Posts by Shay Lambert
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That's Simon Barnett's job.
Ha, excellent.
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I understand your point Matthew, but nonetheless still have to respectfully disagree.
Their value to society (let's assume we have a roughly similar interpretation of what does and does not have social value) isn't why doctors are paid well - after all a plastic surgeon who only does boob jobs would almost certainly be better paid than a GP.
They get paid well because there are relatively few of them - a result of the high barrier of entry for this job - compared to the number of people who need their services.
The real question is how do you decide how much we should pay politicians when no one thinks they have any need of their services.
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Indeed. And they don't need the Prime Minister telling them to shut up either.
PM stomps on citizen for questioning his policies - it wasn't a great look. And we do have to do our part in reducing carbon emissions. Having said that, I do wish these celebrity lobbyists would STFU.
It irritates me how blithely dismissive they seem to be of the economic cost a 40% reduction could mean. Of course, I'm only concerned with trivialities like how I can support a family and pay the mortgage. These actors have the responsibility of SAVING THE WHOLE PLANET...
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However, one of the reasons for paying people more is recognition of the value they bring to society.
Nonsense. Rugby players are paid more than doctors. Shortland St actors are paid more than nurses and teachers. Traders playing the markets earn more than all of the above.
By all means rip the politicians for rorting the system, or for being a waste of your tax dollars, but the argument that they shouldn't be paid what the get paid because elsewhere people's renumeration is related to their value to society is simply not true.
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the extent, and depth, of the coverage of the Field, Bain and Weatherston trials?
Anyone done a compare and contrast of the coverage of the Bain and Weatherston trials and just about any other news story in the past year?
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If anything, it's been a major distraction at a time when we really need the media to shed light on Nick Smith's pathetic misrepresentations on carbon emissions reduction.
The gallery wasn't going to stop banging on about this until they claimed at least one scalp. Happily English offered his up on a platter so hopefully now they can move on to the political jiggery pokery that could actually have an effect on our lives.
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A few quick changes and this would never have looked as bad to the public.
What, you mean doctor the documents? Or change the rules and say it was just a coincidence they changed the day before release? Probably a no win for them, although they could have prepared their response a bit better.
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Hang English out to dry by all means - he might even deserve it and he probably shouldn't be alone - but I have a suspicion that if salaries and allowances were halved tomorrow, by this time next year some MP would be being flayed in the media for claiming $20 for a meal when "most hardworking Kiwi's can only afford fish and chips".
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I feel a game of political Bingo coming on (two squares already - why are you complaining about X when Y is happening, why aren't your properly grateful for what you already have...)
The problem is it's hard enough to get engaged in the political process at the best of times.
Going to be damn near impossible if travel receipts and rental allowances are the main political issue for the next month, and then every three months after that. If more transparency comes as a result, great. But endless populist tub thumping because all politicians are bastards is a good way to guarantee only populists and bastards run for parliament.
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we're paying for the services of a professional politician, and that if we didn't, the alternative cost us a lot more.
Quite right. Politicians are an easy target because they are almost by definition morally and ethically challenged - course voters can take some of the blame for that, we voted 'em in - and undergo years of training to become the pompous hypocrites we see.
But the sense I get from the coverage is that the media was going to hammer away relentlessly on this, regardless of whether anyone broke the rules (or laws).