Achievements of the National Govt

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

And you are trying to sweep the Nats' multiple failures under the carpet by attempting to divert attention from them.

[wgtngirl]

Personally I have never been a national voter.  Yet, I do see National winning another term in the next election as Labour is in so much disarray and do not have a strong leader or strong policies.  However much people bitched about Helen Clark as least she was a strong person who could lead a party unlike some politicians I can think of now.

[Newtown-Fella]

And you are trying to sweep the Nats' multiple failures under the carpet by attempting to divert attention from them.

nope i dont actually see any failures unlike your bitter and twisted self .....

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

And you are trying to sweep the Nats' multiple failures under the carpet by attempting to divert attention from them.

nope i dont actually see any failures unlike your bitter and twisted self .....

Ah.....so in that case you must see dramatically rising unemployment, dramatically rising numbers of beneficiaries, dramatically rising numbers of NZers fleeing across the Ditch, and dramatically rising child poverty to be one of the Nats' great success stories, eh?

Jeeezus, you're a funny fella, Newt! 

[Lovelee]

[Newtown-Fella]

Ah.....so in that case you must see dramatically rising unemployment, dramatically rising numbers of beneficiaries, dramatically rising numbers of NZers fleeing across the Ditch, and dramatically rising child poverty to be one of the Nats' great success stories, eh?

im surprise with al your knowledge KTJ that you havent noticed that unemployment figures are up and down throughout a year depending on what part of the year we are looking at .....

actually beneficioeries increase when there is an increase in unemployment ...... duh !!

people have been flying across the ditch and further afield since god know when and will continue to do so ... just like people from other countries come to NZ ....

child poverty IS NOT THE FAULT OF NATIONAL [ or Labour before them ] ....

the govt has no control over any child born into a family the responsibility for the children rests with those women [ and men ] to whom they are conceived and born to .... NOT A GOVT ...

so therefore the Nats [ and Labour before them ] arent responsible for parents who wont put food on the table for their off spring instead those parents are more interested in buying drugs alcohol and playing the pokies instead of buying food

what is so hard top understand about that ?

now since your up with what the greens are proposing care to share with us what they plan to do to decrease unemployment lower the beneficiary numbers and alleviate so called child poverty ..... ?
 

[Newtown-Fella]

wonderful L'lee why havent you use that as your Profile Picture ....

its you to a T ......

[reality]

....."now since your up with what the greens are proposing care to share with us what they plan to do to decrease unemployment lower the beneficiary numbers and alleviate so called child poverty ..... ?"


...haha...this'll be good ...but i think hes just into slagging...dont think hes ACTUALLY thought about solutions ...its just socialism at any cost

[Lovelee]

The Greens make their policies clear on their website if you are in fact interested.

And its in nice easy words for you both to understand.

However, you are not expected to agree with their policies cos u are not supporters of the Greens.  One eyed, its called .. the inability to see any benefit in another parties policies

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Mockery and waste rule in independent inquiry game

Brian Rudman on Auckland and National Issues

The New Zealand Herald | 5:30AM - Monday, December 17, 2012


Mr Brownlee conveniently ignores the fact that his ministry officials
were closely involved in the design and writing of this commissioned
Sinclair Knight Merz report. — Photo: Greg Bowker .

SOME PEOPLE get their thrills pulling wings off flies. National Cabinet ministers engage in more drawn-out torture.

Instead of rejecting an unpalatable project outright, they sadistically delay the inevitable, by first dangling the promise of an "independent" inquiry into its merits. Then they damn the project anyway, after enjoying the additional sport of mocking the independent report.

Last week, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee and Justice Minister Judith Collins had a jolly old time, ripping wings off a former Canadian Supreme Court judge, a man falsely imprisoned and labelled mass murderer, and Auckland Mayor Len Brown. Ho bloody ho.

