General Debate 7 March 2009

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Razork

Cullen tipped for top SOE job.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/2032351/Cullen-tipped-for-top-SOE-job

And Key is keen for it to happen?
He better bloody well not be!!!!!
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March 7, 2009 8:56am
Viking2

I don’t know what others think about Cullen but if the reports today are correct then the Nats. have lost the plot. According to reports Cullen is being offered Chairmanship of an SOE. A man who was irresponsible with our treasury . What are the Nats. thinking. oh yeh ” the’re not being tribal”.
Well for this indian and slave they are compromising their integrity and being Viking I say they should go for the kill.

Cullen tipped for top SOE job
By VERNON SMALL – The Dominion Post
Last updated 00:56 07/03/2009

Michael Cullen is being tipped for a six-figure salary as chairman of one of the country’s top state-owned enterprises.

Top of the likely list is power generator Mighty River Power, Government sources say.

Chairwoman Carole Durbin’s term in the $105,000-a-year role expires in October.

Another job option is at national power grid operator Transpower, where chairman Wayne Brown’s term is up next month, coinciding with Dr Cullen’s expected retirement from Parliament.

Mr Brown received $93,000 for the role last year.

Prime Minister John Key is keen to find a significant role for Dr Cullen, who has used his unrivalled knowledge of Parliament’s rules and procedures to regularly embarrass the new Government and Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee.

The former deputy prime minister was being considered for top level jobs because of his ability, one Government source said.

“We are not being tribal about this.”

But the moves echo Labour’s appointment of former National prime minister Jim Bolger to chair two state owned enterprises, New Zealand Post and KiwiRail, which Dr Cullen would have played a key role in brokering.

Mr Bolger’s appointments were seen as a political coup, putting him in charge of NZ Post subsidiary Kiwibank and the expanded KiwiRail. Both initiatives were opposed by National.

Several Government-appointed chairs are up for renewal or replacement this year, including those at Landcorp, communications group Kordia, coalminer Solid Energy and Airways Corporation.

But sources said Dr Cullen would be offered one of the larger SOEs, to reflect his expertise and experience as a former finance minister.

Dr Cullen is also in line to win a role as negotiator for the central North Island iwi Ngati Tuwharetoa. However, that could raise potential conflicts of interest that would rule him out of the top job at Mighty River Power.

In 2004 Mighty River Power, which also owned power retailer Mercury Energy, bought the Kawerau geothermal assets from the Crown and on-sold the majority to Tuwharetoa.

Mighty River Power manages the development and running of the operation. Mighty River and the tribe have set up a joint development group to handle conflicts and consult over resource consents in the Lake Taupo-Waikato system.
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March 7, 2009 8:56am
reid

Well the question is who is the best candidate at the time, is it not?

It’s not a ‘jobs for the boys’ situation nor is it payback for services rendered nor is it a political maneuver designed to assuage some issue. I’m suspicious knowing Liarbore that Bolger’s appointments have been in the last category but it’s possible that he’s a good Chairman anyway given his performance as US Ambassador.

Anyway provided that the appointment is made only on the basis of being the best candidate I’m quite sanguine about it. Question is, is it? The article suggests potential for it being a political maneuver. That would be bad.
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March 7, 2009 9:26am
Patrick Starr

“because of his ability, one Government source said. We are not being tribal about this.”

ability to do what ? Knowledge is one thing – honesty is another
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March 7, 2009 9:28am
OECD rank 22 kiwi

Cullen doesn’t need to be appointed to any government job. He’s going to retire come what may before the next budget.

Best let him head into obscurity.
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March 7, 2009 9:29am
Paul Marsden

Interesting to note, science has perhaps finally explained the universal popularity by the male gender, for ‘dutch ovens’. (ie. hydrogen sulphide causes erections in rats and may provide alternative to Viagra). Perhaps as Tourism Minister, Key might sniff a marketing opportunity here to really put Rotorua on the global ‘must visit list’. Lends itself to all sorts of marketing opportunites.
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March 7, 2009 9:42am
Colonel Masters

Top of the likely list is power generator Mighty River Power, Government sources say.
…
Another job option is at national power grid operator Transpower

Do you think a gross of candles will be enough, or should I buy more for the winter?
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March 7, 2009 9:53am
davidp

>Cullen tipped for top SOE job.

The only SOE job I’d approve Cullen for would be Chairman of Kiwirail. I want the Government to tell them they’re not getting billions of dollars of subsidy… they can either borrow the money to fund their capital purchases, or find some new suckers to buy newly-issued shares. Then, when it all goes spectacularly wrong, I want Cullen to be the one standing in front of the media announcing that his company is being placed in to liquidation.
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March 7, 2009 10:10am
thedavincimode

More
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March 7, 2009 10:12am
grumpyoldhori

davidp , as a tribal Labour type I would be happy to see the Nats chucking more jobs away.
Of course those laid off would never blame the Nats would they ?
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March 7, 2009 10:19am
greenfly

This Cullen thing is a real poke in the eye for all National party supporters who know Cullen is corrupt. Key has gone too far this time. There is a limit to happy joy, joy, inclusiveness, but this is a step waaaaay too far! Terrible smell coming from high up in this Government!
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March 7, 2009 10:24am
Razork

Brilliant concept DavidP.

