David Shearer’s first e-newsletter

Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, August 11th, 2012 - 97 comments
Categories: labour - Tags:

The first of my weekly E-newsletters to members and supporters, from the desk of the Labour Leader

These e-newsletters are a chance for me to keep in touch, and to let you know what your team of Labour MPs and I have been working on in the week gone by.

When I became Labour Leader I promised to get around the country and listen to the concerns of real people, and I’ve being doing just that. Labour struggled in the regions in 2011 – polling just 22%. We need to re-connect with rural and provincial New Zealand.

This week Labour’s message was all about our heartland. If our regions don’t succeed, our country won’t succeed. National is neglecting regional New Zealand, and it is time for a new partnership between the Government and the provinces. Labour is re-committing itself to work alongside rural and provincial New Zealand to support local development, create jobs and economic growth.

I headed to Nelson on Wednesday, and spoke about the challenges facing the heartland. Another 11 MPs from Labour’s caucus put the focus on their regions. Grant Robertson highlighted National’s cuts to polytech funding, and Phil Twyford put the case for regional roads rather than just holiday highways. It was a great team effort, highlighting major issues for the country, and resulted in plenty of coverage in local newspapers and radio stations – getting Labour’s message out to those communities that need to hear it most.

To read my speech and check out what Labour is saying about your region, head to Labour’s website: www.labour.org.nz/heartland

The importance of our regions was underlined on Thursday, with the release of the latest unemployment data. Despite all the promises and years of rosy forecasts from the Government, unemployment went up in the last three months to 6.8%. That’s simply unacceptable, and National doesn’t have a clue what to do about it. Led by our team of Davids (Shearer, Parker, Cunliffe and Clark), Labour does, and we’ll be talking a lot more about this in the weeks and months ahead. In the meantime, David Parker gave the Government a serve following the release of the latest data and our Youth Affairs spokesperson Megan Woods pointed out that young kiwis are ready, willing and jobless.

Labour’s also fighting the good fight on education. Once again the Government proved this week it is driven by slogans and ideology in education, rather than what is best for our kids. The Government’s plan for school league tables by stealth will push poor quality information out to parents, doing more harm than good. And that’s on top of last week’s bizarre idea to put unqualified and unregistered teachers in front of classrooms in charter schools. Nanaia Mahuta and I will have more to say on education in the coming months, and rest assured it will be based on evidence and on best educational practice.

So, despite Parliament being off for a week, it has been a busy week for your Labour MPs. We have been out in our electorates and the areas we cover, working hard and listening too. But being in Opposition is not always plain sailing and we’ve had our challenges this week as well. Opposition requires the whole Party, from the Leader to the MPs, from the President to local members, to pull in the same direction. I’m committed to that and will be working alongside Moira Coatsworth, the Party President, to provide the leadership required to make it happen. We can always work harder, and do more – and we will.

As the saying goes, a week is a long time in politics, and we have well over a hundred weeks before the next election. Your MPs, Party officials and I are working every day to make the next week better than the last one for Labour and for New Zealand.

Cheers, all the best,

David Shearer
Leader of the Labour Party

97 comments on “David Shearer’s first e-newsletter ”

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  1. Kotahi Tāne Huna 1
    11 August 2012 at 11:27 am

    Right then, about this sickness beneficiary: when are you going to apologise to him?

    • weka 1.1
      11 August 2012 at 12:19 pm

      And other people on medical benefits or with invisible disabilities who’ve had their rights and wellbeing undermined by your speech?
       
       

      • Kotahi Tāne Huna 1.1.1
        11 August 2012 at 1:28 pm

        PS: mango rinds won’t cut it.

        • weka 1.1.1.1
          11 August 2012 at 1:31 pm

          mango rinds?

          • Kotahi Tāne Huna 1.1.1.1.1
            11 August 2012 at 1:39 pm

            ‘In South Sudan we were sitting in the back of a truck peeling a mango and throwing the skins over the side. I heard noises below and looking down I saw children fighting over the skins – desperate because they were hungry.

            ”It was one of those turning points – it hit me that I should be doing something more to make a difference in the world.”

            NZ version: “…children fighting over the skins. Then an old fella came over and explained their mother lives in a state house. He was right, it wasn’t bloody fair, and I said so. I have little tolerance for people who don’t pull their weight.”

