Labour / NZ First Government

[greater fool]

Two comments from letters to the editor re elections that I agree with.

"Show me the five new bridges in Northland. "

Can you explain to me; how you expect a party in opposition to progress the building of bridges?

National weren't in opposition when they made the promise in 2015. Bridges didn't deliver the bridges.

But Transport Minister Simon Bridges reaffirmed his 2015 "10 Bridges" commitment to Northland and promised the bridges would be built - with one exception.
The promise to turn 10 one-way bridges in Northland into double-lane bridges was made during the 2015 byelection which saw NZ First's Winston Peters take the seat from National.
National lost the byelection but said it would stand by its promise to build bridges which had not been priority projects on NZTA's list of roading projects.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=11919885

Fair enough. Five bridges proposed and constructed in the 2 years up to the election.
That's a useful baseline of your expectations.

Do you think the current administration has been successful in meeting that standard with respect to progress on some of their election policies?
How many trees? How many houses? Reductions in child poverty? Remuneration to teachers and nurses?

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU20...avoidable.html

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-z...ay-parity.html

[Balance]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12357808

Covid 19 coronavirus: Roger Partridge - The inconvenient questions over NZ's virus setback

Why weren't border staff tested?

It must have been obvious to him (Hipkins) from the results that border staff at airports, ports and managed isolation facilities were not being routinely tested. Why, then, did neither Ministers fail to act urgently to ensure the promised testing was carried out?

What about political accountability?

Hipkins' stance is like the chair of an airline admitting that routine maintenance was not carried out after a plane has crashed. An admission of responsibility would not satisfy the airline's customers, shareholders or the courts.

Is New Zealand's elimination strategy sustainable?

In the past week, the country has had a reality check. Like youth, eradication does not last forever. Instead, New Zealand faces spells of freedom, interrupted by unpredictable periods in lockdown. And with slim chances of an effective treatment or vaccine any time soon, the country risks its borders remaining closed to the rest of the world indefinitely.

Why is the alert level system still so blunt?

Auckland firms and workers doubtless breathed a sigh of relief on Friday evening when they heard the city would not face the full force of an alert level 4 lockdown.

But the alert level 3 restrictions are still extremely blunt. Rules that allow dairies to stay open, but not greengrocers, butchers or bakers are hard to understand.

They are also unnecessarily restrictive. And the restrictions matter. Auckland's lockdown will evaporate about a billion dollars of New Zealanders' incomes. A billion dollars is an abstract figure. But people will soon see the concrete effects playing out in job losses around New Zealand. Once again, the tourism and hospitality sectors will be hit hardest.

[Balance]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...sting-failures

First David Clark, then Megan Woods, then Chris Hipkins and now Heather Woods.

Conclusive proof that Cindy is a government of incompetents.

[jonu]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...sting-failures

First David Clark, then Megan Woods, then Chris Hipkins and now Heather Woods.

Conclusive proof that Cindy is a government of incompetents.

I think you mean Helen Clark's special friend Heather Simpson.

It's clear to anyone observing that Ardern hasn't a clue on how to develop policy and implement it. She is a master at painting a pretty picture and virtue signaling.

Interesting to note that only 24 hours after Collins and Brownlee's barb to the media to shake off the Cindy dust, the media are finally asking harder questions of the government. Yesterday they went off at Brownlee for suggesting they were soft on Ardern, and boy did they squeal. Methinks they did "doth protest too much".

[blackcap]

At least its good to know that the transmission via frozen foods theory was debunked and was just a conspiracy after all...

[jonu]

I thought it despicable of Ardern to lay blame at border and quarantine workers in the house yesterday (while at the same time saying she wasn't really blaming them). Webb laid her conceit bare when he pointed out testing hadn't been mandatory until Aug 12. It reminded me of her throwing clinicians under the bus when questions were asked about testing levels when we were at level 4.

The Military follow orders. Ardern and her government don't know how to give them. An obvious problem has been the lack of respect various Public Servants have given to their Ministers. They know under Cindy no one is held accountable.

[Balance]

I thought it despicable of Ardern to lay blame at border and quarantine workers in the house yesterday (while at the same time saying she wasn't really blaming them). Webb laid her conceit bare when he pointed out testing hadn't been mandatory until Aug 12. It reminded me of her throwing clinicians under the bus when questions were asked about testing levels when we were at level 4.

The Military follow orders. Ardern and her government don't know how to give them. An obvious problem has been the lack of respect various Public Servants have given to their Ministers. They know under Cindy no one is held accountable.

Monkey 🐒 see, monkey 🐒🐒🐒🐒 do.

Accountability is definitely not in Cindy’s makeup - Phil Twyford at #4 says it all.

[Balance]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...ddled-accounts

What a mess & muddle Cindy & her incompetents have made of border testing.

‘Tests were being offered to some workers, and some tests weren’t being taken. None of it was regular or routine, and Cabinet ministers were – for weeks – either blind to the problem or labouring under the belief their orders were being followed.‘

A government without a clue how to manage a simple quarantine border control system - that’s why Cindy’s team of incompetents have achieved or delivered bugger all of the huge promises they made in 2017.

[moka]

Fair enough. Five bridges proposed and constructed in the 2 years up to the election.
That's a useful baseline of your expectations.

Do you think the current administration has been successful in meeting that standard with respect to progress on some of their election policies?
How many trees? How many houses? Reductions in child poverty? Remuneration to teachers and nurses?

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU20...avoidable.html

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-z...ay-parity.html

Only two bridges completed as far as I am aware - Matakohe and Taipa. A third, the Kaeo Bridge is scheduled to start this year.
Kaeo Bridge - Oct 2020 – earthworks commence
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/connecting-northland/twin-coast-discovery-route/kaeo-bridge/

I am disappointed with how little Labour has achieved, but I have high expectations.
Lots of obstacles to implementing policies e.g. coalition government, keeping the voters happy = capital gains/tax reform, and nimbyism with state housing.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/h...-state-housing
Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said it was a situation that had developed over an extended period of time.
"The supply of land available for housing has not been sufficient to meet demand, which has been a significant contributor to the worsening of housing affordability. However, zoning and development decisions by local councils have arguably been captured by existing homeowners, who benefit from this constrained supply via the increasing value of their properties," Kiernan said.
"Opposition to new developments from nimbies also typically far outweighs the number of people who are actively in support of the developments, particularly when intensification is involved.

[moka]

Greens co-leader James Shaw has hit back at the earlier comments that referred to "gaping holes" at the border. He says, if this was the case, then Covid-19 would have reemerged a lot sooner among the thousands of people that have come back to NZ over the past few months.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300...ys-of-lockdown