Whatever happened to eZ, who used to post absurd nonsense about the Labour party? I'm missing the frequent amusement.
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Whatever happened to eZ, who used to post absurd nonsense about the Labour party? I'm missing the frequent amusement.
Yes I canLets look at the positive side of the ledger. And I'll paraphrase the Prime Minister who describes her as being "passionate" about her portfolios and "very hard working". Interesting traits, neither which apply to competence, but about the best I (and the prime minister) can come up with.
On the other side of the ledger.
She took instruction from Ministerial staff on how to work diaries and phones and the need to be transparent and that every thing done was discoverable. Despite this she arranged an "off the record" meeting with Carol Hirschfield and lied about it.
Having been caught out on that and no doubt given further guidance she then went on to have another "off the record" meeting, outside usual work hours with Derek Handley. Apart from incompetence as covered above it is likely to be against any guidance she would have been given on the CTO recruitment process. Maybe thats where "passion" gets you.
As minister in charge of communications and open / transparent government she then went on to use her private Gmail account, despite having several government emails accounts, to conduct government business. At this stage just what went through those emails is unclear - but Mellissa Lee certainly has something else to bring up.
Finally when asked very simple questions in the House she fluffed it The truth is a very simple easy thing to say - but she could not get close to answering the questions let alone get anywhere near the truth. Her performance is described as the worst of any MP in the history of NZ parliament.
Oh - not finally. When required to appear in question time she failed to turn up. They really were not hard answers to question - but she did not have the strength of character or the foundation of truth to help her through.
Is that enough? I know the competence side is a bit light - but let me know what else I can put in there.
I'll hold my hand up and express my disappointment with National over their years in office. They moved far too "left" for my liking. (should have ditched working for families for example)
That aside they did have to deal with a Global Financial Crisis and an unrelenting series of catastrophic earthquakes. So I give them some credit for being distracted.
Mini will not be surprised
Yet Ardern has kept Faafoi - who is deserving of a Cabinet place - outside Cabinet, leaving Curran's seat free. That indicates a reshuffle is in store and a woman is odds-on to fill that slot.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12121211
Its taking Clare a while to sort through all her Gmails. How hard can that be? No doubt doing enough to stay in parlaiment on a wage rate at more than she is worth. Whats the bet Derek doesnt get eth CTO job!
I'm the first to admit I'm a bit dense. But how does $1.5m for Andrew Littles recent Justice Summit add up. A two day talk fest with 600 participants who had to pay their own travel and accommodation. So thats $2,500 a head or $1,250 per person per day.
Say $150 a person venue hire, leaves me around $1,100 for lunch and other incidentals per day.
Even at a budgeted $700k it still seems like a lot for two days of chin wagging
And what did they achieve?
But it's the gu'mt paying, isn't it?
;)
You are dead right as it turns out "“PWC was contracted to run the event and the food was provided by a gourmet caterer which included decadent gluten-free chocolate brownie, pork, apricot and thyme pastries, four different kinds of croissants, luxury pies and chicken and cranberry casserole."
And the next crusade from Labour and the Greens will be to make our children bilingual by force. To be honest, it is something I´ve been in favour of for decades. I am thoroughly disappointed in our school system for being completely useless with language tutoring and have always encouraged my children to seriously study languagaes, sadly to no avail. My 23 year old daughter who ´s been working in Europe for the last few months even said to me recently, "now I know what you mean dad". After working with young multi lingual Europeans, she realises how ill equipped she is for the World.
BUT, Maori it should not be. It should be a language that actually advances our young people´s standing in the World and gives them added opportunities. The Maori language is of NO USE whatsoever for them and this ¨politically correct¨ nonsense and social engineering infuriates me.
Thats not quite true. They plan to make it a "core" subject. Which means another Core Subject will need to be sidelined. Given the lack of te reo teachers (and virtually no trainees in the pipeline) its highly unlikely children will become bi-lingual. Unless there is a quota and bonus incentive scheme introduced at the Trainee level.
I'm at a loss - I thought it was a parents responsibility to teach a child how to at least converse in the "native" language" and to give them some exposure to the written word by the time they hit school.
