Are the cogs coming off?

It is with utter amazement that I watch what this Government is trying to do. This may also be helpful if you are having trouble keeping track of what’s happening… ;).

First of all, it thinks the public wont live having the 2011 Rugby World Cup on Maori Television (free to air rights only), so it says no to it.

So they decide TVNZ should have it because more people will watch it, and it wont be 90% English and 10% te reo language ratio that Maori TV were set to do.

But they didn’t count on the taxpayers being appaled at funding two bids for the rights. $3 million for Maori TV to broadcast, and a boost for TVNZ (plus TV3 – they would share rights) to outbid.

And now? The National-led Government have said they will fund a joint bid combining Maori TV with TVNZ and TV3. Maori TV would be the main sponsor and the other two channels would be sub-contracted.

Prime Minister John Key said himself, as reported by stuff.co.nz, “There was a lack of coherence and ministers should have got together to thrash out a single approach.”

It seems to me that the cogs fell off the wheel on this one, with the cabinet looking red-faced with patches of egg too.

They didn’t even know what the Maori affairs minister, Pita Sharples, was doing with the $3 million earmarked for Maori development. And then they wanted to side with local opinion.

Stick to your guns, National.

You’re still sticking to your guns with the making of common cold and flu medicines prescription only to combat the making of methamphetamine, or “P”. Or will we see that go by the wayside too? In this instance, however, I don’t care. There is no cure for the common cold. Get over it.