Monthly Archive for January, 2008

National Party U-turn on student loans

Published
by
all_your_base
on January 31, 2008
in education, flip-flop and inoculation
. 78 Comments

boneless.jpgNational have just backed down on their opposition to interest free student loans.

Back in 2005 Key called this “a policy that tells young New Zealanders to go and borrow to the hilt… What a cost to the country! What an unaffordable and irresponsible cost to the country! It is a sad day… National members will be opposing this legislation with every bone in our bodies”

Now the interest free student loan policy is just the latest in a long series of John Key’s “policy inoculations”. From Colin Espiner’s blog:

Labour’s interest-free student loans policy was a big “dead rat” to have to swallow, but John Key had no choice but to hold his nose and throw it down the hatch.

Labour will howl “policy theft” and there will be more accusations of “me-tooism” against National. And some might say fair enough. I reckon Key has engineered at least ten policy reversals since becoming leader (perhaps someone wants to count?). The biggies include income-related state rents, KiwiSaver MK1, Working for Families Mk1, and the Cullen super fund.

In his ongoing quest to clear the decks and remove the stench of the Brash years from National, it does appear at times as if Key is simply removing reasons not to vote National, rather than giving people reasons to vote for it.

Moore than you can chew

Published
by
Mike Moore
on January 31, 2008
in humour
. 17 Comments

Madness is a key ingredient in politics. Always has been. J’accuse. Far queues. I think, therefore I am. Martin Luther King went to the mountain top. I have been to Geneva. Good things ought not be rushed. Freshly cooked meat ought not be rushed. Masticate it well, and never lick a very new steak knife. I say that we risk becoming a banana republic without the bananas. People say I am bananas. I have only ideas. I’ve just had one right now. Damn. Forgotten it. I write more books than I read. We need to be seizing opportunities. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming. Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?

Jacinda Ardern to lead IUSY

Published
by
all_your_base
on January 31, 2008
in news
. 70 Comments

35f6919d7499fc0852e4.jpegJacinda Ardern, former Young Labour president and political advisor, has just been elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth - a group encompassing socialist, social democratic and Labour Party youth organisations from more than 100 countries.

IUSY is a massive organisiation and holds consultative status with the United Nations. This is a huge achievement.

Aged 27, and hailing from Morrinsville, Ms Ardern is just the second female IUSY president in 101 years. She was elected uncontested at IUSY’s world congress held in the Dominican Republic yesterday.

Also of note, rumour also has it that Jacinda may be running as a candidate for the Labour Party. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her socially on a couple of occasions and I imagine she’d be a huge asset.

Jacinda is apparently known not just for her considerable intellect and political nous but also her hair - evidently Scoop thought so too, deeming it worthy of inclusion in this photo of recently confirmed Labour Rimutaka candidate, Chris Hipkins.

If anyone out there has a better photo let us know!

UPDATE: Sprout found one (removed):

UPDATE 2: Chris sent us the uncropped original (click for larger view):

d5b865cfa5a8119c3918.jpeg

Substance, not style

Published
by
Eddie
on January 31, 2008
in blogs and labour
. 46 Comments

I don’t know if this is breaking some cyber protocol (oh, but I don’t much care if I am) but I want to put Jordan Carter’s post on Helen Clark’s speech up here on The Standard.

The reason is that while I agree with a lot of what IrishBill said - mainly that her speech was worthy but dull and a missed opportunity - I think what Jordan says is worth attention and wanted to link it but the such is the nature of commentary on these blogs that by the end of 60+ rants and ravings amongst the serious stuff and everyone just wandering off the topic, Helen’s speech no longer felt relevant. So I’m putting it up here instead. Thanks JC.

Helen’s speech this morning was a substantive contribution to the youth policy debate. The new announcements - youth apprenticeships and a higher age before people can be free of training or education - contrasts nicely with Key’s more negative effort the day before.

The speech also located that policy in the broader context. You can’t slice and dice our society and our world. The bits all relate to each other. Clark was saying that youth will grow up best in a society that looks after all of us. She wants a policy that brings everyone to the height of their talents, not only one that punishes people for getting things wrong.

So that is why she can properly pin responsibility for many of today’s youths’ problems on the previous National government. Key dismissed that on Morning Report this morning, showing again how little he understands public policy. He said, what happens 18 yrs ago is irrelevant. He’s wrong. National was in power for a decade and systematically sought to undermine the welfare state and the decent society.

