The political desperation driving National’s counter productive Military Boot Camp nonsense is the real story here.
Despite Labour having a terrible time with posCovid pain and economic anguish, National simply aren’t capitalising on the animosity towards Jacinda and keep floundering because Luxon’s inauthenticity can’t bridge the gap to middle voters.
Luxon has the David Shearer curse, in that you can see him telling you what you want to hear.
The reason National tried to pretend he was in Te Puke and not at his Hawaiian holiday home was because they knew the juxtaposition of Luxon sympathising with the cost of living pain while on holiday in Hawaii would be politically damaging.
People want solutions and answers to their fears and pain during a once in a century pandemic, what they get from Luxon is endless u-turns as his team work out what is most driving the news media.
Military Boot camps are counter productive, National know this, but they also know they can appeal to anger from endless media coverage of ram raids.
It’s ironic in the extreme that these ram raiding kids are the legacy of John Key’s draconian welfare policies, these are the kids kicked out of State Homes using false meth standards, these are the kids who were living in cars, these were the kids whose parents were incarcerated in our private prison industry.
To now compound their damage with even more draconian punishments is the exact stupid knee jerk social policy that we had all hoped we had left behind!
If you think military boot camps are the solution, comrade, you are the problem.
Putting ankle bracelets on 10 year old children is an obscenity, it is not a way to prevent more crime.
These damaged troubled children require well funded facilities and resourcing to over come their damage, forcing them to attend boot camps and ankle bracelets will only ensure they become even angrier and more resentful towards a society that stopped caring about them.
We are a better people than National are trying to sell us.
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Can’t see any alternative there Martyn, what do you suggest?
1: a good talking to!
2: ‘wrap around services’ (snigger/snort)
3: throw money at the problem and hope it goes away (the lefts solution to all ‘problems’)
4: give maori groups/IWI more money…no reason, just it always seems to happen when Labour in Govt. (And never ever measure the results and monitor who actually gets the money Vs outcome)
Nationals problem solving has all the lefties hand wringing and wailing …but those same ones never vote National anyhow, so no biggie.
I’m Right so are you telling me that in this modern world we find ourselves in that these modern day children are ACTUALLY going to go willingly to Waioru, you do realize that children who ram raid would also cut their ankle bracelets off without a second thought. So what happens to the children of the wealthy in all this “back to the future nonsense,” are they included in the ankle bracelet/ bootcamps or will they just pay their children’s way out of trouble. See the problem for the National party and Luxon is that he has now driven a wedge right down the heart of NZ. On one hand you have tax cuts for the wealthy and the other hand boot camps and ankle bracelets for the poor. Also he is talking about quote “ re.programming “ these children what does that even mean ??. This is very dangerous territory and dangerous rhetoric coming from a Christian and the mercenary Mitchell, who by the way could only write this fundamental policy in 3 pages.
It’s not problem solving though is it idiot, even one of Nationals own knows that.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/boot-camps-a-cliche-says-former-national-minister-chester-borrows/V3U2BOK6RNCRVAXVNZMTLO6RRY/
White collar criminal s should attend the boot camps as well. Plus our very worst school teachers.
How do you know who the best/worst teachers are?
The unions and Hipkins ensured no performance scale or something similar would be introduced, so the shit teachers are no different to the good teachers regarding pay/performance to the parents anyhow.
Ahh the Righties on Labours education minister with their hand wringing and wailing …but those same ones never vote Labour anyhow, so no biggie.
What do you mean by “our very worst school teachers”?? Most are devoted and competent; always a few exceptions. But how about those Wellington education bureaucrats who incessantly change policies/curriculum etc plus implement class barns (with 80+ students in each)??
mjh. Yes, those shared learning spaces are a cost- cutting abomination not conducive to learning, very hard on noise-sensitive children, and would drive Education Dept bureaucrats bonkers having to work in one themselves were they not already bonkers and unhealthily obsessed with questionable peripheral issues, all part of New Zealand’s ongoing assault against kinder, and their innocence.
And if that’s not bad enough, this is the department chosen, inexplicably, to replace the very valuable Commissioner for Children.
Go to the average local bowling club and see if “military boot camps are counter productive.”
My pick is that today (and yesterday) boot camps would be the flavour of the month. By election time they won’t necessarily be but they would have been another little nail hammered into the hull of the Labour waka.
Yes Peter have look who go to the bowling clubs we all know it will be popular with them, play bowls then go home and beat up the wife in secret
Many of these bowlers attended boot camp called conscription. The training they received put many of them on a pathway to being the citizens who built this successful country
and it taught many how to be callous and use guns effectively trevor
Oh Trevor if conscription was so good why don’t we have it today??
These damaged troubled young people deserve to look forward to a future of abundance not one of guaranteed scarcity where they will literally be fleeced for basic survival. And give me a break with this clown Luxon doing an improve performance at McDonald’s as if this is a fucking career option for young people to look forward to. It would be laughable if it was not so revoltingly horrifying.
