Posts by Russell Brown
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OnPoint: Spending "Cap" is Fiscal Anorexia, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Good Lord, who wrote this morning’s Herald editorial? Trevor “Zap” Loudon?
Probably Roughan. He tends to like unexamined truisms about fiscal probity.
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Capture: Colour is the new black, in reply to Richard Aston,
Lilith – its a special picture – yeah not the “hard enamel blue” of a South Island day but that liminal hue where sky and sea reflect each other so well that the horizon is barely holding the line between the two. I have been on the water in that light its a special place.
My week is made. You used "liminal" in a fitting and concrete sense.
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Capture: Colour is the new black, in reply to Lilith __,
this soft milky light
That picture is beautiful and true.
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Capture: Don’t Point Me Out In A Crowd, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
My sis took this shot many years ago at Western Springs. I found it t'other day. When "One Love" came out it was quite nice to see her in the film footage.
Far fuckin' out.
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Hard News: The Next Labour Leader, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Nikki Kettle, who works as an assessor, for which she earns $180,000 a year ($75 an hour), plus allowances of up to $24,000, has also landed one of the sought-after assessing jobs next year.
These jobs will return an hourly rate of $55. Her mother, Gail Kettle, is the EQC claims manager.
The family is from the North Island..
The fuck?
Many people of senior management status, with considerable expectations of accountability, get a lot less than that.
$75 an hour for professional services is acceptable -- even on the low side -- in a contract situation, where there are costs in doing business (and certainly no $24,000 in reimbursements) but as a rate for an employed position it seems extraordinary to me.
Wow.
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OnPoint: Spending "Cap" is Fiscal Anorexia, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
You know what, I don’t wish to sound like I’m kicking Phil Goff but Key’s a rather banal object of scorn. The outgoing leader of the Opposition has spent 27 of the last thirty years being well-compensated for his public service. (I think current teaching and nursing graduates would love to have the same entry-level salary as a backbench MP. Currently a hair under $135K, IIRC.)
But MPs' pay and superannuation is basically a derail from the subject of Keith's post. That would still be the case if we paid them a million bucks a year.
The topic is the adoption of a fiscal gimmick that has had disastrous results elsewhere as an ostensible concession to a party that got 1.1% of the vote and is only present by a contrivance by the governing party.
That was announced by the Prime Minister, Mr Key. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Phil Goff.
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Hard News: The Next Labour Leader, in reply to tussock,
All the Greens did this year was control their own narrative by presenting a consistent and tight message about policy priorities. But seriously, bringing 100,000 kids out of poverty, using government money to create 100,000 green jobs, and nationalising the entire nation’s irrigation schemes so kids can swim in rivers is all extremely left-wing policy, at least as far as anything you’ll hear in NZ since 1984, eh Russell.
The Greens were fortunate that they never had to suffer anyone actually scrutinising those gloriously aspirational numbers. I don't actually object to that sort of goal-setting, but it's perilous to put too much store by it.
But the contention that the Greens haven't moved at all to the centre is bizarre. I suspect the blue-green vote was a bigger factor in this election than in any previous one. It worked for them.
Sue Bradford wrote fairly stingingly about the shift on Pundit in June, and again in July.
Sure there were plenty of folks who might fit the old stereotype, but there seemed to be a higher proportion - even than at last year's AGM - of younger types who looked as though they could work for a bank.
At least some of them still do.
New arrival at number 15 on the party list James Shaw makes enough dough working overseas for half a year at a time as a management consultant for the likes of BP, Amex and Coca-Cola to sustain himself while working the rest of the year for the Greens.
One imagines that doesn't endear him to the likes of the party member who yelled "class traitor" at the mention of Social Development Minister Paula Bennett during Ms Turei's speech.
I think the Greens had to broaden their appeal -- how many times did Norman say "smart green prosperity"? -- and it worked for them. But claiming nothing has ever changed in the party's orientation is delusional.
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Hard News: The Next Labour Leader, in reply to BenWilson,
In case you didn’t notice, the Greens have been in government several times, too. They were a big part of the reason Labour got 9 years.
Um, no they haven't.
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Capture: Christchurch: Last One Standing, in reply to Alex Efimoff,
Revival of Christchurch
It was nice to see that.
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Capture: Christchurch: Last One Standing, in reply to Kebabette,
Old CCC offices – the endless fascination of windows, some with sad old flapping curtains leaping out the window
I found that building unnerving, for precisely that reason.