      • vicks 1.1.2
        13 August 2012 at 4:23 pm

        Did you bother to read the whole speech. He is talking about equity and fairness. Are you so naive that you think that some people – be they beneficiaries or otherwise don’t rip the system off? Grow up!

        If those of you continuing with this rubbish are so concerned about peoples suffering then explain to me how this type of inciteful crap, that will keep a Labour/Green Government out of power for another three years, is going to alleviate it.

        I would be particularly afraid right now if I was a low income earner be it beneficiary or otherwise – a National Government until 2017 will be the end of life as we all know it.

    • Mary 1.2
      12 August 2012 at 12:51 am

      He never will. Contrary to popular belief Labour’s never been the party for the poor. When it comes to beneficiaries there’s no difference between Labour and the right. Helen Clark’s government showed nothing but hatred for beneficiaries, and they’ll never change. The sooner everyone realises this the better.

      • xtasy 1.2.1
        12 August 2012 at 2:13 pm

        Yes, I realised this with my first hand experience during the last Labour led government years ago. In some ways Labour have in government been hypocritical and disgusting really.

        But they have always also played on appealing to the mindset of the hard-working, yet sadly often not too “enlightened”, envious low paid battlers, giving them a bit to feel better – by “sharing” their lack of sympathy for those not even given a chance to work and live a decent life through own efforts.

        It is a sad fact, that this is exactly what NatACT work on: To divide the poor, and to make the working poor feel hatred for those that supposedly choose “lifestyle” welfare dependency on the expense of others.

        Unity and sympathy are vocabulary they must consider “evil”, as they do not support or serve their causes.

        • Mary 1.2.1.1
          12 August 2012 at 11:53 pm

          A good illustration is how the unions view beneficiaries and others who are not workers. The unions behave in a way that says if you’re not a worker you’re not worth supporting. This approach damages the position of workers because the more the government destroys the benefit system the easier it is to put the boot in to workers but the unions are too dumb and narrow minded to see this. The unions talk about social justice but what they really mean is social justice for workers only. Unions don’t understand that the wage economy can never work for all citizens, but that all citizens have a right to a good life.

          • xtasy 1.2.1.1.1
            13 August 2012 at 1:14 am

            That is where UNITE played a role, but sadly I got this over the years, from various members, that UNITE is also not that welcoming of beneficiaries, although at least initially they were going to be open to them. Matt McCarten has to get real on this, apart from his (I believe) not yet resolved IRD issue.

            Wish him well though, he keeps a balance at the Herald, otherwise Hide will wipe the table with his unfair play!

  2. Dr Terry 2
    11 August 2012 at 11:30 am

    Shearer talks “äll about the heartland”. Right now, I think maybe he should be looking into the heartland of his own Party which gives every impression of being dysfunctional.
    Nevertheless, a weekly newsletter could be a good thing.

  3. quartz 3
    11 August 2012 at 11:34 am

    What a coward. In the middle of the biggest test of his leadership he sends out an email that basically says “nothing to see here; everything’s just tip-top”. He has had HUNDREDS of members express their serious concerns to him and in public and this patronising bullshit is his response?! He needs to go.

  4. David H 4
    11 August 2012 at 11:35 am

    More like

    Dear people
    I have been having a great time swanning around the south Island doing nothing, but deliver this speech a couple of times. What a job, and as I am leader I get paid extra for doing nothing. Must go and tell trev not to talk to Dunkie so much.

    Bysie bye

    David S

  5. BernyD 5
    11 August 2012 at 11:56 am

    Check out the Labour website …
    Labour

    They are making changes, they at least hear our frustration.

    It all sounds like political mumbo jumbo, but the “Labour Values” are what we all need to hear.

    We can’t assume they will have Values of this type or that, we need to hear them speak it.

    That’s why there is so many emotional responses at the moment, we need to know that …
    We are not alone in this “Civilised” world.

    • weka 5.1
      11 August 2012 at 12:25 pm

      “Check out the Labour website …”
       
      Sorry, but if Labour are now going to use a banner with a photo of Shearer and the phrase “Creating a Healthy Heartland”, after Shearer had a go at a man on sickness benefit, then all I can say about them is that they are either pig ignorant or disingenuous shits.
       
      Apparently a Healthy Heartland doesn’t include people who are unwell. Better get the big stick out. Thanks David.
       
       
       

      • BernyD 5.1.1
        11 August 2012 at 12:34 pm

        It’s pig ignorant bud, so fair enough, well said

        • weka 5.1.1.1
          11 August 2012 at 12:39 pm

          I see the speech to Grey Power isn’t on Labour’s website, so maybe they’re had a think about it.

          • BernyD 5.1.1.1.1
            11 August 2012 at 12:48 pm

            It’s hard to judge their thinking.
            Which is why I harp on about Values and Overall direction.
            Stuff that we used to hear the media bag them about because we never heard any detail.
            In the modern day world they need to Give us both the direction and the detail, and they’re failing.

            No one in the Labour party has ever tried to wear the “Hat” of “Leader of NZ” and tried to fathom what that means.

            Civilisation encompasses every individual , it has to be thought of this way every time you address an individuals needs. This one change in thinking is all they need.

            Because I believe they are “Civilised”, they just can’t get that accross.

          • deuto 5.1.1.1.2
            11 August 2012 at 12:57 pm

            It is on the Labour website – here is the link

            http://www.labour.org.nz/news/speech-auckland-grey-power

            I am still so fuming about the beneficiary remark – and the fact that he has used this one before according to Gordon Campbell on Scoop – that I cannot bring myself to comment on Shearer at present.

            • weka 5.1.1.1.2.1
              11 August 2012 at 1:11 pm

              Damn. I couldn’t find it on google using a phrase from the speech.
               
              I’m very angry about it too. It’s far worse than Bennett, legitimising all she has said and done. It’s appalling that Labour don’t understand that and their role.

              • xtasy …
                11 August 2012 at 2:41 pm

                Truly I am furious, it is even at the start of the speech, I thought it was some side remark or somewhere later on in his speech, where he may have made that silly comment.

                By the way I have been in email contact with just one of the many “sickness beneficiaries” from that part of the country down south. He has only been on it for weeks, worked most of his life in hard, physically demanding jobs, which caused his shoulder and arms to be damaged severely beyond repair, making it impossible for him to do any kind of manual work for the rest of his life.

                Upon medical recommendations by his GP and a specialist, he applied for the invalid’s benefit.

                WINZ turned him down, saying, he could do some work while sitting. Yet the man has limited education, no expertise with clerical and other work usually done sitting, is near 60 years old, and he has NO real chance of getting any job where he could sit. Furthermore he also has now a serious heart condition, but WINZ say, that can be treated, and it is not relevant.

                He is forced to face a medical appeal hearing to justify his conditions, truly permanent, is on high pain medication, affecting his concentration and movements, and WINZ want to keep him on the sickness benefit soon to be merged with the UN into a job-seeker benefit, facing work testing and pressure to look for work that does not exist.

                That is the bloody reality I hear about more and more often, not the stories by Shearer and a few others who are out of touch with the extremely tough, unreasonable regime by WINZ and MSD applied already now.

                I am furious – Shearer MUST GO!

      • David H 5.1.2
        11 August 2012 at 9:42 pm

        Oh look Labours version of Shonkys brighter future banner. Can’t they be original at all?

  6. bad12 6
    11 August 2012 at 12:15 pm

    Dear David S…HOICK SPIT…

  7. Roy 7
    11 August 2012 at 12:52 pm

    Funny, he sends out a newsletter but doesn’t mention getting a medical degree. You know, the one that qualifies him to decide that sickness beneficiaries aren’t really sick…without even talking to them in person, at that!

  8. xtasy 8
    11 August 2012 at 1:36 pm

    So with Nanaia he is going to release more on Labour’s education suggestions or plans in the coming months. Also “the team” will have “more to say in the coming months”.

    This starts sounding too much like a broken record to me. Yet more time “to get ready”, I suppose.

    When hitting the bloody road to speak to “the heartland” or rural NZ, it might have paid to work out some real solid policy ideas and plans to present, which go beyond of better rural roads and somehow creating more jobs (no details).

    I am disappointed, to be honest! Nothing further to report, so to say. No apology or further explanation for that silly comment about the”legendary” sickness beneficiary roof painter either.

    Shearer could do with some better support staff, I also feel. But my decision about him has been made now, finito, “au revoir” Monsieur Tondeur.

    • Colonial Viper 8.1
      11 August 2012 at 1:39 pm

      This starts sounding too much like a broken record to me. Yet more time “to run polling to tell Labour what to say”, I suppose.

      fify

  9. Blue 9
    11 August 2012 at 2:07 pm

    So, translated from Bullshit into English, it goes something like:

    Hi everyone,

    My leadership is in trouble, so I thought I’d send you some meaningless waffle written by my PR team to make up for it.

    I’ve been hard at work touring the provinces, because someone who crunches numbers told me that the way to winning the next election is to go and bash some beneficiaries to get the redneck vote.

    Unemployment is a problem, and we know what to do about it. But we’re not telling anyone just yet. You don’t need to know the details, a few feel-good slogans should do for now. Ditto education.

    It’s been a tough week, what with my leadership being exposed for how completely absent it is. But we all need to work together, so all you members who are bashing me need to shut up now, please.

    Much love,
    Dave

    • gobsmacked 9.1
      11 August 2012 at 4:52 pm

      Blue + 1.

      It’s not only rubbish, it’s not even smart rubbish.

      We’re rightly pissed off when Key and Banks try the “I signed but didn’t read” line. If Shearer did read this, and did think it was what was needed, that is just one more example of his poor judgement.

  10. Cnut 10
    11 August 2012 at 2:20 pm

    “To read my speech and check out what Labour is saying about your region…”

    Read your speech, David. Bog-standard vapid political hot-air devoid of ideas.

    What is Labour saying about my region, Marlborough? Nothing, it seems. World-famous wine products, aquaculture industry earning millions with huge potential, not on Labour’s map. Canterbury seems to have dropped off it, too. Nearest you can get is Nelson where Maryan Street at least appears to read the local paper.

    I assumed, David, that when you wanted the leadership you already had lots of ideas about where New Zealand was going wrong and plans to put them right, but it’s looking more and more than you only applied for the job as it paid better than other ads for petrol-pumping or burger-flipping and that you’re now just trying to work out what the job entails.

    • bad12 10.1
      11 August 2012 at 3:39 pm

      Well there was the speech to the pip fruit growers that might help, essentially grow more apples and get really smart with them,…

      • weka 10.1.1
        11 August 2012 at 4:28 pm

        You actually read that?

        • bad12 10.1.1.1
          11 August 2012 at 7:22 pm

          Aha, i like to be fair, it took me 2 goes to read the whole thing, the eyes glaze over in the first 5 minutes and the mind turns to phrases like inspirational and why we never get to use them while addressing politicians these days…

      • Cnut 10.1.2
        11 August 2012 at 5:50 pm

        In my 20-odd years in Marlborough I’ve watched orchard after orchard – apple, peach, cherry – get ripped out and lush pasture get ploughed over all to be turned into vineyards. Sure there’s money in wine – for a few – and work – short-term work for imported labour – but a box of apples or peaches is a damn sight better for you than a box of wine and remember when the dairy-farmers of Canterbury were crying out for hay for their dairy herds and there wasn’t any?

        And we’ve a fight on at the moment where locals are resisting a Salmon farm – a few jobs, an environment wrecked, recreation and tourism down the drain and big returns for a few foreign investors using the public commons for free.

        What’s Labour’s view on growing good cheap food by and for New Zealanders instead of pinot noir for New Yorkers? Is Labour here fighting with the locals to preserve “Clean, Green New Zealand” or does it think salmon cuts from New Zealand in a supermarket in Beijing are better for the country. I’ve no idea, and it’s pretty clear Shearer has no idea, either.

  11. TheContrarian 11
    11 August 2012 at 2:36 pm

    Who ever is running Shearers PR is completely hopeless. They knew how invisible Shearer was ages ago but only now is he writing a newsletter? This should have been done months ago – pretty basic stuff.

    • the sprout 11.1
      11 August 2012 at 4:33 pm

      yep obviously a shit PR team, writing lines for a shit performer.

      i wonder if the newer MPs realise their futures are on the rocks?

      • Rhinocrates 11.1.1
        11 August 2012 at 7:25 pm

        I look forward to Shearer’s office hacks discovering pigeons and maybe even the telegraph and morse code. Amazing that they can be so subservient to the various fads of economics, but have no fucking idea about media.

    • Jenny 11.2
      11 August 2012 at 8:20 pm

      Will there ever be another one?

      What will it say?

      I can’t wait

  12. alex 12
    11 August 2012 at 4:36 pm

    I have a serious question concerning the relationship between Shearer and The Standard. TS is a blog for the left, rather than the Labour Party. It is fair to say that Shearer is not of the left, or at least, his caucus backers are fairly right leaning. Why is The Standard therefore still giving him favourable coverage?

