Public Address | Cafe | OnPoint: SECRET MILITARY LULZ

Jeremy Eade

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:57:36 +1300

Also off topic but it will be fascinating on a cultural level to see how our paul does in auz. Paul Henry is a one man "fox and friends." He's worried about his Australian tax payments already. You could make the arguement so were we when we paid him with…

Jeremy Eade

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:32:07 +1300

So today the mfat will be trimmed. Yet aren't trade and foreign affairs vital to this ocean locked nation. It's just a reduction to ease a budget sorely missing revenue. It doesn't seem to make sense in a long term strategic sense. This idea that bureaucracy is only improved by…

Dave Waugh

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:25:46 +1300

Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) programme, which is a network of nine military satellites built by Boeing and operated by the US Department of Defence.

Might as well just CC everything automatically to the relevant desks at the pentagon and State departments while your at it.

izogi

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:16:16 +1300

But the other problem is what the hell are the poor people working there expected to achieve.

Well, to start with the obvious, MFAT is responsible for administering overseas Embassies and High Commissions and so on, employing most of the people who work in them, looking after communications (regular diplomatic…

Chris Waugh

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:50:00 +1300

And none of the usual suspects has pointed out that foreigners investing in China are required to enter into a joint venture.

Um, probably because that is not actually true? Foreigners are banned from some industries for "national security" reasons (scare quotes because that includes publishing – us pesky foreigners…

DexterX

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:32:54 +1300

But the other problem is what the hell are the poor people working there expected to achieve.

Sat Waht and where? I don' get what you are saying?

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:09:45 +1300

Xtra Xtra, read all about it!
ah well now, maybe McCully can have a chat with Coleman and arrange to get his emails put through the NZDF’s new $83 million 20 year satellite deal with Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) programme, which is a network of nine military satellites built by…

Kumara Republic

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:02:10 +1300

And none of the usual suspects has pointed out that foreigners investing in China are required to enter into a joint venture.

Jeremy Eade

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:54:37 +1300

Even Fran O'Sullivan now believes in the power of Government,

Surely she must see the strengths of modern Chinese style help/ modelling/ inteference(?) in their basic business activities in an ability to build dollars in and keep folk employed.

Jeremy Eade

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:43:23 +1300

My point is from slim personal readings, our trade and foreign policy goals are either fuzzy or never sufficiently spotlighted and debated.

Personally I'm all for departments that benefit our country and I can't see how defunding such institutions benefits them.

I mean this all around reduction call on public…

DexterX

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:16:50 +1300

The Tony Robbins of gnomes.

Key is a corporate help yourself guru – not (a mum and Dad investor) self help guru.

Robbins does good – Key does no good. Selling "stuff" is the best they can come up with.

nzlemming

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:58:51 +1300

What does the ministry of FAT (bad name) do? What are we trying to achieve? (Best Ceo voice on)?

It tries to upgrade to NTFS

#coat_hat

Jeremy Eade

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:44:06 +1300

What does the ministry of FAT (bad name) do? What are we trying to achieve? (Best Ceo voice on)?

George Darroch

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:13:48 +1300

John Hayes seems to have an axe to grind – perhaps at one time John Allen got the girl and John Hayes missed out.

John Hayes – MFAT enmity is hardly new, it goes back most of the last decade.

chris

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:02:57 +1300

buying Key appearances as an offshore talk show host guest – he is so fantastic.

The Tony Robbins of gnomes.

nzlemming

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:39:37 +1300

Audrey Young has a story on the Hayes connection.

It's quite possible that the "mindless wasteful admin crap" was simply Finance requiring him to fill in his expense forms properly. McCully and his ilk regard "aid" as "investment" and demand a financial return on it.

DexterX

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:05:11 +1300

From the bottom of paste bin – "This is skid stuff".

John Hayes seems to have an axe to grind – perhaps at one time John Allen got the girl and John Hayes missed out.

The hidden agenda behind the slash to MFAT is a drive to “achieve more” policy…

Lucy Stewart

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:46:47 +1300

The SMBC cartoon leaves out the pertinent fact that there are quite a few people who hack as in panel A. They just mostly work for states and security companies. For any given individual's email account, panel B will probably do nicely.

Stephen Judd

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:41:07 +1300

I know the same rules don’t apply. That doesn’t matter in making a political point, namely that McCully has done something that would count as poor performance and warrant discipline for just about anyone else.

nzlemming

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:36:26 +1300

Except that a) we don't have civil servants, we have public servants and b) parliamentarians are not public servants, even when they are Ministers. So the same rules don't apply, sadly.

Hilary Stace

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:08:07 +1300

For a bit more context, John Allen is also Chair of the Employers' Disability Network – a group of business people promoting the employment of disabled people. Never met him, but I've heard he does good work with EDN. He was appointed by the currrent government to head MFAT…

Russell Brown

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:27:55 +1300

Audrey Young has a story on the Hayes connection.

Hilary Stace

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:19:36 +1300

I would think there are some serious questions for the Member of Parliament for the Wairarapa (John Hayes) to answer. If you have never heard of him, you might remember him as the candidate in the 2008 campaign who, in his SUV, almost ran down a young protester.

Steve Reeves

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:34:26 +1300

As No Right Turn said on The Standard

comment 5:

But nothing is off the record. if the informationis held by the Minister in their official capacity, then its official information and subject to the OIA, no matter what format or storage medium it is in. Hell, the OIA even…

Stephen Judd

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:03:25 +1300

I would like an opposition politician to ask a parliamentary question about what disciplinary measures would be taken against a senior civil servant who sent confidential/secret communications to a private email address, and then ask how McCully has been disciplined.

Caleb D'Anvers

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:41:12 +1300

Is the use of a private email address some kind of OIA work-around? Remember how Sarah Palin (infamously) used Gmail for certain communications, in the belief that she would therefore be outside existing retention and disposal schedules for records-keeping, and could essentially do what she liked and be exempt from…

izogi

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:11:04 +1300

Why are they sending work emails to an xtra account? Sackable offense in some companies I have worked for.

Sackable offence in most of government, too. Especially for the sorts of communications McCully would deal with day to day.

Rich of Observationz

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:46:11 +1300

If I'd been those hackers, I'd have logged into Westpac, selected the "New Zealand Government" account and requested a new password.

Russell Clarke

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:36:47 +1300

The ultimate sign of the hackers' incompetence is that they appear to have made 'the big reveal' to stuff.co.nz. Might as well have leaked it to The Wiggles.

MxDEJ

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:46:05 +1300

"Wouldn't it have made more sense to sit on this account which they have already compromised and continue to grab information from it?"

Not if (a) it's true that "McCully had asked that official emails be forwarded to that account while he was overseas in April last year" and the…

George Darroch

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:15:15 +1300

Well, McCully did promise today to cut $40 million from MFAT today. Motive from the inside, perhaps?

I'm starting through the emails, and they reveal a lot of arrogance from the minister's office, plenty of deprecation of his Pacific counterparts, cosy Australian relationships, and general ignorance towards foreign aid.

kiwicmc

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:11:12 +1300

Why are they sending work emails to an xtra account? Sackable offense in some companies I have worked for. Mind you – I've been guilty myself when the 50MB work Exchange account overflows...

Kumara Republic

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:02:10 +1300

I always thought the McCully e-mail job was the work of script kiddies out for a digital joyride. Anonymous have far more worthy targets to pursue.

Public Address

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:02:10 +1300

Discussion from blog post.