About an hour ago. Not a hi-viz vest in sight, no road signs…and one of the guys working with xxxx stubbie in hand, much the worse for wear, too. (He introduced himself to Gecko with “g’day–I’m the local drunk”)  The neighbour’s pet dingo was chasing bandicoots fleeing the fire and nobody even bothered to comment on it.  Queensland is…different. In the nicest possible ways.

A great antidote to the grubby exercise playing out in NZ today. Thanks to ‘Moist Von Lipwig’ for this.

Paragraph (g) of Section 197(1) of the Electoral Act be damned–feel free to comment.
UPDATE: TrueblueNZ has a great post up on why he’s publishing opinions on the elections today and allowing comments. Read it, and know what a free man with a pair looks like.
Polls indicate that a majority of Kiwis will tick the box for the National party today. The only possible conclusion is that they’re too uninformed, too apathetic or simply too damn stupid to see the truth staring them in the face: John Key and his gang are almost indistinguishable from the odious Helen Clark and her gang. Consider the following facts our readers have contributed and ask yourselves this: Did you throw out a dishonest pack of socialists in order to be governed by…another dishonest pack of socialists? If the answer is “yes”, then NZ is in deep, deep crap and will be for the forseeable future. The exodus of the skilled and the ambitious ought to speak for itself but perhaps NZ will need to become the Greece of the Pacific before the message sinks in.
‘*Ignoring the will of the people on anti-smacking.
*Supporting the ETS scam.
*Tossing decades old principles out for control at any cost.
* Failure to articulate to the electorate the dire state of NZ’s fiscal situation with any tangible sense of reality.
* The pusillanimous back down on the mining issue.
*Providing an easy path for parasites like Klark & Kullen to get into cushy public sector jobs, and in Klark’s case, a cushy international job.
*Reintroducing the Electoral Finance Act, a typically socialist attack on free speech.
(and of course most likely entering into a coalition with the Watermelons after the election.)
*Nick Smith’s doling out of taxpayer money to “green” business “winners” he personally picked.
*Not doing anything about reining in benefit dependency while his sidekick Double Dipton conceded the war by calling them “entitlements.”
*There’s lots, but snuggling up to tattooed tribalists and the ETS crap are two of them.
*His failure to have a meaningful cleanout of the socialist-ridden public service.
*Sneaking Sharples off to NY to sign the Indigenous Peoples crap.
*
Marine and Coastal Areas Act
*
Rushing on with the TOW payments (which have not been allowed to feel the GFC heat).
*Having Smith and Finlayson in his Cabinet.
*And then there are all his “failures”. Failure to stop expanding the welfare state. Failure to get rid of all the “Ministries” that are leftist wet dreams. Failure to stand up for his country against the global warming scam. Failure to stop spending.
* Passing the CERA and making King Gerry the first of Christchurch.
* Attempting to end the right to silence.
* Raising GST.
*Continued pushing of welfare state
*Pandering to Maori racists
*Emissions trading scam
*How about Key’s reneging on his 2008 pre-election promise to remove the racist Maori seats?! Which ties in, I guess, with his going unnecessarily into coalition with the racist Maori Party post election, and all his subsequent appeasement and horse-trading with same.’
READ THIS BEFORE YOU VOTE FOR JOHN KEY 
“… Vote for John Key and you’re voting for a bunch of left wing frauds who have taken over the National Party and turned it into a sub-branch of the Labour Party…”

Wellington:
‘Around 200 men took to the streets in the annual street race, as part of a national day of action to help combat violence against women.
..Pounding the pavement and carrying long white ribbons, groups of men raced through the streets of Wellington today to send a message…’
The ‘message’ will be lost on or ignored by those who commit violence against women. This is just another feelgood waste of time by men who are stupid enough to buy into the “violence against women is all men’s problem” and by so doing they help tar perfectly innocent men who don’t join a public spectacle, with that brush.
It isn’t ‘all men’s’ problem. The vast majority of men treat women decently. Wabbit had first-hand experience of this garbage in NZ, and was asked by workmates why he wasn’t wearing a white ribbon. The answer?
Because I don’t commit violence against women and don’t feel obliged to demonstrate that fact in public. The day I’m free under the law to deal to the scumbags who do, is the day I will regard it as my responsibility.

Since the NZ police take credit for any period during which the road toll is unusually low, may we assume they’ll also be taking responsibility for this?

‘A Melbourne Israeli Dancing group was dropped from participating in a Victorian dance festival after refusing organisers’ moves to drop all references to Israel…’

‘Sergio Scaglietti, who has died aged 91, worked with Enzo Ferrari on some of the marque’s most beautiful early models during the Fifties and Sixties, including the 1958 Testa Rossa and the Ferrari 250 GTO.’
A remarkable life story–from self taught car-body repairer to one of the greatest sculptors of aluminium works of art. (click pic for full size)

For a few weeks. It’s filthy, hot, boring work, but who cares? $200 a day isn’t to be sneezed at. Right now they’re burning the cane crops around here and the air is full of smoke every evening. The night sky looks like the gates of hell and the snakes and bugs are out in force after a day’s rain. (Gecko damn near stepped on a snake yesterday, getting out of the car to photograph something) Then we ran over another one in the middle of the track.
It’s great to be back in the tropics.

List briefly in comments all the ways the Key government has failed New Zealanders and we’ll put that list up as a post on election day.
UPDATE: And just for fun, here’s a perfect example of a braindead, indoctrinated crypto-socialist voter.

HERE
But of course, it’s not “pointless” at all–it’s an exercise in intimidation and a demonstration of the fact that the police will do whatever their political masters tell them.