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Another lash at Kelvin Davis from the media

by CS
 

Kelvin-Davis-jacinda-ardern.jpg

Patrick Gower is another media commentator who is witnessing the slow destruction of an inept minister: Quote:

Kelvin Davis is a “wounded man walking” who better watch out, says Newshub national correspondent Patrick Gower.

The Corrections Minister on Wednesday announced plans for a new prison, but appeared to be unaware how many of its inmates would be double-bunked.

Corrections boss Ray Smith interjected after Mr Davis froze, confirming Newshub’s suggestion it would be around half.

“I get nervous before interviews,” was Mr Davis’ explanation, when asked about it on The AM Show.   

Mr Gower, who was Newshub’s political editor for several years, told The AM Show he’d never seen anything like it.

“Only in New Zealand would a deputy leader of a governing party come on after a major policy announcement in his or her portfolio and say, ‘You know me – I get nervous and I forget things.’ I’ve never seen that before.”

He said Mr Davis is “battling and he’s lost his confidence”.

“Kelvin is not a dead man walking, but he’s a wounded man walking. The media are after him, the Opposition are after him, probably people in his own party want the deputy leader job at the very least – they won’t want the Corrections job.”

Labour railed against double-bunking while in Opposition. Gower said Mr Davis is being forced to sell a “political lie” in claiming Labour is doing things differently to the previous Government.

“He’s an incredibly resilient individual and he’s a good guy. But where is the Kelvin Davis that called for a Māori-only prison in Ngawha? That was an idea that could change things. Where’s that guy gone? He’s fed by the bureaucrats, he’s fed by the spin doctors.

“What has happened to him is he was made to sell a political lie yesterday. There is no great new prison system or great new ideait’s the same thing. It’s double-bunking, it’s hell-holes, it’s bad. He’s put out there to sell a lie, and he’s stuffed it up.”

Gower suggested former Corrections Minister Judith Collins, known for her tough and uncompromising hardline stance on crime, could have made same announcement.

“You could use those numbers and come out and say ‘hey, we’ve been tough on crime’. You could have put Judith Collins in Kelvin Davis’ place today and she would have sold you a different story. All he’s been given by Jacinda Ardern’s spin doctors one day before she goes away is some lines about American-style prisons.” End quote.

Which no one believes, and wishes the government would actually implement.

We don’t want crims getting cuddles and hugs, we want them locked up and if it is miserable and horrible for them so be it.

The sad reality is the media made Kelvin Davis, they ran his stories on crime and prisons uncritically, they egged him on and like psychopathic school kids they are now plucking the wings and legs off the fly that is Kelvin Davis.

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Kelvin Davis is a weak link, well one of them anyway

by CS
 

Davis-jacinda.jpg

Heather du Plessis-Allan reckons Kelvin Davis has a target on his back: Quote:

Someone get Kelvin Davis a bottle of something strong, because this is going to hurt.

From here on in, government is going to be painful for Ardern’s 2IC.

He’s just marked himself as an easy target. The baby buck straggling behind the rest of the herd, if you like.

If National wants to pick someone off, claim a scalp, he’s the obvious option.

And it looks like National knows that. End quote.

 

National actually don’t want scalps. They want to debilitate the hopeless ministers but not actually tip them over, because having a stupid and inept minister in place is way more fun and politically damaging than having them quit. Quote:

Kelvin Davis is the rising star that turned out to be nothing more than a distant motorcycle light. He could be something, but it hasn’t happened.

Just before last year’s election, Labour picked him from the middle of the pack and promoted him to deputy leader. He was there on the strength of scoring some big hits on National Government-run prisons. And on the strength of being Māori. It made a good headline. Davis as Labour’s first Māori deputy leader.

But then, things started going awry. Davis got a case of the yips. All that promise evaporated in a cloud of nervous perspiration and self-doubt. End quote.

