Get your priorities right

Deputy Prime Minister, Bill English answered for Minister for Social Development Minister, Paula Bennett, in the house yesterday. Asked what savings she had made in her portfolio, he answered;

Hon BILL ENGLISH: I can inform the member that the Minister recently visited a programme set up under the last Government where children were taken out of school for 6 hours a week to pat dogs in the animal shelter, providing animal therapy—whether to the children or the dogs, I am not sure. The parents and the children involved were as mystified about the outcomes of that Government-funded programme as the Minister was. I can assure hard-working New Zealanders that under a National Government such spending will not continue.

That's a cheap shot. Within the context of having the government run our lives, which we seem to be stuck with in the meantime, there are some children who can benefit from spending time with animals in order to develop empathy. Sure it's not ideal that the need even exists but there's plenty of other MSD expenditure that should be well up the chopping list. The kind of expenditure that creates disaffected, neglected, unloved, angry children in the first place.

The photograph is of a boy from the Epuni Care and Protection Centre Residence;

Each fortnight, Sputnik and other children from the centre get to train and feed an SPCA puppy. Trainers sit with the children, many of whom are victims of abuse, to teach them how to handle the puppies.

Epuni manager Ross Barber says: “Developing empathy is natural, but exposure to violence interrupts this process. Contact with safe, loving others can begin to redress this harm.”

I am a great believer in the power of animals to positively influence lives.

Cop-convenient DNA database one step closer

Last night the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill passed its first reading supported by all but the Greens and the Maori Party. TV3 reports the voting was 108 - 13 (one missing). I am still hoping that ACT (and Labour for numbers) will not support this bill further down the line. It is entirely at odds with ACT's claims to classical liberalism. It is an extension of the powers of the state against the rights of the individual. All sorts of excuses can be made about the rights of the majority or existing contraventions of individual rights making this development acceptable, even ho-hum, but I am sticking to basics.

A culture of "game-playing"

As I have no other post this morning I will continue yesterday's.

Redbaiter says that my criticism of the written questions fiasco is "nit-picking and piffling" and an "over eager beat up."

No, it's not a beat-up Redbaiter. It is an expression of frustration at the extensive and expensive time-wasting (on both sides) that goes on in parliament. And the obstructiveness extends into the ministries and their handling of questions put under the Official Information Act, as identified and criticised by the Ombudsman late last year.

Game-playing by some bureaucrats to delay the release of public information has been criticised by the ombudsman.

Chief Ombudsman Beverley Wakem said there was a growing tendency by some government departments and ministers' offices to delay providing requested information within legal time frames. "While in some cases this was clearly a misunderstanding of their obligations, there is also a regrettable tendency to game the system and delay responses until the complainants' interest in the matter had passed."

You may be happy paying for the "game-playing" that goes on in parliament and the public service. You may think ready access to information of no account. I can't agree.

Just answer the damn question, can't you

People are waxing lyrical about Speaker Lockwood Smith's new regime. Lockwood will make Ministers answer questions properly, they are saying.

Well I hope he plans to include written questions. Here's a smattering of answers from the Minister for Social Development. The spelling mistakes are not mine. Comments are interspersed.

8749 (2008). Hon Annette King to the Minister for Social Development and Employment (15 Dec 2008): Will she guarantee no frontline staff will lose their jobs as a result of her holding the Ministry of Social Development to their target of 5% overall reduction in staff numbers in the next 4 years?

Hon Paula Bennett (Minister for Social Development and Employment) replied: The question the Member asks relates to operational and employment matters, which are the responsibility of the Chief Executive.

Evasive. If Ministers have no input into operational matters why did we bother changing government?

8692 (2008). Hon Annette King to the Minister for Social Development and Employment (12 Dec 2008): How many staff are employed within the Ministry of Social Development, by section and occupation, at 12 December 2008?

Hon Paula Bennett (Minister for Social Development and Employment) replied: I am advised that the number of staff employed by the Ministry of Social Development is regularly raised as part of the Annual Financial Review and Estimates Examinations of the Ministry of Social Development by the Social Services Committee, which are both available from the Parliamentary Library.

