Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Welfare: Back to the Future?, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
I think the 14 weeks policy is so clearly insane it will have the opposite effect, and discredit the entire WWG project. If it’s an attempt to shift the middle ground then it’s doomed to failure.
With you on that. I considered the bait-and-switch angle, but I think it’s really more about Rebstock and her pals being moral sadists. A competent Labour response would absolutely hammer that suggestion and the people who have made it.
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John Key sorta rules out the weird and disturbing "14 weeks old" suggestion:
It was also expected to recommend that women who had more children when they were already on a benefit be required to go back to work when the baby was 14 weeks old.
"Personally I feel a bit queasy about that, I think that's a step too far, I think most New Zealanders would think that's a little on the extreme side."
Working part-time once your youngest child was three was reasonable, he said.
So he's appointed a working group whose recommendations are "extreme" and make him "queasy". Righto.
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Hard News: Welfare: Back to the Future?, in reply to Matthew Poole,
SIL says that since Pull-ya took over, WINZ has become a place where everyone is viewed as wanting to cheat the system
At least she has the nous to know that she's being messed around. I've been quite shocked at the way the goalposts have moved at WINZ without the bother of formally changing the rules.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to giovanni tiso,
I have no major quibble with Trotter on this occasion – it’s the idea that he gets called if those particular people are unavailable. He had a good laugh at that notion himself, to his credit.
I gather he had a swift couple of glasses of wine afterwards too :-)
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Sacha,
I am not a frequent commenter as PAS because I favour the long-form in writing and don’t wish to clog up the columnage unduly.
Lolz. That doesn't seem to constrain anyone else :-)
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Just FYI, I banned Mr Derailing Asshole McTroll before I went to Wellington last week, so he shouldn't be back.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Could Trotter try not being a man-tronising douche-bag? I’m sure those invertebrate blue-stockings really welcomed Trotter restraining the urge to burn his pappy pants, but could we do the women concerned the courtesy of not assuming they declined the invitation out of rank cowardice?
Indeed, some of them were simply unable to make it. But others were offered the opportunity and cried off. So he wasn’t entirely wrong.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Hilary Stace,
And who would have guessed that Chris Trotter would have to be the champion for feminism on a panel about academic women’s studies?
I was surprised. Indeed, it was a surprising show. Hannah's contribution differed markedly from what she'd said to our researcher.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Like Emma said, that was a difficult panel to wrangle. As a media show, we wanted people with a connection to journalism, and quite a few people said no. I haven't seen the show myself yet.
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Yup. Red Group Retail has debts of $50-75 million and breached banking covenants back in July. Of $25 million in annual earnings, $9 million went on debt servicing. Sheesh.