Posts by Tinakori
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"And, in this case, there’s evidence emerging that lots of the trials didn’t work."
I think something was announced in the social welfare area recently in which four or five teams or projects were extended and three or four were discontinued because they weren't working or showing value for money.
I'd be careful of criticising working/not working too much. Without the ability to try new things you can develop nothing innovative and without the freedom to fail you become far too cautious. Governments of any stripe - whether led by John Key or or Winston Peters (just kidding, Rob) - need that ability to try new things and learn from them or we don't make any progress.
"“social investment,” partly as a way of cloaking some poor policy choices with the label of some good policy choices."
This is no more Orwellian than renaming the Ministry of Social Welfare the Ministry of Social Development.
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Housing stories are also a trap for journalists who don't have their bullshit detectors turned up to the highest setting. The last time there was this level of unrest around housing - when the market rents policy operated in the 90s - there were a couple of pretty significant own goals by journalists covering cases of apparent overcrowding which turned out to be way over hyped by advocacy groups and then swallowed hook line and sinker by gullible journalists or, in the case of the Holmes Show, were too good to be checked. The first was covered in a lengthy article in Metro and the second led to a complaint upheld by the BSA and a Holmes on-air apology, As always, an excellent rule for a journalist is to apply the same standards you might apply to the utterances of a politician to your sources when they come bearing gifts. That applies especially if the gift is a wonderful story. That doesn't mean the basic premise of the housing issue is incorrect but if a story personifies the wider issue perfectly then any qualifying content that doesn't fit has probably been journalistically photoshopped right out of the picture. Families and their needs don't fit into perfect political boxes and life is messy. That shouldn't deter a journalist from doing their job properly and fully reflecting that reality. John Campbell's cartoonish sense of reality has always been his achilles heel.
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I think too many people are taking the "research" angle of the Kiwimeter at face value. It surely is a simple promotional device for TVNZ and and any research value is very much a distant secondary priority. I bet the whole special treatment for Maori question is intentionally designed to provoke the reaction it has received. That's marketing not research. False forced choices never appeal in questionnaires of any kind.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Russell Brown,
"They really look like Young Nats."
Yes, of course, they must have been. Just like the people in the crowded beer hall during the 2014 election chanting Fuck John Key to a PM of Jewish descent at the urging of a German agitator . Agent provocateurs, of course. As, no doubt, was the jackass who wrote the song about abusing Stephie Key.
Glass houses --- stones, etc
There's a real danger that when your political allegiance becomes too large a part of your personal identity your ability to think clearly declines.
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Yep, I thought it was Springsteen too. Actual post unintentionally amusing. Rob has to be careful he doesn't become the Obadiah Slope of the Labour Party.
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Graeme's post is a classic example of berating our ancestors for not having the same world views that we do. One of my uncles was a Maori Warden in Gisborne in the late 50s and 60s. He and his colleagues would go into the pubs on paydays and try and get people to move on when they looked like drinking the week's wages in one night. Sometimes, when reason did not work they would apply force and eject the drinker or drinkers. In extreme cases, when the drinkers had also bought large quantities of alcohol to take away they would break bottles of beer and whiskey in the gutter to encourage sobriety, a very militant Maori version of the Salvation Army. Some of this could be carried out under the terms of the Act and some would not be sanctioned by it at all. The backlash from the drinkers was minimal because my uncle and his colleagues were highly respected in their community. Some but by no means all were pretty tough too. This period was during the full flood of the Maori urban migration and I suspect - but do not know - the Act was a way of allowing Maori to take some control over the impact of this large transfer of people and complete integration of Maori into the cash economy when management of wages was at a premium because people in town could not fall back on their own gardens or fishing to feed themselves and their families if they had spent all their money at the pub.
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Polity: Cold, calculated and cynical, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Just a thought, but somehow I don't think trying to paint John Key as a rich white settler is going to fit with either reality and/or strike the wider population of any ethnicity or class background as correct. As a self-described 6th generation NZer you fit the settler part of that profile rather more accurately.
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Polity: TPP, eh?, in reply to Sacha,
And why would it be clownery when he used to lead the team of professional negotiators for NZ under a Labour government? Did declaring a political allegiance and acting on it suddenly tip him into the incompetent basket?
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"That said we all need to thank Australia for fighting the battle over drugs that Grosser neither cared about nor had the clout to win."
Just a thought, but perhaps he was fully aware of what the Australian position was and what they were going to do and backed it, reducing the need for NZ to put as much effort into this area as others. Specialisation and the division of labour probably work just as well in multi-lateral trade negotiations as in the rest of the world.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Sacha,
Perhaps a reporter should ask the Aunties or Tuku if they (or any entity associated with them or nominated by them() have received anything or will receive anything in return for supporting (or following their support for, M'lud) Chris Brown's entry.