Politics and Prose

Furthermore, Clark looked truly ghoulish in the House, with almost a touch of vampirism.  Obviously her advisors/PR consultants tried to make her look trendy and ‘vote-able’ but she looked pretty scary.  With all this talk of October, maybe she thought it was Halloween because there really is no excuse for that look.  Usually she looks quite good, but in a manner to the Budget that was being released around her, she looked patchy and unnatural.

You have to admit though, you can definitely see the passion in Clark; a stark contrast to Cullen who looks ready to give up.  Or was that Goff?

Budget Day!

I’ve been told that Budget Day is very much a politician’s “Rex Manning Day” and so, in the sprit of Budget Day I have provided a brief outline on what Cullen’s ninth Budget contains and then commentary on it (as there is much to be said).

$11.7 billion Tax Cuts, Families Package

Budget 2008 delivers a three-year package of personal tax cuts for all workers, using cuts in tax rates and lifts in thresholds, costing $10.6 billion. Working for Families gets a further$1.1 billion while after-tax payments for NZ Superannuation rise for all superanniutants.

$500 million for Broadband

Cunliffe has (finally) released his broadband policy and it’s in typical Labour form.  The Broadband Investment Fund will allot $500 million as a five-year ‘down payment’ on fast broadband to the home.

Housing Boost

Wellington City Council gets $220 million over 10-15 years to modernise its affordable rental housing stock.  Auckland gets $37.8 million over three years for the Hobsonville development and gets an additional $5.1 million for operational funding.

Transport

In addition to the ferry and railway buy backs earlier this month, there is an additional $33.5 million for the first stages of the Canterbury Transport Regional Implementation Plan and $30 million over three years for Northland and Tairawhiti.  That takes the total spending on transport to about $10 billion over four years.

Students

Tertiary education institutes will get an additional $155 million (covering approx 17 000 students) over four years. The Government has decided to lift the parental income threshold for student allowance by a measly 10% (which is pitiful) affecting about 12 000 students (which is also pitiful). Also, as part of UF-Labour agreement, there has also been a drop in the age limit for students wanting student allowance to 24 which will affect about 5000 students.  Student allowances will only increase by an extra $5 a week – so don’t spend it all at once.  I know AUSA is annoyed at this and I’m sure other student bodies will be too.  It’s next to nothing and why bother with lowering the age limit by one year when, if you apply the same logic, it should be moved to 21.

Health

An extra $3 billion for health over four years, including $164 million for the cervical cancer vaccine and $160 million for extra elective surgeries.  The DHBs will be loving the Govt right now, as their pockets bulge with even more money they can waste.

Infrastructure

Operating OnTrack and maintaining the Cullen’s new rail network will cost nearly $100 million as part of a $170 million plus boost to infrastructure.  There have also been increases in funding for shipping initiatives.

I was hoping for a big, knock-your-socks-off Budget from Cullen, but all we got was a dreary, hypocritical Budget full of rhetoric and empty promises.  Cullen has (surprise, surprise) funded tax cuts which was expected but hypocritical nonetheless.  He has gone against every bone in his body in order to give out tax cuts and they’re pathetic to say the least.   He has moved the date of implementation to 1 October of this year, just so that there will be enough time for voters to have a bit of extra tax relief in their pockets before they approach the ballot.  Its political manoeuvring and while political scientists may be drooling at its simplicity, it doesn’t do much for New Zealanders.

It’s probably one of the most political Budgets I’ve ever seen.  Its also hypocritical that for 8 years Cullen has argued against tax cuts all the while sitting on a huge surplus, and then miraculously decides its time for tax cuts when the surplus is almost all up.  It’s odd and not nearly as cunning as one might expect from the might Cullen.

I was expecting something more from Cullen as there are no big initiatives that will help Labour in November (which is when the election will be), even though Labour will pretend that there are.  No voters will be brought over by this, not even the swingers.  Labour needed a biggie and they got a flopper. 

This truly was Cullen’s valedictory Budget (and thank God for that!)

A change of government won’t come soon enough.

