Steven Joyce repeats this in the Press this morning, and makes it clear that National has no real commitment to the interest free student loans policy, saying it was a “political call” to keep it.

But what really gets me about Joyce’s comments is his perpetuating of the myth that interest free student loans mean there is no incentive to pay back the loan.

“The simple point is, if you don’t pay interest on any loan – forget student loans for a second – then there is less incentive to pay it back than if you do pay interest.”

This totally ignores the point that the student loan, unlike any normal loan, is automatically paid back at 10c in the dollar once you earn more than the annually adjusted threshold, currently $19,084. Its not a question of an incentive to pay the loans back as that the law mandates that you do that, essentially as soon as you start working. If we are going to have a loan scheme, that seems to me to be a fair way of paying it back. I suspect Joyce is in fact concerned about the cost to the Crown of the scheme. If so, let’s talk about that, rather than perpetuating myths about how the scheme operates.

A packed courtroom erupted with anger and frustration as Nelson court staff walked off the job again yesterday. Security fears have been raised over the strength of anger in the public gallery, with one lawyer urging the court to lift security in the event of future walk-outs.

Clearly many people in Court, both the accused and victims, will be in a high state of emotional stress, and it seems some of them vented their concern. In addition cases are being delayed as the dispute has been going on for months.

It is interesting in a series of articles in the Nelson Mail on this issue, and backed by my discussions with lawyers, they have a great deal of sympathy for the case of the Court workers. They do a number of very important jobs that allow our judicial system to operate. They are not well paid, with many earning around $30,000 mark. Overall they are paid 7% lower than the public service median for their job type.

My understanding is that the claim with the Ministry of Justice is a modest one. It does include putting in place salary scales, with pay steps so employees can see the potential for some progression on the basis of satisfactory performance. This is a regular feature of collecitve contracts, and does not seem unreasonable.

While the negotiating is not done by Ministers, it is time for the Minister of Courts and the Minister of Justice to show some leadership, and work with the Justice Ministry to resolve this case. A big part of the problem is that the Justice Ministry is bound by the de-facto pay freeze being imposed by the government. But this sutations is now getting serious. Too many cases are now been held up, and it is clear that tensions are rising.

These issues are not confined to New Zealand of course. In the UK there have been some very interesting developments at a local level to encourage much greater participation by communities. The latest of these is a proposal to make the Lambeth Council in London a ‘John Lewis Council’. John Lewis was businessman in the early 20th century who developed a business model based on a co-operative approach and profit sharing with employees.

In Lambeth they are looking at a co-operative council with residents helping to runs services, and the possibility of financial involvement further down the line. Some of the key initiatives being considered are

- An “active citizens’ dividend” offering a council tax rebate to those involved in community organisations or mutuals that take responsibility for services.
- Allowing service users and local residents to vote on turning local services such as local primary schools, Sure Start centres and youth clubs into citizen-led mutuals.
- Offering tenants more control of their housing estates by setting them up as co-operatives.
- Setting up “micro-mutuals” for people to use their personalised budgets for care service users.

It will be interesting to see how this develops. The approach is not without its pitfalls, and the capacity of local communities to take on decision making and delivery roles needs to be handled with care. The Labour led Council is keen to differentiate what they are doing from the Tory run Council in Barnet, that has been dubbed, the EasyCouncil because they are using the model of budget airlines, whereby they offer a basic service, with additional services on offer for purchase. The Leader of the Labour Council puts it this way

But while Barnet have come up with a plan to pare back what services they offer, we don’t want to. Instead we’re looking at a different settlement that will move the boundaries of who does what, getting users involved in putting together the services they want. Mutual and co-operative values will be our compass. We’ll give the voters a clear choice – cuts if you vote Tory but with us, not only fewer cuts, but also positive side- effects around community cohesion.”

I think it is entirely possible to have a level of devolution of control and decision making without it being about an ideological crusade about smaller government and cutting services. I will be watching closely to see how this develops.

The article repeats the concerns of the family Key made famous, the Nathan’s, that they felt they had been used by Key and National. Certainly the situation around Jackie Blue giving Joan Nathan a job, sacking her after the election and then claiming it was because her office had merged looks at best disingenuous. But many in the rest of the street are also unhappy.

Some are bitter that Key has used their street for political gain. “What’s he done? Nothing,” was a common refrain.

“His biggest mistake was coming here,” says social worker Vince Tuisamoa. “It will be his Achilles heel. He’s used the street, this is the street he names all the time and yet the street is still the same, we haven’t got anything.

“He promised tax relief, but the only people he’s given it to is the top people. He offered jobs, but what jobs has he given? It’s like waiting for Santa Claus, but he doesn’t come.”

