Our PM Jacinda Ardern (and the government)

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Networkn
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#2958795 24-Aug-2022 14:37

Good lord, I am almost lost for words that Trevor Mallard, one of the worst behaved MP's in modern memory, and in my view the worst ever speaker of the house, is going to get an ambassadorship. It beggars belief someone with all his history should be in Parliament at all, let alone given a role such as this.

The absolute only upside is that he will no longer be here.

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#2958811 24-Aug-2022 15:14

Say what you will about Mallard, but he's not the worst speaker there's been in my relatively short life time. TBH I could deal with a colourful rogue as a Speaker if it meant we got some degree of accountability in the House. While Mallard was sometimes pretty partisan, he would press Ministers to actually answer questions or correct the record, even if you didn't see it happening much or getting much coverage on media outlets.

It's a far cry from the days of "Just addressing the question counts as answering it" which is basically the death-knell for accountability in Parliament, so in that regard, I'm prepared to rank him as not-worst (which I feel is pretty flattering, all things considered).

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#2958818 24-Aug-2022 15:33

GV27:

Say what you will about Mallard, but he's not the worst speaker there's been in my relatively short life time. TBH I could deal with a colourful rogue as a Speaker if it meant we got some degree of accountability in the House. While Mallard was sometimes pretty partisan, he would press Ministers to actually answer questions or correct the record, even if you didn't see it happening much or getting much coverage on media outlets.

It's a far cry from the days of "Just addressing the question counts as answering it" which is basically the death-knell for accountability in Parliament, so in that regard, I'm prepared to rank him as not-worst (which I feel is pretty flattering, all things considered).

It improved (a bit) in the last term, but prior, he was pretty much acting as Labour's personal bodyguard service in relation to using any trick he could to stop them from having to be accountable in my view.

Adrian Rurawhe at least is saying the right things, let's hope he isn't as one-sided and utterly biased as Mallard was.

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#2959147 25-Aug-2022 08:47

It's incredibly cynical to have essentially re-released an announcement on the supermarkets to try and cycle Sharma out of the news. The more Labour does this, the more it looks like they are trying to hide things, in my view.

If there is nothing to hide, why would an independent inquiry be a bad thing? Surely, if there is truth (or not) then it should be in the light.

His claims yesterday, refuted by someone whom I trust as far as I could kick him, that he approached Mallard asking if he could seek legal assistance, to be told it would be the end of his career, seems right in tune with what I'd expect.

What it keeps coming back to for me, is what does Sharma gain from any of this, vs Labour in this instance?

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#2959157 25-Aug-2022 09:16

Labour should be worried about the fact that Dr Sharma comes across as a nice guy - he's not an arsehole like Jami-lee Ross.

That doesn't necessarily guarantee that he's telling the truth, but the public will trust him enough to believe that an independent enquiry is warranted.

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#2959163 25-Aug-2022 09:31

I think the fairest approach is to assume both sides are lying, which is why someone independent should be looking into this.

With one party calling for an investigation, knowing that if he is lying or his behaviour has fallen short, not only will his political career be over, but his personal integrity will take a smashing, and the other refusing, it really does make it seem like there is something they are trying to hide.

Even the way the *entire* caucus is totally walling him, seems pretty unusual.

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gzt

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#2959245 25-Aug-2022 13:08

networkn:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nzs-child-immunisation-rates-hit-record-lows-with-health-experts-petrified-of-measles-and-other-deadly-epidemics/KFGAQTTUJBPJBAO3NHPBSS4GAE/

This is pretty damning and scary to boot.

Shane Reti Tweeted:

My WPQ shows more spent on coms than the Maori focused delivery component. The target was 300,000; 20,000 vaccines given; total cost was $26M. $4M of the vaccines expired 2 weeks ago and another $4M expire in the next 2 weeks. Admin cost per vaccine given is maybe the worst ever.

The underlying issue raised in the Herald article - low vaccination rates - is extremely serious basically a bomb waiting to go off. Reti's Twitter point about an attempt to resolve this being ineffective in the short term may well be valid and correct, yet it's mainly a point about spending.

My question would be - what will National do to address the underlying issue of low MMR vaccination?

My perception is National have a Brash style aversion to any kind of targeted health programs. For that reason it may be difficult for Reti to develop actual policy to address this and similar issues.

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#2959654 26-Aug-2022 08:55

My perception is National have a Brash style aversion to any kind of targeted health programs. For that reason it may be difficult for Reti to develop actual policy to address this and similar issues.

I am not sure what a 'Brash' style aversion to targetted health programs is, but based on the current governments history of delivering on it's promises and programmes in the last 5 years, it's unlikely to be worse.

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#2959666 26-Aug-2022 09:30

gzt:
networkn:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nzs-child-immunisation-rates-hit-record-lows-with-health-experts-petrified-of-measles-and-other-deadly-epidemics/KFGAQTTUJBPJBAO3NHPBSS4GAE/

This is pretty damning and scary to boot.

