If Gerry Brownlee and Nikki Kaye are the answer what the hell was the question?

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Nikki Kaye and Gerry Brownlee are the big winners in a Cabinet reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Bill English this afternoon.

As expected, Kaye is the new Education Minister, replacing Hekia Parata.

Brownlee has been made Foreign Affairs Minister in place of Murray McCully, who has held the portfolio for eight years.

Rodney MP Mark Mitchell has also received a significant promotion, to Defence Minister, and has been moved into the Cabinet just months after he was made a minister outside Cabinet.

The total panic that has set in within National as their internal polls show women voters leaving in droves for Jacinda is what has prompted Nikki Kaye’s sudden promotion. It’s good seeing National nervous. Kaye’s transformation into a snarling attack dog used to attack Jacinda however will go down like a cup of cold sick within the education sector.

Brownlee who is the most hated man in Christchurch becoming the Foreign Affairs Minister is an appalling choice when you consider his role in covering up and justifying the accusation of war crimes in Afghanistan.

Those words will come back to bite him in his arse when the looming court case launches.

In other moves, Nick Smith has been demoted for the fiasco that has been housing and Tim Macindoe continues his rise to power.

The most dangerous decision has been in allowing former mercenary Mark Mitchell anywhere near Defence. I don’t trust Mitchell as far as I could throw him. There is something deeply worrying about him inside Parliament.

All in all a pretty squalid and vapid revamp before the election to get Nick Smith off the telly and try to woo female voters back with Kaye.

Watch Mitchell like a hawk.

 

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

38 COMMENTS

  1. Rearranging the deck chairs on the ship of fools, hopefully to hit an ice berg at the next elections

    • Yes problem is the iceberg e.g. the Labour crowd are so pathetic.

      We need to put a list together of the things that should they become the next government they need to be held to account for.

      Apparently Little has said we need an enquiry into those who were put into state care. Let’s face it some of the people who treated these kids so badly are still around, and should be charged and go to court.

      And then there is the exposure of those who were mowed down by our forces in Afghanistan. We must ensure they keep to that and have the enquiry.

  2. They can shift their cronies around all they want.

    They have nothing new to say and nobody charismatic enough to suck supporters in.

    They’re doomed! Doomed! DOOMED! 😀

  3. What an exceedingly shallow gene pool National have. All thoroughly unlikable.

    And Brownlee is so beyond his used by date, it is astounding that he is even looking at another term in parliament. But at least he can bypass Airport security with impunity though.

  4. The Natz strategy is backfiring now.
    Key was the polished turd presented via Crosby Textor crafting and Farrar opinion polling to the public as the shining face of National. With heavy oversell by the MSM, the too-tired to think public bought the narrative hook line and sinker.
    But psychopaths are notoriously unreliable. Key ran away.
    And now, the bumbling incompetent fools that were hiding behind his false visage are being rudely exposed.
    No talent, and because of their devotion to neoliberalism, no policy.
    A desperate rabble that has gutted the country, on it’s way out.

    • Christchurch is a city in the South Island. little is known about it up North other than it had an earthquake a while back and boxes above its weight in sport.
      I suspect Brownlee comes a very poor second as the most hated man in Chch behind the Mayor, who is doing a fantastic job in making the city inaccessible for anyone who doesn’t ride a bike or travel to the city via the bad public transport system- ie the vast majority.
      I can get to the city in 60 minutes by bus or 18 minutes by car but street parking is being largely replaced by hardly used bikelanes.
      He got huge brownie points across a broad sector of left and right ( excluding Greens ) a couple of weeks back when he told the Mayor to rethink the city traffic plan or government funding would be cut, which was one of the few powers he had left.
      Most of the power he had reverted to the council quite some time ago who are hellbent on delivering an unwilling public a socially engineered traffic plan.

      • “He got huge brownie points across a broad sector of left and right ( excluding Greens ) a couple of weeks back when he told the Mayor to rethink the city traffic plan or government funding would be cut, which was one of the few powers he had left.”

        Oh, so Gerry uses blackmail to get “his” way. Kim Jong Un and Hitler governed the same way.

        I don’t think you need to be proud of that and I can see why the Greens gave him nil brownie points.

        • Don’t be silly Bertie, it was all he had left to make a Mayor and council determined to push through an agenda which the majority of citizens don’t want, to think agai
          The Mayor, who is in her 5th year in command is still blaming Bob Parker! After 4 years and 5 months in charge isn’t a tad these unpopular changes on poor old Bob?
          Gerry’s stand will hopefully make these idiots realise they are killing the rebirth of a wonderful city and back the off.
          If you want to put the Hitler tag on anyone, put it on our Mayor who is rides roughshod over the people who voted for her year after year.

