ACT

The most discussed article of December 6 last year was about National adopting ACT’s Charter Schools policy.  12 months on, this really is thought of as a National policy now, and ACT and John Banks (is there a difference these days?) are all but invisible.  Will ACT survive 2014?  Will they bother trying?

One of the side benefits of ACT’s big policy win of Charter Schools is that the teacher unions are getting upset.

The Labour Party and teacher unions last night panned the proposal as a step towards privatising the education system – which neither party put forward before the election.

The new schools – effectively state-funded private schools – will be introduced to South Auckland and Christchurch within the next three years.

NZEI president Ian Leckie said the Government had no mandate for charter schools.

“Overseas experience shows they can take students and money away from existing schools, undermine communities and increase social segregation. They are also less accountable.

“New Zealanders should be very concerned that Act is suddenly shaping and dictating key education policy.”

Labour’s education spokeswoman Sue Moroney called the trial “bulk-funding in drag” which exposed National’s true colours.

The only reason why students and money would flow to charter schools is because parents believe the schooling would be better than the state schools nearby. Teacher unions want competition like they want cancer. Labour is showing yet again that they are still beholden to the unions and in particular to the teachers union.

I see too that they are bleating about the “mandate” thing. banksie should just tell Ian Leckie that “we won. you lost, eat that”.

Labor thought they would be nice and safe in ACT, protected by troughing civil servants but it looks like a massive swing against Labor and the Greens in the territory:

A BIG swing to the Liberals in the ACT election shows voters in the territory are wary of the Australian Greens, senior Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos says.

While it’s still not clear whether the Liberals or Labor will hold power, neither major party will be able to govern without the support of the remaining Greens MPs.

The parliamentary secretary to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Sunday declined to advise the ACT Liberals how to approach the Greens.

“It’s up to them what they do,” Senator Sinodinos told Network Ten’s Meet the Press program.

“It’s true in the past they’ve been pretty wary about joining with the Greens.

“The result on the weekend in Canberra has been a pretty decisive rejection of the Labor-Greens alliance.”

There was a 6.4 per cent swing to the Liberals on Saturday, while the Greens suffered a 4.6 per cent swing against and have lost at least two seats.

With about 74 per cent of the vote counted, the Liberals appear to have picked up seven seats, Labor seven seats and the Greens one.

Two seats remain outstanding and could go to either the Liberals or the Greens.

Still, the Liberals’ primary vote, at 38 per cent, was its best ever in the ACT.

Labour cannot help themselves.  Trevor Mallard is back seeing dead people again. John Banks wants Charter Schools so he can do what?

Seems everyone has their right to their own beliefs unless Labour MP’s disagree.

Trevor Mallard in his last term as a Labour MP before (in)voluntarily retiring in 2014 needs to take advice from Banks

Mr Banks says he’s too old, these days, to be ‘judgemental’.

What’s that sound? Quack. Quack.

John Banks is energizing himself politically by listening to some of the younger ACT members.  The influence of staffer David Seymour is shown in yesterday’s speech opposing Australian Russel Norman’s “Overseas Ownership (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill”

This bill actually tells us quite a lot about the Green Party.

They are a party of old dudes and young fogeys.

One of the younger Members, the Member responsible for this bill, has said that this bill addresses concerns about investment by a Chinese group.

Watch out Winston! The Greens are taking your turf.

This bill would be a disaster for New Zealand.

It would close down New Zealand when it needs to be opening up, and leave the nasty after taste of green xenophobia in our mouths.

Disaster Tourist Gareth Hughes posted at Frogblog about the SVA. He was doing well until the very end when he said:

The image of the lazy, selfish, and drunk student or the inept and corrupt student association so favoured of ACT and National Party arguments is well and truly busted.

Like a true pinko he couldn’t help himself and had to politicise the disaster in Christchurch.

This uncharitable individual talks up the SVA, then smears National and ACT without being aware of the facts.

Sam Johnson is a National Party member. He ran for the centre right Independent Citizens in the last local body elections, and won a seat on his community board. The politically aware in Christchurch rate him as a huge talent, even if Sam is far to modest to rate himself as that. He bought together a good group of students after the September 4th earthquake, and these people were not student politicians.

