Posts by George Darroch
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Increased pay rates will only lead to better outcomes, if a significant number of teachers have been sitting around doing a half-decent job because their pay is so bad, and now that they've got back up to something that they consider 'reasonable', all of a sudden they're going to work harder.
Which is at least in part true. But what about all those who leave the teaching profession for better paid work, because for the same hours and effort they could be holding a better paid job elsewhere, or a similarly paid job with less stress and demands. And there are those who wouldn't consider entering teaching because of the low pay and status accorded (I'd posibly consider myself in this category)
Those who stay in teaching generally seem to do it for the love, which is no bad thing. However, I have no doubt we could attract more skilled individuals with better pay - and by giving teachers more respect (which probably isn't as obviously addressed).
-
Can we keep a Government consisting of Green/Maori/NZF/Labour (any of those 4 would do) in long enough to see a continued rise in the real value of wages? Please?
Could we elect a Government that actually gives a shit about child poverty? Instead of one that waves away reports from their own departments as if the problem did not exist?
Danyl, I wish you luck if you move over here. One thing that's become frustratingly clear to me in my time in Australia is how New Zealand could be the best country in the world, if only we didn't keep keep f'ing things up.
Queen of Thorn's reminder of how backwards New Zealand is in so many respects is worth reading. When I explain to European friends that New Zealand has high levels of tuberculous they are incredulous, and think I’ve confused diseases…
If we get the wrong Government after this election, I'm moving to Denmark.
-
I expect comparisons to Mugabe from the comments section of Kiwiblog.
OTOH, this explains who RedBaiter is... mystery solved.
-
How dare English compare New Zealand to Zimbabwe.
New Zealand is one of the freest countries in the world, as measured by Freedom House, Reporters Sans Frontieres, and The Economist.
Freedom in the world
World Press Freedom
Economist 's democracy index (PDF)Bill English wouldn't know freedom if it pissed on him.
-
The Maori Party delivers a take on the budget that makes more sense than all the noise I'm hearing in the papers and airwaves.
-
Answer: winning is everything.
-
Question: do cuts to benefits (unmoved, inflation adjusted, since the Richardson budget of 1991), while cutting taxes for the rich, constitute a successful Labour Government budget?
-
From SAFE's website:
[the] code of welfare for layer hens was found to be in breach of the Animal Welfare Act by Parliament's Regulations Review Committee (RRC). The RRC released a 41-page report following an investigation into a joint complaint made by the Animal Rights Legal Advocacy Network, Campaign Against Factory Farming and SAFE. The RRC rejected the code and made specific recommendations to the Minster of Agriculture in order to address their concerns. The code was written by the Minister's own appointed advisory group, the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC).
The RRC was also right to condemn the inappropriate use of the clause ‘exceptional circumstances' that ultimately allowed the continued use of battery cages within the code. The RRC has recommended the code be rewritten and a phase-out of battery cages be introducedand
Since the RRC announcement, the Minister of Agriculture Jim Anderton has decided to ignore the recommendations in favour of the industry. Anderton has refused to introduce a phase-out date for cages and continues to hide behind calls for more research.
You'd be hard pressed to find a Government department as 'captured' by the industry it supposedly regulates as MAF (on this and a host of other issues). I have no problem with ministries supporting industry. I have problems when the minister and the ministry actively help that industry break the law - especially when that law breaking condemns millions of animals to a life of suffering.
Animal owners who own domestic animals or livestock and treat them in the same way are prosecuted. MAF make a habit of not inspecting, and only prosecute pig and chicken farmers for egregious violations, and even then will often decline to prosecute. If you kept a cat or a dog (of less intelligence than a pig, btw) in the same conditions, I'd guarantee you'd be prosecuted in court.
This government is high and mighty about whaling, but doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to cruelty to animals. Anderton and MAF are ignore public opinion, science and the law, because it suits them and they can get away with it.
-
The Herald should hang its head in shame and do some real good for the pigs in this country - get Anderton or anyone with power to phase out crates.
Anderton is one of the main reasons pigs are still in tiny cages - like Sutton before him, he's stood in the way of having MAF and other government agencies enforce the current animal welfare legislation, which even he acknowledges makes battery farming illegal. Instead he's called for more domestic research, waving aside extensive overseas research as if New Zealand pigs are somehow different to European pigs....
-
Far be it from me to give Labour any free campaign advice, but they're really going to have to do a little better than Irradiated Rogergnomes Under The Bed.
I suspect however the Labour Party try to paint their opposition, they'll get little traction with the media.
I'm feeling a sense of deja vu here, as all through 2005 National got a free run from the MSM on not revealing policy, and not having some pretty flimsy policies examined or challenged. Although, keeping policies up your sleeve like cards, and then playing them at the most electorally opportune moment is how "the game" of politics is supposed to be run, isn't it?
Far be from me to suggest that those presenting themselves as the next government tell us what they actually intend to do. That's conspiracy talk!