I do not have access to the Parliamentary library. These answers are supposed to serve the public as well as MPs. What is so secret, anyway, about the number of staff employed by MSD? This one is uncooperative and obstructive.

8668 (2008). Hon Annette King to the Minister for Social Development and Employment (12 Dec 2008): In light of the Government’s statements about an “underclass” in New Zealand, What is the Government’s definition of an underclass?

Hon Paula Bennett (Minister for Social Development and Employment) replied: The Government's overall priorities for this parliamentary term are set in the Speech from the Throne which is publically available via the beehive.govt.nz website. I am currently in the process of further developing and confirming my priorites for the Social Development and Employment portfolio. This is also my response to written parliamentary questions 8669 (2008).

Vague. Throwaway.

8590 (2008). Hon Annette King to the Minister for Social Development and Employment (11 Dec 2008): What, if any, additional funding will she be seeking for effective parenting programmes such as Family Start and Strategies with Kids - Information for Parents (SKIP)?

Hon Paula Bennett (Minister for Social Development and Employment) replied: Information on funding being considered as part of future Budgets is Budget Sensitive. Any decisions will be announced at the appropriate time. This is also my response to written parliamentary querstion 8591 (2008).

Waffle.

Yes, yes. Just par for the course. Just what Labour would have done. No big deal.

Only I thought the National government was going to be a cut above.

Never a truer word

Yesterday I was sent a list of great quotations. They are mostly familiar to me. Now I can add another, which wasn't and I've only just read;

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion: that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. ~ John Adams

2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. ~ Mark Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. ~ Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket & trying to lift himself up by the handle. - Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. ~ George Bernard Shaw

6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. ~ G. Gordon Liddy

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. ~ James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. ~ Douglas Casey

9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ~ P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. ~ Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. ~ Ronald Reagan (1986)

12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. ~ Will Rogers

13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! ~ P.J. O'Rourke

14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. ~ Voltaire (1764)

15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! ~ Pericles (430 B.C.)

16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the Legislature is in session. ~ Mark Twain (1866 )

17. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it. ~ Anonymous

18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. ~ Ronald Reagan

19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. ~ Winston Churchill

20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. ~ Mark Twain

21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. ~ Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class ... Save Congress. ~ Mark Twain

23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. ~ Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. ~ Thomas Jefferson

...and last but not least,

25. If we each pretend we can be made wealthy through taxing others, then we are destined for poverty. - Sir Roger Douglas

Compulsory DNA sampling from suspects

Is anybody else really bothered by this?

I have been against DNA sampling from people who are mere suspects of a crime from the outset. How far afield can the suspicion net be cast? And the establishment of a DNA link is not necessarily conclusive. DNA can be present for reasons other than the suspect committed the crime.

DNA technology has probably improved but anyone who watched the David Dougherty story at the weekend should be concerned about the misuse of DNA evidence which saw this man wrongly imprisoned for years.

It's really, really bugging me that National are going to pass this legislation. WITH the support of ACT.

"Youth culture dumbs down teenagers"

Based on just the information provided by the NZPA (the study is not on-line yet) Jim Flynn's latest research appears to contradict his earlier. Professor Flynn says English teenagers are dumber than they were 28 years ago.

Professor James Flynn, of Otago University, found that IQ scores for the average 14-year-old had dropped by more than two points between 1980 and 2008. For those in the upper half of the intelligence scale, average IQ scores were six points down on 28 years ago.

The study contrasts with Professor Flynn's previous work, which suggested that intelligence has been consistently rising among all age groups in industrialised countries.

Of course, it could just be that the English are getting thicker. I am sure Theodore Dalrymple would be a subscriber to this theory.

Professor Flynn suggested that the falls could be down to lifestyle changes, including more time spent in front of the television or playing video games.

"Other studies have shown how pervasive teenage youth culture is, and what we see is parents' influence on IQ slowly diminishing with age."

Even if the tests are robust, the sampling robust, blaming youth culture seems rather weak. Youth culture existed before the 1990s. I misspent my youth on a diet of Casey Kasam's American Top Forty for instance. Perhaps Mr Flynn's earlier laments about less educated women having a greater proportion of children (a predictable outcome of welfarism) hold more promise of an explanation. But after the uproar he caused last time he went there, it is safer to look for other factors to blame.

