She's a bit of a heifer - But I think I love Paula Bennett

[avgas]

Paula Bennett's new proposal won't actually change anything either. She plans to spend $88 mill now to save a possible $10mill a year - if the scheme works. Which it most likely won't. It may catch a few bludgers out, but the admin costs of finding them is going to outweigh the financial benefits to the tax payer in stopping their dole. However, it gives National voters the impression that they're doing something about bludgers, because National voters hate bludgers.

Ah cool for clearing that up.
However to play a bit of devils advocate here - what if it worked.
If I told you I could design a motor that ran on water instead of gas, but it would cost you 10 times the amount it costs you for gas per year......for say 10 years.........but then you wouldn't have to pay anything......
would you do it?
FYI I think she is a fat cow - and as intelligent as one. But doesn't mean the idea is complete rubbish.

[saxet]

Who gives a fuck about a report??

Fuck - they were advertising on Trademe telling people how to 'max' there benefits to get over 1k per week. Bennet did a public service.

labour lefties - who happily ignore reports, police, and courts and still wont say anything bad about a MP who abused his position and is now in jail (Field) - yet are up in arms about this.

Same lefties ignore the report that Bill English was cleared - yet still go on re Double Dipton.

Cant have it both ways - it just makes you look like fools.

ps - you want a fun report - just wait to you see what comes out of the Credit card OIA request - word on the grapevine is that there are a lot of very unhappy labour members. Shades of the UK scandal coming me thinks.

That just highlights the fact that all sides are corrupt as hell and nothing in the world is going to change until people start to uphold the standards they expect others to uphold.

[mashman]

Sorry for jacking Mr Devil sir...

However to play a bit of devils advocate here - what if it worked.

Apart from checking the sky for flying pigs... seals being broken... and looking for the second coming... I'd applaud the government for knowing the people well enough to be able to get them into work.

If I told you I could design a motor that ran on water instead of gas, but it would cost you 10 times the amount it costs you for gas per year......for say 10 years.........but then you wouldn't have to pay anything......
would you do it?

Yes, i'd take it in a heartbeat. Someone has to cover the R & D costs... and at least it actually becomes free.

[Scorp]

I think the problem really is that there is a cohort of people at the bottom of the social pyramid who don't know anything different. Third generation kids who have grown up in beneficiary families, low self esteem, school failures, and they can't see a place for themselves in our society.

I think that's bang on. But very few voters are aware that pyramid even exists. A social and economic pyramid. And even fewer appreciate that it's mathematically impossible for those on the bottom tier to pull themselves up to the one above without even more people being pushed down to the bottom underneath them. For every one that climbs, two slip back down. You can rearrange the contents of the pyramid, but there will always be that bottom tier.

Unless of course, you flatten it until virtually everyone is on the same level... uh, oh! I hear the sound of marching boots. Better not go there!

The work ethic has gone.

The work ethic is quite possibly over-rated. Society is full of hard working wage slaves who hate their jobs, produce nothing but paperwork, and don't actually contribute very much to GDP or society.

Simply working nine-to-five because you get paid to sit in an office and shuffle paper is not in itself a particularly worthy social accomplishment. My apologies to anyone who does this for a living... been there myself.

In fact many people work in industries that import foreign goods and services thereby exporting GDP. In this regard, a life long bludger could be seen as less of a drain on the economy than someone who imports and distributes overseas manufactured products.

I'm not for a moment advocating that bludging is okay, just that valuing work simply for work's sake doesn't really add up either. The social value of the work in question should also be considered. For example, to my mind, a nurse should be paid more than an advertising executive. Builders should be paid more than stockbrokers. And people who grow food should be paid more than the supermarket buyers who squeeze a profit out of it.

Bludgers are certainly useless to society. But so are people who package, market and sell bottled water for a living.

[Scorp]

However to play a bit of devils advocate here - what if it worked.

As I said earlier. The last thing National want is for it to actually work. If it does, it will increase competition for lower paid jobs, which are currently in short supply anyway. The result would be a buyers' market in which wages will fall, and existing employees are let go in favour of cheaper ones. Without creating new jobs, this scheme will make low paid jobs even lower paid, and put currently employed people on the dole. Therefore the unemployment level would remain the same. This would not be very popular among voters. That's why I believe it's a scheme designed to appeal to prejudice, not one that's supposed to actually work. Although I'll happily post back here and admit I'm wrong if it does work.

[Winston001]

There is no such thing as a social pyramid. Unless of course you are really classifying and pyramidifying people against the amount of money they have?

