Posts by James Liddell
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I popped over to see what Mr. Farrar had to say on the subject, but it appears that after his telling off by his beloved leader he has decided to play it safe and go with a culture war diversion by rarking up his base with an utterly irrelevant video of George Galloway.
And no discussion of the revelations regarding Ms Lee that were aired on Campbell Live last night.
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Actually, I feel that the news story we're missing at the moment is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the surprise appointment of a businessman to chief executive...
And that his name was confirmed in the public domain prior to the appointment. What does that say about the organisation (or Minister's office) tasked with keeping NZ's secrets?
Prime Minister John Key said yesterday he was unhappy Mr Allen's name was in the public domain before he was officially appointed, "and I have made my unhappiness known".
He did not believe it was a leak from the Cabinet or from the ministry. "I do have a sense of where it came from and I am grumpy about it."
That wouldn't be Mr Farrar would it?
Hat tip: SamIam at The Standard
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A couple of weeks ago Bill Maher had an interesting discussion about how batshit crazy and paranoid Beck and the other right-wingers are now that they're out of power.
And this being Zombie Jeebus day, I'd just like to give thanks for the fact that we don't have anyone close to Beck or Hannity on our televisions here. I mean Paul Henry really doesn't compare on the grand scale of things, does he?
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And Barack Obama would reach a huge audience by presenting himself to be ritually shat on by Rush Limbaugh
Have you been listening to Bill Hicks, Craig? (NB link definitely NSFW)
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I'm more interested to see where Cullen ends up. To me that's more of an interesting unknown.
Treaty settlement negotiations. He loved that portfolio last year. And was bloody good at it too.
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Sounds as though it was pretty much like I'd imagined it'd be. But hey, at least Paul Henry isn't on there.
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Thanks, Sacha. Didn't see that this morning but will make sure I hunt it down when it's up on On Demand.
It's good that Key's not averse to it it, even if he and English canned pretty concrete plans for such a specific scheme made by the previous Govt. And I agree with Russell Norman, it doesn't matter who does it, as long as it gets done. But someone should certainly tell Paula Bennett that, because she was definitely not singing from the same songbook in her interview on Friday.
What did you think of Q&A? Worth watching? Does it compare well with Agenda?
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I, for one would rather see homes insulated as part of a stimulant package, making our homes more energy efficient would reduce home expenditure on heating and increase discretionary spending.
But that was a Labour-Green idea, and therefore part of the nanny state Helen knows best agenda. Just like energy efficient light bulbs. Haven't you been paying attention, Steve? New Zealand voted National on November 8, and with that we got back our personal freedom. I, for one, am glad that poor and elderly New Zealanders can continue to choose to live in cold, drafty and damp houses. :-)
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can we have Paula Bennett? She is minister for, what, four ministries? I want to know what she thinks about the portfolios she runs, why she thinks it, what she sees as the future for them...
Bennett''s only responsible for one Ministry: MSD. She has three portfolios - Social Development and Employment, Disability Issues and Youth Affairs. But Disability Issues and Youth Affairs are both run from within MSD, and neither are vey heavy portfolios policy-wise. SD&E is, however, a very time consuming and difficult portfolio which would challenge the most experienced Minister.
And, to be honest, I don't think she's been acquitting herself very well when she actually does have to answer serious questions.
Her performance during this interview on Friday left a lot to be desired methinks.
I worry Bennett's a sacrificial lamb...If she fails, does a kinder, softer National fail too?
I don't think Key et al. see her as much more than a "soft face" for the portfolio, and certainly not a key Minister (if you'll excuse the pun). Remember, she was excluded from the Ministerial team that was planning the Jobs Summit and the economic "recovery" packages. Which is a bit odd when considering that her major portfolio is Social Development & EMPLOYMENT, and that she is responsible for the largest Budget Vote. Policy-wise she hasn't achieved anything that would be commensurate with a "softer" National.
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Maybe government should require reporters to have passed Stats 101 and Public Policy Making 101 (at least) before being accredited to the parliamentary press corp? May not cover all reporting of public service issues, and newspapers shouldn't be Pravda, but it might help?
Accreditation is through the Chair of the gallery and the Speaker, not the Government.
And a lot of the stories you read that have a political dimension are not written (or otherwise reported) by reporters with accreditation. They're reporters whose only interactions with Ministerial offices or Departmental comms units are via phone and email. They're not the reporters you see in 3.2 or Copperfields and have a beer with in the evening. They are, however, the ones who are most likely to take a presser and reprint it almost verbatim (except for inserting their name in the byline). Dealing with an inquiry from these sorts of reporters can be like playing Russian roulette IMHO - you never know what your careful explication is going to be mangled into.