100% Pure my foot...

A Massey University freshwater ecologist has come under fire for criticising New Zealand's "100% Pure" marketing slogan.

When I was a kid, you could drink from almost any of the rivers in New Zealand, especially around my home town. Now, I wouldn't dare do that. Thanks to over-intensive dairy farming, the majority of New Zealand rivers are polluted. Dr Mike Joy's criticism is well-founded in fact, not marketing spin.

Some have called Mike Joy's public criticism "economic treason". How odd that they don't say the same thing about the government's asset-sale plans...

Predatory landlords

It's common knowledge that there is a shortage of housing in Christchurch. Thousands of homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable in the February 2011 earthquake. But that doesn't excuse the avaricious and predatory renting practices of Christchurch landlords.

While some defend this as market forces of supply and demand at work, let me point out that the market is, by definition, selfish to the point of pyscopathy. Most of the time market forces in rentals work fine, but in states of emergency, with suddenly and drastically restricted supply, they only favour the privileged and predatory.

In my opinion, the government should have legislated a rental price freeze in Christchurch following the earthquake: that would have prevented greedy landlords from inflating rents to ridiculous levels and putting families out on the street.

But, once again, the government acted in the interests of the wealthy and privileged, instead of in the interests of the people.

MPs setting their own salary - in secret

Yet another thing to get grumpy about is the salaries paid to Members of Parliament (MPs). This article tells how the New Zealand parliament is investigating a bill that would put more power in their hands to set their own salaries. While this is already ridiculous (I wish I could set my own salary, unfortunately I can't and have to negotiate based on my performance - you know, actually work for my money) the hearing is being held in secret.Now, I'm all for paying MPs well, as a preventative measure against corruption (New Zealand has very low rates of corruption, which is one of the things I love about it), but as the people who employ the MPs, and pay their salaries via taxes, we have the right to hear what is being said when they set their salaries. We should have a right to have a say in the salaries directly, but in one of the few cases of consistent parliamentary unity, MPs have always retained that power for themselves.