By: Larry Williams | Monday, April 23, 2012

Telecom

Telecom has appointed a new chief executive officer and managing director.

Simon Moutter, who has previously held senior roles at the company, will take up the position in September.

He's currently chief executive of Auckland Airport.

The interesting thing but not a surprising thing is how the media lock into Mr Moutter's salary package. The salary was first and foremost the crux of the story. Like an envy thing playing out.

Frankly, what Mr Moutter gets paid is nobody’s business but the Telecom shareholders.

I don't know why Telecom would release that information at this point.

SkyCity

Despite a frenzied campaign by political opponents and some media, the Government doesn't appear top be fazed over any deal with the casino in return for a convention centre.

The PM says five tenders were put in and SkyCity was the only one that came up with the numbers. In other words the others wanted the taxpayer to pay for it.

It’s not difficult then to see why SkyCity is odds on to win the tender.

Poll

Latest poll out shows Labour flat-lining still and already there is talk of a coup against David Shearer.

I have said previously that I can't see Shearer surviving but I think he's coming on as a leader and he deserves a fair go.

The whispers from the left do nothing to consolidate the party. They are their own worst enemy.

ACT

ACT wants the Government to drop the middle class welfare. They refer to the interest free student loans.

This is a reasonable suggestion.

There's middle class welfare embedded in Working for Families that they could campaign to get rid of too.

Fact is, ACT can bang on all they like, the Government is not going there.

As the PM has stated. Economics doesn't really matter much as long as the policy is good politics.

National has simply followed on from Labour.

It’s called buying votes.

Hikoi

Maori are promising the biggest hikoi NZ has ever seen following the sale of the Crafar farms to the Chinese.

Seriously - what a bunch of losers.

V8s

The final V8s in Hamilton. The Council there lost around $40m on this venture. It was clearly a financial disaster for the ratepayer.

Now we have the organisers eyeing up Auckland. They are talking to the Government and the Council. This is code for looking around for another sucker to take the hit.

Sport

The Kiwis never really threatened the Kangaroos. It wasn't a bath and they had their chances but there was a sense of inevitability about it all.

Same for the Blues. They can't buy a trick at the moment. The Highlanders dealt to them.

The Chiefs keep trucking along and the Crusaders just wiped the Hurricanes from the floor.

Interesting that the All Blacks’ coach Steve Hansen isn't too bothered about the form of some of the All Blacks right now. So expect them to make the squad no matter how bad their teams are travelling.

The SkyCity Breakers go down by a point to Perth so it’s back to Vector Arena tomorrow night for the decider.

Both games have gone down to the wire so you wouldn't expect much to change tomorrow.

It will be close.