General Debate 2 April 2011

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Komata

First …?
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April 2, 2011 7:58am
southtop

another good day to be vertical, bugger got to work
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April 2, 2011 7:58am
Manolo

“Paree” Hughes is out, “Stajanov” Tizard is in.

Former Labour Party minister Judith Tizard is widely expected to announce tomorrow she will take the seat in Parliament left vacant by Darren Hughes.

Mr Hughes tendered his resignation after an 18-year-old student laid a sex complaint with the police.

Although Labour leader Phil Goff and Mr Little have said they will respect any decision Ms Tizard makes, if she takes the seat if will be seen as a snub to the leadership.

http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10716553
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April 2, 2011 7:58am
Pongo

Anybody got any idea when Joyce is finally going to force our mobile operators to reduce their termination rates ? Be a popular move when prices are rising for everything else. 1.5 billion on UFB for faster porn downloads is an admirable move to shore up your voter base among pimply 15 year olds but we tradesman who to a man voted for the Nats wouldnt mind a bit of respite from taxing our ciggies to hell and the rooting the housing market where a lot of our work used to come from. (dont get us started on that where the Nats think private landlords are evil monsters and Heatly wants the state to provide more)
My old man in the UK just got himself a free blackberry, no contract and 15 quid a month for unlimited calls and texts.

[DPF: I understand mobile termination rates will be determined this month]
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April 2, 2011 8:17am
Rodders

Judith says “I have a long list of good reasons to go back.”

Approx. 100,000 reasons?
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April 2, 2011 8:26am
barry

Paul Henry is BACK…………..

Again we will have some wider views being expressed in the media. And arent we all glad that the new GG looks and sounds more like a New Zealander………
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April 2, 2011 8:34am
jaba

I tink it’s closer to 160,000 reasons Rodders
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April 2, 2011 8:34am
Rodders

Indeed jaba, I had overlooked that she would get paid after the election as well. Nice work if you can get it!
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April 2, 2011 8:40am
Mr Nobody NZ

Barry, it does make you wonder how much of TV3 media coverage last year was simply part of a long game to gain a key TVNZ asset.
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April 2, 2011 8:40am
Pauleastbay

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4839958/MP-who-could-be-Labours-king

MP who could be Labour’s king by
VERNON SMALL He is softly spoken, looks slightly bookish and quit as a attorney-general in 2006 when he – wrongly as it turned out – thought he had incorrectly filed a Companies Office return after an attack article by Investigate magazine.

from STUFF this morning

….I don’t believe Parker thought any such thing until it was all brought to his attention and then there was only a technicality that keep him cleanish.
also
more hagiography published as news.

Parker a small town lawyer tainted by allegations of corrupt practice, just what labour need to answer all their prayers and there lust for power,

There needs to be a new party this one is rooted, same hacks, same philosophy, same no ideas except giving money away when there is none.
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April 2, 2011 8:41am
Rodders

I am also dubious about Judith’s claim that “a large number of people” are urging her to return to parliament. A large number of txt messages from New York, perhaps ?
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April 2, 2011 9:00am
TripeWryter

John Roughan, and assistant or deputy editor of the NZ Herald, asks a series of fascinating questions in his column this morning. I had been wondering the same questions, but thought I was out of step with everybody.

But here they are:

“Speaking of bullying, can anyone explain why Phil Goff has been pilloried over the past fortnight for the sins of Darren Hughes? Reading and listening to all political commentators on the subject, I’m missing something.

“All have pronounced Goff guilty of an error of political judgment because he kept the police investigation secret for two weeks.

“Why was that unwise?

“Because, they say, it was bound to come out and when it did it would be worse for Goff and the Labour Party.

“Why would it be worse?

“Because he had kept it a secret.

“This can do your head in. It is unfair and oppressive of reason, like the demands of a gang in a schoolyard. It is also as cowardly. Goff is not polling strongly and unlikely to get much public support. I doubt they would run this nonsense at Key.

“The press gang feels justified in collective bullying because a party leader is supposed to be able to stand up to an ordeal no matter how unfair.

“This was a little test. Goff failed it miserably. He backtracked three times and conceded he might have made mistakes or could have handled things better. He should have stuck to his guns.

“He was not going to make public something personal to an MP that he had been told in confidence while it was under police investigation.

“”Call it a cover-up if you want,” he could have said. “I call it natural justice.”

“Of course that is easy for me to say, I’m not carrying the slim hopes of a major party into an election in November. Leaders in a weak position play safe, conceding something to the critics and hoping they will back off.

“They won’t. This ordeal has been fun and there will be more. If the hounds smelled blood before, they smell it stronger now.”

