National - FFS!

[Joshuatree]

50% to GDP in 2024 and the lowest number in the world. National borrowed money too.

They sold assets during their nine years of little-to-no delivery and reduced nz's balance sheets.

And now they want to borrow alot more with their black hole tunnels and roads, deeper and deeper , think big ehh LOL.

[Balance]

And now they want to borrow alot more with their black hole tunnels and roads, deeper and deeper , think big ehh LOL.

Oh dear, minister sacked for inappropriate relationship with staffer. Getting deeper and deeper indeed!

[BlackPeter]

Welcome to the mudpit!

While it seems to be clear that none of the parties in parliament seems to be able to select only candidates which are consistently able to behave in a professional manner (maybe with the exception of ACT and the Green party if we just look into the recent term), am I always surprised about the one-eyed approach of some of the posters around here.

As well - both larger parties have long lists of election promises they failed to achieve. Endless repetitions of them do not improve the standard of the discussion if I may say so.

The saying with glass houses and throwing stones springs to mind.

Any chance we could move the discussion to less nastyness and more substance?

Who has the best plan to re-open the borders?
Who has the best plan to grow the economy?
Any ideas to improve our consistently faulty and (as well nasty) so called justice system?
Education?
Housing?
Health-system?
Taxation?

BTW - just started to read some party policies. Anybody else read the Justice policy of the Green party (https://www.greens.org.nz/justice_policy)? It does look surprisingly humane and sensible to me ... how refreshing to have somebody who is not asking for locking up more and more people (of which some by the way prove to be innocent) but try to address the root causes of the problems:

Victims of crime should be at the centre of restorative justice
Prisons are a last resort because they’re expensive and often don’t work to reduce crime
Everyone has a right to access to justice and cost should not be a barrier
Break the cycle of family violence
Ah yes, and given that 50% of our prison population happen to have Maori roots - maybe it does makes sense to involve them in shaping and improving our justice system?

The old ACT / National / Labour approach of increasing penalties and locking up more and more people (whether they are guilty or innocent, just important to lock somebody up) and throwing the key away clearly do not work. NOWHERE in this world.

[RTM]

So Adern is advised of Faloon's indiscretions, lets Judith know and get on and resolve it. She didn't seem to make political capital out of it,

Someone advises Judith, she lets Adern know and seemed to then go to the press.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...abour-minister

I know who acted better, it confirms my thoughts about Judy Collins. Sadly.

[Balance]

So Adern is advised of Faloon's indiscretions, lets Judith know and get on and resolve it. She didn't seem to make political capital out of it,

Someone advises Judith, she lets Adern know and seemed to then go to the press.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...abour-minister

I know who acted better, it confirms my thoughts about Judy Collins. Sadly.

Sanctimonious garbage. Everyone in Parliament according to Barry Soper knew about the affair for months!

Cindy is so remote and removed from her people that she had no idea? Nobody bothered to let her know?

And she was able to react so quickly this morning?

Pigs just flew across the Wellington skies. 🤣

It is clear to that Comrade Cindy must have known but kept quiet so her hand had to be forced.

And her reaction is to go off like a firecracker - proving the point.

[moka]

The saying with glass houses and throwing stones springs to mind.

Any chance we could move the discussion to less nastyness and more substance?

BTW - just started to read some party policies. Anybody else read the Justice policy of the Green party (https://www.greens.org.nz/justice_policy)? It does look surprisingly humane and sensible to me ... how refreshing to have somebody who is not asking for locking up more and more people (of which some by the way prove to be innocent) but try to address the root causes of the problems:

Victims of crime should be at the centre of restorative justice
Prisons are a last resort because they’re expensive and often don’t work to reduce crime
Everyone has a right to access to justice and cost should not be a barrier
Break the cycle of family violence
Ah yes, and given that 50% of our prison population happen to have Maori roots - maybe it does makes sense to involve them in shaping and improving our justice system?