All mouth and no trousers… worse, the mouth resorts to pidgin Maori when stressed. Quote:

It started after a month in government. Davis was acting prime minister for the first time. He was a flop. He couldn’t answer questions in Parliament’s debating chamber. He should’ve been able to. He is the second most important person in the party after all. But he needed the fourth, fifth and seventh most important people to tell him the answers in front of everyone watching, before he could stand up and give them. End quote.

He then went into hiding for an extended period until last week. Quote:

Then things went very wonky last week in Parliament when he told a senior National Party MP to stop being hysterical. Given that MP is a woman and there’s an awkward bit of history where men took to diagnosing women with hysteria, then remedying it with hysterectomies, that wasn’t wise. Also it sounded arrogant. He apologised the next day.

Things got worse when he stuffed up the Waikeria prison announcement. The Government should have been saying, “Yay, we’re not building a mega prison! This one’s way more empathetic and modern with 100 mental health beds”. Instead, the headlines were about Davis’ fluffs. Multiple fluffs.

First, he couldn’t answer a reporter who asked how many of the prison’s inmates would be double-bunked. The Corrections CEO standing alongside him had to answer. Afterwards, Davis had an explanation for the mind blank. He gets “nervous” before interviews. His words.

Then, he went on Newstalk ZB’s Drive Show with me and said it didn’t matter too much that all those extra mega-prison beds wouldn’t eventuate because if things got really crowded, they had an ugly solution. They’d just throw a few mattresses on the floor. Again, his words.

Wherever Davis’ mojo is gone, he needs to get it back. Because it looks like National has smelled his fear and is coming after him. End quote.

That is what I have been told too. This week could prove excruciating for Kelvin Davis. Quote:

The day after he stuffed up the Waikeria prison announcement, National MPs were all over him in Parliament. Three Parliamentary questions. One after the other. Boom, boom, boom.

To put that in context, every question has a series of supplementary questions attached to it. So Davis faced what would’ve felt like 100 questions in a row. That would’ve taken hours to prep for. Two thirds of the way through, he started answering in te reo. Smart way to break the pressure. Pretty bloody obvious. End quote.

Until National put up Nuk Korako and Harete Hipango to ask the supplementary questions in te reo – both are way more fluent than Davis in te reo  the joke is that Davis is, in reality, only speaking a kind of pidgin Maori. Quote:

National may be itching to claim a scalp. They could maybe have taken Clare Curran’s scalp earlier this year but they passed. It was too easy and too early. If they’d scored her resignation over the Carol Hirschfeld active-wear coffee date, they might’ve looked too unkind and prompted pity for Jacinda Ardern and her Government. But, time has passed, Ardern’s on maternity leave and National could do with a win.

If Davis doesn’t give himself an uppercut, he might be that scalp. End quote.

National aren’t keen on taking scalps. They prefer playing with inept ministers, like a cat that’s got a mouse.

gato+encarando+o+rato.gif

 

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A one-term government?

by Christie 
 
Screen-Shot-2018-06-18-at-6.34.18-PM-630

Credit: SB

Newshub came up with this article at the weekend, and I am really surprised by it. The fact that the media are even contemplating that this might be a one-term government nine months in is a death knell of epic proportions. At no stage in the Bolger, Clark or Key governments was there even a hint that they might only last one term. Each one was expected to last at least two terms and, as often happens in New Zealand, quite possibly three. If the media are already saying that this might be a one-term government, then so it will be. If it lasts until 2020. Quote:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says if her Government is voted out after a single term, it’ll be because they failed to bring New Zealanders around to their way of thinking. End quote.

Actually, that is all you need to know. There is no question of taking into account the wishes of the voters. They have to brainwash people, and they may not have enough time to do it. What an arrogant attitude. But this government do arrogance in spades, even though they have only been in power for nine months. God help us if they were to last for nine years. Quote:

 

Though the Labour-NZ First coalition (with support from the Greens) has kept its nose ahead in the polls, the public doesn’t appear to be so keen on the Government’s plan to reduce the prison population. A poll earlier this month found two-thirds of voters back the three-strikes law, including a majority of NZ First and Labour voters.

Ms Ardern acknowledged the Government may be getting ahead of public opinion on this issue.

