Posts by dc_red
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Excepting, presumably, Fonterra, Telecom, Aventis, ANZ, Solar Turbines, Tertra Pak and Toyota, who all choose the same five-star luxury lodge in Taupo as the "APN team" does.
Tane at The Standard got some costings. Conclusion? HNZC couldn't have got even a basic hotel and venue much cheaper than they got the lodge.
Good work there, but to paraphrase Winston Churchill, 'the lie is half way around the world before the truth gets its pants on.'
And then there's the obscene cost of some 3rd party conferences, typically held in dark, shitty, overly-air conditioned "ballrooms" (read: bunkers) in nondescript international hotel chains.
The per day registration fee alone can be approximate to the fee including food and accom. at HNZC's considerably more pleasant Taupo venue.
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Appreciative as I am of the absolute bliss of being awake and creative while everyone else is asleep, I'm a little worried that on this schedule you're going to come home, sack some miners, impose a poll tax, and demolish the welfare state.
To which, of course, a midwife would reply: "all perfectly normal."
On the topic of eels and pigs, one would think babies would be more appreciative of being changed. Especially bad ones, whose parents might readily be tempted to say: "well, fine, then, have it your way"?
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But the same staff could go to a third-party conference or seminar in Wellington costing twice that and no one would bat an eyelid. It's not about the cost, really.
Indeed, I attended a conference in downtown Auckland last year that was $550 for two days, and that didn't include dinners, transport, or accommodation.
As a 'local', I covered my own transport costs ($6.50 on the bus each way), and went home overnight.
But those who flew in from Wellington, Christchurch, etc. must have spent well in excess of $345/day.
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And how cheap would a conference have to be to avoid a huge front-page headline in the New Zealand Herald reading Luxury for state house staff?
There's the rub.
$65,000 / 94 people / 2 days = $345 per person per day.
I'd put that in the "neither excessive nor especially budget-conscious" category for the public service?
Perhaps the choice of venue wasn't the wisest?
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Surely leather jackets have been associated with gangs and gang culture in NZ for a lot longer than hoodies? Some serious gangs too, not just wannabe teen posers? I remember a pool hall out west that banned wearing leather jackets on its premises for those sorts of reasons.
Context is critical ... as Morgan suggests.
There is surely no strong association between hoodies, gangs, and "undesirable bits of black American sub-culture" in New Zealand?
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So, in quick summary then:
1/ Hoodies not only worn by yoof, but by plenty of others who want functional winter sweatshirt
2/ Hooded yoof a broad group, not just vaguely sinister brown ones sporting dark glasses a la TV3 story.
3/ No established correlation between hoodedness in yoof and "kicking up one's heels" (whatever that means in this context).
4/ Ron Mark should probably stick to first aid, and Peachey should probably stick to ... well, reminiscing about the good ole days of bulk funding?
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Key was a mess last night, simultaneously claiming "these tax cuts are too little too late" and "these tax cuts will offer some people more than $50/week ... outrageous!"
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If I'm thinking of the same Morning Report feedback, I think the point was that "people who are prone to whining in New Zealand should remember there are many people worse off in the world than they are." Which is a reasonable point to make from time to time.
In any case, crazed and inaccurate rhetoric can be found on the other side of the spectrum, case in point the NZ Herald's Your Views section.
See comments along the lines of "I earn $80k a year and this budget will make me worse off!"
Right, and the moon is made of Swiss cheese, I hear.
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Paul C - would you buy a used car from this man? ;-)
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Thanks Kyle, I feel we're on to something here:
1/ Media frantic at revelation election might not return sitting government
2/ Media frantic at suggestion that one day HC might step down and someone else will have to lead Labour Party
Therefore, to reduce media anxiety, do away with free elections and make Helen Clark leader for life. One can only presume this is what they want.
Plus it would be kind of fun to see Ralston, O'Sullivan, Darth and friends go apoplectic, while Guyon and Duncan gleefully(?) report that "Labour has won the game and we can retire happy".