“Directors at state-owned Mighty River Power will get twice their current rates and collect up to $2400 a day when the business is privatised, according to Treasury papers.
Treasury officials said the directors wanted the Government to bump up fees so they were not seen doing it themselves after the sale. Mighty River will be the first of four state-owned power firms to be part privatised.”
Steven Joyce forgot to mention this. There is no extra work for these directors:just loads more money. I hope Clayton Cosgrave makes some mileage out of it.
[lprent: If you quote it then please link it. Either just drop the raw link in or see the FAQ. ]
Officials warned ministers they were losing quality directors for Crown-owned company boards because the pay was too low.
They told State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall, who is overseeing the sale, there was a review under way into the fees paid to all directors of companies owned by the taxpayer.
Mr Ryall was told by the Treasury in February the level was likely to be halfway between current levels of $1200 a day and markets rates, which were “up to double this amount”.
It is not just the SOEs being part privatised that are being looked at.
Did I just hear on NatRad that Peter Dunne is going to be away from Parliament for the vote on SOE sales today?
And there was a comment that suggest he has been missing from some of the other votes too?
from what i have seen of late, the National whip has been putting most votes forward.
It takes a lot of spine to sit in the house when voting away the sovereignty of our Nation.
Yep, but as long as he’s letting National dictate his vote in return for stepping aside in Ohariu (hilariously without telling their own candidate) then they might as well do the actual voting too.
Hardly surprising. The weasel wanker wont even outline to the public what the upsides and downsides to the taxpayer are in selling the assets, yet he holds the pivotal vote. How does that work in a supposedly open democracy? Why won’t he explain the benefits and costs? Come on Dunne and PG, why wont Dunne outline the benefits and costs? Explain yourself!
Peter Dunne: “I have not spoken to National Radio at all on this issue. However, as it happens, I have a family-related funeral this afternoon.” (by email)
It won’t make any diffeence whether Dunne is in parliament for the vote or not. Proxy votes are common amongst all parties. The house was over half empty for most MOM debates I saw.
I never saw Hone Harawira there to vote. I doubt that he will get Greens to proxy vote for him if marriage equality comes up.
Dunno, Pete, I would have thought cynically using the funeral of someone you barely know to avoid the gaze of the NZ public as you allow your mates to sell them down the river is the real nasty here, don’t you?
Pete, the fact that Dunne cannot outline the benefits to the taxpayer in selling these assets casts enormous clouds of doubt over his already near-zero credibility.
Why would anyone believe him when he claims he has a funeral to attend?
It is the oldest trick in the book and given his consitent lack of credibility it is the only possible conclusion.
I know you don’t like these sorts of words but imo he is an arrogant wanker and a liar and a coward. Nothing but contempt. Fuck him.
Pete, this is not some be-nice-please thing going on here. It is the sale of electricity to foreign corporates and others which WILL result in rising power prices. As privatisation alreday has.
Old folk already struggling to pay for their winter-warming power will struggle even more. It is completely fucked. It is serious shit. Dunne is a c&#t. I make no apologies for the language and call on others to up the heat.
You think this is just politics as usual? It aint. These things directly impact people’s daily lives. FFS!
i send condolences Pete,
and i would be confident no disrespect to a grieving family was intended by anyone
but today is a rather significant vote for Dunne to be absent from,
atop his handling of a matter that he has been neither direct nor responsible with in public life
it reeks of cowardice and slavery
If his absence is inconsequential, then why has he carefully avoided every debate on the bill?
It appears as if he doesn’t actually wish to be associated with this treacherous act, although the scumbag is happy to vote for it in return for National helping him secure his seat.
Peter Undunne from the UF Party (UnFrocked Party) originally the Commonsense Conscientious Objectors Church. Mission – To object to doing anything that might derail my (our) sweet deal in parliament.
And this from acolyte Pete George who is one that believes we should sit and wait for the almighty to make things right for us.
I think his absence is inconsequential. It’s not his legislation, it’s National’s, so it’s up to them to front this.
He has not heard the saying ‘ The Lord helps those who help themselves.”