I have no problem with other languages being introduced to the curriculum - but this should be a Board decision which would support the community aspirations. (My spawn have given French and Chinese a shot - but they pulled out. Maybe it was because I told them I wasnt funding a trip to France or China for two weeks. And I wouldn't mind if they could write English legibly)
Incidentally it is Hindi Language week this week so I look forward to more of this language over the next few days
Maybe the government will be aiming for Te Reo to be given a similar to treatment to Irish in Ireland. I think Irish in Ireland has been promoted without detracting from other education and language-learning goals. At the same time as promoting Erse, Ireland has opened itself socially and has been able to develop its economy and international relationships. In comparison, its neighbour - mono-lingual England - seems to be withdrawing into itself and looks like it wants to increasingly disengage from its neighbours and other cultures.
Actually - this is a great point. While not a great fan of making it compulsory at school to learn as second language something nobody outside of NZ (and hardly anybody in NZ) can speak ... I agree - it might well open minds.
As well - speaking from experience - the second language is the hardest to learn ... all languages afterwards come much easier.
The other argument for Te Reo would be that it is quite related to Malayan / Indonesian / Pacifica languages. At least some of these might be quite useful to learn ... and hey, if a foundation of Te Reo helps with that - why not? Talking with the neighbors is always better than shooting them ;);
You know that, I know that and anyone with at least half a clue about email would know that. Which makes me wonder why our Prime Minister would think Clare Curran had the competence to fill the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media job, let alone be let loose to make a recommendation to decide who the next Chief Technology Officer would be. Clare is likely still trying to figure out where the "delete" key is on her keyboard.
Knowledge, acceptance and confidence (as opposed to arrogance) in the attributes of the country and culture in which you are brought up (and live) probably creates positivity, which in turn has consequence in more "useful" "international" aspects in the way you conduct yourself. I imagine that would be especiallly true for Maori, who until about the 1960's were actively discouraged from speaking the Maori language.
Dont forget it was Maori who actively encouraged to speak English. And then to learn to read and write in English. It suited their agenda at the time. There was nothing to prevent maori from communicating in maori within their own communities, which is no different from the Chinese (who were essentially forced into English language to come to NZ), the dutch, the Germans or the variety of other non-English language communites that continues even to today.
Also from experience I agree that after the 2nd language, it becomes easier. So I´d prefer precious language education time for my children was spent on them learning something useful in the World such as (but not limited to) Spanish or Chinese (Mandarin), not Te Reo that is only spoken by a few thousand people in the World, all of which speak English also as a first language.
As for Ireland teaching Irish with great results, good on them. We could also look at all the Scandinavian countries and most of the continental European countries where young people all learn multiple languages. The result is they have (to quote Bjauck) " opened themselves socially and have been able to develop their economies and international relationships."
After our kids and grandkids learning a useful language, it should be easy for them to learn Te Reo, if they so choose.
Like people from China to Sweden learn (as a second language) American English as the lingua franca of international commerce and research?
Maori iwi had their own community - Aotearoa-NZ - which became a hostile environment for them to continue to use Te Reo Maori. Unlike the Chinese, Dutch or German families in NZ, they did not have to travel to the other side of the World for this to happen. Unlike the Chinese, Dutch and German speakers there was no other land of their mother tongue.Quote:
There was nothing to prevent maori from communicating in maori within their own communities, which is no different from the Chinese (who were essentially forced into English language to come to NZ), the dutch, the Germans or the variety of other non-English language communites that continues even to today.
Further to the comparison with Irish - Irish people too used to treat Irish with a measure of disdain as a "peasant" language. The reason for this was that the imperial language was English. In order to access education, belong to the professions or to increase your chances of not succumbing to starvation and poverty, you had to learn the language of the rulers. I think that the English (from the time of Eliabeth I onwards) deliberately tried to eradicate Irish so that at one stage a greater percent of Welsh people spoke Cymraeg than Irish who spoke Erse.
Well, thats not entirely true. "Community" infers co-operation amongst the people within that community.
