What nonsense is this at Internal Affairs? Oh, yes – they have been made to look pathetic by a Maori mum

Talking about increasingly craven demands for PC language and behaviour (as Alf was doing with his previous post), the SOLO site is always worth a visit as an antidote.

Its motto is “say what you mean, and mean what you say”.

Libertarian Lindsay Perigo has taken up the Andy Haden matter, describing Murray McCully as “Rugby World Cup Commissar—a position that shouldn’t exist…”

McCully (says Perigo) met with former All Black Andy Haden “to tell him to pull his head in.

Governments, according to McCully, exist to run Rugby World Cups and tell people what to think.

But Alf was much more taken by an earlier item, which followed up on an issue raised the other day by the splendid Cactus Kate.

Now that Haden has climbed out of the ruck, let him get on with the game of being an ambassador

The mad media seem somewhat surprised in having to report that Rugby World Cup ambassador Andy Haden will stay on in his role.

It’s enough for those who decided Haden can keep the job that he has made a mistake, apologised, and (as the Herald tells us) that’s the end of the matter.

So it bloody should be.

Alf was mortified to see the groundswell of demands for the forthright former All Black’s sacking as an “ambassador” because he had referred to Polynesians as “darkies”.

Good grief. Do we want our All Blacks to be a bunch of fairies? Or to become a bunch of fairies after their playing days have finished?

The Herald, certainly, seems keen to avoid using the troublesome word today except as a direct quote to explain what exactly was said.

Haden’s comments last week – that the Crusaders Super 14 franchise had a limit to the number of Polynesian players they had – sparked heated debate nationwide.

His use of a racial term many regard as offensive sparked even more controversy.

“Once they’ve recruited three, that’s it. That’s their ceiling. Three darkies – no more,” he said on the Deaker on Sport TV panel show.

As the whole country now knows, Rugby World Cup minister Murray McCully was under pressure to sack Haden as one of six world cup ambassadors.

He met the former All Black yesterday, and afterwards:

Mr McCully announced that Haden would keep his role but said it was not favourable to have to be addressing issues such as suggested racism or the use of language, instead of rugby.

“Look, if we were to take out everyone who made a mistake and shoot them, we’d sooner or later run out of people to do things in this country,” the minister said.

“Mr Haden accepts that his use [of] a particular term caused offence. He has – without any prompting from me – already apologised for causing offence … That, as far as I am concerned, is the end of the matter.”

The Herald tells us Haden again apologised in a statement yesterday for his use of the word “darkies” and said he had realised it had caused great offence.

“On a television sports programme last week, I used a term that has caused significant public comment in recent days – it was never my intention to cause offence.”

However, Haden did not apologise for suggesting there was a Polynesian quota. Last night, he did not want to comment further.

McCully is separating himself and his appointments from the quota issue, saying the individual Super 14 franchises dealt with player selections and that was a debate he was not prepared to take part in.

Alf is happy with that.

He would have been happier if the Government had stayed out of the matter from the outset.

Things have come to a pretty pass if blokes like Haden must be given a personality transplant and become mamby-pamby eunuchs when they are appointed by blokes like McCully to do the country a favour by promoting the Rugby World Cup, for which taxpayers are coughing up millions of dollars.

It’s stunningly good news for livestock but rabbis are riled by the undermining of religious freedoms

Alf didn’t give much thought to how much the pig suffered, as he tucked into bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning.

But others get excited about such things, and NZ maintains a small army of bureaucrats whose job is to keep an eye on animal welfare stuff. Among the meaty topics on their meeting agendas are finding ways of leaving a smile on a beast’s face as its throat is slit.

One consequence of their discussions is a new government edict: all animals that are slaughtered must first be stunned under a new animal welfare code that took effect on Friday.

A second consequence is that crayfish henceforth will go to a better death (although Alf is not sure how we know this). The new rules extend to the slaughter of crustaceans, so the practice of dropping live crayfish in boiling water will no longer be permitted.

A third consequence is that some Jews are (or will be) pissed off about the banning of kosher slaughter, or shechita.

Shechita is banned in Iceland, Norway and Sweden, too.

Eviction orders are discriminatory, true, but bias is great when it favours we older people

Alf was tempted, at first blush, to see something ominous in the goings-on near Maketu, where a Maori company has ordered a beachside community to bugger off.

This – surely – will be happening up and down the country if the Government buckles and gives the seabed and foreshore back to the Maori who lay claim to them.

