Jacinda Ardern has continued to meddle in Australian political affairs, this time echoing the crim-hugging predilection of her deputy.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern believes Australia should only be deporting Kiwis if they have genuine affiliations with New Zealand.

Her comments follow revelations that a quarter of the 1023 New Zealand deportees forced out of Australia over the past two years have been convicted of reoffending.

Of the 252 convicted deportees, 25 per cent ended up behind bars, a police Official Information Act response has revealed.

Speaking on Tuesday, Ardern said it was important that only deportees with roots in New Zealand were sent back here.

Really? If they loved Australia so much how come they’ve never taken up citizenship?

Why should Australia have to put up with Kiwi ratbags?

“The point that we’ve always made is … about making sure those who were only genuinely affiliated, and had roots here in New Zealand, were being deported.

“There are a number of contested cases where it is very clear that those individuals who are being deported actually have very firm connections, very firm roots in Australia.”

She felt those who had strong links to New Zealand were less likely to offend than those who did not have an established support network.

“We were seeing originally those being sent back, having absolutely no connection here.”

So what? They have broken Australian law, the roots and connections they have are criminal roots and connections. Australia has decided they don’t want them there and so send them back to NZ. Jacinda Ardern is once again meddling in Aussie affairs.

They may well have connections to Australia, but they are criminal ratbags, and unfortunately they’re our criminal ratbags.

Labour continues to show voters that they represent the rights of the criminal classes. For someone who doesn’t like “judginess”, she sure seems to be a  bit judgy on Australia.

-Fairfax

The gravy train just got a lot longer. The policy was supposedly all about helping young people to get training that will help them to get ahead in life but now they have extended the policy to include literally everyone. How is it an efficient use of taxpayer money to allow people who have retired to amuse themselves with a year of free University education?

An 87 Year Old College Student Named Rose

New Zealanders both old and young who have done less than six months of tertiary education will have a year of free education from next year.

The long-awaited details of the Government’s first-year-free tertiary policy were announced in Porirua yesterday, with Education Minister Chris Hipkins estimating 80,000 people would be eligible.

That split would likely be 30,000 students at university and 50,000 at private institutions, polytechnics, and apprenticeships and industry training.

There is no age restriction, with the Government paying for the first year of study up to $12,000.

If that is the case then his estimate will be well out. There are plenty of retired folks who would enjoy a year at University. I would do it at 70 just for shits and giggles as Cam would say and I would wind up all my SJW professors while I was at it. I would take all the stupid courses like Women’s studies and I would calmly destroy all the arguments against white men and the patriarchy. Oh, what fun I would have. I can’t be the only person who can see the possibilities this open-ended free money for everyone policy has created?

The Japan Daily Press415 × 260Search by image
98 year old university student returns to school in Osaka

“It’s great news for young people who are finishing school and adults who have in the past been put off because of the cost, and it provides a genuine incentive to keep learning. This government is passionate about life-long learning,” Hipkins said.

How is training a 75-year-old a reasonable use of the government’s resources? The Labour government are like parents who are incapable of setting limits on their children. There should absolutely be an age limit on the policy.

“Employers have also been calling for bold forward thinking to build a future workforce with new skills to meet changing demands. That’s what this policy will deliver.”

The Government has budgeted for a three percent increase in students, or about an additional 2000 students, and has allocated $380 million in the current financial year for the scheme and the already-announced rise in student loans and allowances.

[…] Dr Rod Carr, vice chancellor of Canterbury University, told Newsroom last month there had already been a spike in enrolments for next year.

If student numbers do dramatically increase, especially with the policy due to extend to three years by 2024, questions will likely arise about how tertiary institutions are funded and whether that funding needs to be increased.

Carr said that once the Government was paying tuition on behalf of almost all domestic students, institutions would face incentives to cap and reduce that cost.

New Zealand had one of the highest rates of money going through students to the institutions rather than directly as funding to institutions, he said.

“It is the case that money follows the students and as student interest ebbs and flows that can have adverse impacts on capacity.”

I expect a large percentage of those who sign up for the free year will not go on for a second year because the policy will attract those who previously were not considering tertiary study.

Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said the Government had indicated no university would be short-changed in the first year, but agreed there were longer-term concerns.

