The Choice is yours...Poverty or greed...children or BMW's

Wheeler’s Corner Ó

Connecting Citizens Who Care

49 24^th November 2011

This Week: Election 2011 Edition two. 1. Poverty: 2. The Key saga myths.

After watching TV3’s Inside NZ Doco on child poverty I can only hope that this Wheeler’s Corner touches a nerve, because we should be ashamed of ourselves and our greed that has led to this state of affairs…

This from the Dominion Post:

“Charities say they have watched with concern as the gap between rich and poor grew over the past few years with no solution in sight.

Wellington City Missioner Susan Blaikie said she had previously worked in the corporate world, where beneficiaries were seen as bludgers.

"But I don't know anyone that actually wants to be on a benefit. The bigger the gap is between the richest and the poorest, the more likely there will be social problems and crime." The Reverend Blaikie had spent the last decade working with the church and said the issue was worse today than ever before. She was concerned that no major party had produced a serious policy this close to the election.

The Salvation Army's social services spokesman, Major Campbell Roberts, said he had seen the gap grow over his 40 years there and in recent times more people were worse off.

"Even over the last two years there has been a significant increase in people coming for welfare services. At the same time you've got salaries at a level which have increased significantly. "This is most probably a reasonably recent thing over the past 15 to 20 years."

People who had a long history of working and contributing to society were losing their jobs and more families were struggling for the basics.

At the Catholic charity St Vincent de Paul, national council chief executive Anne-Marie McCarten said more government agencies were referring people to charities.

"It's been bad in the last two or three years and is getting progressively worse. We are feeding more children in schools and feeding people who don't make it to the next pay day.

"It's a bit to do with everything and if there was an easy solution, I guess everyone would know it."

"As a young man, I now know what it was like to live in Germany just before and during the war. John Key is running this country like a dictator, with the rich people as his chosen race." – David Nelson

"It seems crazy that the wealthy have had their tax rate cut and now the Government wants to sell NZ-owned assets, which will probably be bought by them. I don't believe for an instant that the wealthy would leave NZ because of a higher and fairer tax rate; after all, you'd be paying more tax in Australia than you do here." – NG

"I don't think NZ is any different from any other capitalist country. And no, NZ is not lauded overseas as an egalitarian society – where do you get that impression from? What is different here is that there is little focus on this [wealthiest] 1 per cent whereas overseas there is much more open exposure. I imagine that most of the 1 per cent here are farmers, and you're not allowed to criticise farmers are you?" – Trevor Woolnough

"Hard work is a red herring. Let's say hypothetically that everyone in NZ worked just as hard and were equally as motivated and as educated as everyone else. Even after all that, someone still has to clean the toilets, empty the septic tanks." – Jim Kirk

"If you are mega-rich you are a wealth deprivator; you are impacting on people's ordinary lives and aspirations more than any everyday criminal probably could. Graham Hart spending $85 million on a yacht made from money milked from the NZ economy ... clearly over the boundaries and a man whose soul has become corrupted by his wealth. What's he giving back?" – John Gower

"I do work hard – sometimes 11 hours a day, I have a degree which cost me huge amounts in student loans and didn't help me get a job, and I have aspirations. To me the problem is not that there are rich and poor; this will always happen as its human nature. The problem is that more and more people in the same boat as me are finding it hard to live due to the rising cost of food, petrol and rates." – Catherine  

We need to look at the History of John Key in relation to his financial abilities so here are some facts and figures regarding him and his last major employer Merrill Lynch and their general performance…and he was a senior player. The following is not simply ‘picking’ on the PM. What’s shown below is fact not fiction. The real question it automatically leads to is, how can one whose behaviour helped the financial melt down, by taking huge profits and bonuses, design a workable and transparent process to stop the rip-off that is going on right now here in NZ and Palmerston North. My view is, he can’t…it’s like putting a fox amongst the chickens or an alcoholic in charge of the pub. So lets calmly review the back ground without any public relations spin or smiling photographs and media hog-wash.