Fairfax is apparently bleeding money and is attempting to become more digital. The only problem is that the slump in advertising income from print is greater than the increase in advertising income from digital.
Either it will go broke or it will emerge as a much streamlined and dumber version of itself.
This will mean the blogs will become even more important in the analysis and dissemination of information.
Meanwhile the BBC is also moving towards a much more commercial approach in response to the Cameron government freezing license fees. Are we seeing the death throes of the fourth estate, after a long illness?
BC bosses have told reporters to think of money-making schemes and present them to their line managers at forthcoming job appraisals – raising concerns that the organisation’s prized editorial standards will be compromised by commercial imperatives.
The 2,400 staff working in the BBC’s Global News department, including the BBC World Service, have been told that they must now “exploit new commercial opportunities [and] maximise the value we create with our journalism”.
But the editorial independence of the BBC had been deteriorating for a long time. So this looks likely to accelerate the trend.
One of the things I (strangely) like about this and other blogs (whaleoil etc etc) is that theres no pretending to be neutral. You know what side the blogs are on unlike newspapers and their “neutrality”
Makes for fairer (and more interesting) reporting/opinion
We actually agree on something. Provided the comments section allows people with opposing viewpoints in who are willing to argue (ie not the idiot trolls bleating the same crap repetitively), then the whole thing encourages discussion because people are arguing about the opinion expressed in the post.
It is also why I like reading The Economist. I know precisely where their biases is and they clearly distinguish between their facts and opinions.
Of course there is one significant difference between Whaleoil’s site and here. He doesn’t exactly have interesting comments on his site (mostly consists of grunting how great Cameron is as far as I can tell) and arguing with his opinions is kind of pointless because all you get is the aforesaid grunting. The site should really be called Pigfat…
Not that interesting, quite predictable those “grunts” can’t see past their snouts, and their ancient grey matter cant stray beyond their bigoted thoughts from centuries past.
I’ve seen them (I read the site periodically when something references this site).
Of course I always get astonished when I see that they manage to write a comment that is more than a few lines long.
In the posts that I usually wind up reading the comments for it about this site, it seems to wind up with a whinge by some idiot that I banned for lousy behaviour like trolling a year or so ago merely repeating the same behaviour there. Or Pete George doing his usual two faced commenting about this site. Or Whale wishing I had another heart attack because he has such a wide and generous heart….
You know, nice people quietly discussing the issues of the day (not!)
Doing the public a service no doubt, without a headquarters for these throw-backs to hang out in they would be on the streets committing hate-crimes most probably.
Or Pete George doing his usual two faced commenting about this site
No reference or link for this I notice. That’s because there’s nothing to back up your diss. You could try an essay but it wouldn’t be proof of anything but your verbose typing skills.
The “Whale Army” tend to get more excited about prison rape than anything else. More than anything else, they seem to be mentally challenged. When Pete George posts there in favour of asset sales, this only gets worse.
Celia Wade Brown puts her/Wellington’s case against the government’s local government reform bill currently before parliament. Submissions close July 26:
Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown has slammed proposed legislation to rein in local government spending as “ill-considered” and undemocratic.
Wellington City Council has released its draft submission on the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill, which will be debated at the Strategy and Policy Committee meeting on Thursday.
[…]
However, the proposed changes were ill-defined and would undermine the democratic process, she said. They also undermined the commonly accepted functions of local government to promote and enhance public good.
[…]
Poor definitions in the bill would lead to uncertainty within local government, potentially increasing litigation, she said.
The bill also allowed for local authorities to be amalgamated without a poll being held, limiting the opportunity for communities to have their say on local government.
“What Wellington needs is community involvement in decisions, not hierarchical limitations from central government.”
Just another way these bunch of charlatans currently in government, are undermining democracy.
“From there we can go through the process of putting together a marketing campaign and all the fun on the first offering on Mighty River Power,” Mr Key told Newstalk ZB yesterday.
So Shonky thinks it’s ‘fun’ pushing through a sale with unseemly haste that the majority of NZers oppose – says a lot about him really.