The mollifying element in the Little Waihi evictions is that Pakeha and Maori alike are being given the boot.

Or some of them are. Older ones can stay on.

The Herald reports the matter today –

A community in an idyllic coastal spot has been told it must leave within a year, abandoning baches which have stood on the site for 65 years.

At least 29 homeowners in Little Waihi, to the east of Tauranga near Maketu in the Bay of Plenty, have had their yearly lease terminated by the commercial arm of the Arawa iwi, which owns the land. More than 120 people will be affected.

Now that a citizen’s arrest has gone awry, let’s see how well Peter Bethune can do humble

As a long-committed anti-wailer, Alf would like to harpoon the bloody Greens who are spouting about the Government failing to support Peter Bethune.

Why we should support this Bethune bloke is beyond Alf’s ken. He is a New Zealand citizen, true, and he has gone on trial in foreign parts.

But he should go on trial, surely – or maybe be banged up in an institution for the bewildered and the barmy.

Let’s face it: he was daft enough to clamber aboard the Shonan Maru II, the security ship of the Japanese whaling fleet, during the annual cull of the sea mammals somewhere down near the Antarctic.

His bizarre objective was to make a citizen’s arrest.

The foolish venture is recalled by Stuff in its report on the court case:

The Mt Eden Prison project: Mayor Banks and his fellow moaners can’t recognise an aesthetic facelift

Alf is amused by the fuss Aucklanders are kicking up over a $218 million prison development.

It towers over the Southern Motorway, says the Herald, casting a shadow across Mt Eden.

And it has “horrified” residents, principals and community leaders.

They are appalled by the project at Mt Eden Prison, and one city councillor believes the new block has grown higher than initial plans indicated it would.

We should not be surprised. Alf looks forward to many more bad buggers being banged up for a long time, under the Three Strikes bill we have just passed in Parliament.

We’ve got to put ’em somewhere.

The ETS: it can’t be environmentally friendly to have those National votes go up in smoke

Grassroots National Party supporters in Alf’s neck of the woods are among those howling about the prospect of big price rises thanks to the wretched Emissions Trading Scheme.

The Dom-Post today records Prime Minister John Key’s confirmation that there was an ETS protest vote at a party conference last weekend.

“There certainly was a remit and they certainly did vote against wanting the ETS, they did vote to delay it.”

The newspaper goes on to say:

The ETS has been contested at a series of regional National Party conferences, particularly among its grassroots farming base.

Agriculture Minister David Carter has been trying to assuage caucus concerns, like those raised by Alf. He has been emailing MPs to assure us that claims by ACT about the ETS were just “misinformation”.

Here’s hoping he’s right.

Handouts from Creative NZ for grocery giveaways – the wacky world of the visual arts

Gobsmacked. What else can Alf say.

He is reacting to news of the opening of a grocery store in Wellington where the goods are free.

Correction.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, as we all know.

And sure enough, we are talking about a venture which is being partly paid for by taxpayers and partly by ratepayers,

So is it a charity?

Nope. It’s a bloody art installation, part-funded by Creative New Zealand.

Dunno why that outfit has not been abolished.

The free store is part of the Letting Space project.

Was this manaakitanga? Désolé mes amis – it was just another robbery of tourists by nasty thugs

The Grumbles reckoned Northland was a great place, when they toured it some years ago.

They would not recommend a visit there nowadays, alas, after another attack on tourists holidaying in the region.

Let’s face it, even the Prime Minister has been assaulted by stroppy locals in that scenically beautiful but socially troubled neck of the woods.

The Herald reports the latest nasty incident today –

Three French tourists were attacked.

Police said three male Maori, aged between 20 and 30 years, were responsible for the aggravated robbery inside a campervan just south of Mangamuka village on Friday.

Driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic? If so, how did the car finish up where it did?

Some sprogs can do no wrong in the eyes of their adoring parents.

Alf accordingly is not surprised to learn that good old mum is defending the driving of the teenage driver involved in a crash that killed a four-year-old boy.

Charges have been (or are to be) laid against the driver. Thus the courts will sort out what happened and how seriously the boy should be punished.

The background is reported in the HoS this morning, along with the driver’s parents’ defence of their offspring.

Ash Austin, 17, was driving a car that left the road and struck Nayan Samuel Woods, 4, and his brother Jacob, 6, as they walked along Linwood Ave in Christchurch with their mother Emma on Friday evening. Nayan was killed and Jacob was seriously injured.