Methven Limited, a designer, manufacturer and supplier of showerheads, faucets and hot water valves, is a publicly-listed company with a market capitalization of NZ$91,250,583.

SOLO-NZ Op-Ed (Philip Duck): Bouncy Castles and Coffee

Philip Duck
June 4, 2012

The minutes of the April meeting of the Albert-Eden Local Board show that it gave away $3123 in ‘Neighbour Day’ grants. Small beer it’s true, but let’s see how some of it was spent.

Australia’s foreign minister, Bob Carr, is in Cambodia and Stuart Alan Becker of the Phnom Penh Post put some questions to him. Here’s one.

SOLO-NZ Press Release: Election 2011—Parties Put up Puppies Proposals

Philip Duck
November 20, 2011

With just days to go to polling day and with all the drama of the teapot tapes, there is a real risk that the issue of whether breast enlargement should or should not be paid for by the state will simply not get the attention it deserves.

SOLO-NZ Press Release: Nanny-Tips for Good House-Keeping

Philip Duck
August 20, 2011

‘Use oven mitts to handle hot pots or dishes,’ says the Accident Compensation Corporation as it takes its turn to badger New Zealanders this week.

Wouldn’t vote ACT in a fit.

I would have thought that their ‘Fed Up with Pandering to Maori Radicals?’ advertisement would have sparked some sort of reasoned debate, though.

Congratulations, you have yourself a generation of weaklings.

SOLO-NZ Press Release: Spank the Smokers!

Philip Duck
May 29 2011

Banning cigarette companies from sponsoring events hasn’t done it. Neither have restrictions on cigarette advertising, or the legislation that made indoor workplaces smoke-free. And grossly inflating fag prices through taxation hasn’t worked either; no matter how much you try some pesky smokers won’t do as they are told, and quit.

Countdown Supermarkets have decided to stop their funding of the ‘Breakfast in Schools’ programme.

A simple two-plank tree hut sitting above a Nelson park must come down say council officials.

SOLO-NZ Op-Ed: Not a Monster?

Philip Duck
March 12, 2011

Rikki Leigh Scott Ngatai-Check had to look after the wee boy, Karl Perigo-Check, for only a few hours. He had done that before, and although the boy was not his own—he belonged to his partner, Lilah McGregor—he claimed to love him.

SOLO-NZ Op-Ed: Uncreative Crap

Philip Duck
November 21, 2010

'"Humans" is a resonant mobilizing of Simon Lawrence’s psychic back catalogue, its cardboard ecologies, coarse portals and PVC transfers channeling the 5th dimension Arcturian Fortress and conferencing with a ruffled, curatorial Tui whose Ja Rule baritone is both sagacious and sardonic in its videoed manifestation. Assaulting the delicacy of the air and feeding onto the space chords, Lawrence’s cellular rift sets up an intro- and outro-spective taunt: Before your planet is granted intergalactic status, you’ve got to begin to think and act in morphic, resonant coherence.’

SOLO-NZ Op-Ed: Stiletto Legislation

Philip Duck
November 8, 2010

A recent survey highlighting the dangers of wearing high heels has resulted in a raft of further calls for action to regulate the sale of stilettos in New Zealand.

SOLO-NZ Op-Ed: Stinking Government-Funded 'Art'

Philip Duck
October 19, 2010

Back in 2004 a scumbag by the name of Tao Wells displayed his ‘art’ installation in an Auckland gallery. All you need to know about that work was that he left something to decay and stink inside the filing cabinet that formed part of the installation.

SOLO-NZ Op-Ed: Driven to Drink

Philip Duck
October 16, 2010

Break out the champagne and crack open a beer; with a new study revealing that in New Zealand alcohol is cheaper than bottled water, it’s time for a rip-roaring party.

SOLO-NZ Press Release: Featherbrained Form Fillers and Dumb White Folk
Philip Duck
May 29, 2010

Rowyne Peters is a dumb brown broad with a dumb brown nineteen-year-old son; neither Mum nor her boy is capable of doing the paperwork required for a passport application without state assistance.

The Trafford Council are not only disgusted and tired of serious crime in their district; they are also determined to do something about it. And thank god for that.

The New Zealand Human Rights Commission recently released the results of its ‘perceptions of discrimination’ public opinion survey. The commission clowns tell us that when respondents were asked ‘Who do you believe suffers “a great deal” or “some” discrimination?’ Asians topped the list. People on welfare, overweight people, recent immigrants, refugees, Pacific people and Maori, followed the Asians in the discrimination perception stakes.

SOLO-International Op-Ed: Simple Simon Stay Away

Philip Duck
March 12, 2010

New Zealand's Justice Minister Simon Power and a small army of bureaucrats from various government ministries and departments have been ordered to New York to front up to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

SOLO-NZ Press Release: Prison the Productive Proclaims Power

Philip Duck
January 31, 2010

Anti-Commerce Minister Simon Power supports jail time of up to seven years for businessmen who are doing nothing more than seeking to maximize their profits.

Three cheers for the proposed 'Three Strikes' legislation proposed by National and Act. Under the legislation an offender found guilty of their third serious crime must receive the maximum sentence for that crime. There is no chance of parole and the option of preventive detention remains.

SOLO-International Op-Ed: Dollars for Despots

Philip Duck
January 20, 2010

Yet another hopeless talkfest kicks off today as officials from the morally bankrupt United Nations meet the wholly corrupt ministers and bureaucrats of 15 Asian and Pacific Island states tagged, ‘Least-developed countries.’ (LDCs)

Shock! Horror! Labour’s Finance spokesman David Cunliffe has revealed today that the banks haven't been passing on all of the extra margin that has resulted from the reductions in the official cash rate. This less than incredible finding follows from the pointless, incredibly stupid, taxpayer-funded parliamentary banking inquiry undertaken by Labour, the Progressives and the Greens.

Justice Minister Simon Power’s recent decision to increase financial aid to the families of homicide victims seems to have met with almost universal approval. And it would be difficult to begrudge a family that extra cash considering the heart breaking hardship that they must go through, wouldn’t it?

I don't talk to the family next-door.

I did once but the relationship is strained now. It all began to change when my neighbour become a Christian who cracks open the bible every Sunday at about the same time I’m cracking open my first cold beer; and she keeps giving me a frosty look from across the fence as I work my way through my third.

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is one of five regional commissions of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). One of ECLAC subsidiaries is the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) and, as you would expect of any UN body the folk at the CDCC really get things done.

The standard of schooling may be falling in the West but should anyone think that they cannot fall any further here's a warning.

Recently the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced a $100 million campaign to ‘Free Free Enterprise.’ “Supporters and critics alike agree that capitalism is at a crossroads,” said U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue as he explained the need for such a campaign.

Der Freischutz is being preformed at the Thailand Cultural Centre in Bangkok this weekend. The conductor will be J. David Jackson.

SOLO-NZ Press Release: Let Them Eat Cake
May 17, 2009

It is to be hoped that Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson does more than review the legislation that will soon compel all but the smallest of commercial bakers to add synthetic folic acid into their bread, says SOLO spokesman Philip Duck.