·         Key's first job was in 1982, as an auditor at McCulloch Menzies, and he then moved to be a project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin for two years. [LWR which went belly-up dumping many PN Staff]

·         Key began working as a foreign exchange dealer at Elders Finance in Wellington, and rose to the position of head foreign exchange trader two years later, then moved to Auckland-based Bankers Trust in 1988. [Elders Finance was taken over]

·         In 1995, he joined Merrill Lynch as head of Asian foreign exchange in Singapore. That same year he was promoted to Merrill's global head of foreign exchange, based in London, where he may have earned around US$2.25 million a year including bonuses, which is about NZ$5 million at 2001 exchange rates. Some co-workers called him "the smiling assassin" for maintaining his usual cheerfulness while sacking dozens (some say hundreds) of staff after heavy losses from the 1998 Russian financial crisis. He was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1999 to 2001.

·         In 2001, he headed back to New Zealand to fulfill a long held ambition to stand for Parliament for the National Party. [replacing Brash after the Hollow-men scandal]

It was fortunate that he did because Merrill Lynch went into free-fall:

·         In 2002, Merrill Lynch settled for a fine of $100 million for publishing misleading research. As part of the agreement with the New York attorney general and other state securities regulators, Merrill Lynch agreed to increase research disclosure and work to decouple research from investment banking. A well known analyst at Merrill Lynch named Henry Blodget wrote in company e-mails in which Blodget gave assessments about stocks which conflicted with what was publicly published by Merrill. In 2003, he was charged with civil securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He settled without admitting or denying the allegations and was subsequently barred from the securities industry for life. He paid a $2 million fine and $2 million disgorgement. The CEO at that time, David Komansky, said, "I want...to publicly apologize to our clients, our shareholders, and our employees," for the company falling short of its professional standards in research.

·         In 2004 convictions of Merrill executives marked the only instance in the Enron investigation where the government criminally charged any officials from the banks and securities firms that allegedly helped the energy giant execute its accounting fraud. The case revolved around a 1999 transaction involving Merrill, Enron and the sale of some electricity-producing barges off the coast of Nigeria. The charges surrounded the 1999 sale of an interest in Nigerian energy barges by an Enron entity to Merrill Lynch was a sham that allowed Enron to illegally book about $12 million in pretax profit, when in fact there was no real sale and no real profit. Four former Merrill top executives and two former midlevel Enron officials faced conspiracy and fraud charges. Merrill cut its own deal, firing bankers and agreeing to the outside oversight of its structured-finance transactions. It also settled civil fraud charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, without admitting or denying fault.

·         In 2002 Merrill Lynch settled for 10 million civil penalties as a result of improper activities that took place out of the firm's Fort Lee New Jersey office. Three financial advisors, and a fourth who was involved to a lesser degree, placed 12,457 trades for a client Millennium Partners in at least 521 mutual funds and 63 mutual fund sub-accounts of at least 40 variable annuities. Millennium made profits in over half of the funds and fund sub-accounts. In those funds where Millennium made profits, its gains totaled about $60 million. Merrill Lynch failed to reasonably supervise these financial advisers, whose market timing siphoned short-term profits out of mutual funds and harmed long-term investors,  

More recent Controversies with Key as PM were:

Mafrost has left a post on: "John Key smiling assassin or hero? You decide...":  Key's lack of credibility is renowned! In the last six years he has lied/changed his mind about e.g. the following:

·         On Kyoto and climate change: 10 May 2005 Hansard - the record of government - "The impact of the Kyoto Protocol, even if one believes in global warming - and I am somewhat suspicious of it - is that we will see billions and billions of dollars poured into fixing something that we are not even sure is a problem.” He concluded that “The public are sick and tired of paying additional taxes for all sorts of crazy ideas.” So he now supports the ETS... During the same debate Nick Smith stated: “New Zealand's emissions amount to less than 0. 5 percent internationally, and per head of population our emissions are about half that of Australia's and the United States' emissions. So why are we going to impose costs, and impose controls, and impose red tape on New Zealanders..." John and Nick the forked tongue of National?

