They really are among the most despicable MP's.


The Greens called for rent controls & as a result the chief idiot in ACT says they're "economically illiterate"...which makes it crystal clear they'd prefer people to continut patying exorbitant rents & struggling to keep a roof over the heads of their families. These people clearly want this country to become a mini America. They are nothing short of evil.



https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/...mount.html

Quote:The Greens have again called for rent controls after data out on Tuesday showed median rents across Aotearoa hit an all-time high of $650 a week in the year to March.
But ACT has hit back, calling the party "economically illiterate" and instead advocating for removing regulations.
Trade Me's latest data showed national median weekly rents rose about $50 in the past 12 months (or 8.3 percent), which is "unusual", according to property sales director Gavin Lloyd.
Apartments also reached a record high of $525 a week across New Zealand.
Green Party housing spokesperson Tamatha Paul said on Tuesday that landlords are the only people being "well-served" by the Coalition Government's policies.
"People who rent are already struggling with sky-high rents ÔÇô and can see very clearly the lie that tax cuts for landlords will trickle down to help," Paul said.
She said the Government gave landlords a "$2.9 billion tax break" while others struggle and rents have never been higher.
"Landlords are laughing their way to the bank," she added.
If renting is to be attractive and affordable, Paul said New Zealand needs controls on rent increases, a rental warrant of fitness, and to rapidly build new housing.
"Housing is a human right. We can and must ensure it is afforded to all," she said.
Paul also said the Government has the power to regulate the rental market to put people before profits, rather than treating housing like a business.
"The main driver for the increase in rents is the ability of property speculators to drive up house prices and landlords to lift their rents at will, to suggest it is anything else is merely a distraction from the core issue."

Is becoming clelarer by the day. I've no idea why any govt allows someone who is childless to have any part in making decisions on education in govt. He appears to have no idea what's involved & worse, gives the impression that he's really not bothered.

Because he isn't the one who will have to eat sandwiches for lunch when its midwinter & freezing..


https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/...koI1OETyro

Quote:Foodbanks which rely on leftovers from school lunches to feed communities are worried a plan to pare the programme back will lead to more hungry children. 
They're calling on the Government to put some of the more than $100 million its cutting from the lunches scheme into food banks. 
At Nourished for Nil in Hastings, every week there's a queue for food packages of rescued kai and leftover school lunches. The not-for-profit is finding more Kiwis needing their help. 
One person collecting a parcel said they liked getting the spare lunches. 
Nourished for Nil founder Christina McBeth said the current free school lunches made a difference on families' budgets. 
"It does take the pressure off families having to provide an extra meal for their children and it might be the difference between a child not having any hot meals that day."
Associate Education Minister David Seymour - who is in charge of the school lunch programme - wants to make it cheaper. 
"We've got to be realistic, it's not the education system or the school's job to feed a child 24/7," he said. 
Seymour said the lunches, which are set to change next year, would be "very similar to what the other 75 percent of parents are putting into school lunch boxes". 
He's previously said the changes would mean less "quinoa, couscous and hummus, it will be more like sandwiches and fruit". 
McBeth and other foodbanks have told Newshub changes to school lunches will mean more hunger because they're expecting the meals to be less nourishing and that there won't be leftovers to feed others. 
They want to see some of the more than $100 million being cut from the lunches programme to go to food banks. 
Seymour said the savings would go back into the Government's general Budget.

