National’s ethics

There is a particularly resonant piece by Tim Watkin in Pundit. “National’s problem with privacy and privilege”. I’m only surprised that he seems to think that the National party is redeemable. They’re so into their internal myths that they fail to regard anyone or any threat as unless their voting base poll well on it. But that is National for you – they’ve consistent…. Stupid, unhelpful and short on ethics.

Of course it’s dirty politics

National’s latest attempted spin is to try and suggest that last week’s clusterfuck of rolling events did not involve in any way the slightest trace of dirty politics.  How wrong they are.

Open mike 13/07/2020

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Open mike 12/07/2020

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Union peak bodies: a beacon of hope for all workers

My view is that neither big nor small unions function particularly well in the modern-day workforce. There are many notable exceptions to this where both do very good work. But few have found the balance of good local support for members, tackling national and international issues and crucially not wasting considerable time and resource fighting another rival union encroaching on their patch.

Open mike 11/07/2020

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Local Government: crucial and undervalued

On the day of the council vote, we organised for the effected Citi-Ops workers to sit in the public gallery in the Council rooms wearing their High Viz’s and work gear. I was one of three speakers for the union, expressing opposition to axing these jobs. The Council debated the issue for about 30 minutes. Those councillors in favour of making the workers redundant argued that they should not interfere with management decisions. Those against the decision felt that management did not have the mandate to make this decision. The vote ended up being 7-7, so Green Party Mayor Celia Wade-Brown used her casting vote to uphold management’s decision to outsource these workers jobs. The Citi Operations staff were sitting in the room, so Celia and the councillors were looking at these workers as they made them redundant.

Daily review 10/07/2020

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Everybody gets a road

National has made two major roading project announcements in the past week.  Both announcements recycled announcements that were also made before the last election.

Open mike 10/07/2020

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Daily review 09/07/2020

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Requiem for a smelter

New Zealand was always a odd place to have a aluminium smelter. Untapped hydroelectricity capacity at the bottom of the world. But thousands of kilometers from raw material sources. Tens of thousands of kilometers from the major markets. Now our ever rising electricity prices show that we really need that 13% of power in our electricity market rather than making aluminium. 

Open mike 09/07/2020

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Daily review 08/07/2020

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Walkergate: MP Quits

Privacy breaching MP Hamish Walker has announced he will step down at the next election. But who else should go?

Update: Muller tries to divert attention by announcing that National still want a 4 lane highway from Chch to Ashburton. Problem solved!

Open mike 08/07/2020

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Clusterfuck

Hamish Walker and Michelle Boag have admitted leaking private information about covid sufferers for political gain.

Daily review 07/07/2020

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Open mike 07/07/2020

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Daily review 06/07/2020

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

National’s dilemma – business as usual is failing them.

Audrey Young’s take in Granny Herald was interesting. “No ordinary Labour speech by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern”. That is because the political ‘business as usual’ approach by the business orientation of National campaigning using the politics of fear and envy doesn’t work well in times of crisis. Business simply has too short a viewpoint to be acceptable in government at present – or increasingly in our uncertain future.

Wellington buses now: how a local authority harmed public transport

Sure to form, Paul Swain along with Regional Council Chair and another former Labour MP Fran Wilde proposed tearing down the trolleybus wire and increasing the city’s carbon emission. This was to then promptly followed by re-tendering all the bus routes having redesigned all the bus network so that bus companies could then compete over routes and undercut each other. At one council meeting in mid-2016 Swain was questioned about the possibility of protecting drivers jobs and employment conditions. After a few questions, he lost patience, slammed in hand on the table and ended the meeting. This was the extent to which Swain and the Greater Wellington Regional Council considered supporting bus drivers during this process.

Open mike 06/07/2020

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National’s “intelligence unit” kicks into gear

A month ago a leak from National’s caucus said that they had set up an intelligence unit designed to dig up dirt on opponents.  Yesterday Newshub ran a story based on a candidate’s seven year old tweets.  It looks like the intelligence unit has been busy.

Open mike 05/07/2020

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Open mike 04/07/2020

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