crambosley

I always get pushback when I critique the public service. I get that; we have an important role & are under pressure. But take seriously the Auditor General’s comments: that it was MoH’s job to have pushed back harder than they did. It’s not MoH’s job to just say “yes Minister!”

I was going to write something about this - but Lilly has put it far more eloquently and accurately than I could. If we care about productivity, delivery, capability, or cost - this is a bad idea.

Dr Lester Levy was brought on as Commissioner at Te Whatu Ora to turn around our financially crippled health system. He's paid $320k p.a to work a 3 day week. Today was his first appearance with the Health Select Committee but he failed to bring the requested financial reports

David Seymour still relying on the now defunct Curia Research to claim support for his Treaty Principles Bill. Curia recently packed it up before they were suspended by Research Association NZ for bias in their survey data.

Christopher Luxon’s claims about 14 levels of management at Health NZ is nothing but spin, to justify #healthcuts. The govt knew they’d need more money to make sure we had enough nurses and so they were paid better, but chose not to fund them. 1/n

Why does it matter that many of the world's most influential peer-reviewed academic journals systematically censor submissions related to Israeli violence against Palestinians? The ICC relies in part on scientific evidence to bring charges for criminal acts. By refusing to 1/

Here's @Kieran_McAnulty's excellent speech in the House today on the government's review of Kāinga Ora: "I do not accept that placing Sir Bill English, the man who oversaw the wholesale of our state houses while he was Finance Minister, as anywhere near independent."

@henrycooke @dpfdpf @jacktame Why does closing day of voting have to be results day? So much of the drama around late enrollment was directly about having partial/inconclusive results. Why not publish when they are all counted and go to a caretaker govt process in the interim (which is what happens anyway)

@dpfdpf @jacktame I agree with you that there is a wider cultural shift happening with advance voting and that should shift some dates such as debates or major policy announcements. I don't think we're there enough yet to say election day is no longer election day.

Good clear piece from @jacktame on same-day enrolment, which was not the sole cause of the EC's woes. At the end of the day it is the job of the electoral system to make it as easy to vote as possible. Any retreat from that is a retreat for democracy. 1news.co.nz/2024/05/10/jac…

I cannot fathom that I live in a place where anyone thinks that funnelling money to millionnaires is worth this thekaka.substack.com/p/paying-for-t…

@LewSOS @KyleDChurch @Jaksnzz Is extreme bias on the editorial desk not sufficient? I don't think we would need all or even a majority of individual reporters to be compromised in order for editorial bias to be a cause for concern. Bias at the top impacts resourcing, time, and final approval. That's enough.

@Crambosley @KyleDChurch @Jaksnzz If I recall, this report is partly based on confirmation from NYT writers unhappy with their own editorial desk and its conduct of the inquiry. That in itself is enough to illustrate that there is no hivemind

Yesterday: how dare Newshub report the PM's statements Today: how dare Newshub report the oppn's statements How can they win? Except by appointing Kyle as political editor obviously. newshub.co.nz/home/politics/…

@LewSOS @KyleDChurch @Jaksnzz Lew even when they have access they're not impartial. Honestly grapple with what the article here represents: seeking confirmation rather than proof from wildly unreliable sources - and in violation of their own standards. This is bias, explicitly theintercept.com/2024/02/28/new…

@KyleDChurch @Jaksnzz I fully believe that nothing would be better for sustaining the condemnation of the IDF than if Israeli and international journalists were allowed to see the war for themselves. That is why the IDF does not permit it. I say blame the IDF for that, not the BBC, CNN, NYT, &c

Imagine being the person who was like, you know where we could save money? Disabled children’s swimming lessons nzherald.co.nz/nz/disability-…

Blindsided: Shock changes to disability funding leave the community and carers reeling bit.ly/3yQUVzA #Newshub

Here's @jacktame grilling Chris Bishop over the new fast-track process that will allow the government to override court decisions that have blocked large-scale projects for environmental reasons:

An Atlas Network press release claims their NZ partner, The Taxpayers' Union, was instrumental in getting Prime Minister Ardern to dump the idea of a capital gains tax through their #AxeThisTax campaign in 2019. atlasnetwork.org/articles/nztu-… /23

Inflation has now fallen from 7.2% to 4.7% without significant cuts to government spending, and on a quarterly basis is now within the the target range. Inflation doesn’t appear to have been driven by government spending in any significant way.

@Greshark @Krissie_r @MicheleACourt 🙌🙌 Agreed, and notably a subsidy requires money collected by the government elsewhere to be given out (in this case to the purchaser of a new car), whereas a tax on ICE car purchases takes money in from new car purchasers that can be spent somewhere (anywhere!?) else

@Krissie_r @MicheleACourt I'm aware that the idea was to increase the uptake of EVs I just personally think how they did it was regressive. If combustion vehicles became substantially more expensive through adequate taxation it would lead to the same behavioural changes with additional benefits.

@FrankMcRae None of this disagrees with your main point - so much going to consultants- but it's not generic PM or business support work, it's doing the stuff the Ministry of Works would have done in house. For 2 or 3x the price. Because small govt + free market is more efficient?

@FrankMcRae Second would be that there's a huge requirement for enabling technology to be built that allows management of bespoke considerations affecting progression of the project and given how far down the line it was it's likely much of that was in place or close to.