OCKF 2007 January – March – Something should go here, maybe later.

January

Matt McCarten’s predictions
Dom Post predictions for 2007 – “20) All the parties will set aside personal attacks and concentrate on policy. It will be wall-to-wall sweetness and light all year. Okay, we don’t expect to be right all the time.” – Heh.
“Fran O’Sullivan praises union boss Andrew Little for being the first in Labour to point out publicly how Field’s activities were the exact exploitation Labour used to fight against, and hence how they would oppose his re-selection.”
“The predictions are that massive lahars will overflow from Ruapehu in the near future. In one of the more extreme fundamentalist decisions made by the Government, they decided not to did a trench to allow the lake to harmlessly drain after some religious nutters claimed it would hard the spiritual integrity of the mountain. Local authorities have rightfully complained about cultural concerns being given a higher priority than the risk to life”
“The Herald and NZPA have both done major stories on the fact that shock horror Don Brash has taken a holiday, while still an MP and drawing a salary….And this is of course nothing new. Dr Brash made it very clear he “intended to spend the remainder of his time as an MP answering letters and emails and taking a holiday”. What suddenly makes this a story?”
More political predictions
“Get this – if an off duty police officer now sees some thugs beating a woman up, they are banned from intervening – they have to watch the incident so they can be witnesses!!”
“I doubt Jim Anderton is going to be on the roster for Duty Minister anytime soon. His comments on Iraq have been labelled “ill-informed and regrettable” by Winston Peters.”
No undue risk to the community – Burton – “I’d hate to see what someone who is an undue risk, would do.”
“Now 99.9% of people would have taken that as a question as to the costs of the new office. But no the Government interpreted the question as simply the cost of actually packing up gear and moving it down the road, not the actual cost of fitting out the new building.”
Important Questions on Global Warming
“Deborah Coddington reveals that NZ rule makers even have rules for camping grounds, specifying for example that water taps can be no more than 25 metres from a campsite.”
“Somewhat surprised to see that the PM’s chief press secretary is leaving the job”
“This just gets more bizarre. So you can go up to an off duty police officer, steal his wallet or cellphone, and the officer isn’t allowed to try and stop you or arrest you, but should merely report the theft to police!”
“Whale Oil has an “El Jefe” counter which shows to the exact second how much time Taito Phillip Field has spent suspended on full pay. Is he still holidaying in Vanuatu? It’s been 139 days and 8 hours so far.”
“Dan Eaton in The Press claims John Key and Bill English have “ruffled feathers by using an interview in Right-wing Investigate magazine to attack Prime Minister Helen Clark and the Government.” …Where the hell do the media get the idea that an Opposition Leader should not attack the Government, and that somehow doing so is “ruffling feathers” which is language suggesting it is outside the norm.”
Labour’s “Nasty Foreigners” also contribute to conservation efforts
“Shane Jones said when he became an MP he would resign as a director of Te Ohu Kaimoana, the Maori Fisheries Trust. 15 months on, and he still hasn’t.”
“In 2005 Phil Goff and the Ministry of Justice recommended against introducing electronic bail, but Cabinet went ahead anyway.”
Danrnton v Clark case dropped – Labour MPs explicitly voted to put themselves outside the law
“It has been a feature of Helen Clark’s leadership that she has protected her Caucus colleagues from more talented candidates for the last three elections. Labour has followed her wishes, and pretty much put all the MPs at the top of the list. Hence it is significant that she is talking that this should not happen next time.”
A very good speech – Why Rodney was happy in parliment, while Pam Corkery was not (both observed government not working, one was proved right!)
The CYFSWATCH Blog
“It is becoming clear that the NZ Govt is not at all serious about restoring democracy to Fiji, as it hasn’t even bothered to seriously lobby the UN to cease the use of Fijian military.”
Manukau vs Tonga
Housing Affordability – why fix the problem when you can introduce a new tax that’ll screw families?