“The biggest obstacle we have at the moment is making sure that we bring the New Zealand public with us. You know, this is a conversation we need to have together. End quote.

Another conversation. The proposed scrapping of the ‘three strikes’ law is a typical case of ideology over practicality. It sounds nice to have fewer people in prison for less time, but the voting public want to be kept safe. Watch Andrew Little continue to push this one ahead. He will do this at the peril of losing the voters, but that doesn’t matter. His ideology says it must be done, and ideology is everything to this government. Quote:

[Ardern] says it’ll take much more than criminal justice reforms to achieve that, including “an improved youth justice system, more investment in education, better transition services, stopping young people becoming NEETS, ‘not in employment, education or training’, doing more around drug and alcohol issues and actually having rehabilitation that works”.

And she wants the public on-side with any changes the Government does implement. End quote.

Just as she wants business to be onside while she destroys whole sectors of it! The last government were making inroads into improving young people’s lives, but guess what? All of that has been stopped because it did not fit ideologically with Labour’s programme. Quote:

“If you end up being a one-term Government as a consequence of changes you’ve made, you probably haven’t brought people on that journey, and the pitch that we’re making, the conversation we need to have, is to – with New Zealand, is when we have a static crime rate – one actually that we want to bring down – but when we have a static crime rate but an ever increasing prison population, is that the kind of country we want to be?” End quote.

Now let me just apply a tiny bit of mathematics to that statement. A static crime rate and an increasing prison population mean an increasing general population. It is a shame we are importing criminals, but that is what is going on. If we want to reduce the prison population, how about we start by importing only people of good character? How about deporting those who do not have citizenship yet but have broken the law? That would start to reduce the prison population without having to let scumbags back out on to the street. Nobody wants that, except Labour.

But my real purpose in writing this article is this. The media and the prime minister are already talking about this being a one-term government. That is unprecedented. If we are already talking about it just nine months in, I think it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy before long.

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On 18/06/2018 at 9:48 AM, rdytdy said:

The negative narrative continues for this government

by CS
 

It appears that Jacinda-mania is over.

If there ever was a honeymoon it is well over now.

 

I'm not so sure about this. She's about to have a baby. Everyone loves babies. I reckon this Honeymoons passing the 600m, three lengths clear and full of running.

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2 hours ago, Uriah Heap said:

I'm not so sure about this. She's about to have a baby. Everyone loves babies. I reckon this Honeymoons passing the 600m, three lengths clear and full of running.

That will wear off pretty quickly Uriah. Once the taxes start to bite and the cock ups continue, people will finally wake up....:rolleyes:.

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So Labour it appears had another housing crisis in the 1970's. Chicken's coming to roost again....

Bob Jones’ wisdom from the 1970s

by Guest Post 
 

20180618_204750-768x1368.jpg

After reading some of Sir Bob Jones’ latest musings, and being a wannabe minor property capitalist, I was looking forward to reading some of his previous books. A little research left me surprised that he has written 23 published novels, essays and non-fiction writings, not including his various newspaper and blog columns.

Well, luck happened upon me and while browsing a particularly well-stocked antique (junk) store in Mangawhai, I was fortunate to locate a number of his dusty old tomes. Sir Bob would possibly be amused that his books are still being sold for the princely sum of $5.00, as if you were to ask him, I suspect he would say that they are mostly outdated and barely relevant.

What I have found however is that even back in the olden days, Sir Bob was an extremely good historian, a clear thinker and possibly a clairvoyant/oracle.

 

While reading through his various verbal meanderings, I found myself highlighting portions that resonated with current happenings in the political landscape. (The fact that I found myself doing this was quite discerning as I recall as a young lad, thinking that my dear old Mum was quite mad for doing exactly that!)

So as an example I would like to highlight an excerpt from Sir Bob’s classic work, ‘New Zealand the Way I Want It.’ (Whitcoulls Publishers, Christchurch, 1978), which goes some way to demonstrating that the New Zealand Labour Party really has no new ideas, just re-hashed, previously failed, idealistic, socialistic theories.