A whole generation - my generation - has been scarred for life by that approach to politics and public life. We are the children of the revolution and the only miracle is that more of us are not disasters.
It takes years and decades to build up a decent society, but it’s a lot quicker to wreck one. National and Labour proved that well in the 1980s and 1990s. Painful, slow progress has been made since. National just offers a return to the past.

Back to Clark’s speech. It was, as the headline suggests, not a captivating or stylish speech. That isn’t Helen Clark’s style. She is a serious politician who cares about solving the problems. While I (and others) might wish for a more visionary style of speaking, that isn’t what she does. Shes does fact and plain honest policy.

Somehow in these days of soundbites, presidential campaigning, slick Hollow Men-style inoculations, that is a reassuring thought.

Who’ll run John’s boot camps?

Published
by
Eddie
on January 30, 2008
in crime
. 69 Comments

wacko.jpgThe Army has said it doesn’t want to run National’s boot camps - they prefer to train people who actually want to be there. So the question now is who do they plan to get to do it? They’re not saying much at the moment, but Key’s new policy does leave the door open for the Tories’ other pet project: private prisons. Surely the same outfits must be in the running to operate John’s bootcamps?

The firm the last National government contracted to run private prisons in NZ was none other than the infamous Wackenhut, although they’ve since changed their name to GEO Group, so damaged is their reputation.

Especially for young people, Wackenhut has become a byword for inmate abuse including high profile stories of rape and brutalisation of young people.

Apparently:

Wackenhut CEO George Zoley said after a CBS Television report exposed the repeated rape of a 14-year-old girl at a Wackenhut juvenile jail and two guards were found guilty, “It’s a tough business. The people in prison are not Sunday-school children.”

John hasn’t told us yet who he plans to put in charge of his boot camps, but I think it’s time he started giving us some answers.

Dull

Published
by
IrishBill
on January 30, 2008
in labour
. 78 Comments

I haven’t had time to do a thorough analysis of Clark’s speech but from a quick once-over I can say with certainty that it is underwhelming. Let’s face it, this was her chance to take the front foot and show the government had a policy agenda fit for a new term. Instead her speech is a confusion of values-framing “vision” statements and bureaucratic jargon such as:

This strategy will focus on the retention of skills in the workplace, and on better ways of measuring and valuing skills, and identifying the demands for skills and how to increase supply. While the strategy will apply across the entire workforce, there is a particular strand of work in the programme which ensures that young people who are already in work are a primary target.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are some very good ideas behind this but phrases like “there is a particular strand of work in the programme” don’t inspire an audience. In fact I’m not even entirely sure what that means and I can’t see it inspiring voters with its bold “vision”. And that’s Labour’s problem. They’ve got good policy and are taking the country in the right direction (albeit more slowly than I would like them to) but they fail to communicate that to ordinary New Zealanders. They are very good governors but increasingly they are looking like they are all substance and no style. Ironically they are facing an opposition that is totally the reverse.

It’s instructional to see how the media are treating the speech. They’ve latched onto the only concrete soundbite they can get from it and are running it as “Labour to lift school leaving age” and “Clark vows to keep under-18s in education” and even then are obviously having difficulty subbing it down to a sharp and meaningful headline.

I can only lament the fact that this was an opportunity to release a bold and significant policy which could be encapsulated in a few words. There was a rumour around the traps that Clark was to announce a first home buyer policy. Can you imagine the headlines? “Labour helps young familes into housing” “Labour moves on housing crisis” etc. Alas, it was not to be. But something like that would’ve set the agenda for the next year and made sure people knew what Labour stands for. It’s well known that, on top of everything else she does, Clark writes her own speeches and takes little advice on them. I would suggest she stops doing so.

Family Fist

Published
by
Tane
on January 29, 2008
in child discipline
. 57 Comments

Mike Moreu from The Press is shaping up to be quite a fine cartoonist. Here’s his take on the Religious Right’s petition to restore the riding crop lady’s right to beat her children.

family-fist.jpg

Meanwhile the folks over at Newzblog have done a great send-up of the increasingly incoherent Garth McVicar from Sensible Sentencing and the equally dreadful Christine Rankin of “we’ve got a Maori problem” fame.

All the more timely in light of today’s speech. I wonder what Garth would think of boot camps?

