On Saturday a dozen Labour Party members took a trip from Dunedin to Milton, Balclutha and a few other small places in between, to collect signatures for the Citizens Initiated Referendum to Keep our Assets.
A couple of observations:
1. Almost everyone we came across wanted to sign. A carful of young blokes in a 1970s Holden at the service station heading on a day out. A farming family from Gore. Shopkeepers, EVERYONE at the RSA…
2. I was told that Bill English’s offices in Gore and Balclutha are rarely open. I asked where do people go if they have constituency issues? The response was a resigned “nowhere”. I have told people to contact my office in Dunedin South if they have issues that need dealing with. It means more work for my staff, but it’s pretty shocking if the local MP can’t provide representation.
Bill English, it appears many people in your electorate don’t want you to sell our assets. And how about being a bit more available to them!
What’s Bill’s majority and what’s yours Clare? This is childish stuff.
So Bill English gets taxpayer funding to have two offices in his electorate, but the staff dont bother to turn up ?
But back in Nov 2008, things were seen very differently
“The already busy electorate office of Bill English is set to get even busier, now the Clutha Southland MP has been named Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.”
“The moving of National from its opposition status to being in power will mean a complete change in approach for the Gore electorate office. Mrs Dickson believed constituents who consulted the office with issues would receive better outcomes.”
But look theres an office in Queenstown as well.
Queenstown Office
1085 Frankton Road,
P O Box 103,
Queenstown 9349
ddi +64 3 441 4093
I wonder if they have a better service ?
No such luck the number given goes to fax tone , so no chance of leaving a message.
Gore office , no answer as well
How available to New Lynn was David Cunliffe when he went on his five week family holiday to Europe, Clare? How available is DC when he lives in his multimillion dollar mansion in Auckland Central? Didn’t he campaign to get read of the greasy fella in the blue suit? How’s that been going then?
While I’m at it Clare, while you and Young Labour were pulling off cheap political stunts like this on Saturday, who was left sitting in your electorate office looking after the constituents of Dunedin South?
I think more people may interested in whether you are privately funding your trip and those of your grass roots activists to collect signatures or using state funding like the Greens?
No state funding Indy. Volunteers, grass roots. Committed
Hi Clare, were any of the people who went with you parliamentary office staff who volunteered?
Lou and whodun`.. Lighten up fellas. Clare lightheartedly made some obsevations about an expedition into English territory. – Her group were giving the locals an opportunity to ask for a referendum on a subject which their representative (English) has made some clearly and demonstrably wrong statements of ‘fiscal fact’… which is seriously worrying as we expect English to understand numbers a bit.
Seems a wholly worthwhile excursion to me
Paul, I am not criticising Clare. Rather, I am congratulating her. I intend to write to the Nobel Committee in Stockholm to nominate her for the Physics Prize. Clearly she has found a vortex in the space-time continuum that allows her and her staff to be simultaneously in her electorate office in Dunedin South looking after constituency issues, while taking photos of them standing outside Bill English’s electorate office in Gore.
Clare, which of Labour’s list MPs has been assigned to Clutha-Southland? Why don’t they have an office there already?
Whodunnit… we could put the cabinet in the Hadron collider and see if there was a particle of good sense there. That would surely be a Nobel act
@Whodunnit if you read the post, the protest was on Saturday. Even MPs get a weekend off now and then.
When is John Key’s electorate office open? Same problem, I believe.
Whodunit forgets there are taxpayer paid staff who run the office , except in Bill Englishs case dont turn up or even answer the phones.
No one is expecting Karori Bill to be there from day to day , Once a month would be nice but unlike every other electorate MP hes called Wellington home for the past 15 years.
Not many lights are left on here in NZ further budget restrictions I am guessing is limiting opening hours, maybe you can ring an 0800 mnumber like the IRD and see whether you can get an answer. Just an idea.
Once the Ministry of Everything is established all our problems will be solved.
From memory Rodney Hide had an electorate office in Newmarket, but his only listed contact point was a PO box number !
And previously when Prebble was ACT leader , all the electorate staff were in a building in Wellington owned by a Prebble family trust. No attempt to have real electorate offices for their list MPs even though they came from different areas of the country. Fitted with their contempt for grassroots democracy
Woooo! I think Clare touched a nerve with her piece on Bill English. But what some of the posters on this thread have forgotten is that national MP’s dont have to front up whether its to their immediate electorate or to the nation. When did they ever front up? How many national mp’s did you see engage with the electorate during the campaign? Their campaign strategy was to deliberately not engage. Otherwise they would have to justify. And that of course is not possible.
Things must be quiet in Dunedin South lately?
Do electorate staff get a Day in Lieu for working a weekend day?
