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June 22, 2011 8:00am by David Farrar

General Debate 22 June 2011

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mikenmild

IV2

Asset sales, fine. What’s for sale again, apart from labour laws and casino regulation?
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June 22, 2011 8:27pm
starboard

…rodders ?
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June 22, 2011 8:32pm
Rodders

IV2 – Phil & Annette may have had a conversion on the road to Damascus during their involuntary three year sabbatical.

Starboard – I’m here.
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June 22, 2011 8:32pm
Inventory2

They may indeed Rodders, but that’s no excuse to try and rewrite history.
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June 22, 2011 8:38pm
mikenmild

I guess they might say that the asset sales then were good and necessary and the one that may be proposed now are wrong.
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June 22, 2011 8:40pm
Elaycee

An elderly man in Louisiana had owned a large farm for several years.

He had a large pond in the back. It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple and peach trees.

One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn’t been there for a while, and look it over.

He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit. As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee.

As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond.

He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end.

One of the women shouted to him, ‘we’re not coming out until you leave!’

The old man frowned, ‘I didn’t come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.’

Holding the bucket up he said, ‘I’m here to feed the alligator…’
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June 22, 2011 8:50pm
Rodders

Annette King hasn’t as much baggage from the 1984-1990 period as she was only a cabinet minister for the last year or so. Phil Goff, on the other hand was in the cabinet for the entirety and Michael Bassett’s book depicts Goff as a supporter of Douglas policies (and critic of Lange.)
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June 22, 2011 8:50pm
mikenmild

Rodders

Yes, Goff was a pretty keen Rogernome. Hard to think some of his stances now are the result of a change of mind.
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June 22, 2011 8:57pm
Rodders

Mike – David Lange wrote in his book that in the cabinet, “Phil liked to be in the majority.” That implies that Phil Goff runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds (like The Vicar of Bray).
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June 22, 2011 9:01pm
bhudson

@Mikey,

“I guess they might say that the asset sales then were good and necessary and the one that may be proposed now are wrong.”

I guess they might. But why is the question. The most obvious answer is they were good when Phil and Annette were in power and are only bad now that they are not. No, now sales (the threat thereof) are a tool for them to try and return to power.

Whereupon, in all likelihood, they would [god forbid they get the chance] re-evaluate their position in light of the books and projections [which they would claim they hadn’t known about previously] and the sales would be on again for all money.
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June 22, 2011 9:07pm
mikenmild

So he hasn’t had to change his mind. Perhaps Phil actually has no opinions at all. ‘No Asset Sales’ plays well at the moment because that’s what Labour voters want to hear.
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June 22, 2011 9:07pm
bhudson

… One must really wonder if, when they joined the Labour Party, they had to take the ‘hypocritic oath’ to show they could administer the proper sort of medicine for the NZ public
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June 22, 2011 9:12pm
mikenmild

Could be a requirement in all political parties
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June 22, 2011 9:13pm
Rodders

Mike – Perhaps Phil should have a placard saying “No Policies.” 😉

To be fair, he had a reputation as a safe pair of hands as a Minister. He was the only person to have served the entirety of the Lange and Clark cabinets (Helen was blackballed by David Lange in 1984, so only became a minister in 1987).
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June 22, 2011 9:14pm
Tauhei Notts

Did Phil Ure start dressing in drag and call himself Penny?
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June 22, 2011 9:18pm
mikenmild

Phil has always had a reputation as a nice guy, and a hard and capable worker. He doesn’t seem on fire for any cause, and he’s certainly no inspirational figure. Will be seen as the safe pair of hands as interim leader 2008-11, ie Labour haven’t sunk disastrously in the polls and retain a credible chance of governing again, but I should think it’ll bye bye Phil sometime next year and hello – who?
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June 22, 2011 9:21pm
bhudson

Rodders,

Smell his halitosis? Reminds me of the story of the extraordinary wise Indian leader…

This man was so wise as to be adored by many of thousands. His understanding was so encompassing as to be considered to transcend normal thought. He would wander the country speaking his wisdom and illuminating the people with his knowledge and care.

He walked everywhere, eschewing not only motorised transport, but footwear also. Walking literally thousands of kilometres through a lifetime without shoes generated enormous callouses on his feet. So deformed were his feet that he took to walking with a cane (of sorts.)

These treks not only hardened his body and mind to the tribulations of the physical world, they pared every non-essential element of fat from his body – he was an extremely thin man. Which, unfortunately, was not helped by him eating not very much – and only protein, meat, at that. His breath could be detected at quite some distance.

