Don't under-estimate our Okker mates

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s brief visit to this side of the Tasman should have dispelled some notions about the calibre of their politicians.

We under-estimate them at our peril. Just as the media here primarily play politics for fun, so does the media in Australia. This means the only time we see them in action is in a media equivalent of "gotcha" – just as Liberal leader Tony Abbott was recently.

But both Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott are highly educated and can see New Zealand for what it is – and not necessarily as we do. Their view can far from flattering, though they may be reluctant to say so.

The lack of progress on the business grail of a single economic market is not of their doing, nor should it be up to Australia to ensure it happens. Much more needs to be done on this side, as Hugh Templeton said in some prescient comments this week.

In fact, he blamed New Zealand’s economic under-performance on the lack of political courage:

“…if we had a full-scale economic union with a common currency, etc, with Australia we would be much better protected from the rather vulnerable position in which New Zealand is. It's as simple as that," he told the Dominion Post.

Apples and bananas
Ms Gillard’s response to the question of New Zealand apples reveals another side of Australia. While it can play hardball on some issues, it is also prepared to accept what she termed the “umpire’s ruling."

On a related issue, Australia’s powerful lobbies – and there are many – are not as popular as many would make out. Take the banana shortage, caused by cyclonic damage.

Under pressure from growers, the federal government has refused to budge on quarantine rules that prevent imports of products such as bananas to keep prices within reach of consumers when supplies are short.

Economist Saul Estlake dared to question this , raising the ire of Growcom, a horticultural organisation. His arguments were entirely reasonable and are not unlike those trotted out by New Zealand and Australian trade negotiators when faced with outright protectionism in Japan and elsewhere.

But read this from the Grocom spokesman:

"Clearly Mr Eslake wants a bet each way, a free market but with controls he deems appropriate…His article consists of trite one-liners and poorly articulated argument designed to appeal to a particular audience, not the national interest.”

Golden skirts
Julia Gillard is proof, too, that Australia is no laggard in other areas where Kiwis have a perception that conflicts with reality.

Australia has its share of women in high places, with state premiers, governors and powerful business women.

But the call for more is not likely to dissipate any faster there than in New Zealand. So it is interesting to read of the latest findings on studies of Norway, where a quota system for women directors of public companies was introduced five years ago.

The conclusion is that has been that "Neither the worst fears of opponents nor the greatest hopes of proponents have come true," according to Marit Hoel, director of the Oslo-based Center for Corporate Diversity.

The balance sheets of successful companies suffered a little in the short term but recovered quickly, she says. "By contrast, companies that weren't doing so well tended to benefit from having women on their boards."

According to surveys of corporate CEOs, women have hardly changed the working style on boards. "Only a few report that the culture of discussion has become more open," Ms Hoel says.

One early opponent was Kristin Skogen Lund, the 44-year-old is the president of the free-market supporting Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO),

"In the end, hardly any companies were adversely affected by it," she says. But nor has it done much good, either. This was mainly due to women having a greater share of family responsibilities and its impact on career choices.

For this reason, she was able to convince the NHO membership to support another state-sponsored measure, one that runs counter to the corporate culture of conservative executives: a demand that mothers and fathers should each take on one-third of the parental leave period.

Not your Nile cruise
An appalling example of how women are treated in other countries has risen in the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution.

Events surrounding CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan have thrown dark light on events in Cairo’s Tahrir Square once President Mubarak called it a day.

A report from CBS says she was covering the jubilation for a 60 Minutes report when she and her colleagues were surrounded by “a dangerous element…a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.”

The report goes on:

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.

But a blog at Esquire magazine throws different light on events. Ms Logan told Esquire:

"We were not attacked by crazy people in Tahrir Square. We were detained by the Egyptian army. Arrested, detained, and interrogated. Blindfolded, handcuffed, taken at gunpoint, our driver beaten. It's the regime that arrested us...We were accused of being Israeli spies. We were accused of being agents. We were accused of everything."

Because she also became violently ill while in custody, she was immediately let go and sent back to America.

The lure of the gypsies
Preparations for a gypsy wedding in England have become a reality TV winner. My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding is Channel 4's biggest rating programme in ages.

The Daily Telegraph’s William Langley has searched for an answer, saying audiences are more likely to attracted by a “poignant whiff of escapism” than in the realities of “underclass communities, barely educated, widely disliked, and weighed down with out-dated social attitudes that merely perpetuate their backwardness.”

The programme maker, Langley says, heaps much of the blame for the gypsies’ plight on the last Labour government which, under the pretext of ''celebrating diversity,’’ allowed travellers to develop a mighty grievance mentality. “They were too sympathetic,” he argues, “listening to all these bleats from people about our culture.”

All of which may explain the:

“… clusters of beaming little girls, decked out like Disney extras in frothy crinoline dresses; and, over there, new-bride Josie, shaking a leg from within a volcanic eruption of tulle and satin; and in the centre poor, bewildered Sam [the groom] from St Helens, who, we learn, isn’t really a gypsy at all, lit up like a human table lamp for her big moment. They all make beautiful pictures, but their futures are likely to be a lot less pretty."