·         On asset sales: In October 2008: "I am not interested in selling assets – I'm all about building assets". Perhaps it was just his own assets he was talking about? Speaking of which - on his personal assets in so-called blind trusts: In May 2010 on TV1 Key said: “he had never heard of Whitechapel, the company that owns his shares as a holding vehicle for his ‘blind’ trust, Aldgate”. There are online official records of him giving those shares to Whitechapel. He's not even a competent liar!

·         On GST increases: 10 Feb 2010 “National is not going to be lifting GST. National wants to cut taxes, not raise taxes … what I am saying is if we do a half-decent job as a government at growing our economy I am confident that won't be happening”. Obviously National didn't do even a half-decent job! I really can't understand why when an overwhelming majority don't want assets to be sold, a majority of people still think his 'ability' on economic matters is worth supporting? Given his track record of lying/changing his mind, do they really trust that he won't find an excuse for an eventual complete sell-off of the country's key infrastructure assets? I sure as heck don't! above Posted by mafrost to wheeler's Corner NZ at 20 November 2011 13:49

·         During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Key was a proponent of Hosni Mubarak's government, citing his support of Israel and refusing to call for his resignation. When asked if Mubarak should step down, he said "no".

·         In 2011, Key was caught up in a controversy over the purchase of government limousines which he denied knowledge of initially but later reports surfaced his office was aware. He was accused of being dishonest and eventually apologised, calling the deal sloppy.

·         In October 2011, Key made a statement where he claimed Standard and Poor's had said at a meeting in the prior month that "if there was a change of Government, that downgrade would be much more likely", this claim was contradicted by S&P after Key's credibility had been called into question.

·         In November 2011, Key rushed to the police to shut down just what said about Don Brash during a PR stunt to help the Act Party and he walked out of a press conference to avoid answering questions on the subject.

Now after reading about the massive gap between the have and the have-nots you have to decide if you think John Key is the right person to stop the massive blow-out in corporate greed and correct the problems that presently exist.

I wish you well in your choice…and don’t forget to vote on Saturday…and don’t forget to vote for the children… because they can’t vote for themselves…cheers 

Peter J Wheeler

John Key smiling assassin or hero? You decide...



John Key The smiling Assassin

Looking at the History of John Key in relation to his financial abilities here are some facts and figures regarding his major employer Merrill Lynch and their general performance…

·         Key's first job was in 1982, as an auditor at McCulloch Menzies, and he then moved to be a project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin for two years.

·         Key began working as a foreign exchange dealer at Elders Finance in Wellington, and rose to the position of head foreign exchange trader two years later, then moved to Auckland-based Bankers Trust in 1988.

·         In 1995, he joined Merrill Lynch as head of Asian foreign exchange in Singapore. That same year he was promoted to Merrill's global head of foreign exchange, based in London, where he may have earned around US$2.25 million a year including bonuses, which is about NZ$5 million at 2001 exchange rates. Some co-workers called him "the smiling assassin" for maintaining his usual cheerfulness while sacking dozens (some say hundreds) of staff after heavy losses from the 1998 Russian financial crisis. He was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1999 to 2001.

·         In 2001, he headed back to New Zealand to fulfill a long held ambition to stand for Parliament for the National Party.

It was fortunate that he did because Merrill Lynch went into free-fall:

·         In 2002, Merrill Lynch settled for a fine of $100 million for publishing misleading research. As part of the agreement with the New York attorney general and other state securities regulators, Merrill Lynch agreed to increase research disclosure and work to decouple research from investment banking. A well known analyst at Merrill Lynch named Henry Blodget wrote in company e-mails in which Blodget gave assessments about stocks which conflicted with what was publicly published by Merrill. In 2003, he was charged with civil securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He settled without admitting or denying the allegations and was subsequently barred from the securities industry for life. He paid a $2 million fine and $2 million disgorgement. The CEO at that time, David Komansky, said, "I want...to publicly apologize to our clients, our shareholders, and our employees," for the company falling short of its professional standards in research.

·         In 2004 convictions of Merrill executives marked the only instance in the Enron investigation where the government criminally charged any officials from the banks and securities firms that allegedly helped the energy giant execute its accounting fraud. The case revolved around a 1999 transaction involving Merrill, Enron and the sale of some electricity-producing barges off the coast of Nigeria. The charges surrounded the 1999 sale of an interest in Nigerian energy barges by an Enron entity to Merrill Lynch was a sham that allowed Enron to illegally book about $12 million in pretax profit, when in fact there was no real sale and no real profit. Four former Merrill top executives and two former midlevel Enron officials faced conspiracy and fraud charges. Merrill cut its own deal, firing bankers and agreeing to the outside oversight of its structured-finance transactions. It also settled civil fraud charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, without admitting or denying fault.

·         In 2002 Merrill Lynch settled for 10 million civil penalties as a result of improper activities that took place out of the firm's Fort Lee New Jersey office. Three financial advisors, and a fourth who was involved to a lesser degree, placed 12,457 trades for a client Millennium Partners in at least 521 mutual funds and 63 mutual fund sub-accounts of at least 40 variable annuities. Millennium made profits in over half of the funds and fund sub-accounts. In those funds where Millennium made profits, its gains totaled about $60 million. Merrill Lynch failed to reasonably supervise these financial advisers, whose market timing siphoned short-term profits out of mutual funds and harmed long-term investors.

More recent Controversies with Key as PM were:

·         During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Key was a proponent of Hosni Mubarak's government, citing his support of Israel and refusing to call for his resignation. When asked if Mubarak should step down, he said "no".

·         In 2011, Key was caught up in a controversy over the purchase of government limousines which he denied knowledge of initially but later reports surfaced his office was aware. He was accused of being dishonest and eventually apologised, calling the deal sloppy.

·         In October 2011, Key made a statement where he claimed Standard and Poor's had said at a meeting in the prior month that "if there was a change of Government, that downgrade would be much more likely", this claim was contradicted by S&P after Key's credibility had been called into question.  

Palmerston North, Rangitikei Election Special.

This Week: 1. Election Special Edition…

Rangitikei…



Ian Mckelvie



Madalene Frost, of Taihape left a comment on my post "The Biggest Question you face...she wrote:
”The question was asked "Who should you vote for in Rangitikei?" Well its a foregone conclusion according to MSL's Stacey Kirk in the Central Districts Times (Page 1, 15 November 2011): "...many people have already picked Manawatu District Mayor Ian McKelvie to trot comfortably to the finish line in Rangitikei on election day>" Six years of Social Credit tenure by Bruce Beetham is brushed of by Ms Kirk as just "a blip on the [National Party stronghold] timeline." And Josie Pagani is trivialised: "She might seem fresh faced down these parts..."
When did it become the news media's role to create the news rather than simply report it?
Please tell us Stacey, what polling/canvassing you did to come to the conclusion that McKelvie [pictured] will trot comfortably into the seat of Rangitikei? What proportions of the population believe this; how was your assessment conducted; what was the size of the sample; what is the margin of error?
Nor, Stacey has your newspaper seen fit to publish a local reader's letter sent in time for the same edition, on alternatives to National's policy of ignoring the plight of 200,000 children living in poverty under their watch; young people dying from Bronchiectasis - a third world disease seven times more prevalent than in Finland, the only other developed country with this disease; John Key and Bill English making the top deciles of New Zealanders 25% richer in their first term of office.
So hey, if you don't like McKelvie, don't bother to vote folks - according to Stacey you can't win! Let him and his ilk carry on polluting our mighty rivers and spreading their racist clap trap. After all that is all we plebs deserves.



Dr. Peter Cleave.



On second thoughts perhaps I will vote…For Peter Cleave [pictured] of the MANA movement perhaps? He seems interested in the plight of the plebs in the rural hinterland of Rangitikei. Yes I WILL vote for Dr Cleave and I'll give my party vote to MANA. They couldn't stuff up Aotearoa any more than McKelvie’s lot have over their many tenures in Rangitikei since 1938; nor than Labour did when it sold off the assets in the 80s and when they stood by and let their cops lock four young children in a hot tin shed at Ruatoki in 2008 for four hours with no food, water or toilet facilities”.

Palmerston North:

What has the present Government done for Palmerston North? The short answer is nothing…Its cut health funding forcing the local health board to introduce parking fees and reducing frontline services, thereby reducing the salary of all hospital staff…its raised GST thereby increasing the cost of food for all citizens both young and old…its failed to maintain our roads while reducing the rail services…its allowed massive pollution of our river to continue…its forced National Standards on our schools and threatened those who question the value of those standards in relation to actual learning…the list seems endless but there is more…they expect our military to hand over prisoners to be tortured, beaten and murdered and break international law while at the same time sacking three hundred of them or reducing their wages and closing camp libraries, now that takes some beating for double standards.



Leonie Hapeta



Iain Lees-Galloway



There isn’t room to mention all the various public servants who have lost their jobs, or Massey support and teaching staff that have lost their jobs. I’ve listened carefully to the Nats candidate Leonie Hapeta [pictured] and all she has done is mouth John Keys bill board promises verbatim…she is not the candidate she pretends to be, she is a cardboard copy of John Key in drag. I’ve checked her press releases and they are simply copies sent out by the Nats/Act HQ…I’ve no doubt Leonie is a nice person but think about it do you simply want yet another John Key clone to represent you…My feeling is that PN should keep the electorate Labour by giving your electorate vote to Labour and your party vote to Mana or the Greens, both those parties appear to have the urgent needs of our electorate of lifting life for those on low wages and those who care about our river and environment. The present PN electorate MP Iain Lees-Galloway has served the city well especially our defence force citizens and those on lower and fixed incomes.

The picture below makes a powerful point and little is needed to understand its meaning other than to make the point that the picture also represents the 1% Vs the 99%, I’ll leave you to decide which one is which…One week to go and the fat lady will sing next Saturday and I make a plea for all vote and make sure your friends do too, why not offer them a ride to the polling booth…

Wealth Gap widens leaders React...



God Zone gone wrong.



The Dominion Post reported: The richest 1 per cent of the population owns three times more than the combined cash and assets of the poorest 50 per cent. Though NZ is often lauded overseas as an egalitarian society, New Zealand's income inequality statistics are much worse than those of most other developed nations. More than 200,000 Kiwi children live below the poverty line. The income gap between rich and poor has been highlighted by the global

Occupy Wall Street

movement, which is rallying for a more just society and an end to corporate greed.

A Statistics New Zealand report says the richest inhabitants' net wealth runs into tens of millions of dollars, but is "likely to be underestimated". The report's 2004 data – the latest available – reveals the richest 10 per cent collectively possess $128 billion in wealth, with median individual wealth of $255,000. In contrast, the poorest 10 per cent collectively possess $17.2b, with median individual wealth of $3200. While the richest 1 per cent held 16.4 per cent of the country's net wealth, the poorest 50 per cent owned just 5.2 per cent.

Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows New Zealand's income inequality climbed dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s after sweeping economic reforms and deregulation of labour markets. Disparities have plateaued since 2000, largely thanks to Working for Families tax credits, bigger pay packets for middle and low-income earners and declining investment returns for the rich. But the gap between rich and poor still ranked ninth worst in the developed world in 2008.

Child Poverty Action Group chairman Mike O'Brien said there was enormous disparity. Parents were turning to food banks and poverty-stricken children were more likely to miss out on doctors' visits because of the cost and to suffer income-related health conditions. "The experience of children in those bottom deciles is, quite frankly, pretty bloody bleak."

Thrift permits modest pleasures and personal pride

Cecilia Vilimanu works full-time as a caregiver, earning about $25,000 a year.

Careful with money, the 53-year-old does not have a credit card, and the thought of using an instant finance company horrifies her. "I don't have any debts. I never buy anything I can't afford. I save up and then I buy it."