The Reverend Paula Vennells finally appears in court over the disaster with Brit Post offices. Some people committed suicide, some were  sent to prison. She doesn't appear to understand either the harm done or  contrition.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...eo-victims

Quote:The former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells would like the victims of the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history to know that she┬áhasnÔÇÖt actually done anything deliberately wrong, and that she honestly doesnÔÇÖt understand how all this has happened. I guess sheÔÇÖs asking all the jailed and wrongly convicted subpostmasters to try to imagine being swept up in a Kafkaesque nightmare of undue blame. So ÔǪ please add the murder of irony to her notional future charge sheet.
To┬áAldwych House in London, then, where Paula produced tears in time for the lunchtime bulletins and reprised them for the section in which her emails seemingly found her on a fishing expedition for other ÔÇ£contributory factorsÔÇØ that might have caused an appallingly persecuted subpostmaster to take his own life.┬á
For now, letÔÇÖs just say Paula Vennells now ÔÇ£canÔÇÖt recallÔÇØ more about the Post Office than youÔÇÖd expect a tenuously engaged CEO on 700 grand a year ever to have known.
Pressed early by the inquiryÔÇÖs Jason Beer KC how on earth she hadnÔÇÖt known what was going on, Paula explained: ÔÇ£I was too trusting.ÔÇØ Barely a quarter of an hour later this humblebrag had done a complete 180, as she said: ÔÇ£I was sometimes criticised at team development events for being too curious.ÔÇØ Was she? At one stage Vennells had even been unaware that her organisation employed a team of about 100 enforcers driving private prosecutions. IÔÇÖm reminded of those people who worked for Bernie Madoff on the 18th and 19th floors in his offices, and somehow didnÔÇÖt realise he and a crack unit were running the worldÔÇÖs biggest Ponzi scheme on the 17th.

Now they're going after Oranga Tamariki. While it was far from perfect, they're trying to load more work - which according to some, ought to be legal & therefore done by lawyers - onto social workers.

This govt very clearly doesn't mind who suffers, as long as they cut costs.
 

https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/35028...m=referral

Quote:In April,┬áOranga Tamariki proposed 632 jobs could be disestablished┬áÔÇÆ a net loss of 447 roles.
Another section proposes reducing reliance on the legal team, in some parts through Oranga TamarikiÔÇÖs investment in ÔÇ£social worker professional capabilityÔÇØ.
It says as part of lifting performance and accountability, ÔÇ£functional leads would have sole responsibility for delivery in areas that they own and would not need the support of solicitors (e.g. policy advice and social workers Family Court-related work)ÔÇØ.
LabourÔÇÖs children spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said claiming the legal services ÔÇ£don't provide frontline support services to children just doesn't make any sense ... and it is going to have an impact on childrenÔÇØ.
ÔÇ£This is crazy to expect social workers to take on more and to take on the role, the job and the responsibilities of professional lawyers who are legally trained to provide those services, to expect that of social workers in unfair to the social workers.ÔÇØ
Oranga Tamariki was facing a social worker shortage earlier this year, with a select committee report stating at the time of the hearing, ÔÇ£the ministry had 160 vacant social work roles, which it said puts a lot of pressure on frontline workers to provide servicesÔÇØ.
Prime said the proposal was ÔÇ£loading on to an already stressed and pressured workforce of social workersÔÇØ.

They really cannot stand people to have govt provided housing. They claim there won't be wholsesale selling off of state housing but  that seems unlikely.

This is a bit lengthy but an interesting piece about Masterton & social housing being removed altogether from there for some time,until Kieran McaNulty managed to get it back. Eventually.
(At about 20-21)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajy5DnY-Lso

Helicopter crash apparently.
https://apnews.com/live/helicopter-irani...dent-crash

Twelve people including former PM John Key have been named in a class action which alleges insider trading.

Obviously he says its all bollocks & can't comment further since its before the courts...


https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/202...wsuit.html



https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/05/20/sir-j...ding-case/

Interesting that while Chloe waits for him to finish what he's saying before commenting, he doesn't show her the same courtesy. I've noticed  him that with other people too.