          • The Mayor, who is in her 5th year in command is still blaming Bob Parker! After 4 years and 5 months in charge isn’t a tad these unpopular changes on poor old Bob?

            Specifically what are you referring to?

            If you want to put the Hitler tag on anyone, put it on our Mayor who is rides roughshod over the people who voted for her year after year.

            Again, what are you referring to?

            It’s hard to make sense of your criticisms without knowing what you’re talking about.

            • Frank,
              like I said, Christchurch is a city in the South island which seems only a point on a map to most people of the North – I thought I was clear but your confusion is normal as the 4 million in the North have little understanding of the 1 million in the South. You have no idea what is going on here.

              That’s not a personal criticism, that’s just the way it is.
              Lianne has come under huge criticism over cycle lanes which is making a city – trying to come back from zero- -inaccessible. She says they will revisit ( but only after Big Jerry’s broadside. before that she said we would have to wait and see how good the changes would be),but it was not her fault because it was “before her time.”
              They only started construction last year 2016 so she could have changed it – if she wanted to.
              Don’t care who you are but after 4.5 years in the box seat don’t blame the previous admin as the new broom has had so long to make changes and the city comeback is being screwed by a council with an unexplainable agenda.
              Apart from the disaster in the city the knives are out for her old electorate too.
              I live in east Christchurch, the Mayor’s stronghold for so many years. She got my party vote year after year and now she is hated by her own people in the east as we have been ignored for years and she wants “managed retreat’ from the east because of rising sea levels which has impacted on property values.
              I don’t care as I’m 70 and not moving but feel so sorry for younger people with families. who are being screwed by an ideology ahead of its time.
              Sea levels will rise, but the rises in Lyttelton have been stable for so many years why impact on peoples lives now?
              If the levels were going up I could understand, but they are not!
              Why should our mayor screw families by reducing their property values when the science is not there yet,
              ( Frank, check sea level rises Lyttelton and you will see that rises have been stable for many years.(
              This city needs a council and community boards who understand that for people to spend and make it grow it has to be accessible.
              What they are doing is screwing the regeneration and we can’t understand why.
              Not just me Frank, many thousands of Cantabrians of all political hues wonder why our elected representatives are pushing an agenda which is killing the renewal of the city we love,

              • So, apart from a bit of tedious climate-denial on your part, and your personal views on cycle-ways, Patrick, you can’t actually point to the alleged criticisms you levelled at her?

                Claiming “she is hated by her own people” isn’t evidential, it’s hear-say from you.

                In fact, it’s bullshit.

                In 2013, she received 72,600 in the local body elections.

                ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_mayoral_election,_2013#Results

                By 2016, that had increased to 75,524.

                ref: https://ccc.govt.nz/the-council/how-the-council-works/council-elections/2016-electoral-results

                If she’s “hated” any more in the next local body election, she’ll crack 100,000 votes.

                • “If she’s “hated” any more in the next local body election, she’ll crack 100,000 votes.”

                  Ha ha, love it Frank.

                • Frank you mention “evidential” twice and then stick the “climate-denial” label on me ?
                  Why Frank?
                  The sea level gauge in Lyttelton has shown a sea level rise of plus or minus 1.7mm for the last 100 years. All I said to receive your wrath was to state a fact, but you only seem to like facts if you agree with them. I’m not a climate change denier but the fact is that sea level rise in Christchurch has not increased and there is no coastal erosion along the Brighton coast which is actually accreting by 1m per year. Even the Council have had to reluctantly admit that.
                  The East always voted Labour and the party vote went there too – except for the last 2 elections when it has gone to National. That’s a backlash against a mayor who represented this area for many years but not only abandoned it as soon as she became Mayor but altered LIM reports which lowered property values on the basis of sea level rise.
                  Why do this on the basis of computer models when the evidence is that there is no rise yet.
                  I don’t normally use words like hate – I only used it as I disagreed that Brownlee was the most hated man in Chch.
                  72000 votes against weak opposition is actually a pretty poor result and it’s not only my personal views about cycle lanes as you would know if you were a subscriber to the Press or listened to Newstalk ZB Christchurch.
                  The Mayor has disappeared for the last couple of weeks and hasn’t made her weekly radio slot either. If she is as popular as you and Bertram believe I wonder why she is not fronting.

                    • Well Bert,
                      I wish she would ruddy well run it.
                      Have you been into the city lately – it’s chaos in there.

                    • Patrick, you just got your arse handed to you on a plate. If your going to debate Frank, you better make sure you have your facts ready. Otherwise you end up looking like a right Pratt.have a fucking nice day.

