Comments on: Bill pays back allowance

By: village idiot

village idiot — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:02:00 +0000

Phil – David is unable to speak to the English issue without waving those green-herrings in front of the noses of his audience.

By: philu

philu — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:54:16 +0000

dpf said:..”..I did say as a scheme to maximise income from the taxpayer it can be judged worse. .”

how can a legal super scheme be ‘judged worse’ than ten years/$200.000+ of falsly claimed ‘entitlements’/'income-maximising..?

..by telling porkies..?

(and yep..!.jabba…wilson/hunt are also in the frame..)

phil(whoar.co.nz)

By: jabba

jabba — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:41:41 +0000

I thought that speakers Hunt and the mad woman Wilson also signed off with Bills arrangements?

By: H Stewart

H Stewart — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:33:07 +0000

Ross my point about saying does he have time to figure out how to rort the system or what ever the hell I said was that Bill English is a man with a huge work load. I am sure that he leaves things like this to lawyers, accoutants and I would suspect his wife probably would oversee this domestic stuff, she is clearly a very talented woman, they don’t just give away medical qualifications.
Now I grant you this is speculation but an accountant and a lawyer have a duty to act in the best interests of there client so they look at the rules and make sure he is totally legal his wife then signs off on it. It is totally conceivable to me that all involved are relatively politically naive. Bill English is dealing with an economic crisis he just doesn’t have time to worry about domestic issues like this he leaves it to the professionals who tell his wife that this is totally legal. I would bet if I was to meet Bill English or his wife and ask where they were from they would say Southland in the same way that I despite living in Auckland would say Otago. Yes I view Auckland as the place I must live in but not as my home.
Actually Ross this is a government of the politically naive ( read todays editorial in the ODT ) and I like it, it is avoiding politics and focussing on getting the job done. Labour on the other hand is pissing me off with the continuing idotic stupid attacks on National ministers. Had Phil Gough delt with the Richard Worth problem ethically he would have come out of it smelling of roses he didn’t and John Key who did behave ethically won, note I say ethical not political.

By: philu

philu — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:19:14 +0000

and..didyahear dpf on nat-rad..going ‘look..!..greens..!’..when asked about/commenting on..english..

..that made up most of his commentary on english..

he actually said that the greens superannuation plan..is ‘worse than what english has been doing’..

(that ‘curly one’ had my eyebrows heading north..(and had the nat=rad host going ‘huh?’..)

(i wonder where he learnt to do that..?..that ‘look..!..greens..!’ thing..that he does..)

phil(whoar.co.nz)

[DPF: The host brought it up, not me. I did say as a scheme to maximise income from the taxpayer it can be judged worse. I went out of my way though to say the Greens are not only MPs to do this, and they are at least partially open about it]

By: philu

philu — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:13:42 +0000

key and lockwood smith both wish this wd just go away..

as both of them signed off/authorised the ‘rort’/englishes’ entitlements/arrangments..

and if the big bucket of shit does end up getting tipped all over english..

(and with 62% of punters thinking english is/has been rorting..it’s hard to see how it won’t..)

well..then both key and smith will be unable to avoid the/those splashes..

phil(whoar.co.nz)

[DPF: As did Hunt and Wilson]

By: village idiot

village idiot — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:54:37 +0000

National has to be very careful here – if Bill is seen to be given a free-pass (nothing to see here, move along) the lips of the public will begin to form the dreaded ‘C’ word – CORRUPTION – and Mr Key, all-forgiving (unless you’re Richard Worth), ‘I stand by my minister’ Mr Key, will be tarred by the ‘C’ brush.

Corrrrrrrrrrrrruption!

By: Rodney

Rodney — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:46:41 +0000

What Philu said – - -

Yes it is interesting to see all these callup national party rent boys on here all praising Bill English for being a crook (oh, but he’s a smart crook).. and honest (- insert tui ad here)

I too remember these frothing hordes screaming about a painting signed by the previous Prime Minister for a fundraiser for a school… a painting worth, say considering she was the Prime Minister… $50, and signing a painting isn’t illegal or indecent.

~ vs ~

A ratbag rorting way over a quarter of a million dollars from the taxpayer like Bill English is doing -well until he got caught of course.

Such national party standards..

Such national party pathetic rent boys..

Crooks. All of them.

By: Manolo

Manolo — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:59:06 +0000

The damage is done.

English’s actions come a tad too late and ONLY as a result of public pressure, as he’ll be the first to admit.
Unfortunately, he’s not alone in the greed department. His actions show how greedy most of our politicians are and how far they would go to milk / exploit the system to their advantage.

The worst thing is they all claim to do it in the name of public service. Most of them are nothing but common thieves.

By: Alistair Miller

Alistair Miller — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:52:34 +0000

I’m gonna repeat my earlier comment here. I don’t think the problem is necessarily Bill and the Endeavour Trust. I suspect the A-G will exonerate Bill. I think the problem is with the rules themselves. There must be some arrangement that can be dreamed up (DPF suggested a couple in an earlier post on this subject) that will remove not only any rort, but the *appearance* of a rort.

BTW, Audrey Young has an interesting take on this in her column. She reckons the only other thing Bill can do is ask the Auditor-General to review the case. Although I’m not sure what the Auditor-General might find that the Attorney-General won’t.