Did, the early ’70’s Labour Minister for Housing call his effort Kiwibuild too?
From chapter 10, New Zealand’s Sacred Cow – The building Industry, page 123.

“Their respective attitudes to the building industry point up one of the few radical policy differences in the two main parties. Both are rather too extreme, National being perhaps heartlessly pragmatic and Labour recklessly compassionate.

Nevertheless, in the short term at least, there can be little doubt which party offers the most joy for the industry and that is Labour, although the cost to the country as a whole might well be considered irresponsible.

My own view is that Labour’s general attitude arises less from compassion and more from ignorance. Following a public address in 1977 in which I described the building industry as New Zealand’s economic sacred cow, the current affairs television programme Prime Time organised a debate to consider my claims.* Various industry spokesmen, plus the Minister of Housing, Eric Holland, and Labour’s former Housing Minister, Bill Fraser, were guests. All those present agreed with my claims, except Fraser, who amazingly persisted with the preposterous assertion that there was a housing shortage.

That is self-evidently untrue, as I had been protesting since the myth was first propagated and established in the public mind by the outrageously fraudulent 1972 Labour election campaign.  Currently we have almost one million housing units in New Zealand, that is, one for almost every three people, and unless there are vast numbers of people somehow living in two or more houses, clearly we have a surfeit rather than a shortage of homes.

Yet in 1973 the Labour Government ran amuck with this bogus crisis created by their election propaganda. Thousands of building worker immigrants were brought into the country, rent controls were introduced, property trading was effectively made illegal, limits on new house sizes of 1500 square feet were introduced and by the time they were through Labour were on the verge of creating a reality out of their own fiction.

The chickens of this uncalled-for tampering began to come home to roost by 1975 as an enormous pool of unsold and unwanted houses accrued. In an effort to cover up this embarrassment during an election year the Labour Government began a bail-out policy of massive State purchase, leaving the builders laughing, at the taxpayers’s expense, all the way to the bank.

*One amusing consequence of that claim arose when, in endeavouring to make the point that most construction work could be categorised as luxury expenditure, I said somewhat theatrically that should we behead every carpenter the next day it would be at least ten years before New Zealand would experience a housing shortage. Within a week I received half a dozen letters from carpenters’ wives abusing me for proposing the execution of their husbands who, they all assured me, were worthy and decent citizens”

So is this what we will see after the current government’s plans come to fruition. A glut of unwanted housing and builder’s laughing all the way to the bank?
I for one know of a group house builder who is set to do pretty well out of KiwiBuild. He’s not laughing as he knows it’s not great for the country but he knows it would be stupid to turn down the work.

As an aside, I found the postscript interesting. Perhaps one of those carpenters wive’s gave birth to a certain Renae Maihi?

Although this post is not intended as a book review, Sir Bob’s books are relatively easy to find in secondhand bookshops and are full of amazing insights. Even forty years on, they seem particularly relevant to me.

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1 hour ago, rdytdy said:

So Labour it appears had another housing crisis in the 1970's. Chicken's coming to roost again....

Bob Jones’ wisdom from the 1970s

by Guest Post 
 

20180618_204750-768x1368.jpg

After reading some of Sir Bob Jones’ latest musings, and being a wannabe minor property capitalist, I was looking forward to reading some of his previous books. A little research left me surprised that he has written 23 published novels, essays and non-fiction writings, not including his various newspaper and blog columns.

Well, luck happened upon me and while browsing a particularly well-stocked antique (junk) store in Mangawhai, I was fortunate to locate a number of his dusty old tomes. Sir Bob would possibly be amused that his books are still being sold for the princely sum of $5.00, as if you were to ask him, I suspect he would say that they are mostly outdated and barely relevant.

What I have found however is that even back in the olden days, Sir Bob was an extremely good historian, a clear thinker and possibly a clairvoyant/oracle.

