Daily Review 27/07/2017

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, July 27th, 2017 - 56 comments
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https://twitter.com/lyndonhood/status/890029332956983296

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 …

56 comments on “Daily Review 27/07/2017 ”

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  1. Ed 1
    27 July 2017 at 5:50 pm

    Brilliant article about Metiria….

    Raging at Metiria is not about the fraud; it’s that she sided with the lepers.

    Excerpts.

    ‘In case you missed it, at the Greens annual conference in mid-July, Metiria fronted the launch of an impressive welfare policy, Mending the Safety Net. During that launch, she used an anecdote from 25 years ago to personalise the policy; when she was solo mum she didn’t tell Work and Income that she had flatmates so that she could retain the accommodation supplement.

    It was a calculated risk, a chance to capture the news cycle, and if the last two weeks are anything to go by, it paid dividends. Every day there has been hand wringing and righteous anger from National and their proxies, sympathy from the Greens’ friends and the hashtags #IamMetiria and latterly #LeftwithEnough were an offensive defense of Metiria that dominated social media.

    The attacks have been inevitably led by white and wealthy men who have stated that it is the crime of benefit fraud and should be prosecuted forthwith. It’s been a pile-on really: Barry Soper‘s written a self-congratulatory series of masturbatory metaphors; Martin Van Beynen claimed to not want to judge but then did; John Armstrong writes like he is the id of the Baby Boomers generation; Patrick Gower‘s heart is bleeding so much for the NZ taxpayer I’m surprised he’s still breathing. The coverage has been overwhelmingly critical, not because of the crime, but because Metiria’s attitude is an attack on the comfortable narrative of the past quarter of a century.’

    Read the whole article here.
    It is brilliant. I would love to see a whole thread on it.

    https://firstwetakemanhattan.org/2017/07/26/raging-at-metiria-is-not-about-the-fraud-its-that-she-sided-with-the-lepers/

    • Ed 1.1
      27 July 2017 at 6:09 pm

      This article by Steve Cowan is also superb reading on the Metiria witchhunt.

      Two excerpts.

      ‘Nearly a fortnight after she revealed she had fiddled the welfare some two decades ago in order to survive and look after her new baby, Metiria Turei continues to find herself the target of a sustained attack from the corporate media.

      They have continued a campaign to bury the Green’s progressive welfare policy under a mountain of criticism directed at the Green Party co-leader. Turei might want to have a national conversation on reforming the welfare system, but the corporate media don’t.

      Turei’s real crime, which she has rapidly found out, is that she has failed to uphold the political status quo of which she is deemed to be a representative. She has bitten the hand that feeds her and she must be made an example of.

      Helping to make an example of her have been various well-heeled members of The Commentariat, bravely standing up for the interests of the political establishment. These has included Tracy Watkins (Dominion), Larry Williams (Newstalk ZB), Duncan Garner (TV3), Mike Hosking (TVNZ and Newstalk ZB), Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB), John Armstrong (former NZ Herald columnist, now writing for TVNZ’s news website), Mark Richardson (TV3) Patrick Gower (TV3), Chris Lynch (Newstalk ZB) and Martin van Beynen (The Press).’

      Read the whole article here.

      http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.co.nz/2017/07/media-attacks-on-metiria-turei-continue.html
      It is excellent.

      • Psych nurse 1.1.1
        27 July 2017 at 6:16 pm

        Don’t you just hope the Greens are going to be sitting outside WINZ offices with enrollment forms!.

