Hard News: 2014: The Meth Election
234 Responses
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First and foremost, any government’s primary responsibility is execute the promises it put forth and was elected upon.
NO that’s how corporations work. Oh hang on a minute…
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Jake Starrow, in reply to
A Company, A Corporate, An Electorate ....all take the same inspired guidance in all aspects of human endeavour.
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Wrong again, Jack Sparrow. Your not too clever are you.
Inspiration is not your forte is it!
Just another exploiter of humanity -
Trevor Nicholls, in reply to
all take the same inspired guidance
incredible, now you're channelling "ugly truth"
I'm fairly confident that only people on the far right of the political spectrum regard government, corporate management and company ownership as three versions of the same thing.
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izogi, in reply to
For example, If Key is re-elected and honours his pledge of no capital gains tax, he can’t govern for all in that respect. Stating the obvious I know but this “governing for all” concept just ain’t possible in so many aspects.
That’s a silly interpretation of only a very slight amount of what I said, and you ignored the rest.
I said the government does what it does on behalf of the people it represents, which is the population of New Zealand. Obviously that doesn’t mean it will always do things that everyone agrees with, but it should actually respect people’s rights and continue to let them be part of the process on equal terms, even when they didn’t vote for it. Children don’t vote for the winning team any more than those who voted for the opposition, but that doesn’t mean children don’t deserve a government that will respect their rights. The same goes for adults.
Once again (if you didn’t read it the first time), the problem I have with John Key’s Cabinet is that it’s dismissive of the governing process when it does stuff. In the name of “getting things done”, John Key’s Cabinet takes advantage of its position at the top of the line of accountability and lawmaking to barge through rules, laws and processes which are meant to be in place so that there are checks and balances and reasonable and meaningful consultation on what happens, both so we can actually trust them and so we can get well designed laws.
All this process stuff with government is there to ensure that governing happens above board, transparently and accountably to the people of New Zealand. Lately, however, much of it has been pushed aside or otherwise ignored. Several times now, we’ve seen our government push through laws which the Attorney-General had to inform parliament were in breach of New Zealand’s Bill of Rights (just one example), after which the government ignored those warnings and done it anyway.
Think about that. The Bill of Rights is the next best thing New Zealand has to a dedicated, legally enforceable constitution. It’s meant to define the fundamental and constitution-style rights of everyone in New Zealand, irrespective of who’s in government, yet John Key’s government is casually brushing away formal warnings of breaches of these rights, with rapid and lazily designed lawmaking, because it’s not legally bound to take notice of those warnings.
Businesses have rules written into law about how they must be run so that shareholders and other stakeholders can have at least some confidence of the boundaries when dealing with them, and (as I said) some of our less ethical directors would love to be rid of those restrictions. Government has its rules too, but they’re only meaningful when those doing the governing actually respect them. Presently we have a bunch of people in Cabinet, including the guy at the top, who are thinking more in a business mindset than a government mindset. They’ve chosen to take unprecedented power for themselves through a combination of changing the law for dubious reasons or ignoring it entirely, and ignoring all the inconvenient rules (like the Cabinet Manual) which until now have been strongly enforced on precedent, largely because nobody had yet thought it necessary to write into law.
This is why I have a problem with John Key and his current government.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
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A Company, A Corporate, An Electorate ….all take the same inspired guidance in all aspects of human endeavour
Profit before people, you know it makes cents.
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nzlemming, in reply to
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incredible, now you’re channelling “ugly truth”
Surprise surprise.
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Rob Stowell, in reply to
A scout-troup, a 3- ring circus, a death metal band, a battalion of conscripts-
all take the same inspired guidance in all aspects of human endeavour.
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No. That's a very narrow view of the world- and of human nature.
It is, sadly, the predominent view of many trained in 'business management', but it's not even true for business, let alone a country. Generic management skills are mostly tosh, with a helping of arrogance and a side-serve of indigestible data. -
nzlemming, in reply to
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who are thinking more in a business mindset than a government mindset
And are spectacularly bad at running it as a business unless, of course, their exit strategy is a buyout...
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
That’s a very narrow view of the world- and of human nature.
