Wintec Peters. Photo: Heather Meyric/Waikato Ind.

Why did John Key launch into that weirdly detailed critique of New Zealand media and politics on Thursday morning?

It’s clear as anything now: he was stealing the thunder of Winston Peters, who addressed precisely that subject before an audience of politicians, media and students (and, most importantly, Sir Pinetree Meads) in Hamilton yesterday.

The New Zealand First leader was speaking at a Wintec School of Media Arts lunch as the guest of Steve Braunias, the editor-in-residence, columnist and suspected author of satirical Twitter account @JohnKeyPM.

In a cunning allusion to the media as a feral beast, Peters invoked pitbulls, cows and kittens as he orated his way around a range of subjects, punctuated with those signature glares, mile-wide grins and complicit chortles.

As one seasoned observer put it, it was a speech the NZ First leader appeared to be discovering at the same time as his audience. Especially when he was telling us about social media. That was sort of painful.

Among other near misses, the “big German” who appears to have entangled John Banks in his net was repeatedly called “Tim Dotcom”.

The speech itself, which laments a lot of things, including the impact on New Zealand media of foreign ownership, can be read here.

But while the official version is not entirely without sparks – including swipes at Kiwiblog and Whale Oil – the best stuff, of course, was Winston off-piste.

Not in the script was the bit where he framed an argument against immigration on the basis of there being too many restaurants on Dominion Road.

Or the bit where he talked about his views on drinking. “It’s not whether you like a drink, its whether you can handle it.”

Or the bit where he talked about strategic news management. “My father told me, when you go out there on the farm to feed the cows, you shouldn’t feed them all you like. Spread it out.”

Or journalists’ “magical reason to exist” but poverty of soul. “I wish more had the sense of glamour and romance about their glamorous profession.”

Or the use of Twitter in parliament. “People use it a lot. Apart from one member – that’s all he does. Tau Henare. It’s a fact. That’s when he’s not hiding behind Paula Bennett.”

Tau Henare? “When I met him, I thought he was very bright. But that was before he opened his mouth.”

You can find a better, more thorough and more coherent write-up of the event, penned by Wintec student Mackenzie McCarty, at the Waikato Independent. The future is in safe hands.

When Christchurch City Council chief executive Tony Marryatt sparked a ratepayer revolt over his $68,000 pay hike early this year, he said all he wanted was the fair market rate. “All I’ve ever said to my council is, ‘You tell me what the market is, and I’m happy to be in that range, whatever it is,’” he told TV3. New information released to the Listener under the Official Information Act has thrown fresh light on the work of the consultants Strategic Pay, which in June 2011 helped arrive at that “market rate”. It shows that since 2007, when Marryatt became the CEO, Strategic Pay has done $181,000 of other contract work for the council executive team, including job-evaluation training, staff workshops, remuneration advice, job evaluation and salary data provision.

University of Otago management professor Steven Grover believes this shows a “moral hazard” at the heart of the pay-setting process that would have made it difficult for the consultants to dispassionately assess the going rate for a position such as Marryatt’s. Grover, who is internationally renowned for his work in behavioural ethics, describes the arrangement as a “classic conflict of interest”.

The reason for hiring a consultant to get advice on remuneration is to get an “unbiased, objective opinion” on what the market rate is for a certain type of position, he says. Even good people trying as hard as possible to be objective could not avoid being influenced by a situation where their other work might be dependent on the finding they make on the CEO’s pay band. “In order to be unbiased, that company needs to be unassociated with the firm or the council that is seeking its services. You place the firm into a moral hazard situation, where even if they attempt it they cannot avoid being influenced… There will be pressures on them.”

Grover says the situation parallels concerns that arose in the wake of the Enron financial collapse in the US, which focused attention on conflicts of interest in the accounting profession. Arthur Andersen was both auditor of and consultant to Enron. Concerns about conflicts of interest for remuneration consultants led in 2010 to new US rules that require companies to disclose the fees they pay to remuneration consultants if the consultants are also hired for other work.