    • gobsmacked 12.1
      11 August 2012 at 4:45 pm

      The Standard’s various contributors seem to be a mixture of independently-minded left, and Labour hacks. It’s generally pretty clear from their posts where they stand.

      If you’ve observed the Blair gov’t in the UK, you’ll know the payroll people are the last ones to tell it how it is. NZ Labour are no different.

    • weka 12.2
      11 August 2012 at 4:52 pm

      Alex, did you not notice the slamming Shearer has had on TS this week?

    • lprent 12.3
      11 August 2012 at 5:31 pm

      Alex: Read the about and the policy. If you can’t understand the big words, then understand this. A blog has human contributors who have different opinions. You are making an assumption that the site operates like a machine which it doesn’t.

      However as a programmer I have an opinion that anyone thinking that computers can think deserve a human response saying that they are a complete unthinking idiot. I usually ban them with a degree of completely unrequred malevolence to aid their education. I find it discourages fuckwits from bothering me again with dumbarse questions. Do you think it will work?

    • Cactus Kate 12.4
      12 August 2012 at 12:53 am

      If last week was favorable coverage I am coming back for sure when they start hating on the man!!

  13. felix 13
    11 August 2012 at 5:21 pm

    This “internet” thing is going to be huge. You can get someone to write a newsletter for you and just send it out to heaps of people at once. No stamps. Or paper!

    Really neat technology. I’m really excited.

    • TheContrarian 13.1
      11 August 2012 at 10:27 pm

      I look forward to the day when Shearer’s team discovers the internet isn’t a big truck. In fact, it’s a series of tubes.

    • SHG 13.2
      13 August 2012 at 2:28 pm

      I notice that Shearer’s newsletter is managed and delivered by the Campaign Monitor email-marketing platform. This platform has all sorts of cool user-tracking features – who opened the email, using what email application, at what time of day, what links were clicked on and by whom, all the usual data-mining.

      Campaign Monitor is, however, an Australian company. I know of a few NZ-based companies that do a similar thing. Why was an offshore provider chosen over something home-grown?

  14. Herodotus 14
    11 August 2012 at 5:46 pm

    “So, despite Parliament being off for a week, it has been a busy week for your Labour MPs. We have been out in our electorates and the areas we cover, working hard and listening too…”
    How do those of us who have no Labour representation have a chance to have any input, the forgotten majority of NZ ?
    Especially as in some areas/electorates the party disced us. Those in Botany even with a by-election were ignored (except for the efforts of Michael Woods.)
    Also as there are about 20 electorate Labour MP’s and no Green MP’s. How do many of us have any chance to converse with any left leaning MP’s. Our only options are a few blogs and something like the Drinking Liberally events ?

  15. DH 15
    11 August 2012 at 7:44 pm

    What’s the general consensus on it; did Mr Shearer write it himself or was it penned by a PR gnome?

    Seems a bit vacuous…. hard to critique it since it has no real content.

  16. captain hook 16
    11 August 2012 at 7:56 pm

    to the person enquiring about input into the political process the answer is join a political party.
    then you can stop whingeing here and do something concrete.
    is that clear?

  17. Socialist Paddy 17
    11 August 2012 at 8:10 pm

    Gawd who wrote this shyte.

    It has the coherence of something that John Pagani would construct. The party should have dumped him a long time ago. 

  18. NZ Groover 18
    11 August 2012 at 8:41 pm

    I like Shearer….therefore he must be sacked immediately

  19. AmaKiwi 19
    11 August 2012 at 8:49 pm

    I have a complaint about The Standard.

    I suffered serious personal injury reading this column today. I split a gut laughing, pissed myself, and was rolling on the floor with tears of laughter streaming down my face. Wow! Some of your readers have a brilliant sense of humor.

    Back to the more serious. It was never clear to me precisely what David Shearer did when he worked for the UN. Now I know. He sent reports to HQ just like the e-newsletter he sent out this week.

  20. Jenny 20
    11 August 2012 at 8:51 pm

    Making a commitment to a weekly e-newsletter is actually a brave stance. It means that you have actually got something to say, and you want to get it out there.

    Just reporting back on his Labour Party pastoral duties and activities cannot be carried forward beyond one week.

    So I look forward to reading David Shearer’s 2nd e-newsletter.

    • rosy 20.1
      11 August 2012 at 9:13 pm

      I agree, Jenny. It’s lightweight newsy tone is important for the non-political boffins.

      Clearly Shearer needs to address the problems of the last week, but a newsletter is not the forum for that.

      • Jenny 20.1.1
        11 August 2012 at 9:47 pm

        If the purpose of the news letter is not to address the issues of the day, then it is unsustainable. It might painfully stagger on for three, maybe four issues before being quietly dropped.

        However it could be rather amusing process to watch if it got headline billing at The Standard every time it did appear.

        If on the other hand David Shearer did address the burning issues of the day in his weekly e-newsletter and it was headlined in The Standard then it could have an electrifying effect on the electorate, especially if his comments were picked up and commented on other blogs and even the mainstream media.

  21. starlight 21
    11 August 2012 at 8:54 pm

    This news letter idea was dreamed up by his ‘team’ to attempt to connect with
    the labourites,the newsletter proves nothing,it proves that he has in a fashion
    given the two finger salute to all who cry out for change of leadership and a change
    of direction for the labour party.
    Words in an e-letter are empty and answer nothing that is important to genuine
    labour followers hoping that the front bench gives a damn about them.
    Trouncing around the country village to village will not win hearts and minds,
    it is the genuine show of ‘we will walk along side you,to better your life’
    that counts and so far that is a million miles removed from reality and the art of
    demonstrating that silence is golden.

  22. AmaKiwi 22
    11 August 2012 at 8:58 pm

    I look forward to Shearer commenting on the attempted character assassination of Cunliffe.

    How long will he pretend it never happened?

    News Flash from another blog: “The Secret ABC Club of Wellington is expecting a high level vacancy.
    No experience needed. Apply to Duckie at the Beehive.”

  23. Jenny 23
    11 August 2012 at 8:59 pm

    I estimate (roughly), that there are over a 110 weeks to the next election, even with repetitions I expect there will be more than enough e-newsletters to cover the whole gamut of Labour Party policy and plans.

    I hope that The Standard can make this a weekly feature.

  24. fatty 24
    11 August 2012 at 9:11 pm

    it beats listening to him stutter

  25. Jenny 25
    11 August 2012 at 9:12 pm

    I wonder what the next topic will be?

    Climate Change?

    The economy?

    Labour Relations?

    Privatisations?

    Law and order?

    Foreign affairs?

    Education?

    Peak oil?

    Transport?

    Food security?

    Deep sea oil?

    TPPA?

    FTT?

    None of the above?

    • Rhinocrates 25.1
      11 August 2012 at 9:38 pm

      I’m sure that if he does mention any of the above, Shearer will follow the advice he has had to imitate Key and announce that he has a “plan”, just like Key’s plan to end whaling – but in a much nicer way.

      We just have to give him time. Because we have to. We owe it to him.

    • Hami Shearlie 25.2
      11 August 2012 at 11:31 pm

      The next subject will have to be: How to stretch one mango skin to make it go further. Sorry David, the loaves and fishes story has already been told by an expert !!!!

    • the sprout 25.3
      12 August 2012 at 7:53 am

      the next topic will be:

      ‘Moving forward together, transforming and responding in a positive way.’

      • felix 25.3.1
        12 August 2012 at 10:06 am

        Very likely. Or whatever this throws up.

      • Hami Shearlie 25.3.2
        12 August 2012 at 11:01 am

        Oooh Sproutie!! Do you really think he can be that aspirational??? I thought “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” – then I realised I was getting him confused with “The Six Million Dollar Man”!!!

  26. AmaKiwi 26
    11 August 2012 at 10:14 pm

    The way we owed it to Phil Goff to have 3 years to prove what everyone knew after his first year?

    You go down with the ship along with the ABC bully-boys.

    I’ll be jumping ship to the Greens.

  27. AmaKiwi 27
    11 August 2012 at 10:16 pm

    We owe it to HIM!

    What does the caucus owe to the members? They put him in.

    What happened to democracy? One member; one vote.

    Labour caucus members talk about democracy the way a whore talks about virtue.

    • gobsmacked 27.1
      11 August 2012 at 11:46 pm

      I think Rhino was being heavily sarcastic there … 😉

      • AmaKiwi 27.1.1
        12 August 2012 at 1:46 am

        You’re probably right. I remember vividly 2 frustrating years of asking at my MP’s office, “When are they going to replace Goff?” It was not easy working the 2011 election, knowing we didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. I think back and say, “I was a fool to have wasted my time.”

