Anti smacking law a resounding success

Hasn't the removal of section 59 or the anti smacking law been a resounding success?

Over the last week two children have died after being beaten to a pulp and one in in critical care with life-threatening injuries that include internal bleeding, head injuries and several pelvic fractures.

Sue Bradford, Helen Clark , Cindy Kiro and the law's supporters have thanked State agencies for executing the new law with such success over the last year.

7 children have been killed in the year since the law was passed and many more have been seriously injured:

• Remuera 16 month old Sachin Dhani June 2007
• a 28-year-old woman charged with murdering a newborn baby found dead in the backyard of a Te Mome Road property in Alicetown June 2007
• Tokoroa 22-month-old Tyla-Maree Darryl Flynn June 2007
• Rotorua 3 year old Nia Glassie July 2007
• Manurewa ten-month-old Jyniah Mary Te Awa September 2007
• Otahuhu two-month-old Tahani Mahomed December 2007

The law's supporters have all come out and strongly spoken out against the killings and additional severe beatings, and cite the removal of section 59 as the impetus for further good results in 2009.

"Our kids can can be thankful for this kind of considerate, sensible, compassionate and effective law and we are very proud to have passed it".

After all it is about the safety of children.

5:00AM Tuesday July 08, 2008
By Elizabeth Binning

A 39-year-old woman has been charged over an assault that left an Avondale toddler fighting for his life.

Itupa Julie Mikaio appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday charged with assaulting Benjamin Mikaio, 3, on or about June 27.

The defendant, who comes from Samoa and is unemployed, did not enter a plea. She was given bail.

Police say they are still considering whether other charges will be laid.

Benjamin was rushed to the Starship hospital three days after the attack - on the advice of extended family members - with life-threatening injuries that included internal bleeding, head injuries and several pelvic fractures. Continued

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c Political Animal 2008

Dont let the farce get you !

When I was 10 Star Wars had just come out, Labour was in power in New Zealand, and the peanut farmer Jimmy Carter was causing havoc as US president. Raquel Welsh was still hot.

Helen Clark was at Auckland University, involved deeply in the communist movement on campus, not shaving her pits, burning her bra, trying to organise things and people and probably unsuccessfully trying to get some.

Star Wars was the first movie to come out with dozens of different products you could buy with ties to a movie and its promotion.

One of these products was an ice cream on a stick that sold for 10c . Along with the multi coloured ice cream came a sticker of a scene from the movie. One ice cream, one sticker.

I remember buying as many ice creams as my meagre budget from collecting coke bottles would allow. I ate quite a few. I was a child of average weight and there were few fat kids at our school, in fact only a handful. I remember them all.

My parents wouldn't buy these ice creams for me and I'm glad they didn't.

I was also limited by the fact my mum would probably have scolded or possibly smacked me for eating too many and that it was wasteful. She would have been correct!!

A little break here for some Duran Duran from the 80s and Nirvana from the 90s.

Skip forward to July 2008 and I read today that the Health Department, or the food police, as they are more commonly known, have had a complaint by them to the PC Advertising Standards board upheld over a Bluebird chips All Black cards promotion, where every pack of chips held a card of an All Black , there were 50 different ones and that this encouraged "unhealthy eating".

Am I missing something?

Where are the parents in this equation?

This silly little wasteful exercise by the Clark government is nothing more than the Nanny State overreaching their boundaries and levels of expertise.

If this sort of Leninist stuff works, then how come there are more fat kids today than there were 30 years ago when you could count them on one hand?

The answer is of course is that it only makes things worse. Removing parental responsibility from the eating equation by having food Nazis telling us what to eat isn't a good way to teach children what to eat.

10 year olds will know where their boundaries are when their parents tell them what they are NOT the State. That is not the the State's job.

I am waiting for a knock on my door in 2009 if Labour should overcome humongous odds and win the 2008 election, the Food Police will kick in my door while I'm watching the Special Edition of Star wars on DVD, with guns drawn and confiscate my extra large KFC Quarter Pack because I have reached by fat quota for the month.

It could happen, Helen Clark became Prime Minister, anything could happen.

Related Political Animal Reading

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c Political Animal 2008

Pumpkin Patch ripe for the picking

Recent purchases of beaten down Pumpkin Patch Ltd [PPL.NZ] stock by Jan Cameron, the former owner of the Kathmandu Ltd [KMD.NZ] outdoor chain and Rod Duke, the majority owner of retailer Briscoe Group have got me to the point of more than idle speculation.

At the risk of getting the borax poked at myself, here goes.

If an individual is going to make a takeover play for an asset of any class, when is the best time to buy?

