The bloody press gallery hacks whose reportage appears at Stuff have done it again.
They have failed to mention Alf – not even in the smallest of fonts – in their coverage of events in the House (in one case) and Rarotonga yesterday.
The Manawatu Standard (here) today reports that three of the five MPs who represent the wider Manawatu in Parliament have voted in favour of gay marriage.
How wide they have spread their Manawatu net is a matter of serious disappointment.
They pushed it into the Tararuas but not as far as Eketahuna North.
The rag has reported –
Palmerston North MP Iain Lees-Galloway, Rangitikei MP Ian McKelvie and Te Hai Hauauru MP Tariana Turia voted for the bill.
Otaki MP Nathan Guy and Wairarapa MP John Hayes voted against it.
Mr Hayes was the only MP out of the five to speak during the hour-long debate.
Take note of that.
They have pulled Alf’s good mate John Hayes into their net.
But they have left Alf out.
They explain –
Mr Hayes, whose electorate includes the Tararua district, said his opposition was a reflection of the views of his constituents.
‘‘Those who oppose the bill have different political views and religious beliefs.’’
His constituents had told him marriage was not defined by love but by a man and a woman entering a partnership for procreation.
‘‘For those people it is not possible for marriage to be redefined.’’
This position pretty well sums up the approach taken by the hard-working member for Eketahuna North when he considered the bill put forward by Labour MP Louisa Wall.
He is mindful of how divine judgment was passed upon Sodom and Gomorrah and two other neighboring cities away back in history. For their sins, they were completely consumed by fire and brimstone.
Trouble is, when it came to the numbers game we upholders of solid traditional values have been overwhelmed by the champions of impenitent sin and homosexuality.
The Bill will now be considered by a select committee before facing two further votes before it can pass into law.
But that wasn’t the only matter covered by Stuff hacks who have egregiously overlooked Alf’s role.
Take a butchers at this little number from Kate Chapman, who has been packed off to the Cook Islands.
Damned good thing it has been sourced to The Boss, because it deals with the ambitions of Trade Minister Tim Groser and matters made privy a while back to your hard-working member.
Tim has to decide whether he wants to throw his hat into the ring for the job of director general at the World Trade Organisation.
He had shared this information with Alf in the strictest of confidence.
But bugger me, The Boss has blabbed it to the aforementioned Chapman bint.
The prime minister said a number of countries had expressed an interest in Groser applying for the position and New Zealand would support him if he did.”That is obviously a big call and a big step.”
Groser would need to consider it.
“If that happened and he decided to put his name in the ring then the New Zealand Government would give him 100 per cent support.”
The director general will be appointed next year.
The Stuff account of Tim’s being in the running for the WTO’s top job is spiced with a reminder that former prime minister Mike Moore held the job during the 1990s after extensive lobbying by the Government at the time.
It also points out that the WTO sets world trade rules and has been trying for some years to further liberalise agricultural trade but has made little progress.
Then comes the bit that has seriously short-changed your hard-working member.
If Groser is successful in getting the job a vacancy would be created in Parliament which would be filled by appointing the next person on National’s list.
Yeah … but it would also open up a ministerial vacancy.
Why wasn’t that been noted?
And guess who would be in the running for a ministerial job – or, rather, should be?
Yours truly.
And the bastards haven’t bothered to mention it.
Dunno if that Press Council outfit looks at this sort of complaint…
Alf Grumble 
You are wasted as a minister Alf the country needs you as Ombudsman. Gay marriage – a Roman ideology. Civil union was adequate in endorsing the legality of wills and property, but the spiritual union with God as a witness ?? Ask God
Hmm. Alf Grumble, Ombudsman, has a nice ring to it. A mate reckons Alf would make a bloody good Pope, too, although that would require abandoning the Protestantism that has stood him in good stead for all of his life.