Is Jordan a secret fan of Roger Douglas?
April 9th, 2009 at 3:57 pm by David FarrarMichael is a smart, funny, warm and caring man who is already clearly one of my party’s more successful finance ministers.
Now this got me curious, as this suggests that Jordan thinks that Labour has had other finance ministers more successful than Dr Cullen. Because he did not say “the most successful”.
Who have been Labour Finance Ministers, and which ones do he think were better than Dr Cullen? The post WWII/1949 list is:
- Arnold Nordmeyer 1957 to 1960
- Bill Rowling 1972 – 1974
- Bob Tizard 1974 – 75
- Roger Douglas 1984 – 1988
- David Caygill 1988 – 1990
Nordmeyer was the author of the infamous Black Budget that made Labour a one term Government so we can assume it wasn’t him.
Rowling was Finance Minister during the oil crisis, and has a pretty disasterous record. So presumably not him.
No one could seriously think you would rate Bob Tizard abaove Michael Cullen.
So hence, the only possible conclusion is that Jordan rates Roger Douglas and David Caygill as Labour’s most sucessful finance ministers! 
This will endear him to Leader Phil Goff, as Goff was once Sir Roger’s most loyal disciple. As was Annette!
Tags: Jordan Carter, Roger Douglas
April 9th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I hold no particular brief for Arnold Nordmeyer, however, I always wondered if he deserved the opprobrium that came his way from the “infamous black budget”. I was a kid at the time, but my memory is of my father and other working class people huddled around the radio listening to all the economic mumbo-jumbo for the things important to the working man of the time.
Had the price of beer and cigarettes gone up? Petrol was less important because fewer people had their own cars back then.
In 1958, the workers’ back pocket was hit by their own man. They were outraged. What I have never bothered to find out in the intervening years was whether the budget presented was fiscally inept, or just electorally unwise. Anyone know for sure?
[DPF: I think he was blamed unfairly. He lived to a very old age in Island Bay, and was a patient at the local medical centre I worked at. Everyone there said he was one of the nicest people you would ever meet]
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
bharmer,
Not sure but probably electorally unwise. He attempted to balance the books, paying for Labours social spending through taxation. Labour were defeated because National promised the same spending funded through borrowing (Muldoonism).
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
“Michael is a sm[ug], fu[*kwit], wa[nker] and c[*nt], man”
There we go, I fixed the quote for ya.
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
No one could seriously think you would rate Bob Tizard abaove Michael Cullen
Did Tizard needlessly pay $200 million more for trains than he had to? Did Tizard commit additional billions to trains? Did student loans needlessly and wastefully go interest free on Tizard’s watch? Did Tizard set up national savings scheme only to watch its value plummet in the first year?
Jesus H Christ, how bad was Bob Tizard?
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
There was that bloke before the war…
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
bharmer – Nordie was a highly respected politician and a gentleman. He was the Presbyterian Minister in Kurow at the time the Waitaki Hydro Station was being built and he was faced with resolving welfare issues as part of his pastoral work. He wanted to do something practical about it and considered his best contribution was to go into politics.
Nordie had to produce a budget to both meet extravagant election promises and an economic ‘blip’ so had little room to manoeuvre. you were right in that it is unfair he suffered the opprobium of the ‘black budget.’
He stood for the Wellington Hospital Board in the 1970′s and got the top number of votes.
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Remind me, who is Jordan Carter? Why would I care about the listless opinion of a Labour Party stooge?
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Out of curiosity:
Of all the names listed above, which ones (if any) were actually ‘financially-qualified’ or had financial experience (Banking, Accountancy) prior to their appointment as Minister?
That will be the real indication of the ‘quality of the man’ and show exactly how well he actually knew his job!
I suspect the results will be revealing.
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
I am inclined to think it was Nordy. Keith Holyoake politically exploited the Black budget for years and years and then Labour made Nordy their leader until Norm Kirk took over.
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Komata, What do you mean by “financially Qualified”? Do you mean by any chance the myriad thieving scoundrels, all financially qualified I’m sure, who run Enron, World.com, MerrillLynch, AIG, not to mention Bernie Madoff, and the dozens of banks that we are bailing out around the world. Add also the hundreds of accountants and auditors who were spectacularly unsuccessful in their chosen profession, and compared to those, all the NZ Min. of Fin. have done a pretty good job. By and large NZ has been better served by Labour MoFs than most, not all, of their counterparts in National. Having said that, no politician can use your money better or more effectively than yourself. They just make sure that you never learn how through the State mandated education system. And they are masters without peer at wasting that which they steal from us.
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Oh look!…Gerinimo is also a fan of Sir Roger Douglas.
“By and large NZ has been better served by Labour MoFs than most”
That is indeed true of Douglas, Gerinimo by his/her own statement rules out Kullen of course.
Give Gerinimo’s ringing endorsement of Douglas I assume he/she is also a fan of Ruth Richardson.
What a pity it is that Kullen did not learn from the two best MOF what have EVER had.
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I have never in a million years heard the description of Cullen as “warm”. Not even from his own constituents in Dunedin South before he left to join the list, leaving them with that other warm and caring character David Benson Pope.
What does Jordan know that nobody else does?
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Don’t worry Gerinimo, Jordan is surly “financially Qualified’ his philosophy for life is to take all wealth and give it to the state, thus the state is “financially Qualified”, God knows fuck all all else would have worked for Jordans little commie state of the long white cloud.
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
As one who was a keen and active supporter of ACT when it was founded I have been intrigued to hear Micheal Cullen using some of the catch phrases of ACT … sorry I don’t remember which … but remember being amused at how the policies of the ‘far right’ have become centre left with the passing of the years. Which of course sadly means that ACT has to go further to the right to maintain its position in politics. I guess the centre pinches good ideas from both the far right and the far left. Ce Vie in politics!
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
When judging ACT as right wing you need to consider the position of the left pre 1984. State run everything, price controlled everything, basically socialism so close to communism it was hard to tell which we had. The founders of ACT could have been very much centrists and been called right wing in that environment. Such is the problem of arguing it on the simplistic grounds of left vs right – good vs bad.
Vote:April 9th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
side show bob
You are right about Jordan, he’s a relentless in his ideology that wealth should be transferred to the state.
Vote:April 10th, 2009 at 1:44 am
Jordan has gone one step further now and has written about his dislike of Sir Roger. Typical foolish nonsense from a guy who just doesn’t get it. I would have hoped running alongside him in Hunua might have given him a little commonsense!
Vote:April 10th, 2009 at 4:30 am
burt says on April 9th, 2009 at 11:59 pm:
It’s no surprise that useless pricks like Jordan support redistributionist policies. How else would people like him get paid?
Vote:April 10th, 2009 at 7:41 am
To reiterate my question:
What I would like to know is which of this country’s Finance Ministers (of whatever governing party) were qualified Accountants or had at least worked within the financial sector (banking, etc) prior to becoming Ministers of Finance?
Cullen evidently wasn’t, and we’ve established by inference that ‘Nordy wasn’t either, but what about the others?
Perhaps, for convenience sake a time limit should be imposed – say 1920 (prior to the Great Depression).
Information anyone. . .?
[DPF: Cullen lecturer, English former Treasury staffer, Birch Surveyer, Richardson lawyer, Caygill lawyer, Douglas Accountant, Muldoon Accountant, Tizard unknown, Rowling teacher, Lake Accountant, Nordmeyer Theology, Jack Watts unknown, Holland sportsman, Nash shop owner]
Vote:April 10th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Thanks DPF
Therefore, out of 14 contenders, only 5 were anywhere near qualified, or (in Nash’s case had retail experience) and in view of his lack of ‘qualifications’ in the area, the fact that the last long-term incumbent (Mr Cull-ing) has caused so much damage, should be of no surprise at all.
The things we learn . . .
Vote:April 10th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Big bruv, What the hell are you on? Ringing endorsement of Douglas???? Sorry bud but I didn’t mention Douglas, Richardson or Cullen so how you come up with such a distorted conclusion I don’t know. Reread again when your head is a lot less in befuddled state as your reply indicates.
Vote:I was attempting to get a definition of “financially qualified” from tomata, now I see it’s a degree in accountancy. It obviously hasn’t sunk in past his ear lobes that the world economy is is such a shitty state principally because of those he would term ‘financially qualified”. Aided and abetted by the usual bunch of the criminally greedy, of whom almost all politicians are bedfellows. Because we, “the people” have traditionally, and continually, lack the intestinal fortitude to demand true participatory democracy, we allow ourselves to be ruled by integrity lacking opportunists, who steal and/or waste the financial resources of the country. And because those who try to inject a piece of sanity into our political system are viewed as fools, we will continue to be plundered by the avarice pirates we elect, and their already over-endowed mates I have more admiration for their Somali counterparts, at least they don’t claim to be anything else.
April 10th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Sorry Komata, the typo was unintentional. But your seeming assertion that a degree in accountancy is necessary or even desired in a MoF lacks merit. I would imagine every Govt Dept , Treasury, the PM’s Dept, is alive with the unlovely little grey buggers. Give me a truly honest administrator, with vision, integrity in all dealings, who can articulate said vision and inspire confidence from the electorate, and the bean counters under strict control and supervision, and I think we would be half way to building something decent in New Zealand.
Vote: