Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: How many children with cancer would an editor's salary cure?

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  • Shep Cheyenne,

    On the turps after an event I was once told "Don't get in a fight,... but if you do make sure you win."

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    Heh (different govt department) but I had to go down to the cells to bail out (vouch for) one of my staff who was picked up (out of the Courtenay Place gutter) after an event...

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    1. How many people...

    If information is available on a website or in an annual report, etc, can a department answer OIA requests or Parliamentary questions by telling the questioner to go look at the website or whatever?

    On that basis, it'd be cheapest to publish as much data as client privacy would allow, wouldn't it?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    there's too many for my liking that are just an excuse to socialize, get rip-roaring drunk, and then try not to vomit during your presentation the next morning.

    sure. but there are two questions you want to attach to that statement.

    1. is this any different to the private sector?
    2. would we be getting better value for money by purchasing this same service from the private sector?

    and the last one is very serious. people can beat up on the public service all they like, but you couldn't get the same value for money if you were purchasing health care, education or other essential services out of your own pocket.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    If information is available on a website or in an annual report, etc, can a department answer OIA requests or Parliamentary questions by telling the questioner to go look at the website or whatever?

    Yep they can. Although they have to follow the correct procedure & formall yanswer "The member is referred to the blah blah page on the blah blah website.

    Auntie Muriel had someone in her office who recycled all her questions month after month, often, they'd forget to update the date at which the question was asked, so we'd take some small pleasure in formally referring her to the answers we supplied last month.

    A week later they'd arrive with the dates updated.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    On that basis, it'd be cheapest to publish as much data as client privacy would allow, wouldn't it?

    MPs are a suspicious lot, some will ask the same questions, to which the answers are freely available in the annual report or website, just to see if the answers match.

    They don't always from some places.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    The really great questions (IMO) were those that made absolutely no sense & were unanswerable, so we'd answer along the lines of "This stupid question is unanswerable because it is nosensical gibberish" (the Comms team devised a very polite & respectful way of saying this) and why that was the case.

    Then, to our great delight, the MP in question would decide we were deliberately holding the information (for instance) as to "How many HNZC tenants remained vacant in each NHU for the last 6 months?" - hint, properties are vacant, not (theoretically, let's not spculate about Dot) tenants) as an OIA.

    We'd wait the requisite 21 working days before responding to those with the respectful Comms disclaimer.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    This is quite funny.

    David Farrar has dutifully tried to gin up this one as WINZ Conference Mk II ... but several of his readers report that they've been to the lodge and it is not particularly flash as these things go.

    Which makes the Herald's story even more absurd.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Sue,

    I see Craig has beaten me to it, but it's a point worth re-stating: Why couldn't this have been done by video conference?

    i get teleconferencing when it's a silly old power point, but what if it was a team building and training event?
    for a team spread across the country to work well together it helps to meet face to face every so often.

    And was this over a weekend?
    if it was the public service got 2 days of work from their staff for free ;)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 527 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Dzug,

    I'm sure the last targets of a media attack are very grateful to HNZC. The budget took the heat for a day or two, but the Taupo lodge will be good for at least another few days. In fact as I work in a part of the public service that is subject to all too frequent attacks(hence need for pseudonym), I can reveal that a standard ploy is to repeatedly scan the news wires hoping for the next victim to step forward quickly. Every dog has its day etc..but really, the HNZC thing was just dumb, it failed very perception test. No point in plonking on about value for money after being caught - it just looked bad. But, as I said, many other people in Wgton are very grateful to HNZC for taking centrestage.

    Wellington • Since May 2008 • 10 posts Report Reply

  • Andrew Paul Wood,

    Have you ever tried to have a teleconference with 90 people?

    Christchurch • Since Jan 2007 • 175 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    But, as I said, many other people in Wgton are very grateful to HNZC for taking centrestage.

    they should have said they were from MSD. Don't they know anything?

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    how about you practice some of that calling a spade a spade you're so proud of and recognise this story for what it is, a media beat-up?

    OK, if you'll pay Kate Wilkinson the same courtesy and say she's been on the receiving end of a "beat up" quite explicitly and gleefully driven by Trevor Mallard. That would be utter bullshit as well, but fair's fair.

    If you want to say The Herald has all the depth of a sheet of India paper, you're preaching to the converted. But just because a story isn't covered particularly well and given entirely disproportionate prominence, doesn't mean it shouldn't be covered at all.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Andrew Paul Wood,

    If I was working at that level as public service or private sector, it's the minimum treatment I would expect for my skills and services. I can't believe we're even discussing this unless its evidence of some sort of middle class guilt about liking scenery and comfortable acommodation while we slog our guts out to improve service. It's not as though the HNZC were dressing up as shepherds and nymphs at the Petit Trianon for crying out loud, it's hardly the friggin pleasure dome at Xanadu.

