On merit

Written By: - Date published: 1:07 pm, September 29th, 2013 - 35 comments
Categories: labour, workers' rights - Tags:

Which Labour MP has Matt McCarten today described as “Another Cunliffe loyalist rewarded.” and scored 5/10?

Now, which Labour MP got the government on the ropes with a member’s bill to the point that Bill English had to threaten a rarely used and politically damaging financial veto?

The answer to both questions is Sue Moroney. I find it odd that a long time senior union official like McCarten would have been so dismissive of an MP that did such good opposition campaigning for such a significant work right. Especially as she did it through good old fashioned organising and with very little resource.

Disappointing analysis Matt – 3/10 for you.

35 comments on “On merit ”

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  1. QoT 1
    29 September 2013 at 1:26 pm

    I also note that Clayton Cosgrove, who has been in Parliament since the previous century, is “the new Trevor Mallard”.

    Grant Robertson’s “talent and stature” – despite just getting three weeks of concentrated media coverage – still needs “time” to become apparent.

    Jacinda has made a “mistake” dropping Social Development and thinks combat is “icky” … because Matt didn’t notice that she’s picked up Police and Corrections.

    That’s some winning analysis right there, and it totally puts us pseudonymous bloggers to shame, right Eddie?

  2. red blooded 2
    29 September 2013 at 2:06 pm

    Come on folks, accentuate the positive. There will always be an element of personal judgement to this sort of writing and McCarten can’t afford to be written off as an uncritical cheerleader. Personally, I don’t like his comment about moving aside top performers to ” make room for women” (‘cos there’s no way to be both, I guess, Matt). In general it’s a very positive write up, though.

    • QoT 2.1
      29 September 2013 at 7:13 pm

      But the problem isn’t McCarten’s “personal judgement”, it’s that he’s talking utter tosh.

      You can say “I don’t like this person” all you like but as soon as you’re saying “This person shouldn’t be promoted because they haven’t achieved much” when they clearly have – or “This person hates conflict when she’s been given a portfolio which is always high profile and full of conflict” – then you’re opening yourself up to being criticised for not having a fucking clue what you’re talking about.

      And maybe McCarten could try accentuating the fucking positive for the 4 out of 5 women MPs who he isn’t a fanboy of (5 out of 6 if you count his mention of Fenton). He couldn’t even find anything to say about Maryan Street, he ranks every woman except King as a 4 or 5, and none of the men are below a 7.

      • just saying 2.1.1
        29 September 2013 at 7:23 pm

        I used to admire Matt.

        Wasn’t he implicated for not supporting women activists who were speaking out about a sexual harrasser who is a member of his inner circle, and thereby implicitly defending the offender?

        • QoT 2.1.1.1
          29 September 2013 at 11:08 pm

          Wasn’t that Minto? The most recent episode of the long-running episodic serial, “Leftwing Men Seriously Drop The Fucking Ball On Challenging Rapey Douchebags In The Movement”, that is.

      • Rhinocrates 2.1.2
        29 September 2013 at 9:22 pm

        Oh yeah, that’s the thing about blokes who say that they judge on merit alone. It’s not that they hate women, it’s just that the women that they see aren’t good. You see, because they’re such feminists themselves, they acknowledge that there are good women out there… just never any that they can see right now, while all the men are just awesome by default.

  3. Bill 3
    29 September 2013 at 3:24 pm

    Still pushing yesterdays peeps – and displaying a degree of sour grapes and impotence is how I read that piece. (Always have reckoned that the custard pies come out when things don’t promote him and/or his pet projects.)

  4. Rhinocrates 4
    29 September 2013 at 4:29 pm

    “Favouring women”, because women need favouring because their default is “incompetent” while the default for men is “awesome.”

    The whole “man ban” thing was ugly, but the memes that have proliferated from it have highlighted how deep-rooted misogyny is, and how misogynists look for justification. As racists say, “I’m not racist, I just hate political correctness that favours the nxxxxxs” and McCarten’s being the same.

    At least the affair flushed out the sexists.

    Thanks Matt, I once thought that you had something useful to say, but as another post had it here, the right doesn’t have a monopoly on arseholes.

  5. Tim 5
    29 September 2013 at 5:50 pm

    @Eddie ….
    “I find it odd that a long time senior union official like McCarten would have been so dismissive of an MP that did such good opposition campaigning for such a significant work right.”

    Don’t forget Tau Henare was once an onion official too.