                    • Bert,
                      you shouldn’t trot that one out. The guy speaking was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, boarded at Christs College and returned to the mortgage free family farm.
                      He’s never had a financial worry in the world but has – by the account of an ex stock agent I know who used to deal with him – a great sense of entitlement and complains about everything.
                      The thing he was complaining about in that clip was not Kaikoura but the fact that they hadn’t dropped everything and fixed up the minor road to his farm.
                      The other people in that clip felt embarrassed at his unreasonable outburst and understood why big Gerry blew his cool.

                  • I was there when Parker was in charge and the huge fall out from Brownlee’s lack of intent and the poor communication. It has been 3 years since I have returned and it brought me to tears to think the 8 years I resided from 1988 to 1996( which were the best years of my short lifetime) are no longer. Playing cricket for Riccarton at the picturesque Hagley park, crossing the well laid out one way system to get from one side of the city to the other was so simple. It was such a beautiful city and only time can heal such a catastrophic event. Whether it be Brownlee or Dalziel, clearly funding and effort will speed up the process. I personally don’t think that when responsibility was handed back to the council from CERA, it was given with enough Government funding.

                    • Patrick,
                      When a farmer comes out and complains about a right wing Govt, the last thing you want to be doing is attacking him verbally. As for the silver spoon thing, that is exactly what Brownlee is doing in this instance. Speaking with the veil of privilege and the subtlety of Trump(remember Brownlee understands Trump’s language” Brownlee has his own sense of entitlement. By the way, the others in the clip appear to appreciate the ability for someone to stand up to Gerry the bully.

                    • Patrick,

                      “The other people in that clip felt embarrassed at his unreasonable outburst and understood why big Gerry blew his cool.”

                      Read the headline:

                      Gerry Brownlee was blasted by Kaikoura “LOCALS” who say the Government’s action has been “piss poor”.

                      Are the “LOCALS” all moaners or is only big Gerry allowed to have a sense of entitlement.

                    • And finally Patrick, just to make my point, Brownlee has a history…

                      “In September 2012, Brownlee accused residents in Christchurch’s newly created TC3 zone of “carping and moaning” for comments they made in a survey conducted by the main local newspaper. The comments were about perceived inaction by the authorities, including the government. He apologised soon after.”

                  • The sea level gauge in Lyttelton has shown a sea level rise of plus or minus 1.7mm for the last 100 years.

                    Untrue.

                    Sea levels at Lyttleton have risen;

                    Lyttelton + 1.98 ± 0.09 mm/year

                    ref: http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/environment/environmental-reporting-series/environmental-indicators/Home/Marine/coastal-sea-level-rise.aspx

                    The real stat is plus or minus 0.09mm/year, not the “1.7mm” you gave.

                    Would you care to tell us where you got that “1.7mm” figure from? You don’t dseem to reference any of your so-called “facts”.

                    The rest of your diatribe against Dalziel is meaningless. You obviously have a bee-in-your-bonnet about her and the fact that her electoral support is increasing seems to go over your head.

                    Oh, and Patrick? If you think “72000 votes … is actually a pretty poor result”, then consider that she won more votes than her predecessor, Bob Parker: 68,245

                    ref: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/vote-2010/4215326/Local-Body-Elections-2010-Christchurch-City

                  • Well Patrick, it looks like your claims about Dalziel and no rise in sea levels is utter garbage. You should do more research before putting your rubbish on a Forum like this.

                    By the way, my extended family lives in ChCh and most of them switched to voting for Dalziel last time. And they are ALL PROPERTY OWNERS.

          • Whilst I appreciate your concerns Paddy, I can also tell you that Gerry is not the most liked in Christchurch himself. Plenty dislike his ineffectiveness as the minister in charge of EQC.

            As for “The Mayor, who is in her 5th year in command is still blaming Bob Parker! After 4 years and 5 months in charge isn’t a tad these unpopular changes on poor old Bob?”, I can only say,

            this is what has been happening under National the last 9 years… “it’s all Labours fault”.

            The irony is that without Labour paying down debt to 10 billion, National would not have the reasonable economy we have today. But you don’t here National jumping from the rooftop thanking Labour for that.

            I have to agree with Rachel Stewart, in that, this where National have lead us…

            http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11844791

            • Bert, your claim that “Gerry is not the most liked in Christchurch” is backed up by election results. Brownlee’s constituents seem to be slowly deserting him:

              2008
              Electorate votes:

              20,648

              ref: http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2008/electorate-18.html

              2011
              Electorate votes:

              20,070

              ref: http://electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2011/electorate-18.html

              2014
              Electorate votes:

              19,981

              ref: http://archive.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2014/electorate-18.html

              Brownlee’s dropping support is in stark contrast to National’s Party Vote which has increased from 2008:

              National Party Vote:

              2008: 19,541

              2011: 19,934

              2014: 20,377

              Therefore, Brownlee’s drop in voter support has to be seen in the context of a fall in personal support for him, and not voters deserting National.

