Daily Review 15/05/2017

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, May 15th, 2017 - 20 comments
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Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

20 comments on “Daily Review 15/05/2017 ”

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  1. mickysavage 1
    15 May 2017 at 5:45 pm

    Sounds like Ngaro was forced to give the grovelling apology …

    From Lloyd Burr at Newshub:

    Alfred Ngaro’s threat that non-government organisations shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds is extraordinary.

    Not just because of his complete lack of judgement, or the fact he did it on stage in front of hundreds of National Party members, or because it shows cracks in the party’s extreme culture of discipline.

    It’s extraordinary because he didn’t back down from his comments until he was forced to.

    It was much more than just a brain fart or a case of misspeaking.

    “On Sunday, Newshub interviewed Mr Ngaro at National’s northern region conference about the sentiments in his Saturday speech, and the threat to dissenting NGOs was still there.

    First though, a quick recap: the Associate Housing Minister was giving a presentation at the Auckland conference when he said NGOs like the Salvation Army and Willie Jackson’s Urban Māori Authority shouldn’t “take with one hand and fight with the other”.

    In other words, he was saying if NGOs who receive government funding criticise the Government’s housing approach, they risk losing that funding.

    Prime Minister Bill English and National’s campaign manager Steven Joyce were quick to activate damage control, downplaying the comments as “naive from a new minister”.

    But before they could both get their hands on him and before the storm of bad PR hit, Mr Ngaro was still unapologetic when Newshub asked him to explain.

    “It was actually about saying ‘look let’s be mindful about the working relationship we have’,” he told Newshub at the conference.

    “It’s the context of saying that on the one hand we’re working together, and on the other hand too, if people are criticising, we just need to be mindful of that type of relationship, yep,” said Mr Ngaro.

    NGOs being “mindful” of criticising the Government sounds strikingly similar to threatening them to watch what they say.

    And he didn’t stop there.

    “If we’re going to have a positive partnership of working together, then it’s around having that, it’s talking about wider context but also all the things we are doing and working collectively together,” said Mr Ngaro.

    “My comments was (sic) just to be mindful of the fact that if we are going to be able to have these partnerships, we’ve just got to be political, what you call sensitive, in that context, yep.””

    Wow.

    Lets see Crosby Textor sort this out.

    http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/05/lloyd-burr-alfred-ngaro-s-threat-to-willie-jackson-was-worse-than-just-a-brain-fart.html#.WRk7tDDV1sE.twitter

    • AB 1.1
      15 May 2017 at 6:42 pm

      Sadly Mickey I don’t think Crosby Textor will have to sort it out.
      Simply put – Kiwis now expect to be told what they can and can’t do by the people who are paying them. When they turn up, what they wear, what they can and can’t say in social media, to whom they can speak, what opinions they can express at work etc. Because they have to do as they’re told, then many people simply won’t get why others shouldn’t have to do the same.
      I fear our slide into authoritarianism at work has gone quite far.

    • mac1 1.2
      15 May 2017 at 6:43 pm

      It is this kind of intimidation that means others who are outside the government circle of obeisance have to speak out on behalf of NGOs and other social service organisations who had their funding cut, frozen or otherwise had their operations made more difficult.

      It exists. The fear is there. Ngaro should be ashamed. It’s bullying.

      Along with “deny”,”defer” and “delay” we have a fourth tactic- “daunt”

      • Draco T Bastard 1.2.1
        16 May 2017 at 11:29 am

        It exists. The fear is there. Ngaro should be ashamed. It’s bullying.

        It is more than just bullying – it’s corruption.

        Ngaro should be jailed for speaking as he did.

        • mac1 1.2.1.1
          16 May 2017 at 6:04 pm

          I’m not a lawyer, Draco T, and you may be right. I would have hoped that the PM would have given a stronger message.

          If he doesn’t, he is in a way complicit. English said he was wrong, but then again my spelling can be wrong, and that’s not a great issue, save for me!

          Our Ministers have to operate to high standards of behaviour.

          Or, again, politics and people’s trust and faith in the political process is further diminished.

          And so, then, are we all diminished.

  2. Arthur 2
    15 May 2017 at 6:29 pm

    It’s interesting that the US ambassador to the UN should accuse North Korea of being guilty/suffering from paranoia. Pots and kettles?

  3. marty mars 3
    15 May 2017 at 7:18 pm

    This mike king and Bill Englishs comments about him like , ‘as I expected’ and implying that he was too low caste to be able to handle the work and be able to work with others is code for more bigoted thoughts imo.

    • ianmac 3.1
      15 May 2017 at 7:28 pm

      Yes marty. Thought he was pretty patronising to Mike.

    • ankerawshark 3.2
      15 May 2017 at 8:22 pm

      Have just read the draft report and I have to say I totally agree with Mike. It say’s everything and nothing.

      Actually imo coming from the Dept of Health, it is disgraceful.

  4. Bill 4
    15 May 2017 at 7:22 pm

    UK Labour now up to 32% in latest polling.

    Which is higher than the 2015 election result under Miliband (30.4%). Encouragingly, the polls were taken before the manifesto was leaked.

    Still thinking Labour can do it in England and Wales and then govern on an issue by issue basis with the SNP and others.

    • weka 4.1
      15 May 2017 at 7:45 pm

      Nice. Can you please explain the numbers and coalition or C and S thing again? (can never remember how that works in the UK).

      • Bill 4.1.1
        15 May 2017 at 8:35 pm

        Sure. There is one vote that must gain 50% + to enable a government to be formed. The Party that can secure that 50% + then governs for five years unless parliament is dissolved by 2/3rds of mps voting for a dissolution (as May initiated).

        If a budget can’t get 50%+ to be passed, the governing party simply goes away and rewrites it in order that it can get passed. (As the SNP has previously had to do at Holyrood)

        Which means there is no need for Confidence and Supply agreements and no need for coalitions.

    • Incognito 4.2
      15 May 2017 at 10:28 pm

      There’s a lot at stake. Monbiot is appealing to conservatives (or traditionalists rather?) to stand up against the pending demolition of the country and the wrecking party led by May.

      http://www.monbiot.com/2017/05/09/the-destructive-party/

  5. The decrypter 5
    15 May 2017 at 7:37 pm

    Hard to believe but double dipper getting the bash from Oliver in the HERALD?

  6. joe90 6
    15 May 2017 at 11:42 pm

    Yup, a sandwich shop.

    .

    Jimmy John’s is about to make some major changes to its employee contracts.

    The Illinois-based sandwich chain has agreed to stop including noncompete agreements in its hiring documents, a practice that was deemed “unlawful” by the New York attorney general’s office.

    The announcement follows an investigation by that office into Jimmy John’s use of noncompete agreements with franchisees in New York, which began in December 2014. The agreements had barred departing employees from taking jobs with competitors of Jimmy John’s for two years after leaving the company and from working within two miles of a Jimmy John’s store that made more than 10 percent of its revenue from sandwiches.

    http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/22/jimmy-johns-drops-non-compete-clauses-following-settlement.html

    Noncompete clauses are spreading across the workforce — making it tougher for Americans to get a raise https://t.co/pqsTbOYz4q— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 14, 2017

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/business/noncompete-clauses.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

    • Draco T Bastard 6.1
      16 May 2017 at 12:20 am

      Similar clauses exist in NZ contracts as well especially in the Auckland construction industry and labour temp agencies. They need to be made illegal ASAP.

      • Craig H 6.1.1
        16 May 2017 at 8:30 am

        I agree, but at least our courts generally won’t enforce the clauses, especially for low paid workers.