        Then early this year the caucus added insult to injury by overruling the members’ preference for Cunliffe.

        The next insult was the proposed new leader selection rules in which the caucus get a 40% say. There is only one definition of democracy: one member; one vote. Simple! No special votes for MP’s or affiliates. One member, one vote.

        Finally that b.s. about two-thirds of caucus required to replace the leader after year 1. We discussed that locally and tried to think of how the members could trigger a leadership vote. This week The Standard showed us: internet (and supplemental postal ballots for people who don’t use the net).

        Via internet the party can post petitions, conduct campaigns, question candidates, and VOTE.

        Power to the people!

        • bad12 27.1.1.1
          12 August 2012 at 12:37 pm

          Yes you have that right, one member one vote would be the truly democratic means of selecting the Leader of the party,

          I would go further to add that there should be a yearly ranking of both MPs and prospective MPs by membership vote…

  28. xtasy 28
    12 August 2012 at 1:48 am

    Having read throught he whole speech, I wonder whether it was written some time prior to, or during the election campaign last year, just “edited” a bit to fit the present scenario of NZ politics, and read out again now as a rehashed kind of version of the same stuff we hear again and again?

    Really, apart from the superannuation bit, and that prejudicial, silly remark about the sickness beneficiary roof painter, most seems to be stuff that Labour leaders have been trumpeting for ages.

    What about some new ideas and plans? Too much vague fluff, little substance, I am afraid.

  29. AmaKiwi 29
    12 August 2012 at 2:25 am

    There is no comprehension of what many people are going through.

    One member of my family is mid-thirties, a skilled tradesman, works 50-60 hours a week, but contract work so no pay for half that time because he is on the road between jobs. He has a room for the winter but as soon as it warms up he will go back to his usual abode: living in a tent in a friend’s backyard.

    I go to Gilmours and buy 12 liter cases of UHT milk for my grandchildren because their mother is on such a tight budget. No, she’s not on the dole. She’s a full-time teacher!

    This was always a thriving town. In 10 years I never noticed vacant stores or industrial buildings. Now “For Sale” and “For Lease” signs are everywhere.

    Parker is working on the neo-liberal assumption a recession is almost over.

    B.S. This is a Depression. You doubt it? Read about unemployment in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and is steadily worsening throughout Europe. The USA is bad, too.

    I expect National to be out of touch. The only people they have contact with who get dirt on their hands are farmers. I expect better of Labour. Does Shearer ever go to the Avondale market on Sunday, which is in his electorate. It’s thousands of people barely getting by. It’s his electorate, supposedly HIS people.

  30. captain hook 30
    12 August 2012 at 10:12 am

    reading all the nasty crap produced here by the right wing noo noo heads then one can only surmise that David Shearer is putting a serious dent into Nationals polling.

  31. Maui 31
    12 August 2012 at 12:21 pm

    You want to know what is coming around the corner ?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Work_Opportunity_Act

    http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/08/welfare-reforms-work-requirements-cannot-be-waived

    http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/09/news/economy/welfare-reform/

    http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/08/08/romneys-attacks-on-obamas-welfare-reform-justified/

    http://washingtonexaminer.com/romneys-history-of-welfare-reform-all-clinton-no-gingrich/article/2504326

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/romney-camp-deploys-gingrich-to-make-welfare-reform-argument-against-obama/2012/08/08/73d6784a-e16f-11e1-98e7-89d659f9c106_blog.html

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-08/romney-s-thin-welfare-reform-attack.html

    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/did-welfare-reform-work/244038/

    http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/welfarereform.html

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pwISMWiLVk&feature=fvw

    http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/20/unemployment-welfare-tanf-business-oxford.html

    http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/romney-renews-welfare-reform-attack-against-obama-144613102.html

    http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/ebooks/WelfareReform.html

    http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/universal-credit-full-document.pdf

    http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/97mar/edelman/edelman.htm

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/us/welfare-limits-left-poor-adrift-as-recession-hit.html?_r=1

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1743-4580.2002.00055.x/abstract;jsessionid=8034ADA73AC8E621F1C2F35B3C8EEAC2.d03t04

    http://www.thenation.com/article/165163/end-welfare-i-knew-it

    http://www.progressive.org/node/1573

    http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/12/us/two-clinton-aides-resign-to-protest-new-welfare-law.html

    David, where do you stand on this ? We look forward to your next newsletter.

