Hard News: Bill's Troubles
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Um, Caleb, I paid a modest but reasonably substantial tax bill -- as often happens to freelancers who don't earn a regular income -- with "little fuss" by dipping into my savings.
Congratulations, Craig. That's fantastic. Um, this is relevant ... how?
To be blunt, Caleb, so fucking what?
You made a claim about Mary English's working conditions that was incorrect. I was just pointing that out.
Sorry but I just don't see what Mary English's presumed income -- or that of any other Parliamentary spouse -- has to do with anything.
As has been pointed out repeatedly, spousal income is taken into account for other beneficiaries of public money. The fact that MPs' living costs are not similarly means-tested is just another example of the rules not applying to the political classes. Which some, understandably, find a little ... hypocritical ... especially when it comes from those who like laying down the law for others.
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I'd really rather that Bill English was giving his full attention to the economy, rather fire-fighting over the relatively small sum at stake in his accommodation expenses problem.
Yup. 'Nuff sed.
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stretch the definition of "Where I Live"
You mean lie about it with intent to enrich oneself? I don't care about the rest of the details, that's the salient one here.
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As has been pointed out repeatedly, spousal income is taken into account for other beneficiaries of public money.
And once more, I couldn't give a tinkers cuss about the supposed vast amounts of money Mary English is supposedly raking in. Even if Mary English was a stay at home wife whose hobby was collecting coupons, anyone who expects me the believe they're doing it hard on a Parliamentary salary (or any other high five or six-figure salary) isn't inspiring a grain of sympathy.
You mean lie about it with intent to enrich oneself? I don't care about the rest of the details, that's the salient one here.
Um, what exactly is English lying about here? Seems to me that he's just the latest (and most egregious) in a long line of politicians who've been quite happily rorting a system full of well-crafted loopholes and welcome ambiguities. Why lie when you're doing perfectly well without?
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Craig, "I live in Dipton".
Clear enough for you. -
Sue,
the law on this is a mess
and English is the one who got his hand in the cookie jar
but here's the thing i'm sure he's not the only oneand quite probaly what he did was legally ok
but i'd like to think naively think our politicians are not trying to 'work the system' but serve their country -
Have we been told of other Ministers or MPs who are pretending to live somewhere other than Wellington so they can claim an allowance?
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I can't help seeing the extreme with that other finance minister we had, ya know the guy who owned practically nothing, the Cullen guy. ....he would of have been pillored for anything like this.
IMHO Bill seems such a lovely guy but he's such an unknown quantity.
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I'd really rather that Bill English was giving his full attention to the economy, rather fire-fighting over the relatively small sum at stake in his accommodation expenses problem.
Yup. 'Nuff sed.
Wait, if he hadn't told an untruth about where he lived, by any reasonable definition, then he wouldn't be distracted. There's one party primarily at fault here, and it's not anyone who's questioning his judgement.
Bunkle and Hobbs resigned over similar (not exactly the same) issues. English was a senior opposition mp at the time, don't tell me he wasn't aware of residences and allowance issues.
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Also English's Government has quietly halved the allowance of respite care for the elderly, from two weeks to one.
When did this happen? That's going to affect a lot of people quite negatively.
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Hilary, can't find anything official, but this I know from my own experience: In May it was still two weeks. By mid-July it had been reduced to one week. A number of other such welfare entitlements appear to have been similarly halved.
I believe that applications for respite care are approved by GPs. Someone who deals with those kind of cases will likely be up with the details.
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It's something that needs wide publicity and I haven't seen any.
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Agree. Nothing on Age Concern or Carers NZ sites.
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Nothing from a GP relation - this is truly dreadful news if true-
and it fits with Nats- -
Joe, would you be willing to discuss details with one of those advocacy organisations, to tease out your specific situation from any overall policy settings?
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Thanks Sacha, I'd be happy to do what I can. My info comes from dealing with the needs of an elderly - and increasingly infirm - relative. While hopefully there's a relatively trouble-free late-life summer in the offing, it's kind of the issue of the moment for me.