After the taxpayer has spent decades building up a system to provide electricity for the nation at cost, it now seems that we will have to compete with massive corporates for the electricity i.e. we will pay the absolute maximum that can possibly be achieved, by fair means or foul. And now that the companies are being privatised the social contract around power generation in this country is being stripped bare.
What are the benefits to selling again Peter Dunne?
It would appear that the incoming Labour / Green government will have its hands full reversing the damage of this current government. Looking at the required agenda::
* rebuilding the role of the “public servant” relationship with those he / she serves…which in effect means ridding the whole public sector of the language and practices of business.
* reinstating public sector pay scales that keep the senior salaries in check, and rids the whole sector of bonuses.
* repeal of the local government reforms started by Bassett in the 80s to reintroduce democracy at a local level, and remove the need for local bodies to serve the private sector (i.e remove LATEs etc).
* buy back / heavily regulate infrastructural services that act as “rentiers” (telecommunications / power / transport), so that the productive economy does not have to pay rapacious sums to non productive sectors.
* devolve the role of Treasury back to the individual departments with a rump body working on macro economic policy.
* Reverse the Reserve Bank Act to heavily regulate financial activity.
* restructure the tertiary education sector away from being a “business”……
I could go on BUT what I am really driving at is that the incoming government has to be ruthlessly counter revolutionary. The Left has to commit to the total rolling back of 30 years of neo liberal nastiness, and create a secure state for the citizens, and a conducive environment for productive enterprise to flourish.
And also increase benefit rates, increase taxation, bring back the 8 hour working day and the 40 hour working week, allow more centralised wage bargaining, have a commitment for the public service to employ people with disabilities and young people…..
The Left has to commit to the total rolling back of 30 years of neo liberal nastiness, and create a secure state for the citizens, and a conducive environment for productive enterprise to flourish.
The thing is why are they in such a hurry to sell now. Even John Key knows that the financial system is collapsing at an alarming rate so selling will just net us soon to be worthless billions of fiat currency on our accounts. Oh wait, he’s not here to help us but to help his bankster mates dump their shite paper in exchange for our real world assets!
😆 Always an interesting read, that blogger’s work. In this one, the writer dances along the line of not offering opinion on guilt or innocence, but instead building a case of motive that could reasonably support an act of murder.
Haven’t paid much attention to the case myself, but for what I hear in passing in soundbites from the radio etc. Had to laugh at one attempt to play up the gun issue; a mother saying her boy held guns from a young age. I bet he held a spade from a young age too, but holding a gun or a spade, or even just your own hands, doesn’t make you more likely to kill. It seems inconceivable that a family brought so close together by conflict would not know what really happened.
Haven’t paid much attention to the case myself, but for what I hear in passing in soundbites from the radio etc.
I don’t get why the media are so completely obsessed with this case! I have not seen such blanket coverage of a murder since the (alleged) murder of the ‘Blenheim friends’ in 1998… which baffled me just as much.
I always believed that no one could be charged with murder (much less convicted!) in the absence of a body, but it seems I was wrong. Then, we see that as her body has just been found, the poliss are going to investigate the murder of Jayne Furlong, and I ask myself, if the bodies of the ‘Blenheim friends’ have yet to be found, yet their ‘killer’ has been banged up for a decade, why wasn’t Jayne Furlong’s murder investigated?
Is it a class thing?
Auckland’s $98 million public transport ticketing project is in deep trouble, with an admission that a technology supplier to the Super City’s largest bus fleet expects to miss a crucial deadline.
Concern about delays by Snapper Services, supplier of cards and machine readers to its sister company NZ Bus, in making the technology compliant with the Hop ticketing project on about 650 buses has exploded into a strong ultimatum from Auckland Transport lawyers.
[…]
Labour’s transport spokesman, Phil Twyford, blames the “shambles” – disclosed by a letter sent to Snapper by Auckland Transport’s lawyers – on Government interference that let the company work on the scheme despite failing to win the main contract.
“It was the National Government that insisted Snapper be allowed to roll out their card in Auckland well before the implementation of the integrated system,” he said yesterday.
Twyford claimed he has heard via reliable word-of-mouth reports that it was Joyce who intervened to get Snapper the contract it now can’t fulfill because of problems with accessing the appropriate integrating technology.