Strategic Pay advised the council that the market median for Marryatt’s type of job had risen 5.1%, and controversially used both public and private sector organisations as the benchmark. It recommended he be paid at the market median or up to 3% higher, even for “satisfactory” performance. Mayor Bob Parker then recommended that the council grant a further 9%, taking the total rise to 14%, and the total package to $540,000.

Strategic Pay has previously defended its role. In February it told the Listener that although a “potential conflict of interest was always there”, it believed in “being sensitive to the fact there is potential conflict of interest and we want to appear squeaky clean”. Strategic Pay managing director John McGill said this week he was unable to meet Listener deadlines to provide further comment. Christchurch man Peter Lynch, who organised a public rally to protest at Marryatt’s pay rise, wants the council to hire a separate firm in future to advise on CEO pay. “If they’re doing a lot of other work for the council, they can’t be independent,” he says.

Mayor Parker was on a trip to South Korea and Israel and did not reply to an emailed request for comment on whether the council was considering changing its procedures. Meanwhile, Marryatt, who after a storm of criticism declined the rise in January, was reported last month as saying he had yet to make a decision on whether he would return the more than $25,000 he had already received, saying he wanted to see the results of a government observer’s efforts to improve working relationships on the council.

UPDATE

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker has come out in support of remuneration consultants Strategic Pay over conflict of interest concerns raised in this week’s Listener, saying Strategic Pay work with “purely factual data”. And he says he would hire them again.

Parker told the Listener he had been aware Strategic Pay was doing a substantial volume of work for Marryatt and his team, at the same time as the firm was advising Parker in an independent role on the market rate for the CEO’s job. But he rejected the view of Otago professor of management Steven Grover that this constituted a “classic conflict of interest.”

Mayor Bob Parker

And he said he did not believe the double role had any impact on the objectivity of Strategic Pay’s advice. “Strategic Pay necessarily functions on a independent basis as they work purely on factual internal & external data. This data, which is a single source of truth, is available to all Strategic Pay’s clients.

“In our opinion there are only two organisations in New Zealand that could provide Council with the required remuneration information. Strategic Pay’s strength lies in the Public/Local Government Sector.

“It is acknowledged that Mr Marryatt engages Strategic Pay to provide remuneration advice for the eight second tier positions at Council. Council’s General Manager, Human Resources also employs Strategic Pay for remuneration and job evaluation services.

“I am satisfied that Strategic Pay provides advice based purely on factual data and that their advice is not “influenced” by their being involved in other work for Council as suggested by Professor Grover.”

Herald Sun Half-wits, run by the people from the Aussie satire site Aktifmag, assembles the especially daft and/or reactionary comments posted at the website of the Melbourne newspaper.

The Herald Sun is hardly alone in attracting comments of this sort, but it seems to provide a consistent supply.

It’s not, put it this way, of the calibre of what you’d expect in the letters page of Her Majesty’s Daily Telegraph.

A @HeraldSunReader sampling from recent months:

“There should be a deport button on Facebook.”

“Whenever a so called atheist says ‘where’s the proof god exists’ I simply say ‘where’s your proof he does not?’ It always stumps them.”

“lol funny how theres nothin about climate change in the paper now. Knew it was bull.”

“People don’t care. Maybe we need to ban mobile phones being in cars full stop.”

“As [Bali’s] entire police force is corrupt, the chances of being in jail for no crime at all is 100.”

“I can’t figure out how people drown in the ocean, how hard can it be to just swim?”

“Just because more celebrities seem to be homosexual than most doesn’t mean Homosexual Marriage should be allowed.”

“paintings = massive scam. I doubt anyones looked at there painting more than there telly”

“”The rising cost of petrol doesn’t worry me as I only buy $10 worth at a time.”

“These kids deserve a slap on the wrist. With a machete.”