To be fair, the rail tunnel report — officially The City Centre Future Access Study (CCFAS) — was the brainchild of Mr Brownlee's predecessor as minister, but he has grabbed the baton in this government team sport with great gusto.

The waste of public money devoted to these delaying tactics is spectacular.

The Bain report plus extras cost around $500,000 and there are suggestions Mrs Collins is going to do it all over again — that is if she can find another judge willing to be to humiliated.

The cost of the CCFAS report has not been disclosed, but it will come out of Auckland ratepayer pockets.

In rubbishing both the report and the preferred rail tunnel solution it backed, Mr Brownlee has taken a swipe not only at the independent consultants, but also the central and local government experts involved.

He has also revealed no solutions of his own. All he promises is the airy-fairy commitment that "the Ministry of Transport and the Government's NZ Transport Agency will continue to work on the best and most cost-effective solutions for freeing up central Auckland congestion now and into the future".

Mr Brownlee conveniently ignores the fact that his ministry officials were closely involved in the design and writing of this commissioned Sinclair Knight Merz report.

Dragging 50 years of road-centric baggage in his wake, he and the petrol-intoxicated advisers who penned his response desperately claim the SKM report "underplays" how improvements to both SH1 and SH16 "might impact central-city traffic" and how the "completion of the western ring route in 2017 will also draw many thousands of traffic movements away from the CBD".

He's like the 17th century Pope, so wedded to the tradition that the sun went round the Earth that he couldn't believe Galileo's expert advice.

True, the CBD rail tunnel is not suddenly going to change the world. Or even freeze rush-hour road congestion at current levels. Like global warming, the best to hope for is to try and slow the process.

The SKM report says that within 10 years, morning rush-hour speeds in the city centre will have dropped from 16 km/h to between 5 and 8 km/h. The worst option, congestion-wise, is to continue with Mr Brownlee's apparent no-change model and rely on the existing public transport option of surface bus public transport.

The best option was the underground rail loop, which would put rush-hour road speeds at around 8 km/h.

However, by 2021 the existing rail network will have reached capacity, and the overflow will be forced on to increasingly crowded roads. By 2041, without a rail tunnel, average morning peak road speeds in the city centre will be down to 5 km/h — walking speed. Major inner roads like Symonds Street will become exclusive four-lane bus corridors.

Mr Brownlee says that study "falls some way short of convincing the Government it should provide financial support to any fast-tracking of the proposed City Rail Link". An optimist might say that at least he isn't ruling out slow-track support.

Auckland has been waiting for Government backing for an underground line from the city centre to the northern/western line for just under 90 years. Historian Graham Bush, in his city council history, reminds us that in October 1923 Minister of Railways Gordon Coates endorsed the idea of an underground line from Morningside to the CBD. The line, priced at $1.23 million, had a Town Hall station. We're still waiting.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10854491

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Kerre Woodham: Nats run out of petrol

HERALD on SUNDAY | 5:30AM - Sunday, December 23, 2012


John Key's Government has clearly run out of ideas about stimulating
the economy. — Photo: NZ Herald.

IN what should have been a lovely, relaxing wind-down to the year, I found myself getting wound up instead.

Normally, talkback in the week before Christmas is full of callers ringing in with lovely stories of family get-togethers and their own personal Yuletide traditions, and we wish each other well for the holiday season. Nice, warm, fuzzy stuff.

This year, however, the news of a fuel tax hike on the same day the Remuneration Authority announced a pay rise for MPs — backdated to July 1st, what's more — had us incensed.

Bill English said he needed to impose an extra 3c a litre on petrol six months from now because he wanted to meet his target of a surplus by 2015. Growth has slowed right down, mainly because of rising unemployment, hence the tax.

I thought John Key said that by cutting income tax rates we would be able to stimulate the economy. Guess that didn't work. I thought Key said that he would be able to stem the flow of New Zealanders to Australia by building a competitive economy and offering after-tax earnings on a par with those across the ditch. Well, that hasn't worked, either.