Big fat moralising hypocrite

I take it this guy didn't swim to Egypt;

New Zealand Archbishop says Anglicans should offer “moral leadership” in the fight against global warming

Archbishop David Moxon has told an international press conference that the Anglican Communion should offer “moral leadership” in the campaign against global warming.

Archbishop Moxon is in Alexandria, Egypt, for a meeting of the Anglican Primates, or leaders of the 34 Anglican provinces that make up the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Archbishop Moxon later told a press conference that the gathered Anglican leaders were agreed that the Anglican Communion should offer “moral leadership” in the campaign against climate change.

This, he suggested, was significantly a matter of setting an example.

He spoke of the need for Anglicans to embrace lifestyle changes, and to cutback unnecessary or environmentally hazardous modes of travel.

The photos Air New Zealand didn't want you to see...

Well, not quite. But they may as well have been. From the NZ Herald;

Passengers see fuel pour from plane

Rattled passengers were told not to take photos as fuel streamed out of the wings of an Air New Zealand jet bound for Los Angeles.

Flight NZ6, with 365 people on board, was forced to turn back about 20 minutes after leaving Auckland on Saturday night when the pilots were unable to retract the landing gear.




In the 1993 David and I were on a 747 bound for Japan from Auckland. About 30-40 minutes into the flight I said to David, "We have been in a very shallow right hand turn for the past few minutes. Wonder what's going on." A radio announcement shortly followed. It was explained that the Captain's cockpit window had developed a 'bubble' and we were returning to Auckland for a precautionary landing. But before we could land we would be dumping fuel and what to expect visually.

Nobody instructed us not to take photos, albeit these were the days before widespread digital image communication. As I recall on the flight I was on, there was more a sense of curiosity than fear. Instructing people not to take photos would have fostered a sense of alarm. Perhaps they were simply trying to minimise bad publicity.

So if you wanted to know what you missed, that's what tonnes of fuel being jettisoned off the East Coast of Northern New Zealand looks like.

The rudeness and incompetence of a local council

I have been following this story from Kismet Farm.First instalment and second are a good read because the writer has a sense of humour but don't go there if you have blood pressure problems.

Not quite on this scale but we have also experienced the incompetence and rudeness of local council. It must happen over and over (notwithstanding I have also heard of good experiences.) I would advise these people to enlist the support of the Minister for Local Government in their battle. The time is ripe.

Puzzles solved

According to the DomPost yesterday, there are now 105,000 jobless in New Zealand. (I wish they would use the correct terminology. There are 105,000 officially 'unemployed' but 193,000 officially 'jobless'.) 30,508 are receiving the unemployment benefit. 29 percent of the unemployed.

In the US around 10 million are unemployed yet only 625,000 appear to be receiving unemployment insurance benefits. 6.2 percent. How can it be so low?

Now I understand, after digging around, that each week I am e-mailed the initial unemployment insurance claims by the US Department of Labour.

Reuters;

The department said initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose 35,000 to a seasonally adjusted 626,000 in the week ended January 31, the highest since the week ending October 30, 1982. The prior week's number was revised up to 591,000 from 588,000.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 585,000 new claims.

The number of people staying on the benefits roll after drawing an initial week of aid surged by 20,000 to a record 4.788 million in the week ended January 24, the latest week for which the data is available, from 4.768 million the previous week.

That makes far more sense.

I love puzzles. During the holidays I always try my hand at the Prize Cryptic in the DomPost. But I never complete one. This year I persisted in my attempts and finally, yesterday, got one out. The solution is dispatched and maybe I will win a pen. Although I have won a number of pens over the years for letters and I don't need them. Funnily, I emailed the answers in. What I do need is a new keyboard as my present one, although not very old, is missing letters from over-use. The E,R,T,O and A have almost entirely disappeared.

"A day off"

The NZ Herald polls on What Does Waitangi Day Mean To You?

I didn't even have to think about it. A day off.

* Anniversary of the Treaty: 754 (14%)
* NZ's national day: 1444 (27%)
* A day off: 3150 (59%)

And Chris Trotter makes a egg-on-your-face prediction in the Dompost;

"It is indeed a new day for the Maori people, not because, at the level of the typical Maori family, life has got materially better, but because for the first time in a long time they feel that the colonial victors want ( and need) more from them as a people than their sullen acqiuescence at being the first hired, first fired.