Key speech: strategic blunder?

Published
by
Tane
on January 29, 2008
in crime, same old national and spin
. 110 Comments

So this is John Key’s ambition: throwing troubled teens in boot camp, beating up on beneficiaries and criminalising our children. I’ve only had a quick read through the speech in my lunch break so it’s possible I’ve got this wrong, but I get the distinct impression that Key has made a major strategic error here.

When I first heard murmurings about Key planning a ’state of the nation’ speech I assumed he’d be running another policy-light pitch at middle New Zealand, big on aspirational rhetoric and with just enough vague policy detail to keep the critics happy. Housing affordability was an obvious topic that came to mind.

That he instead chose the risky (and I’d argue strategically pointless) option of pandering to the base with National’s traditional tough on crime message is puzzling. Sure, it’ll get the talkback crowd going, rile up the Kiwiblog Right and possibly even convince a few blue collar workers to vote against their economic interests, but it won’t go down well at all with the moderate centrists that Key has worked so hard to woo over the last year.

Women in particular will be turned off by coverage like this:

boot-camp.jpg

Because couched behind this morning’s strategically leaked proposals about education and training National has revealed its hard right core for all to see. As No Right Turn points out:

this is the same old National Party: divisive, punitive, vicious, and bullying those unable to defend themselves. And I’m glad Key has finally made it clear to the public.

This is precisely the face National has been trying so hard to hide from the public over the last year, and so far the centrist game seems to have worked for them. My opinion? John should have stuck with the smile and the nice haircut.

UPDATE: Kiwiblogblog has done a good analysis of the speech here.

How a blog works

Published
by
all_your_base
on January 28, 2008
in interweb
. 47 Comments

I’ve always wondered what happens after I hit ‘publish’ here on the blog.

Wired’s gone and put together an infographic, so now I know - click to zoom and drag to pan.

whathappenstoblogposts.jpg

(Via BoingBoing)

Granny Herald’s campaign fails

Published
by
Ralph Malcolm
on January 28, 2008
in election funding and media
. 33 Comments

Hidden away today at the bottom of the Herald’s story on further data from the latest DigiPoll is the news that only 3.8% of those surveyed rate the Electoral Finance Act as a vote influencing issue.

You can just about feel the Herald’s despair that despite an unprecedented, wholly unbalanced and misleading campaign against the EFA they have not managed to manufacture outrage and concern beyond the well-heeled National and ACT supporters who tottered along Queen St last year.

This election will be fought on issues, real issues, like health, education, environment, security, and yes taxation. And it is a good thing that issues will drive the campaign.

Interesting also to see Family First’s full page ad in weekend papers on the referendum to re-establish the defence of reasonable force for those who beat their children. Emotive twaddle no doubt, but fully acceptable within the scope of the Electoral Finance Act. (though possibly in trouble in terms of the 1993 Act that covers referendums- that would be an Act passed by National….)

Free speech lives, but don’t tell that to the coalition.

The political brain - listen to this

Published
by
Eddie
on January 28, 2008
in articles
. 17 Comments

A must hear for anyone interested in political marketing and influencing voters. This item played on Chris Laidlaw’s Sunday show on Radio NZ National yesterday.

“When we decide who to vote for, are we making a rational choice? Or does emotion dictate our voting choice?”

This is useful for people of all political stripes and of course the essence of it is that politicians need to be able to tell their story and that people, especially swinging voters, decide who to vote for rather more with their hearts than their heads. Bulleted lists of achievements don’t cut it for them. Go figure.

It includes interviews with Drew Western, author of The Political Brain, an analysis of the Australian election by Rod Cameron and an interview with NZ political marketing expert Claire Robinson amongst others.

It’s riveting stuff and a delight to hear some intelligent commentary on politcs and tactics.

Shadbolt launches “Freedom of Sleaze” campaign

Published
by
John A
on January 27, 2008
in election funding
. 20 Comments

697732.jpgTerrible Tim has launched another campaign to attack the Electoral Finance Act by using as much sexual double-entendre as possible for Truth’s Page 2 readers. However this campaign’s main aim is to double the weekly’s circulation by the end of the year, in which case the paper’s owner will give $5,000 to the campaign against the Act. We do not know if Tim is also being paid by Truth for his regular scatological tirades.