The old ACT / National / Labour approach of increasing penalties and locking up more and more people (whether they are guilty or innocent, just important to lock somebody up) and throwing the key away clearly do not work. NOWHERE in this world.

I agree, the evidence is that prisons don’t work to reduce crime and reoffending.
The empirical evidence it offers supports the hypothesis that entrenched criminal habits are strongly associated with the worst kinds of upbringing.

The typical prisoner seen in the SEU’s data was raised in a family used to crime and imprisonment. His school life was ruined by truanting, exclusion and being taken into care. (95% of the UK’s prison population of 94,000 is male.) He is too illiterate and innumerate for all but the most menial employment. His bad state of mental and physical health is aggravated by addiction to drugs or alcohol or both. He is poor, dependent on state benefits, and constantly in debt. He has no settled home-life.

Is it right that they alone should be held responsible for offences they would probably not have committed but for their bad luck of being born into the kind of circumstances that dispose men to crime?
https://philosophynow.org/issues/102/Prison_Doesnt_Work

[moka]

The politicians that make the laws want to be above the law because laws are about law and order and keeping Others in order, not them.
More than a year on from a damning report on Parliament as a toxic workplace, MPs are refusing to establish an independent commission to police bad behaviour.
In a sweeping review released last May, consultant Debbie Francis identified a systemic bullying and harassment problem within the corridors of power.

Francis said MPs were “treated like gods” with a “master-servant relationship”. She said there was a clear picture of a handful of MPs whose behaviour fitted the definition of bullying and harassment.
She described hearing about unreasonably aggressive behaviour, language or gestures, that five reported sexual assault to Francis, and all the allegations involved male-on-female violence.

“Some old characters have to move on before the place will finally change,” the insider said. “Some of them don’t want to be accountable, and think they can do what they want, as we have seen in the last 24 hours.
“They think they are a law unto themselves, and that is how it has operated for a very long time.”
Francis said “I am aware from member interviews that some members view a code of conduct as unnecessarily prescriptive or overly politically correct,” she wrote.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122194450/men-and-women-behaving-badly-why-wont-mps-sign-a-code-of-conduct

[artemis]

So Adern is advised of Faloon's indiscretions, lets Judith know and get on and resolve it. She didn't seem to make political capital out of it,

Someone advises Judith, she lets Adern know and seemed to then go to the press.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...abour-minister

I know who acted better, it confirms my thoughts about Judy Collins. Sadly.

It is being reported that the media was aware before Ms Collins said anything publicly. In her interview today she said she was asked a direct question by Duncan Garner and replied also directly but without naming names. Mr Garner was not asking a random question.

[Balance]

It is being reported that the media was aware before Ms Collins said anything publicly. In her interview today she said she was asked a direct question by Duncan Garner and replied also directly but without naming names. Mr Garner was not asking a random question.

Exactly! Comrade Cindy’s spin doctors trying to hide behind the sanctimonious garbage that Collins did not act honourably as Cindy.

It is clear imo that Cindy knew and her hand was forced - resulting in the disaster it is for LG & Labour.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12350115

Jacinda Ardern must have been the last person to know that the minister she's protected through thick and thin had been having an affair with a staffer.

The rumour mill over Iain Lees-Galloway's behaviour has been working overtime for months now.

The Prime Minister insists she was unaware of it - which raises the question over whether she's in touch with her party and in particular her ministry.

If she's not in touch with what's going on around her, surely those who are employed to keep her informed have dismally failed her.

[RTM]

Sanctimonious garbage. Everyone in Parliament according to Barry Soper knew about the affair for months!

Cindy is so remote and removed from her people that she had no idea? Nobody bothered to let her know?

And she was able to react so quickly this morning?

Pigs just flew across the Wellington skies. ��

It is clear to that Comrade Cindy must have known but kept quiet so her hand had to be forced.

And her reaction is to go off like a firecracker - proving the point.

Judith Collins acting right in line with her past character IMO. Leopards don't change their spots evidently.
You guys can have her.....I won't be voting National with her at the helm.
Amazing what you can ignore.