Posts by Danyl Mclauchlan
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Danyl, so which large chunks of the private sector in New Zealand are being saved by the "public service"?
Domestically (to their credit) the government have just let all the failed finance and investment companies die - but I've lost count of how many times the taxpayer has bailed out BNZ, we bought Air New Zealand on the brink of insolvency and just guaranteed the deposits of every bank in the country.
You might not have heard, but internationally much of the worlds financial and investment companies have been nationalised in the last few months, and many of the largest auto and media companies in the world are on the verge of bankruptcy.
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Talking with such leaders it was apparent that they believe the public service is ill-equipped to provide Key's Cabinet with the strong intellectual leadership now required to ensure skilful responses as the crisis morphs into different phases.
This might make a little more sense if huge chunks of the private sector weren't currently being saved from financial oblivion by the public service, after years of staggering incompetence.
If Key looks to 'corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, lawyers and accountants' for his intellectual leadership we'll be lucky to have running water in three years.
Key seems a lot more pragmatic than that, but I find it astonishing that people like O'Sullivan still think that the corporate world is run by awesome genius's with magical powers. Does she even read her own newspaper?
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My failed attempt to coin a phrase was 'Tinkerblogger', defined as the author of a blog who believes that by writing about something with great frequency or conviction they will cause it to be true.
See The Standard's coverage of the NZ election or (much funnier) NoMinister on the US campaign.
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You were pretty much completely wrong about everything.
I was, wasn't I? I will concede, through gritted teeth, that I have made myself look like a dick.
I spoke to someone who spoke to Denise Roche on Saturday night, who said she was in tears about attracting electorate votes that could have kept the seat with Labour.
My initial impression, looking at some of those close electorate seats, was that the Greens were fools not to tell their supporters to vote strategically (in Peter Dunne's electorate esp).
On the other hand, what has Labour ever done to deserve that kind of support from the Greens? They shafted 'em three years ago and picked Dunne and Peters over the Greens and the Maori's.
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Hundreds of of people attended the US Embassy event at the Michael Fowler Centre on the evening of Nov 5. It was a big deal, and ministers would have been invited. No ministers fronting would probably have been written up as a snub.
I really doubt it; even if this were the case, a local MP with responsibilities in international relations who wasn't on the verge of losing their seat might have been a more appropriate choice. I don't think there's any way to put a positive spin on an embassy party three days out from the election although your loyalty in attempting to do so is admirable.
Every MP has friends and family who wishes that everybody would just leave their mate alone and go pick on someone else. But if you become an MP then the opposition IS going to have a go at you and if you're letting your own team down then you're going to come under fire from behind as well.
Judith Tizard lost, but not by a huge margin and its likely that if she'd stood down and let someone new, who would trouble themselves to actually campaign for the seat have a go then Labour would have an additional electorate MP with all the advantages that confers.
I find all this talk about voting for someone because they're cool and great to hang out with suspiciously similar to the 'I voted for Bush because he'd be fun to drink beer with' mentality that troubles American elections. Personally I vote on the basis of competence and ability - I might not posses either of those qualities myself but I like my politicians to be very unlike me in that respect.
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So I've been disappointed by the sheer bile heaped on her before and after her relatively narrow loss in Auckland Central. You know the score: "minister of nothing", "lazy", "arrogant". The MP who would go to the opening of an envelope.
I can't help feel this is partly directed at me; its worth pointing out that three days before the election when ever other major party candidate in the country was trying to cover every inch of their electorate and surviving on a couple of hours sleep a night Judith Tizard popped up on TV3 news at the US Embassy party in Wellington celebrating their election results - champagne glass in hand. All the Aucklanders who were wondering where their Labour candidate was during the campaign - there's your answer. I'm sorry Russell, but there's a reason your friend enjoys such a terrible reputation.
There's certainly been a lot of horrible stuff said about Tizard over the years; slurs about her appearance, private life ect. But there's also been a lot of valid criticism, much of it from within her own party. Aspiring Labour MPs were livid that someone with no ambition and no inclination towards government whatsoever has been allowed to occupy such a high position on the party list and a (previously) safe electorate seat.
Its great that your friend is such a nice person and that she goes to cool concerts and so forth but Judith Tizard was also a senior public servant on a salary of almost quarter of a million dollars a year - more than most company directors - with a multi-million dollar budget. She was supposed to be governing the country not playing Werewolf at Kiwi Foo camp.
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we simply never saw the likes of Stephen Joyce, the new list MP and (we are told) anointed Cabinet minister.
It was a 'presidential' campaign; we never really saw anyone from either party except the two leaders. (The exception being Smith and Williamson but its fairly safe to say that wasn't intentional.)
Joyce was on Agenda yesterday; he came across well and seemed both smart and humble which is not a claim you can often make about that shows interview subjects.
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Which couldn't be done within the Ministry of Justice like the rest of crime prevention?
Or the Ministry of Social Development?
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And I also suspect he has received an assurance as to the future of the Families Commission. I've got no problem with that at all.
Yes, if things look grim now imagine where we'd be without the Families Commission.
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So what’s he done throwing his hat in with the Nats?
Dunne hates the Greens and any Labour government would have a very strong Green component. I'm also guessing that Dunne will have a better cabinet post than Minister of Revenue under Key. The Nats don't have much talent these days (although they might get some good people this time round) and Dunne is a safe pair of hands to give a tricky portfolio to.