Did you ever stop to think that the people who aren't working are still happy people and are happy for their life to continue in such a way? It's not all doom and gloom when you have no money ya know... And as for identifying families... that's just patronising.

Interesting post. To the extent that we are all born equal I agree there is no pyramid but I think most people accept it exists. You yourself have advocated taxing people with higher incomes "because they can afford it". So please don't pretend you don't care about the differing wealth strata of society.

I fully agree that money does not equal happiness. Indeed the happiest and most decent people I've met have been in third world countries. However in terms of the work ethic I'm thinking of Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. Work provides self esteem in the sense of belonging to greater society as well as the social benefits of being with other people. We all need to feel useful, valued, and respected, work is not just about wages. Being on a benefit provides an income but none of the other needs.

As for being patronising - I volunteer with a charity which identifies families who want to own their own home. If that's patronising so be it. I think its a hand up instead of a handout.

[mashman]

You yourself have advocated taxing people with higher incomes "because they can afford it". So please don't pretend you don't care about the differing wealth strata of society.

I'm not pretending, but I am being proactive (in the context of a financial economy, I have to be a realist about life) in my approach to evening out the distribution of wealth and the attaining of more wealth through taxation, from those who can afford it, seems like a very sensible option to me... no?

We all pay tax, some of us pay less through structuring, to me morally immoral, but hey, they've earned it... all round pats on the backs for those profiteering off the backs of others!

I fully agree that money does not equal happiness. Indeed the happiest and most decent people I've met have been in third world countries. However in terms of the work ethic I'm thinking of Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. Work provides self esteem in the sense of belonging to greater society as well as the social benefits of being with other people. We all need to feel useful, valued, and respected, work is not just about wages. Being on a benefit provides an income but none of the other needs.

No, that's what some people believe... Work does not provide me with self esteem... whereas advertising and marketing might... if I believed the hype... and the Maslow theory (flash back to behavioural science), for me, is a crock... it's upside down and I believe it works that way because money is the overriding influence in most people lives... and for me the FACT remains that money is the root cause of most problems these days, or the lack of it should I say... go as them boys at NASA, they've just had theirs taken away, so they can't innovate anymore in their area... who does that benefit? Why was the defence budget not slashed instead? Because they think they can make more money from war ha ha ha... money, it's a gas...

As for being patronising - I volunteer with a charity which identifies families who want to own their own home. If that's patronising so be it. I think its a hand up instead of a handout.

Good on ya man. nothing wrong with helping someone that wants to be helped... otherwise it's patronising as you're trying to tell people how to live their life...

[ynot slow]

As a been there done that(twice) it isn't much of a change.
First time I was on sickness then onto invalids due to the nice cancer bug.Back at work after chemo and radiation after 8 months,believe me I'd be better off having a car crash(no bike then)or break of leg from sport and enjoying ACC.
Last year my job was a maternity position and she came back to work(after I was told she was 80/20 to stay off for at least 12mths,then went onto unemployment and all the particular meetings with it,eye opener for sure,why employers would hire unkempt,unwashed people is beyond me,but also heaps who wanted work.
Each week I was to phone and explain my job hunting activities,and occasionally forget to do so,they called me no problems.Onto sickness(couldn't work out as I was on invalids previous for cancer why I wasn't on it instead of sickness this time,as my lung decided to befriend a couple of cancerous lumps)so that meant no use applying for work only to tell prospective boss I require 8-12 weeks off after surfery in 4-6 weeks time.Therefor I waited to return to work after doc was happy,and I could be confident of my ability to work.
Really nothing much has changed,I still required medicals every 12 weeks,changing it to monthly will put pressure on beneficiaries to visit the doc at $25-30 visit.But that's ok as long as the work brokers get their shit together,I lost count of the times I was given contacts and the job had been taken 4 weeks earlier and broker notified,or phoning the employer and my details weren't given,and I was perfect for the job(employers words).

[Robert Taylor]

Who's? Not mine I hope. My sanctimonious crap is not left wing. It's trying to bail out of the plane altogether, but it can't find a parachute.


Highly unlikely. Rhetoric and made up stories may have attracted mindless voters to the stump, but they would not have been enough to actually get policy through Parliament. There's a big difference between being a good Parliamentarian and being a good PM.


A hope based on the assumption that 'business sense' makes a politician more able to run a country. I guess if you want New Zealand run in a way that benefits the shareholders with the greatest financial interests in NZ industry, then business sense matters. But if you want a New Zealand that's run in a way that benefits the actual NZ public, then there are other criteria much more important than business sense.