Her clean Housing New Zealand flat speaks of her personal pride, but her pleasures are modest.

She drives an old Toyota Corolla worth about $200.

A keen walker, she recently saved up for a pair of $89 shoes. "They were on special."

Education has always been the key for her family, and she supported her son through a science degree course at Victoria University. "I made sure he had a roof over his head and food in his tummy, so all he had to worry about was studying."

Well that sets the scene…here is what some party leaders had to say on this issue:

NATIONAL

John Key says he has always been aspirational for New Zealanders. "New Zealanders should have opportunities to succeed, no matter what their background ... We're focused on growing the economy and creating better jobs with higher wages, so New Zealand families are better placed to get ahead."

Note: John Key never actually spoke to the actual question, there are no policy or pro-active remarks in his non-answer, key word aspirational a dream word that means nothing in real terms.

LABOUR

Phil Goff says he is not surprised by the figures. "I think most New Zealanders know that New Zealand has become a much more unequal place." Labour would address inequality through its proposed changes to the tax system, which include a new top tax bracket for people earning over $150,000 and a $5000 tax-free threshold.

Note: Phil actually makes some policy statements matched by some practical suggestions to assist reducing the gap.

GREENS

Co-leader Metiria Turei is unsurprised but dismayed by the figures. "It's families living on the very bare bones, not having enough to feed their kids, and all the social issues that tend to follow." The Greens planned to lift 100,000 children out of poverty by raising the minimum wage, improving Working for Families, insulating houses and increasing access to training.

Note: Likewise Metiria offers policy and actual actions to assist in reducing the gap.

ACT

Don Brash says he is not surprised by the figures but how wealthy someone was did not have a practical effect on what was important day to day. "What's important is having opportunity to make tomorrow better than today through our own efforts. Children should be able to take their share of state education funding to any school of their choice, public or private, thus reducing the inequality between students ..."

Note: Don Brash like John Key fails to answer the question and talks around the issue, its sort of aspirational in an bias kind of way but offers nothing of a practical nature.

Epsom Cafe Tea Cup reading revealed






Banks & Key and magic black bag.

 

NEWS FLASH; CONTENT OF TAPE RELEASED VIA EAVESDROPPER.

An Eavesdropper friend at the Herald on Sunday sent me this transcript of John Key’s and John Bank’s conversation at a local café in Epsom;

JK “Tea’s nice”.

JB “Yes I agree”

JK “It’s good to kiss baddies, sorry I mean babies”

JB “I agree”

JK “It’s good to see so many of the media here”

JB “I agree”

JK “Is there anything you don’t agree with”

JB “Only if you say it’s OK to disagree”

JK “Brash is a bit of a twit”

JB “I agree”

JK “I doubt I’ll need the Act Party next term”

JB “I agree”

JK “You agree! Are you sure?

JB “Well, you have not told me not to, and orders must be obeyed”

JK “So if you are elected and you bring Don Brash as baggage and since he is your leader you’ll have to obey his orders, is that correct?

JB “I don’t know how to answer that, but I’d sooner obey your orders”.

JK “That’s nice to know”

JB “I agree”.

The rest of the tape is un-publishable because it contains swear words and language of an adult nature, such as the buying of Italian and Greek shares etc from the sale of our assets…and Banks becoming Minister of Nothingness assisting Steven Joyce…etc etc

Horowhenua lake owner arrested by Police

Police interrupt ceremony by arresting Otaki candidate

An Independent candidate in this year’s elections was arrested and led away in handcuffs at an Armistice Day commemoration attended by the Minister of Internal Affairs Nathan Guy yesterday.

Otaki candidate, Phil Taueki is a Foxton RSA member who was attending a ceremony on the Foxton RSA premises with his partner Cr Anne Hunt when Police Officer John May tapped him on the shoulder and asked him outside.  As Mr Taueki was leaving, four other police officers arrived and arrested him for a breach of his bail conditions.