Twyford said he is submitting a raft of official information requests today, to get some documentation on this.
There’s a number of points wrong with the roll-out of the money cards:
1.) Government interference in the contracting out causing this particular ballsup
2.) Failure by the government to set interoperable standards
3.) Failure by the government to do it itself
This is a money transfer system that really needs to be government owned. The same can be said of EFT-POS.
Some fekker from the spin doctoring / “communications” game has been revving up the NACTs recently, the language has changed. The aim now is to blame the victim excessively, to emphasize help yourself or fekk off. NACT were never brave enough to risk the “nice guys John” image in the polls until recently. Now the veneer is gone their attitude has gone with it.
So from now on its gloves off: you Mr Citizen had better look out for yourself because as far as NACT are concerned you are a target, an unemployed number to be targeted down, an ACC claimant to be targeted off, a public servant to be incented to break regulations to meet a number.. Be responsible and starve responsibly! And remember even if you are an “aspirational” NACT voter you too can fekk off.
“He was previously at the New Zealand Treasury as deputy secretary and treasurer of the Debt Management Office”
–So this guy understands perfectly about how NZ in being ripped off by not issuing its own currency for its own needs. Wheeler worked for the OoDM, so he knows the rip off intimately.
The fact he worked at the WB, serves only to emphasise the depth of what he really knows!
“Treasury officials said the directors wanted the Government to bump up fees so they were not seen doing it themselves after the sale. Mighty River will be the first of four state-owned power firms to be part privatised”
Campbell Live had a good interview with John Key over asset sale Act. Campbell held Key to account and Key got a bit sulky. Key accused Campbell of showing his Financial ignorance. Campbell challenged him to explain why. That was over selling Contact for $7billion but $20 billion has been paid out in dividends.
Then there was Campbell asking 3 times to explain how the shares sold to NZers would stay in NZ. Key did not look happy to be challenged.
Good one John Campbell!
Not online yet.
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Mr Mojo Rising: Economic growth is possible, Christopher Luxon reassures us, but only under a government that is willing to get out of the way and let those with drive and ambition get on with it.ABOUT TWELVE KILOMETRES from the farm on the North Otago coast where I grew up stands ...
You're nearly a good laughAlmost a jokerWith your head down in the pig binSaying, 'Keep on digging.'Pig stain on your fat chinWhat do you hope to findDown in the pig mine?You're nearly a laughYou're nearly a laughBut you're really a crySongwriter: Roger Waters.NZ First - Kiwi Battlers.Say what you like ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Climate denial is dead. Renewable energy denial is here. As “alternative facts” become the norm, it’s worth looking at what actual facts tell us about how renewable energy sources like solar and wind are lowering the price of electricity. As ...
SIR GEOFFREY PALMER is worried about democracy. In his Newsroom website post of 27 January 2025 he asserts that “the future of democracy across the world now seems to be in question.” Following a year of important electoral contests across the world, culminating in Donald Trump’s emphatic recapture of the ...
The Government hasn’t stopped talking about growth since the Prime Minister made his “yes” speech at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce last week. But so far, the measures announced would seem hardly likely to suddenly pitch New Zealand into the fast-growth East Asian league. The digital nomad announcement hardly deserved ...
It's election year for Wellington City Council and for the Regional Council. What have the progressive councillors achieved over the last couple of years. What were the blocks and failures? What's with the targeting of the mayor and city council by the Post and by central government? Why does the ...
Someone defames you anonymously online. Can you find out who it is? Maybe. There are legal avenues to seek a court order that an internet host reveal the identity of the person. One of them is called a Norwich Pharmacal order, but as Hugh Tomlinson KC points out, it only ...
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Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
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Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
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Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
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Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
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The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
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Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
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The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
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The committee has published this list to inform the public about its work, and to give clarity to submitters who have contacted the committee asking if they will be invited to make an oral submission. ...
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best to let our glorious leader speak for himself
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=311585338934813&set=a.151176561642359.33626.100002500484061&type=1&ref=nf
Trust him. He is doing what is best for us.
“Directors at state-owned Mighty River Power will get twice their current rates and collect up to $2400 a day when the business is privatised, according to Treasury papers.
Treasury officials said the directors wanted the Government to bump up fees so they were not seen doing it themselves after the sale. Mighty River will be the first of four state-owned power firms to be part privatised.”
Steven Joyce forgot to mention this. There is no extra work for these directors:just loads more money. I hope Clayton Cosgrave makes some mileage out of it.
[lprent: If you quote it then please link it. Either just drop the raw link in or see the FAQ. ]
And BillODrees forgot to mention this:
It is not just the SOEs being part privatised that are being looked at.
And Bill, some people grizzle if you don’t provide links.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10815503
And I’m sure that we’ll just get other quality directors in even if we do keep the pay low.
Sometimes it’s hard not to avoid thinking the French had the right idea. They haven’t even started the floats and the pigs are at the trough already.
Did I just hear on NatRad that Peter Dunne is going to be away from Parliament for the vote on SOE sales today?
And there was a comment that suggest he has been missing from some of the other votes too?
from what i have seen of late, the National whip has been putting most votes forward.
It takes a lot of spine to sit in the house when voting away the sovereignty of our Nation.
Yep, but as long as he’s letting National dictate his vote in return for stepping aside in Ohariu (hilariously without telling their own candidate) then they might as well do the actual voting too.
Hardly surprising. The weasel wanker wont even outline to the public what the upsides and downsides to the taxpayer are in selling the assets, yet he holds the pivotal vote. How does that work in a supposedly open democracy? Why won’t he explain the benefits and costs? Come on Dunne and PG, why wont Dunne outline the benefits and costs? Explain yourself!
That he is a coward should not surprise.
Peter Dunne: “I have not spoken to National Radio at all on this issue. However, as it happens, I have a family-related funeral this afternoon.” (by email)
It won’t make any diffeence whether Dunne is in parliament for the vote or not. Proxy votes are common amongst all parties. The house was over half empty for most MOM debates I saw.
I never saw Hone Harawira there to vote. I doubt that he will get Greens to proxy vote for him if marriage equality comes up.
cat die?
Family related funeral is probably Dunne’s super secret code for a haircut.
Nastier than usual, it reflects badly on your connections.
Dunno, Pete, I would have thought cynically using the funeral of someone you barely know to avoid the gaze of the NZ public as you allow your mates to sell them down the river is the real nasty here, don’t you?
You’ve dug yourself deeper with a smear allegation which presumably you have no facts to back it up.
“family-related funeral” Says it all, Pete. Not family. Not related. But family-related. Should have just been honest and said “butt covering-related”
Gutless wonder.
Pete, the fact that Dunne cannot outline the benefits to the taxpayer in selling these assets casts enormous clouds of doubt over his already near-zero credibility.
Why would anyone believe him when he claims he has a funeral to attend?
It is the oldest trick in the book and given his consitent lack of credibility it is the only possible conclusion.
I know you don’t like these sorts of words but imo he is an arrogant wanker and a liar and a coward. Nothing but contempt. Fuck him.
Pete, this is not some be-nice-please thing going on here. It is the sale of electricity to foreign corporates and others which WILL result in rising power prices. As privatisation alreday has.
Old folk already struggling to pay for their winter-warming power will struggle even more. It is completely fucked. It is serious shit. Dunne is a c&#t. I make no apologies for the language and call on others to up the heat.
You think this is just politics as usual? It aint. These things directly impact people’s daily lives. FFS!
Do you think power will go up more or less than it has in the last ten years? And why?
more.
To pay the higher directors’ fees and get the investors’/looters’ return on investment.
i send condolences Pete,
and i would be confident no disrespect to a grieving family was intended by anyone
but today is a rather significant vote for Dunne to be absent from,
atop his handling of a matter that he has been neither direct nor responsible with in public life
it reeks of cowardice and slavery
Thanks freedom.
I think his absence is inconsequential. It’s not his legislation, it’s National’s, so it’s up to them to front this.
It’s his vote that’s enabling it.
Peter Dunne, member in absentia
enabling treason with the vote he whored
If his absence is inconsequential, then why has he carefully avoided every debate on the bill?
It appears as if he doesn’t actually wish to be associated with this treacherous act, although the scumbag is happy to vote for it in return for National helping him secure his seat.
ps if he only need to be in the house when debating his own legislation, then what the fuck is he doing there at all?
Peter Undunne from the UF Party (UnFrocked Party) originally the Commonsense Conscientious Objectors Church. Mission – To object to doing anything that might derail my (our) sweet deal in parliament.
And this from acolyte Pete George who is one that believes we should sit and wait for the almighty to make things right for us.
He has not heard the saying ‘ The Lord helps those who help themselves.”
In a continuation of what seems to be an irreversible trend Fairfax has lost three senior editors from the Sydney Morning Herald and from the Melbourne Age. Cost cutting measures mean that its journalist infrastructure is being slashed.
Fairfax is apparently bleeding money and is attempting to become more digital. The only problem is that the slump in advertising income from print is greater than the increase in advertising income from digital.
Either it will go broke or it will emerge as a much streamlined and dumber version of itself.
This will mean the blogs will become even more important in the analysis and dissemination of information.
Meanwhile the BBC is also moving towards a much more commercial approach in response to the Cameron government freezing license fees. Are we seeing the death throes of the fourth estate, after a long illness?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/shock-at-the-bbc-as-reporters-are-told-to-start-making-money-7879748.html
But the editorial independence of the BBC had been deteriorating for a long time. So this looks likely to accelerate the trend.
One of the things I (strangely) like about this and other blogs (whaleoil etc etc) is that theres no pretending to be neutral. You know what side the blogs are on unlike newspapers and their “neutrality”
Makes for fairer (and more interesting) reporting/opinion
We actually agree on something. Provided the comments section allows people with opposing viewpoints in who are willing to argue (ie not the idiot trolls bleating the same crap repetitively), then the whole thing encourages discussion because people are arguing about the opinion expressed in the post.
It is also why I like reading The Economist. I know precisely where their biases is and they clearly distinguish between their facts and opinions.
Of course there is one significant difference between Whaleoil’s site and here. He doesn’t exactly have interesting comments on his site (mostly consists of grunting how great Cameron is as far as I can tell) and arguing with his opinions is kind of pointless because all you get is the aforesaid grunting. The site should really be called Pigfat…
Now we agree with something also lprent.
I read the Economist also and enjoy it but I very very rarely read Slater.
Ditto.
Like Lprent, when I’m referred there, I can hear the strumming of banjos. They’re not exactly a bright bunch…
Isn’t it interesting that readers of whaleoils blog would probably say much the same thing about this site.
Not that interesting, quite predictable those “grunts” can’t see past their snouts, and their ancient grey matter cant stray beyond their bigoted thoughts from centuries past.
I’ve seen them (I read the site periodically when something references this site).
Of course I always get astonished when I see that they manage to write a comment that is more than a few lines long.
In the posts that I usually wind up reading the comments for it about this site, it seems to wind up with a whinge by some idiot that I banned for lousy behaviour like trolling a year or so ago merely repeating the same behaviour there. Or Pete George doing his usual two faced commenting about this site. Or Whale wishing I had another heart attack because he has such a wide and generous heart….
You know, nice people quietly discussing the issues of the day (not!)
Doing the public a service no doubt, without a headquarters for these throw-backs to hang out in they would be on the streets committing hate-crimes most probably.
You mean like the comments on this site advocating death and violence?
Seriously the standard and whaleoil have more similarities then differences.
But thats why I read both
The big difference is that any advocacy of death or violence I’ve seen here is quickly pulled up by the moderators. WhaleSpew seems to glorify them.
No reference or link for this I notice. That’s because there’s nothing to back up your diss. You could try an essay but it wouldn’t be proof of anything but your verbose typing skills.
Pete,
Could you pass on a message to your Leader; http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/an-open-letter-to-peter-dunne/
Nothing.
Ha! I’d forgotten that gem. Nice work, McFlock!
“He doesn’t exactly have interesting comments on his site (mostly consists of grunting how great Cameron is as far as I can tell)”
That’s because he writes most of them himself.
I suspect you’re right, Felix. The style of each post is remarkably similar.
The “Whale Army” tend to get more excited about prison rape than anything else. More than anything else, they seem to be mentally challenged. When Pete George posts there in favour of asset sales, this only gets worse.
Celia Wade Brown puts her/Wellington’s case against the government’s local government reform bill currently before parliament. Submissions close July 26:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington-central/7166286/Wade-Brown-slams-local-government-reforms
Just another way these bunch of charlatans currently in government, are undermining democracy.
“From there we can go through the process of putting together a marketing campaign and all the fun on the first offering on Mighty River Power,” Mr Key told Newstalk ZB yesterday.
So Shonky thinks it’s ‘fun’ pushing through a sale with unseemly haste that the majority of NZers oppose – says a lot about him really.
Electricity.
I see TrustPower is going to sell its Lake Coleridge hydro power water to farmers for irrigation over winter instead of generating electricity.
Think about the implications …
it’s a win win !!
a win for the power companies ✓
a win for Fonterra ✓
for the rest of NZ, not so much
Ha.
After the taxpayer has spent decades building up a system to provide electricity for the nation at cost, it now seems that we will have to compete with massive corporates for the electricity i.e. we will pay the absolute maximum that can possibly be achieved, by fair means or foul. And now that the companies are being privatised the social contract around power generation in this country is being stripped bare.
What are the benefits to selling again Peter Dunne?
rotten to the core
“winter”……….really???
It would appear that the incoming Labour / Green government will have its hands full reversing the damage of this current government. Looking at the required agenda::
* rebuilding the role of the “public servant” relationship with those he / she serves…which in effect means ridding the whole public sector of the language and practices of business.
* reinstating public sector pay scales that keep the senior salaries in check, and rids the whole sector of bonuses.
* repeal of the local government reforms started by Bassett in the 80s to reintroduce democracy at a local level, and remove the need for local bodies to serve the private sector (i.e remove LATEs etc).
* buy back / heavily regulate infrastructural services that act as “rentiers” (telecommunications / power / transport), so that the productive economy does not have to pay rapacious sums to non productive sectors.
* devolve the role of Treasury back to the individual departments with a rump body working on macro economic policy.
* Reverse the Reserve Bank Act to heavily regulate financial activity.
* restructure the tertiary education sector away from being a “business”……
I could go on BUT what I am really driving at is that the incoming government has to be ruthlessly counter revolutionary. The Left has to commit to the total rolling back of 30 years of neo liberal nastiness, and create a secure state for the citizens, and a conducive environment for productive enterprise to flourish.
+1
And also increase benefit rates, increase taxation, bring back the 8 hour working day and the 40 hour working week, allow more centralised wage bargaining, have a commitment for the public service to employ people with disabilities and young people…..
DoS…
Excellent agenda!
Ditto.
Thirded!
The thing is why are they in such a hurry to sell now. Even John Key knows that the financial system is collapsing at an alarming rate so selling will just net us soon to be worthless billions of fiat currency on our accounts. Oh wait, he’s not here to help us but to help his bankster mates dump their shite paper in exchange for our real world assets!
Ewen Macdonald and rural capitalism:
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/dozens-of-murder-trials-are-staged-in.html
😆 Always an interesting read, that blogger’s work. In this one, the writer dances along the line of not offering opinion on guilt or innocence, but instead building a case of motive that could reasonably support an act of murder.
Haven’t paid much attention to the case myself, but for what I hear in passing in soundbites from the radio etc. Had to laugh at one attempt to play up the gun issue; a mother saying her boy held guns from a young age. I bet he held a spade from a young age too, but holding a gun or a spade, or even just your own hands, doesn’t make you more likely to kill. It seems inconceivable that a family brought so close together by conflict would not know what really happened.
I don’t get why the media are so completely obsessed with this case! I have not seen such blanket coverage of a murder since the (alleged) murder of the ‘Blenheim friends’ in 1998… which baffled me just as much.