But lets take it a step further.
He can run Kiwi rail on a profitshare basis..
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March 7, 2009 10:34am
billyborker

Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been injured and his wife Susan killed in a car crash, party officials have confirmed, adding that suspicious circumstances could indicate foul play.

The accident occurred late yesterday on a notoriously dangerous stretch of road about 100 kilometres south of the capital Harare.

Officials from Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who asked not to be named, said his car was hit by the trailer of a heavy truck that swung out into the middle of the road when the two vehicles passed each other.

Mrs Tsvangirai was on the side of the car that was hit, and suffered “massive” injuries.

Hmmm, regime change? no, no oil. Let the jungle bunnies sort it out for themselves.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/zimbabwe-pm-injured-wife-dies-in-car-crash-20090307-8rot.html
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March 7, 2009 12:33pm
big bruv

Billy

“Hmmm, regime change? no, no oil. Let the jungle bunnies sort it out for themselves”

Is that not what you pinko’s have been screaming about in Iraq for the last eight years?
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March 7, 2009 12:36pm
reid

Hmmm, regime change? no, no oil. Let the jungle bunnies sort it out for themselves.

Which ignores the problems associated with invasion, illustrated in another way yesterday by the report that the African Council is objecting to the World Court’s indictment of Sudan’s ruler.

South Africa has always been the sticking point for armed intervention in Zim. Thought you would have at least recognised that billy, because you should know it.
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March 7, 2009 12:42pm
billyborker

Which ignores the problems associated with invasion, illustrated in another way yesterday by the report that the African Council is objecting to the World Court’s indictment of Sudan’s ruler

Aren’t they just following the precedent set by USofA who also refuse to recognise the court’s jurisdiction when it comes to one of their own?
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March 7, 2009 12:57pm
baxter

DA VINCI/Not COMMENT……….Re Wanganui Gang Patch ban continuing yesterdays topic…Put on a leather jacket and your chest and shoulders double in size and your paunch is hidden. That is why gang members wear them even in the middle of summer. The jacket is also ideal for the concealment of knives, knuckledusters etc. Add some metal and chain adornments and attach the patch to the back,plus facial tatts, and you have a threatening and intimidating visage. The Patch is everything and to earn it the individual besides committing a crime often has to undergo a grotesque and humiliating initiation. Remove the patch and their MANA and confidence also collapses. Other people in the vicinity are less intimidated. With the patch removed the jacket will often go as well. They will be less inclined to congregate together. I’m not saying all problems will cease, or that there won’t be some with enforcement, but it is well worth trying in area where it may work.Better than doing nothing.

As for the comment that the process of law must be allowed to take its course..Well the law was designed by lawyers for the benefit of lawyers and judgement is determined by lawyers. The course currently is almost completely blocked by lawyers.
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March 7, 2009 1:07pm
reid

Aren’t they just following the precedent set by USofA who also refuse to recognise the court’s jurisdiction when it comes to one of their own?

Possibly billy. Deplorable in both cases, isn’t it.
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March 7, 2009 1:18pm
goodgod

ACT is NZ’s centrist party.

We have the communists – Greens. Then we have the socialists – Labour and National and then we have the centre – ACT.

The next election will be the most important of our lifetime. More so than the task of removing the corrupt Labour party of the last nine years. If any party other than ACT come to hold the balance of power, NZ seals it’s future as a modern socialist experiment.
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March 7, 2009 3:06pm
village idiot

ACT is NZ’s centrist party says goodgod, at the same time thinking that his Rodney Hide duvet and matching pillow cases go well with the curtains.
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March 7, 2009 4:35pm
stuarts-burgers

Were in the world is David Benson Pope
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/05/AR2009030504092.html?hpid=sec-education
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March 7, 2009 4:53pm
Jack5

Brief interlude for change of topic.

What do Kiwiblogians think of chief censor Bill Hastings in the news media today talking of charging parents over kids’ video games, with possibility of prison sentences.

Hastings is one of the lefty progressives who thrived under the Helenistas. Is this video games threat just more heavy handed political correctness on the lines of the anti-smacking change?

Am I right in thinking the courts overturned at least one of Hastings’s censorship decisions (perhaps on born agains’ propaganda) which led to a surreptitious attempt to bring anti-hate legislation through the Parliamentary back door?

C’mon National: time to sweep away these politically correct lefties.

Does Hastings have some agenda in being so down on entertainment violence and less condemnatory of near-porn?
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March 7, 2009 6:14pm

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