Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Kia kaha, Helen Kelly, in reply to Alfie,
I don’t know personally, but according to Helen’s TS post, there are eight criteria to be met when applying for a non-pharmaceutical grade product. While most of them are near-impossible to meet, especially for a sick or dying person, I’d say item 4 (hospitalisation) could be dropped overnight if the political will existed.
Hmmm. Perhaps I should have a look at the Act. It might be useful to have a checklist of unreasonable requirements that should be amended, and to see what's actually in the law.
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Hard News: Footpaths, not manifest destiny, in reply to Greg Presland,
And, dare I say it, but I agree with Nick Kearney. Much of the Council and Local Board business requires practical responses and competence rather than ideology is rewarded. People want to know what elected representatives think. But they want to be sure that if a problem is presented for solving then their elected representative can do this.
I sometimes think local boards haven't had enough credit. I'm not sure how it is in all the wards, but the local board members I know of seem helpful and engaged.
I don't know of any who are obvious wastes of space, which is more than can be said of one or two councillors. The system seems to work.
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Hard News: Footpaths, not manifest destiny, in reply to Rotmistrov,
Surely you can argue about library upgrades on a philosophical basis though? Maggie Thatcher didn’t like the concept of “free” libraries. Libraries began as private/subscription services.
A long time ago when Hard News was a weekly radio rant, the second most foul-mouthed edition ever* was in response to an appalling op-ed in the Herald by Doug Myers, in which he declared that libraries were not a public good because it was no use to him if a poor person could read books.
*The most abusive edition ever was in response to Alan Gibb’s famously barking neo-Victorian speech to a families conference, in which he blamed poor people’s access to contraception (which allowed them to behave immorally) for the problem of poverty. There were not enough four-letter words in the language for that one. -
In unsurprising news, Bob McCoskrie is an arsehole.
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Hard News: Kia kaha, Helen Kelly, in reply to Alfie,
It doesn’t matter how much pain a person is suffering, or whether alternative treatment would improve their quality of life. If they’re not hospitalised, they just don’t qualify. That’s ludicrous.
Do you know if the Medicines Act would have to be amended to get rid of ludicrous provisions like that – or is it just a matter of changing the regulation?
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Hard News: Footpaths, not manifest destiny, in reply to Nick Kearney,
There’s nothing antithetical about a centre right elected member working with the centre left, or the left in general. At least not at local board level. You can’t argue over parks maintenance, or library upgrades, on philosophical bases. That stuff belongs in academic writings, not at the coalface. There are some issues where an ideological view can proceed over pragmatism, but not many. Mostly, you need to get on at local board level at least, to get things done. These are the reasons I believe I was voted in as deputy chairman of the Kaipatiki Local Board in 2013, even though those voting for me were from Labour, and I was from Act (and they all knew it).
Thanks Nick. That's very much the kind of thing I meant.
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Hard News: Kia kaha, Helen Kelly, in reply to George Darroch,
Dunne’s managerialism here is rather pointy.
It is.
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Hard News: Footpaths, not manifest destiny, in reply to Ben Ross,
Now ask yourself this:
Why can Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse (Len could but he is stepping down) rally those of the Left and the Right but mayoral candidates, C&R and Auckland Future are struggling?Thanks for that, Ben. That's fascinating.
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Hard News: Kia kaha, Helen Kelly, in reply to Alfie,
Gah. That question mixes up decriminalisation and legalisation and appears with a story about medical cannabis. It's hard to have productive discussions when you don't know what you're talking about.
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Mo’ Wilson: Simon on the challenges of getting Auckland’s future right.
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