https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/...ation.html

Quote:ACT leader David Seymour has stood by his apology to Destiny Church that it should have had a charter school six years ago. 
Seymour gave a speech on Parliament grounds back in 2018 where he said Destiny should have had a charter school. 
The controversial religious group had multiple bids to set up a charter school blocked by the Ministry of Education over fears students could be pressured into joining the church. 
You applied for your excellent, independent school in South Auckland to become a charter school and we said no because the authorities, because the establishment against that was too strong," Seymour said in 2018. 
"I want to say to you today I'm sorry for that decision, that was wrong. Destiny should have had a charter school and I want to take this opportunity to tell you that." 
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki posted the speech on social media after last week's announcement that the Coalition Government would bring back charter schools. 
He said he expects Seymour to be true to his word and Destiny Church's application should be the first one approved. 
"I have to say that in the years since that clipÔǪ Having seen Destiny people protest and rev their motorbikes outside a constituent of mine that had cancer and basically refused to take that into account, I have a much dimmer view of them these days."┬á
Seymour said any applications to become a charter school would be taken on merits and whether the school can make a difference for students. He said Destiny Church, as it is today, "might face some challenges with that". 
In response to Seymour's comments on Monday, Tamaki said the ACT Party's damage control was "kicking in" and Seymour was "trying to backpedal at rapid pace."

McDonalds not wanted - well, not in Orakei amyway.

Can't say I blame them really, I'm not  fan of theirs..but it does seem a  bit precious.


https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/35028003...ant-orakei

Marama Davidson, co leader of the Green party. There's more on the link.

To be fair these are politicians & politicians tend towards making wild promises in order to gain support. That said, being more mindful of our environment & the effect we have on it, & free dental care & decent income support does make very good sense, as do some of the rest of their ideas.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/...e8uVXDiG0u

Quote:Davidson delivered the speech to a packed audience of Greens supporters in Auckland's Wynyard Quarter.
Speaking alongside Chl├Âe Swarbrick, the pair called on the Government to prioritise people and the planet over profit as Budget 2024 edges closer.
Ten─ü koutou, t─ôn─ü koutou, t─ôn─ü t─ütou katoa.
Sixteen million dollars.
ThatÔÇÖs how much the coalition parties raised to win last yearÔÇÖs election.
Ten million for National.
Four million for Act.
Just under two million for New Zealand First.
Sixteen million dollars.
From property developers and business tycoons who have built their wealth by exploiting our natural environment.
To companies who profit from digging up our whenua and overfishing our oceans - activities that cause significant harm to our precious ecosystems.
Sixteen million dollars helped to put this government into power.
And in a little less than two weeks, the coalition government will unveil its first budget.
It has clearly been difficult for them to put it together.
To the right, Act is trying to fire all the people who make our public services work, while in their own cooker corner New Zealand First hoards 1.2 billion dollars for hand-chosen pet projects.
The Coalition has found half a billion dollars for new defence spending, but cancelled projects to improve buses and trains in Auckland and Wellington.
TheyÔÇÖre borrowing billions to cover the cost of cutting taxes for wealthy property investors, because theyÔÇÖve realised that the promises they made during the election campaign were slapdash and expensive.
Meanwhile, people with the least face ever higher costs.
Rents continue to rise, while the government is giving tax breaks to landlords instead of investing in more public housing.
So on Budget Day, when we see what the coalition has been able to cobble together, I want you to remember: sixteen million dollars.
WhatÔÇÖs in the Budget for the people who paid for NationalÔÇÖs election campaign?
And what could have been in the budget instead if Aotearoa had a Government that prioritised people and planet?
Because I am not here for the relative few who donated those sixteen million dollars.
I am here for the many, including the 330,000 people who trusted the Green Party with their votes last year.
And I want to thank you all once again.
If the Greens were delivering this yearÔÇÖs budget, IÔÇÖll tell you what would be in it.
An income guarantee, so no matter what, everyone has what they need to live a decent life.
We could lift every family in Aotearoa out of poverty, and give people the peace of mind that theyÔÇÖll be supported if they fall on tough times.
More support for students and people out of work, extra help if youÔÇÖre sick or disabled, and simple payments for families so all kids can thrive.
Free dental care.
Successive governments have let basic dental healthcare get so expensive, that forty percent - forty percent! - of people avoid going to the dentist.