Hard News: Not Helping
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McCully is a poor choice for any portfolio. I guess National's problem is that they have so many lightweights and no-hopers in their ranks that they have to put duds in some jobs.
Tony Ryall, Judith Collins, Gerry Brownlee, Lockwood Smith and Murray McCully are the short-hand version of a longer list of people who collectively are all excellent reasons why any sane person would not vote for National.....whatever their ideology might be.
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Now, the government has effectvely issued an edict to underwrite flights to two other countries. As I said, it's probably a good thing for those economies. But they've done it by jamming their hands in an already small cookie jar.
But wasn't the point you were trying to make that this Samoa deal was being done as a result of meddling by MFAT/McCully whoever?
The Niue deal was done years ago by NZAid on its own,and no one seemed to kick up a huge stink when that part of our aid budget was reappropriated, but now it is a problem ?
Additionally the Cooks Government have a similar scheme where they underwrite an Air NZ service from the US to Rarotonga, ($1.5 million US last year alone)
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@Steve:
you forgot mr Williamson, and... (oh, never mind) -
What Tom said.
Phil Goff largely agrees with Key. He is the right of the labour party and has a lot of baggage. And since everyone knows he is just an interim leader, he has trouble being regarded as fresh or interesting.
Any idea when we might get a non-interim Labour leader? Or is the plan to shadow national policy, wait 9 years and hope the electorate will decide it's "time for a change"?
The media are not interested in what Labour has to say
That's at least partly because they're in the pocket of the National Party. The left needs a strategy that sets an agenda, rather than letting the media do it. Direct action protests would seem to be a start - if we dump a tonne of recycling in John Key's garden, maybe it'll get on the news and put National's scrapping of recycle bins (for instance) on the agenda?
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I was just doing a little research when I came upon this headline in Islands Business
Samoa: FISHING, TELECOM LOOKING GOOD
But manufacturing flounders
manufacturing flounders, how do you do that?
Anyhow, what I found was this;But the government's tourism-centric policies have begun paying dividends. At S$196 million, it is the country's second largest revenue earner, only slightly behind overseas remittances which stood at S$206 million at the end of 2004.
which raises the question, are we subsidising tourism through Air NZ or the fishing industry? or just Air NZ itself.
When you consider this.Polynesian Airline flights from American Samoa to Apia during the Christmas holidays are already fully booked.
Ref
Something stinks and I don't think it is manufactured flounder. -
manufacturing flounders, how do you do that?
Put a cod through a mangle.
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It beggars belief that this government is not coordinating a serious response to environmental issues with whatever it might be thinking about the economic crisis. Instead it is working on irrational projects like gutting the Ministry for the Environment, and increasing natural gas exploitation at a time when overseas the headlines warn of impending environmental disaster.
The Government does many things, but beggaring belief is not among them. All this was predictable. What matters is presentation, not substance. The Government has more important concerns than impending environmental disaster, matters such as knighthoods. Of course, it is aware that it must be seen to be doing things, such as cracking down on the nation's imaginary crimewave and undoing every piece of legislation enacted by the previous Government. But dealing with a real issue like the environment, even if the Government accepted it as real, would be perilous, since it might result in bad press.
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*warning: threadjack*
Russell, an item for next week's programme?
Guardian provides open access to stats to facilitate mashups.
AND
Guardian provides API to open up its content for re-use.
[/threadjack]
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Direct action protests would seem to be a start
A number of unions, most notably Unite, have already established a 'Rat Patrol' to name and shame any abusers of the 90-day probation bill.
But dealing with a real issue like the environment, even if the Government accepted it as real, would be perilous, since it might result in bad press.
Like for instance, if President Obama & Ron Kirk agree to an FTA with NZ, on the condition that NZ sings up to an ETS. Would the usual USNZFTA advocates still be enthusiastic as they were before? And what if the ELF was to set up shop in NZ and monkeywrench Marsden B?
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Steve: the Samoa subsidy is from this year 2009
Your items are from around '06. Airlines got put through the ringer with high fuel prices in 2008, and are now being smacked by the recession. 3 years is a long time.
The Samoa subsidy is for one year to help Samoa assess what their next move is
http://www.samoaobserver.ws/index.php?id=4123&option=com_content&Itemid=62
The agreement was the result of a request by Samoa to New Zealand for assistance, the Prime Minister said.
The agreement signed this week would give one further year of life to Air New Zealand’s LA/Apia/Tonga/Auckland weekly flight.
This link to the United States is “very important” to the tourism industries of Samoa and Tonga, Prime Minister Tuilaepa said.Late last year, Air New Zealand asked both countries to provide a subsidy of $NZ4.8 million (T$9m) each to keep the service going.
Both countries objected.Tuilaepa said the year ahead would be used to assess all aspects of the route including determining whether or not Air New Zealand was truly making a loss.
It also gives Samoa time to consider what the “fall back options” might be, he said.
“If the flight is a loss, then it shouldn’t be continued,” Tuilaepa said.
“As is known other possibilities are being discussed.
“Like diverting the Air Pacific flight to Samoa and then head to America. -
Like for instance, if President Obama & Ron Kirk agree to an FTA with NZ, on the condition that NZ sings up to an ETS.
ETS beget carbon leakage and that increases pollution. An ETS is a highly regressive tax of no discernible benefit.