What struck me though is that Roughan asks them today. Why wasn’t he asking them last week when the story broke, and his political staff were leaders of the media mob group-think that had taken over the hackery at Parliament?
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April 2, 2011 9:00am
Anthony

Pongo, the Commerce Commission is due to release its decision on mobile termination rates at the end of the month. The UK announced recently announced that it is reducing such rates to 0.63p per minute!
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April 2, 2011 9:01am
grumpyoldhori

Pongo want to be a MP ? start a Common sense party demanding that tobacco tax be dropped, you will get a hell of a lot of votes.

Or, if you just want cheap ciggies park a Chinese flagged ship fourteen miles off shore to sell duty free fags.
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April 2, 2011 9:02am
jaba

ETS could cost Aussie households $860 PER YEAR (BASED ON $30 P/T) .. this crazy tax will not save the planet
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April 2, 2011 9:08am
emmess

Paul Henry is BACK…………..

John Campbell, if you have any self respect you should quit in disgust at this outrageous decision.

Go on, do it, do it.
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April 2, 2011 9:16am
Pongo

Thank you Anthony lets hope Joyce does something about it.
In the last two years I have been to the States, UK, France and Barbados and gee whizz NZ is an expensive place, most of it I guess is down to very little competition in a small out of the way country but there is a lot that could be done by a competition watchdog that was independent of MPs that had some teeth. If you have a monopoly, duopoly, oligopily of which NZ has a plethora the only way to stop rent seeking is tough regulations, be a vote winner and would force bloated companies to be more effecient.
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April 2, 2011 9:18am
Inventory2

@ Rodders (9.00am) – I dunno mate; I reckon that every rightie should encourage Judith to take up the seat that is rightfully hers; it’s our civic duty and all that 🙂
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April 2, 2011 9:23am
Rodders

😉
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April 2, 2011 9:33am
jaba

I wonder how Steve “fk you” Maharey would have fared if he had stayed on .. JT may have thought he was smarmy, which he did seem to be, BUT he seems to be clever and more importantly, normal
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April 2, 2011 9:34am
joana

There is a looming sewerage and probably public health problem in CHCH . We were told about this several weeks by a former council employee. He also wrote to the Press at that time..The council have been keeping quiet about it wanting people to feel as if things are getting back to normal.
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April 2, 2011 9:38am
jaba

and?
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April 2, 2011 9:48am
Inventory2

So you’ll be going and helping them fix it then Joana?
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April 2, 2011 10:01am
Rodders

Joana could get the assistance of that (in her words) “good guy”, Kyle Chapman.
He knows a lot about sewerage.
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April 2, 2011 10:10am
lesterpk

With all the banging on about lifting our productivity for the country, does the government go and give a 3.75% benefit rise and yet many workers are struggling to get any rise at all this year? Including some employed by the government.
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April 2, 2011 10:13am
Rodders

An interesting line about Andrew Little’s Presidency-“Little said he loved the job and would have liked to carry on but other duties called.”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4841093/Darren-Hughes-saga-top-of-Labour-meeting-agenda

Even more hats?
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April 2, 2011 10:21am
nickb

Exactly Lester, fuck me most people in the private sector will be lucky to get anything at all, let alone 3.75%, what a joke.
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April 2, 2011 10:27am
Manolo

For the umpteen time: will Key and English listen?

http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10716436

A Treasury paper out today argues for lower tax and less government spending.

The Treasury paper – Government and economic growth: Does size matter? – said the size and the structure of government played an important role in economic performance.

“There appears to be scope to lower the tax take as a share of the economy or, alternatively, to better position the Crown to deal with long-term expenditure pressures without increasing the tax take,” the report said.

“This could be achieved by reducing or limiting growth in expenditures that do no measurably contribute to raising the economy’s potential economic growth rate.”

“There is mixed evidence as to what types of expenditure really matter for growth. However, the Treasury believes that New Zealand has a significant chunk of spending in areas that are unlikely to enhance economic growth,” Mr Kibblewhite said.

“The economic benefits of lower taxes need to be balanced against other spending objectives, but all spending programmes need to meet a high burden of proof that they really do boost New Zealander’s living standards.”
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April 2, 2011 10:35am
lesterpk

Yep, frustrates the hell out of me to see various government supported workers such as police, teachers etc striking for 2-3% pay rise when my large sector has no union and no voice, and is prohibited by law from doing so. All we would ask is cost of living adjustments…..
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April 2, 2011 10:42am
Viking2

Thiswill probably stuff GD for the day but its a worthwhile project for Paula.

Free morning after pill for Welsh girls from age 13
Last updated 10:13 02/04/2011

Women and girls as young as 13 in Wales can get the morning-after pill free without a prescription from pharmacies, beginning Friday.