Mrs Hunt says the police claimed that he had given only twenty-three and a half hours notice that he would be attending a function attended by Horowhenua’s Mayor Brendan Duffy rather than the required twenty-four hours.

The police ordered a journalist covering the event not to take photographs.

Mr Taueki’s lawyer, Steven Price is currently out of the country and was unable to represent him for yesterday’s appearance in the Levin District Court.

Mr Taueki had applied for a variation of his bail conditions to ensure that he would be able to address campaign meetings if the Mayor also attended.

Mr Taueki is facing several charges including criminal harassment after making six phone calls to the Mayor over a three-day period.

The police has sought a bail condition demanding that Mr Taueki must leave as soon as he becomes aware that Mr Duffy is present at any meeting or public event.

In the Levin District Court the day beforehand, Mr Taueki had argued that this condition would not allow him to attend the Armistice Day commemoration  which Cr Hunt was obliged to attend in her capacity as a Foxton RSA committee member.

He told the court that he was concerned that Cr Hunt had been subjected to a confrontation  involving Mr Duffy a week before she was due to give evidence in another matter. Although she had reported this incident to the police, no action had been taken.

During the hearing, he advised the Crown Prosecutor Simon Chamberlain that it was his intention to attend the Armistice Day commemorations at the Foxton RSA.

However, Thursday’s hearing had been delayed until 12.30pm which meant that he was unable to give the full twenty-four hour notice that he intended to accompany Mrs Hunt to this commemoration on the Foxton RSA premises.

Earlier this year, four police officers had visited Mr Taueki’s home at 1am to arrest him on a charge of wilful trespass. This charge was dismissed on the grounds that the trespass notice was invalid. Lake Trustee chairman Dr Jonathan Procter who issued the trespass notice, admitted that he was not an owner of the property, nor could he prove that he was acting as an agent for the owners. However, for eight weeks the bail conditions prevented him from returning to his home on his own property.

He has also been trespassed from the Horowhenua District Council for a two-year period.

Mr Taueki is taking the Horowhenua District Court to court to stop Levin’s stormwater draining into Lake Horowhenua which is privately-owned.

Mr Taueki who is a direct descendent of Tauheke who signed the Treaty of Waitangi on behalf of Mua-Upoko, says he is heartened by the response he is getting on the campaign trail as he describes what he believes to be the most blatant violation of the Treaty of Waitangi in recent history.

Despite the fact that Mua-Upoko has always owned Lake Horowhenua, the Crown removed all ownership rights by passing a law placing control of the lake in the hands of a domain board appointed by the Minister. Since then the lake has deteriorated to such an extent that it now ranked one of the worst lakes in the country.

Mr Taueki says that he was not surprised by his latest arrest, due to comments Mr Guy had made to his campaign manager after a candidates’ meeting last Tuesday.

And although he was forced to spend several hours in a police cell on Armistice Day, he is philosophical, considering this latest incident to be part of an ongoing campaign of harassment by the police, the local council and politicians ever since he returned to New Zealand to champion the rights of his iwi. In his campaign manifesto, he says that if you don’t stand up for your rights, it is inevitable that you will lose them.

However, he says that his arrest at an RSA premises on Armistice Day shows a distinct lack of respect for the rights and freedoms that New Zealand servicemen fought to preserve.

For further information, phone Mr Taueki on 367 3872 or e-mail him on philtaueki@gmail.com

Alan Alach Hero



Anne Tolley NZ Minister of Education, Villain? 



Hero or Villain…local educator makes world news.

When did it become acceptable to publicly attack educators dedicated to fighting for the welfare of children? Isn’t this supposed to be our charge?

Yet, with the onslaught of corporate driven education policies, educators are now coerced into tossing the welfare of children aside in order to advocate for the well being of multi billion dollars companies and the legislators who front them. 

Alan Alach is a long standing educator in New Zealand who has also been an active contributing member to the United Opt Out movement . He advocated for our international outreach segment of the website. Why…because he sees the writing on the wall .

He sees the destructive nature of the educational policies being forced on educators in his own country. He and New Zealand are not alone. Back here in the good ‘ol USA, his story should resonate soundly with us.