A CYFS story – “It should be mentioned right now that there is no law that forbids the adoptive parents from collecting the child from the delivery room, none at all. It’s quite legal for them to do so — but it’s CYF “policy” that this must never happen. When I asked CYF what would happen if we allowed the adoptive parents to do this the threats started rolling out. If my daughter handed over the child in this way, CYF would oppose the adoption and a placement order would be denied. The child would be taken from the adoptive parents and placed into a home of CYF’s selection. This was made extremely clear — if you don’t adhere to our “policy” (which is *not* the law) then the child, your daughter and the adoptive parents will pay the price.” – [And remind me again why we changed the S59 law, when CYFS declare themselves above the existing ones?]
“The news today that Taito Philip Field is refusing to co-operate with the Police inquiry into his actions is potentially a godsend for Helen Clark. …[she now can fire him] I should hope that she doesn’t do it, and she lets the stench linger longer. But to be honest some things are more important than politics, and this is one of them. She should be bold and do what is right. “[Recall that even this did not get Field fired – S1]
Tax drives wealthy charitable away
Trevor Mallard drives John Key away – guess who’s spending his own money?
The Made from New Zealand project is to be launched on Waitangi Day and one of the people they asked for support was John Key. John purchased a dozen limited edition t-shirts in support, …Suddenly then Trevor Mallard gets involved and says he wants to buy 400 t-shirts….with taxpayers money. And as Trevor tells the organisers he is looking to buy 400 (with our money) he also tells the organisers to “keep the campaign apolitical”. And suddenly the organisers uninvite John Key.
An insightful column by John Armstrong on the Maori Party where he notes that for the first time Maori stand on the brink of gaining political power
Nicola Boyes in the SST deals with the very sad litany of Corrections failure and corruption.
The SST reports Te Papa has an exhibition which includes tribute to Taito Phillip Field for his “unwavering commitment to his community”. ..you think they would have the common sense to remove that part of it once the MP is facing a police inquiry into their actions.
35,000 [people were] culled from hospital waiting lists last year. It is mind bloggling that Labour can literally throw billions and billions of dollars into this black hole, and not get any significant improvement in terms of elective operations.
The 1991 benefit cuts Before the 1990 election we were told there was a surplus. In fact the new Govt found out that there was a deficit projected to be $5 billion. And this was back in 1990 when that was a whopping 19% of total crown income (then only $26b). So we were set to overspend by around 20%.
Jordan claims …unemployment has dropped from 140,000 to 36,000 or so…. So a decrease (which is still good) of 36,000 not 104,000….Incidentally National managed to get it down from 185,000 in Sep 2001 to 119,000 in Dec 1999.
The PM and the Banker “Retribution was promised”
Clark takes no action on Field – “Oh and when Clark was told of Field being sued by the Thai tiler for unpaid wages and asked to comment, she laughed on radio. Very sympathetic to the exploited she is.”

Feburary

Beehive Poll Rigging – “They published today that overall 63% said John Key would not be the next Prime Minister, but 17,000 of those votes came from parliamentary computers. If you remove all parliamentary votes, then that drops to 45%, with a majority, 55%, saying he will be the next PM.”
However as Murray McCully points out, some of the worst offenders have been his colleagues and even himself. It was Mallard and Peters with their bogus claims of US funding and control of National which forced the Ambassador to ask to be left out of our election.
The Young Nationals have today lodged a complaint with Occupational Safety and Health on behalf of all the Government press secretaries in the Beehive. “We’re very concerned that these press secretaries have been forced to spend all day on a keyboard, voting against John Key.
The nonsense from Hager and the Greens about donations through trusts to National being illegal, has been rejected by the Electoral Commission. This was no surprise to people who know the law.
McGehan Close
Visiting McGehan Close
Police no longer investigating assaults (Update)
Hooton on Cullen on Key – “Then Matthew quotes from last weekend when Key got criticised over the fact that even though his family was poor, he had “middle class aspirations”. Good God how dare someone has aspirations.”
Craig Foss points out that the Government’s so called infrstructure bonds are nothing of the sort – that’s just Labour spin for them. They are not tied to infrastructure projects and in fact might be used to fund student debt etc.
