FOR GOFF

Yeah Phil , Helen made the mistakes - you guys were the bloody sheep that obeyed her every command - You contributed to the tyranny .

Sorry might not cut it...

KEYS ECONOMIC APPROACH BEING WATCHED IN OZ

John Key and Rudd appear to get on pretty well - there is an air of the sophisticated geek about both of them. However their differences in style and approach to the global financial downturn are significant.

The Australian takes a look a the differences here

We particularly like this bit - Key makes it clear that the government cant provide all the solutions.

New Zealand benefited from "huge reforms, leaving it as a small, open, flexible economy, driven by Roger Douglas" -- the Labour finance minister in the late 1980s, recently returned to parliament as an ACT Party MP -- "but I am not claiming to be another Roger Douglas".

He said: "We just don't need that level of reforms, because the economy is quite open. But we can free up the process" of reform, which had stagnated. This will include a greater involvement by the private sector, as in a jobs summit Key held recently.

He is reintroducing greater flexibility to the labour markets, he said -- for instance, through a proposal for a 90-day probationary period for new employees.

"And we're not afraid to use the private sector in the provision of health and education services. The success of the nation doesn't rise or fall on the efforts of government alone. The strength of our country is that of our 4.3million people."

Yip we agree - All for one and one for all.

McCULLY NEEDS TO DISESTABLISH RACE RELATIONS OFFICE

As a country we are pretty grown up when it comes to Race relations - Joris de Bres is a dick. McCully has our vote to woop his arse. He went over to the UN Anti Racism conference under his own steam, (some one needs to find out who sponsored his trip) but pontificates as the Race Relations Conciliator. Bad Bad form.

So its time for him to go. enough of his PC crap. Scrap the office - we don't need it any more.

Dr or MINISTER?

Well apparently Mr Worth was both.

Here's a report on Dr, Minister Worth as it appeared in India

AH SUCH DECISIVENESS

Power makes us go all fizzy. And if we didn't love the Aussie Rock to bits we would have John Key in our dewy sights.

Two of his team - Richard Worth and Nick Smith went a bit awry - Worth forgot who to tell the boss he was still tied up with an Invercargill Aviation School while he was in India and touted for a bit of business for them on the side.Now as much as we often go into bat for Southland , that's real irksome when BB's son is an instructor at another aviation school.

Then Nick Smith did a Maurice Williamson and waxed lyrical on the joys of charging shoppers a tax for using plastic bags. One of those ideas that sounds good coming from a Green Party member but is enough to turn a Blue heart to stone.

So both got kick up the bum from John.

Bewdy. Go John , there are plenty of MP's who have the mettle to take on the Ministerial mantle. For once National is spoilt for choice. So we applaud any message to underperforming Ministers that any silliness will not be tolerated.

GRUMBLE AT HIS BEST

The Quixotic Alf Grumble puts his arthritic foot up the arse of the BioEthics Council this morning. National is going to kill off this waffly naval gazing think tank and saved the taxpayers well over a Million. We think that Grumble is smack on. Read his summary here

ACC SHAKEUP

This morning we are feeling very old - in 1992 -1993 ( thats nearly twenty years ago....) we were involved in a team that looked at carving up ACC. The team, made up of consultants and ACC staffers, pretty much concluded that a fair chunk of it could be sold off. We spent 8 months commuting to Wellington from Invercargill. Anyway the team was devastated to have all their finding chucked out by the CE a weird aussie twat who liked to fly planes - he was charged with fraud but got off.
We then spent the next few months introducing case management. We all believed there was an opportunity lost and a looming headache for successive governments. We reckoned that this day would come. Good on ya Bill and Nick. Make it better

GOVERNMENT GET RID OF BACTERIA BINS - CAN WE?

The national government have got rid of the dorky little rubbish containers that sit on their desks at parliament.

They are without a doubt the silliest idea ever - introduced in an effort to make Public Servants go green . What they did do was harbour germ fests. If you had a cold , manky tissues piled up forcing people next door to you contact you by email so they didn't have to enter your 2m square patch of a govt cube cube farm and risk Ebola.

Rubbish bins under desks were much more healthy.

And the big recycle bins were still used. So if its good enough for our Ministers to get on the floor rubbish bins can we get our bins back too? And as a matter of interest where did the old ones go? Can we recycle them?


Nick Smith puts the case nicely.

Environment Minister Nick Smith called the "puny" desk bins impractical, ridiculous and a "cute gimmick" that achieved little.

"We want to see people taking a good, practical approach to recycling, not the over the top, nanny-state that was all-pervasive within the Beehive," he told the Herald on Sunday.

"I've heard horror stories of senior bureaucrats earning over $100,000 a year sitting around for an hour getting lessons on how to separate their rubbish."


Environment Minister Nick Smith called the "puny" desk bins impractical, ridiculous and a "cute gimmick" that achieved little.

"We want to see people taking a good, practical approach to recycling, not the over the top, nanny-state that was all-pervasive within the Beehive," he told the Herald on Sunday.

