By: Larry Williams | Friday, May 04, 2012 7:59 PM

-TVNZ-

United Future leader Peter Dunne has launched a scathing attack on TVNZ.

The state broadcaster has announced it will replace TVNZ7 with its plus one channel, which will just be a repeat of TV One programming an hour later.

He says TV One is commercial trash and too obsessed with its self imagined stars.

Mr Dunne says to replace TVNZ7 with TV One content is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of regular TVNZ7 viewers.

I'm unsure where Dunne gets his 'hundreds of thousands' of viewers figure from because I have seen no evidence to support that.

However, Dunne is not the first to rail against the closure of TVNZ7.

There is what you would call a small group of public broadcasting cheerleaders trying to get the decision to close down TVNZ7 overturned.

The problem is that it has a small audience. It was operating on the smell of an oily rag: Just $15m. There was no cross promotion by TVOne.

It was set up to fail.

 

 

-BANKS AND DOTCOM-

 

The Dotcom donations to John Banks dominated the week.

Banks has not been unfairly treated. He was prevaricating on the question of the donations.

I think the Hong Kong hotel cost is a side show and a beat up. I see nothing there.

It doesn't really matter much what happens to Banks down the track, whether he survives the mess or not, there are a couple of certainties. One - None of it passed the sniff test...and two - The public I think have most likely written Banks off on the back of it.

What should come out of this is a revamp of the laws around anonymous donations.

They should all be declared but don't hold your breath.

 

 

-STUDENT LOANS-

 

The students have been asked to pay their loans back a little faster. Like 12c in the dollar rather than 10c.

The students organisations are outraged. Labour's outraged. The Greens are outraged.

For some reason they all think the students are being beaten up; that they are not getting a fair deal.

Well just go look at what students get overseas and by any standard you will see that the students are getting a very good deal.

Indeed these loans could be tightened further.

I think there is merit in linking the loans to the CPI which still means that there is still no real cost to borrowing.

There is merit also in making the repayments linked to a graduate’s salary.

 

 

-SUPERFUND-

 

Labour will not resume contributions to the Super Fund until the country is back in surplus.

This is a U-turn.

David Shearer could see that borrowing billions to put into the Super Fund was not smart.

It was remarkable that Labour entertained the idea that you were better off borrowing to save.

It was dopey economics.

Not sure Mr Shearer told his caucus colleagues though. On Tuesday Trevor Mallard was saying the opposite about the Super Fund contributions.

 

 

-LEGAL AID-

 

$1b has been spent on legal aid since 2000. $169m in the last year alone.

The lawyers are dead against the proposed changes.

They include, the introduction of fixed fees, changes to eligibility criteria and more active management of high cost cases.

The lawyers want none of this. They want more not less. They say that lawyers are so dismayed at the changes they are dropping off legal aid work. The say its all about the money.

Correct, it is all about the money and its taxpayers money and we are spending too much of it on mostly guilty criminals.

Anyone who receives legal aid may be required to repay some of the costs. This is not happening. Mostly because they are guilty and they end up being banged up in jail.

There has to be a limit.

The expansion of the Public Defenders Service looks like an attractive concept in light of the ever ballooning costs spent on criminals who are clearly guilty from the get go.