Labour wants to renege on pledge card repayment – “To understand the extent of this hypocrisy one has to be reminded of Darnton v Clark. This was a lawsuit filed around nine months ago which sought a High Court declaration that the pldge card expenditure was illegal and not an authorised use of Parliamentary Service funds. Labour voted to wipe out this lawsuit (about as constitutionally offensive as one can get is to use your role as an MP to wipe out a lawsuit in which you are personally named as a respondent) through its validating legislation, and refusal to allow an amendment to leave the lawsuit untouched.”
“I can’t claim to have seen evidence of malnutrition in my electorate.”
Will NZ First pay it back?
Blaming no 8th Maori seat on Immigration
Under what circumstances can you claim an increase from 315 to 370 is a decline? When you’re the Minister of Education spinning teacher vacancies!
Documents released yesterday reveal that the Ports of Auckland had said the project *could not* be completed on time. The Minister, no doubt backed with advice from Fletchers, had scribbled “rubbish” on the letter. But no not even Fletchers, who stood to make millions from the stadium, thought it could be done.
Free advice for Labour – “But what do we have? Helen first claims the underclass was created by National, then claims they have all but fixed it. Then she refuses to go visit it. And others claim it is no more than 1,000 families in total. But then even better after the launch of the foods for schools programme, Phil Goff comes out and declares he has never ever seen a hungry or malnourished kid in his electorate. Then one group comes out estimating as many as 15,000 kids may go to school without proper food and Clark denounces that as far too high. So what happens – another report is found suggesting 80,000. Now the PM is doing nothing but talking about this issue.”
More food for more schools
Waitangi Trust Board – “Turns out the PM and two of her flunkies distinguished Ministers are members of the Trust Board but never turn up to meetings.”
Revenue Idea No 2654 – a levy on mortgages
People moaned when Dr Cullen was talking $10/week possible tax cuts, but it is even worse than that. He has now clarified that even that much is far too much money to give back to taxpayers:
The Press on Labour
Tax since 1950
SST claims Police to charge Field – appears to be leaked by PM
in today’s HOS, from no less than a professor of paediatrics at Starship Hospital. Dr Grant says that more than 5,000 children admitted to Starship every year are malnourished. He estimates up to 25% of Auckland children are iron-deficient and 10% Vitamin D deficient.
Field to continue on full pay
Yes the latest Muldoon tactic has been to threaten to cut off media access because Michael Cullen said something stupid, and gasp shock horror the media actually reported it.
Why the hell is she allowing her Government to be proppsed up by an MP she considers immoral, unethical and unacceptable? Is there no level of behaviour so low that Labour will take action over Field, rather than keep taking his proxy vote?
Field to be expelled from Labour – “UPDATE: Hold back on the congrats for Labour. They are not expelling him for being immoral or unethical. They are not expelling him for exploiting vulnerable constituents. They are not expelling him for slave labour. They’re expelling him because he speculated that he might stand for Mangere even if not the Labour candidate. Nice set of priorities.”
So after 18 months of scandal, a damning Ingram report (Field was criticised 33 times in it), allegations of slave labour etc,Labour have finally acted against Taito Phillip Field. Because he did the one thing which can not be forgiven
Why it is a PR stunt – “So the trick is to talk big, make some puff announcements and then blame someone else when our CO2 emissions keep on increasing.”
Greens pay it back
Falling hospital efficiency
Rod Oram on Clark and carbon neutrality
Matthew Hooton deals nicely with Clark’s spin about not having been able to act against Field as he is innocent until proven guilty.
Bye Bye Beyer – “And that record is dismal. Compare her to another Labour MP who might seek a Mayoralty – Tim Barnett. Barnett has helped get two controversial bills through Parliament, has been made Chief Whip, been an effective Select Committee Chair etc. He would be a credible candidate for Mayor of a major city. Georgina would not be.”
Selwyn convicted of further fraud charges – “Tim has now amassed a not inconsiderable list of convictions, ranging (off memory) from electoral fraud to identity theft, to property damage to GST fraud. His sedition conviction is still silly and unnecessary, but he isn’t exactly a poster child for lawful behaviour.”
Mom and Dad now homophobic terms!