    I was once in the Tramways Union too when a certain Mr Tollich was (now quite obviously – desperately) trying to climb the ranks.
    I’ve only recently discovered what a cnut he appears to have become – and only after bumping into one of his contemporaries at the supermarket who seemed not to want to reminisce about Tollich and Wgtn Shitty Transport.

    Never mind tho aye. I notice Phillip Ure somewhere above mentioned an editor of Metro magazine.
    Tedious cnuts the lot of them. We should invent a new term – not so much baby boomer as bubba boomer – those that never had the ability to empathise – merely to sympathise (and be sure they’ll make an industry out of it)

    Me thinks Northern India at the foot of the Himalayas is looking pretty frikken fine about now

  6. karol 6
    29 September 2013 at 6:24 pm

    MSM Commentariat: All trying hard to deal with the Labour surge.

    Collective 5/10.

    Time for some new momentum (was going to say new blood), but then these Edwards The Younger.

    Time for the Seymour Hersh prescription:

    Seymour Hersh has got some extreme ideas on how to fix journalism – close down the news bureaus of NBC and ABC, sack 90% of editors in publishing and get back to the fundamental job of journalists which, he says, is to be an outsider.

    All trying too hard to be insiders, with the inside running.

  7. Murray Olsen 7
    29 September 2013 at 8:11 pm

    McCarten came across as very dull and conservative in that piece. It’s almost as if he wants Labour organised as badly as possible, and doing the wrong thing, in the simplistic belief that this would get voters running to Mana. I think 3/10 is being kind.

    On specifics: how the hell is having Shane Jones as the new Mike Moore seen as a good thing?
    Sue Moroney rewarded for loyalty? She’s done far more than SeaLord Jones or that rodent Hipkins, who are rated much higher.

    I’ve always suspected that McCarten was a macho type of Waitakere man union bureaucrat, just like Tamihere or Henare, more into organising a few stunts than empowering workers. His recent columns have done nothing to change my thinking.

    • Rhinocrates 7.1
      29 September 2013 at 9:18 pm

      Likewise. I once thought that McCarten had something to say, but he’s continually proven himself to be another Old Spice-soaked bloke.

      “Shane Jones as the new Mike Moore”

      Jesus H fucking Christ in a sidecar – a right wing arsehole is a new right wing arsehole? WTF?

      Anything to do with women or “minorities” is an irrelevance to the blokes who wallow in a fantasy of 30s masculinity for him.

      I’m sad, very sad. I once believed in McCarten.

    • red rattler 7.2
      29 September 2013 at 11:30 pm

      +1 Murray
      McCarten has been sidelined as a mover and shaker of deals between small left parties.
      The momentum is with Cunliffe and the growing working class membership of Labour.
      Cunliffe is against neo-liberalism and crony capitalism, but he is not socialist nor even anti-capitalist.
      The big move will come when the raised expectations of the membership push Cunliffe further than he wants to go.
      That will happen when a large representative, working class, democratic membership, makes policy that is anti-capitalist, and the Caucus resists.
      Then maybe we will see a real socialist working class party arrive on the scene and not the almost century old hybrid Labour Party that hires itself out to the bosses to keep the workers in line.

      • Draco T Bastard 7.2.1
        30 September 2013 at 1:27 am

        Yep, people have to realise that Cunliffe won’t change anything. Without a willingness to change the financial system then no other changes can be made as we will be still slaved to the will of the banksters.

        • thatguynz 7.2.1.1
          30 September 2013 at 10:00 am

          +1

          • Colonial Viper 7.2.1.1.1
            30 September 2013 at 10:08 am

            Gentlemen, let’s not jump to the executioner shall we? NZ is a trading nation and inviting a capital or banking strike is not something this country is at all ready for.

            That being said, I’m making sure that people get a very simple message: the Government is not merely a user of money and credit; it can also act as an issuer of money and credit. Russel Norman knows this fact and I am sure that Cunliffe and Parker know it too, even if many old time superstitions still hang around the phenomenon of “money creation” and “credit creation.”

            • Draco T Bastard 7.2.1.1.1.1
              30 September 2013 at 12:31 pm

              Gentlemen, let’s not jump to the executioner shall we?

              Just pointing out the facts. I like DC, I think he will be better than the last few Labour Leaders but he’s not a saviour.

              NZ is a trading nation and inviting a capital or banking strike is not something this country is at all ready for.

              Some pain, short term, will be experienced as we change away from the global bankster control.

              The government has to become the issuer of money and the private banks need to be restricted to lending out only the money that they have deposited for that purpose. Specifically, the private banks must be prevented from creating money as they do now.

              Without that change then no other changes can be wrought to bring about an equitable society.