Interesting. Is this because you actually like the way the country swings from right to left and left to right every few years?

FPP means that the balance of power is controlled by a vacillating minority of the population who can't make their mind up who they like most of the time then plump for the guy they think is edging it three weeks before election. It actually disenfranchises people like you who have genuine political convictions.

MMP aka Mickey Mouse Politics means that the main party of Government often has to cowtow to a minority holding the balance of power, or being returned favours by bigger parties for their occassional support. Bradfords anti smacking legislation being the most notorious example.
I didnt have a problem when it was more polarised, it was dead easy to intensely dislike Kirk, Rowling, and Lange.
I disagree that it disenfranchises, if you have genuine political convictions you are polarised and will NEVER EVER vote for the other side.

[Ender EnZed]

If I told you I could design a motor that ran on water instead of gas, but it would cost you 10 times the amount it costs you for gas per year......for say 10 years.........but then you wouldn't have to pay anything......
would you do it?

No. Water is not, and never will be, a fuel.

[Ender EnZed]

Magically doubled.

[Scorp]

MMP aka Mickey Mouse Politics means that the main party of Government often has to cowtow to a minority holding the balance of power, or being returned favours by bigger parties for their occassional support.

I'm no fan of MMP, it's a poor version of proportional representation. The Single Transferable Vote System is far and away the most accurately representative form of so-called democracy I've yet seen in operation.

I disagree that it disenfranchises, if you have genuine political convictions you are polarised and will NEVER EVER vote for the other side.

Er, yeah, that's kind of what I said. Those with convictions never change their mind, but because of that, they don't really matter come election time. The people who matter are the swing voters.

Swing voters decide who gets into power. They are people without political convictions - they vacillate from left to right and back again. They tend to say things like, "I'm not really interested in politics, and I don't really understand it, but that [insert name of popular politician] has a nice smile."

By willingly supporting a political system that hands the fate of your country to such people, you are effectively disenfranchising yourself.

It's really very sad that people can take part in this hollow charade and still actually believe that their interests are being well served.

[SS90]

No. Water is not, and never will be, a fuel.

No, but hydrogen is, and has been for decades.

And what is the chemical symbol for water.... or am I being pedantic, and you meant "a viable fuel source", because that certainly is true, water (H2o) will never be a viable fuel source.

Not as long as people dye of hunger and thirst that is.

[Mudfart]

paula bennetts daughter is defacto with a criminal who has just been deported back to tonga, after he served his prison sentence.
paula bennett apparently tried using her contacts in parliament to stop him being deported, but failed.
its in the herald on sunday.

[MisterD]

Honestly, you really need to apply some critical thinking of your own if you're going to read the HoS....MacDoctor covers this ridiculous piece of spam journalism

Paula Bennett actually wrote a letter of reference for Halaholo in her capacity as a member of the public. She did mention she was a member of parliament, but in the same fashion as I would mention I am a doctor. She did not use official paper and was clearly not writing in her capacity as an MP. Most certainly, she was not writing in her capacity as a minister of the crown. She was certainly not “using her position to try to get her daughter’s boyfriend out of jail”. Her “apology” to John Key was to do with not warning him that a feral media might make this molehill into a politically hot mountain and not informing him that she had this skeleton in her cupboard.

i.e. There was no story before, but that doesn’t stop the HoS from reprinting it’s innuendo as the facts.

Now on to today’s embellishments. Of course the juxtaposition of the headline and the opening sentence deliberately gives you the erroneous impression that it is Bennett herself who wants Halaholo out of the country. This is deliberate sensationalism. Only near the end of the article do we find that , in fact, the Minister in question is Associate Immigration Minister Kate Wilkinson, who did not intervene with his routine deportation, even though Halaholo applied for ministerial consideration.

It is only at the very end of the article that we learn the real reason why Halaholo is being deported:

“Halaholo was removed from the country because he was an overstayer.”

So, is the journalist really suggesting that Kate Wilkinson should have let a Tongan overstayer who committed a violent crime in New Zealand stay on? I didn’t think so.

In fact, should Kate Wilkinson have allowed Halaholo to stay, I can state with great assurance that this same journalist would have splashed words like “favoritism” , “preferential treatment” and “abuse of position” all over the front page of the HoS. Such a story would have definitely made it to the 6 O’Clock news.

But there is no story here. That is why it is spam.