Kiwiblog

Further to my blog earlier this morning, the kind people at Marae have sent me a breakdown of some of their poll results, by roll. This allows an easier comparison to election results.

You can view the episode on their website, including a discussion between host Shane Taurima and John Key.

First the party vote results for the 700 respondents on the Maori roll (compared to actual election results):

1. Maori Party 62% (+33%)
2. Labour 23% (-27%)
3. National 11% (+3%)
4. Greens 2% (-2%)
5. NZ First 2% (-5%)

That is a decimation for Labour. Their party vote has more than halved amongst Maori on the Maori roll. Some of that will be losing Clark.

Then the party vote results for the 300 Maori respondents on the General roll:

1. National 42%
2. Labour 33%
3. Maori Party 16%
4. Greens 6%
5. NZ First 3%

Now this is unprecedented as far as I know – National to be outpolling Labour amongst Maori voters on the general roll.

The 2008 data has not yet been published but the NZ election study in 2005 had Maori on the general roll supporting Labour at 54%, and National at 17%.

So from the 2005 election, Labour has gone from 37% ahead of National amongst Maori on the general roll, to 9% behind.

And then if we take the overall sample of all Maori (both rolls) we have:

1. Maori Party 48% (+27% from 2005)
2. Labour 26% (-28%)
3. National 20% (+11%)
4. Greens 3% (-2%)
5. NZ First 2% (-7%)

Again I can’t compare to 2008 as there is no public poll data about how Maori on the general roll voted.  But the combined effect is clear – Labour at half the level they were in 2005, and both National and Maori Party at around double where they were.

Also interesting to see the breakdown by roll for John Key. He gets 26% Preferred PM amongst Maori roll respondents and 39% amongst Maori on the general roll. Goff is at 4% on Maori roll and 5% General roll.

In terms of approval of Key’s performance as PM, there is little variation. Maori on the Maori roll give him a net approval (yes over no) of 17% and Maori on the General roll a net approval of 24%.

I have not yet viewed the episode myself, but I think John Key will be very proud of such historic results, despite being a “white motherfucker”

John Roughan writes:

National public transport officials share their Auckland counterparts’ dislike of the Snapper proposal. This I’d read before the Snapper man came to see me but I didn’t know why.

Nor, he claimed, did he know. But as he outlined the mechanics of his fare-paying system I had an “ah ha” moment, to borrow a mediator’s phrase.

He said his was the only bid offering more than a public transport ticket. Snapper’s card could be loaded to a value of $300 and used for small transactions of any kind in any place that had a card-reader.

It could be used on buses, at train station barriers, coffee kiosks, in taxis, at parking buildings … Ah ha.

Public transport planners do not want their ticket transferable to taxis and, heaven forbid, carparks. Their mission in life is to discourage private travel by any means they can and promote their fixed-route services.

This could explain a lot. Rather than go for a flexible multi-use electronic payment system, they want one you can only use on their buses and trains.

I’m a regular snapper user. Its great on Wellington buses, will be usable in taxis shortly I believe, and can also use it as various retailers.

Those suspicions were reinforced this week at the press conference to announce the terms on which the Auckland ticket can proceed. When the Transport Agency’s chief executive, Geoff Dangerfield, was open to the possibility that a transfer card could be used for other transactions, his officials were quick to step in.

“I think it’s really important that we keep to our business,” said one. “Our business is operating public transport and transit applications [by which he meant park-and-rides and cycle lockers].

“We want to think about our business first and the spin-off retail opportunities second. Fares are what it is all about. We’ve taken a particular interest in how a system will perform in the public transport real environment, not necessarily spin-off applications.”

Blah. Public transport is their business, public service is too wide a brief. For them a transfer ticket is a marketing device, giving their network a distinct image in shops, which would be fine if taxes didn’t have to pay for it.

And as taxpayers are paying for it, the wider public service angle should be taken into account.

The Snapper man said something else that accorded with my limited comprehension of computer programming. The more open a card’s applications can be the less expensive the system becomes. The cost lies, he explained, in setting up the exclusions.

It sounds expensive enough to programme a card for the buses, trains and ferries of Auckland; to make it applicable also to the routes, fare stages, discounts and subsidies of all municipalities nationwide sounds impossibly fraught unless the card has some of the convenience of cash.

I haven’t any shares in Infratil but I’m beginning to wish I did.

Same!