For that John Key will win not only their support, he'll claim their love."

Key can only fudge it for so long. Property rights, constitutional issues, economic and social disparities will all have to be faced eventually. Rather than uniting Pakeha and Maori, the Treaty stands as a reminder and reinforcer of our segregated and culturally divided histories. It will not help us to move towards better understanding, more tolerance and better economic outcomes for all. It would have happened by now.

The only NZ Prime Minister who was "loved" was Micky Savage. If people expect Key to follow in those footsteps then I am afraid he would have to prematurely depart this earth, or at the very least, his office. Savage died just after passing his cradle to the grave legacy. He was beatified. But in the decade that followed the people became highly dissatisfied with his predecessors over the working of social security. Maori in particular found they continued to be discriminated against, now by the newly formed social security department. Fraser and Nash were villified. They were the fall guys for Savage.

And returning to the beginning of this post, if I were to ring a Maori friend and put the question to her, what does Waitangi Day mean to you, I am almost certain she would reply, time and a half.

NZ drops from 1st to 10th

In December 2005 New Zealand had the lowest unemployment rate in the OECD.

In three years it has dropped to 10th equal.

Over the same period the OECD unemployment average only moved from 6.4 to 6.5 percent. Of course that small average percentage increase masks the absolute increase, given some of the really large employers (US, UK and Germany) all have significantly rising unemployment.

Raise the unemployment benefit?

An Australian left-wing think tank is calling for the dole to be raised to the same level of payment as Super. That is faulty thinking.

Unemployment is a temporary state of affairs. The payment is designed to encourage people to move on asap. Retirement is usually a permanent state of affairs. Superannuitants do not have future earning capacity to borrow against. (Similarly being on an invalid's benefit is considered a permanent state of affairs hence that pays a higher rate as well.)

Research shows the higher the level of dole, the longer people stay on it. The more comfortable it is, the more jobs they will turn down during the job search period. The numbers on the dole in Australia are already very high compared to NZ. This think tank says that as the number is forecast to go far higher - from 500,000 to 800,000 - the time is ripe to put more money into dole recipient hands. I would have said exactly the opposite.

Some interesting numbers re payment rates.

Australia single dole $225 single super $281
NZ single dole $184 single super $298
NZ (1998) single dole $147 single super $213

The difference between the unemployment benefit and super here is significantly higher and it has widened over the last ten years.

Of money and morals

I move in some 'circles' that people wouldn't expect. Thus I pick up interesting tidbits.

A young woman was pregnant. She didn't know which of the men she had slept with was the father. But it would become clear after the birth, as the two potential fathers had different ethnicities. She told her permanentish partner, with whom she already has several other children, that the baby might not be his. This didn't seem to cause any great ructions.

The baby is now a few months old and it has become evident that it does indeed belong to the permanentish partner. When I enquired if the father was pleased about this outcome I was told that he was not. Neither was the mother. "Why?" I asked. Because they would have got more child support from the other guy, was the answer.

Caring, and not caring

Some days I read the news and feel a wave of disbelief well up. Then it turns to real anger and frustration. Today is one of those days. Worse, I find myself wondering whether I should even comment on the source of my anger in this stifling environment of inverted values.

John Lagataua is going to jail for nine months for what his counsel aptly described as exercising old fashion discipline. He is separated from his child , who loves him and misses him. One of the assault counts on which Mr Lagataua is convicted is washing his child's mouth out with soap for using bad language. Good God. I once momentarily put a bar of soap in my daughter's mouth when she came out with the F word at a very young age. I thought just the taste of it would be enough to deter her from doing it again. And it did. Am I a monster?

And were our parents? Millions of kids experienced rough treatment at the hands of parents when I was growing up. Today those parents would be jailed for the same behaviour.

Truly. I am bewildered, I am starting to feel 'older' because I am so out of step with modern thinking about what constitutes love and care. The worst of it is someone has decided what best methods are and we are all legally bound by their 'wisdom'. There is no freedom to say well, you do it your way and I'll do it mine. Yet children are all different. They have varying temperaments and varying responses. That is best understood by their parents.

