Kate Wilkinson

Yesterday in my post on the National party mainland conference, there was this comment:

Minarchist_kiwi

This weekend’s National party Mainland conference in Hamner Springs will probably skirt around the most important issue…where is the new blood coming through to replace the inevitable retirements?

• Colin King will be on the pension before the next election
• Nick Smith is rumoured to have a major international appointment lined up
• Chris Auchinvole has health issues and will retire
• Kate Wilkinson got the arse from cabinet and will get beaten in Waimak if she runs again
• Gerry Brownlee will either burst or retire   Read more »

Hekia Parata is away on holiday working like a navvy in Europe at an Education Conference that conveniently happens to be in Amsterdam, followed by a little side trip to Paris, taking along union bosses for a little sharing of the trough in a bid to try to tame them.

Here is her week in review, she started in London:

London today with Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. twitter.com/hekiaparata/st…

— Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 11, 2013

Then she attended a Commonwealth Day function:

Attended the Commonwealth Day reception at Marlborough House in London. Great to catch up with Sir Anand Satyanand. twitter.com/hekiaparata/st… — Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 12, 2013

Then she and “her team” whizzed off to Amsterdam:

Just arrived in Amsterdam with the NZ Union & Teacher Leader delegation to attend the 2013 International Summit on the Teaching Profession. — Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 12, 2013

Read more »

The Herald seems to think that Richard Prosser has an electorate when they went and canvassed opinion about his “Wogistan” comments:

Read more »

Matt McCarten has turned his brain off and written a silly, snarky piece for Herald on Sunday about how unpopular John Key apparently is with the Exclusive Bro-thren’s.

I have called them a cult church and I will repeat it again, they are the Exclusive Bro-thren. Who cares if a bunch of sect Maori like you or not?  They even changed the rules banning women speaking on a Marae when it suited them.  When rules are changed for Metiria Turei to speak you know those extending the pleasure are an extremist bunch of nutters belonging on a list with Destiny Church.

McCarten has gone all whiny again about the sacking of Kate Wilkinson and a guy I have already forgotten. Phil? The guy who John Key  stuck his neck out for before.

Given they only got told about it hours before their dear leader gratuitously humiliated them revealed something ugly in Key’s psychological makeup.  Read more »

Good morning and welcome to the Saturday general debate. There’s been some dimwitted shenanigans this week, with Gareth Morgan dominating the headlines for the dumbest of reasons by alienating cat owners and of course fans of the Wellington Phoenix. There has also been debate surrounding the cabinet reshuffle with the return of Nelson MP Nick Smith and the promotion of Nikki Kaye, making way for them were Phil Heatly and and Kate Wilkinson.

The gay marriage debate is heating up again, featuring plenty of times this week with Colin Craig kicking off his year with his controversial comments that society is right to discriminate against gay relationships.

Of course as always the topic is open for debate, go for your lives.

Scott Yorke is perhaps the best left wing blogger in the country right now. He takes a satirical look at John Key’s reshuffle:

The biggest winner is Dr Nick Smith. He returns to Cabinet after his fall from grace last year, and is appointed as Minister for Creating a Perception of Crisis in Order to Justify Savage Cutbacks in Entitlements.

Dr Smith’s interest in resource issues has also resulted in his appointment as Minister for Exploiting High Political Office for the Benefit of Friends.

Steven Joyce remains Minister for Economic Development, Minister of Science and Innovation, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, and Associate Minister of Finance. A new super-ministry is to be created to encompass these various portfolios, and will be called the Ministry of Squashing Ambition and Innovation at their Conception (MOSAIC).

Read more »

John Key has manned up and axed a totally useless minister. Kate Wilkinson increased union membership and had the support of the opposition Labour spokeswoman, had pissed off business and managed to have a business run a public campaign against her because she was so useless.

The problem for John Key is his one seat majority. Kate holds her seat by 642 votes. If Kate decides that she has been humiliated and would be better leaving parliament, forcing a by-election, it is highly likely Clayton Cosgrove will win the seat.  Read more »

John Key has announced his new cabinet, and has axed Kate Wilkinson and Phil Heatley.

I can understand Wilkinson, she was inept. Someone in Bill ENglish’s team had to get the axe to cover for Hekia Parata and so it was Kate. But I can’t for the life of me work out Phil Heatley…is John Key saying that Phil did a worse job than Hekia?

There is some bullshit in the press release about National nominating David Carter. Many MPs I have spoken to have wondered if they missed the caucus meeting resolving that particular nomination. This is a Bil English inspired stitch up that shows that Bill and his bratpack mates are very much still causing grief in the formerly smoke filled rooms. The nomination of Carter, ostensibly for his large donation gathering ability rather than any talent is a sop to rehabilitate Nick Smith.

Although there is some renewal bringing back Nick Smith and promoting Carter shows that Key is still beholden to Bill English, and rewards tired old faces.

The renewal looks promising with Simon Bridges rising into cabinet and taking on the Labour portfolio. Let’s hope he is small-dicked about his job in that role.

The full list is:  Read more »

Labour has as one of its core policies that they will lift the minimum wage. The green taliban support that as well and if they have their way would lift it even higher.

Perennially the politicians of the left clamour for the lifting of the minimum wage claiming that it will lift workers out of poverty…of course they ignore the fact that the minimum wage is far higher now than it used to be and yet the workers at that level are still poor relatively. They are allowed to get away with it because right thinking politicians have poorly thought out rebuttals for the [il]logic of the left.

Worse still National had Kate Wilkinson as labour minister for a time, and she was overly sympathetic to union demands.

The same call is being made in the US to lift the minimum wage and Evan Soltas at Bloomberg says that must be resisted…and goes further and proposes an alternative to the minium wage…an extension of the modification of our Working for Families, but with much more aggressive abatement regime.

Liberal arguments for increasing the minimum wage have a fundamental flaw: They restrict the set of policy choices to either a minimum wage increase or doing nothing. That means they overlook the single most important federal policy for the poor: the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The EITC is a measure in the federal tax code to support the living standards of the poor without creating a “welfare trap” by diminishing the incentive to work. Economists widely consider the credit a success for reducing poverty while increasing employment.  Read more »