Today, Kiwiblog reported:
Also today, Whale Oil Beef Hooked reported:
As strange as it may seem, I have to agree with Slater and Farrar here. Subsidizing a private company to the tune of $30 million taxpayer dollars and proposing to cut the recreational Snapper limit from 9 to only 3 are both stupid policy platforms. They will both fail to gain public support.
After numerous similarly dumb policy announcements, its good to finally see some dissent within the right wings ranks. Slater and Farrar are perhaps National's most ardent online supporters so you know when they start questioning the governments defunct regime, National has got it horribly wrong!
I’ve got no problem with the pricing agreement between Meridian and Rio Tinto, as that is a commercial contract.
But bloody annoyed they screwed $30 million from the taxpayers as a subsidy. I think the Government shouldn’t have given them a cent. If the smelter closes, so be it. It is not the job of taxpayers to subsidise unprofitable industries.
I guess the risk of losing so many jobs in Southland was too much for the Government. But if they had called Rio Tinto’s bluff, I don’t think they would have closed the smelter. Their strategy is to wait for the global price to recover and then sell it.
Just as taxpayers shouldn’t have to bail out Solid Energy, we also shouldn’t be subsidising Tiwai Point. The best jobs are those that are sustainable without taxpayer funding.
Also today, Whale Oil Beef Hooked reported:
This post how[ever] serves as a warning to National, that they risk snapper becoming a lightbulb, carpark or shower-head issue but with far more lethal consequences.
The problem really lies with the Minister, Nathan Guy, who is politically tone deaf and exactly what I have expected from him. He has now managed to who piss off every snapper fisherman in Auckland and the BOP, and Auckland is where elections are won and lost.
Nathan should be sacked after the screw up with the labelling of meat in China, his refusal to get off his chuff and go sort it himself, and now the Fonterra scandal add ti that the massive pounding National are taking for this stupid snapper policy.
When I say massive pounding I mean massive pounding. Ask any MP what the calls to their office are over and you will struggle to find a single MP, especially those from Auckland, who are taking any calls about the GCSB, privacy or even Andrea Vance. Most of the calls to the offices are from irate angler who are really ticked off.
It is National’s typical half witted bait and switch.
They will say it is going to be 3 snapper, then back off to 6 to keep people thinking they have won, whereas they should just take the NRA approach and nail Nathan…hard.
As strange as it may seem, I have to agree with Slater and Farrar here. Subsidizing a private company to the tune of $30 million taxpayer dollars and proposing to cut the recreational Snapper limit from 9 to only 3 are both stupid policy platforms. They will both fail to gain public support.
After numerous similarly dumb policy announcements, its good to finally see some dissent within the right wings ranks. Slater and Farrar are perhaps National's most ardent online supporters so you know when they start questioning the governments defunct regime, National has got it horribly wrong!
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| "Our lifestyle in New Zealand is at stake here" Matt Watson - National supporter. |