“The average fee is about $6000 a year … but we’re absolutely nervous in future years that the Government could start shaving off that.”

-newsroom.co.nz

They should be nervous. This government has bitten off more than it can chew and the cutbacks will be made at the tertiary institutions when economic reality hits.

Labour are muscling up, despite the smiles from Jacinda Ardern, over work for the dole.

Richard Harman at Politik reports:

Employment Minister Willie Jackson says he shares Shane Jones’ passion to get Maori unemployment down and he has proposed a package of measures in a paper to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to address the issue.

He met Jones yesterday and agreed to incorporate some of Jones’ ideas in his paper.

But he says he stops short at Jones’ “work for the dole” proposals.

And he says that idea would never be accepted by Labour or “the boss” – Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.  

He says that jobs that are funded by the Government have to be real jobs “not just scrub cutting.”

Jackson and Jones are both outspoken, high profile Maori who have also both returned to Parliament after a period of being away.

They have both come back with a mission to address Maori unemployment.

They come from different backgrounds; Jackson the urban Maori media star and one time left-wing MP and Jones the establishment bureaucrat and businessman with strong connections into more conservative provincial Maori society.

They always moan about “not real jobs” but you have to start somewhere, and you have learn to get up in the morning and go to work.

However, both are seized with wanting to bring down the Maori unemployment figures.

The September 2017 Household Labour Force survey showed Maori unemployment at 9.9% against European unemployment of 3.5%.

But it was Jones’ comments on “Q+A” on Sunday when he said he was taking a “Work for the Dole” policy to the Cabinet that has provoked a more widespread discussion on the issue.

“I am not going to remain silent any longer while my young ne’er-do-well nephews in Kaikohe and other places fall victims to the gangs and they’re in Disneyland,” he said.

“They’ll be made to go to work, and where it is necessary, to pay them.

“They’ll have to receive a minimum wage, but there will be no more sitting on the couch.”

Jones’ language was probably provoked by a desire by NZ First to brand themselves as distinct to Labour.

No one should be sitting in the couch. Work for the dole makes sense, but it is fraught with difficulty.

But the imperative for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is to maintain a seamless unity between Labour and NZ First.

So at her post-Cabinet press conference yesterday she said that what Jones was calling “work for the dole”, Labour was calling “ready for work.”

We are essentially talking about the same thing,” she said.

Asked about Jones’ proposal to end dole payments if unemployed didn’t take up jobs she said there already was a sanctions regime in the welfare system.

“That’s provided us with the tools to ensure that people do take up the job opportunities that are available to them.”

Semantics. I bet there are a lot of latte sipping Auckland liberals who will be aghast that their saviour, Jacinda Ardern, is looking at work for the dole. That is a “tory” solution.

Jackson though wants to see an employment strategy which strengthens communities and provides real jobs.

“You don’t fix unemployment by following Jonesy’s idea and chucking a few Maori out there cutting scrub for a few months,” he told POLITIK.

“You have to create a real job, jobs with dignity, by forming relationships with local Maori, with trade unions, with businesses.

“We have to target the Kaitaias or Northland or South Auckland or West Auckland where there are 27,000 unemployed and target these groups who have not been supported or funded by the National Government.

“I’ve been working on getting that funding across.

“There is money that is available.”

Unions have never created jobs, usually they are wrecking jobs. There is ample evidence of that, and no evidence of them building businesses and creating jobs. Asking a union how to solve unemployment isn’t the smartest thing anyone could do.

This issue is causing problems and swapping out strong words for weasel words isn’t helping anyone.

-Politik

Andrew Little has shown typical political weasel behaviour by announcing that he will be the minister responsible and ordering recovery operations, but he won’t be responsible if anything goes wrong:

The chief executive of the Pike River Recovery Agency will be held responsible if anything goes wrong with the re-entry of the drift.

Last month, the Prime Minister and Andrew Little – the Minister Responsible for the Pike River Re-entry, announced the Government would establish a government department by the end of January 2018 to assess the risk associated with a manned re-entry, and the best way to carry out the entry.

The entry of the mine’s drift, and the recovery of any remains of the 29 men killed in 2010, would be completed by March 2019.