This blog understands that the UCSA provided Sam’s group funds to help out at the last election, and have been very, very helpful, but this is not a UCSA initative – it was Sam and his group of highly competent volunteer students that made it all happen.

On the community board Sam has also done some smart things. He has tried to build better relationships between drunken students and normal people, by dealing sensibly with problems. If you put rubbish bins on the road on a Thursday night when students are walking home from the pub drunk then there is a law of nature that says that the rubbish bins will be tipped over. So Sam asked to move the rubbish day to a day when there werent drunken students. There are other examples that have filtered through the tip line about what an exceptional guy Sam is.

Frogblog amongst other leftwing blogs and Gareth Hughes in particular need to accept that Sam is doing things for the right reasons, rather than for some narrow political advantage like them.

UPDATE: When I posted a comment on the post I ticked the “notify Facebook” option and my comment went to my wall. That prompted amny in the Whale Army to go and comment at Frog Blog. Well now those comments have been deleted except for the sychophant comments. Comments from me and David Farrar and Keeping Stock were all deleted. Seems that not only dot he Greens lie but they don’t want to be caught lying.

UPDATE 2: The Comments are back now…and they are blaming a technical fault…yeah right…caught int eh headlights more like.

Last night there was a debate organised by the NZEI on Early childhood education in Botany. I felt sorry for Lyn Murphy not having any supporters there and because ACT is sparse in its resourcing I thought as a favour and in the interests of of wider debate that I would help out by videoing and posting a video for voters to see.

Lyn started off her evening well by telling attendees that the “ECE cuts weren’t good enough”. This video is of her answering 6 questions from the floor.

Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks to the kind sponsorship of Chaos and Mayhem Limited I attended, with the pod, the Action at the Farm today at Alan Gibbs Farm in Kaukapakapa.

I have never been to Gibbs Farm and was blown away with what Alan has achieved there. He gave a speech. For those who have heard Alan speak before you can well imagine how execrable it was, but his speeches are legendary and when you are as rich as Croesus you just don’t care what people think about you or anything else you have to say.

However it was interesting from the historical perspective of the farm. He bought the farm in 1991 and paid just $250,000 for the land. Surely it is worth many millions now. He also explained that not a single hill on the farm is the same as when he bought it, that he views the land as part of his sculpture. And he isn’t finished yet!

The property is magnificent, but I’d hate to be the one who mows the lawns. I have attached a slideshow of the art and sculpture.

Rodney Hide also spoke and gave his vision for election year to the faithful adherents. I particularly liked the focus of the policy mix. Not as broad as before and focussing on sensible deliverables that will steady New Zealand. The two key planks that will drive other initiative is “One Law for All” and a version of a TABOR which will seek to limit the expansion of the state. This is vintage Act and it is pleasing to see that they are focussing on the economy as a central platform. Rodney also outlined the goal is for at least 8 MPs. That means they have to get around 6% and on current polling that just isn’t going to happen.

Still the TABOR is a good idea and one long past due in New Zealand since Labour just ignores the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

MPs in attendence were Hilary Calvert, Heather Roy and John Boscawen. Had short chats with John and Hilary, Heather is obviously still in a snit with me. Also saw David Garrett. ACT’s Botany candidate, Lyn Murphy, was there as well, good to see her campaigning hard for the people of Botany in Kaukapakapa. I also caught up with Dick Quax who was looking pretty chipper even after helping Jami-lee Ross put up all his signs yesterday.

I also saw Sean Plunket and Michelle Boag there. The Act staffers were trying to tack down Plunket because apparently he bludged his way in. I have no idea why Michelle Boag was there. Maybe she wants to tank Act like she did in 2002 with National. Anyway while everyone else was walking around the magnificent farm, there was Boag was swanning around in the back of  a Jeep like the mistress of the manor.

It was a fantastic day and I appreciate the kind generosity of my sponsor, Chaos and Mayhem Limited.

This snap from The NZ Herald succintly shows the utter difference between left and right, Act and Labour.