I always believed that no one could be charged with murder (much less convicted!) in the absence of a body, but it seems I was wrong. Then, we see that as her body has just been found, the poliss are going to investigate the murder of Jayne Furlong, and I ask myself, if the bodies of the ‘Blenheim friends’ have yet to be found, yet their ‘killer’ has been banged up for a decade, why wasn’t Jayne Furlong’s murder investigated?
Is it a class thing?
Feel for the family of Scott Guy, having to have their personal business dragged through the media.
I think we need to perhaps have another look at letting cameras in the courtroom…
Seconded!
More cronyism from Joyce? This is what Phil Twyford was alleging in his interview with Kathryn Ryan on RNZ this morning (audio file not yet online)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/20120626
Article on it here:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10815481
Twyford claimed he has heard via reliable word-of-mouth reports that it was Joyce who intervened to get Snapper the contract it now can’t fulfill because of problems with accessing the appropriate integrating technology.
Twyford said he is submitting a raft of official information requests today, to get some documentation on this.
There’s a number of points wrong with the roll-out of the money cards:
1.) Government interference in the contracting out causing this particular ballsup
2.) Failure by the government to set interoperable standards
3.) Failure by the government to do it itself
This is a money transfer system that really needs to be government owned. The same can be said of EFT-POS.
Some fekker from the spin doctoring / “communications” game has been revving up the NACTs recently, the language has changed. The aim now is to blame the victim excessively, to emphasize help yourself or fekk off. NACT were never brave enough to risk the “nice guys John” image in the polls until recently. Now the veneer is gone their attitude has gone with it.
So from now on its gloves off: you Mr Citizen had better look out for yourself because as far as NACT are concerned you are a target, an unemployed number to be targeted down, an ACC claimant to be targeted off, a public servant to be incented to break regulations to meet a number.. Be responsible and starve responsibly! And remember even if you are an “aspirational” NACT voter you too can fekk off.
Today I am reminded of a saying I heard from the character of a forty-four year old surfing instructor in a silly Hollywood movie:
Look out world… here I bail!
Great antidote to that twee saying…
Wheeler was employed by the World Bank from 1997 to 2010, his most recent roles included managing director operations from 2006-2010, and vice-president and treasurer from 2001 to 2006.
“He was previously at the New Zealand Treasury as deputy secretary and treasurer of the Debt Management Office”
–So this guy understands perfectly about how NZ in being ripped off by not issuing its own currency for its own needs. Wheeler worked for the OoDM, so he knows the rip off intimately.
The fact he worked at the WB, serves only to emphasise the depth of what he really knows!
Listening to Parliament live on the Radio.
The Bill has been passed….Done……
Fuck it.
New Zealand’s capital base just got smaller again (well, when the sales go through). Aint it grand.
Well, a good excuse to drunk I guess…not that I needed an excuse.
Passed by 1 vote…
Yeah thats a convincing mandate!
The speaker did make mention that a lot of bills pass buy a single vote …not sure to which ones he was referencing.
Yes, sure they do, and often given the votes are already know, thanks to party voting, and cretins like Dunne and Banks in there!
It was really just the 1 fingered salute to the whole sham!
If this does not get people visible and vocal, then they can simply sit back and let the reaming proceeed!
Deleted Double
TC
…pass buy a single vote. Was that a Freudian slip?
Didnt you support the sales?
Shame on Peter Dunne.
“Directors at state-owned Mighty River Power will get twice their current rates and collect up to $2400 a day when the business is privatised, according to Treasury papers”
“Treasury officials said the directors wanted the Government to bump up fees so they were not seen doing it themselves after the sale. Mighty River will be the first of four state-owned power firms to be part privatised”
delete does not seem to be working
Campbell Live had a good interview with John Key over asset sale Act. Campbell held Key to account and Key got a bit sulky. Key accused Campbell of showing his Financial ignorance. Campbell challenged him to explain why. That was over selling Contact for $7billion but $20 billion has been paid out in dividends.
Then there was Campbell asking 3 times to explain how the shares sold to NZers would stay in NZ. Key did not look happy to be challenged.
Good one John Campbell!
Not online yet.