Unlike Truth’s Page 2 “models”, Tim’s launch in the paper showed him clothed in his mayoral robes. One Invercargill Councillor has objected to his use of sexual double-speak when enveloped in their ermine and gold chain. Tim is reported as being unrepentant, and that his choice of language was deliberate, to fit the “Truth genre”.

I suppose The Herald won’t mind Tim giving another paper campaign publicity in that Truth isn’t their direct competitor. It does however remind one of the old saying “If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.”

Romney humiliates self, white people everywhere

Published
by
Tane
on January 27, 2008
in humour
. 19 Comments

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s not the first aspiring leader to try and present himself as ‘down with the bros’, but this is truly cringeworthy.

Stephen Colbert asks the question everyone’s been wondering:

More Stephen Colbert over at Comedy Central.

DPF takes the moral highground

Published
by
IrishBill
on January 27, 2008
in dpf and fuckwits
. 133 Comments

As you will know National Party Blogger David Farrar gave us a wee razzing for publishing an out of date list of Bob Clarkson’s vast parliamentary achievements on Friday. Much high-horsing followed:

[DPF: I now understand why you don't post under your full name. You would be unemployable. No one would ever hire people whose regard for accuracy is so scant.

Davey must have been feeling like he was on a roll because he quickly followed it up with a post about Labour MPs who have been a bit quiet lately. Just to whip the rabid hoard up a bit more he turned it into a guessing game:

So that makes one Labour MP who have made zero contributions in the House since August and two who have made just one speech. Make your guesses below.

After much howling our mate Dave decided to let the cat out of the bag:

George Hawkins is the MP who has not spoken once in the House since August.

Of course more hateful gnashing ensued.

But there’s just one thing Davey failed to mention: George Hawkins has been quiet because he’s had bowel cancer.

Now that’s a pretty well known piece of information around the traps and I find it highly unlikely DPF would not have heard it.

That’s real nice work Dave.

Kudos to KB commenter Camus for calling DPF on this vile shit. I note David offered no apology.

Apologies for Burqa Bob

Published
by
Tane
on January 25, 2008
in dpf and national
. 108 Comments

clarkson-150.jpgIt would appear David Farrar is deeply concerned about the amount of traffic his mate Bill has been drumming up for The Standard this week, judging by his strange attack on our site this evening over a trifling error in our earlier post on Bob Clarkson.

The article in question was a repost of an earlier list of Clarkson’s complete statements in the house since August last year, which consisted of as few as nineteen barely coherent words.

Apparently there have been a few developments since that list was first published. According to DPF, Bob has since made speeches on the Mauao Historic Reserve Vesting Bill and the Building Amendment Bills, and has asked one oral question on tin-based timber treatment.

Some would call this an act of great pedantry on Farrar’s part, others that he’s simply trying to wind up his rabid horde of angry bigots, but we’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. Clearly David is just keen to see Clarkson properly remembered for his achievements, a sentiment we can only welcome. So let us not forget Clarkson’s other notable contributions to New Zealand’s political discourse, which include:

* His advice to Muslim women who wear burqas to “go back to Islam or Iraq”

* His description of public displays of homosexuality as being akin to “picking your nose” in public, and

* His alleged insistence on talking to an employee about his left testicle. When asked to explain the incident to a reporter, Clarkson “amazingly, said to me ‘I’m having to stand up, my crotch is so sore’, and actually grabbed his crotch.”

In light of this evidence we are naturally prepared to provide a full apology to David Farrar and the fine people in the comments section of Kiwiblog for our careless slight on Clarkson’s competence. Surely a statesmen of Bob’s stature comes but once in a generation, at least, in the New Zealand National Party, that is.

Massey to go the way of Saddam and lose statue?

Published
by
John A
on January 25, 2008
in history
. 11 Comments

massey160.jpgNew Zealand Labour movement activists will support Irish unionists - the political sort - who wish to remove Reform Prime Minister Massey’s statue from Limavady in Northern Ireland’s Derry County.

Massey is remembered without affection by trade unionists here for the mounted special police known as “Massey’s Cossacks” who were used to hunt down strikebreakers in 1913.

Auckland historian and ACT party member Dr Michael Bassett says removing Massey’s statue would be over the top because he was “not an extremist”.

However Bassett says in his biography of Peter Fraser that a colleague of Massey described him as “unimaginative as a clam … he goes his way guided by a hard, cold obstinate bigotry, which is proof against argument, entreaty, ridicule and the lessons of the past.”