    Christchurch • Since Jan 2007 • 175 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    It's not as though the HNZC were dressing up as shepherds and nymphs at the Petit Trianon for crying out loud

    Wait for reports of their Christmas party to surface....

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    If you mean Dept Building & Housing - it was probably the Ministry of Housing in those days.

    I meant district health board -- you sometimes needed a whiteboard and lots of different coloured pens to keep the mutating acronyms straight. :)

    I know health has always been (and probably always will be) the political equivalent of Chernobyl, and perhaps it's human nature to want to avoid embarrassment at all costs. But when you're treating pretty basic disclosure requirements with barely concealed contempt, it's a wee bit unreasonable not to expect hostility in return.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Dzug,

    Saying that you are GST auditors from IRD on a fraud training course has always been a favourite.

    Wellington • Since May 2008 • 10 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    If I was working at that level as public service or private sector, it's the minimum treatment I would expect for my skills and services.

    There are plenty of senior school teachers, nurses and doctors who deserve quarterly team-building sessions at the island resort of their choice, but they don't get it. Don't think they expect it either. Sorry if that sounds snarky, Andrew, because there is a serious point. I'd take it as read that any halfway competent senior manager at any government department would be doing a damn sight better on the pay and perks front in the private sector. Hell, when you get right down to it I don't think Clark or Key went into politics for the money, job security adulation and cushy lifestyle. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    OK, if you'll pay Kate Wilkinson the same courtesy and say she's been on the receiving end of a "beat up" quite explicitly and gleefully driven by Trevor Mallard. That would be utter bullshit as well, but fair's fair.

    criticising a minister for doing his job, and criticising a half-arsed story are two entirely different things...

    If I was working at that level as public service or private sector, it's the minimum treatment I would expect for my skills and services.

    exactly. it's hard enough keeping people in the public service without telling them they're allowed:

    1. no fun
    2. to be the subject of constant harassment as the whipping boys of the media.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    OK, if you'll pay Kate Wilkinson the same courtesy and say she's been on the receiving end of a "beat up" quite explicitly and gleefully driven by Trevor Mallard. That would be utter bullshit as well, but fair's fair.

    At least there was something at stake in the Kiwisaver whoopsie.

    But really ...

    1. The conference appears to have had a serious purpose; to present and discuss a new set of practices

    2. It was pulled off with remarkable economy

    3. There is no comparison with the WINZ debacle, which cost four times as much, even without adjusting for inflation.

    4. The place isn't actually as flash as everyone has been cracking on.

    5. HNZC actually does do all those fancy things like videoconferencing.

    6. Maryan Street didn't throw HNZC's CEO under the bus and loudly sound off about demanding explanations, having accepted that there wasn't much to explain.

    All we're left with here is the idea that HNZC should have found somewhere much crappier for its staff to go at a similar price, so it wouldn't "look bad'.

    And the only reason a perfectly conventional national conference "looks bad" is that the reef-fish who report politics have transcribed Phil Heatley's press release (much easier than finding their own stories) and thus told us it looks bad.

    I've actually been getting more steamed up about this as the day has gone on. As might be apparent ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    There are plenty of senior school teachers, nurses and doctors who deserve quarterly team-building sessions at the island resort of their choice, but they don't get it.

    but they would jump at the chance were they offered it.

    craig, you seem to be arguing on one hand that you'd like better services (i.e. the dhb), but on the other hand you want them delivered by the kinds of people who work for a pittance, have no job satisfaction whatsoever, are generally willing to be treated like sheep.

    do you see any difficulty in getting the former if you're employing the latter?

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    6. Maryan Street didn't throw HNZC's CEO under the bus and loudly sound off about demanding explanations, having accepted that there wasn't much to explain.

    Okay, scratch that. Street has now (having presumably had a visit from the damage-control mandarins) changed tack and said the conference was "not a good look".

    She doesn't really believe it was outrageous, National doesn't really believe it was outrageous and the journalists reporting on it don't believe it either. But everyone has to pretend ...

    This drives me nuts.

    D'you reckon, what with the Bailey Kurariki beat-up, that "luxury" is this year's word?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    D'you reckon, what with the Bailey Kurariki beat-up, that "luxury" is this year's word?

    we've been using "luxurient" around here for a while.

    as in, "my tax cuts will finally give me that luxurient lifestyle i've been dreaming of".

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Andrew Paul Wood,

    Ooh, I can finally afford yet another ivory back-scratcher. Ooer, the decadence :)

    Christchurch • Since Jan 2007 • 175 posts Report Reply

  • Andrew Paul Wood,

    The public service should only employ Vogons - soulless mind-numbing buracracy is their idea of fun.

    Christchurch • Since Jan 2007 • 175 posts Report Reply

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