If you had ever been in a position to hirer staff you would know that time spent at McDonald’s is a plus on a CV.They are well trained and taught hygiene. For most it is a great stepping stone but for a few it can lead to a secure and we’ll paid job .They usually promote in house so there is a great oppetunity . The same applies for KFC .
Luxon’s planned boot camp if resourced properly could be a game changer but the problem is after awhile Wellington buracrats get involved and try to make a name for themselves by cutting costs .This is happening at the moment with Maori teachers.
A CV? A CV to go where? A stepping stone, to what a $25.00 block of crappy cheese? Get real, and I am not against young people boot camp or discipline, I worked at 15 selling Kirby vacuums, which by the way is better for everyone than McDonald’s which is bad for the entire worlds health and causes obesity and diabetes. The burgers can be left in a car for three month and not even maggots or mold will go near it! You want to know how much money I made in high school? $200 American dollars a week, and this was in the 1980’s. You want to know why I liked to work all the time, because I made money, and I could plan a future of owning a car, taking trips having lovers and friends – you know doing things and going places…Everything that has been stolen from this generation. And not one joker politician cares about that.
I see Labour as the sealers because they seem to think they know better how to run your life but seem to hate successful people .Whereas National encourage growth
Has Luxon stated what the aim of these “boot camps” is? What activities will be involved?
I’d support the idea if the aim was to get these wayward kids engaged in some pro-social activity, something they’ll be motivated to continue with after the camp’s over. Rugby seems an obvious possibility, though of course it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. What about tramping? Take kids out in the bush, trek up a mountain (how many will have seen what the world looks like from the top of Mt. Pirongia, or from Purity Hut in the Ruahines?), spend the night in a hut, maybe hear a Kiwi. Am I being naive?
Pope Punctilious 11. No, you are not being naive. You’re talking about things that children without fathers often miss out on, and that’s very sad, apart from being a learning experience vacuum.
My youngest had just turned 13 when his father died, and I’d give anything for it to have been different. He now spends masses of time with his own son, and I see it as he determined to give him what he didn’t have. Being a single mother is a big ask and it’s not surprising when things do come unstuck.
It’s a great pity that we don’t have a decent Minister of Children, it could make a huge difference for many kids if we did.
“It’s ironic in the extreme that these ram raiding kids are the legacy of John Key’s draconian welfare policies”
I’m not sure about that diagnosis Martyn. I suspect the problem goes deeper than that – fatherlessness and the DPB.
Pope Punctilious 11. Yes, but the DPB enabled two women I know to get out of abusive marriages, and both when their husbands started on the children, and both men white collar professionals, pillar of the community types. One of the women went on to do a Ph D in nursing, thanks to the Training Incentive Allowance which Paula Bennett abolished. The second struggled.
Be very very careful what you wish for, Martyn.
Because after Luxon’s polling implodes and the Nats realise he can’t deliver, the Nats will turn to Nicola Willis, who is far more experienced, polished and a better professional politician….
I will be surprised if this popularity goes down unless he does something silly or something is dug up about his past . As he grows into the job he is improving getting his ideas out there .As the election gets closer these will take more shape and while Jacinda is very polished at delivery the girly smile when asked difficult question is losing its appeal to many.
I have just read the bank rate is going to move up to levels not seen for years and will further show up the poor management of the economy as a wider range of workers are effected by a downturn in work with a climb in mortgages and rents
No, you are right that boot camps probably don’t work. But what does? How about a solution??
mjh. “ How about a solution?” Trying to create an inclusive and fair and just society would help. Kids growing up getting a message that they don’t matter, that the powers that be don’t care that they’re homeless or being shoved from pillar to post, start their littles lives handicapped. Many rise above their poverty and others don’t.
This has never been a good country to be different, and when politicians trade on this to elicit sympathy they’re disgusting, like English saying he knew what it was like to be different because he had teenage acne, then up to Auckland telling adolescent boys he was an honorary Samoan chief, is as uninspiring as Kerekere saying colonialists buggered up her ancestors’ sex lives, or a Minister for Children wailing that someone stole his great great granddaddy’s land and ergo I hate youse.
Knowingly blighting children’s lives is evil in my book and politicians partaking in this should be dumped on desert islands themselves. Some kids may be psycho and in village days we accommodated them, but now we have to agree that every child counts and proactively work at providing them all with a good start; various NGO’s beaver tirelessly at getting this message through to politicians, and many welcome volunteers, and helping them out may be our best bet. Schools and community groups usually welcome helpers too. Currently I lambast strangers about government cancelling the Commissioner for Children and they’re so taken aback that they listen.
Sigh! What plonkers. Over at No Minister, our resident Army brat, “Major Starr” takes this “idea” apart.