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Wednesday, 07 June 2023 13:25

Taxpayers stung

Written by  The Hound
Taxpayers stung

In what your old mate reckons is par for the course for the current Government, it has blown more taxpayer money on a wasted cause.

It doled out $6 million to support NZ manuka honey producers' legal case to trademark the name 'manuka', which has again been lost.

New Zealand's trademarks commissioner has declined the Government and iwi-backed bid by NZ honey producers to trademark the term "manuka honey".

It ruled that the term was not sufficiently inherently distinct for any one group or company to own it.

This follows on from a similar failed case in the UK and China where New Zealand's Mānuka Honey Appellation Society attempt to assert ownership of the brand was also defeated.

Thus far, Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor has declined to say whether the Government will support an appeal of this latest decision.

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A fair question has been raised about how member-funded organisations should conduct themselves when taking a public position on any given issue.

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The canine crusader always has his nose in the air for more media maleficence, so was pointing as soon as he saw the Stuff headline: ‘Wellington residents respond to PM saying he doesn’t need his job!’.

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OPINION: It really is getting harder to lampoon government bureaucrats when they do such a good job of it themselves.

Anyone in the primary sector will know about the clowns covering the countryside in the red tape we all have to wade through.

Spare a thought then for media outfit Stuff who were threatened with fines up to $200,000 by a snivelling civil servant from the MoH for illustrating a quiz question with a photo of part of the cover of a 45-year-old copy Playboy.

As Stuff notes, “It wasn’t the Playboy cover which caused offence. No, it was the back page which… featured an advert for a cigarette brand”.

As Regulations Minister David Seymour notes, “The real scandal here is, well, no wonder we’ve got problems in healthcare when they’re doing the Stuff quiz during work time.”

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OPINION: After all the criticism that Winston Peters leveled at the India/NZ FTA, it seemed just a trifle ironic to the Hound that the first NZ politician to visit India after Prime Minister Modi's visit was a member of the Ewe Zealand First party.

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OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

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