Political Diary

MONDAY

Greenpeace, take a bow. Although deadly serious about their cause, environmental activists do have a sense of humour, it seems. Greenpeace has been promoting today's March against Mining in Auckland with a short but hilarious video clip which combines the acting talents of Lucy Lawless, Robyn Malcolm and - wait for it - Gerry Brownlee. But Brownlee's fleeting appearance seems to have been extracted from a National Party video. He says only two words - "sexy coal". But those two words may yet end up defining his tenure as Energy Minister. We won't spoil the plot except to say Brownlee's staff cannot get their minister to stop playing the clip. It can be found on YouTube by Googling "Sexy Coal".

TUESDAY

For once, the old cliche about a weighty Government-commissioned report being a useful doorstop has some foundation. The Law Commission's one-volume report on the Review of the Regulatory Framework for the Sale and Supply of Liquor would certainly do the job.

It weighs in at an impressive 2.44kg, to be precise - enough to stop any office door slamming shut in a Wellington gale. Such a derogatory fate, however, is unlikely to befall this tome. The report is now THE reference work on the pervasive influence of alcohol on New Zealand society. It contains - as Law Commission chairman Sir Geoffrey Palmer was keen to point out to reporters - no fewer than 1300 footnotes cross-referencing to other publications. Moreover, it is printed on environmentally friendly paper originating from "sustainable well-managed forests". The bleaching was chlorine- and acid-free, while the ink is vegetable oil-based with only 2 per cent mineral content. That should make it slightly easier to digest its 514 pages.

THURSDAY

Going through some boxes in his home basement, Labour's Wellington Central MP, Grant Robertson, comes across an old newspaper clipping about a meeting between a bunch of university students and Lockwood Smith some 17 years ago. Robertson, then aged 21, was one of those students - president, in fact, of the Otago University Students Association. Smith, now Parliament's Speaker, was Minister of Education at that time. "Lockwood looks much the same. Not sure about me," says Robertson of the yellowing photograph accompanying the story. "In my defence, it was the 90s. Big glasses were in, OK?" The meeting was held in a Dunedin hotel because Smith refused to go on to the Otago campus after an earlier altercation between a student and Smith's Cabinet colleague Bill Birch. The story quotes Smith as telling Robertson and his entourage that when it came to seeking more cash for tertiary education, he was probably one of the students' best friends in the Cabinet. "At the time I would never have believed he was our best friend in Cabinet." Now, with a lot more experience of politics, Robertson thinks Smith might have been right. He credits Smith, to whom he has sent a copy of the clipping, with having a vision in the portfolio - unlike some of his successors.