greens derive a highly significant proportion of their votes from the young age group. This could be fairly perceived to be one of the most likely factors that led to the Greens' average result.

For all the emphasis that it has received, I would perceive nonetheless that the party's electoral advertising campaign was merely a secondary contributor to the negative nature of the result. The concepts of the billboards were a good idea on paper -- and were actually notably striking in that context -- but in practice they were undeniably weak, failing to catch many people's eyes, and the grey font in particularly was undoubtedly too hard to read for the few people who did notice them. The billboards strongly resembled the sort of roadside advertising that has been seen employed in local body elections. They were far from adequate as something being used in a full-scale General Election campaign. The television advertisements were not much better, depicting a young Maori boy and a presumably Pakeha girl, dressed in white and set against a white background, describing the importance that voting Green held for future generations. Although the message was quite clear, the delivery came across as cheesy and trying-to-be-cute as opposed to a dire imploration, which is what it felt like it was supposed to be given the campaign line of "It's your vote."

I don't think that anyone, regardless of which ideological allegiance (or lack thereof) that they have subscribed themselves to, would disagree with the statement that the Greens' mainstream advertising campaign this election was significantly inadequate, and that as such it is at the most partially to blame for the party's electoral disappointment. However, if one looks to Labour's advertising campaign, the perception of quality that is felt is generally not much better than the sentiment towards that of the Greens. Particularly alongside National's simply unforgettable "Tax. Cut." campaign which utilised the half-and-half billboards, Labour's campaign was virtually self-acknowledgedly weak. With little use of party colours and the non-presence of the party logo, Labour billboards had the potential to go unidentified as such if people did not read the small print down the bottom that read "You're better off with Labour."

Television advertisements tended in the same direction as those of the Greens, putting significant weighting towards the "aaw"-factor, and seemingly relying on an insistent and hopeful-sounding guitar riff that tied the whole visual media campaign together. In light of the fact that, despite a not-quite-good-enough advertising campaign, Labour managed to hold onto its vote and lose almost no electoral ground, I don't think that a similar shortfall on the Greens' part can be said to have contributed a great deal to its electoral shortcoming -- a correlation that some have alleged. The Greens' misfortune is quite simply a natural result of National's resurgence into severe parliamentary relevance, and there is not much more to it than that.

Something Stews Beneath The Surface

The Green Party appear to be growing increasingly techy as the coalition formation progress continues to drag on, now just a week short of a month following Election Day. Unsurprisingly the media have been quick to point out that a possible reason for this "mood swing" could be Winston Peters's negotiations that have taken place with Labour over the past few days. Although it is still distinctly unlikely that the Greens are going to be completely shut out of the coalition agreement that will eventually be formed (presuming that even if they are not made an official coalition partner, they will still be helping as part of a confidence and supply agreement), it is evident that they feel threatened by Winston's undeniably influential position as things stand at the moment.

Also contributing to the general discomfort of the left is the fact that Winston is also in negotiations with the National Party. Apparently, Don Brash is of the view that there is still a chance that he could scrape a coalition together and keep Labour out of government. It would, however, likely be a notably unstable one. National would be reliant on the support of the questionable ally of the Maori Party, who as you will undoubtedly be aware are on very different ground, in terms of policy, to the larger party. Thus, the left would hope that there is not a very significant chance of National actually achieving anything, especially having entered into coalition negotiations at such a late stage, having conceded defeat over a week ago.

But is it really a late stage in the negotiations? For all one knows, it could be that they are not even halfway over yet. Peter Dunne spoke to TVOne -- in one of his first civil discussions with that media outlet in particular, since the events of election night where he, with a great degree of aggression, gave Mark Sainsbury the rocket for not mentioning United Future in the line-up of parties as included in the presenter's notes or auto-cue. When questioned in recent days Peter expressed that he would hope that some resolution in the negotiations would be achieved "within the next week or two." His statement sounded almost sceptical that such a thing is going to occur, and almost cynical as to how long it has all been going on -- surely he can be forgiven for growing tired of it by this stage.

Several days ago, Winston publically contested the media's claim (or speculation) that he was being offered a ministerial position from Helen Clark in return for helping to entrench a Labour-led government. Also, in keeping with a statement that he made shortly before the election, it could be presumed that New Zealand First would not take up such an offer from the caretaker prime minister if one was indeed made. This is because Winston made it clear that the party would not stray away from its promises and commitments for the sake of securing him a ministerial post. Somewhat ironically in light of what appears to be occurring now, one such promise that the party made was that they would not go into coalition with either of the two major parties, presumably fearing the potential swamping of their party-specific values.