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I'd imagine it would be pretty pressing, Joe.
Hilary, which organisation do you reckon would do best with this, and handle it sensitively? Joe, I realise you might well have some preferences and contacts too.
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You made a claim about Mary English's working conditions that was incorrect.
What assertion what that, dear? Oh, a perfectly factual statement about where she was working when I was last aware of the fact and the utter irrelevance of it, in my view, to the discussion. Chris Carter was an utter knob over his ministerial travel expenses (perfectly legal but somewhat tin-eared), and I neither know nor care what his partner makes as (I believe) a primary school principal. The real issue there was that, in my view, Ministers should either leave the spouses at home or pick up the tab. (Senior civil servants, of course, would just be expected to buy the BH something nice on their Duty Free.) Just as MPs should be paying their mortgages, at least, out of their own pockets regardless of whether their spouses work, or not, or what they do and how much they get paid.
Bunkle and Hobbs resigned over similar (not exactly the same) issues. English was a senior opposition mp at the time, don't tell me he wasn't aware of residences and allowance issues.
Tim: Wouldn't it be nice if that was the case? I thought Hobbs was totally cleared of any wrong-doing and Clark didn't think she was unfit to be returned to Cabinet (after a decent interval on the naughty backbench). If you want an even half-arsed attempt at serious reform, what you need is something like the expenses scandal in England -- where there was plenty of truly stinky shit to go all the way round in rapid succession, so no party really got to score any points off it.
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Have we been told of other Ministers or MPs who are pretending to live somewhere other than Wellington so they can claim an allowance?
I think the closest ,recently, are the two Labour MP's that Russell mentioned in his piece,namely Bunkle and Hobbs.
Now while they their circumstances were just a little different...it isn't difficult to google and find out just how aggrieved the Opposition were at the time. All about rorts and entitlements and stuff. -
The bit that gets me about all this "double dipton" business is....
For Bill English to claim that he needed the extra allowance to get by on while living in Wellington, would possibly mean that he was living beyond his means.
Is that really a good trait to have in a finance minister during a recession???The fact that now all of a sudden he can get by without the extra cash does this mean that
A/ He didn't know how to budget in accordance with his income (again not the best trait for a finance Minister) and has since had some household budgeting advice or....
B/ Was he lying to the public when he made that claim?
Also as mentioned earlier...... the silence from the honorable "perks buster" hmm what a surprise. -
Priceless from stuff.co.nz:
Deputy Prime Minister Bill English was returning to Wellington from his home in Dipton to deal with the situation. He was expected to update media this afternoon.
He is trying to behave now, though, isn't he? Unfortunately, a bit late. I think we can all see through this ruse!
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Hilary, which organisation do you reckon would do best with this, and handle it sensitively?
They're two different questions. If it is a policy change it has come from the Minister of Health so he should announce it. If it has happened because one/some of the many organisations that approve or provide respite care have run out of their ring-fenced budget then that is up to the contract holder or the contract relationship manager to deal with and they could be in the Ministry of Health, or a DHB or a needs assessment agency somewhere. Whatever, it is a responsibility of the Minister of Health to either announce as policy or fix up.
As for doing anything sensitively, that's another issue.
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I think the closest ,recently, are the two Labour MP's that Russell mentioned in his piece,namely Bunkle and Hobbs.
Bunkle was a Green MP.
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Wait, if he hadn't told an untruth about where he lived, by any reasonable definition, then he wouldn't be distracted.
All the same, I'd rather he wasn't distracted. Unless he gets sacked and replaced, of course, then someone can get on with the quite important job of being the Finance Minister instead of the Minister of trying not to look like a greedy politician.
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Hilary, I meant advocacy organisations well-placed to understand respite matters and to have the right relationships and resources to help constructively.
After what I've seen over the last few years I would never again expect some of the Misery of Health's staff to behave sensitively or even with basic human decency. And I'd say we both agree that Joe deserves someone alongside him to take this on if it is a broader problem.
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