Iwi did have their own community - but Hapu tended to have their own defined territory. Given they were essentially a stone age, roaming, tribal, warring people their territory tended to overlap other Hapu territory. This of course resulted in disputes. As a community some disputes were settled by mediation. As an enlarged community the disputes were settled by inter-marriage. And as separate communities they were settled by warfare. Thats how they ensured they didnt succumb to starvation or poverty
New Zealand, with this Iwi / Hapu structure was a hostile environment pre-colonisation. Complete with leaders, commoners and slaves. And within that structure the use of language was limited depending on where in the hierarchy you sat. The most obvious / media driven published being speaking rights - or the lack of rights of women on speaking during a powhiri.
Arguably the more things change, the more things stay the same.
Obviously she hasn't been able to delete the job offer and acceptance emails from her GMail Account. Handley (dont incompetents flock together) has managed to secure a $100,000 payout for Ministers Currans mishandling of the process. Also noticeably silent on the appointment has been our Prime Minster - whose hole she finds herself in is now somewhat deeper.
I'm hoping her TV show on Sunday will be her resignation - though I am preparing for disappointment
Edit. Oh and now we see more of how this open and transparent government is working "Woods issued the statement after Handley said the Government had reneged "
We are being ruled by a truly incompetent total group of people way out of their depth.
The technology debacle - the gift that keeps giving - for National.
:ohmy:
I have ‘diary issues’ as well
Talk is it’s all getting too much for her ...
I have some sympathy but the Labour party had 9 years to groom some talent and have failed to do this . In addition the deal they signed with Winston ( we didn’t get to see) seems to give him a lot of latitude .No wonder Helen has been in the background , but is it too little too late ?
Being discussed was language and the hostile environment for Māori language - In the context of the Māori language even tribal enemies Co-operated to converse in the one language in Aotearoa! There were regional Variations as in English.
However in relation to a hostile environment more generally - the spread of the English of the colonisers so often accompanied the commercial-scale spread of slavery and the imposition of the legal and social structure of the colonisers resulting in a hostile environment to local self-determination and culture around the World. After the English had got bored with clobbering each other with the end of the English civil war they then turned to clobbering other people - or dividing and ruling - other peoples’ Lands! NZ at least escaped the commercial slavery which marked the earlier period of the British Empire.
Well, I have zero sympathy.
Ask any new parent how hard a job it is and they will unanimously tell you it is damn tough. It was Jacindas choice to remain PM - even withe the legions of little helpers and RNZAF aircraft to help out.
It was the PM (along with the party) who decided to go with Winston. Ask anyone and they would have said that was always going to be problematic (even if you were National or Labour)
It was the PM who decided to use gender quotas as a basis for cabinet selection rather than merit. Anyone will tell you that is fraught with risk - the main one being incompetent people get promoted above their ability.
It was the PM who knew what talent (or lack of) she had to work with. She is the one who decided to push on ahead with a dehydrated puddle talent pool.
She made her bed - she can go lie in it. (as can the Labour voters who really need to be asking themselves how it is that they were so easily swayed to get in behind her).
In the meantime clock is ticking towards 4.30 on Friday afternoon. Cant be long before we hear about Meka Whaitiri.
Well, Im bamboozled. How does Chris Hipkins get to spend $3m on two summits. This time having a chat to people in Christchurch ($1.41m - around 700 people over two days) and $1.26m for approx 700 people over two days in Auckland.
Does this government have the faintest clue what a budget it, what things cost, and how to extract value for money spent?
Someones talking the piss!
Does this mean Cindy approves of $1000 per person and day for entertainment? Well, I guess if you want it all singing and dancing it might not be that much. At the end it is just the dumb old taxpayer footing the bill - and raising taxes, this is one thing Labour is really good at.
I suppose we will never find out what she thinks or approves of, with her cancelling radio interview with Heather Du-Plessis Allan and her scheduled weekend appearances on The Nation and Q&A.
I see Derek Handley also got paid $ 107k for 3 months pay and for moving his family from New York to take up the job that he never started, but had been promised and now won't get !!! What blimmin fiasco.
Placing the cultural issues aside there s good reasons for te reo from an educational/development perspective.
Actually te reo is a great second language to learn, it is a relatively easy language to learn and a great spring board to becoming multilingual. Even if they just learnt te reo and did not go onto learn an additional language the linguistics ability will be greatly enhanced.