“How is it racist if your just giving your opinion?”

“I don’t drive my car on your bike paths, so take you bikes off my roads.”

And on Julia Gillard:

“thinking she is getting criticised because she is a women is baloney. Its cause men generally do the job better.”

h/t @cherylbernstein

Latest to discover the narrative potential of the breakfast-time goo is the Wall Street Journal. That’s right, the Wall Street Journal.

In a report from Sydney, the paper announces that “Vegemite, Australia’s best-known condiment, is leaving a bad taste in little mouths.”

Apparently, manufacturers are “struggling to recruit young Aussies to eat the thick brown salty spread that their parents have always adored”.

Gloop. Gulp.

For all the efforts by Kraft Foods to innovate and reinvent – including “blending the stuff with cream cheese to create a concoction briefly known as ‘iSnack 2.0’ – it just isn’t catching on, writes Rachel Pannett.

That isn’t a joke – they really did market a Vegemite procuct called iSnack 2.0.

She adds:

Now its latest gambit to tone down Vegemite’s pungent flavor and win new customers has fallen flat with both the mothers and toddlers it was designed to seduce. A lower-salt, mild version of the vitamin B-rich spread called “My First Vegemite” aimed at infants was recently pulled from supermarket shelves just over a year after its launch because of poor sales.

The numbers are worrying:

Although eight out of 10 Australian homes still have a jar of Vegemite in the pantry … sales have flat-lined. On average, Australians buy just one jar of Vegemite a year, and sales drop off sharply when children leave home. The new version of Vegemite sold just 350,000 jars in its first year, according to Kraft, compared with about 22 million jars of the standard product.

Marmite, meanwhile, owned by Unilever in Australia, was having more luck, she writes, embracing social media and playing on its own divisive potential.

She notes – just as well she does:

In New Zealand, where a local version of Marmite is more popular than Aussie Vegemite, a crisis dubbed “Marmaggedon” unfolded after the country’s only factory closed late last year for nine months to repair damage caused by an earthquake in Christchurch.

What to do for Vegemite, though? Conquer America.

Vegemite has found some high-level allies in its bid to win over Americans to the spread. At a May 5 open house at the Australian Embassy in Washington, staff served mini-Vegemite sandwiches – white bread diced into “Vege bites” – to about 5,300 visitors. The embassy couldn’t say exactly how Australia’s offering stacked up to French foie gras or Russian caviar among the 187 embassies and cultural centers taking part in the annual Passport D.C. event. Still, the proof could be in the eating: Trays of sandwiches were returned to the kitchen with nothing left but crumbs.

The demise of the Soviet Union meant the demise of its establishment newspaper, but it was succeeded by a small print newspaper (see the Reuters report here) and a website hoping to keep its values alive. Pravda.ru was founded, it explains in a piece marking the anniversary, “as a result of the tragic end of the ‘mouthpiece of the Kremlin’”.

A plaything of the party? Never, writes Marina Arapidi for Pravda.ru.

The former employees of the newspaper, or the Pravdaists, as they call themselves, say that their newspaper was the freest publication in the Soviet Union.

It is put better by Vladimir Gubarev, a former science editor quoted by Pravda.ru. He says:

Pravda was like a mirror – it was reflecting time. It was the Soviet time – the great, the tragic, the miserable and the outstanding time. One only needs to understand that. Pravda had the people who’d jail others and who’d be jailed. Pravda had the people who’d execute others and be executed. One can not judge the past from the point of view of the present.

But many of those old-fashioned Pravda values are alive and well at Pravda.ru.

Headlines being promoted on the site’s front page now:

Russia’s renewed space drive

Putin: I consider it to be my life mission to serve my motherland

The US Quest for Encircling Russia

And simply:

Fascist America

A taste of that last piece, by Lisa Karpova:

What did the USSR do when it was at the zenith of its power? Built schools, hospitals and infrastructure, provided education and assisted those who sought to free themselves from colonial oppression.

