Island Life: Good on ya, Paula
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I seem to recall dobbing-in being fairly common in the 90s.
It's still common - the 0800 dob in a bennie line is listed in the phone book - one can call anonymously. The Benefit Fraud Squad is a pretty scary outfit - you're guilty until you can prove yourself innocent and payments instantly axed until you "co-operate." This is why many DPBers keep a low profile and live on the fringes - way too vulnerable to attack.
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Hypocrisy to the power of 1E6.
Has Internet Explorer assumed moral proportions now? Sorry, couldn't resist.
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climbing the social ladder then taking the ladder with them.
The fundamental delusion is that they built the ladder themselves with their own "hard work" so of course it's theirs to take.
Wasn't already leaning against that wall behind the gate, your honour. Daddy never gave me the key, and no one ever taught me how to climb. Just came natural, like.
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I have never understood this particular perk in perpetuity (90% of all overseas travel expenses for life!!), and see no reason for it to continue.
I imagine there's some impediment of legal principle that makes it difficult to scrap this. Okay then, how about a campaign to get all those entitled to voluntarily relinquish it now? They've had a good long drink, but now that the money's tight, how about for the greater good they renounce their entitlement? I'd have thought, in the case of Douglas especially, that would be just sensible politics.
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I watched Douglas and Harawera defend their expenses on One last night and was disgusted at their arrogance and sense of entitlement when their political parties and half the country seems to be vilifying the two solo mums for getting the benefits they were entitled to.
And MP's don't actually live in cardboard boxes and travel on magic carpets? Much as I hate to say this, I find it hard to beat politicians over the head for the notion that when your constituency is the South Island (with Wellington and the Wairarapa thrown in) or you happen to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs or Trade you travel a lot. And airlines and hotels are distressingly disinclined to comp you.
Distressing shortage of moats and mortgage fiddles as well...
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I think in RD's case he probably thought no one would notice - until the damn Brits got caught with their moats down - now he's stuck trying to justify it - which just makes him look like a hypocrite - if he were smart he'd have been on another overseas trip right now until all the fuss dies down
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A campaign to get this "entitlement" dropped would be a good thing---and what better time?: hard times, economy under stress, everyone doing their bit, hard-working New Zealanders, middle New Zealand, tighten our belts, all in this together.....all those phrases we've heard rather a lot of lately.
And I still can't believe Roger Douglas using words like "entitlement" and "right" when it comes to getting to taxpayer to pay for his holidays! How can he be serious?
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And I still can't believe Roger Douglas using words like "entitlement" and "right" when it comes to getting to taxpayer to pay for his holidays! How can he be serious?
Bear in mind he does fancy himself to be the saviour of the country. I'm surprised he hasn't demanded the ius primae noctis yet.
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One thing that did piss me off (slightly) was the Speaker's lachrymose justification for spouses traveling on the public purse. Yes, Lockwood, politics is bloody brutal on families and relationships. So, do senior civil servants -- who also work long hours under considerable stress -- also get to bring the better halves along too, or would anyone who tried be coming home to a 'please explain and this better be fraking good' meeting up the road at the State Services Commission?
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I'm surprised he hasn't demanded the ius primae noctis yet.
Whatever his excesses, Douglas never really had a reputation as a trouser man, though there's a subsection of the blogosphere who constantly wax homoerotic at the mention of his name. He's shown a certain restraint by not demanding ownership of the nation's firstborn as a way of expediting labour market flexibility.
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Oh, and one more suggestion to MP's: Despite my sympathies, the next time you want to campaign in a by-election, either you or your parties should pay the cost of getting there. I'll defend the cost of MPs and Ministers doing their jobs, but if you're on party political business then the public shouldn't be picking up the tab.
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Do these people just overlook the fact that ...
Yes Kerry, sadly, I think a great many of those who would criticise those two women do just overlook those facts -- even when they are personally in receipt of the very benefits you listed.
Lord forbid any talkback host would dare to ask angry callers about their own entitlements, though.
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I can't get up in arms about Douglas taking a holiday at our expense.
The ongoing free air travel is a horrendous benefit for doing a job for... 9 years I think. Douglas is just doing what many other ex-MPs do, he's just got called on it because he happens to be a current MP.
I can't get up in arms about Douglas, but the whole ongoing entitlement is a pile of crap. I'd love to see a private members bill get put forward to remove it (I suspect it would have to be from "this date forward") and then watch political parties try and justify their votes to keep it for themselves (which I'm sure most would do).
