12 June 2004 23:22
HOUSE KEEPING
TRADE Minister Jim Sutton was believed to be a little surprised at reports that he had been following the sun on
recent overseas trips. Sutton was one of several ministers who had arranged portfolio engagements overseas during the
past fortnight when the House was not sitting. It was unkindly reported that it was no coincidence that ministers were
heading off just as the winter chill started biting in New Zealand. Sutton first accompanied a trade mission to Russia
where, in Vladivostok, he endured minus 2deg. Next he attended an Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation) meeting in
Chile, and that country lived up to its name.
NATIONAL leader Don Brash's two- week overseas trip ends today in Beijing, after meetings in Washington and
London. It will be recalled that this was the trip in which Brash, according to Labour, was about to undermine our
prospects of a free-trade agreement with the United States. Accusing political opponents of rat- bagging their own
nation is a time- honoured political ploy. Last time this occurred was during the 1996 election campaign. Then prime
minister Jim Bolger was accused of economic sabotage for telling an Australian audience it was understandable that they
would not invest in New Zealand until the election outcome was known. This time around Labour did not even wait for
Brash to begin his trip before the accusations flew. And nothing has emerged from his trip to sustain the claim. With an
American election imminent, only a blind optimist could believe that a free-trade agreement was in the offing and just
waiting to be undermined by Brash or anyone.
GREEN MP Mike Ward is adamant that Parliament, like all workplaces, needs a bit of culture. So next Wednesday the
Green Party office there will host a Poets at Parliament function during the House's tea break. Ward is not the
first MP to have cultural aspirations. Former Christian Heritage leader Graeme Lee was an enthusiastic painter, while no
party was complete without former MPs Graeme Kelly and John Falloon on the piano. But pride of place must go to former
West Coast MP Paddy Blanchfield, who was noted for not only composing poetry but reading it during parliamentary
debates.
MONDAY will be the 20th anniversary of the day in which a rather worse-for-wear Robert Muldoon stunned the nation by
announcing a snap election in 1984. Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen recently labelled that ballot the
"schnapps election". That election led to Labour's David Lange taking Muldoon's job, launched
Rogernomics ... and the rest is history.
[The Christchurch Press] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