In modern politics it is easy to fall for the lure of a media opportunity, if you are not coming from a solid base of values. National felt that they could reach out to new voting constituencies in 2008, and they were successful in doing so. But if it is just about the votes, and not about the plan that you have for the future it is easy to come unstuck.

Factory worker Chandra Kumar voted for National. “I thought he [Key] might bring in good change, but all those promises were lies.”

The saddest thing in many ways is that this has reinforced in the minds of many residents that politicians in general can not be trusted. I should note that some of those interviewed in the article are critical of Labour as well, but the bottom line is that these people feel used. Many felt they were being disrespected by what Key said originally, and to make matters worse he has now discarded them after being elected.

As politicians we have got to be better than that.

Herbert’s semi-afro was a lasting memory for many of us from the 1982 World Cup team. He was young at the time, but made some critical contributions, including scoring a vital goal against China in the latter stages of qualifying. On the back of it all he played professional football in the UK for Wolves. But his coaching record looks set to surpass all that.

The first two Auckland based goes at playing in the Aussie league were disasters, but under Herbert the Phoenix have steadily improved, and deserve every bit of the play-offs this time round. The team looks more balanced this year, after a couple of years relying on Shane Smeltz to score all the goals. Paul Ifill is as classier player as NZ football has seen. The Kiwis in the team have done well too. Tim Brown seems to be oozing confidence, and before he was injured Mark Paston kept the team in the game on many occasions.

The world of professional football is complicated, and things are not totally rosy. There have been issues with player payments, crowds have not quite reached the heights of the first season and the lack of a youth or reserve team means local talent like Costa Barbarouses has to go to another club to get game time. Moreover Football Australia is currently reviewing the future of the Phoenix in the competition. Australia is part of the Asian Federation, New Zealand part of Oceania. The Asian Federation is not comfortable with an Oceania based team in one of their competitions. Its silly of course. The majority of the players are Australian anyway, but it is a problem, that might not work out in New Zealand’s favour (unless of course we join the Asian Federation…..).

But for now, none of that matters. Next Sunday the Phoenix will have a home play-off game, with the prize of a semi final and possible final ahead. It will be another huge sporting occasion in Wellington. Come down to the Cake Tin and get in behind. It will be a top night.

“Although food prices are now 2.2 percent higher than a year ago, they are 12.0 percent higher than two years ago,” Mr Pike said.

This is putting a lot of pressure on people on low to middle incomes. I have seen some people in real distress in my own electorate, and social services agencies have been reporting big increases in clients. I was in Whanganui last week, and the City Mission there is struggling to cope with people looking for support, including food parcels.

Surely in the face of this the government has to re-think an increase in GST?

New Zealanders have long endured jokes about the extent to which they are outnumbered by sheep. But now Kiwis can expect more variety in the gags, with the country’s national statistical office announcing that the population has also been overtaken by that of dairy cattle. Statistics New Zealand’s agricultural production survey, released today, reported that the cows’ numbers soared to 5.8 million in 2009. New Zealand has a human population of 4.3 million.

I think every New Zealander travelling overseas has experienced sheep “humour”, this adds to the arsenal. My favourite quote in the article is

“In 2009, New Zealand had fewer than eight sheep per person,” explained agriculture statistics manager Gary Dunnet.

Only eight sheep each. I can hear the jokes now.

But  in the PMs statement yesterday we have the following

We will also take a careful look at the policy settings around student support to ensure that taxpayers generosity is not being expolited by those refuse to take their tertiary studies seriously, or who show little inclination to transition from tertiary training into work.

That translates to limits on student support- allowances and loans. It sounds like a time limit on how long it is available or being cut off in the event of failure. If this is the direction this would have serious consequences for participation in tertiary education. It ignores the reality that not everyone succeds right away in tertiary study, and raises questions about post graduate study or second degrees.

This is not tinkering at the margins.

National leader John Key said told a press conference this morning that if National is elected and does a “half decent job” at growing the economy, then increasing GST and the top tax rate will not be necessary

Now that is a serious level of self- reflection!

UPDATE: Its been pointed out that a hat tip is due to Jake Quinn over at Life and Politics was onto this earlier this afternoon.

Well the postman has not delivered.  We have some vague promises on tax, and a lot of rehashed social policy.  An increase in GST, but no commitment to how he will compensate those on low incomes who will be the most effected.  There is a sudden interest in research and development, after having cut the $700 million  Fast Forward fund and the R+D tax credits.

For me it fails develop a vision for helping to create jobs, to develop the skills of New Zealanders and a sustainable economy and fairer society for the future.

UPDATE: Seems John Armstrong was not that impressed either. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10625081