And look around you. Are children today routinely models of confident, kind and tolerant behaviour? Have we successfully dealt to youth crime, truanting, under-age drinking, suicide, self-harming, bullying? No. We have not. At the margins the extent of these problems grows.

Yes, Mr Lagataua has anger problems. No wonder. He loves his kids, wants to do the best by them. No doubt, prevent them from turning into the charming young thugs he sees hanging about the streets of Timaru; kids nobody gave a damn about. But the 'experts' say his behaviour is so outrageous he must be punished with a jail term. That's twenty-first century justice for you.

New Zealanders working fewer hours

Working For Families has something to do with this.

Total paid hours, when seasonally adjusted, decreased by 1.4 percent in the year to December 2008, according to the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) released by Statistics New Zealand today. This is the first annual decrease in paid hours since the year to September 1999, and was mainly due to decreases in the manufacturing, construction, and wholesale trade industries. Seasonally adjusted total paid hours also decreased by 1.4 percent in the December 2008 quarter.

Bloody sad and bloody stupid

This is very sad and I am quite gutted on behalf of those children who wanted to continue at Montessori. Our son Robert attended for three years and it presented a much needed alternative to Hutt High and other conservative private schools. Last year we became one of the families that were looking at other options only because Robert had decided it was time to move on, as had many of his other friends. But the decision he made was the result of learning to think independently, and take control. He also now has the confidence I am not at all sure he would have developed in a very large state school.

The government's refusal to assist the school is also highly questionable. Before you yell, "subsidy", the state is now going to have to educate quite probably all of the ex-pupils. During Robert's time 100 pupils were off the state books. That around $8-900,000 annually. The type of child attending Montessori is not your candidate for Scots or Wellesley or Marsden. A few had special needs, were even somewhat fragile, if I can use that word. All the ex-students I know of, bar one, has gone into a state secondary school.

The final 30 at closure are now going to cost the state $240,000 to $270,000 to educate instead of the $50,000 that would have seen the school survive another year. It's bloody sad and bloody stupid.

Unwarranted reactions

Last week I blogged this letter because it impressed me.

There have been a couple of vehement responses to it. Here's one published today;



Actually the original letter says the work of the mentors is "commendable".

But the work of mentors is always secondary. It is intervention when the primary source of guidance is missing. Secondary and late intervention has a significant risk of failure. The success of mentoring is variable but often quite low. That is my own experience. But that doesn't mean you abandon it as such. Similarly the rehabilitation work done with prisoners has not improved re-conviction rates enormously but that doesn't mean it should be abandoned. I will always remember Greg Newbold's response to the suggestion we should. He claims that many inmates, while they continue to offend, would be even more anti-social and disconnected and vicious without rehabilitative attempts.

I think Mr Aston has misinterpreted the first writer's words. Certainly I didn't take any inference from Bruce Tichbon's words that the Big Buddy Trust was part of some conspiracy. He was merely pointing out that as a society, via social policy, we have undermined the role and purpose of natural fathers. I don't know how anyone can argue with that proposition.

Here is what Richard Aston has said elsewhere;

“Mentoring fatherless boys is a profoundly simple concept but one that has huge implications in healing the social fabric of our communities. My dream is that eventually every fatherless boy in New Zealand who needs a positive male role model will actually have one and in the process we build a better world.”

I think I can safely say on Bruce's behalf his 'dream', like mine, would be that every boy (and girl) had their own father in their life. Mr Aston appears to accept what has happened and to his credit wants to try and make life better for those boys his organisation can reach. That's a legitimate aim. But some of us want to undo what has happened in terms of policy. The two approaches are not necessarily incompatible. Treat the symptoms and the cause.

The inexorable rise in the invalid's benefit

MSD data (for Lucy);


Historical data sourced from Official Yearbooks;

1940 11,811
1950 9,476
1960 8,024
1970 8,342
1980 15,647
1990 27,824
2000 57,755

2008 83,501

There are at least a dozen reasons I have identified for this growth and there is a chapter dedicated to it in my (if it ever gets published) book. But the trend isn't confined to NZ and the OECD refers to the phenomenon of the "...medicalisation of labour market problems."