 

While reading through his various verbal meanderings, I found myself highlighting portions that resonated with current happenings in the political landscape. (The fact that I found myself doing this was quite discerning as I recall as a young lad, thinking that my dear old Mum was quite mad for doing exactly that!)

So as an example I would like to highlight an excerpt from Sir Bob’s classic work, ‘New Zealand the Way I Want It.’ (Whitcoulls Publishers, Christchurch, 1978), which goes some way to demonstrating that the New Zealand Labour Party really has no new ideas, just re-hashed, previously failed, idealistic, socialistic theories.

Did, the early ’70’s Labour Minister for Housing call his effort Kiwibuild too?
From chapter 10, New Zealand’s Sacred Cow – The building Industry, page 123.

“Their respective attitudes to the building industry point up one of the few radical policy differences in the two main parties. Both are rather too extreme, National being perhaps heartlessly pragmatic and Labour recklessly compassionate.

Nevertheless, in the short term at least, there can be little doubt which party offers the most joy for the industry and that is Labour, although the cost to the country as a whole might well be considered irresponsible.

My own view is that Labour’s general attitude arises less from compassion and more from ignorance. Following a public address in 1977 in which I described the building industry as New Zealand’s economic sacred cow, the current affairs television programme Prime Time organised a debate to consider my claims.* Various industry spokesmen, plus the Minister of Housing, Eric Holland, and Labour’s former Housing Minister, Bill Fraser, were guests. All those present agreed with my claims, except Fraser, who amazingly persisted with the preposterous assertion that there was a housing shortage.

That is self-evidently untrue, as I had been protesting since the myth was first propagated and established in the public mind by the outrageously fraudulent 1972 Labour election campaign.  Currently we have almost one million housing units in New Zealand, that is, one for almost every three people, and unless there are vast numbers of people somehow living in two or more houses, clearly we have a surfeit rather than a shortage of homes.

Yet in 1973 the Labour Government ran amuck with this bogus crisis created by their election propaganda. Thousands of building worker immigrants were brought into the country, rent controls were introduced, property trading was effectively made illegal, limits on new house sizes of 1500 square feet were introduced and by the time they were through Labour were on the verge of creating a reality out of their own fiction.

The chickens of this uncalled-for tampering began to come home to roost by 1975 as an enormous pool of unsold and unwanted houses accrued. In an effort to cover up this embarrassment during an election year the Labour Government began a bail-out policy of massive State purchase, leaving the builders laughing, at the taxpayers’s expense, all the way to the bank.

*One amusing consequence of that claim arose when, in endeavouring to make the point that most construction work could be categorised as luxury expenditure, I said somewhat theatrically that should we behead every carpenter the next day it would be at least ten years before New Zealand would experience a housing shortage. Within a week I received half a dozen letters from carpenters’ wives abusing me for proposing the execution of their husbands who, they all assured me, were worthy and decent citizens”

So is this what we will see after the current government’s plans come to fruition. A glut of unwanted housing and builder’s laughing all the way to the bank?
I for one know of a group house builder who is set to do pretty well out of KiwiBuild. He’s not laughing as he knows it’s not great for the country but he knows it would be stupid to turn down the work.

As an aside, I found the postscript interesting. Perhaps one of those carpenters wive’s gave birth to a certain Renae Maihi?

Although this post is not intended as a book review, Sir Bob’s books are relatively easy to find in secondhand bookshops and are full of amazing insights. Even forty years on, they seem particularly relevant to me.

I wondered when when someone might bring up the above, all Bob's books are a good read one way or the other. Another snippet is i recall him saying or being reported was .that his political leanings were to vote Labour. I was temporarily stunned at this but then i thought who are we talking about here.

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Malcolm Harbrow on Hipkins’ abuse of process

by CS
 
eight_col_large_1M1A0577.jpg

Chris Hipkins Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

The government is all at sea in the house at the moment.

On Wednesday the Greens ‘forgot’ to file a question in time for question time and then Chris Hipkins moved the house into urgency to complete some bills they’ve dawdled over progressing.

Normally urgency isn’t such a big deal but in this case it is simply because they’ve stuffed up their timings.

