A bunch of clowns

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, March 15th, 2009 - 17 comments
Categories: same old national - Tags:

clowns1Poor old Nick Smith. Not only is he stuck peddling long-disproved lies about ACC but now it seems he can’t even get a simple procedure like sacking Ross Wilson right.

According to the Sunday Star Times Smith hadn’t managed to properly sack Wilson by midday Friday and may not even have managed it so far:

when Smith announced Wilson’s sacking he skipped a vital legal step advising the board secretary in writing.

This left Wilson and Judge in limbo, at least until noon Friday it could not be clarified last night whether the changeover had been made legal since then.

Smith is also planning to sack some members of the ACC board, and wants a new board in place by the end of the month.

It is relatively easy for ministers to sack board members, but certain boxes must be ticked. These include the minister giving written notification to the board member, and sending a copy to the board secretary. It is understood Smith fudged both these steps and that as late as lunchtime Friday no letter had been received by the secretary.

Of course the whole ACC debacle has seen Bill English lying about who was to blame for it not being in the prefu, Nick Smith lying about how much levies need to go up next year and about the state of the scheme’s finances and John Key lying about the sacking of Wilson and his replacement with a business round table mate “not being political”.

And now we find out they can’t even follow the simple process required to remove Wilson properly? What a bunch of lying clowns.

17 comments on “A bunch of clowns ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. infused 1
    15 March 2009 at 5:04 pm

    The only clown is you.

    IrishBill: That’s so witty. You’re banned for a month.

  2. Mark 2
    15 March 2009 at 5:13 pm

    A bit childish dont you think.
    Would the procedure for sacking a board member not be responsibility of the senior public servants in that particular department?.
    It wouldnt be an attempt to embarrass a new minister by appointees of a previous government by any chance.4th

  3. Outsider 3
    15 March 2009 at 5:42 pm

    Mark –
    In the normal course of events, yes, but not when the Minister takes over the role of the Chief Executive as he appears to have done.

  4. sweeetdisorder 4
    15 March 2009 at 6:40 pm

    Sorry for the threadjacking, but I can’t find anywhere else appropriate.

    Is there going to be live blogging from Greymouth this week finding out why labour lost the election?

    IrishBill: Apologising for trolling before trolling is an interesting tactic but doesn’t stop your comment being trolling. Consider this a warning.

    • DeeDub 4.1
      15 March 2009 at 6:43 pm

      That’s because there isn’t anywhere appropriate on this blog to ask such a lame-assed question.

  5. sweeetdisorder 5
    15 March 2009 at 7:26 pm

    why the warning Irish?

    Wrong thread?
    I accept that, but could not find any appropriate thread to ask my question.

    Asking if there was to be live blogging from the Labour caucus in Greymouth this week?
    Asking if said caucus is going to examine issues facing NZers.
    Or finally, mentioning that labour lost the election?

    Is this not a labour friendly blog, is this not a question about the labour party caucus event this week in which your own leader says , of said caucus “bringing the Labour caucus better in touch with the views of ordinary New Zealanders.”

    So, why the threat to ban Irish?

    IrishBill: Take a week off for being disingenuous.
    [lprent: You could ask those things of the Labour Party – we are not them. Read this about telling us what to do. Write 5000 times “I must not be a fuckwit on the standard and tell them what they should write”. Have another week on me to finish it because like IB I think that you’re trolling a line.]

  6. Trust me Satan 6
    15 March 2009 at 8:20 pm

    Good job Bill

  7. Andrew W 7
    15 March 2009 at 9:20 pm

    Someone needs to grow up.

  8. Kevin Welsh 8
    15 March 2009 at 11:19 pm

    Methinks the honeymoon is definitely over.

  9. Irascible 9
    16 March 2009 at 1:44 am

    When will the NZ media & public begin to recognise the emperor’s not wearing the clothes he was dressed in by the royal tailors “Crosby & Textor” and that 2009 is the great reveal of the old wardrobe hy the traditional tailors “Pompous & Arrogance” (est 1938.)

  10. Clint Heine 10
    16 March 2009 at 5:50 am

    Wow, some people need to go lie down and chill out. I didn’t see anything nasty behind those comments. You more than any other blog might be very good at pointing out the faults in Labour. If I did it it would take me all day and I wouldn’t be at all helpful 🙂

    • lprent 10.1
      16 March 2009 at 8:27 am

      We don’t like thread jacking, especially in the first few comments of a post. It tends to spiral out in to a meaningless flame war. That is what infused was trying on, and sd in a more subtle form.

      I intensely dislike being told implicitly or explicitly what we should do on our own blog. That was why sd got added time.

      Anyway back to the post. These bozo’s can’t even manage simple dismissal procedures. You can see why they’re trying to remove employee protections. They have shown themselves to be too stupid to follow even the extremely simple ones for the ACC board.

  11. toad 11
    16 March 2009 at 7:52 am

    Mark said: Would the procedure for sacking a board member not be responsibility of the senior public servants in that particular department?.
    It wouldnt be an attempt to embarrass a new minister by appointees of a previous government by any chance.

    No, Mark, the procedure would be the responsibility of politically appointed Ministerial Services officials in the Minister’s office, and ultimately that of the Minister himself. The buck very definitely stops with Nick Smith here.

  12. BLiP 12
    16 March 2009 at 9:41 am

    This is classic National under John Key – plenty of ideas (all bad), zero attention to details, and even less ability exhibited in the execution.

    Just look at The Goober’s plan to run a strip of concrete the length of our once ‘clean, green’ country for – what was the original figure he mentioned – $30 million? Does this include the cost of land purchases, consultation with affected communities, creating access roads so concrete carrying trucks can get to to remote points along the route (or maybe they are planning on using helicopters), what about the reinforcing steel – will that be helicoptered in as well, will the government make use of the labour services soon to be provided by the owners of private prisons, etc etc etc.

    Bunch of clowns – more like a bunch of hollow puppets.

  13. keith 13
    16 March 2009 at 6:23 pm

    Good post IB but i’m personally offended that you’ve painted the clowns with red hair.

  14. John Dalley 14
    16 March 2009 at 6:24 pm

    Bozo the clown and his understudy!

  15. Snail 15
    17 March 2009 at 10:51 pm

    IB,

    how interesting, you start out with the ‘pedalling’ word and I wrap with it — gimme a click for Debate of the Week – 2.

    enjoy!