Posts by Paul Williams
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Oh and apropos nothing in particular, the White Ferns are back on top of the South Africans after a shaky start. Currently, 77 for 2 after eighteen overs. Amy Satterthwaite is 58 from 56 and looking good to better her high score of 67.
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*sigh* One day the settler class in this country will wake up and realise they've stopped being anxious colonists in a foreign land. God knows when that'll be though.
What Tom said. I'm sorry to see them restored. I know Graeme's right that people don't yet know what our own honours meant and that is a failing, but it was remedial. Titular honours are long gone from Australia, the only country to have voted for the Queen in modern history (thanks John, you f**k), and everyone knows what an AM and OAM are...
I doubt Helen would accept a titular honour. My memory is that Lange didn't, though he could've, and James Brendan Bolger most certainly won't lest his Irish cousins sort him out (as well they should).
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DeepRed, you mean one of the affected workers?
Brownlee's obfuscation is laughable. Like more and more of National's pre-election commitments, this one's increasingly hollow.
I'm still waiting to hear how they'll entice all us expats back? I clearly remember the images of Key wandering about the Caketin lamenting the flow of PLT departures to Australia. It was never in his direct power to solve, other than at the margins, but the claim was oft-repeated including on those crappy billboards and yet not a peep about it when he was recently in Sydney for his meeting with Rudd.
There's some things Key's doing better than I expected but that's no reason to exempt him from accountability for the false-promises of the campaign.
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I can imagine the look on Grant's face when he got that answer. Half disbelieving, half "let me file that away in my brain and use it to screw you over later".
As it happens, I caught up with Grant just recently and he made the point that having said they'd be no cut front-line services, that's exactly what's happened with, for instance, the TEC!
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Paul, it was because the industry said he should. Up until that point, there had been no suggestion that Key would take the portfolio. Lindsay Tisch was spokesman for Tourism in opposition.
That's interesting and I didn't know however, every industry almost certainly wants the PMs ear/oversight I'm sure. My point is that how's he going to retool, to use his words, precisely, which industries will be the priority and benefit and which won't?
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"We can use this time to transform the economy to make us stronger so that when the world starts growing again we can be running faster than other countries we compete with."
There's an intuitive appeal to this statement, though I wonder what rises and what falls?
I am yet to work out why the PM thought he should take tourism on, cynically I thought it might be the media opportunities, but clearly tourism is a major export earner (pity it's also high impact and low yeild).
Over at kiwiblog there's a lengthy thread about the nine day fortnight, I don't know that it'll get up, but if part of the tenth day is intensive training, that'd be positive. NZ has a world class workplace training infrastructure that must surely be part of the retooling and although officials hate it, I'd argue the priority for investment must be industry that will improve our export intensity.
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There's parts of PSMs piece I can easily relate too, particularly since the clarifications, and others I can't.
It occurs to me that some of the constraints public servants operate under aren't overtly political, they're the none-so-subtle dead-weight of less than talented managers. My problem with the NZ public service wasn't with the senior people, it was the middle managers - and I don't mean to slight PSM here - who were far more timid than seemed warranted. Perhaps it's a Xer thing too, but many of my frustrations weirdly correlated with people who'd done little other than public service (and I say this having spent probably half my professional life in NZ, NSW or Australian public sector agencies).
One other point worth considering, are the limitations of public service really unique to public service. Certainly the OIA is, but corporates have plenty of disclosure requirements that compare.
I've recently been doing some study with the Macquarrie School of Management which has included numerous case studies of domestic and international corporates operating so unbelievably poorly it's astounding more haven't failed (and many have). Interestingly even the case studies on vision and mission, the stuff PSM most distains, included corporates with strategies entirely divorced from market dynamics, structural impediments and organisational capability.
The public service has failings, for sure, but are they more or more significant than the private sector - more than Bear Sterns, Bridgecorp or Fisher Pykel? Jus say'n.
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Semi-shameless link whoring: if anyone's got contacts with the Kea network in Australia can they please alert them to the fantastic progress the White Ferns are making in the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup. Having defeated the number one ranked home team on the weekend, they're now odds-on to win their side of the competition and to play England, Saturday 14th at the truly lovely North Sydney Oval.
Having attended the win over Australia, I can advise that the North Sydney Oval is one of the nicest grounds I've ever watched cricket and it's totally family-friendly.
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For a lawyer, Franks really doesn't seem to have much time for natural justice.
Oh come on now RB, that's some outadate crazy individual rights-based paradigm your using there...
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On Sunday night, Australia's Seven network kicked off its new current affairs show by looking at Pacific Brands' flight from local manufacture -- confronting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd with tearful workers made redundant by a company that has frequently traded on nationalistic passion
The contrast is fascinating but perhaps a little false. I wonder what Key would have done if he'd had a $200 billion surplus too? You do what you can I guess.
Both Reserve Banks have moved aggressively to improve liquidity, it's just the fiscal response that's different but it is markedly different. Without speaking out of tune, or rather jeopardising my employment, the combined effort of Commonwealth and state governments to prop up employment is huge (and not only via direct grants).
The Herald's editor-at-large, Paul Sheehan, excoriated Rudd yesterday comparing him with Whitlam and predicting long-term deficits. Economic activity has held up however this won't last - contracts and prices for coal and iron ore are softening and, I heard, something like 70 per cent of the grants have been saved/applied to debt (though retail numbers were very strong when last reported).
I'll be interested to see what your panel's views are. There's a growing divergence in commentary here between those that argue Rudd spent the surplus exactly when the rain was most heavy and others who think he, and Obama too, over reacted.