With United Future, the Maori Party and New Zealand First all maintaining their remarkably fluid stances as to whether they will side with Labour in government or not, it is looking to be a frustrating situation for the left and the three reasonably-centrist parties' tactics of holding off are likely a prime contributor to the long-windedness of negotiations. In a fashion surprisingly inconsistent with the Green's usual outwardly-expressed pacifist character, they have zeroed in on this fact, with Jeanette Fitzsimmons both firmly and coyly telling the media yesterday that "We're getting on fine. It's not us that's holding up the prime minister." This is a clear reference to the actions of the uncommitted parties and probably a credibly accurate representation of the fraying of nerves that is now taking place around the House, as politicians grow increasingly weary of being in virtual limbo.

Be Vigilant

As the citizens of the West become increasingly more wary of apparently-imminent terror attacks, due largely to the media's seeming insistence on emphasising practically every incidence of terrorism that occurs, the task of fearmongering effectively is proving to be more and more easy to pull off. Of course, given the recent instances of terrorists supposedly plotting to bomb the New York City subway "with bomb-laden baby carriages" and a recurrence of the Bali bombings that showed great similarities to those which took place three years ago, one cannot be surprised that people are now so locked into an international state of fear.

Australia's nerves are notably perched on the edge at present, as a result of the terrorist attacks in Bali last week which are widely perceived to have been targeted specifically at Australian citizens. In this case, I think that the sense of fear that the Australian government -- as well as many ordinary people -- are experiencing, stems from a genuine feeling of guilt. They are finding themselves uncomfortably conscious of the fact that their country's participation in the invasion of Iraq is generally disagreed with by the vast majority of "informed" human beings living on this planet, and as such that it is only sensible to expect for there to be some kind of sentiment against Australia.


This is where New Zealand's refusal to take part in the actual invasion comes into its own. The country may indeed have now lost sight of the prospect of receiving that highly lucrative free trade deal as a consequence of its abstinence from breaking international law. However, the trade-off (pun certainly not intended) is that New Zealand is now in a safer situation than its significantly larger schoolmates. A great degree of irony exists here when one considers that the destructive actions of "The Coalition of the Willing" are carried out with the core intention of making the world a safer place.

Not only is destroying an entire country a rather illogical way to go about achieving the apparent goal of world peace, but the "three most powerful men in the free world," in launching their righteous global anti-terror campaign, failed to take into account the real reasons as to why the events of 11 September 2001 occurred in the first place. The West's decidedly intrusive, and in a considerable number of cases militaristic presence in the Middle East has been to the detriment of a not-insignificant number of people's lives on both sides of the fray. Further enthusiastic and questionably-motivated intervention is likely not to be appreciated to a noticeable extent.

The United States had the World Trade Centre attacks. Britain had the Tube bombings. The possibilities as to what is going to happen to the third musketeer remain to be seen. Meanwhile, New Zealand are able to lie back on their deckchairs with justifiable feelings of comfort.

A Potentially Entertaining Happenstance

It's interesting to see that, in the wake of the release of the final election results and Labour's apparent achievement of victory due to National's loss of a seat, it has now been reported that the Labour Party is considering filing a petition against ACT's Rodney Hide, accusing him of over-spending in his campaign to win the Epsom electorate seat. According to Labour's calculations, Rodney exceeded the twenty thousand dollar budget that candidates are legally permitted to put towards their campaigns. An e-mail of which Labour Party president Mike Williams took receipt -- and which was also destined for thousands of ACT voters -- appeared to be a request for financial aid from Rodney, and this has also, unsurprisingly, raised suspicions.

A particularly notable aspect of this emergence is that neither Labour, nor the left of Parliament, would actually receive any gain if Rodney did happen to be made to stand down from his electorate seat. Such a happening would result in a by-election in Epsom that would almost certainly result in the National candidate for the electorate, Richard Worth, taking Rodney's place in the House. The right would maintain the same number of seats that it possesses now, with the only difference to the whole political climate being that raucous Rodney would no longer be there, undoubtedly leading to none-too-infrequent instances of eery silence. Also odd is that despite the fact that National are the party which truly have something to gain out of Rodney's potential demise, Labour are the ones making the effort to bring the hammer of electoral justice down on top of him.