What does the USA do? Steal people’s resources. Leave them in abject poverty, destitution and a destabilized situation. Usually there is no clean water, no electricity, there are violent gangs attacking the vulnerable and innocent …

The USA is absolutely corrupt. It has become a fascist monstrosity, a predator, a lawless aggressor. Contrary to their personal belief, might does not make right and you do not produce freedom and democracy out of the barrel of a gun, the urine of a pervert, the bombs of a video game warrior, the sodomy of some sick psychopath …

The world community must demand that the opposing power void be filled by the true, just democratic entities of the world. Seeing as the monster only understands the stick, be prepared to use it.

End of the affair: The teapot tape scene where the kerfuffle was born. Photo: David White

John Key has reopened his war of words with the New Zealand media this morning.

In an interview with Leighton Smith on Newstalk ZB (listen here), the prime minister said that in the second National-led term “the media is in a more aggressive and hostile mood towards us.”

Key added: “Contrary to their opinions, I’m not that bent out of shape by that. I expected that.”

Helen Clark had warned him in 2011 at the swearing in of the government that the second term had been “disastrous”, the third “diabolical” – as a result of the media becoming “more antagonistic”.

“I don’t mean that as a complaint,” he added. “It’s just a statement of fact.”

Key criticised the approach of the Sunday Star Times, but took particular aim at the New Zealand Herald, which is currently exploring the possibility of changing to a tabloid format.

He said:

The Herald’s turned more tabloid. They won’t like it if I say that, but that is absolutely a statement of fact …

They have decided they need to get their circulations from stopping falling, or at least try and maybe go up – so they have a new editor, and the editor has turned the front page of the paper into a pretty sensational sort of front page and that’s a deliberate strategy to get more sales at the dairy.

For a man who repeatedly insisted that he wasn’t the slightest bit interested in what the media thought of him, Key appeared to have been studying the media output fairly closely, and critiqued a reporter appointment at the Herald and the changes of political editor at TVNZ and TV3.

Key’s remarks were tweeted by Newstalk ZB’s Felix Marwick:

PM critical of @nzherald Say the paper is taking a tabloid approach to boost its sales.

Which prompted the Herald’s daily editor, Shayne Currie, to strike back with a tweet at smile-and-wave John:

We wouldn’t want to be populist now would we, Mr Key.

Followed by:

I guess I won’t be getting any LOL texts

Herald editor-in-chief Tim Murphy soon chipped in, again on Twitter, putting it down to second-term-itis:

Lange called us a #%^& tabloid in celebrated msg to editor’s landline in ’89. Bolger, Clark also dark. A 2nd term thing.

And:

‘Pressure’ comes on govts in 2nd terms because they’re accountable for own scandals/deals/u-turns – can’t blame other guys – just media.

Earlier today, Key missed his regular slot on the TV3 Firstline programme. “The Prime Minister cancelled his usual 7.15am interview with us this morning. No reason given,” tweeted host Rachel Smalley.

Arguably the tit-for-tat with the media is a helpful distraction for a government battling on a number of fronts, but it could yet develop into one of the major faultlines in the second term.

The relationship between the prime minister and the media became more than a little rocky in the final stages of last year’s election campaign, in the wake of the recording of a conversation between Key and ACT’s Epsom candidate John Banks, which made its way into the hands of the Herald on Sunday. But you remember all of that.

Key laid a police complaint, which triggered search warrants being issued to Radio New Zealand, TV3 and TVNZ.

He raised eyebrows through the roof with claims that the Herald on Sunday was guilty of adopting News of the World style tactics.

When the police investigation into cameraman Bradley Ambrose came to end with a police insinuation that illegality had taken place, the NZ Herald responded with a ferocious editorial headlined “Key’s attack on the media a sorry mess”.

