One of the favoured parliamentary question approaches of recent times has been for a government backbencher to ask “Has the Minister seen any reports of alternative approaches to dealing with the economic crisis” (or whatever issue). This is followed by (often irrelevant and meaningless) comparisons to something a former Labour Minister said 20 years ago.
Well, for the benefit of the Ministers of Finance and Education, here is an alternative approach for dealing with the effects of the recession. The Australian Government is providing training places at TAFEs (polytechnics) for those who lose their jobs. This is exactly what could have been part of the nine-day fortnight, or indeed a stand-alone policy. It recognises that if you are serious about improving productivity, training and skill development are the key.
I am particularly taken with Kevin Rudd’s quote
The government cannot stop the global recession from bearing down on communities across Australia but it can reduce the impact by taking local action to support training and jobs.
John Key seems to understand the first half of that quote, but is a lot less focused on the second half, and NZ is the poorer for that.
Posted in Finance and Education. |
Tonight in Parliament we debated two private members bill about the medicinal use of cannabis and limiting advertising of alcohol on television and radio. For the Labour Party these are conscience votes (ie we vote as individuals rather than on party lines). Even though both Bills were lost by a large margin, I want to outline my reasons for supporting the Bills to go to a Select Committee for further consideration.
1. Medicinal Cannabis. The Bill is very poorly written. It establishes a regime whereby people are given cards by doctors that will allow them to grow and smoke cannabis for personal medical use. To me this is a clumsy way of allowing access to cannabis based products for treatment of pain and chronic illness. In particular the idea of perscribing smoking is something that I think is wrong. Another issue was the list of conditions in the schedule to the Bill included some conditions, such as schizophrenia, that I do not think would be appropriate to be treated with cannabis products.
If the Bill had continued in its current form I would not have been able to continue to support it. But I do think it is worth having a debate about this issue. There is already a product (Satavax) that is a cannabis derivative and can be perscribed. But this is not accessible or affordabe for a wide range of people. A large number of countries have cannabis products for pain relief, and we should at least be adult enough to discuss the issue.
2. Television/Radio Adveristing of Alcohol. This Bill attempted to place a ban on television/radio advertising of alcohol. I actually do not support a total ban, but rather some greater restrictions, particularly in terms of the times advertisements are on and the nature of some advertisements. Again I felt that we needed to have the debate at the Select Committee to explore the issues around television advertising and see if there was a workable compromise. In this case there is a great deal of work going on around this issue at the Law Commission, and on other pieces of legislation, so I think the issue will be back with us before long.
So, in the end neither Bill made it past First Reading. Such is the nature of democracy.
Posted in Democracy. |
Sitting in Parliament during Question Time over the last few weeks we have been treated to a daily diet of Crosby Textor messages from Bill English. As ever they are at best trite, at worst plain untrue. I have a grudging admiration for Bill English’s discipline in reciting them day after day, but really he could be a bit more creative than just saying them over and over again. He is the only National MP showing real commitment to using them. Others are simply not getting them into every sentence.
For the benefit of those who have not tuned in lately, the current Crosby Textor approved phrases are
- ” the sharp edges of the recession”
- ” the road to recovery”
- ” ten years of economic mismanagement” (oddly often mentioned at the same time as New Zealand having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world…)
- ” we cannot turn back the tide of the global recession”
Today’s effort from Bill English deserves special attention as he manages all of them in one go. Well done Bill, a special commemorative Koala will be on its way to you from Mark and Lynton.
Posted in Crosby Textor. |