Today it has also been reported that Labour may have offered Winston Peters a ministerial position in the interests of solidifying his support for a Labour government. This doesn't come as a surprise to me at all. In fact, it was something that was outright predictable. Winston is such an individual who can be consistently expected to fish for any influence he can get, as reflected in Helen's comment during the leaders debate on TVOne -- "I think Winston's the only one who's got his hand up for that" -- provided on the tongue-in-cheek brief diversionary topic of "job sharing" that was initiated by Mark Sainsbury.

However, the aspect of today's report that I found intriguing was that, in a Herald article, the author suggested that the ministerial positions Winston was most likely to be keen for are Attorney-General or Minister of Economic Development. I had quite seriously been of the expectation that he would be after Minister of Immigration. Indeed, I had even prepared myself somewhat -- as much as one can -- for the event of Labour offering him the position of Deputy Prime Minister. To me, the final results looked that hard to make a government out of that I was expecting some serious emergency manoeuvres to be made by the government post-election. Perhaps it turns out that I don't know Winston's character as well as I had thought.

Provided the coming coalition negotiations go well, perhaps the government will actually be formed and in action within the next couple of weeks. There is no need for me to reiterate how heinous a dynamic jigsaw this all is for Helen to piece together, but I've just done it anyway. The progress of the formation of the government isn't helped by the manner in which many of the minor parties have, in my eyes, horsed around to a noticeable degree in the past week since the final results were released. I seem to recall Pita Sharples of the Maori Party providing a "guarantee," during a televised debate, that if either of the major parties were to approach his party with a coalition deal, they would give an official reply within six days. That certainly hasn't happened by the looks of how things stand at the moment. The Maori Party, in keeping with being a democratic organisation representating the Maori people, are hosting hui around the country to let members voice their opinions as to whether the party should stand by Labour or not, and has said that its position won't be confirmed until Monday. Despite the fact that this is not in keeping with Pita's promise, the philosophy behind the party's current activities is thoroughly admirable.

Saluting Judy

Given the dramatic reshufflings that have taken place at TVNZ over the last two years or so since Bill Ralston took up the position of Head of News and Current Affairs at the network, anyone paying the media any attention would have known that, sooner or later, the gloriously ubiquitous newsreader Judy Bailey was going to get the axe. As such, today's announcement that this has finally happened -- with her contract coming to an end around the New Year -- comes as a relatively small surprise, although the fact that it was to be expected certainly doesn't detract from the sadness of it all. Judy is of course New Zealand's most significant veteran newsreader, having fronted One News excellently for the past eighteen years and with great esteem been dubbed "the Mother of the Nation" by many a commentator and viewer.

What to me is perhaps one of the most disheartening aspects of today's happenstance is that, according to TVNZ CEO Ian Fraser's comments to various media outlets, the reason for Judy's axing is essentially a continuing move by the state-owned enterprise to assert a more youthful and spritely image for itself, in light of the ratings gap between TVOne and TV3 growing hardly-significantly smaller. It was said that TVOne's monopoly is slipping, particularly in the Auckland market, and that the action of not renewing Judy's contract is merely for the sake of attempting to catch the ratings slip before it can get any worse. Fraser emphasised that he understands the notion that ratings do not matter to the viewers, but also that good ratings are crucially important to the company itself.

This all gives one the general impression that TVNZ indeed do care a great deal more about their network maintaining ratings supremacy than they do about providing viewers with familiarity and satisfaction. I don't think they have chosen to fathom the sort of response that Judy's departure will yield from many viewers, and this could prove to be a mistake. If anything, this is a naïve gamble that the company are rushing into in the hope of saving themselves from economic averageness by appealing to a younger market using a younger newsreader -- as if dear Judy was showing her age anyway. There is always the prospect that this kneejerk action could in fact prove to have more detrimental effects on the ratings than keeping the apparently-old newsreader would have done, in which case I could imagine the executives in the top ranks of TVNZ sitting around the table scratching their heads and wondering what the heck hit them.

Dare I say it, another significant factor that could well have contributed to Judy being ousted is the sort of yearly salary that she was being entitled to. The price of holding onto who is inarguably New Zealand's best newsreader of our time, particularly after the departure of Richard Long last year, was obviously not a small one; perhaps one that TVNZ management found uneconomical. Personally I did not think much of the salary scandal at the time, and not much has changed now except for my realisation that the network must have been extremely keen indeed to hold onto her. The monetary value that was placed on her by the TVNZ bureaucracy was, and still is in my mind, a testament to how fantastic and skilled an expert Judy is in her field. Even more complimentary is that she has both received and retained the title of "Mother of the Nation" for a significant length of time -- solid evidence of the sort of respect that is held for her in the eyes in the public. In retrospect now, I can't help but see the sheer twisted irony in the fact that TVNZ placed so much value on her last year, spurning a massive media frenzy that Judy herself asserts was humiliating for her -- and apparently all for nothing, now that they have chosen to consign Judy Bailey, the greatest newsreader of our time, to New Zealand television history.

