Fortunately we are about to get a new government. Today's revelations that Canterbury District Health Board retiring Chief Executive Gordon Davies was treated to a $7,000 farewell from his $450,000 per annum job earlier this month courtesy of the taxpayer show that largesse was alive and well and totally acceptable under the previous Labour government. On top of that Mr Davies was sent on a $10,000 trip to a conference in Paris earlier this year despite making it clear that he was intending to stand down from his position.
November 2008
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I wrote this on election night but have only now had a chance to post it: *A fantastic result for ACT - increasing from two MPs to five is huge and a great reflection on all the hard work done by so many throughout the country. |
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As campaigning winds up today it's interesting to reflect on how things have gone on the hustings. David Garrett (ACT's No. 5) and I visited Kilbirne School in Wellington yesterday and talked to a group of 7 and 8 year old's. Their questions were at least as searching and tricky as any that I've been asked by adults at our many politicla forums. One was "Will your party keep its promises to people?" and another, after a discussion about crime as "Why do people commit crimes?" Why indeed. |
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New Zealand's election hardly rated a mention in today's political news as Barack Obama became President-elect of the USA. Along with his running mate vice President-elect Joseph Biden they won by a landslide 5 million votes victory at the time of writing (three States as yet too close to call). Senator McCain was very gracious in defeat and I anticipate that we will be hearing more of Sarah Palin in the future. She is now a national figure in the US and may well run for national office. A number of senate seats were up for election at the same time and again there has been a swing to the Democrats. Alaska continued with its maverik streak by appearing to re-elect a Senator recently convicted of a felony. |
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Yesterday I spoke to the Australian Defence College students currently visiting New Zealand as part of their year long course. Amongst the group will be some of the future Generals in their countries. They come to hear policies from the various political parties. Defence Minister Phil Goff usually participates but declined his invitation this year. National's Wayne Mapp presented his party's defence credentials and Ron Mark (NZ First), Keith Locke (Green's) and I formed a political panel of minor party Defence spokespeople. The questions are always searching and as a sapper with the Royal New Zealand Engineers in the NZ army I'm always a little overwhelmed by the audiences collective seniority compared with my junior status! As I said in my speech I was pleased to be wearing my politicians hat. The speech can be viewed at (http://roy.org.nz/content/speech-australian-defence-college-centre-defen...). |
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This is grass roots democracy at it's best. Josh, my deputy Campaign co-ordinator, and I were out delivering letters in central Wellington today. It's full of gated apartment buildings that are a bit tricky to get into and we came across Aaron, Andy and their cellphone photographer friend from Young Labour trying unsuccessfully to get into the same building we were. They shared some of their (more sophisticated than ours) campaign tips but it would be uncool to reveal these to any but hard-core campaigners. We marked the occasion with a photograph for prosterity.
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A theme of the ACT 2008 Election Campaign is 'Bring Our Children Home'. We need to prepare a place for our children (and their children) so that they see and choose New Zealand as a place they want to work, live and play in the future. Almost 25 percent of our young people leave New Zealand and don't return, compared to around 3 percent of young Australians who don't return to live there permanently. While wages and salaries, working conditions and 'extra curricula activities' are better and more exciting overseas our young people will continue to be attracted to greener pastures. ACT's policies are looking to provide the economic and social conditions in the New Zealand of the future to make this an attractive country for them. A country that is loosing its children is loosing it's future. |
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A question I'm often frequently asked at meetings is "What is the achievement you are proudest of in your time in parliament?" It's much harder in oppostiion obviously to positively influence policy but there are the odd 'wins' that make it all worthwhile. |
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I today launched ACT's National Security policy. I've had many requests for our Defence policy but over the last three years ACT has decided to take (rather than just talk about) a Whole-of-Government approach to the area of security - both internal and external - for the core role of government in providing for the safety and security of its citizens. You can view the policy here. |
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