Richard Moore's Straight Talk Columns

MPs just need a perk-up after a hard day

15/6/2010

I KNOW the rules state our Monsters of Parliament shouldn't pull out their official credit cards for personal use but, really, don't they deserve more perks than they currently get?

They work really, really hard at very stressful jobs and who are we to deny what they seem unable to deny themselves.

And seeing as many of them are so far from friends and family only mean-spirited taxpayers would take umbrage at MPs spending our money on food, drink and other necessities of life.

Take Parekura Horomia for example. He got a little peckish one day and ordered up more than $350 worth of munchies in a restaurant. Now, looking at Horomia you'd have to say he didn't overindulge, rather he only bought himself a snack.

I'm a bit of a fan of champers - I had a few glasses at The Marriage of Figaro in Auckland the other night - and I wouldn't want to deny the likes of Judith ``Show Me the Bubbles'' Tizard her bottles of Bollinger put on the public tab.

Being a romantic sort of guy I have no problem with a sensitive soul like Chris Carter buying flowers for his hubby. It's so sweet.

Things do get a bit trickier with Shane Jones' self-indulgence and his movies but you know the guy was clearly lonely and missing the comforts of home. Instead of moral judgments and tut-tutting, surely all that is needed is for Jones to keep his hand away from the public pocket.

Aren't you just so glad the whole issue of charging extra for adult books has been put back on the shelf by the council?

The idea of taxing knowledge is abhorrent to most thinking people and yet the bureaucrats and elected officials thought they could wring 50 cents a book out of readers in Tauranga.

Then the people spoke and according to councillors they recognised that the idea of charging more for books was wrong and so scrapped the idea.

Cynical folk would say it is election year and the councillors were just running for cover. However I have evidence that Tauranga City Councillors are not chicken and really are braver than you give them credit for.

In the City News page of the Bay News there is a little item headlined Changes to Library Charges.

I started reading with slight interest as I was sure it would just confirm the backpedalling over extra dosh for books.

The first sentence said: ``These changes take effect from July 1 this year.'' Top Title Books raised from $2 to $3. Top DVDs raised from $3 to $4 and the loan period reduced from 2 weeks to one week. Top CDs remain at $3 but loan period reduced from two weeks to one week. Loan period on all magazines reduced from two weeks to one week. Library card administration fee goes from $2 to $3. Replacement library cards for adults raised from $2 to $5. Interloan requests are increased from $5 to $7.

So all those who reckon people power won the day over money-hungry councillors may need to vote ... er think ... again.

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Hallelujah, they've seen the light.

It seems the boys and gals within the Destiny Church - you know the one led by Pope Archbishop the Marvellously Hallowed Brian Tamaki - aren't quite so enamoured with biffing masses of moolah at the great guru.

Donations to His Worshipful's church have fallen by 12 per cent but Brian's mob is still dragging in a gentle $5.6 million from followers. The biggest drops in donations were recorded by the faithful in Tauranga (down 41 per cent to $241,306) and the very-much-less faithful in Wellington (down 16 per cent to $455,643).

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Attention TVNZ. If you want to learn how to do a telly show - just check out Prime TV.

Anyone who suffered through the TVNZ rubbish celebrating 50 years of NZ television with its inane two-hour gameshow format would have been very wary when thinking about watching Prime's effort on Sunday night.

But Prime Presents: 50 years of Television was informative and told the tale of the goggle box in NZ through the eyes of those who were intimately involved.

Instead of young lightweights trying to cover up their ignorance with childish humour, Prime had TV heavyweights who knew their stuff.

Given the choice of sitting down with TVNZ ``star'' Jason Gunn and hearing his experiences in today's broadcasting or with an innovative producer of ground-breaking 1960s shows like C'mon such as Kevan Moore - who also had a hand in starting South Pacific TV - I'd pick the elderly chap any day.

Nice surname too.