Jacinda is spending time on hwat a Kind, transparent goverenmetn actually means.
Then she is going to sit down with a calculator and calendar. Shes going to take 14 September less one month = teh date Handley accepted a job offer. Then shes going to go back to all her press conferences, statements in teh house and media statements and figure out why it was the teeny weeny fact that Curran had actually offered a job to someone was something that was not mentioned at all. And then shes going to realise that her definitions of a kind, transparent and open government does not actually match her actions
Then shes going to do the country a favour and resign
Audrey Young reckons the 2nd honeymoon is over for the Government, the one between Labour and NZ First : https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12125151
At least under National you get a 90 day probationary period - Labour will fire you before you start.
What’s behind this mini?
"The Prime Minister also needs to assure New Zealanders that the handling of Mr Handley's citizenship was above board, since he was quoted back in March saying: 'The Government changed and in its first month, this was done'," he said. (He being Bridges)
Classic!
To be fair, though - I don't think National would have hired a CTO who's main achievement was to destroy the shareholder capital of not just one but two New Zealand startups ... no matter how smooth he might be able to talk in secret meetings with ex-"open government" minsters ...
Hopefully National would not have even considered his application for the Poorly-defined role of CTO NZ. But we will never know about that.
There were so many superbly qualified applicants, it beggars belief that Handley could have risen to the top. He has no cred in NZ ICT.
I suspect the whole thing will be dumbed down to an impotent quango, but there is a small chance Labour will see the opportunity to strengthen the science advisor role.
I.ve no idea. Its all a total SNAFU. Handley was born in Hong Kong (?) so maybe some issue with his parents or something. Who knows.
But citizenship status of second generation people is not a route Adern should go down. That Gorliz G in the Green Party is coming under more suspicion with her roots (not a "refugee", not a defender of war victims ec)
Sounds like it is all getting a bit much for Winston.
First he remembers and claims that all of his MP's signed a contract which would have forced them to resign from parliament or pay a hefty penalty if they leave the party (for whatever reason even if they are fired form the party).
Than he claims that he had a memory lapse remembering they signed when they didn't.
I do see here a number of things to be concerned about. MP's should be only responsible to their electorate and to their conscience. Getting MP's to sign a "follow your party leader no matter what" order is clearly not a desirable requirement for any MP in a democratic system.
MP's need to disclose any financial interests. Peters expected them to take this interest on without declaring it. A severe breach of the standing orders. I call this crookedness.
Ah yes - and Peters memory lapse about them not signing it - are these the early signs of dementia? I guess, nothing wrong with that - only human, but not necessarily a suitable qualification to run the prime minister and her party and with that our country?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm...74&ref=twitter
Just how dumb does PM Cindy think the country is?
A 'blueprint' 12 months into govt, still with no detail, just lofty ambitions with no measurables or clear policy.
First we had the untransparent Transparency Minister, now the opaque vision as they start to finally come under scrutiny and the lack of cohesion in the coalition is exposed.
This is political cynicism at a level that is frightening. Made all the worse as it is the exact opposite of everything they promised.
Hmm - she is talking about the achievements she is proud of, but forgot to detail them.
From memory - they did deliver:
- increased income tax
- new tourist tax
- increased petrol tax and increased road user charges
- a highly incompetent and wasteful government - good only for caterers
- the largest number of well catered for talk groups ever - bigliest talk feast of the world.
- clear evidence that a women quota alone does not improve goverment (thanks Clare, for proving that point ...)
- higher prices for all of us through a dropping Kiwidollar (sure, some sugar rush for exporters, but not sustainable and certainly not a reason to be proud of)
- lowest business confidence since the aftermaths of the GFC
- they killed for pure ideological reasons and against expert advise the future of oil and gas exploration in New Zealand - our children will need to pay for it with job losses and the environment will suffer (given that we still will use the stuff - just imported and mined with less regard for the environment);
- they hugely inflated the wage bill we all will need to pay (either through taxes or through dropping employment numbers) and
- ah yes, they killed off quite successful charter schools and boosted the strangle hold of a selfish union.
They promised but didn't manage to improve our justice system (and I think this certainly would need improving)
They promised that New Zealand might take a bit fairer share of the refugees quota - and they didn't deliver. Quite a shame for a country which is per head off the population in the top 10% of the wealth lists.
