Posts by Julie Fairey
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Actually Thomas you can't make additional tax payments, and I think we've had this argument here before, probably more than once. Mr Morgan has structured his financial affairs in such a way to dramatically minimise his tax liability and he can structure them differently to pay more tax. But most people, who are on PAYE, don't have that flexibility.
-
Ok, getting v depressed about the early childhood stuff now, which is basically a major blow to the sector as it means an end to funding incentives for services to have a high proportion of registered teachers (a key driver of quality).
Can't bear to look at the other education stuff.
-
Thanks for this Keith, sadly it seems to be truncated?!!!
The tax cuts will mean more in my pocket on pay day, but the GST increase and the other increases in user charges will likely mean at best it's neutral for my family, although I'm personally in the top tax bracket. Frankly I'd much rather have a progressive tax system. I'd be quite happy to pay more tax.
I'm hanging out for info on the education stuff...
-
I wonder what was happening two years ago that prompted the start of the undercover work? (This is not a rhetorical question).
-
Farrar's response that Grant Robertson wrote about Steven Joyce texting at a ribbon-cutting ceremony isn't really comparing apples with apples.
Chauvel was on a plane in a private capacity (albeit at the cost of the taxpayer). He may have acted unwisely (don't know, haven't seen the media about it yet), but it's clear he did so off his own bat, as an individual, not in any role in which he was actually representing anyone else, like, say, the Government. Because he is an MP perceptions that he behaved badly, be they fair or unfair, do impact on public opinion about him, his party, and probably MPs in general. That's just the way it is for MPs, but they are human beings so sometimes they do human stuff.
Joyce however was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in full Ministerial glory. They even had to delay the ribbon-cutting in question because of his phone calls.
And Robertson's post was based on a story from the Taranaki Daily News, who were present at the event, not retelling, for a wider audience, a blog post from an ACT member with an axe to grind.
So saying "I can do it because someone on your side did it too" is pretty disingenuous in this set of circumstances imho.
-
Graeme, given that Hide also said that there was absolutely no intention to use the supercity stuff in Auckland as a template for other amalgamations, I think we can assume he meant the Auckland CCOs.
Although he did go on a bit about the CCOs already operating in Akl and how wonderful they are, even stating that Bob Harvey had given a speech about their wonderfulness last week.
Which brings me back to the point that we are all calling these new organisations CCOs when in fact they are not. The crucial second C, "controlled", has no relation to the first, "council", in the model they are adopting in Auckland.
They're CCOs, Jim, but not as we know them.
So perhaps we shoudl bloody well call them something else!
-
I heard that too Russell and couldn't believe he had the gall. What drugs are they on, on Planet Cabinet, that they think that people won't notice that they are appointing all the CCO people directly from the Beehive?
-
Is this going to be a secret like the secret plan to end whaling? You know, the one that turned out to be let's stop illegal whaling by making whaling legal.
-
I guess part of the complacency of Key and Hide must come from the fact that the Govt's polling, particularly National's, is pretty much holding up. They must be having quiet corridor conversations along the lines of "I can't believe we still haven't taken a hit from this, it's like there's something in the water up there in Auckland, hang on, that's a good idea, how about we put something in the water once it's controlled from Wellington?"
(That's an attempt at light humour there about putting something in the water btw, I'm not quite that paranoid. Yet.)
There is a great disconnect going on, and why should Key et al change their approach or policy on any of this stuff until the polls show they need to?
To take a nationwide example - there is quite a level of pissedoffedness out there about the GST increase. But it's like people don't get that National and Act are in power now. There seems to be no blame sticking to them for this, or for other unpopular changes like the night school cuts.
Plus I suspect their focus group work is also telling them not to divert. This may partly be because they are asking the wrong questions. For example on National Stds the polling the govt was doing was around asking people if parents should get better reporting about their kids. It's a motherhood and apple pie question and of course it got a positive response. But it actually wasn't a question about National Standards itself, and so now other polling is coming out showing concerns about the policy.
Anyway I don't really want to get into a debate about natioanl standards (in fact I can't). Just an example that I'm aware of, I'm sure there are others.
-
The Aucklander has been reporting, in a concerned manner, and including dozens of interviews from people from all over the Auckland region, for months. I think that deserves to be acknowledged, just as it is acknowledged that many of the other print outlets have been slower to bother following up on the outrage out there in many communities.
I do have a sense that it is too late to shift the Govt on this. Rodney is in charge and he has made it very clear that he's not for turning. How Key could now manage to change the outcome of this, and keep his coalition partner, I can't see.