              Patrick appears to have ‘targetted’ the wrong person.

              • Frank,
                I confess that I had no idea Gerry’s vote had dropped by a massive 667 votes.
                That clearly shows his popularity, even in his own electorate, has plummeted.
                Not sure though, if it proves Martyn’s thesis that he is the most hated man in Christchurch.

            • Bert,
              I agree that the blame game is rife in politics and totally disagree with its use.
              The point I was making was for the Mayor to blame the previous administration for cycle lanes, to give but one example, is senseless as the plans and execution of this exercise in Social Engineering have been done during her term and only started building last year. What a ballsup they have created.
              Don’t forget she got demoted in parliament for telling porkies.

              • Samwise,
                what a lovely mail. Many thanks.
                What facts did I get wrong?
                The Mayors popularity is lower than at any other time of her reign, especially with the 18000 property owners whose values have been lowered by spurious additions to the LIM reports and now the cycle lanes which are stalling the city.
                Frank calls me a climate deneyer for having the gall to point out that the rate of sea level rise at Lyttelton has been stable for over 100 years. Best science tells us the rise over the next 100 years will be 500mm, which would affect a number of properties but the council are using 1000mm which affects 18000.
                Why should this be done now while sea level rise is stable.
                These changes were fast tracked by the Mayor with no consultation.
                I don’t think that is the way you treat people.
                You have a lovely day too Sammy.

                • What facts did I get wrong?
                  The Mayors popularity is lower than at any other time of her reign

                  Patrick, I pointed out to you that Dalziel’s votes have been increasing. (In fact, she gained more votes than her predecessor.) What part of that confuses you?

                  If her “popularity is lower than at any other time of her reign”, please provide the opinion poll to support your claim. So far we’ve heard nothing more than your own beliefs.

                  You can speak for yourself, but you don’t speak for “18000 property owners”. Not unless you put yourself up as a candidate at the next local body election and win 18,000 votes.

                • Frank calls me a climate deneyer for having the gall to point out that the rate of sea level rise at Lyttelton has been stable for over 100 years. Best science tells us the rise over the next 100 years will be 500mm, which would affect a number of properties but the council are using 1000mm which affects 18000.

                  You are a climate-change denier, Patrick. You’ve stated that plainly enough.

                  But the real irony is that you refer to “Best science tells us” when you deny science that doesn’t support your irrational beliefs. That’s called cherry-picking.

                  And by the way, your assertion that there has been no sea level rise at Lyttleton is false, as this Statistics NZ report indicates:

                  Our coastal sea level (relative to land) is rising.
                  Available tide gauge data showed rising trends in all long-term monitored sites over approximately 100 years, between 1900 and 2013.
                  The Wellington tide gauge showed the most marked trend: + 2.14 ± 0.16 mm/year. Other sites with less marked changes were:
                  Auckland + 1.55 ± 0.08 mm/year
                  Dunedin + 1.36 ± 0.08 mm/year
                  Lyttelton + 1.98 ± 0.09 mm/year
                  New Plymouth + 1.31 ± 0.28 mm/year.

                  ref: http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/environment/environmental-reporting-series/environmental-indicators/Home/Marine/coastal-sea-level-rise.aspx

                  You can learn more about sea level rises here: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/marine-environmental-reporting/our-marine-environment-2016%20

                  But you won’t.

                  Because you don’t want to.

                  The only “science” you’re interested is the cherry-picked/out-of-context-variety

                • Patrick, how can “the mayor’s polarity be lower than at any time” when her votes are increasing with each election?

                  I think you’re a bit blinded by your prejudice against mayor Dalziel.

                  Sorry mate but you aren’t presenting much of a coherent argument. In fact, not much of what you say stands up to scrutiny. You need to get out more often.

              • Yes, I concur Patrick that the blame game is irresponsible.
                And I believe you are sincere in your belief that Dalziel is not what you want in a mayor, as much as I am sincere in my belief that Brownlee’s incompetents also adds to the frustrations of the people of Christchurch.
                I suppose for me it is the smug arrogance of Brownlee and his ‘put down” of people, forgetting that he is there to work “for the people”. I gather you are stating the same for Dalziel. The day our representatives take personal responsibility for their actions, will be well after I’ve passed on.

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