Alien Angels

It was with a great sense of pleasant surprise that, during a casual visit to Real Groovy last week in which I wasn't intending to buy anything at first, I made the freak discovery of Sigur Rós's newly released album Takk.... As an individual who has only recently discovered this marvellous band, the timing of this release could not likely have been better. Right at a time at which my appetite has been whetted by the practically flawless 1999 release Ágætis Byrjun, and I am seeking out other Sigur Rós material to try, I am presented with a brand new album. What I am thoroughly confused about is how I wasn't enlightened as to Takk...'s upcoming release. However, this serves to make the surprise all the more exciting.

For those of you who do not know of them, Sigur Rós are a quartet (Jónsi Birgission, Kjartan Sveinsson, Georg Hólm, Orri Páll Dýrason) hailing from Iceland who produce music that could be described in a virtually unlimited number of ways. Post-rock is one of them. Shoegazing and progressive are examples of others. However, the terms surreal, otherwordly, and above all spiritual are among perhaps the most fitting adjectives that I could apply to Sigur Rós myself. The band simply defies genre in my view. This is largely so because of the fact that Sigur Rós seem to evoke so much more than just listening pleasure in people. Sigur Rós are a physical, emotional and existential experience that reaches far beyond the music itself.

The band's vocalist and guitarist, Jónsi Birgisson, sings in such a way that would be exponentially hard to come across in the context of any other music. His emotive, powerfully delivered falsetto perfectly captures the spirit of the band; its essence of mysteriousness. The praise of a voice sounding "angelic" has been heaped on many a vocalist, particularly those hailing from the musical era of the seventies and in some instances in the nineties, as well as more recently. Upon hearing Jónsi's voice, however, the experiencer becomes immediately aware that such an adjective has been being bandied around recklessly all of this time, for Jónsi's swirling, unearthly chorus is the only vocal effort that I have heard in my life that I believe is literally deservant of being proclaimed to sound like the voice of an angel.

Only contributing further to the shroud of beautiful, wonderous mystery that surrounds Sigur Rós is the fact that Jónsi delivers the lyrics of the pieces in a mixture of Icelandic, and what he claims to be his own made-up language, Hopelandic, which could be aptly described as something of a vocal instrumental. This of course leaves the deeper meanings of the pieces to be interpreted by the individual, through what they themselves experience through the music, deciphering what emotion they feel exists within the music and creating a significance for the music itself. Lending much thanks to its inherent encouragement of the experiencer to search within themselves for the meaning, the indescribable celestial force that is Sigur Rós's music I feel tends to convey the feeling that, somewhere within the experience, lies the secret to finding and becoming in touch with one's true self.

The new album Takk... is greatly similar to the band's breakthrough masterpiece Ágætis Byrjun in many ways, although vastly different in others. It feels, if anything, distinctly like a continuation of the concepts that I felt were present in the earlier album. However, it could possibly be more accurately described as a progression. Ágætis Byrjun's themes of distant senses of hope and optimism suspended in a vast area of space, barely out of one's reach but still evidently there, have in Takk... flourished into full-fledged happiness, relative contentment and appreciation of the small things in life. On these grounds Takk... would definitely appear to be the ideal companion to Ágætis Byrjun as it is obvious that they are instrinsically linked in their positivity, and the fact that they show different states of said positivity. With an increasingly brightened mood comes an increasingly brightened sound. After some experiencers' complaints of the last album, 2002's (), also known as Untitled sounding as though it has too much of a low feeling to it in comparison to Ágætis Byrjun, it is unsurprising that Sigur Rós chose to go with the vein of optimism that served them so well in the creation of their masterpiece and the achievement of its widely-reknowned status.