The memories of the November exchanges clearly remained raw:

It suited the political times, or so Mr Key’s advisers thought, to turn this into a sprawling week of allegations against the media. We were, predictably and unimaginatively, likened to the News of the World, the UK tabloid closed after hacking a murdered girl’s mobile phone, among many other outrages. Then, Mr Key claimed we would publish parents’ private discussions of suicidal children. And when those preposterous attacks fell flat, he shrugged that the police had time to investigate this case because National had lowered the crime rate.

Key had warned of a “slippery slope” of media intrusion. The Herald’s editorial again:

There is no slope, slippery or otherwise, in the coverage of political or public affairs. There is a slippery slope, however, in police inquiries arising from political discomfort.

Approved of: John Key. Photo: David White

John Key sits beneath Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyon and above Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dun.

The New Zealand prime minister ranks ninth in the Gallup survey (see below) of leader approval ratings in 21 nations in the Asian region, with 72% saying they approved of Key’s job performance, 24% disapproving, and 4% confused or profoundly shy or something.

The survey by the Washington-based Gallup, which polled 1,000 people in each country, has attracted widespread coverage across the region, but as far as I can tell has been overlooked in New Zealand.

Choummaly Sayasone of Laos is top of the pile, with a stonking 97% approval. Propping up the bottom, meanwhile, is the controversial Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, with a miserable 20% approving and 77% disapproving. Australia’s Julia Gillard is at 45% approval versus 49% approval – though those are figures measure last year; it’s doubtful whether she’d do as well today.

Poor results for Afganistan’s Hamid Karzai and Hong Kong’s Donald Tsang who are fourth-to-last and third-to-last respectively. China does not feature.

The New Zealand data was collected in a landline telephone poll conducted between September and November last year, ie the period before the election. John Key was enjoying more than 50% support in the preferred PM ranks in polling, and while recent polls (such as this) suggest that’s slipped slightly south of the 50% mark he remains in a healthy lead.

Some analysis from the Gallup release:

Economic stability and peace dividends may help explain some of the relatively high approval that leaders of Laos, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka get from their constituents. Laos’ 7% or better economic growth since 2008, for example, likely contributes to residents’ approval of President Choummali Saignason. Saignason, who is not elected by popular vote, was re-elected by the country’s National Assembly shortly before Gallup’s surveys started. Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka may still be benefiting from residents’ residual euphoria following the 2009 end of the country’s 26-year civil war.

In contrast, political discord, internal strife, and geo-political complexities likely affected approval ratings for leaders in Hong Kong, Nepal, and Pakistan. Pakistanis have never placed much confidence in President Asif Ali Zardari’s leadership; throughout his tenure, the country has grappled with terrorism, challenging relations with the U.S., and a struggling economy. Donald Tsang of Hong Kong leaves office in July amid concerns about China’s increasingly active role in the former British protectorate and controversies over gifts, travel, and lodging received from business leaders.

1. On which theme, US novelist Jeffrey Eugenides (The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex, The Marriage Plot) spoke to Kim Hill on Saturday morning ahead of his festival appearances.

2. And one of the New Zealand stars of the festival, Emily Perkins has taken part in a NZ Listener podcast, talking about her feted new novel. It’s the book of the month in the book club. Much more here.

I think they recorded plenty of the sessions themselves at the festival, so they’ll presumably end up on National Radio before long.

3. Clive James was in the chair for the full hour of the ABC’s Friday Late programme. He was talking to Mark Colvin. Listen here.

4. The latest Insight programme, The State and Your Information from RNZ National, looks at the relationship between the government and privacy as technology whirrs furiously along. (Via @LewStoddart.)

5. And it’s cheating slightly to call it of-the-week, but if you haven’t seen Maurice Sendak‘s appearance on The Colbert Report, filmed in January, you’ll be wanting to do that now.

Colin Craig in full flow. Source: Conservative website

Is Colin Craig a creationist?

In the Nine to Noon left-right fisticuffs slot a moment ago, former Labour president Mike Williams said he understands that the Conservative leader does indeed believe that God created the universe in the manner outlined in the Bible.

