Good Day to Bury News
Written By:
- Date published:
11:18 am, December 14th, 2010 - 25 comments
Categories: Economy, Media, national, privatisation -
Tags: pansy wong, private prisons
So Pansy’s gone.
That should mean we can breeze over the fact that thanks to National’s economic policies (or lack thereof) the economy’s gone to custard. And thanks to National’s tax cuts for the rich, the government’s books are in the poo.
We certainly won’t get to hear anything about the fact that our first prison has gone private.
Poverty hurting children’s health? It’s gone, we can only cover so many bad things…
Maybe we can come back to some of the other things tomorrow? Or is that too much to hope for…
25 comments on “Good Day to Bury News ”
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Speaking of news falling through the cracks:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/140144/shock-nz-corruption-level
Bloody hell, that’s scary.
Also scary: that Key sees the police being more and more armed as “inevitable”.
and also says that he doesn’t think that arming them will make them safer.
so why arm them?
And just who were they paying the bribes to?
And a good day to kick rail workers in the teeth – http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/no-confidence-nz-rail-industry-and-workforce/5/75713
That should be a massive story, its tells us a lot about where we are heading.
Yup have to agree Salsy this is a disgrace National selling jobs at every opportunity.
Hillside Workshops lose Trains to China
(I put this under open mike as well)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/4456359/KiwiRail-misses-out-on-wagon-bid
More bad news they are trying to bury under Wong’s body
Wait…does Wong know anyone at the Chinese train outfit?
If Wong doesn’t I’m sure the odious Shipley does.
Didn’t occur to me they would just save Pansy till they had something else they wanted to publish…
Here’s a very quick overview of Serco, the guys who’ve just tendered for Auckland Central Remand Prison. They’re big. Very big.
1200% growth since 1994.
The CEO puts their success down to ‘listening to God’.
They increased prison capacity in one facility by 20% by putting beds in the toilets.
They manage the UK’s nuclear arsenal.
They run all of Australia’s detention centres.
They are the biggest air traffic control company in the world and run Baghdad airport.
85% of their work force are ex-public sector.
They have a presence on every military base in Oz.
And so on.
They’ve been accused of profiteering, beating up inmates who subsequently kill themselves…
And they are accountable to us, how? Oh, that’s right. They’re not.
I can’t believe that we are outsourcing our prisons to multinational corporates.
And they run airports and schools and traffic systems and dole to work schemes plus a whole lot more. Can’t see how to view them as anything other than a private entity Government sucking up tax revenues to generate profit through the conduit of democratically elected government.
And that company’s foot is now in the door in NZ… if it hasn’t silently slipped right on in already.
I know it is ridiculous.
Gets worse. Went to the serco homepage and came across this 2010 presentation from Ruth Richardson…”this lecture from the former New Zealand Finance Minister discusses how to reform the way government works and considers both the scope of government and the importance of a vibrant private sector. UK”
A ‘must’ read. Sickening but hey…
That’s my emphasis ’cause, well….what the fuck was she doing having input in the coalition agreement?
Sorry. Wrong link. Richardson’s (cough) lecture is here… http://www.serco.com/instituteresource/subjects/publicsectorreform/govstructures/Index.asp
That clause about ACT getting money, from budgets unknown, to pay for ‘research’…
Missed that. Where?
http://www.act.org.nz/files/agreement.pdf
Page 3
Serco – the largest UK company you’ve never heard of . . .
You can’t screw over the public effectively if they know anything about you. This is also the only reason I can think of for the commercial sensitivity that this government keeps covering their arse with in regards to all the secret negotiations.
Company to run Auckland prison “linked to violence”
Privatisation of Parklea
It was inevitable that once NACT announced privatisations of the prison system that we’d end up with one that doesn’t come close to maintaining standards. The idiots only ever decide by price and so would have chosen the cheapest.
BTW, has the contract been publicly aired yet or is it still under commercial sensitivity?
Hey, Draco 🙂
I am just watching AlJazeera’s NewsHour on Assange getting bail. There was a clip of the van carrying Assange to the court hearing …. it had Serco across the front of it.