Massey led the Reform party, the hard right group that led through Coates (equally unsympathetic to working people during the depression), and after the merger with United to form the National Party in 1936 to Holland, Brash and now Key.

It’s no surprise that Brash supporter Basset also judges him kindly but he sounds like an extremist to me. They never change.

The whalers are coming

Published
by
all_your_base
on January 25, 2008
in environment
. 15 Comments

image009.jpg

The Dom reports today that the Japanese whaling fleet has ben “spotted steaming towards the Ross Sea” - part of our territorial waters.

They’re presumably coming here having had their activities in Australian waters declared illegal last week.

The Greens have just just called for the government to get involved.

Labour’s Steve Chadwick has said she’s “concerned about the fleet’s movements” and that she’s “strongly opposed” to Japan’s whaling here. Valuable sentiments but we agree with the Greens on this - it’s time to back up the talk with some action.

As a country we have a proud history of standing up for the things we believe in and there’s little doubt that the public would back sending a stronger message to the Japanese whalers - a visible demonstration of our opposition to their activities.

I reckon it’s time to put our money where our mouths are.

The Aussies sent an observation vessel.

The Greens want to send a “contingent of New Zealand identified multi-purpose navy ships”.

Both ok, but I was thinking something more along the lines of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus.

Daily Show on financial news

Published
by
Tane
on January 25, 2008
in humour and media
. 13 Comments

Jon Stewart had a good piece last night on why we shouldn’t just trust the economic and financial “experts”.

People deserve better from the media than the dehumanising econo-speak about ’soft labour markets’ and housing ‘corrections’ that dominates our Business pages, so it’s good to see Jon poking a bit of fun. Fox News also gets a well deserved kicking:

Full clip at Comedy Central.

Burqa Bob to stand in Tauranga

Published
by
Tane
on January 25, 2008
in national
. 46 Comments

bob65.jpgAfter much speculation, National MP Bob Clarkson has finally announced he will be standing again in Tauranga, apparently to work on housing affordability issues.

What a gift. For those who missed it last time, here’s Bob’s entire contribution to Parliament since August last year:

* (17 Oct 2007) Interjection : “Bureaucratic!”
* (10 Oct 2007) Interjection : “Tell us the end of the story.”
* (19 Sep 2007) Interjection : “Force?”
* (22 Aug 2007) Interjection : “A bit like the Labour Government.”
* (21 Aug 2007) Interjection : “Yes, I did, actually.”

I’m sure this will encourage Winston to have another crack. Should be an interesting race.

An emerging threat to MMP?

Published
by
all_your_base
on January 24, 2008
in same old national
. 96 Comments

After Brash and the extreme right were exposed in The Hollow Men the Nats changed their leader hoping for a fresh start.

What’s becoming apparent is that National’s shady backers haven’t changed. The policy and the cash are coming from the same people they always have - people like Peter Shirtcliffe who’s evidently now helping to finance National Party activists David Farrar and Cameron Slater in their campaign against the Electoral Finance Act.

Shirtcliffe’s been around a while. In 1993 he launched the “Campaign for Better Government” - a right-wing business lobby group opposing the introduction of MMP.

Rod Donald had this to say about Shirtcliffe and his aggressive campaign:

On ANZAC day 1993 a full page advertisement appeared in the major Sunday paper attacking MMP. Inserted by Peter Shirtcliffe, chairman of Telecom, New Zealand’s largest company, it marked the beginning of a David and Goliath battle that went to the wire… he announced the formation of his Campaign for Better Government (CBG), the opening of an office and the appointment of paid staff.

CBG’s campaign strategy eclipsed the [Electoral Reform Coalition's]. They conducted market research, used direct mail and paid for radio talkback programmes. A confidential report from their market research company somehow made it on to the front page of a weekly business paper. It was a blueprint for an anti-MMP advertising campaign targeting “the least educated and most gullible” sectors of the electorate by providing “easily digestible, alarming material” warning electors of the consequences of MMP [my emphasis].

In the clip below you can see the kind of material that Shirtcliffe and his mates favoured - complete with crying babies, grainy black and white and staticy sound effects.

With Shirtcliffe back in on the act and the Nats dreaming of governing alone you have to wonder how long it’ll be before the next assault on MMP.