Rodney (still) wrecking the wacky party

Written By: - Date published: 3:41 pm, April 14th, 2011 - 13 comments
Categories: act, leadership, rodney hide - Tags:

You almost have to admire Rodney Hide for his total contempt for political reality. He has managed to annoy aged GoldCard users with his comments on their off-peak free use of public transport. As felix accurately states:-

There’s also a horrible irony in Hide opposing publicly funded transport for people who aren’t him or his girlfriend.

From the North Shore Times we have “Readers attack Rodney Hide“.

Senior citizens are furious at Act Party leader Rodney Hide’s suggestion New Zealand should stop giving the elderly a free ride on off-peak public transport.

Mr Hide’s comment to the North Shore Times that it’s a “luxury that New Zealand can’t afford” has hit a raw nerve with many residents.

The words of one angry letter writer that “his hypocrisy is beyond belief” sum up the feelings of the many people who gave us their views.

“This is the man who took his girlfriend to London at taxpayers’ expense under the discredited parliamentary MP travel scheme.

“If he wants to save $18 million the MPs much-rorted travel perks should be cancelled, and maybe then he can look at the SuperGold Card travel concessions if he is that insensitive and politically stupid.”

Letter writers are also angered at Mr Hide’s mention of plans to rebuild Christchurch as one of the budget pressures that should prompt a rethink of travel concessions.

Even for Rodney Hide, the author of such political disasters as “The Super-shitty” and “How not to sack a deputy”,  this is a monumental political own goal. Sure you can understand Rodney dislikes Winston Peters, who also panders to the same redneck audience as Act. After all Rodney expended a lot of effort in 2008 to eliminate NZ First and to try to collect some of NZ First voters. It must be galling to Rodney to see NZF so far ahead of Act in recent polls and you can understand some of his frustrations.

But attacking the GoldCard just because it was something that NZF brought in seems somewhat politically insensitive – bearing in mind Rodney’s previous rorting in the public trough.

hat-tip Cathy Casey.

Her facebook comment was the curt and accurate…

The answer is easy. If you don’t vote for Rodney Hide, he doesn’t get in.

13 comments on “Rodney (still) wrecking the wacky party ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Craig Glen Eden 1
    14 April 2011 at 3:46 pm

    What an Idiot! A Self entitled one at that.

  2. Carol 2
    14 April 2011 at 3:54 pm

    Rodney’s a total hypocrite.  Answering questions in the House today on bullying in schools etc, he took swipes at the Labour Party for bullying their own MPs (Chris Carter, Goff by the caucus….).  Mallard made a point of order, notifying the Speaker that the Labour Party would like to give one of their supplementary question spots to Heather Roy so she could speak to the issue.

  3. Lanthanide 3
    14 April 2011 at 3:56 pm

    So essentially Rodney is saying that transportation for the elderly is a “luxury” now?

  4. Jum 4
    14 April 2011 at 3:56 pm

    To the percentage of people who voted in NActMU, he has a point.  Money is everything; people are nothing.

    Right along with Jetstar refusing to take people in wheelchairs; what do they expect.  The people who work for Jetstar do all the jobs.  When I travelled on it I recognised the same people working on the ticket desk as the same rushing up and down the plane trying to sell us food and drink.

    Jetstar offers cheap flights; all the money goes to its shareholders.  This is the world that voted in NActMU; get used to it.  Disabled people are nothing to this ‘brave new world’ of New Zealand.  Old people are nothing to this new breed of New Zealanders.

    • Nick K 4.1
      14 April 2011 at 4:32 pm

      Money is everything; people are nothing.

      When you are running a $15Billion deficit money is pretty important.
      But hey, what’s $20Million amongst friends?  The Left just plucks it off the tree out the back of parliament.

      • marsman 4.1.1
        14 April 2011 at 5:25 pm

        And the right gives twice that to a foreign corporation under false pretenses.

      • Pascal's bookie 4.1.2
        14 April 2011 at 5:34 pm

        <i>what’s $20Million amongst friends?</i>

        a bit over half of what mediaworks thought it would be nice to have. Deloittes reckoned they didn’t need it though, and there is no evidence saying otherwise, but why would Rodney care about that?

        Face it. ACT is just NZfirst with even stupider coat tails.

      • Jum 4.1.3
        14 April 2011 at 5:41 pm

        Nick K
        Like your puppet Key, the $15b so-called deficit was plucked out of the air by Act’s Muriel Newman’s brainchild the NZ Inst of Economic research (which pretends to be an objective research unit, and cunningly sounds like it’s a branch of government) and a few transnationals eager to get their snouts into New Zealand’s assets.  Anyone who defends the mess Key is making of New Zealand must surely be in the pay of them.
        There are so many lies your govt has told Kiwis I’m surprised Key’s nose hasn’t grown like Pinochio or should I say Pinochet.
         
         
         

  5. bbfloyd 5
    14 April 2011 at 5:13 pm

    nick,… if you know the exact location of this tree, then i know a few thousand locals around here who can’t afford to prop up fonterra’s profits and buy real food would love to go a pickin’.

  6. todd 6
    14 April 2011 at 6:32 pm

    What we need is some ejection seats in the House of Representatives so we can eject little reprehensible bigots like Rodney Hide right out into the Pacific ocean.

    • ianmac 6.1
      14 April 2011 at 6:48 pm

      The seats worked for 007 but it saved him.
      It seems likely that Hide will be looked after to provide extra seats should Nats win, and also provide Act to fire the very right wing shots on behalf of Nats.

  7. uroskin 7
    15 April 2011 at 9:52 am

    That said, there is a large flaw in the Super Gold Card free travel scheme. It effectively has no audit trail, i.e. supergold card ID is not linked to or recorded as the public transport ticket issue. In practice, PT companies in the scheme can push the SGC button and issue tickets to non-existing passengers and no-one would notice. Hence the massive blowout of the SGC PT budget. The scheme was rushed in too soon without proper thought on design and protection of the tax base. SGC ID numbers should be recorded by PT companies to enable audits.
    Furthermore, in my own experience, one company has issued a SGC free ticket to a passenger who actually paid her fare, which means the company profits twice from the scheme. I have asked that company to state this is actually their policy. I’m still waiting for a reply.
    In my opinion the supergold card travel scheme in its current set up is a licence to print money for the transport companies (no wonder they all are desperate to be part of it) and corporate self-help to taxpayers’ money. We should blame Labour/NZF for this, but also National for not protecting taxpayers from corporate greed.

    • lprent 7.1
      15 April 2011 at 10:03 am

      Agreed. It should just be another readable smartcard just like the one I carry for the bus in my wallet, must be plugged into the reader, a ticket issued, and accounted for in the same way.

      To do anything else means that the systems get too frigging complex.

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.