1. John Small blogs his ACC submission. He has many questions about the motorcyclist proposed levies.
2. Steven Price quotes Richard Posner on free speech – “The value of competition in ideas, coupled with the costs (including error costs) of effective regulation, provides some grounding for a legal approach that deems the benefits of free speech to be great, and thus requires proof of great cost… to justify restricting speech.” I also agree with Judge Posner, and note that many proposed restrictions on electoral speech fail to prove there is a problem or cost that requires restrictions to fix it.
3. Tim Selwyn blogs on how New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent $161 a vote or $90 million on an election he won by just 50,000 votes. He concludes that it really isn’t possible to “buy” an election based on the evidence here and in the US.
4. Jolisa Gracewood blogs on how she discovered Witi Ihimaera is a plagiarist. Paul Holmes wonders why Auckland University is defending the plagiarism as an “accident”, ie not deliberate.
5. David Cohen labels Sgt Kimberly Munley a “very cool lady”. I can only agree as I read how she stopped the Fort Hood gunman as she “bolted from her car, yanked her pistol out and shot at Major Hasan. He turned on her and began to fire. She ran toward him, continuing to fire, and both she and Major Hasan went down with several bullet wounds”. He was stopped as he was chasing a wounded solider.
6. MacDoctor blogs on the US House passing Obama’s healtcare bill by 220 to 215.

I’ve blogged at Curiablog, the details of a Marae Digipoll. It has 700 voters from the Maori roll, and 300 from the general roll (but of Maori descent).

There’s several fascinating aspects to it.

1. Party Vote is Maori Party 48%, Labour 26% and National 20%. Now in the 2008 election, in the Maori seats, the party vote was Maori Party 29%, Labour 50% and National 7%. Now this can’t be directly compared due to inclusion of general roll voters (I have asked if there is a breakdown) but regardless that a big boost upwards for the Maori Party and National.
2. Maori Party at 57% on electorate vote. Will this hold up for them to win the sixth and seventh seat off Labour?
3. John Key at seven times the support of Phil Goff as Preferred PM. This is a National Party leader. Goff is in 5th place amongst Maori.
4. Approval of John Key is at 55% amongst Maori.
5. In terms of most effective Maori MP, the top Labour MP (Parekura Horomia)  is at 3%, in 5th place.
6. While 68% of Maori Party supporters back the decision to go into Government with National, most want them to be in Cabinet – not Ministers outside Cabinet.

I’ve said for some time that Labour’s strategy of attacking the Maori Party is a strategic blunder. This poll confirms it, in my opinion.

We have a $10 billion deficit, and Labour still wants to spend even more. And Chris Hipkins details the priorities:

I visited a Day Skipper course for people who were interested in boating. Now this does fit the definition of a hobby course, but it’s actually providing a valuable public service. Which would you rather see the taxpayer subsidising, a cheap course or more search and rescue operations when amateur boaties get themselves into trouble?

My visits to a floral arranging course, a stained glass window course and a Spanish course all reinforced the tremendous social value night classes bring to the wider community.

I’m speechless. Floral arranging. Stained glass windows. Spanish. How to be a day skipper. This is what Labour wants to borrow and tax more money from workers for.

Chris did also mention a painter doing an excel course. While that is laudable, there is a sensible business imperative for people in business to take such courses regardless of taxpayer subsidies.

I continue to be staggered at the judgement of Labour MPs who highlight stained glass window courses and floral arranging courses as part of their campaign. I almost wish there was an election in a few weeks, just so one could have creative fun doing TV ads showing what Labour’s priorities are. Hell given time over summer, maybe we can shoot our own ads.

Hat Tip: Gooner at No Minister

Rodney’s announcements speaks for itself. In full:

I have asked you here today because I want to apologise. I want to apologise to the public. I want to apologise to my colleagues and to my supporters.

But most importantly I want to apologise to the people of Epsom. I promised the people of Epsom I would make them proud of me as their MP. I have let them down.

I have made mistakes.

I have shown poor judgement. For that I am very sorry.

I accept that I have failed to live up to the important principle that I have set, that politicians should always remember that they are spending taxpayers’ money, and therefore must spend it carefully.

I am proud of the work I have done on behalf of taxpayers.

I am proud of the work I am doing in my local government portfolio on behalf of ratepayers.

I am not proud of my casual use of taxpayers’ money to take a holiday in Hawaii with my partner. That was wrong. My decision to repay that money ($10,022.40) was easy when I took the time to reflect on what I had done.

I can well understand why hard-working New Zealand families are appalled that I took such a holiday at their expense during these difficult economic times, even though no rules were broken.