The Government is desperate to not break its promise of 1,000 extra police. Now instead of paying Police more in order to increase recruitment, they have been lowering standards one by one:
Jim Anderton lauds the late Wolfgang Rosenberg as an unsung hero of New Zealand. Liberty Scott points out that Rosenberg was a champion of the Stalinist Berlin Wall and and also for good measure the evil North Korean regime.
I think Labour have miscalculated by taking Field’s proxy vote, and the stench of his vote will continue to cause them harm.
The banning smacking bill second reading – “The current law is not satisfactory. Bradford’s bill, as it stands, is equally unsatisfactory. The Borrows amendment is a sensible compromise which is a win-win for parents and children.”
Tony Milne attacks me for criticising Kirsty Gillon for her teaching of whackjob conspiracy theories, on the basis that she has apositive rating on ratemyteacher.com.
Sue Bradford’s anti-smacking bill has passed the second reading by 70 votes to 51.
Field gets upset his title isn’t used by Bill English
It appears the Government is having considerable difficulty in recruiting new Telecommunications and Electricity Commissioners. It is not surprising that there is a lack of victims volunteers. The Electricity Commissioner was dumped and claimed massive interference by the Government in his job, while the Telecommunications Commissioner got savaged by the PM last year.
NZ Herald supports SOE private equity
Minister speaks the truth {funny}
20 free hours backfires
Georgina quits again – “She announced her resignation from Parliament three times, taking it back twice. And now after announcing she would be returning to life on the stage in the play “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” she has pulled out, leading to the show being cancelled.”
CYFS and anti-smacking bill – “So yes if the law is changed, you won’t see a lot of parents going to jail for smacking their children, but you might see a lot of them get done over by CYFS, who no doubt next year will announce they need a huge budget increase to cope with the extra workload.”
Climate Change Measures – “Contact believes geothermal is the best replacement for carbon producing gas and coal stations because it is more reliable than wind. But it has been frustrated by the six-year process it has taken to get resource consent to upgrade the Wairakei station, still months away.”
The blackhole health sector
No whities says Turia
Clark and Peters have already stretched constitutional conventions to their limits by coming up with silly concepts such as being Foreign Minister, yet not being in Cabinet. We saw yesterday the path this leads us to. … you simply can not have the Minister of Foreign Affairs give “personal opinions” to the media on issues such as Iraq. ..Peters is of course blaming the media.
Anti-spam law passed
Another whopping surplus – $4.47B

March

The Government spent $1.15 million on building a website to link New Zealand employers with skilled overseas migrants. It currently has two jobs listed on it – for a nurse and a hairdresser.
The great purge continues (Labour’s vain attempt to bring in new blood)
George Hawkins has obviously read in the Dom Post that Helen wants him gone, because he has just put out a press release saying he is definitely restanding in 2008.
… I think the real issue will be CYFS and its interpretation of the law. The Police can only put you before a court. CYFS will be able to take your family away from you just because you lightly smacked a child for misbehaviour.
Out of laws, out of ideas – “At the conclusion of Parliament on Thursday, there are only 13 government bills left on the order paper. And of those 13, only five are actual bills the Government is ready to advance with. The others are stalled waiting for some inquiry or review.
Will time-outs be illegal?
Meanwhile the PM is talking about a need to change the rules of evidence. Umm sorry Helen, but guess who was Prime Minister when the Evidence Act 2006 was passed??? I’ll give you a hint. It’s someone very very close to you.
…on three out of four flights the pilots did give permission for the petitions to be circulated, despite undoubtedly knowing they shouldn’t. And in one case they handed over the PA system to him. Why? The obvious answer is because they think the proposed law is so ridiculously stupid. And that they figured almost everyone on board would agree. And this happened on three separate flights.This is one of those issues which transcends party affiliations. I’ve heard so many negative comments on this law from people whose politics I know are not my own.
for the Greens to attack Chester Borrows as “the man who wants the law to state how we can beat our children” is so misleading, it is appalling. I thought the Greens were the party of principle, not personal attacks.
It’s only good when we do it
Clark’s new standard of ministerial responsibility – “Armstrong also notes that while there have been nine Ministerial resignations under Clark, none of them have been as a result of failures by their officials – all nine have been for personal scandals and improper conduct.”
