Vote for compassion and competence

Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, September 21st, 2017 - 44 comments
Categories: bill english, disaster, Economy, election 2017, energy, jacinda ardern, labour, Left, national, Politics, Propaganda, same old national, Social issues, spin, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

Four Three days to go and this election is going down to the wire! Turnout is absolutely vital. Don’t forget to remind your whanau and your friends that every vote is vital and if they want to have a say in the way our country is run in the future then they need to vote.

And if they are not currently on the roll then they can go to an early voting station and enrol and vote at the same time. But only until Friday evening. After that they have to already be on the roll to vote.

Last night’s debate was a frustrating event.  Jacinda did not look like she was on top of things.  Having Hosking making his personality the centre of the debate is a difficult thing to cope with.

And English continued in that really frustrating way of proclaiming that things were great and wonderful and here are the statistics to prove it.

I hope he has a long session booked in with his Parish Priest on Sunday morning. There are a number of transgressions against the eighth commandment he will need to seek atonement for.

The latest poll hurt.  Even though it clearly shows that things are really unstable and the two blocks are neck and neck and anything is possible.

As we descend into the crunch time of this election, where legends will be born and winners are determined and losers are consigned to the rubbish bin of history it suddenly all gets real. Will there be a change of Government and what will this mean for New Zealand’s future?

Six weeks ago privately I would have said no way. At the time it looked like Labour was tanking. I might comment on the background post election. But Labour’s decline was real.

Then along came Jacinda. She has shaken up New Zealand politics in a way I have not seen before. Helen was great, the most accomplished and capable PM the country has ever had but had three years in the job as opposition leader. David Lange was brilliant and extraordinarily charismatic but had 18 months in the job as opposition leader before coming PM. Jacinda has had six weeks and is showing the same IQ as Helen and the same EQ as David. Perhaps she is the modern female version of Micky Savage, combining the compassion and the smarts of that most legendary of Labour leaders.

And she may be our Prime Minister in a week’s time. If she is it will be the most dramatic turn around in New Zealand’s modern political history.

Politics is generally a battle of compassion verses competence. National has created this perception of economic competence, even though the economy invariably does better under Labour. But most people believe that National with its cost accounting approach to the country’s books result in us being more prosperous and paying less tax.

On the other side Labour is the party of compassion, the party supporting the ordinary person, of acknowledging our country’s biculturalism and multi culturalism. The party that will do something serious about poverty, education, homelessness, and the myriad of threats that are appearing on our future.

It is meant to be a binary equation, National good for economy, bad for people, Labour compassionate but sucks at being managers.

The problem with this is that it is a whole lot of bumpkin, at least as far as National’s managerial competence is concerned.

Lets take a couple of examples. Like the security of Auckland’s fuel supply.

A few of us had a laugh when it was acknowledged that a Kauri Stump digger may have ruptured the only pipeline that transfers jet fuel from Whangarei to Auckland. We wondered jokingly if Oravida Kauri, now known as Kauri Ruakaka Limited, was involved.

The sense of irony would have been extreme. And a cruel blow to National. I was hoping for a fulsome response denying any responsibility so we could move on and discuss other things but so far crickets …

As Farmgeek put it in the most perfect tweet of the campaign …

https://twitter.com/farmgeek/status/909340993002004481

But putting to one side how it happened the fact that National was invited to provide resilience into the system in 2012 but decided not to do so because of cost shows how a cost accounting state of mind dominates them.  This is OK if you want to maximise investor return but sucks if you want to build a modern and resilient city or country.

And how about health.  Every time Jonathan Coleman opens his mouth it is to either say that things are great and we are doing more elective surgeries than ever or it is to blame someone else for the current situation.

But we clearly have a system that is bulging at the seams where two of our largest hospitals have put up the full sign.

And poverty?  National’s approach is that things are going to get better.  But it appears to have only realised that child poverty is a thing this election despite the evidence being clear to see for years.

National’s basic problem is that it is competent in a cost accounting sort of way, able to cut expenses and terrorise employees.  But the problem is that this causes long term damage.  And after nine long years the signs are showing.

And such is National’s managerial competence they cannot even spell check properly.

https://twitter.com/usertwentyfive/status/909657637934866433

National lack the compassion and basic humanity of the left. And its competence extends only to cost accounting 101, cutting a budget by an arbitrary amount and expecting to get the same result.

Vote them out.

44 comments on “Vote for compassion and competence ”

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  1. WILD KATIPO 1
    21 September 2017 at 10:09 am

    The only reason why there is this public perception of National being ‘ good managers’ is simply because they are they ones who cowtow to big business.

    The facts are they are appalling managers of a country. A country is not a business. It is a vast collection of individuals who inhabit a complex range of different community’s.

    It is not a corporation , it is not a multinational, – it is a country.

    And it cannot be run like a business.

    It it was ,- it would negate the need for and cease to be a democracy.

    And this is what this whole battle has been all about . For too long these incompetents called National having been trying to run this country like a business. Well , … we are not a business. We are nation of individuals that have many and sundry needs that are not being met by this govt. Yet we pay them generous salary’s and elect them to address these needs. They have not.

    And to spout off about having a strong economy while there is so much poverty among so many people of this country is a testament in itself that this govt is only looking at things through the eyes of the economist and the business sector, – not through the eyes of a true leader of a nation.

    A true leader like Jacinda Adern.

    • eco Maori/kiwi 1.1
      21 September 2017 at 3:55 pm

      +111

      • eco Maori/kiwi 1.1.1
        21 September 2017 at 4:04 pm

        I’m confident that we will be celebrating a new Queen on Saturday already got plans to have a couple on Saturday with my family don’t let up though go out and vote please

    • cleangreen 1.2
      21 September 2017 at 7:20 pm

      Wild Katio, I am totally in sinct with your logic.

      National dont know anything about the terms or benefits of “Pay it forward” as if they’re andriods.

      ‘No sense no feeling’ fits National’s mode.

    • mosa 1.3
      21 September 2017 at 7:33 pm

      Katipo you are a REAL salt of the earth kiwi.

      Well put.

    • KJT 1.4
      22 September 2017 at 7:36 am

      Well. If they even tried to run it like a good business, would be an improvement.
      Good businesspeople do not sell income earning assets and borrow, to pay the grocery bill. Equivalent to a tradesman selling his tools to go on holiday.

  2. mac1 2
    21 September 2017 at 10:18 am

    Re voting with compassion. This appeared in our local Grey Power newsletter.

    “I now offer a fourth virtue to consider- compassion.
    It is the virtue where people act mercifully, generously and without according blame or judgment.
    It asks people to share the pain that others feel, to have empathy for them.
    Compassion asks people to go outside their own personal interests to value and act for others.
    I urge you to act, and vote with such compassion.”

    I am pleased to see that advice being echoed here as well on the Standard.

  3. JanM 3
    21 September 2017 at 10:50 am

    This piece by Dame Anne Salmond seems relevant on this post – I love it!
    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/20/49103?slug=dame-anne-salmond-a-final-brief-election-thought

    • Pat 3.1
      21 September 2017 at 11:09 am

      +1

      brief and to the point….may it circulate widely.

    • Ant 3.2
      21 September 2017 at 11:26 am

      “Neo-liberalism has failed. It’s time to hand over the reins to a new generation, and let them shape the future.” Salmond

      True enough, but the new generation has to vote as an initial step towards taking over the reins.

  4. Ant 4
    21 September 2017 at 10:59 am

    “I think MPs don’t tell the truth often enough, and they rely far too heavily these days on these fancy spin doctors, and democracy for you and me I think is worse off.” (Duncan Garner)

    You have to smile at often enough! Can we put a figure to that? How often would be “often enough” for truth?

    Compassion cannot co-exist at government level in tandem with untruth, and a decent society cannot exist without compassion.

    • Unicus 4.1
      21 September 2017 at 11:22 am

      It is a very diffucult quest to ask people who have been bred to have no social conscience to suddenly vote on the basis of community responsibility .

      So maxims like Harry Trumans ” Taxation is the price of civilisation” are so much gobbledegook to voters seeking only to preserve or enhance their own self interest.

    • KJT 4.2
      22 September 2017 at 7:37 am

      From one of the Spin Doctors?

  5. tc 5
    21 September 2017 at 11:10 am

    “National has created the perception that it is a better manager of Government than Labour…” which the MSM enforced by not challenging them on the lies and not applying critical intellect to their claims.

    You’ll never change this without legislated Public broadcasting media as a source people can turn to when they want to know the facts.

    The MSM have largely sat back and allowed national to lie their asses off through this campaign and that’s why the perception lingers Mickey. Shills like Hoskins performance last night being a recent example.

  6. AB 6
    21 September 2017 at 11:28 am

    “National – good for economy, bad for people”
    That’s the sort of schizophrenic tangle people get into when they treat an abstraction like “the economy’ as a real thing.
    Perhaps we could subvert Margaret Thatcher’s infamous phrase by saying “There is no such thing as the economy, only people and their circumstances”

    • WILD KATIPO 6.1
      21 September 2017 at 11:53 am

      Your inversion is correct to a point.

      Tribal people who have no ‘ money ‘ have an economy based on fishing for example. That economy is therefore cashless but still an ‘ economy’.

      So an economy is more accurately defined as the combined activity’s of people. Not necessarily modern western units of value in a purely ‘coin and dollars’ sense.

  7. greywarshark 7
    21 September 2017 at 3:38 pm

    Part of compassion is caring about other people who don’t have good housing.

    Here is a poll taken Feb 2017 cross party ages etc.
    http://www.interest.co.nz/news/86242/new-zealand%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98housing-crisis%E2%80%99-dominates-domestic-issues-new-zealand-heads-towards

  8. esoteric pineapples 8
    21 September 2017 at 4:19 pm

    National’s winter will come sooner or later. Once all those 65 to 75 year olds start dying off in about ten years time, a significant part of National’s demographic will go with them. You can’t sell NZ as an egalitarian pavolva paradise to those who have never known New Zealand when it was.

    • JanM 8.1
      21 September 2017 at 4:53 pm

      From a 71 year-old Labour voter – charming!
      And I would have said an egalitarian society is what we did know – who do you think voted for Norman Kirk and all the Labour governments since? It’s the younger ones who have never experienced it.
      And while we’re on the subject, Dame Anne Salmond was born 9 days after me!

  9. james 9
    21 September 2017 at 5:08 pm

    Oh the Irony in a post about Labour being the party of compassion:

    “National’s winter will come sooner or later. Once all those 65 to 75 year olds start dying off in about ten years time, a significant part of National’s demographic will go with them. ”

    Classy all the way.

    • WILD KATIPO 9.1
      21 September 2017 at 5:31 pm

      Hehehe,… Nationals winter will be coming a lot sooner than you think , James… and those tribal Nats will not only live to see it , but mourn it for years to come ….

      • james 9.1.1
        21 September 2017 at 6:25 pm

        How many years have you been in mourning now Wild Katipo?

        • WILD KATIPO 9.1.1.1
          21 September 2017 at 6:47 pm

          Ha!… time is on my side , and revenge is sweet .

          For one , I’m not a tribal voter.

          Secondly my goal isn’t even National.

          Thirdly , – I have the IMF backing me up saying neo liberalism is a failure.

          And fourthly ?… even Winston agrees.

          Catch the drift?

          So how do you think Winston and Collins , Pulyer , Joyce and Bridges and co will get on ?… I’d give them one term at best. Then its going to be a mighty long time before you can troll on these forums again with any credibility.

          So catch the goal, bud,… you’re just on the periphery. And DEFINITELY on the wrong side of history.

        • Ed 9.1.1.2
          21 September 2017 at 8:49 pm

          Read Dame Anna Salmond.

          ‘This election has not been a contest between left and right, but between different generations and philosophies.

          For the past 33 years, New Zealand has been gripped by neo-liberalism – a cult of naked self-interest, of the cost-benefit calculating individual, in which the only aim is success.

          It’s completely amoral – the ends justify the means. It’s a brutal philosophy that has given New Zealand the highest rate of youth suicide, the worst rate of child poverty in the developed world; people living in cars or on the streets, babies dying of third world diseases.

          National have run a classically neo-liberal campaign, based on cynical self-interest. It was sad watching Bill English in the last leader’s debate – a fundamentally decent man lying through his teeth to try and win the election.

          We deserve better from our leaders than this kind of Faustian bargain.

          The choice in this election is stark. Neo-liberalism has failed. It’s time to hand over the reins to a new generation, and let them shape the future.’

          ‘https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/20/49103/dame-anne-salmond-a-final-brief-election-thought

    • reason 9.2
      21 September 2017 at 6:55 pm

      Public toilet sex advocates like yourself James ……

      Don’t really get to say what is ‘classy’ …….

      Unless your bragging to other Public toilet Sex fans …..

      Ie ….. that sure is a classy urinal…. look at it shine romantically. .

      What a grub like you calls classy ……. is shitty and low grade to most.

      Tell me Mr “don’t knock it” ….. Do you eat your food off the floor of a public shit-house …. when your on one of your dates …. 🙂

      • james 9.2.1
        21 September 2017 at 7:37 pm

        wow – you should seek help – you are losing the plot.

        • WILD KATIPO 9.2.1.1
          21 September 2017 at 7:45 pm

          You’ve already lost it. A long time ago…

        • reason 9.2.1.2
          21 September 2017 at 8:45 pm

          Quoting you is pretty low grade I will admit …..

          Does an aversion and distaste for sex in public toilets mean I should seek medical help ???? …..

          Surely I’m allowed to knock something so lacking in class … Kids and normal people use public toilets for their intended purpose.

          Grubby low grade devos root in them …. Mr “don’t knock it until you”ve tried it”, James …

          Your Sexual practices are a dirty irrelevance though …..

          I’ve seen you as disgusting for quite a while now ……. Ever since you made a sick post along the lines of ” Don’t blame National for increasing our disgraceful murderous suicide rates”.

          As they Govern for corrupt speculators …… Segregation and economic Apartheid for the rich .

          Honest citizens face insecure un-affordable housing

          insecure low paying jobs …. stop go road workers mainly …. security guards.

          Hard honest workers who produce things and keep the country running …..are getting screwed and going backwards

          Young people drowned in debt.

          Your disgusting James …………

          • james 9.2.1.2.1
            21 September 2017 at 8:56 pm

            “Your disgusting James …………”

            Its “you’re”

            Other than that … not sure how to reply to your ranting post – its a bit all over the place. So – Ill just go with Im ok that you dont like me or my views.

            Ill leave it at that – no point having a flamewar escalating. Have a nice night.

            • Ed 9.2.1.2.1.1
              21 September 2017 at 9:00 pm

              He cares more about apostrophes that child poverty, mental health, mental health, hospitals in crisis, homelessness, house prices, workers’ pay.

              Unbelievable.

              • McFlock …
                21 September 2017 at 9:12 pm

                I dunno – I was having trouble following reason’s comment, too. No idea what the toilet sex thing is about, but it seems to have sat in his memory a bit.

                • reason …
                  21 September 2017 at 9:23 pm

                  McFlock …. James defended an AllBlack …. who used a toilet cubical that people use for babys and infants …… to root some rugby groupie chick …..
                  James sticks up for the All blacks no matter what they do …. And he admitted to enjoying a bit of public toilet sex himself ….. ” don’t knock it until you’ve tried it ” …. were James words.

                  Myself …… I’d classify it as a perversion ….. Kids and others use these facilities …… cheapskate devo rooters lower the tone of public toilets.

                  People like james ….

                  • McFlock …
                    21 September 2017 at 9:28 pm

                    A perversion, really?

                    Never done it there myself, but if it’s behind locked doors, who is anyone to judge?

                    Some people are far too concerned with the particulars of other people bumping pelvises, in my opinion.

                    • reason …
                      22 September 2017 at 12:40 pm

                      Agreed about importance … James ‘”Sexual practices are a dirty irrelevance”

                      although … As a former parent of little children …. I do not think Public toilets are appropriate for casual sex …

                      Nor would I want to see it so common ….. that if a person went into a public toilet for a crap that it was like a breath of fresh air .

                      Perversion is a little harsh …

                      Low grade is more appropriate ….

                    • McFlock …
                      22 September 2017 at 12:44 pm

                      It’s not like there were kids in there with them.

                      But then I used to work in nightclubs. Couples discretely nipping to the bogs was the least of my worries along those lines.

            • reason 9.2.1.2.1.2
              21 September 2017 at 9:13 pm

              Good of you to show you care more about spelling …… Than Nationals greed driven legislative sadism.

              I doubt you care one jot about suicide …… from the poor and brown classes.

              You care more about National ……………….. and spreading their lies.

              I never replied to your disgusting suicide post at the time …. because I could not do the subject justice….And fully express just how disgusting you are .

              Its coming though …. it will be informative and fully linked …. versus your troll opinions ….. as usual

            • tracey 9.2.1.2.1.3
              22 September 2017 at 12:52 pm

              You know you made a spelling error yesterday but I refrained from correcting it cos it seemed petty

    • tracey 9.3
      22 September 2017 at 12:54 pm

      It is so hard to know what is off limits with National and its voters. Other than Ministers lying and breaking the law which we know you all find acceptable and not warranting consequence.

  10. Doogs 10
    21 September 2017 at 6:12 pm

    I have to add my cent’s worth here.

    Look, all I hear from the Natzis is what we will do . . . for housing, for poverty, for low payed, for health, etc, etc. Then they winter on about how great the economy is. Then they trot out their so-called ‘achievements’. And finally they blah on about their tax cuts – how much better off people will be. It’s always will be . . will be . . will be!

    I don’t care about how much better off I might be from some possible tax cut.

    I don’t want to have more money in my pay packet.

    I don’t need to be better off, because . . .

    What I urgently desire is for people to be out of cars, motels, garages and into decent housing.
    What I urgently desire is for people to get operations to save their lives.
    What I urgently desire is for people to get a living wage to exist on.
    What I urgently desire is for children to be educated in an holistic way that allows them to think n operate in a changing world.
    What I urgently desire is . . . . god help us – everything that Labour stands for!

    I am sad, almost to point of tears, about the plight of people who are powerless and ground down by the ‘great economy’ party.

    Fuck the lot of them. Kia kaha Jacinda. You’re my leader!

    • indiana 10.1
      22 September 2017 at 1:06 pm

      You do realise that you can voluntarily pay money the IRD, if you think they need more money. Or you can give your tax cut to a charity of your choice.