If, as they say, all publicity is good publicity, then Tauranga's been getting a lot of good publicity this week.
We don't seem to pop up on the national news grid as often as one would expect for a city this size, but when we do it's usually interesting, whether it be objectors to a Buddhist retreat or someone being homophobic.

At least in the days of Winston Peters and Bob Clarkson we could rely on a few attention-grabbing headlines irrespective of their race-baiting or testicle-including content. Perhaps it was a sense of nostalgia for those wild times that provoked new MP Simon Bridges' slightly intolerant soundbites on the latest scandal to rock to Bay.
I'm referring, of course, to the arrest of hip-hop singer Tiki Taane at Illuminati nightclub last weekend on charges of disorderly conduct likely to cause violence, after the ex-Salmonella Dub frontman sang along to the old NWA anthem ‘F*** The Police', which was being played by the DJ while the police did a walk-through of the venue in the very early hours of the morning.
I wasn't there. And if you're not there it seems a bit rich to comment on the actual circumstances of the arrest.
I have, being the socially responsible columnist that I am, done the next best thing, which is to talk to as many people as I could find who were there. And I still don't really want to comment. No-one really disagrees about what happened in the club: the police walked through, the song was played – either coincidentally or mischievously – but there was no trouble. An hour or so later the police returned and arrested Tiki Taane.
Did the police overreact? Was it a dumb and offensive song to sing? Maybe, maybe, but it's not the end of the world. However, it certainly has excited a lot of people, as witnessed by the near record-breaking number of comments after the story appeared on the SunLive website.
Many of the comments are sadly intolerant and generally over-the-top and one assumes it was in that spirit (or the distant memory of Winston Peters' publicity grabs) that our animal-loving and ever-smiling MP Simon Bridges weighed into the fray: the singer is, apparently, 'a disgrace”. Fair enough. Many on the website agree.
But he did go further.
'I'd hope we never see Tiki Taane in Tauranga again,” the MP is quoted as saying. Gee. One of the country's most successful singers gets arrested on a minor charge (and it really is minor) and we want to ban him from the town? Tough justice.
He also said: 'There is a strong public interest in police being there in the early hours of the morning and to be critical of them doing their job is outrageous.”
No it's not.
We still live in what pretends to be a free country and it is actually okay to be critical of the police. Yes we know they do a trying job under often trying conditions, but they are not perfect and it is as completely acceptable to be critical of them as it is to be critical of politicians.
What's odder is the number of people who seem disappointed at Tiki Taane because he is supposed to be a 'role model”.
I feel sorry for all the role models we're now attempting to cram into society. I've always thought it odd that our sportspeople should be held as role models for anything other than playing their sport. To be a great sportsperson all you need is to be good at what you do. You don't have to be smart, good looking, socially responsible or anything else. You just have to be good at what you do. Why a six foot six thug from the wrong side of the tracks who can crush anyone on a rugby field should be expected to suddenly behave like a saint simply because they're famous is a notion that escapes me.
Similarly rock musicians. They're not meant to be role models. In fact they're meant to be rebels, outsiders, everything society resists – remember? You join a rock band for the sex and drugs and fame, not to be a role model. Just because the Stones are now old and cuddly doesn't make them role models any more than Tiki Taane should be expected to be one.