By: Neil

Neil — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:42:33 +0000

As a constituent of Mr English this situation has been a potential problem for Bill for years.
I think Bill should go on the List now that he is Finance Minister. Bill is certainly not a “money-scrubber”, unlike some of the socialist types
He serves his electorate really well but his electorate is almost as unworkable as West Coast-Tasman. People in his electorate have tremendous respect for him, he has delivered much for his constituency.

By: philu

philu — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:36:52 +0000

so reid…were these allegations against a labour deputy prime minister/finance minister..

(namely..clear evidence of a ten-year-rort..(totalling over $200 grand..)

..you ..(and the other apologists here)… would be as ‘forgiving’..?

d’yareckon..?

(keeping in mind yr long obsessional screams of ‘corruption’..

..over clark signing a painting for a charity auction..

(with absolutely no monetary gain for clark..eh..?)

phil(whoar.co.nz)

By: expat

expat — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:44:24 +0000

I am amazed English and the Caucus thought they would let this one wash over.

Whoever is handing out the PR advice to the PM’s office either needs to harden the fuck up or get a clue.

By: menace

menace — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:08:20 +0000

I’m still trying to suss you lot out! Cant work out if your all tied up in a little game here and have lost touch. Or, your playin it hard and keep’n touch behind the BS!, I’m guessing it’s both and its the balance that Ive got to judge. I do see hints of sanity from a few at least. lol.

Let’s speak hypothetically for a second here. YOUR FATHER RAPES YOUR SISTER! Do you stick by him seeing as he is your father or do you do the morally correct thing and stand against him. Hmmm, some may have to think about this but i personally don’t see any thinking to be done. Of course in saying this, if you didn’t know the fact’s your would have to stick by him till the truth was out. That truth will certainly come one way or the other that’s for sure. Would be hard not to jump to conclusions should dad go on the run though wouldn’t it. One things for sure he’s ya dad and ya know him, you just gotta look em in the eye and the truth is there aye.

Usually its the same wit dee’s poli’s when the word “rort” comes out its usually a “rort” and ya dam well know it is. They always pointing the finger round the camp cause they use to the smell in the camp, they know how camp work’s and they know what string’s are there waiting to be pulled when there’s get’s pulled. It’s like that nuclear bomb BS they keep hold’n onto em cause the other guys got his and if he ever use’s it they better have there’s to use in return.

End of the day i reckon we wanna pull the strings on them. Keep em honest. Transparency. take away the distraction’s so they can get on with there jobs, lookin after us and our country.

Any fool want’s to cheat us then of with his head. At the end of the day they are our leaders led by us and they will act as we allow them.

If i owned a company and my top guy was ripping me of! oh my I’d have his balls. So should we have there’s should they try any shifty shit. These guys are our leader’s they ain’t Bob who stole a couple box’s of ice cream from his boss Pete.

Don’t care what party, the “party” shit is just a side track.

Should the greens have it coming to them then they’l get it, no doubt!

By: menace

menace — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:07:42 +0000

End of the day i reckon we wanna pull the strings on them. Keep em honest. Transparency. take away the distraction’s so they can get on with there jobs, lookin after us and our country.

Any fool want’s to cheat us then of with his head. At the end of the day they are our leaders led by us and they will act as we allow them.

Don’t care what party, the “party” shit is just a side track

By: freethinker

freethinker — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:48:45 +0000

Whilst Bill has publicly stated his decision does not set a precedent I believe it does to the extent that by judging his situation calls into question if the same pricipal applies to other MPs or minister present & past. Me wonders if Helen ever claimed expenses for staying in any of her 8 properties whilst on official business and of course there is the Bunkle and Hobbs issues which perhaps need revisiting. Oh I almost forgot has Winston and the shithouse Dunne paid back the stolen taxpayer dollars yet? And perhaps Jonathan Hunts taxi fares need a fresh look at and possibly Maharey double dipped. Could this be a clever plan by Bill to out some of the previous administration – I hope!

By: Dean Papa

Dean Papa — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:47:36 +0000

Bill deserves some credit for doing this at least, though he should have probably done it as soon as it became an issue. However the fact that he has apparently been receiving such allowances for a decade does not reflect well on his character. His conscience should have been telling him many years ago that he was no longer morally entitled to be claiming the allowance.

By: kaya

kaya — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:39:30 +0000

btw idiot, I’m not defending English, look a my post from the other day. I think he has done enough for this to slide off the table fairly quickly.

By: kaya

kaya — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:38:14 +0000

village idiot – perception is the rule. What he did appeared to be wrong yet apparently technically it wasn’t. What he has done to address the problem appears to be the right thing. Perception. Move along, you won’t get traction on a wet track with slicks.

By: village idiot

village idiot — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:29:50 +0000

reid – in truth I know nothing of the issue you are (relentlessly) alluding to. If it becomes an issue of public interest, I’ll be party to the same information as you will and be able to form an opinion. I have an opinion on Bill English’s situation and so was engaging on that. Seems you believe there is nothing to be gained from discussing it. I find that pretty funny, given that his actions today are .. the action today! Thought there’d be some interesting discussion to be had around Bill, but no, it seems, no-one here thinks its anything more than a moment in time, in fact one that has covered English in glory rather than horse manure! How astonishing!
Interesting that you say ‘neither of us can do a thing and further discussion is pointless’, but in the same breath want to discuss the Green’s Super fund. Quite a convoluted thinker Reid.