When nobody else is interested and when the asset is selling below its usual market price or true value.

I would argue that the little Pumpkin is well undervalued, to the extent that I bought some more recently at NZ$1.53.

Its potential is huge and its value lies in its so far proven record and its very strong brand and the ability to exploit that brand for growth and customer loyalty.

In the good times last year the schizo "Mr Market" valued the company at almost 5 bucks per share but as of today the share price is below $1.50.

Cameron and Duke both recently bought the bulk of their holdings at around the $1.50 mark. Duke holds almost 10% and Cameron just over 6%.

At today's share price the approx 166 million shares in PPL could be purchased for around $250 million dollars. A very high premium would be needed for a full bid because many investors have bought shares at well above $1.50 and Maurice Prendergast, the CEO and Sally Synnott, the founder together own 20 million shares and they have a long term view of their company.

But everyone has their price.

Both Duke and Jan Cameron certainly have the means to be able to afford such a purchase.Duke, supposedly worth a minimum of NZ$254 million and Cameron thought to be worth around $300 million.

Given this recent flurry of buying activity by both these high profile retail identities and the current low share price of Pumpkin Patch, if the company was going to be a target for a takeover, now is the most likely time for that to happen.





Disclosure I own PPL shares in the Share Investor Portfolio.


Pumpkin Patch @ Share Investor

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Digging at Pumpkin's Profit
Long vs Short: Pumpkin Patch Ltd
Pumpkin Patch Buyback shows Confidence in the Future
Pumpkin Patch takes a hit
Pumpkin Patch ripe for the picking
What is Jan Cameron up to?
I'm buying
Why did you buy that Stock? [Pumpkin Patch]
Rod Duke's Pumpkin Patch gets bigger
Buyer of large piece of Pumpkin Patch a mystery
Pumpkin Patch a screaming buy
Broker downgrades of PPL lack long term vision
Pumpkin's expansion comes at a cost
Pumpkin Patch vs Burger Fuel
Pumpkin Patch profits flatten
New Zealand Retailers ring up costs not tills

Discuss PPL @ Share Investor Forum

Download PPL Company Reports

Buy Pumpkin Patch Clothing

From Fishpond.co.nz



Buy Bird on a Wire: The Inside Story from a Straight Talking CEO & more @ Fishpond.co.nz




c Share Investor 2008

Stock's I'd buy, at a price: Burger Fuel

Now I have given Burger Fuel Worldwide [BFW] a LOT of stick over the last year or so about some of their decisions and their initial IPO being way overpriced.

So much stick in fact that one of the directors that I had a friendly acquaintance with and could contact him about company progress no longer returns my calls.

Tough luck, never mind Mr Rickard, get over it!

Well, I don't really have anything to get over, never had Josef Roberts , I really love the concept, brand and company. I just don't like the value that you place on it.

The initial IPO put the capital value of the company at NZ $60 million, it is now worth less than half that at today's share price. I would personally value it at around $10 million, roughly a third of today's value, as a purely speculative play, rather than a solid business investment.

Sales for the franchisee outlets run at approx $20 million of which BFW, as the franchisor, have around a 10% gross cut of that figure, for royalties, group advertising spend ,management and training and other fees. Around $2 million gross.

Company start up costs and early expansion have chewed up a value meal sized portion of that $2 million plus the same sized portion again, making for a just over $2 million loss.

Theoretically these costs should be proportionally smaller as the company grows and so does revenue but if you were looking at putting a value on the company today, you would have to discount today's capital value down from $30 million to $10 million because of uncertainty over those continued expansion costs.

As an investor you would have to ask yourself how much would I pay to get $2 million of gross revenue per year? Personally I wouldn't pay more than $10 million bucks.

Wheres the present and future value of Burger Fuel though?



Burger Fuel: Yummy Burgers, but a highly
over-valued Brand.

Well. I reckon BF management put most of the value in their company in its brand, which is a strong one, and one that management relied upon to get investors interested in the IPO, but as I have mentioned before I think they put too much value in that brand.

Which leaves me with a more realistic valuation based on a dollar return and high risk, rather than possible worldwide domination of Burger Fuel's fast food outlets.

I'm interested therefore at buying at anything around 17c per share, it is at 40c today and its IPO price last July was $1.

I must note the share price has been down to a low of 11 c.

Are we friends again Josef? I love your Bastard Burger.

Burger Fuel @ Share Investor

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Burger Fuel management cagey over company progress
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Beefing up store numbers
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Pumpkin Patch VS Burger Fuel
Burger Fuel results and commentary

c Share Investor 2008