"I've heard horror stories of senior bureaucrats earning over $100,000 a year sitting around for an hour getting lessons on how to separate their rubbish."

Yip Nick we did - we sure did .

YAY!!! WE WON!

We are back to cheerleading for National - the silly copyright law is being delayed . Well done Minister Finlayson! Well done us.....

LINE BY LINE DOLLAR BY DOLLAR THEY GO

People in and out of Government departments are head down and tushes up as they pour over the books of each and every Government department and Ministry. Line by line the go, project by project, programme by programme, trimming , snipping , biffing out , asking why, asking how and asking "what the fuck?"


Up they front to Ministers with weasel words, fawning over their new masters whispering n how good they have been and how much they have trimmed, offering up only dust, only to be told to go away and come back with more. Some have been told twice already that they must do better. CE's stare at you with the eyes of the hunted in the lift. It is a new dawn and the cold light of reality sees them shiver.

It is a beautiful thing to behold. People in the hinterland should be allowed to come to Wellington to watch to give them some satisfaction that this government that they gave their good votes to, is performing financial liposuction on the bloated beast that is the public service.

Over coffee you hear the whines and the howls and see the tears from some as their little fiefdoms are sucked of fat. In other corners rivers of joyful tears run down the faces of the pragmatic as finally they see the waste being put in a bucket and turfed out. Gone are the raspberry and white chocolate muffins, gone are the two course luncheons for little meetings, Going are the Koru Club cards, gone are the oversized rentals. Going are the spurious overseas conferences for " networking." Going are the crap documents in huge storerooms that serve no purpose, remain unread, never distributed.

All is Bliss - just bliss.

TOUGH LOVE

We think that the governments moves to institute boot camps for young offenders is a really good one. We have had personal experience of their benefit. It can change sullen teenage boys into men in quick time. Its about setting boundarys , keeping them busy and giving them goals and inspiration.

FRAN DOESNT GO FAR ENOUGH

We have been quite gentle on the incoming government but it would be fair to say that we think that Fran does not go far enough in sharing her concerns of the lack of breadth of Nationals response to the Economic downturn. There are murmurs of disquiet rippling through Wellington and Auckland business communities. While Fran rightly points out that Nationals policy has been largely targeted at the construction sector we agree there is much more that can be done. We are watching very, very closely to what National will do in the IT sector, for instance.

Fibre to the home seems like such a worthy ideal but increasing business capability is where the effort should be targetted at. We again think this article in the NYT sets out the pitfalls succinctly

We also wonder if the Government has invited some companies to the Job summit who are new on the scene , who have grown in the last couple of years despite the downturn. They are the ones who are bucking the trend who will have the entrepreneurial thinkers at their helm. We hope that the Job summit is well managed but like Cactus Kate we are starting to wonder just what is so special about Weldon who apparently is a very uninspiring speaker and interestingly he does not have a huge amount of support throughout the business community. So as eye candy goes - he is a stawberry chuppa chuppa but as an inspirational leader - he apparently is a sugar free boiled lolly - someone even suggested " boring as batshit" . And in the next few weeks we need to see some inspirational leadership we have had glimpses of in the past , as our future more than anytime in the last 50 years, is in their hands.

So less of the dinners and photo ops and thinking inwards and relying on stale advisors who haven't been off the hill in ten years. We need to hear and understand your plan. We remain loyal but you need to work to keep our trust.

THERE IS ONE IN EVERY HAPU

Bloody mad Nga Puhi. I can understand why my whanauka never had much truck with them. On the one day where they should be celebrating unity and a shared vision some silly dope addled no hoper decides to be a twat and rough up the PM. My pick is that they will be getting a thorough kicking out the back.

Silly silly tamariki.

RMA REVAMP LONG OVERDUE

Excellent - National has taken the Handbrake off the RMA Well done Nick. - Good start.

MOCHACHINO MOMMA PAULA BENNETT SHOWS SHE HAS A HEART

We love Outrageous Fortune. Its tickles New Zealands suburban underbelly and we all get to laugh out loud. The shows leading lady Cheryl West is our heroine - she sticks up for her family no matter what and she is trying to make a better life for her colourful brood. But it appears our Mocchachino momma , Paula Bennett is well on the way to displacing Cheryl as our Westie heroine.

Now Minister Paula Bennett has been in the news a bit. So despite not letting the Boss know everything ( not so good), she has done nothing wrong in giving the partner of her daughter the support and love he needs to get his life on track. However we bet a bucket of dunkin donuts that if the bugger is dumb enough to stuff up again he wont be given a second chance.

Its her real life experiences that a raft of New Zealanders can relate to her that make her good for the job she is in.

She has lived, - she is not one of lifes passengers in the big bus that goes nowhere.

We have a couple of relatives who have been dorks and ended up doing some time and they have gone on to be good citizens. One is now a multi millionaire - through hard work and determination and having a good wife at his side. Family has always been the reason they got back on track.

So we support Paula, for being a mom, a very good mom, for being compassionate and willing to give a hard arse a second go at life.