Malcolm Harbrow at No Right Turn calls what Chris Hipkins then did a “childish trantrum”: Quote:

That’s the only way to describe events in Parliament last night. Faced with the opposition filibustering two time-sensitive bills, the government moved urgency, then attempted to amend the instruction to the committee to prevent any debate on what was being voted on. The urgency isn’t problematic – the bills are time-sensitive, and need to be passed this week if they are to come into force on time on July 1. They could have been completed under urgency with the budget, but the government unusually didn’t take that opportunity at the time (something which I was happy to see, but it did set them up for this problem later). But the motion to forbid debate was an affront to our democracy. While it was withdrawn this morning – saner heads having prevailed – the fact that it was moved at all is obscene.

Oppositions exist to oppose. This will be inconvenient to the government, and that’s the point. The way governments respond under this pressure illustrates their character. And Labour has exposed itself as authoritarian and intolerant of dissent (who’d have thunk it) – not values I want to see in a government. Chris Hipkins’ childish tantrum actively undermined our democracy and the stature of our Parliament. And someone who does that is not fit to be Leader of the House. End quote.

Speaker Mallard pointed out that this situation is all of the government’s own making: Quote:

While I’m on my feet saying how things should work, in Speakers’ Rulings there’s a very good Speaker’s ruling from one of the previous Assistant Speakers in the last Parliament on how Parliament should work during the committee stages. What that says is, effectively, if reasonable questions are asked, the Minister should answer them. That will not lengthen the debate; that will shorten the debate. My view is that if Ministers had done that, this debate would have finished on Tuesday, and we wouldn’t be here in this situation now. End quote.

The media seem a bit distracted to try to cover this. They are more concerned with photos of the princess and the so-called first baby to worry about trivialities like a government who can’t control their own agenda in the parliament.

Chris Hipkins is added to the list of incompetent ministers, which seems to grow longer day by day.

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Concerning behaviour from Labour minister’s attempt to waive the law for a friend

by CS
 

GettyImages-868397926-david-parker-jacin

Matthew Hooton writes on Facebook: Quote:

This scandal is far, far worse than the previous government’s dealings with Warner Bros, Sky City or the Saudi sheik because – on the face of it – there doesn’t appear to be any argument the public interest was involved.

It seems that an attempt was made to insert a clause into a government bill solely and specifically to favour a property development being led by a friend and business associate of the Economic Development Minister.

One of the lobbyists who successfully secured the clause was, until a few months ago, actually working as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister.

Congratulations to Speaker Trevor Mallard for putting a stop to the scam by refusing to allow the clause to be considered by parliament and put into law.

If this involved, say, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce, and one of his friends and business associates, with Mark Unsworth doing the lobbying after, say, Roger Sowry had spent five months working as Chief of Staff for John Key, and Speaker Lockwood Smith intervening to stop it, it would be by far the major news story in New Zealand for days, there would be demands for Auditor General, Privileges Committee, SFO and police inquiries, and we would still be hearing about it months or years later, and rightly so.

But I suspect it is unlikely you will hear much about it in the daily media because the Prime Minister is having a baby soon. End quote.

 

He is referring to the revelations on Politik website by Richard Harman: Quote:

Questions are being asked about how a group of Labour MPs on a Select  Committee agreed to grant an exemption from the  overseas buyers  ban to a luxury Northland property development where sections are valued at up to $4.5 million each.

The exemption has now been removed for procedural reasons  but how it  got where it did raises some intriguing questions.

They are accentuated because the inclusion is so unusual, particularly for a Labour Government, to grant what in effect was a special favour to wealthy property developers.

Labour disputes that and says it was actually granting a favour to the local iwi who stood to be substantially disadvantaged if the development did not go ahead.

But POLITIK has found that the iwi have only a minority interest in the development.

On the face of it, the exemption flew in the face of everything Labour has been saying about property development since it became the Government.