Field breaching housing regulations
I am on the record of being no fan of Brethren involvement in NZ politics. In fact I am not a fan of any church getting involved. But it angers and appals me that Mike Williams suggests that MPs should be refusing to meet with constituents who are Brethren. That is absurd and religious bigotry.
Hey it’s now March and poor old NZ First are still unable to decide whether to do what every other party has done and agree to pay it back, or confirm they will do the big fingers to the taxpayer and refuse to pay it back.
The dishonesty of the Section 59 abolitionists
John Armstrong reports on how Corrections Minister Damien O’Connor said in Parliament yesterday that he felt like “almost apologising” to the family of Karl Kuchenbecker, the Wainuiomata father-of-two killed by parolee Graeme Burton. How many people need to die for an “almost apology” to become an apology?
A excellent critique of the Bradford Bill – “… Bradford’s “I’m not trying to make a criminal out of ordinary parents” line doesn’t wash. She is; the Bill does, the only question is whether the police choose to prosecute. It’s the same as marijuana smoking – the police might confiscate your joint and tell you to piss off, but you’ve still committed a criminal act.”
Cullen’s Wit
The NZ Spending Binge – “Core government spending has increased by $20 billion since 2000, or 32% in real (inflation adjusted) terms” [A must read -S1]
Transtasman on Smacking Bill
Helen’s big lie – “Now Bradford is trying to dig Helen out a hole later on by claiming the bill does not ban smacking, it just doesn’t permit it, and that smacking is not listed as an offence. Jesus Christ give that MP a spin award. This is like arguing that the Crimes Act does not ban shoplifting, it only bans theft.”
Bradford wants education campaign (to inform the public of the above nonsense)
Bradford and Clark are still insisting that their law does not ban smacking because it does not create a new offence of smacking, it just removes an existing defence. Now this is a ludicrous assertion which fails the common sense test. They are arguing form over substance. But in case anyone is stupid enough to actually give it credence, let look at applying their logic further.
Productivity Growth lowest ever
More NCEA defections – “What is interesting with these schools is they includes ones who have been huge supporters of NCEA but they complain that the Government hasn’t listened to their concerns and, for example, still do not record when a student has a ‘not achieved’. Yes the Government thinks it can abolish failure by refusing to record it.”
John Armstrong writes on how Labour has alienated the one sector which is most crucial to its stated aim of carbon neutrality – forestry. Their refusal to use any carrot has angered the sector, and then to threaten them with deforestation taxes has led to massive slumps in new plantings and a surge of deforestation. Incompetence doesn’t even come close to covering it. Even the Greens are saying the Government should hand over a portion of carbon credits to to the forestry sector to get seedlings planted.
NCEA Moderation
Hysteria from Bradford
Heather Roy usefully points out that the monopoly ACC is spending $5.1 million just to make people feel good about having ACC.
Parents should butt out says Education Dean [as bad as it sounds – S1]
Animal Rights Terrorist Banned from NZ
The NZ Herald has run a guest column by CIS Researcher Phil Rennie, on his study showing little if any improvement in key outcomes, despite $20 billion of extra annual expenditure.
Stephen Franks reminds us that while people jump with joy that the lahar did not destroy anything, the cost of the precautions were $10 million, as opposed to a maximum cost of $200,000 to cut a small channel to drain it. The irony also is that the lahar itself created a larger channel than the artificial one which would have been cut. But hey that’s okay because it is natural and didn’t offend any spirits.
Labour keeps alleging that Don Brash was selling the country’s sovereignty to the US and planning to repeal the anti-nuclear law, it has in fact transpired that Dr Brash told the US Government, when visiting last year, that there was no prospect of a change to the anti-nuclear policy, regardless of who was in Government. And this meeting, according to a former high-ranking State Department official was “a pivotal factor in the United States’ positive shift in attitude to New Zealand”.
John Armstrong has an amusing column on Labour’s flip-flops on Corrections.
Wananga and UNITE – Having McCarten both on the governing board, and as a major customer of the wananga is a huge conflict of interest. It goes against all the principles of good governance.