        • Ed 1.1.1.1
          27 July 2017 at 6:27 pm

          You’ll read a lot more sense here than in the rancid words of Soper and the other cronies.

          https://twitter.com/hashtag/IAmMetiria?src=hash&lang=en

          And Gordon Campbell om Scoop…

          ‘The horror, the horror…

          Like the Kraken, the Great Metiria Benefit Scandal has woken from its 25 year slumber and is spreading panic and outrage across the nation. As I argued in this column yesterday, the main point of her personal revelation was to highlight
          (a) the inadequacy of the current benefit levels and
          (b) the counter-efficient nature of a punitive response by WINZ to minor infringements of its rules on benefit entitlement. None of which seems to have got much traction, with the media anyway. To the outraged, it doesn’t seem to matter that Turei wasn’t advocating people breaking the rules. She was advising against over-reacting if and when a few poor people bend the rules, to make ends meet.

          Call me irresponsible, but it is a bit galling that some people feel OK about chastising Turei even while they hold their hands out for tax cuts that will benefit them more, proportionately, than the people that Turei is trying to defend. It seems New Zealanders must be more morally pure than I’d suspected. Plainly no-one, but no-one in living memory has ever done work and taken payment under the table without paying tax on it. Because that’s the working poor version of what Turei did long ago, and it’s comforting to know that no-one has ever worked in the black economy, which evidently doesn’t exist. Oh, and its also great to know that no business in this country has ever arranged its finances to ensure that its taxable earnings top out just below the point at which the highest tax rate kicks in. Because that’s the corporate version of the heinous sin that Turei committed. Good to know that sort of thing also never happens, right?

          Apparently, Turei is now to be investigated about what she did back in the early 1990s. Of course, rules are rules. That’s the same mentality that used to condone hanging people for stealing a loaf of bread.’

          http://werewolf.co.nz/2017/07/gordon-campbell-on-act-the-centre-rights-perennial-ugly-duckling/

          • Loop 1.1.1.1.1
            28 July 2017 at 7:23 am

            “it doesn’t seem to matter that Turei wasn’t advocating people breaking the rules.”
            Maybe the original intent is as you say. She has since advocated breaking the law (rules) by defending a person she knows for defrauding the system.

            • Ed 1.1.1.1.1.1
              28 July 2017 at 7:36 am

              Nelson Mandela advocated breaking the law.
              Mahatma Gandhi advocated breaking the law.

              In history bad laws great broken.

              The alternative is the 14th July.

              And, as you appear to be another ready to cast stones, I do hope you are without sin.
              Ever paid for a cash job?

              • Red …
                28 July 2017 at 5:20 pm

                Paying cash is not a crime eddy, the trader not declaring income to IRD is, if caught by what ever means including declaring you are a fraudster you will be dealt with, this line you run ie he with out sin throw the first stone is so fkn lame and intellectually weak, basically giving every one a pass card for anything, you need To do better than this sunshine, hit the web I am sure you can find a YouTube link somewhere to educate us all with

        • billmurray 1.1.1.2
          27 July 2017 at 6:39 pm

          Psych nurse.
          Not hoping for what you express but the ” Vote for Labour is a vote for the Greens” will strengthen and further diminish the Labour party vote.
          Labour seems helpless to the Green’s onslaught.
          MoU togetherness my arse.

        • alwyn 1.1.1.3
          27 July 2017 at 6:50 pm

          “Greens are going to be sitting outside WINZ offices with enrollment forms!.”
          The Green Party’s current lot of MPs will probably be doing precisely that on 25 September.
          With the kickback from the public against MT the party vote could easily drop below the 5% figure and they will all be out of a job. I’m quite sure that the Greens will retain the votes of the people who approve of her sense of entitlement. They may not like the fact that it is not a very large number.
          They are probably going to lose the bulk of their vote which comes from people who actually thought they were a party that was interested in conservation though.

    • Ad 1.2
      27 July 2017 at 6:23 pm

      Wake the hell up Ed.

      There’s a post on precisely this site, on precisely this article, with over 200 comments.

    • Grafton Gully 1.3
      27 July 2017 at 6:34 pm

      [deleted]

      [4 month ban for misogyny and class bigotry. It would have been less but there’s no point in having people with no respect and intent on harm coming back close to the election. It’s not a free for all here. Here’s what the Policy says,

      We encourage robust debate and we’re tolerant of dissenting views. But this site run for reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints and we intend to keep it operating that way.