For example, only 12 days ago, the Minister in charge of the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill, which implements the ban, David Parker, said this:

“We want the prices of New Zealand homes, whether it be a lakeside station, the best houses in the Bay of Islands or the modest homes in our towns and cities, to be set by local buyers, not on the international market,” he said.

“It’s also a matter of values. We believe New Zealand homes should not be traded on an international market and New Zealanders should not be outbid by wealthier foreign buyers.”

But that is precisely what the developers of Te Arai are intending with their building lots which have rating valuations of up to $4.5 million each being offered on the international market.

Also worrying was that the exemption was granted to only one development; a point the Speaker was later to fasten on pointing out that the possibility of an exemption had not been offered to other developers. End quote.

Yes, Trevor Mallard referenced this when he sent the bill back to committee to have the amendments expunged.

 

 

It seems that Richard Harman was the only gallery journalist awake when that happened and so he went digging. Quote:

Speaker Trevor Mallard has ruled that the inclusion of the exemption for Te Arai was improper for procedural reasons.

There were other ways the exemption could probably have been granted, he said.

But even though the Committee was advised what it was doing in recommending the exemption was improper and even though the Opposition opposed it, the Committee went ahead and recommended it.

Mallard, however, appeared to excuse them.

“I appreciate that the amendment was made by the Finance and Expenditure Committee at the request of the landowner in order to preserve the value of the land purchased as commercial redress following Treaty of Waitangi settlements,” he said.

“The committee was motivated by a desire to assist and to be fair to the landowner.”

It would appear that Parliament was under the misapprehension that this development was essentially an iwi development when in fact it was a high priced luxury development 75 per cent owned by a property development company that boasts of having completed $2 billion of developments.

There is another casual link between Te Arai and the Government — Te Arai’s public relations consultant is David Lewis, a former press secretary to Helen Clark and business partner of Gordon-John Thompson who filled in as Jacinda Ardern’s Chief of Staff when the Government was being formed.

What all this adds up to is what Parliamentary insiders would call an “untidy” process

Was it because Parliament misunderstood who really owned Te Arai that led to the exemption being granted and did Parker know what was going on.

Did he know people he knew were deeply involved in getting the exemption?

In a way, it doesn’t matter because Mallard has struck the exemption from the Bill.

But the opposition may not see it that way, they may well want to pursue this matter further. End quote.

And they should pursue it, because it smells very whiffy indeed.

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51 minutes ago, Uriah Heap said:

Ahhhh babies. Don't you love them. Is that someone calling out in the far distance about rising taxes and Kelvin Davis botch ups? Sorry, I can't hear them. All I hear is the sound of gurgling, cute babies.:wub:

A Royal baby?

by Christie 
 

prince-louis-royal-baby1-630x354.jpg

 

So driving down Tinakori Road this morning, in the dark, the 7.30 news announced that New Zealand was about to have the closest it has ever come to a Royal baby of its own, as Jacinda Ardern had just gone into labour. The Wellington traffic is not the ideal place to lose one’s rag, but bear in mind that I was listening to the Mike Hosking Show which normally avoids the usual media drivel.

I know we have been referring to her as the Princess, but I didn’t realise it was for real. When exactly did she become a full-blown member of the Royal Family? I thought Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle was the newest member. How on earth did I manage to miss that vital piece of news?

This is not a royal baby, of course. Not by a long way. While it may be something of note that Jacinda is giving birth while in office, it is only moderately interesting to some people, and not at all interesting to others. Pregnant woman gives birth. It is really not exciting or unusual, except for the people involved.

 

Let us just look at the stupidity of the ‘royal baby’ claim. We have already had a royal baby this year, being His Royal Highness Prince Louis Arthur Charles of Cambridge. Jacinda’s baby will no doubt be called Chardonnay Helen Gayford, or similar. Prince Louis will be in the public eye from very early on, waving at crowds from the age of 3, or even less. By the time Chardonnay Gayford is 3, her mother will be a former prime minister of a one-term government, and the child will be nobody. Not much of a royal baby then, is it?

This doesn’t stop the media though. The child isn’t even born yet (at the time of writing) but the headlines are all baby mania.

