Coalition Majority – Missing Votes – Tauranga – Same Sex Marriage – Xmas Lotto – Millennium Traffic – Greens – Party Hopping – Hobbiton – Editorial: Nutty Greens
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COALITION MAJORITY: The Labour-Alliance Coalition retains the faint hope of restoring its outright majority by winning an extra seat through the party vote, but it has taken the precaution of talks with the balance-of-power-wielding Greens. Labour has its fingers crossed that its party vote will expand sufficiently with the counting of special votes to give the Coalition an absolute two-seat majority without the Greens.
MISSING VOTES: Polling officer Val Hosie knows exactly
where the ballot papers at the centre of the missing votes
scandal were the day after the election: on her verandah.
The Himatangi Beach resident took the votes home for the
night and the next day left them outside - where they were
collected.
TAURANGA: National Party chiefs will decide
this morning whether to challenge Winston Peters' razor-thin
majority in Tauranga.
But even if they decide against
it, Labour has not ruled out mounting its own challenge, to
strengthen its hold on Government.
Just over 3000
special votes were counted yesterday, slicing Mr Peters' 323
election-night majority over National's Katherine O'Regan to
just 62.
SAME SEX MARRIAGE: The top minds responsible for
advising the Government on law reform want same-sex
marriages to be given legal status - and they have the
backing of Prime Minister-designate Helen Clark.
The Law
Commission says marriage for gay and lesbian couples should
be recognised in law by a system of registration that would
put them on the same legal footing as heterosexual marriage.
XMAS LOTTO: Church leaders are denouncing Lotto
organisers and TVNZ for promoting gambling on Christmas Day.
The Churches Broadcasting Commission says screening the
regular Saturday superdraw on Christmas Day is illegal
because the law bans advertising programmes on December 25.
It hopes to launch a legal challenge to stop the
screening, arguing that a lottery draw also goes against the
spirit of Christmas, which should be a family occasion.
MILLENNIUM TRAFFIC: Gridlock looms as the most likely
major issue facing Operation First Light, the police
programme to handle Gisborne's millennium celebrations.
As part of the planning, fire trucks and ambulances will
be stationed in the winding Waioeka Gorge and police
motorbikes and helicopters placed on standby to cope with
traffic incidents on the road to Gisborne.
GREENS: The
dreads are in the House - and they are not going to be cut
down to size.
Dreadlocks and hemp suits were formally
approved as suitable attire for MPs yesterday as new Green
MPs Nandor Tanczos (campaign slogan: "Put the Dread in the
House"), Sue Bradford, Sue Kedgley and Ian Ewen-Street
arrived at Parliament.
PARTY HOPPING: Labour may have to
change its plans to ban party-hopping by MPs to satisfy the
concerns of the Greens and NZ First.
Green co-leaders
Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald said yesterday that
Labour's anti-defector bill would give party leaders too
much power to decide when a guilty MP should be removed from
Parliament.
HOBBITON: Filming of the $360 million fantasy
trilogy Lord of the Rings began in the central Waikato
yesterday.
The 120-strong crew of director Peter
Jackson's movie will spend five days filming the mock-up
Hobbiton village on a farm between Matamata and Karapiro.
Co-director John Mahaffie, a New Zealander whose credits
include Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, said stand-in
actors for stars such as Gandalf's Sir Ian McKellen were
being used for the opening shots of the Hobbiton hamlet.
EDITORIAL- NUTTY GREENS: A new party in Parliament, no
matter how "nutty," deserves a welcome. "Nutty" was the
Alliance president's word for the Greens, and his party
knows them better than any other does. He, in fact, welcomed
the appearance of a party further to the left than the
Alliance, although it is doubtful he wanted to see it win
seats. Labour certainly did not. The prospect of bargaining
for a second party's support - particularly one that could
be flaky - would not please any major partner in government.
Labour has openly blamed the National Party's aggressive
campaign in Coromandel for the sudden success of the Greens.
But National was reacting to a poll that showed the Green
candidate within reach of the seat and it was vital that
voters were alerted to the implications. Jeanette Fitzsimons
appeals as a gentle, thoughtful, highly principled person
and it is good to see such people in Parliament. But her
views of trade and "sustainable" living would make life
rough for those who voted for her. Let us hope they did so
with their eyes open, knowing one electorate could give the
Greens pivotal power.