Both Jacinda Ardern and Little said there would be risk involved with a manned re-entry, but it was up to the agency to assess the risk and to mitigate it, and if the level of risk was acceptable, go forward with the re-entry.

They also said anyone tasked with carrying out the re-entry had the right to refuse to take part in the job, if they deemed it unsafe.

At the time of the announcement, Little said the agency – Te Kahui Whakamana Rua Tekau ma Iwa (The Empowering Voice for the Pike 29) – would answer to him, and as the minister in charge, he would have the final decision.

He refused to respond to questions on who would be held liable, under New Zealand health and safety laws, if something went wrong.

However, documents relating to the establishment of the agency show the chief executive of the agency would be held legally responsible if something went wrong.

I’m sure they will be flooded with applicants for a job where there is a high chance of being prosecuted and sent to jail or receive a massive multi-million dollar fine if something went wrong. The line will be around the corner twice over I’m sure. /sarc

These muppets have no idea of commercial risk. No director would accept that level of risk, unless of course Andrew Little is about to blow the budget for this and pay a massive salary to compensate for the risk.

-Fairfax

Andrew Little seems to have embraced Labour’s criminal friendly justice policies by announcing he is looking at emptying the prisons.

There are too many people in jail who don’t need to be there, according to Justice Minister Andrew Little.  

Name one. Most people want ratbags in prison, only Labour wants to tip them onto the streets to commit more crimes.

He plans to tackle the issue by looking at the way bail laws are being applied, and he also plans to reduce Maori offending while Labour is in office.

Yeah, how are you going to do that?

The government has been faced with projections that show if nothing is done, the prison population will increase by roughly 50 per cent over the next 10 years alone, Mr Little told TV3’s The Nation on Saturday.

Some of the issues include people who should be eligible for parole but don’t have access to the addiction or counselling courses in prison that they need to undertake, Mr Little said.

“They could be out doing productive, constructive things, but they’re banged up in prison.”

They could be doing productive, constructive things while banged up in prison…like breaking rocks.

He said people in prison with mental health problems and literacy problems aren’t getting the support they need either to overcome those issues.

Meanwhile, Mr Little said there would be a specific target for reducing Maori offending, but he did not detail the possible figure.

Yeah but how?

The previous National government planned to cut the rate of Maori offending by 25 per cent by 2025.

“I think we’ve set the overall target — the 30 per cent reduction in the prison population in 15 years,” Mr Little said.

Labour are working on putting a strategy together, but have been blindsided by the projected growth of the prison population, he said.

Labour continues with their catch and release crime policies.

Jacinda Ardern said that she doesn’t lie, and wouldn’t lie. But the more the shenanigans goes on over the release of the multi-page secret coalition agreement the more Labour and Ardern are damaging their claims to be honest brokers and transparent.

Honesty and transparency were the brands that they pushed during the election, and Labour has made much of John Key’s apparent lying. Now the boot is on the other foot and they’ve commenced with their obfuscations from the get go.

For a Government vowing to be the most transparent and open the country has ever seen, it really did get stuck in the mud this week. 

That 38-page secret coalition document that’s stored in a not-so-secret safe in Winston Peters’ office has caused all sorts of headaches, for the prime minister in particular, who has been visibly frustrated about the position she’s been put in.

On Monday, it was revealed the prime minister’s office was refusing to release the document that NZ First leader and deputy prime minister Peters had previously described as “a document of precision on various areas of policy commitment and development”.

The longer it goes on the more the mud sticks, it is already a morass up to their ankles and sucking their gum boots off. They have no one to blame but themselves.

So why has the Government spent the whole week battling headlines on this and undergoing forensic-style questioning in the House over who did and didn’t have access to the document, and other trivial matters like its font size?

Because Ardern resorted to a political operative approach rather than the one she’s better known for, honesty.

Over time, former prime minister John Key nailed the art of just saying he got it wrong, throwing his hands in the air, shrugging his shoulders and moving on.

The public appetite for that approach far exceeds the spin-doctoring one that was used this week by the Government.

Her honesty card has been handed in, now she is sneaky, furtive and obfuscatory.

The excuses used by Leader of the House Chris Hipkins and Ardern for why they ended up giving unnecessary select committee concessions to National because they didn’t know their numbers in the House were simply farcical.