We like it that we have a real Cheryl West in Parliament, the Westies and their suburban cousins up and down New Zealand have been seriously underrepresented in parliament in the past.

So its time to let the lady get on and get our welfare system working the way it should.

Go you good thing.

KEY TREATING PEOPLE LIKE ADULTS.

We are happy to lead by example. Times are tough - its time to get tough so we are more than happy for all Public servants to miss out on a pay rise this year. And amongst the Roarprawn ranks is more than one public servant. So good on Key for raising the thorny issue. That's what we like to see - balls. And we heard Goff wittering on RNZ this morning about the fact that Key should legislate to stop pay rises among the top echelons of the public service and MP's. That's the difference between National and Labour - National charts the direction and expects people to act like responsible grown ups. Labour wants to be in charge and doesn't trust people to be grown up - the Nanny state.

ITS ALL ABOUT SME AND CACTUS

Key is saying that the government focus is going to be on SME's - that's good for us because we are a SME. So cutting the red tape, and tax relief will help and the type of initiatives that the Wellington Chamber have initiated make bloody good sense too. Cactus, the icey eyed bint, has some reservations about Mr Weldon - we like to see alternative views and she has raised some valid issues - take a look here. We however, remain Weldon supporters. We would also like to see Alex Sundakov in the mix - if he isn't already, and anyone who has taken a business from 0 - $10 million plus in 5 years - There are more of them than you think and no property developers thank you. Then add in the boys from the Southland Building Society and South Canterbury Finance - they are prudent investment boys and know what a durable investment is. Chuck in Chris Lee as well - He knows what doesn't stack up. And of course Gareth Morgan. And check out what some of the boys in Maori Fisheries have been doing. - They have been wise stewards of a uber freezer full of fish.

There are heaps more - but we don't want to see the same old tired faces at the summit - we want successful new faces. And no sandals, batik skirts, dreadlocks and greenpeace tee shirts.

And the Mantra is a simple one - Governments don't create jobs Businesses create jobs - its the governments job to create the environment for businesses to create jobs. Simple.

We also want to be part of the task force that gives the public service a shake up - Public services are pissing themselves laughing at the government - you see in the time honoured tradition of public service they started to shift money, hide money, change the names of projects and whole departments, mid last year so that they could front up to the new boys and say savings - sure we will give you savings, when really Ministers will be presented with some manipulated accounts. So it will need an external review to ensure that there is no shilly shallying.

WELDON IS A GOOD CHOICE

We are delighted that Key has chosen Weldon to chair the summit that's aimed at sorting shit. He's an ideas man and thats what we need.
We also did a bit of scan of the SOE lists of board members and boy are there some lightweights - even some bird who lists among her achievements- Aerial ribbon gymnastics to fill out her profile. We didn't know if we should laugh or cry and there are some bad balance sheets among the SOE's - we smell a clean out coming.
There is also another really good thing about the appointment of Mark Weldon. Both he and Key are easy on the eye. So it will be much easier hearing bad news from some thinking girls eye candy.

SUMMER HOLIDAY

Well everyone round town is gasbagging about the perception that the government is on holiday at a critical time. What crap.
And its more than a little precious of Labour to get all pious about Key taking a break. They were always missing in action around Christmas New Year. In fact it was hard to get sense out of any Labour ministers office till the end of January, so the fact that Key has his boys fronting up this week definitely puts him ahead in the readiness stakes.

We were with a senior journalist the other day and she wasn't impressed about Key being ensconced in Hawaii. She wondered if his kids were missing their mates and their kiwi holidays and that his first Xmas should have been in NZ on holiday with the masses. Part of Keys appeal is that he is one of us who's made good and that he hasn't lost touch with who he really is but she reckoned buggering off to Hawaii for secluded Xmas set him apart. We think Clarks cold mountain expeditions at the height of summer set her apart from the rest of NZ as a odd fish.
But the biggest problem that the Nats have had over this issue is one of Perception. Labour used to ensure that it appeared busy over Xmas and it did it very very well. While McCully did a stirling job of fronting the main political issues all the other Ministers should have had announcements to make over the holiday period. That was the trick the Labour used. Low level announcements that became the breathless focus of the bored and often junior Xmas reporters on the xmas roster. Key should have also granted one really good in depth interview for Tv1 while on Holiday. Again its all about perception.

Now we have Key looking like he is reacting to the media over their perceptions of his lack of activity by announcing the meeting of his powerful economic team which we knew about weeks ago. A bit more pro active media activity is needed by the Nats to ensure that the government is not just working, as we know they are, but are Seen to be working.

But hell what do we know? ;-)

BIG STORY DUE TO MAKE WAVES

Yip - coming soon - its a shocker. And we reckon itwill see the govt launch an inquiry into one Govt department which had foundered on the rocks of bad management. And they wont be able to defend their actions.

The doors on the closets that contain the skeletons from Labours reign are starting to bust open with the weight of decomposing corpses.

We like that.