It is, sadly, the predominent view of many trained in ‘business management’, but it’s not even true for business, let alone a country.Remember the terminal phase of the fourth Labour Government, where cabinet went into a kind of retreat at an Ashburton motel? An imported 'facilitator' attempted to 'team build' the quarreling factions by introducing a form of role-playing, where they pretended to have survived an air crash in the Canadian outback.
Of course it didn't work, giving Muldoon the opportunity to snipe "Bring back the touchy-feely man!" from his parliamentary backbench when things shortly flared up again.
Goofily romantic management-metaphors about achieving through co-operation, with their boys' own scenarios of white water rafting and survival, seem reserved for a cosseted technocrat caste and their betters. Instead the peasants are expected to compete in cutthroat vote-one-another-off-the-island style.
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I just wish some of those "journalists" Rawshark left his stash with had the balls to publish. Ede-Slater must surely be in there, but now that he's off the scene, they're not worried about missing the scoop.
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mark taslov, in reply to
And are spectacularly bad at running it as a business unless, of course, their exit strategy is a buyout…
Following the links via Bryce Edward’s Herald piece to Stephen Keys' blog (might be one for the sidebar Russell) and one of his pieces on Chris Hedges, onto the video therein where I encountered the term Inverted totalitarianism:
In inverted totalitarianism, every natural resource and every living being is commodified and exploited to collapse as the citizenry are lulled and manipulated into surrendering their liberties and their participation in government through excess consumerism and sensationalism.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Wrong again, Jack Sparrow. Your not too clever are you.
Give it a rest, please. Address each other's arguments rather than calling each other stupid.
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andin, in reply to
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My apologises sir
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izogi, in reply to
I went to school with Key and I know the suburb he grew up in (and lived for several years in a state house) – it’s a fairly wealthy suburb pepper-potted with good-quality older public housing and, more importantly, is adjacent to once of the best state schools in the country, Burnside High.
On a tangent, today's Press appears to have done a thing on "the struggle street John Key grew up on".
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Just watched some of the Newstalk ZB leaders' breakfast stream. Key gave a long, lucid answer to Hosking's questions about how the votes will fall in the Maori electorates and elsewhere. He's really not stupid and he's very good at weighing the odds.
The contrast between that and the evasions and recitations he makes under pressure really is very striking.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
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He talked about the length of his tongue! I can’t unread that you know.
Heh, Gettin' past his use by date
Mr Key joked that the constant demand for selfies had seen the crow's feet around his eyes take a deeper hold.
"Everyone wants a photo."
Oh you card ,you ! And all for everyone.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
He’s really not stupid and he’s very good at weighing the odds.
The contrast between that and the evasions and recitations he makes under pressure really is very striking.
His intelligence doesn't prevent him from behaving as if he's running a 3rd world client state on behalf of his enablers.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
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lucid answer to Hosking’s questions about how the votes will fall in the Maori electorates and elsewhere. He’s really not stupid and he’s very good at weighing the odds.
Did he have the questions to be asked before the interview?
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Jake Starrow, in reply to
I have to give you the familiar "I couldn't agree more" retort Russell. But I couldn't.
The difference in body language and manner are marked. -
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Interesting how this election is really all about Key. High risk strategy.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
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Interesting how this election is really all about Key
More to the point, ignoring every other politician over any puff piece about Key is taking up TV, Radio, and Media which would be the strategy. Look at his hairline, his wrinkle, his walk to the cafe. Selfies ( I'm cool), so popular , blah blah blah.....just like you and me, blah blah blah.
The man gambles that he can deflect any criticism , he only needs to open his mouth and they will all come to listen so as long as he sticks to the plan. His interviews seem chosen with complacent reporters. He ignores journalists with harder questions. His strategists are the smart ones. -
Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
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But I couldn’t.
No I couldn't either. Something we actually agree on.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
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He’s really not stupid and he’s very good at weighing the odds
Sigh, the man is a money trader, that's wat he does and that's about all. Answering patsy questions that were probably rehearsed during a buddybuddy sleepover "that's a hard one Bobby" ' "yes it is John John. Fnah" .
Please don't let yourself get suckered too Russ. Just because you built an extension on your house doesn't mean you have to go all middle class and support National.
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Sacha, in reply to
Just watched some of the Newstalk ZB leaders’ breakfast stream.
Same. The chumminess of the media pack with Key was astounding to watch. Laughing along with him as if nothing had changed. Need a kick up the jacksie.
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