I have also decided to repay the cost of my partner’s airfares for the trip to London, Canada and the United States that she accompanied me on in September. I will be providing Parliamentary Services with a cheque for $11,952.00 in the morning.

I want to publicly apologise to John Key for distracting attention away from the important job his government has in lifting New Zealand’s economic performance and providing the standard of living we all aspire to.

The Prime Minister has entrusted me with a big and important job. He is excellent to work with, and I appreciate his very generous support, especially over the last two weeks.

I have always been conscious that every dollar a government spends is a dollar out of the pocket of a hard working kiwi. But in the challenge, the hard work, and the excitement of my ministerial job I lost sight of that for myself. I fully accept that I can only demand high standards of others if I always meet the same high standards myself.

It’s not about the rules – it’s about doing the right thing.

I want to conclude by making two important commitments to the public, my colleagues and supporters.
- I will never again use taxpayers’ money for any overseas holidays.
- I will continue to work hard to do the very best job I can as a minister and a member of parliament to honour the trust that the people of Epsom have shown in electing me to represent them.

Thank you.

Very pleased to see Rodney do this. I think it is great we have a Minister who wants to keep rates down and slow down the rate of regulation. The events of the last week were threatening to undermine his work, so he has done what is necessary to move on.

I think MPs from all parties should be wary of using the subsidised overseas travel perk that exists for MPs who entered before 1999. It got abolished for more recent MPs for a reason, and any current MP who uses it for personal travel is going to possibly find the cost of using it is more than the “saving”.

Labour MP Jacinda Ardern blogs her concern that the unemployment rate for under 20s has reached 25%. I share her concern.

I wonder if anyone else thinks that in hindsight maybe abolishing youth rates wasn’t the smartest move?

I know I only got some of my teenage employment because of youth rates. I started at $1.99 an hour.

The combination of ending youth rates and increasing the minimum wage to $12.50, has meant for some employers the cost of hiring teenagers has doubled.

Now when the economy was growing strongly, one could do these things without a big impact on youth employment. But this is the problem with so much of what Labour did – it was assumed businesses would always have money to burn.

The motivation behind increasing the minimum wage and abolishing youth rates was good. But as with most economic moves, there are almost always downsides to any initiative, and we are now seeing part of that.

The more expensive you force up the cost of labour, the less people in employment. Now that is not saying there should be no minimum wage, but a recognition that the more you increase it, the bigger the impact on jobs.

This is a graph of employment of both teenagers and 20 to 24 year olds. It is not seasonally adjusted so every December you see an increase due to holidays.

There has been a dramatic decrease in the number of jobs for under 20s, but relatively little for 20 to 24 year olds. From Sep 07 to Sep 09 the number of teenagers in employment fell 32,800 while for those aged 20 – 24, the fall was just 4,100.

Hence I think the abolishment of youth wages is a major factor. Otherwise you would expect the two age groups to be somewhat more aligned.

Incidentally the teenage unemployment rate has always been traditionally high. Only once in the HLFS history, has it been under 10% – in September 1987.

Sunday News reports:

INGA Tuigamala used to smash opponents on the footy field – now he wants to smash some Pacific Islanders dependence on the dole and DPB.

And the former rugby and league star has confirmed he would consider running for Parliament in 2011 if offered a spot on the National Party list.

I think it is great that Inga wants to make a difference. And for National there would obviously be a huge political advantage in having him stand.

However for Inga’s sake, I would suggest he chats to a couple of new MPs about what life is really like in Parliament.  Your ability to (for example) change welfare policy is relatively limited initially. Backbench MPs have to spend a lot of time serving on select committees, asking patsy questions in the House, and helping constituents. The policy side (which is what motivates many), takes a while to influence.

I think Inga as an MP would be an awesome role model for many Pacific Islanders. But I would hate him to end up in a job he doesn’t find satisfying.

There’s an old saying – when it rains, it pours. Rodney Hide will will it has poured all week. The SST sums up the week:

Hide is under assault on all fronts – voters, the media and now his government colleagues – after one of his worst weeks in politics.

Hide’s horror seven days has been entirely self-inflicted. First he was publicly exposed as a hypocrite for taking advantage of a perk he once campaigned strongly to abolish: taking his girlfriend, Louise Crome, on a round-the-world trip, visiting London, Toronto, Portland and Los Angeles. He defended it on the grounds that he did not spend as much time as he would like with Crome and that he had to work with the system, even though he disagreed with it.

They cover the jibe about Key, the Hawaii trip etc etc.

Rodney will be kicking himself. There can be little doubt there has been damage to both Rodney’s brand and ACT’s brand.