He was once described as a super-calloused-fragile-mystic-hexed-with-halitosis.

Apparently though, some thought this description to be a little precocious
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June 22, 2011 9:25pm
bhudson

@mike,

Yes – who? Who do you think will topple Phil?
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June 22, 2011 9:27pm
Rodders

bhudson ” super-calloused-fragile-mystic-hexed-with-halitosis”

Well, if we are alluding to lyrics from Mary Poppins, I don’t know what could be made of “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

Better not to go there 😉
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June 22, 2011 9:32pm
nasska

A man dies and goes to hell. He’s met at the gates by Satan himself. Satan says, “I know you’re probably scared right now, but hell isn’t that bad! Do you like to drink?”

The man says, “Sure I do.”

Satan says, “Then you’re going to love Fridays around here! All the beer you can drink! Do you like to smoke?”

The man says, “Sure do!”

Satan says, “Then you’ll love Saturdays around here! All the cigars you want, hand-rolled by topless succubi! Do you like to do drugs?”

The man says, “You bet I do! That’s how I died!”

Satan says, “Then you’ll love Sundays around here! All the dope, heroin, and meth you want! Do you like taking it up the rear?”

The man says, “Oh, god, no!”

Satan says, “You’re going to really hate Mondays…”
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June 22, 2011 9:33pm
anticorruptionnz

Nookin Judge Joyce dealt with me on the basis of continuing to defame. His comments would have been appropriate if I had been told by the court I was defaming in the first place .. this is the step which was missed out. .. kind of vital dont you think especially when what you say is the truth.

When Judge Joyce made his decision based on continued defamation, the continued defamation happened to be in my affidavit in mitigation of damages which the the act says you can submit in quantum showing that the plaintiff is of bad character.
I had 40 points including documents written by him and contradicting each other, I simply said how can one person write two contradictory documents one must be wrong.. His honor said there she goes defaming him again.

The lawyers for Wells and his band of merry men being former north shore mayor Wyn Hoadley and JP graham Coutts had misled the court with some rather material facts being that those three people weren’t a trust, had never signed a trust deed and the reality is that only one person ever applied to be the approved organization , that is Mr wells using a name other than his own.

Wyn hoadley claimed that she became a trustee on 10 may 2006 , she is a barrister.. how did she think she became a trustee? by saying she was one ?

We had legally formed a trust in April 2006 and legally incorporated it ,this proved that we were the only legal entity by that name .so since you are so clever Nookin please tell me how some one who pretends to be something ( and has no physical evidence of being a trustee ie there was no deed or any documentation ) from a a date three weeks after an entity is incorporated can claim to have prior usage rights to substantiate a fair trading and passing off claim ?

When lawyers are not held accountable to the truth then they can and do mislead the court.

as with Vince’s case no evidence was ever produced of what I did say .

The words you see in the judgement is what they claimed I had said not what I had ever said. .. they will never be able to produce evidence because there is none. But it allowed Mr wells to continue to run AWINZ, very political lots of people in red involved in this one .
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June 22, 2011 9:34pm
bhudson

Rodders,

Sugar… Yes, you are quite right. I do wonder how I might use that in everyday conversation though…
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June 22, 2011 9:41pm
Tauhei Notts

Reid at 7.14 p.m.
You may care to read a very long piece about Greece.
http:www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10greeks-bearing-bonds-201010?currentPage=6
In the past my travels in Greece have taken me to the far north west, the plain of Vergina and other spots away from the hordes of tourists. So I have seen much of the hinterland. But that Vanity Fair article opened my eyes to how much the country has decayed since it joined the European Union. The article shows that the Greek moral fibre has disintegrated; from the very top all the way down. Their tax administration is a sick joke. Their public service is much worse. Railways – a joke. Schools, the same. Tax evasion is endemic.
I do not know how there can be any hope for the nation.
And some of my Greek in laws still cannot see it!
Panagia mou.
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June 22, 2011 9:52pm
reid

Thanks Tauhei, most appreciated.
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June 22, 2011 10:16pm
Luc Hansen

Hurf Durf confusing himself again:

nuclear weapons, along with free trade, have been the key factors that have secured peace and prosperity in the West since 1945.

Funny thing is, the same berks who scream about disarming everything in the Western arsenal are the same arseholes who think Iran should have a nuclear weapon. Hypocrites, much?

So nukes secure peace but Iran shouldn’t have any?

HUUGE contradiction there, O sallow one.

And FYI, Iran and every Arab state call for a nuclear-free ME. The only ME country that doesn’t join in this call is Israel.