Alan was “reprimanded” by the Education Ministry of New Zealand for his outspoken opposition to the standards being imposed upon students. Part of this attack was the accusation that he was using the school where he works as a "political soapbox." He is accused of spending time blogging when he should be attending to so-called day-to-day activities. We, the educators who advocate for opting out of high stakes testing understand that one of the key elements to bringing the public back into public education is changing the narrative that the corporate-led policy makers have so deftly co-opted. It would be negligible of Alan to act like so many others and simply stick his head in the sand. He is not writing about shoe shopping folks. He is researching and writing about education policy in an effort to advocate for his teachers and students.

Such accusations ignore the reality that all educational work is political-to ignore the fact that the standards and common core themselves are a huge political and economic football is either naïve, or worse, deliberate-why is when the left speak out its political but when the right wing free- marketeers push their agenda it’s just “business as usual?” Because that’s the nature of hegemony and dominant discourse-to makes one’s agenda “invisible.” Alan’s work exposes the education reform for what it is: Politics for the rich and powerful, as usual.

We all need to follow Alan’s courageous lead and to announce loudly that the Emperor has no clothes. The high stakes testing agenda and National Common Core being rolled out across America is grounded directly in the pockets of the corporate reformers who have much to gain politically and financially from the implementation of these policies.

Secretly behind closed doors, I hear teachers and teacher-educators alike expressing their opposition to new teacher evaluations, to new standards, to new testing policies; everything the latest reform measures have forced upon them. That’s because they see every day, on the frontlines, the negative effects these measures are having on their profession and the children they serve. But if you ask them publicly how they feel … you hear crickets.

Educators are understandably afraid. Why? Look what happened to Alan. But rather than reinforcing our collective silence, we should be uniting. Don’t let Alan’s courage be in vain. Phil Cullen of Australia (a Member of the Order of Australia- a sort of Aussie knighthood-for services to education) writes this letter to the editor in response to the article that led the attack on Alan’s work (shown in its entirety here):

The article by Jessica Button on 4 November suggested that the education minister was displeased with the principal of Hokowhitu School for alleged injudicious remarks on a blog site.  Mr Alach is an ebullient critic of national standards. He seems to think that they constitute a confining process that constricts and lowers overall curriculum standards; and which does nothing to promote purposeful achievements in reading, writing and mathematics. As a practicing school person, he is worried overall about the effects that politicking for corporate benediction has on children’s focus on learning.

Mind control of schooling and the use of officers to bring schools into line is pandemic. Mr Alach’s blog vocabulary indicates that he does not like it being used in New Zealand. Australia certainly uses forms of Gestapo-ism; but I will not be called to account for saying that.  When Joh was king in Queensland and I was a state director of education, in charge of about 1200 primary schools, I was sometimes called to account by school principals and nasty names were used. I felt aggrieved, of course. However, when at times I checked the accuser, it was often a principal who knew a thing or two. As far as school leadership was concerned, we did not have many Alachs. There were some, and although they doubted my parentage at times, I learned to give way, especially to the Alachs. On reflection I do wish that there were more Allan Alachs in our work-force; brave state-employed, good school operators unafraid to be critical; reminding superordinates that they don’t know everything.

Some advice for Ms Tolley: “Young lady, part of your job requirements is to eat crow. Do it and just spit out the feathers; not seek revenge.”

Phil Cullen A.M.

Former Q’ld State Director

Occupy the Department of Education in Washington DC March 30th-April 1st. It’s our time to stand up and speak out.

I am sorry, but the way in which Ms Tolley has insisted that National Standards be foisted on, slapped over, whacked into and shoved through our primary school curriculum leaves me in no doubt whatesoever that this is simply round one of a grueling fight to wrest Public Education from the embrace of Education Professionals and put it firmly in the grip of commercial interests.  

The support offered to schools? Think this: a man beats his wife then supports her by giving her an icepack and saying "Get on with it". 

Andrew Salisbury

BA, DipTch, PGDipEd