But when you fuck up, there’s only one response. Learn from the fuck up, buckle down, and get back to work.

I think the National-led Government is all the stronger for the inclusion of both ACT and the Maori Party, despite the tensions that arise from varied personalities, policies and priorities.

The HoS report:

DJ Mikey Havoc has a debt to society – and is paying it off the same way he makes his living.

The former Push Push rocker, now a 95bFM morning DJ, amassed at least $20,000 in traffic fines over a number of years. …

The system allows people to carry out between 40 and 400 hours of work instead. The Department of Corrections website describes it as allowing “offenders [to] make compensation to society for their offending”.

So that would mean an affective rate of $50 to $500 an hour. And that is net. Normally you would need to earn around 20% more than that to cover tax. And what did he have to do?

Havoc confirmed he had arranged to clear the debt through work: “Shifting shit around and doing stuff other people can’t be f***ed doing”.

However, the Herald on Sunday has learned that Havoc’s punishment is remarkably similar to the work he does on radio in the morning – spinning records for students.

Havoc does the breakfast shift on 95bFM from the second floor of the Auckland University Student Association building. Then, according to AUSA general manager Tom O’Connor, Havoc works off his fines by playing music for students on campus – in the quad outside the radio studios.

O’Connor said the student association normally hired DJs to play for three hours over lunch for about $150.

“He is working as a DJ in the main quad, working for us free.”

I don’t think being a DJ is what most people would regard as community service.

It would be like me getting let off any traffic fines I incur, by doing community service as a blogger.

Around 30 hours after leaving Wellington I’m in Turkey. No photo as it is 5 am. Delighted that my hotel is allowing me to check in nine hours early, and withiout even charging me extra. That s what I call customer service.

The Thai Airlines flight to Bangkok was12 hours, and went quickly. I had a row to myself so was very comfortable propped up in a corner, stretched out and reading a Robert Harris’ latest novel on Cicero, and the GI Joe movie.

Had two to three hours in Bangkok Airport, and thank God for my Star Alliance status, I could use the Thai Royal Orchid Lounge, even though I am flying cattle economy class.

Then had my first ever flight on Turkish Airlines. Seemed as good service as most international airlines. Didn’t want to waste Saturday catching up on sleep, so for the first time ever I took sleeping pills on a trip. Normally I can almost never sleep on a flight. Again, I had a row to myself (I wonder if this is because of my status point or am I just lucky?) so got a good eight hours sleep. I’m dislike taking drugs generally, but a good investment this time.

As everyone else has done it, I’ve rated the Government’s first year in my weekly Dispatch from St Johhnysburg.

Unlike others, I have rated policies, not Ministers. My ratings range from 4/10 to 9/10 with an average 7/10.

Comments and feedback can be made at NBR.

I’m a big fan of most of what Air NZ does. Their technology investment has been great (love my m-pass and e-pass), and I fly then when I can. I love their safety video (and one of the “stars” was working on my domestic flight today – poor girl – everyone talking to her about it). So I am not an Air NZ basher.

But I couldn’t believe their customer service at the international terminal today. I got there at around 11.30 for a 3.30 flight to Thailand. I’m on Thai Air, but Air NZ do the checkins for them.

Bad enough that at 11.30 they have not even assigned a desk for check ins, so you literally do not even know where to wait. Then at 11.50 they put up a sign for the flight, so I go to the allocated desk, to be told that they will not be checking people in until 12.30 pm. Now I’ve flown a lot and at many airports you can check in for an international flight at any time that day. How hard is it to just have even one person catering for early check ins?

Then around midday the check in staff appear. They chat to each other for a while, and then they go sit behind their desks. But because it is not 12.30 we still can not check in. Yep you had Air NZ staff sitting there behind their desks doing nothing at all, while a large queue is waiting in line frustrated. And the magically at 12.30 we are allowed to approach them.

Why in Gods name would they not just start checking people in, the moment staff are ready?

I don’t blame any of the staff. They are following orders. But someone in Air NZ management needs to get a culture change – don’t force people to queue up, when you actually have staff ready and able to work. They could have easily started check in 20 minutes earlier.

UPDATE; Consensus from the comments is Air NZ not to blame, as Thai would have contracted them for a start time, and they may not even be able to access the computer system earlier. Fair enough. My complaint to Air NZ then becomes a request – can they pass feedback onto Thai that by the three hour mark there are over a score of passengers already waiting to check in, and contracting Air NZ to have even one staff member start earlier would increase customer satisfaction!

Let’s just put this in a nutshell:

1. Hone wags a meeting he flew to the other side of the world to attend so that he can see beautiful Paris instead.

If Joe the freezing worker or Joanne the policy analyst wagged work to go to the movies what would happen to them?  And, remember this is the second time that Hone has done this.  In the real world he may have got a warning for the first time, what would happen for the second time?

2. Hone sends highly offensive emails and invites the recipient to go to the media.

Hmmm… if Joanne the policy analyst did the same what would happen to her job?  Especially since she is already under at least one warning for wagging work to go to the movies.

And, is this behaviour, wagging and offensive language, appropriate for a Member of Parliament or a Member of the Maori Party?  It seems to me that all the wrong messages are being sent thanks to Hone’s actions.  Terrible messages like all MPs rort the system, Maori will wag work to do the fun stuff, etc etc.

Hone, own up to what you’ve done and allow someone with some integrity from the Maori Party to take your position.  Your mana is disappearing as we speak, and not even John Key or Pita Sharples can enhance it now.

I see no point in introductions about me – Jadis.  See my intro post from the last time I guest posted here.

As many of you know, I am a Mum.  I have two children, a boy and a girl.

As part of my daily routine I get to talk to and observe other parents at the kindy and at school, and I also “talk” and read about other New Zealand parents (particularly mothers) online.  Yes, this is all anecdotal and my days in research and policy tell me that anecdotal doesn’t equate to accuracy BUT…

When did parents start getting so worried about children getting dirty?  When did parents become so detached from playing with their children?  When did the focus of kindy and school functions become more about the parents than the children?

I am probably a weirdo.  I actually enjoy getting stuck in with the children (not just my own) to make mud pies, to garden, to run barefoot across an open field, to make a scarecrow. And yes, I understand that I have the time to do that however many parents can make the time.

Dirt is good, especially for boys.  Giving our boys space to build stuff, to experiment and to problem solve helps build their brains, gives them a sense of achievement and contributes to their personal growth to become productive members of our communities.

Dirt is good for girls too.  By giving our girls the opportunity to get dirty, to build, to create we also ensure they will try new things.  Girls need to explore how things work, where bugs live and make their own creations to become productive members of society as well.

“Dirt” doesn’t just mean soil and mud.  I mean paint, paper, water, whatever.  There are so many opportunities around a house and garden to discover and explore and learn.

Some middle class parents are so into having clean and tidy children inside clean and tidy houses, that it feels as though they’re losing the fun and excitement of being a child and of learning about the world.  So many of us drive our children to school, pick them up, drive to an after-school activity, then home for dinner, bath and bed.  We’ve lost the opportunities we had as children to go exploring for a few hours, often unsupervised.  And, if we entertain the idea that our ten year old can go exploring with his friends unsupervised then other parents pass judgment.

Children need to play and create.  By all means build in some clean up routine but give them the chance to have the space for creation, for entrepreneurship, for dirt.  You don’t need a lot of time to do this stuff – a couple of hours in a weekend or after-school does work.

There’s also plenty of research to back up that Dirt really is good – ultra clean doesn’t mean ultra healthy.

And, never fear, my posts won’t all be about parenting.

I’m travelling for a wee while from today. Most of the time should still be blogging a bit, but to keep the posts flowing, I’ve got some guest bloggers again.

The Herald reports:

Auckland bus drivers turned their back on a $500 sweetener from the region’s public transport agency when they rejected advice from union leaders yesterday to accept a new company pay offer.

Emotions ran high at Alexandra Park racecourse after about 55 per cent of almost 650 drivers and cleaners voted by secret ballot to reject the offer from Infratil subsidiary NZ Bus of pay rises amounting to $2 an hour by the final stage of a three-year deal.

That would have lifted the top hourly wage for drivers with nine months’ service or more to $17.45 now, $18.15 next year, and $18.75 in February 2012.

Putting aside the $500, that is a 12% increase over three years. A full time salary of $39,100 for driving a bus.

At a time of low inflation and rising unemployment, their decision is regrettable. They even went against their own unions’ recommendation to accept.

If they think they can do better than $39,000 elsewhere, maybe they should offer their services to another company.

The Herald reports:

Two-thirds of bachelor degrees last year went to women, the highest figure on record in New Zealand.

I find it amusing that so much time and energy is spent talking about pay gaps between men and women, and so little time about the educational chasm between males and females.

Twice as many women as men are graduating with a bachelors degree. That is huge. In one sense it is great that just a few decades on from an era where women were discouraged from tertiary study, they are doing so well. But the under-achievement of males is now endemic.

