Bolger keeping busy
September 30th, 2008 at 9:57 am by David FarrarTim Donoghue details how busy Jim Bolger is, and also how he is getting paid more than when he was PM!
- Chair of NZ Post and Kiwibank – $165,144
- Chair Gas Industry Company – $85,708
- Chancellor of Waikato University – $25,350
- Former PMs pension – $40,250
- Former MPs pension – will be large as served from 1972 to 1998
- Chairman of Kiwirail – probably $80,000 or so I estimate
- Chair of Trustees Executors
- Advisory Board of World Agricultural Forum
- NZ-US Council
- Board of Ian Axford Fellowshops in Public Policy
I know some Directors who serve on boards with Bolger and they rave about his chairmanship skills. I guess having chaired Cabinet with Ruth and Jenny in it, prepares you for anything 
September 30th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Gis a job.
I do could do his job.
Go on gis it!
How many company cars does he have?
Good on you sunshine. Nothing like being pragmatic is there?
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Not a bad lurk for someone who was primarily responsible for the ascendancy of the socialist arseholes who currently preside over the country.
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Busy man then. Reminded me that driving to golf yesterday I passed the home of that ‘towering’ figure in Maoridom, Sir Graham Lattimer, sometime Maori Vice Chairman of the National Party and convicted tax fraudster. Many of us were hugely disappointed that Bolger declined to recommend to the Queen that Lattimer be stripped of his knighthood following conviction. I understand his reasoning was that such a move would be seen as an affront to Maoridom. That was/is IMHO PC nonsense.
Anyway, smack in the middle of the ‘good’ knights front lawn is a large Labour Party sign. Clearly ‘crooks’ of a feather flock together. This is one defection from National to Labour that I welcome and endorse.
Here endith the lesson.
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 10:33 am
DPF, doesn’t he also do all the radio voice overs that requires mock impersonations of badly accented English?
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 10:34 am
I guess a lack of talent does not stop Bolger.
Seriously, how is it that such a bumbling fool can be appointed to so many cushy jobs?
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 10:40 am
“I guess a lack of talent does not stop Bolger.
Seriously, how is it that such a bumbling fool can be appointed to so many cushy jobs?”
Contacts, Mates, Pragmatism, Shapeshifting, and a complete abandonment of scruples!
Fuck Politics, Jimbo has found the honey tree.
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 10:42 am
bruv, you missed the “I know some Directors who serve on boards with Bolger and they rave about his chairmanship skills” bit?
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 10:48 am
“…they rave about his chairmanship skills.”
yes – the National/NZ First govt collapsed after Shipley rolled Bolger. I don’t think that the Nats realised what skill was involved in keeping that coalition together. Perhaps bb he isn’t really a bumbling fool after all.
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 10:57 am
This is good research – very useful.
It’d be great if tabs could be kept on the business and financial activities of all ex-PMs, ministers or even MPs. I’m not necessarily suggesting that Bolger and others don’t earn their huge post-politics public and private sector incomes, but it does point to the fact that the experience of being a politician in NZ certainly opens doors to lucrative post-politics careers. I imagine that politicians from all colours of parties are afforded the opportunity of an affluent lifestyle after leaving politics. Or maybe Georgina Beyer’s experience suggests otherwise… But Beyer’s expectations certainly indicates that politicians see themselves as some sort of “political class” above the rest of us, and Bolger’s high-life also points to this.
Bryce
Vote:http://www.liberation.org.nz
September 30th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Would have upset Maoridom to see that bastard stripped of his knighthood, bullshit, which horis would have been upset, oh the few that belong to the Nats.
Vote:Amusing how those so called horis in the Nat party dive for cover when asked
if the hori seats should be dropped.
So which Nat hori MPs are in favour of dropping the cuzzy seats ?
September 30th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Forty grand for life for being an ex PM plus the gold plated MP’s Super what a wonderful servant to the nation. Well those are two lavish perks Mike Williams and Ken Douglas won’t be getting but they will be getting most of the others.
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
David Lange was also considered to be a good Chairman of Cabinet, that was until he got caught with the same problem i.e. both are/were captured by the Pope.
Vote:Compromise was/is the order of the day.
Shame it wasn’t Principle and Excellence.
September 30th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
well grumpyoldhori … you and your Party are certainly welcome to ‘Sir’ Graham as a shining example of all that is bad in Maoridom.
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Yeah well, he was the best National PM since… gosh, Keith Jacka Holyoake? Once he got control over the right-wing nutbars. Good to see his undoubted skills being put to good use. Hope the next government is as clever.
“Not a bad lurk for someone who was primarily responsible for the ascendancy of the socialist arseholes who currently preside over the country.”
Redbaiter, I wouldn’t let Shipley off that easy. Granted, she was out of her depth, but nonetheless.. Perhaps you weren’t in the country? Some facts then. Bolger won the last National victory at the polls, not Shipley. Shipley lost at the polls, Bolger won (three times, in fact). Shipley couldn’t manage Peters; Bolger and Clark could (and let’s hope no-one else ever has to). Shipley got involved in a controversy over changing the flag (I used to despair when the dopiest young Labourites kept pushing it, but never thought to see someone in power do it) and needlessly lost support. And so on. Poor hapless Shipley lost because her administration reeked of incompetence and instability.
[DPF: Shipley managed Peters very well - she sacked him]
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
The advent of the National NZ First coalition in 1996 put me off Jim Bolger for life. How could anyone be so craven as to jump into bed with NZ First? He should have said: “Go and talk to Clark and Anderton, we don’t want you.” Had he done that, all the dramas of the next three years would have been something they could have fed off, not an open sore. National would have bolted in at the 1999 election. Thanks Jim.
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Hmmm, it seems to me his NZ Prime Ministers pension from the NZ Taxpayer should be means tested against his income. The point of it is to ensure he lives in dignity after his career due to his position as our once glorious leader (wouldnt do to have a former NZ PM begging on the streets or eating catfood). But clearly humble Jim is doing just fine without our support. So lets put it to better use – like properly paying a few doctors and keeping them in NZ.
On another topic – any idea whether Helen will be quite so plush in her future career after muckraking politics finally leaves her high and dry? Investigative journalist for TV3? Will she be quite so useful in the “real world” as Jim without parliamentary privilege? Likewise her “running mate” Winston?
Vote:September 30th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
“[DPF: Shipley managed Peters very well - she sacked him]”
Sacking someone doesn’t necessarily make you a good manager!
[DPF: Not necessarily so, I agree. But with this employee, it does!]
Vote:October 1st, 2008 at 6:38 am
Viking2 says on September 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pm:
Look how that turned out for David Lange. Having to put on shows around New Zealand to scrape a few pennies together.
Vote:If only that were the fate that awaited Hels. Unfortunately, as a millionaire with six houses, no doubt almost all freehold, poverty doesn’t appear to be on the cards for Hels any time soon unlike the poor saps who vote for her.
October 1st, 2008 at 6:44 am
Hels will be kept busy post 8 November either liquidating her New Zealand property holdings or seeing to it that her former residence in Mt Eden is rented out.
Here is a general question for the peeps out there, if the New Zealand taxpayer owns the property next door to Hels so that security staff can keep an eye out on Hels then surely after 8 November that property is about to come onto the market. Would you want to buy a property next to Hels? Will the sale of the property be open and transparent with a fair market value obtained or will one of Hels rich mates be lined up to buy it? How quickly will the sales process be initiated once Hels becomes an ordinary opposition back bencher who is about to announce their retirement?
Vote: