Local Bodies

This National Government is clearly intoxicated with money, power and influence  and has impaired vision. Ministers replying to questions in the house, especially the PM, respond with arrogance and abuse not dissimilar to a drunk being reprimanded for bad behaviour. Drunk drivers display poor judgement and barely notice the roadsigns or the road markings. The deterioration of our country's natural environment , the numbers of children experiencing poverty and the severe lack of housing are visible everywhere one looks but have been irresponsibly ignored. This Government is also a hit and run driver. It hits NGOs and government services with funding cuts, drives away from the casualties and blames others  for the damage. The Government often appears unaware of the bumps as the wheels of its car run over the bodies of its many victims . A drunk driver can't implement complicated manoeuvres and this National Government botched the implementation of Novopay and find...

I generally try to follow the principle of attacking the message rather than the messenger, however I have found it impossible to ignore the hypocrisy and meanness of our current Government Ministers. For many their personal conduct and past actions provide a context for what motivates and drives their decisions. Bill English's hypocrisy is the most extreme when one remembers his  claiming of a housing allowance of around $40,000 a year to live in his $1.2 million Karori family mansion. He had tried to convince us that his actual home was his Dipton family home (owned by a family trust) where he had not resided for many years. It was obvious that his real home was the one he and his wife had purchased in Wellington and where they lived for some time with their six children. English had been claiming $900 per week from the taxpayer to live in his own house. English reluctantly paid back $32,000 after much media attention, if his allowance hadn't been exposed he may still h...

David Seymour wants all refugees to sign up to our values before being allowed to enter our country. I wonder what he thinks our values are, because I certainly wouldn't want any refugee to be forced to support the values currently dominating Aotearoa: I wouldn't want refugees to sign up to our family values when almost 30% of our children are living in poverty and we have rapidly growing inequities in the education and health of our children. We are the second worse country in the OECD for child health and welfare and domestic violence is rife . I wouldn't want refugees to sign up for our humanitarian values when we are ranked  90th in the world for our per capita support of displaced people and refugees. Our human rights record is a sham  when we sign multiple human rights treaties but don't honour them with action. We also have a growing problem with slavery and abuse of migrant workers. I wouldn't want refugees to sign up to our values as global cit...

In 2008 voters wanted a change, not because the Labour Party was particularly bad, but because a certain complacent arrogance appeared to be creeping in to the Government's leadership style. National was elected because John Key managed to convince voters that he understood what ordinary New Zealanders wanted and would be receptive to their needs. For almost 7 years that perception has remained and allowed National to continue in Government...however the facade of competence is now cracking and crumbling. The housing crisis has got so bad that many middle New Zealand families are feeling the pinch or have connections to those that do. For the Government not to acknowledge that there is a crisis is plainly stupid  and to jokingly suggest that homeless people may just be in the process of renovating instead is actually a little sick. The Government's inaction and indifference to the housing needs of less affluent New Zealanders (at least 30% of us) is appallingly obvious. ...

As Green Co-leader Metiria Turei noted at the public launch of the Memorandum of Understanding, time has moved on. There are new leadership teams fronting Labour and the Greens and a higher level of pragmatism than has existed before. The Greens can no longer be considered as minor force in politics as they are now raising more money than Labour and have an organisational capacity that is at least as strong as New Zealand's second largest party. If the Government is to change then the two parties have to work together. A future Labour/Green Government is an attractive proposition and when one envisages a possible ministerial line up there is a good mixture of experience and skill to sort out the numerous crises that have blown up under National's watch: Andrew Little is not a charismatic or populist leader in the mould of Lange or Key but he is clearly a strong leader for bringing together different factions and building a team in a similar way that Jim Bolger did for N...

When John Key was questioned regarding New Zealand's green credentials on BBC's Hard Talk some years ago he focussed on appearances rather than the reality that New Zealand scientists were reporting: "...you go and breath the air and you walk up a mountain, I'd argue with you that if you don't believe that it's clean and green, then show me a country that's cleaner and greener..." New Zealand has relied heavily on the images in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies and the environments that our tourists generally experience to enhance our global brand. Appearance is everything. Our reputation regarding corruption, education, health care and social justice (where we have often led the world with liberal thinking) and the provision of public services is largely positive too. The perceptions of a clean, liberal and egalitarian society continue. We are a relatively small country in terms of population with an abundance of natural resources, bot...

On first reading the 2016 Budget did not appear to have a substantial focus on housing, but closer analysis of the spending priorities reveals the Government's strategy. Housing has created a huge ideological problem for National. The party does not support a large state housing sector and is not prepared to take on the responsibility of increasing the supply of social and emergency housing. I can imagine the consternation and frustration within National's cabinet in dealing with the growing evidence of a housing shortage and surveys and polls showing increasing numbers of voters expressing dissatisfaction at the Government's performance in this area. I believe that Judith ( Crusher ) Collins may have come up with a solution. As the restored Minister of Corrections she has been determined to put public concerns regarding conflicts of interest and her close relationship with Cameron Slater behind her as she grows her power base again. Ministers must compete agains...