Priorities

Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, September 3rd, 2010 - 16 comments
Categories: Deep stuff - Tags:

Important issues:

– quarter of a million jobless Kiwis

– falling wages

– health and education cuts

– denial of democracy in Canterbury and Auckland

– the government’s gutting of our national savings policies – Kiwisaver and the Cullen Fund

– the government’s gutting of climate change policy, as the world experiences its hottest year yet

Not important issues:

– whether we should replace one system for getting a figurehead Head of State with another system for getting a figurehead Head of State.

16 comments on “Priorities ”

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  1. rich 1
    3 September 2010 at 2:40 pm

    1. Having a monarchy creates a sense that we are being ruled by a mythical “crown” overseas rather than accepting control over our own destiny.

    2. There have been numerous instances in modern times where Westminster constitutional arrangements have notably failed. The Whitlam dismissal is just one of them. With political structures likely to come under increased stress, we need a more robust system that can’t be hijacked as easily.

  2. Shane Gallagher 2
    3 September 2010 at 4:48 pm

    Labour – WTF are you doing?
    Is anyone at home in Labour Party land?
    Hello?
    Nah – nobody…
    Sigh

    • Carol 2.1
      3 September 2010 at 5:33 pm

      I can’t decide if Labour is just keeping its powder dry until the election, or if it’s just putting up a weak opposition that won’t get any better? Or if maybe the MSM is not covering anything much of what Goff says due to its biases?

      Anyway, as yet, I see no reason to vote any differently from the way I voted last time: electorate vote for Cunliffe, and party vote Green.

      There are some good bits and pieces of opposition from some Labour & Green MPs, but the Greens seem to have more of a coherent approach and raft of related policies.

      Don’t know if Goff is a closet ACT supporter, but I don’t think Grant Robertson is. Hide, yet again, shows himself to use aggression to cover his own selective policy promotions:

      Roberston blogged:
      http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2010/09/03/not-good-enough-mr-hide/

      So this morning when I was on a plane to Auckland to visit, among other things, a couple of special schools, it was timely to see Rodney Hide get on the plane. As we stood up to disembark I asked if Rodney was indeed taking on the special education portfolio (he confirmed he was) and when the review was to be released. He responded by saying “when the government is ready.” Before I could go any further he said we could not expect cooperation from him on the review due to his issues about Labour’s approach on the super city.

      • felix 2.1.1
        3 September 2010 at 6:05 pm

        “I can’t decide if Labour is just keeping its powder dry until the election, or if it’s just putting up a weak opposition that won’t get any better? Or if maybe the MSM is not covering anything much of what Goff says due to its biases?”

        I was wondering this too, and I think it might be more that they’ve figured out that the govt can do more damage to itself that Labour can, so they’ve decided to keep their feet out of their mouths for a bit and see how things develop.

        Who knows, it might even work. Hardly inspiring leadership though.

  3. Blighty 3
    3 September 2010 at 5:02 pm

    when their ex-deputy leader is the highest ranking labour figure making news you have to ask questions about the goffice.

  4. outofbed 4
    3 September 2010 at 5:19 pm

    Well we can’t discount the possibility, as Goff was an enthusiastic Roger Douglas supporter, that he is in fact an Act mole, and the lack of coherent strong Labour opposition is actually a very clever ACT plan.

  5. James Barber 5
    3 September 2010 at 6:25 pm

    The first Standard blog post which I completely agree with.
    Transitioning to a republic will be a long and costly process. Surely this money could be better spent actually improving people’s lives?
    How many jobs would you sacrifice to have an elected head of state, when we’re effectively independent anyway?
    My answer would be be none!

  6. mickysavage 6
    3 September 2010 at 9:16 pm

    This is unfair.

    Michael Cullen was an exceptionally good Minister of Finance. He was the best Prime Minister New Zealand never had.

    He gives a speech with a long term focus, that when Lizzie trots off the mortal coil we should think about a republic. This is a perfectly good point to make.

    And he then gets criticised because New Zealand is going to hell in a hand basket and he seems to not be paying any attention.

    The last time I checked the tories were making the decisions that were destroying the special nature of New Zealand. Cullen had done his best to preserve it.

    He should not be blamed.

    • Sam 6.1
      4 September 2010 at 9:25 am

      Exactly.

      And how exactly does the ex-Finance Minister have any relation to what the current parliamentary wing of Labour is doing now? He’s retired, he’s allowed to talk about what ever the hell he likes provided people want to listen and evidently they do.

  7. Locus 7
    3 September 2010 at 9:24 pm

    The simple and cheap solution is to replace the monarchy with nothing. We don’t need an upper house, we don’t need a head of state and we don’t need a ‘fixed’ constitution. We do need a government that focuses on: achieving full employment; encouraging the growth of high wage businesses; provides free tertiary education; actively offers support and expertise to local democracy (rather than taking over and doing it for them); and which prevents emissions liability costs from being passed on to the consumer while also setting emissions costs at a level which truly encourages businesses to look for more energy efficient lower GHG alternatives. Oh I suppose we need someone to patronise charities, cut ribbons and dig the first sod on new projects – so maybe we could invite our own NZ heroes to do that.

    • Rodel 7.1
      6 September 2010 at 12:17 am

      Could not agree more.
      I’m glad someone else thinks we need just an elected government and no more parasitical hangers on.
      Does anyone have any idea what a ‘head of state’ costs – it’s astronomical, for absolutely no return.

      We don’t need an unelected someone to represent a British motherfailure and her dysfunctional family of irrelevants..
      We just need a government of electees- some left wing and some Tory and a few in betweens.

      A head of state is a bit like like the concept ot listees who no one ever voted for. I mean Rodney got in because people voted for him and as devious as it was, good on him, that’s democracy- but to bring along the other 4 deadbeat listees-that’s not democracy.
      There I feel much better now!

      • Loota 7.1.1
        6 September 2010 at 1:17 am

        Astronomical?

        You mean on the same scale as the $219K per day interest the Govt is paying to SCF investors?

  8. Rob 8
    5 September 2010 at 8:03 am

    When a government is in power that you do not like is it better to:
    a) push for policies they will never enact so they can carry on enacting bad ones
    b) push for policies both parties could do so they have less time to enact bad policies

    Your call.

  9. Loota 9
    6 September 2010 at 1:15 am

    ^+1 to you Zet, as per usual.

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