Anyone watching Oral Questions in the House today will surely have noticed that the House was relatively empty of Ministers in charge of recent government botch-ups. The Prime Minister, the Minister responsible for Climate Change, the Minster of State Services and the Minister for Immigration were all absent from the House.  None of them were present to be accountable for issues that the electorate want answers on.

Rest assured: hot and embarrassing election issues taking their toll on heckled Ministers is not among the reasons why there are so many vacant seats.  They’re probably off sick.

Yes, we know, how convenient…

In celebration of Israel’s highly praised 60th anniversary, the Dominion Post has featured a fantastic piece in today’s (14 May) newspaper titled “The 60-year divide” from Abraham “Boolie” Yehoshua – a famous, and highly acclaimed (though occasionally controversial) novelist and essayist.

I recommend reading it.

Senior Immigration Service executive Mary Anne Thompson has resigned, bowing to pressure in light of an investigation by the State Services Commission into her meddling in visa applications for family members.

“In the interests of the Department and the wider public service, Ms Thompson has decided to resign from her position” - Chief Executive of the Department of Labour, Christopher Blake.

From personal experience, Thompson has been nothing short of a loose cannon for Immigration New Zealand and the Department of Labour, causing headaches for pretty much everyone on the payroll.  She has no real expertise in the area and her appointment has been wildly criticised as a phenomenal mistake.

Lockwood Smith MP, who similarly headed the onslaught against Taito Phillip Field’s corruption (which has since seen him in court), should be congratulated for his ruthless effort to discover what Thompson had been up to.  He will be a fine Immigration Minister if National wins later this year.

No doubt she will get a lovely golden handshake too.

Cullen has cemented his legacy as one of the meanest Finance Minister’s in New Zealand ’s political history.  He has brought himself an expensive train set at $665 million, while backing down on his tax cuts, promising a ‘tax-cut for everyone’.

Typical Labour: continue to spend vast amounts of tax-payers money as if it’s come from the pot of gold from under the rainbow, and then refuse to relieve the financial stress hitting New Zealanders hard in the pocket as food and petrol costs, high interest rates and high taxes continue to punish.

Labour continues to show they are out-of-touch and out-of-their-minds.

This can only mean a re-hash of the “Chewing Gum” tax cuts in 2005 (and remember they were cancelled after a while).  Great.  It’ll be good for Cullen and his surplus, bad for everyone else.

The International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) today released the names of over 500 endorsers of the Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change that calls on world leaders to “reject the views expressed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as popular, but misguided works such as “An Inconvenient Truth”. Included in the endorser list are world leading climate scientists, economists, policymakers, engineers, business leaders, medical doctors, as well as other professionals and concerned citizens from two dozen countries. 

The most important among the declaration’s many assertions is: that “there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity have in the past, are now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change.”

Among the signatures is 152 climate science specialists or scientists in closely related fields.

Interestingly, five of these 500 signatures are New Zealand scientists who have been outraged that their research has been used against climate change and not for it as it was intended.  Their belief is that their research (which actually shows global temperatures are dropping) should be used to promote their cause, and not to make stands against it.  This is surely a case of making the science fit the ideology and is a sad day for New Zealand scientists.

One of the greatest ‘attributes’ of science is its ability to rise above ideology and stand on its own.  However, the fiasco of climate change has allowed brilliant scientists to manipulate their work to show their work as pro-GW and not just purely scientific (as it should be).  If anything, this only clouds people’s judgements and makes them even more sceptical; making convincing people of GW even harder as suspicions about the integrity of GW studies grows.

Reports presented to the UN show that scientists are reluctant to appear anti-GW as it has an ability to affect their funding – the IPCC has actively persecuted scientists, journalists and economists (among other) who have opposed their ideals of man-made GW, and done everything they can to shut down their work.

If GW is happening as the IPCC and others say, then why is there this disgraceful fear of differing opinions and a world-wide crackdown on what is being called ’scientific dissent’?

There appears to be a movement worldwide of growing suspicion towards climate change and global warming (GW); a phenomenon unheard of two years ago during the height of Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. 

I, for one, warmly welcome it: a sensible debate on climate change can only be a good thing for the world (and its climate).