Tauhei Notts

As regards Greece, do the greedy German and French bankers who kept shovelling money down the throats of Greeks bear any responsibility for the mess that has developed?

“Ask and thou shalt receive” is not a commandment, you know.
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June 22, 2011 10:26pm
krazykiwi

Greece, yes those greedy bankers have something to answer for. But nothing compared to the pan-generational lust for power Greek politicians have exhibited in outspending their way into office when the country was already bankrupt.

As it turned out, what the Greeks wanted to do, once the lights went out and they were alone in the dark with a pile of borrowed money, was turn their government into a piñata stuffed with fantastic sums and give as many citizens as possible a whack at it.

In just the past decade the wage bill of the Greek public sector has doubled, in real terms—and that number doesn’t take into account the bribes collected by public officials. The average government job pays almost three times the average private-sector job.

The national railroad has annual revenues of 100 million euros against an annual wage bill of 400 million, plus 300 million euros in other expenses. The average state railroad employee earns 65,000 euros a year. Twenty years ago a successful businessman turned minister of finance named Stefanos Manos pointed out that it would be cheaper to put all Greece’s rail passengers into taxicabs: it’s still true. “We have a railroad company which is bankrupt beyond comprehension,” Manos put it to me. “And yet there isn’t a single private company in Greece with that kind of average pay.”

The Greek public-school system is the site of breathtaking inefficiency: one of the lowest-ranked systems in Europe, it nonetheless employs four times as many teachers per pupil as the highest-ranked, Finland’s. Greeks who send their children to public schools simply assume that they will need to hire private tutors to make sure they actually learn something. There are three government-owned defense companies: together they have billions of euros in debts, and mounting losses. The retirement age for Greek jobs classified as “arduous” is as early as 55 for men and 50 for women. As this is also the moment when the state begins to shovel out generous pensions, more than 600 Greek professions somehow managed to get themselves classified as arduous: hairdressers, radio announcers, waiters, musicians, and on and on and on. The Greek public health-care system spends far more on supplies than the European average—and it is not uncommon, several Greeks tell me, to see nurses and doctors leaving the job with their arms filled with paper towels and diapers and whatever else they can plunder from the supply closets.

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/greeks-bearing-bonds-201010
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June 22, 2011 10:39pm
Rodders

Luc – haven’t seen you here for a while. I had wondered whether Mossad had finally tracked you down 😉
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June 22, 2011 10:54pm
Viking2

Well well Christchurch ain’t a big enough disaster and jamberton isn’t getting any air time so here is his latest attempt at publicity. Mind you no doubt some well meaning National socialist like bridges et al will come along and adopt it as good for kis, families or what ever.

Anderton calls for levy on fizzy
GEORGINA STYLIANOU
Last updated 05:00 23/06/2011

A levy should be put on sugary soft drinks to help fund free dental care for all New Zealanders, a Christchurch MP says.

Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton has released a dental policy that he hopes the Labour Party will adopt as part of its health programme for this year’s election.

Cost and access were still the major hurdles to dental care for most people, Anderton said. “The cost of extending free dental care to all would be around $1 billion a year at current prices.”

He said funding could come from an ACC-type levy, a reduction in tax cuts or a levy on sugary soft drinks. l meaning National socialist like Bridges et al will come along and adopt it for the good of the kids or the family or some such other nefarious reason.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/5180046/Anderton-calls-for-levy-on-fizzy
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June 23, 2011 6:49am
Manolo

A con-man and crook dares to criticise the fellow Messiah: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57537.html
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June 23, 2011 7:23am
Manolo

A waste of almost 60 million dollars: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/5179911/No-credits-to-show-for-58m-of-training-courses
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June 23, 2011 7:43am
mikenmild

Manolo

Thought at first you were talking about the posh courses down south for public servants. It’d be nice to see the total amount of our money spent on all such courses, including those in Australia, US. and UK. I understand Harvard and Henley are the ‘in’ ones for senior public servants at the moment.
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June 23, 2011 7:47am
Hurf Durf

Holy crap, Puke Hansen’s back. That’s more than enough reason to post in yesterday’s GD.

And FYI, Iran and every Arab state call for a nuclear-free ME. The only ME country that doesn’t join in this call is Israel.

Which has something to do with that fact that ever since Israel went nuclear in the late 60s, there has been only one attempt by an Arab military coalition to invade and destroy the country. They don’t like the fact that if they try anything again there’s a sizable chance they’ll be incinerated into the history books. Peace through superior firepower.

So, in that context,

So nukes secure peace but Iran shouldn’t have any?

is not hypocritical at all. Well done, son. 😉
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June 23, 2011 8:30pm

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