If I think of all the electoral offices I have lived near (currently in Roskill so have two within stone throws distance), I have never seen anyone anywhere near them, I thought most were derelict. However as it is Labour chucking Borax around, I should maybe check Phil Goff’s on the way home for signs of life.
Was Deputy Prime Minister Cullen’s office always open and available to constituents? That’s who you should be comparing him to, and unless that house is in order then it may be a dud bullet.
I suspect that National could have chucked the same batch of Borax around during their opposition, but if you can prove otherwise I would be interested to see it.
Good to see Clare Curran once again putting effort into a political stunt that will likely backfire on her. It’s becoming an unwelcome habit for the Labour Party
Rob, the taxpayers pay to have a local office and full time staff. Bill has a very large electorate so he has three. What are his people doing if they , like their master Bill, are away all the time.
If Bill is’too busy’ why doesnt he come clean and go on the list so he can live in Wellington without having to pretend he is based in his electorate, that is what Cullen did.
From memory Sir Michael Cullen returned to Napier practically every weekend, which is more than Karori Bill does to Southland.
I used to walk past Helen Clark’s office opposite Eden Park twice daily, and drive past every day I wasn’t at work. Yet, I never recall seeing it open and accepting appointments. It was just a closed set of blinds. There was one exception however, the morning when an axe was sticking out of the window!
Andrew, did you ever go into Helen’s office? It was pretty much always staffed. And had a large constituent case load.
Mighty Kites Which electorate are you in?
Another example of Labour standing up for the public servants while at the same time beating up on those who work at the forefront of public sector. And yes, electorate agents are public servants.
Sad.
Fair enough comment there Ghostwhowalks. I am aware that the tax payer pays for the office.
It would be nice for there to be a bit more proof though that the staff are away all the time and it isn’t just grandstanding.
As for Bill, in the last three elections at least he has had pretty much double the vote of all other candidates combined. The constituents must like something about his representation (maybe it is that he is rarely there that they like? who knows).
I guess she must have lent the “grassroots” her car:
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2012/09/currans-raid-on-gore/
We had an election on this issue where Labour electioneered on opposition to asset sales. This position was resoundingly defeated. So why do we need an expensive referendum? I was against asset sales when Labour was in power. I was also against partial (minority holdings) asset sales until I was convinced that the money raised would be spent on essential expenditures. If we don’t sell the shares then we are condemned to borrow – at ever increasingly high rates of interest. I do not like the idea of burdening our children. Is Labour in favour of yet more borrowing?
Borrow and Spend
National Party translation: Liberal spending
Labour translation: Investing in the future. Significant past success suggests that this translation is probably the most accurate.
If you are serious about pulling New Zealand out of the financial sh*t then we need to think seriously about a introducing a CGT, FTT and addressing the 8 – 10billion annual social cost arising from child poverty and poor educational outcomes.
The number of children living in poverty is continuing to rise, with recent estimates putting numbers
at around 270,000. This means that child poverty rates in New Zealand are higher than the average of other developed countries. Children born into poverty are more likely to be born prematurely, and to die before the age of one. Between 45,000 – 50,000 children leave for school with an empty stomach each day.
Delegates at a public health conference held in Wellington recently were told that child poverty is costing New Zealand up to $10 billion annually. Independent research by John Pearce suggests that three – quarters of this cost is avoidable. Task-force group and independent organization recommendations to the Government seem to be falling on deaf ears with the Prime Minister even dismissing advice from an expert advisory panel put together by the Children’s Commissioner. This is of great concern.
Labour is also concerned that the Government’s Green Paper on child welfare is more of a step to the side than an actual step forward. Its emphasis on vulnerable children only can be likened to putting a band-aid over a gaping wound. The paper fails to address inequality or financial hardship, and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett seems content in knowing that children move in and out of poverty every day. It’s increasingly apparent with every damning report released (and the number is significant), that the minister is in denial over the magnitude of this issue. Our advice to her is to come down from planet National and re-familiarise herself with modern New Zealand.
Labour proposes the establishment of a fully costed Ministry of Children’s Affairs. In terms of objective, the ministry would lead policy analysis and research while also taking on work from the Families Commission, which itself would be disestablished – enabling its $7.7 million budget to be redirected into the new ministry. With New Zealand’s child abuse and poverty statistics failing to improve, and social costs arising from such abuse and neglect costing up to $10 billion annually, we can’t afford not to establish this ministry.
Heather Roy has pointed out that “New Zealand already as a small army of Ministers and departments to deal with child welfare.” While this is true, Heather Roy also notes, “too many of our vulnerable children are still subject to terrible abuse and poverty.” This is not a reason to throw in the towel. We have to work harder to improve the quality of life of our youngest citizens. A new ministry might not be the silver bullet we need, but it will certainty get things moving in the right direction.What kind of legacy does this government want to leave behind? This is the right thing to do. Things must change.