In reflection of the senses of overbearing positivity and gratefulness present in this album (the title of which literally translates to "Thanks..."), the music itself has taken on a sound vastly different to that of previous efforts. What has emerged is a work that is much more accessible to potential new experiencers, whilst still maintaining Sigur Rós's instantly recognisable sound owing, among other factors, to the presence of Jónsi's vocals, guitar methods -- he plays his instrument by drawing a cello bow over the strings, producing an ethereal, physically and spiritually warming feedback sound -- and the band's use of space in their pieces. An instantly noticeable difference between this album and the band's previous material is that the drums and particularly the bass are used to a much greater and more prominent extent, and as such a completely different effect is achieved. The warm and uplifting basslines that build throughout most of the pieces contribute greatly to the album's pleasant atmosphere by providing a sense of a great degree of accomplishment and a relaxed attitude. Session musicians helped by supplementing Sigur Rós's sound with instruments such as xylophones, glockenspiels and toy pianos to add further to the light-hearted whimsy, as well as violins and other string instruments to carry some of the more heavy pieces.

When it comes down to it, however, it really is Jónsi's innovative vocals that serve to carry this work to a new level. Contrary to in most of the musical output of Sigur Rós from the past, here Jónsi forsakes the at-times-forceful nature of his traditional emotive vocal efforts for the purposes of being consistent with the contented mood of Takk.... The result is some of the most soft, delicate, and at the same time high-pitched vocals that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. Those of you familiar with Jónsi's vocal style may get the feeling that what I'm stating means little, for what I am describing as the new style sounds merely like the traditional one. I can, however, assure you that the vocals on Takk... reach a new level of soft and delicate even when we are considering the angelic Jónsi.

One must consider the fact that Takk... is practically one continuous musical piece divided into eleven segments if they are setting about expressing what they believe to be the highlights of the album. Compositions tend to segue together seamlessly, and several musical themes and hooks will emerge unexpectedly at multiple points during the experience. Takk... contains scores of memorable moments, most notably for myself the climax of Glósóli. After a surreal and subdued section at the beginning of the song, an almost-Floydian ascending drumbeat enters the fray and begins to pull the song higher and higher in unison with Jónsi's ever-climbing wails. Whenever the experiencer feels as if Jónsi cannot go any higher, he unexpectedly takes it up another step, with the crashing of the cymbals providing an ample supply of the epic feel. Finally, as the angelic vocalist has just about reached his limits, the thunderous roar of his feedback-blessed guitar kicks in for the first time in the album, possibly more loudly and powerfully than ever before; so loud that the recording itself of the guitar sound distorts. Amidst the wall of sound one can make out furious powerchords, repeatedly increasing in pitch much like Jónsi was doing with his voice a few seconds earlier. The same effect is achieved successfully, where the experiencer is constantly under the impression that the guitar cannot go any higher, only to find that it can. This piece in particular provides me with feeling of physical warmth whenever I listen to it. It gives me goosebumps, and I can't help but be excited whenever the build-up to the climax begins. Glósóli really has to be heard to be believed.

Hoppípolla, Saeglopur and Milanó are notable pieces also, the very former providing an endearing image of playful childhood whimsy, delivered with the help of a wonderfully uplifting bassline and keyboard work. Unsurprisingly, Takk... as a whole is an extremely well-formed artwork that provides the experiencer with plenty to enjoy on a more simple level, in addition to holding true to Sigur Rós's tradition of providing people with mental and spiritual space to play in that has made them so famous. I don't for a moment mean to say that I hold anything short of adoration for Takk..., but as of the present moment in time I am of the strong opinion that Ágætis Byrjun is still my preference. The first reason for this is the aforementioned accessibility of Takk.... This is not a case of one being concerned that they are going to find a larger audience -- far from it, I am actually in favour of such a thing happening. It is a real shame that this beautiful art is still not reaching so many people. However, my problem lies in my own personal experience of the album. Takk... feels, for some reason, as if a lot of the meaning in the music has been handed to the experiencer on a plate. There is still a significant amount of inner-searching to be done, but it is nowhere near as aplenty as it was in Ágætis Byrjun, which was mysterious and thought-provoking to the point that I found myself able to have a different experience every time that I listened to it. Everything seemed tantalisingly out of reach, but -- as I explained earlier -- just close enough that you could wonder after it. My second more minor qualm is that I had a distinct feeling that Jónsi's unique guitar technique -- which I find to create one of the most powerful effects in music -- was slightly underused. Let it be known, though, that Takk... is a fantastic work of art, very much worthy of purchase by anyone with a mind for being swept up in a surreality that may yet hold the key to our selves, and actually coming very close to the practical flawlessness of Ágætis Byrjun. This release has asserted Sigur Rós as nearly the most fantastic band that I have ever come across.