Comments on: NZ Politics is embarrassing.

By: Nat

Nat — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:45:39 +0000

Nope, because it’s not likely they will ever get the backing to do anything and in my mind, the more people who debate this reasonably and come to a unified approach, the better. A tiny minority party in NZ and their opinion is simply not enough.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:46:59 +0000

Ah, but if, as you say, we’ve got only 50 years to save ourself from an Armageddon-like scenario, isn’t their stance on that issue the only one that counts really?

By: Nat

Nat — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:54:30 +0000

Ha ha, have you listened to their policies on Mariguana? I think it’s stupid int his day and age, with much bigger issues at stake to spend so much time on that one in order to secure the student vote.

On the issue above, the greens are doing well. On other issues, they are just as bad as the pack!

By: Hugh

Hugh — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:50:02 +0000

It seems that what you really mean is that NZ politics outside of the Green Party is embarassing.

By: Nat

Nat — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:02:43 +0000

Wow. Turned it on and watched some good debate on breast cancer drugs, then good old Nick Smith stood up and I couldn’t stand it any more.

Will keep the question time on from now. Great example of the government embracing the web and engaging the population. Thanks!

By: Strings

Strings — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:18:47 +0000

Sad but true, what you saw in kindergarten stuff compared to the British and Canadian politicians, so don’t get too disheartened. Though if you really want to see how terrible parliament can be, you should watch question time (it’s web-cast at 2 pm Tuesday through Thursday from
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/Visiting/LiveBroadcast/
there you will see how sad it can be, as well as how amusing. Today the Speaker said she would never jump on one member, and another was accused of having a ‘not-affair’.

Remember, MP is not a well paid job, so you tend not to get great applicants for it. The people who get through the selection process tend to be those who are smarmy ‘people persons’ whose main claim to fame is their ‘interpersonal skills’ not their ability to think. The ones who get into senior positions tend to be the ones who can come back with a cutting one-liner (‘all I can say is diddums’ for instance) to avoid answering a question. The ones who get to the very top have to have so much ‘dirt’ on people that they can keep them in line just by reaching towards their pockets!

I’d pay top dollar (same as Telecom do) if I was responsible for the place, that way we’d maybe get a better quality of applicant and avoid the school yard antics we see now.

Go well, enjoy life and do things you like – always.

By: Nat

Nat — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:36:03 +0000

weird. yeah i expect debate on the ideas, not so much playground mutterings.

thanks for your comment, I read it while eating my leftover dinner from cooking class ;)

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:06:40 +0000

Yay I topic I get to comment on considering I work at Parliament.
From what I’ve seen so far – the squabbles are done in part because thats what the public expect of them. A suprising amount of cross party work is done behind closed doors and they do at times actually manage to co-operate even though they belong to different ideological parties – shocking, but it happens!