The legal age of consent for sex in Britain is 16, and some critics have slammed the policy as hypocritical and encouraging young girls to have sex.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/4841105/Free-morning-after-pill-for-Welsh-girls-from-age-13

Mind you I don’t imagine Lucia going there to argue nor can I imagine the Pope supporting it in their near neighbours in Ireland.
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April 2, 2011 10:44am
adze

Lesterpk
Police can’t strike. If the Association and the govt can’t agree on pay negotiations, it goes to compulsory arbitration.
I would agree that teachers unions are the waterside unions of the 21st century though…
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April 2, 2011 10:58am
starboard

“For the umpteen time: will Key and English listen”

No .
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April 2, 2011 11:05am
Viking2

A man applying for a job at a Katikati Lemon Orchard seemed to be far too qualified for the job.

The foreman frowned and said, “I have to ask you this: Have you had any actual experience in picking lemons?”

He replied: “I’ve been divorced three times, bought a Leyland P76 when they were brand new, a Beta video player and a big chunk of Pike River Coal when it floated. Then I voted twice for Helen Clark and then for Hone Harawira,

“How am I doing so far?”
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April 2, 2011 12:36pm
Viking2

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/japan-earthquake/4841046/Tsunami-dog-found-alive-at-sea
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April 2, 2011 12:42pm
bka

A parody of Tim Finn’s “Fraction too Much Friction” – “Fraction Liquefaction” – is doing well on youtube and captures the resilient spirit over on the east side of Chch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6-knLM7MZA
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April 2, 2011 12:53pm
Viking2

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10716608

Phil Quin: The anatomy of a failed Labour coup

9:22 AM Saturday Apr 2, 2011

Fifteen years ago, Helen Clark stared down a party coup mounted by her eventual successor, Phil Goff. But her victory came at a huge price for Labour. Phil Quin, one of the plotters, offers an insider’s account.

Interesting read.
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April 2, 2011 1:07pm
Bryla

Hurf Durf and I agreed last night that nuclear power was 400% SAFE, that greens were neanderthals, and that he would take personal responsibility for collecting all the spare Plutonium at Fukushima. I used to thing Hurfy was an irresponsible wing-nut. Now I know better.
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April 2, 2011 1:09pm
Chicken Little

Nick Smith – please watch this very interesting talk by Prof Dr Vincent Courtilliot, hopefully you will realise that you’ve been sold a dog and will stop making such a complete dick of yourself.

Hmmmm….maybe not, anyway can I please have my money back Nick?

This is how a real scientist sounds doing real science.
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April 2, 2011 2:36pm
bereal

Pete George.. Yesterday
Thanks for the lead through to the statistics for parole in NZ
i followed it and now realise you were right.
Meads’ could ‘ get more than 11 years.

Meads put up the defence that the gun went off by accident.
The jury considered that and rejected it.

So, he was convicted of cold blooded murder. Execution style.

The question i asked was, given that he executed his wife, for whatever reason,
‘Do you consider that “justice” Allan brought down a fair sentence of 11 years ?
i do take into account the puke ‘justice’ Allan referred to IE there was no “Callousness”

i think that this POS took into account that a divorce could cost him $20 million and
his personal satisfaction from not having to be rejected,
and he decided that whacking his cook was worth it.

if its a life extingished for all eternity vs 11 years of soft time thats it.
This germ made his his call.
Maybe, if he knew he would be risking life in prison meaning LIFE
he could have made a different call.
Make sense ?
Also, how would you feel if it was your daughter that he had executed ?
11 years be fine with you then ?
Meads could join your bridge club in 12 years.
he could be north while your south.
Happy with that Pete ? Forgive him ?
Also. Meads killed her in a murderous rage as a result of rejection, which he
couldn’t take, and greed, $20 million dollars.
After 11 years he gets out, it doessn’t work out with his new girl. she says,
its over Rover.
Do youl like her chances to live to a ripe old age Pete ? Based on past performance.
What will he do ?
Would she have a better chance if Meads was never let out ?
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April 2, 2011 4:26pm
reid

“There appears to be scope to lower the tax take as a share of the economy or, alternatively, to better position the Crown to deal with long-term expenditure pressures without increasing the tax take,” the report said.

“This could be achieved by reducing or limiting growth in expenditures that do no measurably contribute to raising the economy’s potential economic growth rate.”

“There is mixed evidence as to what types of expenditure really matter for growth. However, the Treasury believes that New Zealand has a significant chunk of spending in areas that are unlikely to enhance economic growth,” Mr Kibblewhite said.

I wonder if that list that Treasury have put together includes anything whatsoever about cuts in the Treasury Dept?
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April 2, 2011 6:32pm
joana

Rodders
You need to get out more…It is a very small world you have going on there.
The sewerage problem is mentioned in today’s Press and the possibility of cholera.
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April 2, 2011 7:07pm
Viking2

How are we going with narrowing the Gap.

