Labour / NZ First Government

[Baa_Baa]

Classic!

To be fair, though - I don't think National would have hired a CTO who's main achievement was to destroy the shareholder capital of not just one but two New Zealand startups ... no matter how smooth he might be able to talk in secret meetings with ex-"open government" minsters ...

Hopefully National would not have even considered his application for the Poorly-defined role of CTO NZ. But we will never know about that.

There were so many superbly qualified applicants, it beggars belief that Handley could have risen to the top. He has no cred in NZ ICT.

I suspect the whole thing will be dumbed down to an impotent quango, but there is a small chance Labour will see the opportunity to strengthen the science advisor role.

[minimoke]

What’s behind this mini?

"The Prime Minister also needs to assure New Zealanders that the handling of Mr Handley's citizenship was above board, since he was quoted back in March saying: 'The Government changed and in its first month, this was done'," he said. (He being Bridges)

I.ve no idea. Its all a total SNAFU. Handley was born in Hong Kong (?) so maybe some issue with his parents or something. Who knows.

But citizenship status of second generation people is not a route Adern should go down. That Gorliz G in the Green Party is coming under more suspicion with her roots (not a "refugee", not a defender of war victims ec)

[BlackPeter]

Sounds like it is all getting a bit much for Winston.

First he remembers and claims that all of his MP's signed a contract which would have forced them to resign from parliament or pay a hefty penalty if they leave the party (for whatever reason even if they are fired form the party).

Than he claims that he had a memory lapse remembering they signed when they didn't.

I do see here a number of things to be concerned about. MP's should be only responsible to their electorate and to their conscience. Getting MP's to sign a "follow your party leader no matter what" order is clearly not a desirable requirement for any MP in a democratic system.

MP's need to disclose any financial interests. Peters expected them to take this interest on without declaring it. A severe breach of the standing orders. I call this crookedness.

Ah yes - and Peters memory lapse about them not signing it - are these the early signs of dementia? I guess, nothing wrong with that - only human, but not necessarily a suitable qualification to run the prime minister and her party and with that our country?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm...74&ref=twitter

[jonu]

Just how dumb does PM Cindy think the country is?

A 'blueprint' 12 months into govt, still with no detail, just lofty ambitions with no measurables or clear policy.

First we had the untransparent Transparency Minister, now the opaque vision as they start to finally come under scrutiny and the lack of cohesion in the coalition is exposed.

This is political cynicism at a level that is frightening. Made all the worse as it is the exact opposite of everything they promised.

[BlackPeter]

Hmm - she is talking about the achievements she is proud of, but forgot to detail them.

From memory - they did deliver:

- increased income tax
- new tourist tax
- increased petrol tax and increased road user charges
- a highly incompetent and wasteful government - good only for caterers
- the largest number of well catered for talk groups ever - bigliest talk feast of the world.
- clear evidence that a women quota alone does not improve goverment (thanks Clare, for proving that point ...)
- higher prices for all of us through a dropping Kiwidollar (sure, some sugar rush for exporters, but not sustainable and certainly not a reason to be proud of)
- lowest business confidence since the aftermaths of the GFC
- they killed for pure ideological reasons and against expert advise the future of oil and gas exploration in New Zealand - our children will need to pay for it with job losses and the environment will suffer (given that we still will use the stuff - just imported and mined with less regard for the environment);
- they hugely inflated the wage bill we all will need to pay (either through taxes or through dropping employment numbers) and
- ah yes, they killed off quite successful charter schools and boosted the strangle hold of a selfish union.

They promised but didn't manage to improve our justice system (and I think this certainly would need improving)
They promised that New Zealand might take a bit fairer share of the refugees quota - and they didn't deliver. Quite a shame for a country which is per head off the population in the top 10% of the wealth lists.

Ah yes - and they promised to build 10.000 houses more per year. How many did they deliver so far - was it 36? And I am not even sure, whether these have been on top of the usual quota ...

And Cindy says she is proud of her governments achievements?

Really? She must be easy to please.

[tga_trader]

Hmm - she is talking about the achievements she is proud of...

But she had a baby, surely that's worth a few votes

[minimoke]

Just how dumb does PM Cindy think the country is?

A 'blueprint' 12 months into govt, still with no detail, just lofty ambitions with no measurables or clear policy.

First we had the untransparent Transparency Minister, now the opaque vision as they start to finally come under scrutiny and the lack of cohesion in the coalition is exposed.

This is political cynicism at a level that is frightening. Made all the worse as it is the exact opposite of everything they promised.

Someone needs to give her a dictionary. A "plan" or a "blueprint" is something that has detail. It will list the resources needed to achieve the aim. And it will have a timeframe.

What she has done is given a statement on the destination. But absolutely no detail on how to get there.

I could dissect the waffle. But cant be bothered. I will however pin this up "The One Billion Trees programme is another way that we are generating jobs and environmental benefits, and comes with the added benefit of creating an actual live online tree counter." Because all i really want from this government is an on line tree counter - as long as they are Rubicon sourced trees.

[BlackPeter]

But she had a baby, surely that's worth a few votes

True - forgot that. But than, don't tell Clarke that the baby is a government achievement ;

[winner69]

So Jacinda knows what this weeks GDP figure is?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/107...wth-hint-claim

Good to know the economy is growing quite strongly

You'd think it's all because of Jacinda and her team .....but governments don't influence economic growth that much anyway

[minimoke]

So Jacinda knows what this weeks GDP figure is?

Another porky. Apparently the information is embargoed by Statistics until 10:45am on thursday and the PM doesnt get to hear until then. Maybe shes confusing unaudited crown accounts with GDP.

As an aside - more incompetence with a Labour Policy Development Group. Announcement on Tax Working Group due to be released at 11.00 am Thursday. How do they expect the media to be in two places at once.