There are now more people moving to Oz under National than there were under Labour. But instead of 'fessing up and conceding nothing the Government has come up with has worked, the Prime Minister has produced a classic example of Orwellian double-speak.

Akshally, says Key, moving to Australia is a GOOD thing for New Zealanders to do. They'll see the world, gain experience — no, just like everything else, Key is comfortable with the numbers of Kiwis farewelling this country.

Well, I'm not. Why can't he just concede that this politics lark is a darn sight more difficult than he thought it would be? National was voted in because they promised voters they had the answers. They'd be a breath of fresh air. They were business people who knew a thing or two about making money, not academics who'd spent most of their lives in ivory towers.

Well, they may know how to make money for themselves but they don't seem to have any answers when it comes to making the country richer.

If, after four years of government, the best strategy they can come up with to produce a surplus is to raise the fuel tax, they are devoid of initiative and bereft of imagination.

Prices will rise because of the increased cost of transportation so the fuel tax will affect everyone in this country, not just motorists.

And don't give me that nonsense about needing the money for roads of national significance — most roads of national significance are tolled. So we already pay a fuel tax. That will be increased. And then we pay a toll. Fabulous.

There are those who say it's only going to be an extra $3 a week for motorists — not even the price of a cup of decent coffee. That just shows how wide the gap between the haves and the have-nots has become. Many people on low incomes haven't been inside a snazzy cafe for years.

Why doesn't the Finance Minister ask his parliamentary driver to use the fuel card to fill up the Beemer and take him for a drive to areas where people are really doing it tough? I'd like to see him tell those people that an extra $156 a year coming out of their pockets is neither here nor there.

I really hope 2013 is the year that National stops blaming the country's poor performance on the recession and starts coming up with the innovative initiatives they promised us.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10855729

[Newtown-Fella]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/8110864/Retail-sales-up-as-shoppers-confidence-back

recession ?

what recession ?

[Lovelee]

Things couldnt be better for some. and then they havent been worse for others.

[Newtown-Fella]

ive noticed a big increase in my play money account having given up smoking 7 1/2 months ago ..... 

doesnt mean im spending more it just mean i can if i want and not have to worry .....

[reality]

NZ among world's best places to have a baby

10:38 AM Thursday Jan 3, 2013 
Herald

New Zealand has been ranked as one of the best places in the world to have a baby in 2013, according to a quality-of-life index.

Land-locked Switzerland tops the "lottery of life" index and Australia is second, but New Zealand ranks favourably by coming in seventh on the league table - jumping from 18th when the survey was last carried out in 1988.

Nigeria has been shamed as being the worst place to come into the world, while Britain is ranked just 27th, behind Ireland and Kuwait.

The quality-of-life index, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist, was based on 11 factors including wealth, crime, family, geography, trust in authorities, and economic stability.

The Economist says place of birth can forecast the best opportunities for a "healthy, safe and prosperous life".

- APNZ

Thanks John Key and National...keep up the good work in 2013 ....

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[reality]

good to see John Key taking positive action


Reshuffle puts entire Cabinet on notice

By John Armstrong
2:30 PM Tuesday Jan 22, 2013 

Phil Heatley and Kate Wilkinson were told by Key they had made a "great contribution" but were being dumped from the Cabinet. Photo / NZ Herald
John Key's dramatic Cabinet reshuffle displays a streak of ruthlessness hitherto rarely seen in a New Zealand prime minister.

Usually prime ministers rely on attrition through pending ministerial retirements to create the vacancies necessary to refresh their Cabinet line-ups. Competence rarely if ever sees ministers being axed completely from the Cabinet. Ministers are simply reassigned to other portfolios where they can do less damage.

When he revealed last week that the problem-afflicted Hekia Parata would be remaining in the education portfolio, it seemed Key would conform to this ethic. It had to be assumed the reshuffle necessitated by David Carter taking up the post of Speaker following Lockwood Smith's appointment as New Zealand High Commissioner to London would be minimal.

