Kate Wilkinson

National is becoming more and more like the last days of the Helen Clark government.

They are focussing on silly regulatory issues, like kitchen facilities at child care centres.

Early childhood centre managers are questioning a new law that means they will have to pay thousands of dollars to be allowed to cook and serve food on their premises.

Under the Food Act 2014 and Food Regulations 2015, Early childhood education (ECE) centres that serve food prepared by staff had until March 31 to register with their local council or the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).   Read more »

Following on from earlier posts we have looked at the Council of Trade Unions and their income stream. As may be expected the CTU gets income from its affiliates, but surprisingly this is only a very small amount of the money they received in the last financial year.

Looking further into where the CTU gets its income from, we find they have a lot of what looks like state subsidised money filling their coffers.   Read more »

The Northland by-election has caused something of a permanent problem for John Key, not just a short-term headache.

If Winston doesn’t win there is nothing to stop him having a go in another by-election, and he has shown that just about any seat, no matter how big a national majority, is in play.

This means Key is in a very difficult position.

He cannot high handedly give Cabinet ministers the arse like he did to Kate Wilkinson or Phil Heatley, or sack them like he did with Maurice Williamson and Judith Collins, or demote them like he did with Chester Borrows and Craig Foss.   Read more »

Clayton Cosgrove’s career is all but over, even if he hasn’t realised it yet.

Despite a lifetime of trying to emulate Mike Moore he has succeeded only as matching his girth.

He got out muscled for the nomination in Christchurch East, then Christchurch Central, then he managed to lose in Waimakariri.    Read more »

It’s no wonder party donors are expressing dismay with the Nats when businesses are being bogged down in employment courts thanks to the inaction of Labour Minister Simon Bridges.

Simon seems more at ease camping up for a farewell to Tony Ryall than worrying about little things like his legislation clogging up the Employment courts

Take the Employment Court case Matsuola v LSG Sky Chefs NZ. This case has been bogged down by lawyers fighting over the complicated and confusing Part 6A since early 2011.    Read more »

National has now been in power for five and a half years, and has done bugger all to redress the imbalance between unions and employers.

Ministers Kate Wilkinson and Simon Bridges have utterly failed to do anything to curb union excesses, despite unions being the largest donors and supporters of the opposition Labour Party.

They have repeatedly capitulated to their advisors.

In the United Kingdom the Tories actually understand that the unions are the enemy. So they are pushing through legislation to clip unions wings at election time.

Sweeping measures being considered for inclusion in next year’s Tory manifesto would put an end to rolling strike campaigns by forcing union bosses to re-ballot their members every three months

This is a good start. Removing pay cheque deductions would also be useful.  Read more »

If there’s one thing a Prime Minister has to be recognised for, it is being on top of their portfolios.

Helen Clark and Heather Simpson were all over ministerial portfolios like a rash. John Key is likewise at the top of the game, and while preferring a more managerial style, he certainly expects his Ministers to deliver on the workload expected of someone earning over $260,000 a year.

Leadership candidates need that sort of reputation to come through strongly right from the start.

In this ongoing series, we explore the push to have Simon Bridges positioned as a future leader of the National Party, and look at some of the criticisms coming through about Bridges, including the view that he’s captured by officials and close to the unions.

Let’s put aside for the moment the 200,000 acres of parkland that’s now got the Green Taliban’s puppet-masters Greenpeace calling for his sacking.   Read more »

It’s quite amazing how rabid Green Taliban activists get. Take for example old Steffan Browning.

Just a month before the November 2011 General Election which saw this fool enter Parliament, Browning was the spokesperson for another fruit-loop organisation, the Soil & Health Association – Organic NZ.

As spokesman he banged off a media release saying the Government must separate GE food in NZ shops, issuing a challenge to FIGJAM Simon Power and Comrade Kate Wilkinson about GE. A key plank of this attack was a study by a scientist called Gilles Seralini.   Read more »

Our pinko mate cuts and pastes parts of Tracy Watkins article, adds a few sentences and posts it without much analysis.

What he doesn’t point out is that there appears to be no clear strategy to National moving people on. Individuals have chosen to leave of their own accord, or ambitious new people have stacked electorates so they can successfully challenge sitting MPs. Lets look at the seven that have retired.

Phil Heatley – Was given the arse by John Key from cabinet a year ago, couldn’t see much point in hanging around. Off to a new career.
Cam Calder – Successful man going nowhere in politics, better off doing something else.
Paul Hutchinson – Difficult missus. Was going to get hammered by a well organised selection challenge.
Chris Tremain – Difficult missus, wanted to make more money, internal polling was showing he would get beaten in Napier by Stuart Nash.
Katrina Shanks – Electorate stacked against her for selection so getting out with dignity.
Chris Auchinvole – Dodgy ticker, no real future in politics and lots of interesting things to do outside of politics.
Kate Wilkinson – Got the arse at the same time as Heatley, mainly for being far too cosy with the unions.   Read more »

National’s renewal is well underway with useless union hugging MP Kate Wilkinson announcing her retirement along with Katrina Shanks.

Waimakariri MP Kate Wilkinson has joined the growing list of National MPs who will quit politics at the 2014 general election.

In a statement released this morning, on the day she flew to the Maldives as part of a Commonwealth Observer group, she said she said it was time to consider “fresh challenges and opportunities”.

Her decision was hinted at two weeks ago when National’s Canterbury-Westland regional chairman Roger Bridge stopped short of endorsing her for the Waimakariri nomination, saying he would “have a chat with Kate about that”.  Read more »