Director of the Institute of Policy Studies Dr Paul Callister said he was surprised by the latest figure. Tertiary organisations believed the gender gap had peaked.

“Universities have often argued that men were just falling behind relatively [to women]. But they are now falling behind in sheer numbers too.

“It wouldn’t be a concern if males were pouring their way into other training options. But … females are a higher proportion of all training options from Level 1 to 3 to doctorates.”

Even doctorates – that is a change.

The Herald reports:

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira is being investigated after skipping a European parliamentary delegation meeting to make a 300km dash from Brussels to go sightseeing in Paris. …

“How many times in my lifetime am I going to get to Europe? So I thought, ‘F*** it, I’m off. I’m off to Paris’,” he said yesterday.

Mr Harawira, whose wife, Hilda, accompanied him on the trip, paid for the extra travel himself and said many of the issues that were due to be discussed at the missed meeting had been broached at a dinner the night before.

That is of course not the issue. I don’t have a problem with MPs staying on after an official trip, for a private holiday. Hell I try to do that myself whenever I have a conference or work related travel somewhere. Silly not to, if already on the other side of the world.

But it is quite different to take a holiday in the middle of your official business, let alone actually miss meetings that are the reason you are funded to be there. Hone has made the same error of judgement that Richard Worth made years ago in Egypt.

A Parliamentary Service spokesman yesterday said the Office of the Clerk was looking into Mr Harawira’s Paris trip and it was possible he could be asked to repay a portion of his travel costs if he had missed official business.

That would be appropriate.

Mr Harawira effectively dobbed himself in by writing about the Paris trip in his column in the Kaitaia-based Northland Age newspaper.

You have to give Hone credit at least for that – he outed himself, and is willing to let his constituents judge if they approve.

Neither Rodney or John will be happy with this story:

Prime Minister John Key has done nothing except bring up the idea of a national cycleway, ACT leader Rodney Hide told guests at a party fundraiser in Christchurch. …

Not aware a Press reporter was also at the table, Hide, whose party is a support partner in the National-led Government, said Key “doesn’t do anything” and was highly regarded, while “ACT did everything and we are hated”.

All Key “had done” was the cycleway, Hide said. “It’s amazing.”

I understand the point Rodney was trying to make – the more you do, the more unpopular you can get. But his hyperbole is unfortunate.

To be fair, Rodney also said:

In his speech to yesterday’s function, Hide said “you could not get a better guy to work with” than Key, who had made it clear he wanted all his ministers to have a good relationship with ACT.

“He has been absolutely true to his word,” Hide told guests.

My impression is that the relationship between Rodney and John is very good.  I don’t think John will lose sleep over the comments but Rodney is probably kicking himself for his turn of phrase.

UPDATE: And Rodney has apologised.

NZ Herald Health Reporter Martin Johnston gives Tony Ryall a 9/10 for his performance to date:

After the 1990s National Administration taught the sector that business-minded managers were in charge, terms like “clinical leadership” and “trusting nurses and doctors” have resonance. Mr Ryall’s speeches are rich with them, reflecting his leg-work in Opposition and the evolution of moves started by Labour. He has instructed health boards to give clinicians more decision-making power.

Overseas he found that “clinical networks” – doctors hooking up across boundaries – make health services more effective. Enhancing the prestige of health workers may also counteract the pull of higher salaries overseas, helping to solve the health workforce crisis without massive pay rises.

There are some risks with greater power for clinicians, but there was little doubt the managerial culture had gone overboard, and the secto was drowning in bureaucracy.

Surely this dream run can’t last for a man in a portfolio which traditionally involves nasty public scraps over strikes, treatment delays from under-funded hospitals, or deaths due to medical mistakes.

Perhaps he will be dragged into a messy pay dispute. Health boards are lining up for what Waitemata DHB has told Mr Ryall will be staff-cost growth “based on a zero per cent increase on all employment agreements expiring during 2009/10″.

The pressures will only get worse.

He has incurred the ire of public health practitioners over cut-backs to anti-obesity funding, but these are in line with National’s philosophy that what we eat and how much we exercise are matters of personal choice and not socially nor environmentally determined.

And National is still funding many public health programmes. What Tony stopped funding was lobby groups to lobby the very Government that funds them.

Tony should also be looking at the funding of Te Reo Marama, as detailed by Whale Oil. They’ve had $1.2 million since 2004 and most of what they do seems to be attend overseas conferences and write letters to the editor.