By: Larry Williams | Thursday, May 10, 2012 7:04 PM

Balloon

Whether or not cannabis affected the performance of the pilot in the Carterton ho air balloon tragedy will be investigated.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission has released its interim report into the January 7 crash that claimed 11 lives.

Toxicology reports reveal the pilot tested positive for cannabis.

This comes on the back of the Fox Glacier crash report yesterday revealing two tandem skydive masters tested positive for cannabis.

I suspect this will have an impact on the adventure tourism industry.

When all this negative stuff is reported overseas, it will deter people from taking part.

Safety has to be impeccable and that means drug free operators.

Mandatory alcohol and drug testing is the very least that should happen but incidents like this will put the punters off for sure.

 

Asset Sales

Opposition political parties are trying to beat up the case against the part sale of some of the SOEs.

But the citizen-initiated referendum is just a waste of time. It’s not binding and the referendum was done and dusted at the last election.

If you don't like it, vote for parties that will buy them back. Winston Peters is promising to re-nationalise the SOEs. So there you go. Voting for a party that will buy them back will achieve more than signing a piece of paper that will go nowhere.

I think what you will find is that once the likes of Mighty River Power gets sold down, the 49 percent will be owned mostly by Kiwisaver, Super Fund, retail investors and iwi. In other words, Kiwis.

For all those reasons -the referendum is therefore pointless.

 

TVNZ7

Labour's Clare Curran is attempting to save TVNZ7. She has drafted a Private Member’s Bill which would ensure its survival.

It would be funded by TVNZ to the tune of $14m per year and operate as a separate identity.

She is raising the argument that most OECD countries ensure that citizens have access to at least one public television channel.

Why then when Labour set TVNZ7 up did they not do just that?

The fact is that the most comparable model is the ABC in Australia and that costs around $1b a year!

Hardly likely then that $14m a year is going to cut it.

 

Mongrel Mob

The Mongrel Mob has been linked to a Dunedin charitable trust allegedly given money by Whanau Ora.

Four men have been charged with dishonestly converting $20,000 of trust money.

The trust is called "We Against Violence Trust".

The association is remarkable given the record of the Mongrel Mob.

The wider issue is the race based Whanau Ora which was a sop to the Maori Party.

The organisation hands out $5,000 grants for family reunions.

It’s really a continuation of the white guilt trip where taxpayers’ money is thrown down the toilet.

 

Blues Coach

Now that Pat Lam has been dumped because of the rather inept performances from the team, the search is on for his replacement.

The curious thing is that most of the names being touted are former All Blacks.

It’s like you have to be a former All Black to be a top coach.

I don't think that is the case at all.

Graham Henry and Steve Hansen are a case in point.

What I see is a lot of former All Blacks jumping onto the coaching bandwagon to get a living out of the game and being fast tracked into top jobs.

If I can put it this way: what the Blues need is a hard taskmaster for starters. Someone who can mould a team with character, values and discipline. Players whose priority is not Twitter, gossip pages or women's magazines.

That might help.