Ah yes - and they promised to build 10.000 houses more per year. How many did they deliver so far - was it 36? And I am not even sure, whether these have been on top of the usual quota ...
And Cindy says she is proud of her governments achievements?
Really? She must be easy to please.
Someone needs to give her a dictionary. A "plan" or a "blueprint" is something that has detail. It will list the resources needed to achieve the aim. And it will have a timeframe.
What she has done is given a statement on the destination. But absolutely no detail on how to get there.
I could dissect the waffle. But cant be bothered. I will however pin this up "The One Billion Trees programme is another way that we are generating jobs and environmental benefits, and comes with the added benefit of creating an actual live online tree counter." Because all i really want from this government is an on line tree counter - as long as they are Rubicon sourced trees.
So Jacinda knows what this weeks GDP figure is?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/107...wth-hint-claim
Good to know the economy is growing quite strongly
You'd think it's all because of Jacinda and her team .....but governments don't influence economic growth that much anyway
Another porky. Apparently the information is embargoed by Statistics until 10:45am on thursday and the PM doesnt get to hear until then. Maybe shes confusing unaudited crown accounts with GDP.
As an aside - more incompetence with a Labour Policy Development Group. Announcement on Tax Working Group due to be released at 11.00 am Thursday. How do they expect the media to be in two places at once.
Jacinda’s inside knowledge moved the forex market ....funny eh
But doesn’t she want a low NZD???
More incompetence.
Seems like Clare Curran offered Handley the job over the phone - but this is something that the State Services does. And apparently the PM was being kept in the loop on progress.
In a rare move the Speaker has instructed labour to cough up all emails so an appropriately constructed question can be answered.
(and still we haven't heard about Meka Waitiri. Really how hard is it. Two parties. She said / He said. It should take a couple of days to investigate. Not more than 2 weeks. More incompetence in process)
I dont know - Iceman might be right.
Maybe its actually useless public servants.
They obviously failed to properly tell Clair how to use the complex government email system. And the State Services gave her no information on how to run a recruitment process.
Jacindas office people obviously have little idea how to work a diary. They are bound to get acronmyns like GDP and CPI and TAX all confused when document come across their desk.
So its perfectly understandable that a Minister might get a wee bit cross with these office workers who must be very thin skinned and go running to mumma when they get a air and reasonable telling off.
I'll be more considerate in my posts in the future.
Letter from the NZSA to the Prime Minister pointing out serious failures of our market authorities and signifcant delays for stakeholders to access justice in the case of CBL and WYN. Justice delayed is justice denied. The NZSA asks the Prime Miinister for action:
https://www.nzshareholders.co.nz/pdf...r%20110918.pdf
Not sure I hold my breath, but good on the NZSA for trying!
Haha. Yes it sure was tongue firmly in cheek. It is quite shocking and seriously questions whether she has a grasp on the job she's trying to do, as Barry Soper points out in the Herald today : https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12127536
I'm looking forward to the Minister of Education explaining what a taxpayer funded "tiriti led" university is. I thought we already had one in Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi
Maybe the PM was answering question out of synch as with the old Two Ronnies skit....
THE TWO RONNIES: Mastermind Sketch with Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9VRx_Uv7liE
....but more seriously since she has returned from her leave, she has looked like a juggler with lots of plates spinning on poles trying to keep them spinning and not letting them crash to the ground.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12128430
Getting a payout (and formal apology) from the government, for being inconvenienced, for smoking meth, in a government subsidised house, while the government is paying your living costs.
I sometimes wonder who has made the wrong life choices. Them, or me working 60hr weeks and paying a boatload of tax to cover this.
Sounds like money is too high a priority for you and your life is out of balance. Especially if you cant tell the difference between right and wrong.
They're not being compensated for smoking meth. They are being compensated for appalling decision making by Housing NZ - who used incomplete literature and research to put the NZ tax payer to enormous expense remedying houses where no remedy was required. The tennants were collateral damage. National had an incompetent minster in charge of housing and I dont think you have to look far to see who the Leaker is.