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McCully's moves would seem to change NZAID's way of working to be closer to the model of AusAID, which declares an aim doing its work in line with Australia's national interest.
the changes do raise the possibility of foreign policy having undue influence on where and on what aid goes, to the detriment of things like the relationships between NZ and recipient countries and implementing NGOs and the communities in which they work. It also may lead to aid becoming commercialised if the money is going to NZ services or goods (like AirNZ flights), or the militarisation of aid if humanitarian action is done at service of making the work of the NZ military (or police) more popular - such as the army building clinics in order to win the 'hearts and minds'.
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Has anyone seen my kitten?
You better hope he's not huffing it. It may be too late.
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Which is a shame - you should be paid for that stuff!
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I did a detailed survey of the academic literature (~700 papers) on NZ's relations with the Pacific a few weeks ago, and it's come in handy.
McCully just doesn't seem to get it.
Not only would politicising aid mean less chance to tackle the causes of suffering, but it is also bad politics.
Murray McCully does not seem to realise, but the Pacific Island states feel bullied already by some of the actions of New Zealand and Australia, and advice from these countries on how to conduct their affairs has come in way that has been seen more as a directive than as friendly help. Thankfully, MFAT, Goff and Clark have realised this, and have mainly applied a softer hand, excepting Fiji’s regime.
The rhetoric that McCully is spouting about being able to force Pacific hands on issues by using aid as a blunt instrument is quite disturbing. Pacific nations aren’t likely to respond well to this kind of approach, from the academic literature I’ve read that examines how these countries actually feel about NZ and Australia’s role in the Pacific. McCully seems to have no idea that NZ’s position in the Pacific comes as much from relationships and it’s Pacific immigrant community as it does from being a regional power. These are smart and proud people, and deserve our respect.
To do otherwise is cede the Pacific to China, which is greatly increasing its aid delivery (and Taiwan to a lesser extent), and is doing so in ways that leaders of these countries are quite comfortable with. Tonga, for example, is now well out of the sway of New Zealand, despite longstanding ties - which they're entitled to of course, but it is only with careful work
I've just realised however, perhaps this is what McCully wants; a China like approach, designed to fatten the wallets of politicians and introduce long-term corruption and instability, in an attempt for short-term favour. Is he really in favour of such an approach?
Perhaps they think that they can have the best of both worlds, in a savvy politically aware MFAT that curries favour and influence while bringing up economies. I'm sure that in his minds eye there is a coherent vision of what NZ's aid contribution should be. That it doesn't seem to match what development practitioners have to say, or that there has been absolutely no attempt at consultation speaks that it probably has no resemblance to what works.
It is also a bad move politically in the rest of the world. NZ’s aid goes to a large number of countries. NZ’s contribution to Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest country, is not huge, being around $14 million, and directed to a small number of programs, but I know that it is noticed and appreciated. Developing countries are by their nature growing in economic terms, and growing in influence. Aid forms an important part of bilateral relations, and to lose this in order to try and shape the Pacific is an incredibly shortsighted and naive.
Unless they're planning to increase the aid budget substantially... let me know when that happens, will you?
Not only will these changes have harmful effects to alleviating suffering if they come about, they are likely to harm rather than help McCully’s vision of a New Zealand with regional clout. And that is doubly stupid.
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It is only with careful work... and respect that this relationship can be rebuilt.
My 'just realised' got in the way of that sentence.
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Guardian provides API to open up its content for re-use.
Like, for instance, adding a killfile facility to Comment Is Free?
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Just in, I notice that John key, in rejecting the idea of a shorter working week, states:
"It is not my ambition to turn New Zealand into France,"
I don't see why not? Contrary to one of the big lies of the right, France is a wealthy country with good wages, working conditions and welfare benefits. Not to mention taking less of a hit from the crash than the Anglo-Saxon economies.
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France is a wealthy country with good wages, working conditions and welfare benefits.
And cheese. Honestly I cannot get over how average-to-awful cheese is in New Zealand.
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I don't see why not? Contrary to one of the big lies of the right, France is a wealthy country with good wages, working conditions and welfare benefits. Not to mention taking less of a hit from the crash than the Anglo-Saxon economies.
Quite. Not perfect, mind, but we could get policy ideas from outside the Anglosphere just occasionally.
And we'd have good cheese. We already have the wine.
This is one of my pet grievances, actually. I'm a vegan, so don't eat any, but it makes me doubly disturbed to see all that suffering by cows go to waste. Why can't we make cheese, instead of sending it all overseas as low value dairy solids?
Anyway, this is why the English (and by extension, NZ) had such bad food until very recently. It's been around a few times, it might have been here.
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Giovanni, absolutely. The problem was the monopoly New Zealand Dairy Board, and now the problem seems to be Fonterra.
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And cheese. Honestly I cannot get over how average-to-awful cheese is in New Zealand.
Pardon me? You do realize it's the de facto national currency, right? Clearly you haven't encountered the tasteless orange rubber (occasionally tasteless yellow rubber) that passes for cheese in North America. Kiwi cheese is a beautiful memory.
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And cheese. Honestly I cannot get over how average-to-awful cheese is in New Zealand.
Exactly. Most cheese here is tasteless rubbish. For a country with such a big dairy industry it's such a pity.
Remembering the outstanding cheeses from all over the UK and Europe that I used to get in Borough Market, I long for the day when the Wellington sunday markets have local micro producers' cheeses, preferably with some flavour to them.
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@ Sof
Yeah, similar thoughts went through my head with the systematic undoing of Winston. It felt like Winston was the real threat to National and we know what Winston thought of National, so KAPOW, BANG!IMO
Yeah, although I always thought that Winston was more of a smug pr*ck. McCully I find truly venal.
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Quite a good week then for the producers of
Diplomatic Immunity to air their first episode. David Fane was excellent.
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