The salient exchange …

Matthew Hooton: There’s probably 5% of the population that are creationists. I’m not suggesting Colin Craig is a creationist or anything.

Mike Williams: Actually he is.

Hooton: Sorry?

Williams: Well I met Colin Craig at a radio station end-of-year party … [and] I took this up with Colin, and I said would you classify yourself as a Darwinist? And he said, “no.” And I said, well there’s two alternatives: creationism or intelligent design. Which do you favour? And he said, “Oh, the jury’s still out on those two.” So I think there’s some water to go under the bridge. I think he’s a bit weirder than he looks.

Kathryn Ryan: Oh, “weirder”, come on, that was the belief of many Christian traditions over many years … He’s entitled to whatever views he has. Doesn’t rule him out as a party leader.

Does it matter?

Yes. The well-resourced Conservative party is emerging as a genuine prospect. The burst of publicity surrounding Craig’s “promiscuity” remarks is unlikely to be the last before the next election. Aided by the apparent implosion of the ACT party, there is a genuine possibility that Colin Craig and co could be a, or the, crucial coalition prop to National party in the future.

No one needs reminding how important the debate has become in the US, where the teaching of intelligent design in schools became a crucial battleground.

In a 2007 UMR survey, 24% of New Zealand respondents agreed with the statement “God created human beings in their present form exactly the way the Bible describes it”. That compared with slightly more than 50% in the US.

I had a look at the Conservative party’s website, and its “How Conservative are you” online test. No mention of creationism or evolution, indeed God and religion don’t get a look in at all.

So I called the Conservative party seeking a better steer on the leader’s position.

CC himself wasn’t around, but party secretary Kevin Stitt says: “He is a Christian, so I daresay he does believe that God began it all. In that sense he’s a creationist.”

Yes, but there are plenty of people who define themselves as Christian, and many of them – particularly, I’d guess, those who like Craig aren’t regular church-goers (see this PDF for his articulation on that point) – also believe in evolution and science.

Could he check with the boss (Colin, not the boss upstairs) and get a clarification on the precise position for me? He’ll “try to get hold of him”. But “he’s a busy man”, so it won’t be easy.

“Call back tomorrow.” And with that he is gone.

The mayor might also prefer the coverage in the international press to that at home.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz says Parker “radiates a remarkable sense of calm for a man whose city was virtually levelled following a two-year string of earthquakes and aftershocks”.

Parker, writes Mordechai Twersky, “seems undaunted by the Herculean task of rebuilding the New Zealand city”.

Attending the International Conference of Mayors in Tel Aviv, Parker got a little spiritual, and drew comparisons between New Zealand and Israel – as well as between Christchurch’s struggles and that of Israelis.

From the Haaretz report:

“They say Israel is an island,” says Parker. “My country is, quite literally, a series of islands – and an island is where a great sense of sustainability is required. We share this in common.”

In the rebuilding phase, New Zealand could learn from Israel’s emphasis on “entrepreneurship” and “innovation”, he says. These, says Haaretz, are thought to be “critical capabilities he says his burgeoning city will require if it is to sustain its vast economic recovery”.

It continues:

Joined by his wife, Joanna Nicholls-Parker, Parker appeared awed following their visits to some of Jerusalem’s holy sites. Parker notes that he believes “in the god of my understanding based on a set of personal spiritual values.”

And the “traumas” of Christchurch were familiar to many Israelis, said Parker.

Israel has been locked in conflict with Palestinians and many other nations in the region since its establishment in 1948.

Haartez quotes him:

I wanted to come to Israel for a number of reasons, not the least of which is pure curiosity, but also because of the support that I’ve received from Israel along with a number of other countries. We have been through an event which is not dissimilar to the sorts of traumas that communities in Israel have experienced. Of course, the circumstances are different, but the results in many cases are the same.