Haha clearly my post came across as too serious. The compensation figures are less than a rounding error to the government, and a darn sight less than was being spent on testing and remedial work. Id like to think a rehabilitation program was offered to the tenants as they were turfed out though.
You mean Probiotic, fungus?;)
Well done Jacinda and her team ...GDP up 1.0% in June quarter ....thats annualised 4.0% ....wow
Well thats awkward lol.
In the MSM "Agriculture, forestry and fishing led the growth, up 4.1 per cent in the quarter, bouncing back after a slow start to the year. Boosted by strong dairy production, agriculture had its strongest quarter of growth since September 2014.The mining sector contracted sharply, hit by an unexpected outage at one of New Zealand's major oil fields. As a sector, mining dropped by 20 per cent, the largest quarterly fall in almost 30 years."
The COL has been elativly silent on agriculture. Given Fonteras problems it must be the other players in the milk market doing the good stuff. Forestry has yet to benefit from 1b trees - I dont think a single one has been planted yet. Not sure about fishing.
But we do know Labour have been active in Oil and Gas - no more new permits. No surprise with mines which will only get worse with zero carbon the aim.
Life’s not so easy now that guy Kirton has gone from Labour
He used to tweet every bit of good news that Labour could take credit for ....in a few minutes of it coming out
Now I’ve got to go looking for it ....Kirton had his uses
Across the board
Statistics New Zealand said the growth was broad-based across the economy, with 15 of the 16 categories it bases its calculations on expanding in the quarter.
NZ's dairy-led bounce
Meka Whaitiri. And another one gone, and another one bites the dust
Problems with the old diary might of been the root cause of the fracas ....from the Stuff story
It is understood the incident happened while Whaitiri was in Gisborne for an announcement by the Prime Minister and other government ministers which she missed because of a communication breakdown in her office.
Like the tag The To Do List Government
https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/po...alk-no-action/
Good to see Meka the Muss is gone. Jacinda finally grow a pair or just getting too untenable? Having her there on the back benches may still play into the opposition hands though. The Handley/Curren/Ardern unholy trinity is not going to go away in a hurry either. Luckily for princess stardust, she can go gloat about some more refugees at the UN this weekend.
Mega Fightery might still have some more challenges coming when Cindy gets back...
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12130230
Another reality check for the blessed biased sheepies, hope their brains dont short circuit.:t_up:
.NZ keeps triple A credit rating | RNZ News
Doing some research found this piece of poetry by Ronald Meek. Was first published in 1940 and things don’t seem to be changed much since those times.
An M.P.’s Life for Me
Hi diddle dee dee
An M.P.s life for me
You get the run of Bellamy’s
And pleasant trips across the sea
Hi diddle dee di
You’ve got to learn to lie
And if your wife or mother lacks
The wherewithal to back the hacks
You just increase the income tax -
An M.P.s life for me
Hi diddle dee dee
An M.P.’s life for me
You get a car that calls at four
The petrol coupons by the score -
Hi diddle dee do
You ought to join the show
The bars are open after six
And if you are landed in a fix
You blame it on the Bolsheviks -
An M.P.s life for me
Hi diddle dee dee
An M.P.s life for me
You catch the strikers on the hip
By bringing in a censorship -
Hi diddle dee daw
You influence the Law
And if the people don’t obey
In gaol you lock them all away
Except of course the B.M.A -
An M.P.s life for me
Ronald Meek
Meek was an interesting character.
Truckometer looking good too
Truckometer
To be fair, any leader of a small country is only going to be of international interest if they have some novelty value. Unless there's some human interest angle it's not a story, who cares what a small country has to say..get that.. just wish when I go to NYC did not have to constantly explain the oddity that is our leaders...at least the last one was easier to explain away...and you have to soften the kiwi accent if you want to be taken seriously at the UN and around there...Key never cared for that as well...MFAT must try with our leaders but not listened to!!??
Not sure what your point is Raz.
Meanwhile the positivity continues.
Growth returns to lending, quarterly banking survey shows
The rebound in bank fortunes seemed to be at odds with the slide in business sector sentiment, he said.
"It will be interesting to see how the next couple of quarter's results behave as there are contradictory indicators - with, most notably, business confidence still down while other indicators are more positive."