    • fatty 31.1
      12 August 2012 at 12:36 pm

      I’m worried for the health sector, Key knows they generally vote Labour so they are ripe for attack. Nats recent nudge at Pharmac was to see what the public’s response would be…I am guessing they will step it up soon and start to dismantle it.

  32. al 32
    12 August 2012 at 12:52 pm

    David Shearer needs to be more vocal and ruthless when it comes to holding National to account in regards to its crazy education policies. People will become more aware of these important issues if they are placed in the spot light. National are relying on having a poorly informed and uneducated society to maintain their power in the near future. Get the boxing gloves on David and harden up !!

  33. bad12 33
    12 August 2012 at 1:03 pm

    The ‘time’ bell rang for Shearer when He gave the Bene-bashing speech to Grey Power, instead of accusing beneficiaries of being bludgers Shearer should be taking time to explain to His audiences the obvious,

    That ‘obvious’ should include the ‘known’ fact that Neo-Liberalism has at it’s core the known fact that there CANNOT BE FULL EMPLOYMENT from having applied the strictures of Neo-liberalism to any economy,

    The ‘fact’ is that the comfortable middle class only has that ability to be comfortable off of the back of Beneficiaries and minimum wage workers being kept in a far lower economic reality than that comfortable middle class,

    Shearer/Parker as a leadership team for Labour are as dangerous to the ‘Have Nots’ of our society as was Douglas/Prebble.

    More so in my opinion as us Have Nots had more to take off us at the point of Douglas/Prebble than we have now and the economic damage that is likely to be the result of a Shearer/Parker administration will in terms of losses be less but will non-the-less be felt more keenly by the Have nots…

  34. Wendigo Jane 34
    12 August 2012 at 1:38 pm

    It closely resembles the weekly Chief Executive’s email at the place I work. Carefully crafted Plain English that comes across cheesy. Sterile, flat, waffly and meaningless – the soul-sucking depressing boring nothingness of it all – we don’t want to say something that might actually cause something to happen. I’m this and I’m that and we will be talking about this more in the weeks and months to come. We’re doing a great job. Go us. Yawn, delete.

  35. lurgee 35
    12 August 2012 at 5:53 pm

    “That’s simply unacceptable, and National doesn’t have a clue what to do about it. Led by our team of Davids (Shearer, Parker, Cunliffe and Clark), Labour does, and we’ll be talking a lot more about this in the weeks and months ahead.”

    It might be something of an overstatement to say I am holding my breath.

  36. xtasy 36
    13 August 2012 at 2:04 am

    My demand to Labour AND National is:

    Explain the introduction of Principal Health Advisor and Principal Disability Advisor in 2007;
    explain their intended roles from a ministerial and political point of view, please,
    explain the introduction of Regional Health Advisors and Regional Disability Advisors in your 13 regional WINZ or MSD admin offices, please, and why the roles were created and are not publicised;
    explain the introduction of Health and Disability Coordinators, the purpose of their introduction, the roles they were intended to play, and why they were allowed to lobby, influence and go “chatty” with general practitioners, whom were also “groomed” and selected to perform “designated doctor” roles by “assessing” or “examining” sickness beneficiaries or invalid’s beneficiaries supposedly “independently”, while Dr David Bratt, as Principal Health Advisor, was “training” them to conduct their services in line with the Ministry of Social Development since 2008, PLEASE;
    explain to the public, please, why Medical Appeal Boards are advised to take a hard line and also are made up of medical and/or rehab professionals that do not necessarily match the kind of professional expertise and qualifications for the kind of cases with conditions that they to hear, but have no experience with;
    why are there now thousands of invalid’s beneficiaries, with serious, documented physical and mental health conditions, forced to attend reviews, designated doctor examinations (MSD “trained” GPs doing this!), while their usual doctors have in most cases given substantial information on their health and disabilities, specialists also having been involved, yet the WiNZ designated doctors (selected by applicantion and recruiting processes) can over-rule all previous medical reports and assessments and suddenly make totally different decisions?

    Can you please confirm the “savings” achieved through this illegal, hard line approach for MSD, please;

    Now, dear Paula Bennett, nobody else in Parliament or public has the guts to ask you, why does this happen, and is it happening within the law! I have just a new report from Southland, telling me it DOES NOT! I am sure you will face further challenges soon, because you are acting outside of the law!

    Thank you, dear readers, there is much more available on this.

    Good night!

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