7000 - Rotting railway sleepers brought by KiwiRail from Peru raise questions about the company’s procurement policies. You get what you pay for…
4042 - Hours spent by Crown Lawyers on the Dotcom case since July last year. They have also spent more than $20,000 on airfares, travel costs and legal fees between October and March.
897 - Dollars – National’s latest barrier for parents trying to access the Family Dispute Resolution Service within the Family Court.
2 - Months – National’s turnaround time from championing quality teaching, to insisting that it doesn’t matter if our teachers don’t have qualifications or training.
The 7,000 rotting sleepers would suggest to me that that the problem is Kiwirail directors and mgmt are not shareholders in Kiwirail. If they were, and it was their money at risk, I would expect they would take more care.
On the 4,4042 hours on the Dotcom case, are you suggesting this would be different under Labour? Is Labour proposing to nullify the extradition treaty we have with the US?
I’m not sure about you but I think $897 for a dispute resoluion service is a lot cheaper than actually going to court with court fees and lawyer fees. But maybe you are suggesting Labour will make legal aid available to all families, regardless of income?
And as for the Tory Mayor, he’s one damn popular Tory Mayor and may just become Conservative Party Leader one day. Politics will be far more interesting if he is!
2 – Months – National’s turnaround time from championing quality teaching, to insisting that it doesn’t matter if our teachers don’t have qualifications or training.
That has got to be the ‘joker’ political story of the year!
Less than two months ago, wasn’t Hekia Parata (and John Key from memory) touting the meme that all teachers should be required to have a university degree before being accepted for teacher training? Something like that anyway.
Now they’re talking about no qualifications at all
What a contradiction in terms!
So much for this ‘joke’ of a government.
2 – Months – National’s turnaround time from championing quality teaching, to insisting that it doesn’t matter if our teachers don’t have qualifications or training.
That has got to be the ‘joker’ political story of the year!
Less than two months ago, wasn’t Hekia Parata (and John Key from memory) touting the meme that all teachers should be required to have a university degree before being accepted for teacher training? Something like that anyway.
Now they’re talking about no qualifications at all.
What a contradiction in terms!
So much for this ‘joke’ of a government.
7000 rotting sleepers. Thank God Cullen bought back the railways.
4042 hours is an outrage and we should have told the yanks to go hang.
897 bucks is a bargain compared with shelling out tens of thousands to legal aid to string out asset and visitation rights. Changes made on the recommendation from the family court judges and supported by all except the legal aid lawyers and tax paid councilors who were roundly panned in the review forma,ing things worse.
2 months – labour need to do the maths between financial support from the unions and votes from parents. Sacrificing 20% of kids to satisfy Labours fundraising and union support is a tough call, tony Blair and bill Clinton did the maths and ran with charter schools and got re-elected, which way are you guys going to go ?
Tony Blair is arguing for keeping banking deregulated and declares his support for Thatchers economic programme. His third way was really a quiet endorsement, that he was not prepared to reveal to his own party.
Bill Clinton passed term limit welfare in return for a federal MW increase – in 1996 (it was 10 years before this was increased again). Term limit welfare still exists but in past 16 years the MW was increased only a few times and is now only $7.25.
It’s $9 in Washington and $10 in San Francisco. It’s $5.15 in Georgia and Wyoming. Some states have lower rates still for tipped employees (the lowest $2.13).
Bill Clinton in his last year in office said it was time the gains from the years of growth were shared with the poor.
It would be nice if someone could fix the delete function.
New Zealand has suffered from systemic fraud since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi just tell John Key and his cronies to hop on his bike and toodle off to America and hop back into bed with his relatives in New York.
This country is going to the dogs with the sheer incompetence of our Government Leaders. The KISS principle actually works prity well Keep It Simple Stupid.
Nothing has changed in the last 1000 years the principles are still the same.
“And as for the Tory Mayor, he’s one damn popular Tory Mayor and may just become Conservative Party Leader one day. Politics will be far more interesting if he is!”
The English love their eccentrics, but “damn popular” is stretching a London mayor win against the fading Red Ken. He’s still a tory, and will no doubt be treated with rightful suspicion and mistrust by more than who will ever give him a vote.
And the only reason he may be leader of the Conservative party is because he’s sheilded in his position from the mess those at westminster have made, and will be the only tory left standing after the collapse of the con lib coalition.
Using that logic, Paul Henry, currently losing in Australia, is set for a 2014 comeback.
`7000 – Rotting railway sleepers brought by KiwiRail from Peru raise questions about the company’s procurement policies. You get what you pay for’
Dr Cullen has a lot to answer for.…
As opposed to the festering rot left by the labour party in the UK, Al1ens, I’d go for a con-lib coalition any time.
Which is a warning to any Labour party that out torying the tories is 100% reap what you sow.
Still doesn’t make Boris anything more than a whacky uncle figure, often seen in the funny bit at the end of the news.
Polls not too flash tonight, kiddies.
Could’ve grown a socialist spine post-election instead of going in for a rebranding exercise so subdued it seems to lack a pulse.
Don’t want to rile the rusty rogergnomes still sleepily nesting on the benches though do we.
@ former person
Steady does it mate. Now that the slippery obfuscationist has escaped prosecution the Banks/Dunne/Key party will last awhile yet . No sense peaking early.
KiwiRail has been “done” by a dodgy supplier, these are rotting from the inside out !
“7000 – Rotting railway sleepers ….” is the least of it.
When it comes to transport infrastructure New Zealand is now a failed state.
Bring back the Ministry of Works.
Bring back the New Zealand Railways Department (including Road Services).
Bring back the Union Steamship Company.
Bring back the real Air New Zealand,
Bring back taxi regulation.
Bring back the Manawatu Gorge.
@George The Union Steamship Company was owned by P & O for a very long time so hadn’t been Kiwi Owned for years.
Speaking of failings George looks like National have given the go ahead to asset strip the SOL line, I wonder if Fay dabbled in a consultancy role. It’s back to the future with the state of the tracks with all the proposed job cuts. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be a train driver, its akin to Russian roulette when they come off the rails!
National are in the process of ruining out education system and not a squeak on here? What the hell is going on in Labour right now? All of you should be making one big noise about this – unless of course you support it. Quite frankly- useless.
@David
Is the best thing for kids someone with post grad or someone with no qualifications?
And talking of Post grad, someone that could get a degree in anything then a year to learn the curriculum, or someone that has been taught HOW to teach and the current practices around that (then possibly a post grad in say special education)
Also with the 20% that are so called failing, you do realise the new curriculum was published in 2007 and came into play in 2008? How can someone say that the new curriclum isn’t good enough and failing children? It has only been out for 3 years.