              • bad12 …
                30 September 2013 at 12:53 pm

                Hear here!!!, David Cunliffe is obviously the best leader Labour have to ensure that the next coalition government will not feature the National Party,

                For the monetary system to change to such an extent where it is the role of the State to produce the money supply i would suggest will take a complete collapse of the current monetary system,

                The GFC came close, the upcoming US debt ceiling debate if the Republicans are really insane could also topple the house of cards,

                Tomorrow, next month, next year, it will happen as the profits of capitalism have been far out-stripped by the losses of the ongoing series of economic collapses…

        • srylands 7.2.1.2
          30 September 2013 at 1:16 pm

          “Without a willingness to change the financial system then no other changes can be made as we will be still slaved to the will of the banksters.”

          What is wrong with you? New Zealand has one of the best banking systems in the world. Read the latest IMF assessment.

          My bank does everything for me that I need.

          http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pn/2013/pn1351.htm

          “The banking sector remains sound. Asset quality remains good, the ratio of nonperforming loans to total assets is low and continues to decline from its peak, and return-on-assets is in line with the pre-crisis average. Capital adequacy has improved and is well above the Basel III capital requirements which the RBNZ began to put in place in January. Banks have shifted toward more stable funding sources facilitated by a combination of strong deposit growth and slower credit growth. Reliance on offshore wholesale funding has been reduced and is of longer maturity, and deposits now meet around half of banks’ funding requirements. Banks’ balance sheets are fully hedged against exchange rate risk.”

    • Chooky 7.3
      30 September 2013 at 8:39 am

      @Murray Olsen+1….to “Waitakere man union bureaucrat”….. never found him very astute or attractive…always found him very “dull and conservative”……cant understand what he is going on about….looks like he is trying to pour new wine into old contaminated broken pots…and sully the whole vintage….where is his brain at?….

  8. red blooded 8
    29 September 2013 at 9:57 pm

    I have to admit I found the ‘new Mike Moore’ thing somewhat odd. Anyway, we need a caucus with personalities, values, roles and relationships for now, looking forward, not the 80s or 90s. We’re still dealing with the fallout of the decisions made back then.

  9. xtasy 9
    30 September 2013 at 12:12 am

    Matt McCarten was a staunch supporter of David Shearer for leader of Labour, and he wrote repeatedly, that he was convinced, it would be David Shearer who would lead Labour to victory in 2014.

    At times I can agree with Matt, at others I despair, and ask how much he is in touch with reality. Some suggest he has ulterior motives when writing his weekly column in the Herald.

    I honestly think that Matt is not quite up to it anymore, to really get it right with his comments. We had Hooton go nutty over the last week, I would dread to see Matt follow him down that track.

    Some of the ratings Matt gave may make sense, but others do not, and I am struggling to compare Parker with Cullen, and I also note he missed that Ardern took on yet another, additional spokesperson responsibility, besides of what he quoted.

    As for those slamming him for not rating Sue Moroney too highly, I am very cautious with any expectations in her. She is a hard worker and solid, reliable and committed person, but I honestly think she will be too kind and principled a person to deal out EFFECTIVELY to such a nasty Minister like Paula Bennett.

    Maybe I am wrong, maybe her sincere efforts to expose the “fraud” or “fake” and hypocrite Bennett is, will succeed, but I cannot see it. I think that Louisa Wall as Associate Spokesperson may be better prepared to deal with such an intimidating, aggressive Minister like Paula Bennett.

    Welfare is a very important area of responsibility, as it is supposed to be looking after society’s most vulnerable. In the extreme, there are lives at stake. So I see a real need to put Bennett into her place.

    Then again, perhaps Cunliffe already considered that Metiria Turei may be a potential candidate to take over welfare in a Labour – Greens government?

    With Labour only having so many MPs and therefore a bit of a limit to talents, there lies a major challenge to be dealt with over coming months.

  10. xtasy 10
    30 September 2013 at 3:44 am

    You may think Matt McCarten is “bad”, as for chauvinism, learn then about “modern” middle Eastern “stars” like this one from Iraq, who loves to tease his “western” and “oriental” “kittens” as he pleases, for his and other male’s pleasures there then:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHDXEp9uDrA

    Cultural “diversity”, I suppose, I have heard it all, I have been there, here and many other places, so get real on this and take a stand, please!

    This is common music and video presentation there, and the “west” serves as nothing but an “adventure ground” for all in their home countries to better not get too involved in, but for “tourism”.

  11. xtasy 11
    30 September 2013 at 3:57 am

    We need to watch this space, for sure:

    Salafists in Germany and Europe, some prepared for violence!