Shane Reti Tweeted:

My WPQ shows more spent on coms than the Maori focused delivery component. The target was 300,000; 20,000 vaccines given; total cost was $26M. $4M of the vaccines expired 2 weeks ago and another $4M expire in the next 2 weeks. Admin cost per vaccine given is maybe the worst ever.

The underlying issue raised in the Herald article - low vaccination rates - is extremely serious basically a bomb waiting to go off. Reti's Twitter point about an attempt to resolve this being ineffective in the short term may well be valid and correct, yet it's mainly a point about spending.

My question would be - what will National do to address the underlying issue of low MMR vaccination?

My perception is National have a Brash style aversion to any kind of targeted health programs. For that reason it may be difficult for Reti to develop actual policy to address this and similar issues.

The really siginificant part of that tweet IMO is that more was spent on comms than on actually delivering the outcome. So often now we have seen from this government where making themselves look good is more important than actually achieving anything worhwhile. All talk and no action.

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sen8or

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#2959687 26-Aug-2022 10:21

Something to do with their leaders formal qualification being communications?

In politics, there is no point in doing good if your not telling people what you are doing, but there comes a point when more effort goes into delivering the message than actually delivering the service and labour often crosses that threshold.

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#2960673 29-Aug-2022 09:59

Technofreak:

The really siginificant part of that tweet IMO is that more was spent on comms than on actually delivering the outcome. So often now we have seen from this government where making themselves look good is more important than actually achieving anything worhwhile. All talk and no action.

The comms were a significant part of delivering the outcome. All the messaging to stay home, wear a mask. All of that was part of the communications strategy and all the rest won't matter. Just look now they have backed off on the communications and so many people think they don't need to wear a mask in public anymore.

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Technofreak

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#2960991 29-Aug-2022 21:52

Varkk:

Technofreak:

The really siginificant part of that tweet IMO is that more was spent on comms than on actually delivering the outcome. So often now we have seen from this government where making themselves look good is more important than actually achieving anything worhwhile. All talk and no action.

The comms were a significant part of delivering the outcome. All the messaging to stay home, wear a mask. All of that was part of the communications strategy and all the rest won't matter. Just look now they have backed off on the communications and so many people think they don't need to wear a mask in public anymore.

My comment wasn't about the stay home wear a mask message. It was about Shane Reti's comments about more money being spent on the message rather than delivery and other similar examples, for example the approval to spend money on the vaccine procurement message but not have any money approved to actually procure any vaccines. There's far too many examples of the message being delivered with no outcome. You can just about name any programme this government has announced and you will see plenty of message and very little outcome.

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networkn

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#2961325 30-Aug-2022 21:34

Rikkitic:

If that turns out to be the case, I would term it unfortunate and wasteful and ask if it could not have been done better, but I would not call it a debacle.

It turns out that number was around 33,000 people who got it in error. That's a debacle. Especially since they were told it would be a bad idea to rush it through, and the entire idea was ill-advised to start with.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/473743/cost-of-living-payment-national-criticises-government-s-loose-and-sloppy-attitude-to-taxpayer-money

John Ryan - Governor General wrote a damning report saying that good stewardship of public money required greater care when designing and implementing the payments.

Apparently, the government are refining the process, to include basic tests one might have thought they should have included from the start.

Just another rushed scheme by the Government in order to 'look' good, without much thought or clue as how it might be executed intelligently.

You'd think they might have learned something from the past 4 Years of blundering around like this...

Unsurprisingly, Arden 'refutes' the claims by the Governor-General.

Is anyone else sick of that being her default stance to anything she doesn't like hearing?

Rikkitic

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#2961331 30-Aug-2022 22:08

networkn:

Rikkitic:

If that turns out to be the case, I would term it unfortunate and wasteful and ask if it could not have been done better, but I would not call it a debacle.

It turns out that number was around 33,000 people who got it in error. That's a debacle. Especially since they were told it would be a bad idea to rush it through, and the entire idea was ill-advised to start with.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/473743/cost-of-living-payment-national-criticises-government-s-loose-and-sloppy-attitude-to-taxpayer-money

John Ryan - Governor General wrote a damning report saying that good stewardship of public money required greater care when designing and implementing the payments.

Apparently, the government are refining the process, to include basic tests one might have thought they should have included from the start.

Just another rushed scheme by the Government in order to 'look' good, without much thought or clue as how it might be executed intelligently.

You'd think they might have learned something from the past 4 Years of blundering around like this...

Unsurprisingly, Arden 'refutes' the claims by the Governor-General.

Is anyone else sick of that being her default stance to anything she doesn't like hearing?

Good, it's a debacle. Now tell me who would do any better and why you think so. You constantly bitch about this government but if there is such a better alternative, why didn't they fix anything when they had the chance?

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#2961350 31-Aug-2022 06:28

Rikkitic:

Good, it's a debacle. Now tell me who would do any better and why you think so. You constantly bitch about this government but if there is such a better alternative, why didn't they fix anything when they had the chance?

Having to come up with a laundry list of excuse for every previous National administration is not something you should need to offer up before you are allowed to criticise the current government.

Remember which government this thread is actually about.

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