In 2011, Red Alert has done a few new things. One of them is to introduce you to some new Labour candidates who will do the occasional guest post.
This gives them the opportunity to put forward some ideas and you the opportunity to get a sense of who they are before the upcoming election.
Today’s guest poster is Ben Clark, the Labour candidate for North Shore.
It’s Age Concern Awareness Week , and the International Day of the Older Person was on October 1.
Although I spent Saturday being told how young I looked while out door-knocking and at Mairangi Bay market, I was pleased to be able to tell a number of people about Labour’s newly released Aged Care Policy.
And it impressed them. It’s not just important to an older electorate like the North Shore, because all of us don’t know how we will spend our final years. So having some of our money protected against rest-home costs ($180,000 currently and increasing $10,000 per year) is important. Having the certainty of quality care is also vitally important.
And mandating trained staff, with minimum staffing levels and decent pay will make a huge difference.
At the moment there are problems with overstretched nurses and too little knowledge. The care levels aren’t always what they should be. With the higher quality care mandated, we can all be assured of the respect we deserve in our final years.
A number of people compared the importance of qualified carers to Labour’s requirements for qualified Early Childhood Education teachers. If we’re going to pay our taxes, then we deserve proper quality – at both ends of our lives.
Ben Clark lives in Devonport, and has worked as a computer programmer in hi-tech exporting industry for his whole career (mostly in computer games!). He’s a regular blogger on The Standard and created John Key’s Asset Sales Hoover Game earlier in the campaign.
‘………regular blogger at The Standard’
Good God are you that desperate for candidates – that place is an absolute cesspit.
How much will this policy cost Ben, and how much more debt will be added to pay for it? What is the total extra costs of new expenditure not included in your budget so far? A lot of promises coming, but we haven’t seen an update of figures. Tell us the facts please, not spin and rhetoric.
And dont tell the usual CGT nonsense. The effects of that would not kick in for up to 15 years
@ Shroomer, any idea how much the fiscally prudent Tory administration of Key and English is borrowing each week? It was $380 million, but that number has served it’s headline-grabbing purposes, so what is it now? Around $300 million? Maybe $250 million? And when are they predicting a return to surplus? Around 2020? I guess you remember surpluses? They are what Labour delivered every year, and managed to pay off all the debt, and put billions aside for the pension bulge. Sorry to let the facts get in the way of your Tory spin.
Jennifer, the Government is required to publish all its spending tracks prior to the election, by law. The PREFU shows what the Government’s spending and income streams are. You’ll know all about it when Treasury publishes the PREFU. Hope we get the same analysis from Mr Cunliffe about his party’s plan.
Ever heard of the PREFU Jennifer? What did the last PREFU say, just before the last election? Let me give you a clue. The phrases “neverending deficits” and “permanently increasing debt” featured prominently. Sorry to let the facts get in the way of your spin.
Shroomer you are incorrect. The prefu show policies passed into law not Keys promises before the election.
hes all ready promising to move Coro St , how much will that cost ?
Does your concern for the aged extend to Mr Brash (chuckle)
I wish some posters were as vigilant and questioning of the cost of the Government’s tax cuts in campaign 2008 when we were 1 year into a GFC and recession.
Hi Shroomer, jeff,
All Labour policies are being very carefully costed, and we’re having independent verification of our figures. While the full income stream of CGT will take 10 years, there is some money in year 1 as well. Our tax policies and promises allow us to reach surplus the same year National are projected to, and pay off our debt slightly earlier.
At least those were the numbers before National starting talking about easing the ETS, which will cost them an extra $500 million/year – no update on how that’s being paid for yet.
Good God are you that desperate for candidates – that place is an absolute cesspit.
Guess where most of them come from cmonLabour? Whaleblog and Kiwiblog.
Good policies Ben. As a former care-giver for an elderly parent I know how tough it can be, and how essential good quality monetary and logistical support is for the well being of both the patients and caregivers.
@ Ben, try to keep up. The tories have explained the ETS thing. There is no cost to the taxpayer if the money is only a paper entry. A bit like their tax cuts for the top 10 percent, which by their reckoning, actually saved money.
The aged care policy link takes you to a ‘this page cannot be found’.
‘At least those were the numbers before National starting talking about easing the ETS, which will cost them an extra $500 million/year”
Forget facts Ben, you’re talking to National supporters who get their information from sound bite politics. Like Mr Findlayson this morning pretending it wasn’t the 90 unresolved cases that were the problem (despite he and the PM labouring this red herring for ten days) but the idea previously convicted could appeal…which hadn’t really been discussed in public til he mentioned it this morning.
I too am pleased to see some focus on aged care. A civilised society focuses on those who are vulnerable which includes the young, the old, the inform and so on.
Hers a list of the ‘paper money’ that parliament voted to be spent for 2011
a total of around $23 million over the period of three years for the development of a national carbon
accounting system
• a total of nearly $11 million for policy advice in relation to the domestic climate change programme
including the Emissions Trading Scheme and international climate change programme including
negotiation for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol
• a total of just over $909 million for the allocation of New Zealand emission units to the NZ economy
• a total of $427,000 for New Zealand’s contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention and
the Climate Change Development Fund
• a total of $487,000 for administration of the Emissions Trading Scheme
• a total of $177,000 for the administration of New Zealand Units held on Trust
• a total of $10 million for the issue of New Zealand Assigned Amount Units to Permanent Forest Sink
Initiative participants, and
• a total of over $1.200 million for the purchase of Projects to Reduce Emissions (PRE)
emission units by the Crown from the PRE portfolio.
That makes it a $Billion ( or so)
Last year it was closer to $1.6 billion. I guess with National moving the goalposts into the future( after the prefu cutoff date) it will be much the same next year.
Sarah. Fixed. Apologies
@ Anne I don’t think it’s just Slater and Farrar’s acolytes that are the problem – there have been some particularly foul comments from some of the authors as well as commenters.
Deleted. Clare
how is ghosts comment above on topic? i’d actually consider it trolling. go back to your bridge ghost
so many good candidates, why are they so far down the list ? I would suggest keeping away from The Standard it’s an appalling parallel universe where half a dozen rabid lunatics feed off each other.
All these good candidates who have lived outside the weird closeted world of Wellington, the unions, the public service but not a hope in he’ll of getting elected and balancing out the party. Tragedy.
Cmon cmonLabour you know only too well 90% of them are Slater and Farrar acolytes. The other 10% well… I suggest they’re quite mild compared to the awful stuff I used to see at the aforementioned sites. Stopped going there nearly a year ago but doubt there is any improvement.
“The Standard it’s an appalling parallel universe where half a dozen rabid lunatics feed off each other.”
Reminds me of the kiwiblog and whaleoil, which is why I visit none of the three unless something REALLY drives me there, like a link as a source or reference.
Foreign currency trading is a pretty weird closeted world too.
Anne I think you are delusional – too many of these blogs have a pack mentality The Standard is one of the worst – I see Clare has deleted the comment I used as an example of the appalling behaviour which is fair enough.