Don Brash suggested around a year ago in a major speech that there are core Kiwi values such as equality for women, freedom of religion, democratic government and that these be taught or displayed to prospective immigrants, as a way to reduce any mismatches. He was of course called all sorts of names for this by Labour. Labour have now announced much the same thing.
Garth George devotes his regular column in the NZ Herald to the CIS spending binge paper. What I find fascnating is that the Government has been unable or unwilling to debate the paper or even try to refute it. Dr Cullen’s only response has been slogans and attacking the author personally because he once worked for Bill English.
Herald editorial on lahars – I think the Herald nails the hypocrisy spot on. The Government spouts the precautionary principle when it suits it, but drops it in the face of offending the mountain spirits.
Asset Forfeiture – “Yes that’s right. Jordan assures us that while Labour is in power, the Government is benign and liberal and would never ever use this power in an abusive way. Yes the left are holy saints who never sin, and the right are evil power hungry criminals who would abuse such a provision.”
…finally as school after school lined up to offer an alternative Steve Maharey has concededthat NCEA did not motivate students to strive.
The difference between good and mediocre Ministers – “We learn in Parliament that Pete Hodgson became aware of concerns about a conflict of interest in the Auckland medical laboratory contract last July, but he was assured by officials that it had been dealt with so did not directly contact the chairmen of any of the s three health boards to seek any further reassurance.”
Government panicking over smacking ban bill
Lame Duck Government
The failure of NZ climate change policy – “Okay so all the money spent on the government programmes had zero effect. Did not help at all. They were meant to save 21 meagtonnes and it seems saved zero.”
Kerre Woodham on Smacking Ban Law
In defence of NZ First MPs – “The bill is a conscience issue. Just because Helen had trampled on this convention is no reason for other parties to do so.”
Parental support for NCEA falls
David Farrar’s killers arrested
Five good and five bad for the Government
The One News/Colmar Brunton poll found 83% support smacking and only 15% disagree. A Research NZ poll found 73% disagree with the bill and 72% thought it was unenforceable. The One News poll also found 78% did not think the bill would help abused children.
George W Bush is a smart man – “No that’s not (necessarily) my opinion, but the opinion of Helen Clark, nicely recorded for posterity’s sake by Whale Oil…. To be fair, she may have been comparing him to her Caucus “
Bryce Edwards blogs on how Labour is doing secret deals over changes to the Electoral Act.
Former crown prosecutor on Section 59
“child beaters”
The Speaker has said the incident disturbs her, and she will write to the Chinese Government to make it clear they can not be selective with media in attendance, and she will also meet the Police Commissioner to make sure they follow her instructions on press gallery accreditation and attendance, not a foreign Government’s. This is good, and this should be the last time such an incident occurs.
House affordability – The report calls for a big increase in the housing supply as the only way to fix the problem.
Lies, damn lies and more lies (on Section 59 – extensive post)
The Section 59 march
Parliament voted down the Borrows amendment 63-58 last night.
Helen Clark and Michael Cullen attacked the Chinese journalist who was evicted from covering a meeting with the Chinese Government, claiming he was disruptive. The tapes showed this was a lie. The PM spin doctor has now clarified that maybe it was not the journalists fault, and that mistakes have been made by the Police.
Public Sector CEOs earning more than private CEOs – “What surprised me in the article was the number of public sector CEOs – a whopping 211 of them. … we can manage with less than 211 public sector CEOs. At an average of $255,000 each, we are paying $53,805,000 just in CEO salaries.”
What will Hodgson do? – Paula Oliver in the NZ Herald correctly surmises that Pete Hodgson has the dilemma of sacking or backing the Auckland DHB Chairs. If you do not sack them, then its one more tale of no accountability for avoidable blunders.
Tag teamed – (Two labour bloggers try to defend the government)
Cullen vs Key – It has been fascinating to watch, because there is something about Key which really gets under Cullen’s skin. Usually the Finance Minister can be relied upon to be witty and nasty, but most of the time has a sort of inbuilt acidity regulator which keeps the nastiness under control. When he gets stuck into Key, though, it is pure bile and very little wit, such as describing him as a “working class scab” when he became leader.
$96,000 for bogan study
Audrey rates the Cabinet