This is from the front page of Stuff:

PM-Baby.png

And here is another article from Stuff on the same day: Quote:

International news organisations have joined in the excitement as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern enters hospital to give birth to her first child.

The New York Times got off to a quick start, reporting soon after the announcement.

Ardern’s “youth and surprise rise to power have made her a global celebrity”, it said. Ardern’s pregnancy had prompted a national conversation about working mothers. End quote.

Has it really? Working mothers were commonplace 30 years ago. How come they are only just making the world news now? Quote:

The Australians were also onto the development fast.

Sky News Australia had a “Just In’ tweet, while ABC News also had an early tweet.

Nine News Australia said the baby would be a significant moment for New Zealand.

“Although she will become the first elected world leader to take maternity leave – and only the second to have a child while in office – Ms Ardern has played down the significant global attention she’s received as a role model,” it said. End quote.

Why exactly is she a role model? Has no one ever had a baby before? Is she doing something no one else can do?

I find myself reading less and less from the mainstream media these days, mainly because of garbage like this. Instead of reporting the news, and possibly having this announcement as the fourth or fifth item in the 7.30 news bulletin, it makes headlines. And they wonder why they are losing viewers and listeners when they are constantly churning out garbage like this?

At least Mike Hosking distanced himself from it all. Once the news was over and he was back on the air, he said he was ‘ashamed’ to be part of the media these days, for their endless fawning over Jacinda and her baby.

You have redeemed yourself, Mike, although I might have to turn the sound down next time the news comes on. Their pronunciation of Maori names is completely ridiculous and over the top anyway. I won’t be missing much.

UPDATED: This from – NZHerald at 18.15 on 21 June 2018 – Quote:

“New Zealand’s first child has been born.” End quote.

I assume everyone else, for the last 180 years, simply crawled out from under a rock?

 

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Someone on the AM show this morning said that Clarke is a role model for staying at home and looking after the baby.

Pretty easy to do when your wife earns 300/400k per year and you live in a 2 million dollar homelong with all the extras that come being a poli.

Try doing it when your renting or living in a 500k home on a single income.Cannot be done.

He is a role model for no one.

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Ted. Ohaka, Crusty what a pack of sad, negative,  bitter, pricks.  Even Paula Benefit and Simon Bridges have sent their congratulations but not you because its eating you up.

Get over it Ted, I see that you and Ohaka  are still cutting and pasting others tripe such as the prize wanker Hosking's rantings. Poor bugger has never got over John Key abandoning him to pull someone else's hair.

Ted has nightmares awakes  at 6am every morning in a sweat, takes his medication then listens to Hoskings to get his fix of Jacinda hate. 

 

 

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Well we've found one who has simply crawled out from under a rock. :lol:

Good on them for the birth of their daughter but as per usual you fail to get the point of the article written by Christie who incidentally is a woman. It's actually about the media not about a problem of Ardern having a baby. :rolleyes: 

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6 hours ago, crustyngrizzly said:

 

Pretty easy to do when your wife 

He is a role model for no one.

Not his wife Crusty, apparently his partner. Agree the bludger is a role model for no-one and notice how the comrades don't want to lay claim to the first "bastard" child delivered by a sitting PM.

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43 minutes ago, Lee270744 said:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford have called their new daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford. 

I wonder why she didn't name her Murupara or Morrinsville.

I'm sure she will appreciate it down the track....."How many names have I got again..??"

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Come in Ted! How dare the comrades hi-jack the name of your beloved racing Club and then shackle the poor child with a wretched hybrid surname without getting it's approval, as per the left's touted "nappy-changing" protocol.

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On 6/22/2018 at 7:24 PM, rdytdy said:

Doesn't this tweet really make you sit up and take notice...well it should...

Screen-Shot-2018-06-21-at-5.24.44-PM.png

That is ex-Prime Minister Helen Clarke’s husband.

Let that sink in for one minute.

 

I'm guessing he has been told where to shove his baked beans, not that they are living together any more.

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