Richard Moore's Straight Talk Columns

Pay up, pay up, for Magical Mystery Tour

19/7/2011

HOW much tax came out of your pay packet last week? A couple of hundred bucks maybe?

Well, you'll be pleased to know it is being wisely and carefully used by our Monsters of Parliament to do all sorts of wonderful things for us.

New schools?

Umm, no, not really.

Reduced waiting times at hospitals?

Na ah. More police on the beat?

Ah, good one, that's the last question thanks.

Give up?

Well, a rather large amount of our tax dollars has been spent on what I call Murray McCully's Magical Mystery Tour through the Pacific Islands.

I came across it quite by accident, while spending my post-tax dollars on the lovely island of Rarotonga.

It was a front-page article in the Cook Island News about how our wonderful Foreign Minister and Rugby World Cup supremo was jetting in an entire planeload of officials, media, business folk and rugby legends. About 80 freebooters in all.

Not only were they visiting the Cook Islands, but also taking in Samoa, Tonga and Niue as well.

Nice little lurk, I thought snakily, but then my cold heart melted as I read on.

The paper said the purpose of Murray McCully's Magical Mystery Tour was to promote the Rugby World Cup.

Thank God for that, I thought, we wouldn't want our money wasted on something that wasn't important.

And just think, what else would that chartered New Zealand Defence Force plane do instead of providing a taxi service for more snouts in the trough?

Patrol our coastline, perhaps? Maybe protect our fishing zone? Hell, how about just sitting there doing nothing and not costing us anything?

No, far better off spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on petrol alone to give a planeload of folk a little holiday and pretend it will benefit NZ because of the blinking World Cup.

I have a question Murray. Just how many expensive Rugby World Cup tickets do you expect to sell in the less than poverished Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga or Niue? Other than to your Pacific Island political colleagues that is. I would think they'd be the only ones able to afford them - courtesy of their taxpayers, of course. Unless we are paying for them instead.

And, dear readers, isn't it interesting that Murray McCully's Magical Mystery Tour is so important as to warrant 80 hangers on, but hasn't been mentioned once in the NZ media that I have seen.

when the Cook Islands News tried to get McCully's office to speak about the jaunt, they were fobbed off with bureaucratic gobbledygook and promises of a later press release that hasn't yet eventuated.

Funny that, being an election year and all.

Could it be politicians have sensed people are getting really miffed at this Government's unbelievable largesse when it comes to handing out our hard-earned money to all comers.

You know if was cynical I'd suggest this little spend-up was being kept out of the public gaze because people would start asking questions about how important it really was. Roll up, roll up for Murray McCully's Magical Mystery Tour.

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I KNOW a great way to save the Government quite a few thousands dollars a year - other than stopping political junkets - and that's by getting rid of the Human Rights Review Tribunal.

The bleeding hearts on this tribunal have just awarded a prisoner $3500 for hurt feelings because he had been incorrectly branded a wife basher. His pain and embarrassment was so intense they decided he deserved the loot, despite the fact he was serving time for attacking a police officer, unlawful possession of firearms, aggravated robbery, theft, burglary and trying to escape from custody.

Maybe the $3500 should go to his victims.

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HOORAH! The residents of Papamoa are to get footbridges leading out of our suburb so we can get out quickly should a tsunami make a sudden appearance on our horizon.

The $200,000 bridges have been a long time coming - as have new sirens - and as soon as everything is in place we can all sleep better in our beds. No doubt there will be some whingers from other parts of the city who will bleat about the cost -forgetting that this city's biggest suburb, Papamoa, has subsidised an awful lot of works in other areas of Tauranga for a number of years.

richard@richardmoore.com