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I can't get up in arms about Douglas
I can, because his whole political raison d'etre is privatise, cut government spending, blahdeblah. You'd think as a matter of principle he'd want to put his money where his mouth is.
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I can, because his whole political raison d'etre is privatise, cut government spending, blahdeblah. You'd think as a matter of principle he'd want to put his money where his mouth is.
Oh, balls. As Kyle pointed out, there are plenty of current and former MPs who were quite happy to huff and puff about "waste and extravagance" elsewhere (Christine Rankin, Judy Bailey's pay packet blahblahblah) but their automatic annual pay hikes far in excess of inflation and perks are different. Goose sauce for everyone, I'd say.
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partners in grime...
...justification for spouses traveling on the public purse
I still remember the manager at The Bondi Lifesaver (in Sydney, natch!) telling the band that their girlfriends/partners couldn't be put on the door list because : "Get real, this is a job sonny, you don't take your wife to work, do you? If they want to come in, they pay like everyone else." Makes sense really...
(and I guess they probably had all those kick backs to make, to get around the fact that they were licensed as a wine bar, to hold 180 approx people, and were in fact a major rock gig - never saw a cop there... ; - )yrs practically
Izzy Died (Yet?)
This asti tastes nasty... -
Oh, balls.
Additionally, Craig, I really fuckin' hate that guy. So there's that. :)
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The ongoing free air travel is a horrendous benefit for doing a job for... 9 years I think. Douglas is just doing what many other ex-MPs do, he's just got called on it because he happens to be a current MP.
I can't get up in arms about Douglas, but the whole ongoing entitlement is a pile of crap. I'd love to see a private members bill get put forward to remove it (I suspect it would have to be from "this date forward") and then watch political parties try and justify their votes to keep it for themselves (which I'm sure most would do).
It already has been removed 'from "this date forward"'. This date was, I think, the expiry of Parliament in 1993. The vast majority of current MPs will never qualify for this perk. Douglas gets it because he was there for long enough so long ago. Along with the gold-plated super scheme and some other post-three term perks this was removed and MPs' salaries were given a significant bump. I guess we didn't feel like back-paying the pay increase in order to buy them all out of their other entitlements.
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I can, because his whole political raison d'etre is privatise, cut government spending, blahdeblah. You'd think as a matter of principle he'd want to put his money where his mouth is.
I think he views it as part of his pension. Rightly or wrongly (I'm going to come down on wrongly), MPs have the most overdone pension scheme in existence (I don't mind the fact that they get it after such a short term, lots of people give up other careers to become MPs and its not exactly a career with good job security, the free/subsidised travel is a complete crock of shit though).
The fact that he's (I agree Danielle) an arsehole who should be run out of the country by a random selection of people that he's screwed over the years, doesn't mean he's not entitled to be an arsehole in this particular regard.
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(And yes Graeme is right, I'm bitching about the old scheme and calling it the current one. I couldn't tell you what the current one entails I hate the old one from when I heard about it as a kid so much)
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Additionally, Craig, I really fuckin' hate that guy. So there's that. :)
I'd never have guessed, you cold blooded Vulcan you. :)
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Richard Worth’s overseas expenses came to an astonishing sum of thirty-two dollars, surely that cannot be right. When did Ryanair start flying from New Zealand?
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And yes Graeme is right, I'm bitching about the old scheme and calling it the current one. I couldn't tell you what the current one entails I hate the old one from when I heard about it as a kid so much
David Farrar had an explanation. Basically it's now just a subsidised super scheme. For every $1 put in from an MP's salary (up to 8%), the taxpayer adds $2.50. However, that the taxpayer will do this is taken into account when the Remuneration Authority sets the salary.
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. . . should be run out of the country by a random selection of people that he's screwed over the years . . .
There's a few he didn't screw, though not for want of trying. For example, the manager of his failed pig farm, who testified at the winding up of that ghastly enterprise how Douglas had claimed to be doing him a favour by offering him the chance to buy the joint. Fortunately he got an independent audit, which revealed the true state of the books.
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There is a good argument for not granting knighthoods with out requiring a medical check. The man has lost his marbles.
There is a good argument for revoking Douglas's knighthood entirely. The man is a criminal, not a hero.
(I wonder if I can draft a member's bill for that...?)
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