Left v. Right, Act v. Labour, Right v. Wrong

I am sure you all remember Kevin Campbell of “John the Jew” fame. Well the stupid little coup plotter and disaffected ex-ACT member has raised his head again for another bullet to the forehead.

He has sent an open letter to Rodney Hide waxing lyrical about Yeltsin and other and about how great he is. Here is an example of his deluded fantasies;

Now that I have read the 2010 conference speeches and chorus of negative media reports since then, I feel confident that my deep concerns expressed to the board, in writing, are well founded.

I believe ACT is in deep trouble.

There is no doubt that the party has foundered since Richard Prebble departed in 2004. ACT has polled dismally, usually in the 1-2% range, except for the return of Sir Roger Douglas in 2008. His comeback was a rescue mission that delivered an election poll result of 3.65%.

Ok, so, can you hear that sound Kevin?…you can’t?…that sound….still can’t?….That is because it is the sound of no-one caring.

You have left the party because you are a c*nt and no-one likes traitors. Who cares about Richard Prebble, clearly he is mired in the past along with Yeltsin. He has sent this email everywhere (I mean even I got it) and one good ACT member has responded.

Dear Kevin

I know nothing of you except what you have written here, and the most significant revelation here is the following statement

“I referred to the prime minister in a blog as John the Jew. I admit it wasn’t a smart comment and it could be viewed negatively by some, but it was off-the-cuff and not intended to be racially offensive in any way. Even so I offered John Key my genuine apology which he accepted with thanks. The matter should have ended there but I underestimated my opponents to the board, which included you and the party president, you chose to escalate the issue into something unsavory to discredit me and damage my election chances.”

It’s pleasing to see that you realise it wasn’t a smart comment, and even more pleasing to see that ACT chose to escalate the issue to the point that you resigned.  Its also a relief to read that the comment was off-the-cuff; had it been the result of careful consideration, ACT would have had to consider even more drastic measures.

Given your obvious continuing interest in politics, and a clear talent for self-exculpation, I’m trying to think of how you could resuscitate your political career.  Iran seems the obvious place.  Even then, you would have to be careful to ensure that you limited your “off-the-cuff” religious slurs to foreign politicians in a fairly limited set of countries.  Check with the President there (Ahmadinejad) before you repeat this sort of performance.  He’s not a model of diplomacy but he hasn’t yet made an apparently sneering comment about the religion of anyone above him in the pecking order.  Good luck.

PS: Have a look at your genealogy.  If you go back far enough, you may find a Jewish ancestor.

That is simply the best slap-down ever. As you can see Kevin Campbell, traitor, coup plotter and ex-ACT member thinks, strangely, that he somehow matters and the Board of ACT and Rodney care what he has to say. Now that is really delusional.

He should STFU and remember he has left and ACT is all the better for it.

David Farrar has a rather tame post about ACT VP candidate Kevin Campbell making derogatory comments about John Key’s Jewish heritage.

Kevin Campbell is also running around saying that Roger “Yeltsin” Douglas is endorsing his candidature.

Frankly anyone endorsed by the Boris Yeltsin of New Zealand politics deserves a right good smacking. What a tosser putting an endorsement by Yeltsin on his brochure.

Clearly this twat needs to rejoin Labour from whence he came

And my sources tell me that this is just another play at failing at a leadership coup by Yeltsin against Hide. Campbell and another tosser by the name of Tashkoff are always moaning worse than a whore who has been short changed.

Well getting the support of Yeltsin, who couldn’t count to three at the latest attempted coup is like having Pol Pot endorse your nomination for the Nobel peace prize.

They are traitors and should be carded.

In National if some tosser went around claiming the support of an MP they wouldn’t get within a bulls roar of a nomination. Party members do not like being instructed how to vote by the parliamentary wing and it almost always ends in ignominious failure for the poseur.

Here is a video of Roger Douglas hard at work on his next book – Finishing my Business

PS I am not an ACT party member

PPS Note to DPF when putting a hit on actually hit the target. Don’t gum them like Nana with her teeth out.