Oh I forgot, John canceled that goal a while ago didn’t he.

Australian wages are also growing at a faster rate than those here, meaning the wage gap is widening.

Figures released last year showed that, between 2008 – when National came to power promising to bridge the wage gap – and July last year, the gap increased by $40 a week to $580, based on average ordinary wages before tax and the exchange rate at the time. Here the average weekly wage at the start of last year was $947, while in Australia it was A$1243. New Zealand’s average wage had grown by 5.2 per cent compared with Australia’s 6.7 per cent.

An Australian company recruiting 300 bus drivers ran out of application forms at a recent expo to attract workers in Auckland, Mr Alexander says. “The interest from the Kiwis is fairly high in all of this . . . I expect the net outflow in the next couple of years will breeze right through the record 35,000 we saw in 09.”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4841396/Chasing-the-Australian-dream
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April 2, 2011 7:31pm
joana

Why do we have soldiers in Afghanistan?
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April 2, 2011 7:50pm
Hurf Durf

that he would take personal responsibility for collecting all the spare Plutonium at Fukushima.

You mean the miniscule, trace, nearly non-existent particles of plutonium that probably originated from NK nuclear tests?

Yeah, sure. Though being called irresponsible by the sort of mong who thinks an event where 300 people are killed is “peaceful” is immensely satisfying.
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April 2, 2011 8:18pm
Viking2

All should read this including LUC.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/how-i-lost-faith-in-multiculturalism/story-fn59niix-1226031793805

How I lost faith in multiculturalism

* Greg Sheridan
* From: The Australian
* April 02, 2011 12:00AM

IN 1993, my family and I moved into Belmore in southwest Sydney. It is the next suburb to Lakemba. When I first moved there I loved it.

We bought a house just behind Belmore Sports Ground, in those days the home of my beloved Bulldogs rugby league team. Transport was great, 20 minutes to the city in the train, 20 minutes to the airport.

On the other side of Belmore, away from Lakemba, there were lots of Chinese, plenty of Koreans, growing numbers of Indians, and on the Lakemba side lots of Lebanese and other Arabs.

That was an attraction, too. I like Middle Eastern food. I like Middle Eastern people. The suburb still had the remnants of its once big Greek community and a commanding Greek Orthodox church.

But in the nearly 15 years we lived there the suburb changed, and much for the worse.

Three dynamics interacted in a noxious fashion: the growth of a macho, misogynist culture among young men that often found expression in extremely violent crime; a pervasive atmosphere of anti-social behaviour in the streets; and the simultaneous growth of Islamist extremism and jihadi culture.

This is my story, our story and the story of a failed policy.
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April 2, 2011 8:20pm
Bobbie black

That’s why the Chinese don’t allow any foreigners to become Chinese.

And no one can own land freehold.

They clever little chaps.
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April 2, 2011 10:07pm
Hurf Durf

And there’s the Hooeruld still printing discredited bollocks from anti-nukers with an axe to grind. They should just come out with it and declare themselves as Greenpeace’s Official Newsletter.
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April 2, 2011 10:32pm
TimG_Oz

This is another brilliant op-ed from Greg Sheridan.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/partys-israel-stance-hypocritical/story-e6frgd0x-1226032297403

From today’s Australian.
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April 2, 2011 10:36pm
starboard

Why is John Key still paying slappers to breed ?
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April 2, 2011 10:57pm
Manolo

The changing face of the United States:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704050204576219073867182108.html

If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a salary from the government.

It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers.

Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?

Every state in America today except for two—Indiana and Wisconsin—has more government workers on the payroll than people manufacturing industrial goods. Consider California, which has the highest budget deficit in the history of the states, and an incredible 2.4 million government employees—twice as many as people at work in manufacturing. New Jersey has just under two-and-a-half as many government employees as manufacturers. Florida’s ratio is more than 3 to 1. So is New York’s.
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April 3, 2011 6:12am
Bryla

I see where the Fukushima reactor complex now has a SAFE crack in a concrete pit containing highly radioctive SAFE water which is leaking SAFELY out to sea. Moreover the very SAFE repairs and cooling of the fuel rods is expected to take many SAFE years. Perhaps even a century of SAFE emergency management. It looks like Hurf Durf and I were conservative in our estimate, and we must now declare nuclear power to be 500% SAFE, and Plutonium good for growing children. Communist Green scaremongers fuck off for the cretins U R.
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April 3, 2011 2:24pm
Maggie

starboard (1,796) Says:

April 2nd, 2011 at 10:57 pm
Why is John Key still paying slappers to breed ?

You mean he uses prostitutes? And he looks such a nice man……
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April 3, 2011 6:25pm

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