Not so. Key has provided further demonstration of his more "chairman of the board" style of political management compared to the hands-on control exercised by his predecessor Helen Clark.

Key has displayed all the sentiment of a corporate restructurer. So ministers are given the chance to perform.


If they do not they are out. Simple as that.

That is the fate of Kate Wilkinson and Phil Heatley who were told by Key they had made a "great contribution" but were being dumped from the Cabinet.

It is hard to argue with his logic. The two junior ministers can have few gripes. Wilkinson had already dropped her Labour portfolio following the Royal Commission's report into the Pike River coal mine tragedy. She was invisible in her remaining Conservation and Food Safety portfolios.

As Housing minster, Heatley was slow to appreciate the political significance of the crisis in the increasing unaffordability of homes for larger and larger sections of the populace.

As Key says, both ministers had four years to leave a legacy in policy terms or otherwise make an impression.

Heatley can well argue that nothing went fundamentally wrong in his time in the housing portfolio bar one thing - the mess surrounding the closure of Housing New Zealand branch offices and the introduction of an 0800 referral number for state house tenants.

The latter, however, pales into relative insignificance given the multitude of problems in education last year.

Both ministers could justifiably ask why they have been axed and Parata has not.

The answer is that Key still has confidence in Parata being able to do her job. She has been education minister for little over a year against Heatley's and Wilkinson's four years as ministers.

Like Parata, Wilkinson was once touted as a potential high-flyer. The difference is Parata's rapid rise is down to Key. He has a lot more political capital invested in her succeeding.

Even so, he has promoted Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye to buttress Parata and provide an untainted means of communicating what National sees as big political positives of the party's education policies.

The sackings largely overshadowed Nick Smith's expected return to the Cabinet after 10 months of penance on the backbenches. His appointment to the Housing and Conservation portfolios is admission National is playing catch-up in both those areas.

To some small degree, the sackings are also a concession to the large number of MPs on National's backbenches. That group must be given hope that promotion is a possibility.

Ambition must be satisfied. Otherwise there is a risk of frustration turning to dissension - especially if the polls turn against National in coming months.

Above all, what the reshuffle does is put the entire Cabinet on notice. National largely got away with last year's catalogue of blunders and unwanted distractions without too much damage to its support in opinion polls.

National cannot be complacent that its good luck in that regard will continue. What the reshuffle really tells you is that Key is very well aware that the margin between holding and not holding power after next year's election is extremely tight. There is simply no room for indulgence.

By John Armstrong Email John

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Ah, yes.....bringing back an old "has-been" who resigned from Cabinet in disgrace.

So much for the BULLSHIT about high moral standards, eh?

A bit like glossing over the THEFT committed by Billy-boy English.

And papering over John Banks' LIES.

Then we have John Key's LIES about Kim Dotcom, GST, and many other things.

Yep....the 5th Nats Government is New Zealand's most CORRUPT government ever.

Still....the Nats can take heart from the fact that idiots such as Reality licks their arses and loves them no matter what....

[reality]

Bwuss...."Still....the Nats can take heart from the fact that idiots such as Reality licks their arses and loves them no matter what...."

...just thinking about the quality of life of my future generations ... ...its a greedy  and selfish attitude I know...the Greens would fuck the place in no time

[Lovelee]

[reality]

yeah he was very entertaining for many years..but who is the dude with the lollies

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

yeah he was very entertaining for many years..but who is the dude with the lollies

Just another Nats prime minister of no substantial significance, except that he fucked-up the country.

A legacy similar to the one John Key will also have in decades to come.

Strange how many Nats prime ministers turn out to be incompetent wankers, eh?

Still.....Reality loves them (Nats PMs), no matter how incompetent and/or bent they are....

[reality]

Incompetence is when the Greens get busted for  paying their party members  for vandalising the signs of opposition parties...that is the action of people who are anti democracy   ...a vote for Greens is a vote for dictatorship