Their insistence it was better to give National concessions and avoid a vote for Speaker Trevor Mallard to ensure he was elected unanimously was utter nonsense.

The Government would have saved themselves weeks of headlines if they’d just admitted they weren’t 100 per cent sure of their numbers, asked for a vote and come out the other end with their Speaker and their integrity intact.

Silly stuff from the boy wonder, who is proving to be as inept as everyone thought, along with a number of other Labour ministers.

They are so full of themselves and believe their own spin about how competent they are, but they are making amateur mistakes.

What is becoming increasingly obvious is that Labour had no plan to govern, all they had were a collection of bumper sticker slogans and they’ve been paddling furiously ever since up Shit Creek.

The Ponsoby News latest issue has a fawning article about Golriz Ghahraman.

In that article it says that upon arrival in New Zealand in 1990 when she was nine years old :

Golriz had had little education and spoke only broken English.

But hang on…schooling in Iran starts at age six, so she should have had three years of schooling. She wasn’t living in a war zone as we’ve now discovered, despite her claims to the contrary.

Worse, when she clarified her position on the witnessing of air raids, it as apparently while she was in Tehran on her “school holidays”. They were the unluckiest of holidays, coinciding with the end of the only 53 days where Tehran was targeted by Scud missiles from Iraq.

For the benefit of Ghahraman who condemns US involvement in the Iran-Iraq war and the use of US sourced weapons, a Scud missile is made in Russia…and at that time, Soviet Russia.

Nonetheless, there is another contradiction about her upbringing that needs explaining more fully.

Either she went to school and had those glorious holidays in Tehran at a time when 2 million residents of Tehran were fleeing in the other direction…or she had little education and spoke only broken English. In the meantime she has sure made up for with a classic whiny, question-asking-at-the-end-of-the-sentence Kiwi accent.

None of her multiple stories match up. This MP has been glossing over, hiding and in some instances outright lying about her past.

If only she had just told the truth, but then that was never a really sexy story that would have elevated her so high on the Greens list. Then again, having the close personal support of the leader always helps in that regard.

You may recall Golriz Ghahraman could not remember on Larry Williams radio on Monday about how she ended up as an intern for the defence team and suggested the UN may have assigned her.

It might interest readers, and those journalists who care about a lying MP embellishing her CV, that the UN does not have an intern program for the defence team. It only has one for prosecutors.

There is even a recruitment video about it that is lying around in a dark corner of the internet called Youtube.

The accused hires a counsel from a pool of lawyers that have passed a check on qualifications and a police check for criminal convictions. There is means tested legal aid paid by the UN for these independent contractors.

It is absurd to suggest that either the court or the prosecution can allocate staff to the defence team.

If the court or the prosecutor hires members of your defence team, that defence team obviously compromised fatally.

The lead counsel may choose to run his own intern program.

You must choose which side you intern for and are more likely to get a job in the defence team because the jobs are odious. The interning for the prosecution would be more competitive.

So for Golriz Ghahraman to claim she was in a paid intern role appointed by the UN is a false claim. Yet another one. She would have been hired, both in The Hague and in Tanzania by the lead defence counsel.

While we are speaking about legal teams, Golriz Ghahramen also claimed in her maiden speech that:

I remembered, getting notes and emails from my female interns, especially of minority backgrounds– telling me over and over again how much it meant to see someone like them forge that path. Some of them are carrying that mantle today. I realised then that it was important for that process to have victim of governance by repression and mass murder stand up in those courtrooms, mostly dominated by Western men. Representation matters.

Which is just her inherent racism against white people disguised as virtue-signalling, and more importantly is a lie as well that is proved by her own Facebook photos:

Note that she is the palest person in the photo. There isn’t a single Western man in that photo. This is just more of her mis-truths, lies and falsehoods designed to make her sound like she had far greater role in these tribunals than she has led us all to believe.

Make no mistake, we are going to uncover the rest of her misleading statements and right now I am aware of investigations being undertaken in Iran and in Cambodia.

So far not a single one of her statements are wholly true. Sure, there is a little bit of truth in them, but by and large they are falsehoods. We will get tot he bottom of them.