Posts by Paul Williams
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If Labour can't lift their game above this sorry level, then do they really deserve to win Mt Albert ?
Mikaere, I hope both the Greens and Labour resist the temptation to turn this byelection into a fight between themselves, until recently they had a constructive working relationship (constructive, but not ideal).
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Slater is the muck racker, DPF is the moderate commentator on the muck, his wingnut followers then frame the debate back in the terms Slater and the National Party filth unit want and all the journalists in town interview kiwiblog for their stories - voila - topic de jour? An eleven year old academic paper.
I think your comment's fair Tom, I tend to be a little pavlovian on some issues but as for "being played", I don't agree. I would agree Garner's choosen to run Farrar's comments but I doubt he' naive about it, it's an angle; it's a simple angle but that just means he can run a rebuttal story next.
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Yes - my company chose an outfit called HIH-Workable. I am pleased we were back to ACC by the time that outfit became HIH-Broken.
I had exactly the same experience and was more than pissed off by the experience. I don't know how many other small business owners were frustrated through the transition (and back) but I'd guess lots. I'm aware of the arguments for an agin partial privatisation and competition, but now I'd have to say, living in Sydney where the inability to get insurance cover can and often does lock you out of contracting and stop some services altogether, I'm more clear than ever.
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Having now read Graeme's post on privatisation and ACC, I see the point he and David are making - competition vs. ownership.
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Instead of a sensible debate about competition in workplace accident insurance we hear every day about privatising ACC as if it was to be sold off to the private sector.
Umm, yeah, like last time? Have you forgotten that six months in 1999 when ACC was partially privatised?
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And it does beg the questions, if you agree with Shearer that the private sector can be used in armed conflicts (so long as it provides a better outcome than using the public sector), why would you not apply the same test to Corrections?
This is a stretch if not a false equivalence; managing the incarceration of criminals is not comparable to intervening in failed states.
I agree with Judy Callingham's comments upthread. From what little I know of Bates and Shearer, both would be excellent additions to a renewed Labour caucus. Shearer's experience overseas compares favourably with the experience Groser bought to National. Bates would complement the younger cohort recently elected.
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Just in. All 10 swine flu tests back from Australia. All positive.
Ahh, now I get your tweet, I thought you were talking about Australia tests of Australians, but you mean of Kiwis. I'm not less sympathetic, but I'll confess my sensitivities are about family, some of whom work in high-density tourist facilities in Sydney.
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After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the nonexistence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it -- "I refute it thus."
Richard, I've mixed thanks for this; it's a great story though sadly with the potential application to too much of my work.
Parliament is debating swine flu at the moment...
Ah, is that scheduled prior to question time? Swine before churls.
What David Haywood said.
Man, I spent a day or so reading kiwiblog and missed all the funny! That'll learn me.
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I sincerely hope that not a cent of students' money is going towards the absurd legal threats being issued by Michael Oliver, the news editor of Salient, the Victoria Universty of Wellington student paper. And even if not, perhaps it’s a good time for a grown-up to drop by the office and see what on earth is going on.
Is it at least remarkable that the student newspaper is the one issuing proceedings (or threatening them)? I can't recall an instance where student media have sued, only been sued (and I can recall plenty of them).
Still, I think you're advice is spot on. Someone with a bit of history and sense needs to tell Oliver he's making a dick of himself, regardless of how aggrieved he may feel, and that he should simply stop taking himself so seriously.
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<quote>Sure, and we're lucky enough in New Zealand to have MMP and the Greens</quote.
Gio, I have respect for the Greens also, but it'd be a little unfair not to mention Labour have been strong on Kyoto and related initiatives too.