      What we’re not prepared to accept are pointless personal attacks, or tone or language that has the effect of excluding others. We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate. – weka]

    • billmurray 1.4
      27 July 2017 at 6:50 pm

      Ed, 6.27pm
      Grow up, Metiria and the Greens are striking at Labour, no one else.

  2. weka 2
    27 July 2017 at 6:35 pm

    I’ll have a read of Steve Cowan’s post shortly, but I’ve been thinking of doing a post of the positive coverage. If you have examples, especially from the MSM, please put in a comment below.

  3. Nic the NZer 3
    27 July 2017 at 7:15 pm

    http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=36534

    Promoter of progressive economics arrives in NZ. Talk on Friday in Wellington.

    • The Chairman 3.1
      27 July 2017 at 7:47 pm

      I see there is going to be a live streaming of the event.
      https://vstream.victoria.ac.nz/ess/echo/presentation/6dc7bf0a-fa14-47b5-8bc9-3798fe6cd280

    • Bill 3.2
      27 July 2017 at 8:10 pm

      Might have to alert people to that stream tomorrow. From a piece linked to from the main linked piece (that I’m still reading)…

      A 1994 HNZ report showed that state tenants had seen an increase of 54 percent in total rents in one year alone, while social welfare statistics for the same year revealed a ten-fold increase in those receiving the accommodation supplement. Again in 1994, the Ministry of Housing found between 20,000 and 30,000 households in “serious” housing need, with half of this total living in either inadequate conditions or paying more than half the household income in rent.

      I recall (but cannot find the the source at the moment) that as the rents started rising, people were forced to abandon their housing and share houses on the Porirua estate. Richardson apparently observed the increasing rate of unoccupied public housing as being indicative of the people finding better commercially-available accommodation as a result of forcing market rates onto the public housing. It was an incredible observation in the true sense of the word.

      • The Chairman 3.2.1
        28 July 2017 at 9:10 pm

        It wasn’t a bad lecture Bill. You may want to consider doing a post on it.

        It’s available on demand.
        https://vstream.victoria.ac.nz/ess/echo/presentation/6dc7bf0a-fa14-47b5-8bc9-3798fe6cd280

        • Bill 3.2.1.1
          28 July 2017 at 10:42 pm

          Cheers.

          Long story – but I missed it. I’ve just jumped and flicked trough it quickly on ‘replay’ and he seems to fairly accessible. From the snippets I’ve watched, it sounds like he’s essentially promoting a Keynesian view of economics.

          Anyway. I’ll spend some time on it and see if I can nut it down to a post that’s easily understood.

          • The Chairman 3.2.1.1.1
            29 July 2017 at 7:44 am

            Keynesianism holds some valid fiscal points, hence could serve us well again going forward.

            I see Jim Bolger attended the event.

            “Anyway. I’ll spend some time on it and see if I can nut it down to a post that’s easily understood”

            Sounds good, Bill. Looking forward to it.

  4. Draco T Bastard 4
    27 July 2017 at 7:21 pm

    Ed posted this link up post a bit but what I want to address is OT for that thread. Specifically, I want to address this bit:

    Very occasionally, the policy persistence bears fruit. Charter schools may be a shameless taxpayer rort that can’t be justified by their educational outcomes here, or anywhere else in the world. Yet during this past week, Labour has capitulated to endorsing them – mainly to keep Kelvin Davis and Willie Jackson on board – provided there is some cosmetic change to the name, and so long as the new cosmetic name (special character schools) is different from the old cosmetic name (partnership schools) that National has already given them. Heroically, only Act continues to call them what they are: charter schools.

    And that’s why Labour keep losing. They keep endorsing the failed policies of neo-liberalism.

    If you really, really, want to change government this election, vote Green. Nothing less will do.

    • Anne 4.1
      27 July 2017 at 7:49 pm

      Go ahead. You won’t be missed. Not here anyway. 😎

    • Bill 4.2
      27 July 2017 at 7:51 pm

      Taking Campbell’s piece as being accurate enough…that’s one stone cold corpse hoping to be getting votes from any notional left.

    • Tautoko Mangō Mata 4.3
      27 July 2017 at 8:05 pm

      I think you are judging Labour unfairly, Draco.

      1. Special character schools already exist in NZ. These are included in Integrated Schools.

      State-integrated schools are former private schools that have become integrated into the state system. The Ministry provides funding to integrated schools to build new property and maintain existing integrated property.

      https://education.govt.nz/school/property/integrated-schools/

      2.,

      A state integrated school establishes a partnership with the Crown by way of a Deed of Integration in which the special character of the school is clearly defined and articulated.  The articulation of special character will shape the school’s curriculum, enrolments, staffing processes and culture.

      Types of special character include – Seventh-day Adventist, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Jewish, Muslim, Steiner, Montessori and non denominational Christian.

      http://www.aisnz.org.nz/special-character

      If these schools are actually doing ok, then it wouldn’t be too difficult to change them into State-integrated schools, under the existing rules for state-integrated schools and allowing them to retain their Special Character.

      3. The other option is for them to be entirely run by the State but allowed to retain
      a special character.

      Becoming a section 156 designated character school
      A designated character school is established under section 156 of the Education Act 1989 (the Act). It is a state school that has a particular character which sets it apart from ordinary state schools and kura kaupapa Māori. The only students who may enrol at a designated character school are those whose parents accept the particular character of the school.
      A designated character school may be established as a new school or it may change from being a mainstream school or a section 155 kura kaupapa Māori, to being one with a designated special character.

      (By the way, I am opposed to Charter Schools.)

      • In Vino 4.3.1
        27 July 2017 at 8:29 pm

        Yeah, but those integrated schools are all cheating. When they were first integrated, it was on the terms that they had to conform with state schools regarding staffing ratios. For a while that held. But then during the late 90s integrated schools were allowed a little more ‘freedom’ in how they spent their state money combined with the high fees they charged the parents.
        State school staffing ratios are no longer enforced upon integrated schools, and these integrated schools now benefit from smaller class sizes.
        I know – I taught in an integrated school in the early 2000s, and saw the discrepancy in class sizes compared to the state school I had been in.
        This stinks, and I am pleased to see that you oppose Charter Schools, but please don’t set up integrated schools as any kind of ideal. They are not.

      • Jenny Kirk 4.3.2
        27 July 2017 at 8:32 pm

        Totally agree with you, Tautoko – including the bit about being opposed to Charter Schools. But there’s no getting around the fact that NZ has had special character schools for decades, and Labour said – right from the beginning when these charter schools were set up that (a) Labour doesn’t agree with them but (b) if they still exist when Labour comes into government, then they could be converted to special character schools.
        Its just that this is the first time the media has actually picked up on something Labour said ages ago. And now people are making a big fuss about it.

        • adam 4.3.2.1
          27 July 2017 at 8:51 pm

          Maybe, and well I know it’s a long shot at this late date. But maybe if labour didn’t have a cupboard full of ideological hogwash. Then the media wouldn’t have anything to pick up on?

          Just a suggestion, but maybe labour might give the voting public credit, and realize people don’t like the radical liberalism bullshit sandwich that labour are offering them.

    • JanM 4.4
      27 July 2017 at 11:46 pm

      I think there is more to this than meets the eye – ask yourselves seriously why Maori have embraced this policy. Is it all about neo-liberalism or is there another, more fundamental reason why charter schools are seen as a positive by te ao Maori. It is just possible that Labour are genuinely listening. Think Tino Rangatiratanga

  5. halfcrown 5
    27 July 2017 at 7:30 pm

    Did anybody see that big self-seeking turd called Dung on the TV this morning telling Garner why he would not go with labour as they have no policies?

    I have a question for that self-seeking large bit of shit called Dung, what are your policies apart from self-aggrandisement

  6. Anne 6
    27 July 2017 at 7:36 pm

    From todays Herald:

    Gutsy woman
    Metiria Turei has spoken for every mother struggling in adverse circumstances, every father who, for reasons of ill health or redundancy, has found himself out of work, every actor, musician and artist trying to survive between jobs, every worker and professional who, when they have needed the support of the state, has had to endure the humiliation of demeaning courses on budgeting and CV writing, assertions that their profession isn’t “real work”, and the accusations, insults, suspicion, snobbery and self-righteous rudeness that is the trademark of Winz officers whenever National are in government.

    She has stood up to smug media moralists, the condemnations of millionaire ministers of the crown, the ugly mean spiritedness which has become part of the New Zealand character and a system that has much greater theft built into it by way of low wages, widespread job insecurity and the ability of the rich to get even richer without lifting a finger for it, off the backs of the rest of us.

    She is one gutsy women so, for the first time in my near 60 years, come September I have decided to vote Green.

    A gutsy letter from Bill Walker of Whangarei.

  7. Draco T Bastard 7
    27 July 2017 at 7:41 pm

    Christchurch’s pure drinking water could be contaminated due to farming

    Aquifers supplying Christchurch’s pure drinking water may become contaminated with nitrates from intensive agriculture, research suggests.

    The concerns have emerged from recent scientific work by Environment Canterbury (ECan), which shows deep groundwater from the Waimakariri district could be flowing towards Christchurch.

    It is the first time ECan’s modelling has showed that is a possibility.

    Now, who saw that coming?

    Oh, that’s right, all of us. We just have a government in denial of the damage that farming does.

    • ianmac 7.1
      27 July 2017 at 7:52 pm

      No doubt ECan will pass the problem over to the CCCouncil.
      And what is so wrong is that it was predictable and non reversible.

    • Richard Christie 7.2
      27 July 2017 at 8:32 pm

      Now, who saw that coming?

      QFT

  8. adam 8
    27 July 2017 at 8:42 pm

    I find myself completely agreeing with Chris Trotter for a change.

    I think he is right, a section of the NZ middle white class are going use their vote as a ‘lash’.

    I think a large section of the middle class, as proven by many of the hard right commentators here, are ideological purist who can not handle being challenged. A collection who can’t face the fact, that their words, and their deeds, do not mesh up.

    This is not a society that gives people a fair go – almost the exact opposite.

    http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2017/07/the-majestic-equality-of-law-and-its.html

  9. Sanctuary 9
    27 July 2017 at 8:53 pm

    So, if the Greens get – say – a 4-5% boost out of this and become a true left alternative, WTF will be the point of the Labour party?

  10. Draco T Bastard 10
    27 July 2017 at 10:52 pm

    Costly basics hitting beneficiaries harder – Stats NZ

    Rising prices for housing, electricity and food have hit beneficiaries particularly hard, the latest Statistics New Zealand data shows.

    Nope, not surprised. Welfare payments haven’t been keeping up with inflation since 1990 or perhaps further back.

    EDIT:

    Statistics New Zealand said costs for beneficiaries rose 0.3 percent in that period, while they fell 0.1 percent for the highest earners.

    An interesting point.

  11. Loop 11
    28 July 2017 at 8:56 am

    I have to ask all the political commentators on this site What makes you think voting Green is going to stop a 4th term of national?

    • Red 11.1
      28 July 2017 at 5:30 pm

      You know the answer it won’t, it just moving the deck chairs between green and labour and ensuring no new deck chairs from the Center, in contrast more will move to national led coalition as seen as the only center government choice, oh wait the missing million.and Verity ( sarcasm)