Monday, October 06, 2014

Craven Key

Talking on RadioNZ about the new cabinet line-up, the PM utterly pisses me off. To think I voted for this rubbish,


Mr Key said the portfolio titles themselves are not immune to change.
"Like if you take Women's Affairs for instance, I just think that's a very outdated term - it's probably 50 or 60 years old as a name for that portfolio. There is a role for a ministry there, but it will be called the Ministry for Women, I just think that's a better reflective title."

It isn't just the name that is outdated, it's the very concept.

Women make up almost half the workforce; are out-performing males in tertiary achievement and numbers; and are free from legal discrimination. Enough of  the privilege and  patronization.

It's got a budget of  $4.5 million spending $3.1 million on personnel. It is staffed with highly paid career bureaucrats advising other highly paid career bureaucrats.

There is no ministry for men and neither should there be. It's an anachronism that nobody has the courage to abolish.

Changing the name won't stop it being an anachronism. It'll just waste even more taxpayers money.




8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buyer's regret, eh?

To think I voted for this rubbish,

Told you to vote ACT & Conservatives. Key's National isn't just Labour lite, it's even further left than Helen.

What do you expect with a state-house, state-school, DPB kid as PM, with a state-house, state-school, DPB-mom as designated successor?

Anonymous said...

Rather than characterise it as "voting for this rubbish" perhaps, like me, you really voted against the even larger pile of stinking trash that was a realistic and, by far, most-worst alternative outcome.

But fair enough otherwise.

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Anon, quite. I voted ACT for the vague possibility of some people after my own heart in govt. But gave the electorate vote to National to keep out the left.
The election seemed a matter of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Anonymous said...

The election seemed a matter of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

This will never change until NZ's "right wingers" - a rather odd phrase for, to put it bluntly, people who can actually do basic mathematics - realise that John Key or Paula Bennet's National will never adopt polices that make sense.

That's why I think Labour is dead and gone - National has replaced Labour - and what we need now is a new party dedicated to getting rid of unions, health, education, welfare.

Anonymous said...

I am not 100% sure,but I think that only Muslim countries and New Zealand feel the need for a Ministry for Women --- whatever it is called.

Others may know if I am right or not.

Jigsaw said...

Well said Lindsay! The whole concept is patronising - in much the same way the Ministry for Maori Affairs is-as though they were somehow handicapped by their race (however small that fraction is) and unable to live in the world without special help.

Anonymous said...

I am not 100% sure,but I think that only Muslim countries and New Zealand feel the need for a Ministry for Women --- whatever it is called.


Yep - along with UK, Aus, Canada, most European countries (but I guess they could as muslims, right?), the USA, most US states, most Commonwealth countries.

Others may know if I am right or not.

Humour me: state schools all the way?

Anonymous said...

Key utterly pisses me off too, yet the nation lurves him, pisses me off even more. Why??? He is an empty vessel.

I voted Consevatives. Still not there. sucks.