Roll on 2008 election
Its nearly 18 months until the next election and already, it seems I know who my vote is going too. And its not Labour.
Labour seems to be in a major state of denial when it comes to the situation this nation faces at times like this. The denial that there is an emerging 'underclass' by the prime minister is a serious blind angle from the executive government. For the first time in my voting life, I think simply with John Key at the helm, National will be getting my vote.
There are some things I strongly agree with.
1) Why have the Maori seats? What is their purpose specifically?
With MMP, there are a lot more Maori in parliament and there is a far wider range of gender, ethnic background, religion and dare I say it, sexual orientation. Representation for all it seems. There are Methodists, Athiests, Catholics, Angligans, LDS, and Rastafarian. In todays era, why is there not at least one seat for Pacific Island peoples, considering the number of our Island cousins we have here. The time for segregation at this level is over I think.
2) Working for the benefit.
I've spent a number of years either having to or having government benefits suppliment what income was coming into my house at the time. I was happy to get off and in some way, repay it through taxes. In saying that, those who are out of work, and either unable to or unwilling to should be performing some kind of voluntary work for the benefits they get.
Now for sure, there are those who cannot work because of the illnesses they have or conditions they truly suffer from. But for me, if I had the ability to either study to gain employment, or get a job and off the dole, sweet.
This is the killer though.
When I moved from Wellington to Hamilton, I was on the unemployment benefit having just left school. Between January and June of 2000 I applied for 73 jobs, and had three interviews. One job offered me a pay rate that for a 60 hour week mostly afternoon - night hours, $275 before tax. At the time, I was getting $275 net and $20 housing supplement for sitting on my chuff doing nothing.
WINZ threatened to cut my benefit because I wasn't activly looking for work. After showing them a folder with all my letters of rejection they backed off. It might have been the three letters from WINZ for the case managers roles I applied for that might have stung a little for them.
3) The Underclass
Is there one? You have to be so blind or have your head stuck so far up your own importance not to see it. (I guess thats were Uncle Helen's must be.) You only have to look around you. Driving up London street the other morning, and between the church and the WEL building there were four kids, at 8am, killing what little remained of their brain cells in plastic bags.
NZ post not wanting to deliver to certain areas because of gang violence. Sensible move on their part. We dont operate on the old pony express motto. Its there. It cannot be denied.
I know Mr Key has highlighted the issues and wants to address them. I'm hardly surprised that he hasnt listed solution after solution. That is to come. He has set the tasks before his party. Much like old JFK when he said in Congress that the nations goal was to go to the Moon, 9 years before it happened and 9 years before it was known it could happen. At that point America's total time in space amounted to a whopping 23 mintes.
The next 18 months will be critical for Key. To try and turn NZ around to the blue way of thinking.
I will be watching.
If you want to read his whole speech the link is here.
http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?ArticleID=9215
Labour seems to be in a major state of denial when it comes to the situation this nation faces at times like this. The denial that there is an emerging 'underclass' by the prime minister is a serious blind angle from the executive government. For the first time in my voting life, I think simply with John Key at the helm, National will be getting my vote.
There are some things I strongly agree with.
1) Why have the Maori seats? What is their purpose specifically?
With MMP, there are a lot more Maori in parliament and there is a far wider range of gender, ethnic background, religion and dare I say it, sexual orientation. Representation for all it seems. There are Methodists, Athiests, Catholics, Angligans, LDS, and Rastafarian. In todays era, why is there not at least one seat for Pacific Island peoples, considering the number of our Island cousins we have here. The time for segregation at this level is over I think.
2) Working for the benefit.
I've spent a number of years either having to or having government benefits suppliment what income was coming into my house at the time. I was happy to get off and in some way, repay it through taxes. In saying that, those who are out of work, and either unable to or unwilling to should be performing some kind of voluntary work for the benefits they get.
Now for sure, there are those who cannot work because of the illnesses they have or conditions they truly suffer from. But for me, if I had the ability to either study to gain employment, or get a job and off the dole, sweet.
This is the killer though.
When I moved from Wellington to Hamilton, I was on the unemployment benefit having just left school. Between January and June of 2000 I applied for 73 jobs, and had three interviews. One job offered me a pay rate that for a 60 hour week mostly afternoon - night hours, $275 before tax. At the time, I was getting $275 net and $20 housing supplement for sitting on my chuff doing nothing.
WINZ threatened to cut my benefit because I wasn't activly looking for work. After showing them a folder with all my letters of rejection they backed off. It might have been the three letters from WINZ for the case managers roles I applied for that might have stung a little for them.
3) The Underclass
Is there one? You have to be so blind or have your head stuck so far up your own importance not to see it. (I guess thats were Uncle Helen's must be.) You only have to look around you. Driving up London street the other morning, and between the church and the WEL building there were four kids, at 8am, killing what little remained of their brain cells in plastic bags.
NZ post not wanting to deliver to certain areas because of gang violence. Sensible move on their part. We dont operate on the old pony express motto. Its there. It cannot be denied.
I know Mr Key has highlighted the issues and wants to address them. I'm hardly surprised that he hasnt listed solution after solution. That is to come. He has set the tasks before his party. Much like old JFK when he said in Congress that the nations goal was to go to the Moon, 9 years before it happened and 9 years before it was known it could happen. At that point America's total time in space amounted to a whopping 23 mintes.
The next 18 months will be critical for Key. To try and turn NZ around to the blue way of thinking.
I will be watching.
If you want to read his whole speech the link is here.
http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?ArticleID=9215
posted by Wiremu Bayliss at
2:18 pm
0 Comments
