David Shearer profile
December 17th, 2011 at 9:00 am by David FarrarStuff has a profile of new Labour Leader David Shearer. It’s a great read, and shows some of the extraordinary experiences he has had. My favourite is:
His wife Anuschka, Nush, as he calls her, worked with him there. “She is a Mt Roskill girl. I wish it could be more exotic, but it’s not.
“I was her flatmate in a house she owned in Auckland and moved in and then after a few months moved in a little further. We got to know each other over the Cornflakes in the morning.”
In Somalia, she was his head of operation. “She’s tough. I remember a bunch of Somalis all came in with their guns and bandoliers of ammunition across their chests and said, `Mr David, could you talk to your wife, she is much too unreasonable’. She said no way they were getting more money, because they were paid enough.
Heh.
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December 17th, 2011 at 9:18 am
I don’t think Nush’s tactics will work in WINZ HQ but she could have a go at Ports of Auckland, as a trial of course.
Vote:They are overpaid to the extreme.
December 17th, 2011 at 9:45 am
It wil be fascinating to see how Shearer faces his first great test. Will he mark himself out as a leader, or rather as just the poodle of Parker, Mallard, Nash et al. I sense a third term coming for National.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 9:45 am
I think hes ideal – apparently one of his skills is being able to negotiate with the …….”desperate and irrational”…….
An ideal skill needed to handle the Labour caucus
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 9:45 am
>I remember a bunch of Somalis all came in with their guns and bandoliers of ammunition across their chests and said, `Mr David, could you talk to your wife, she is much too unreasonable’. She said no way they were getting more money, because they were paid enough.
Were the Somalis being paid $15 an hour, including the boys? If not, it makes a mockery of Labour’s campaign for a higher minimum wage and no youth rates.
Also you note that Shearer didn’t even offer to enter in to good faith bargaining. The Shearers just flatly refused to negotiate wages or conditions.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 10:03 am
Shearer will have to do something bold, stupid or entertaining in the next few weeks as the Liarbore brand is on the critical list. He must grab the public’s attention, a lot of blood letting would be bold, a lurch to right would be entertaining but it will probably be something stupid, so don’t expect much.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 10:25 am
Things that impress me the most about the guy are his ability to sing and play guitar and the fact that he co-owns a bush block up north.
I used to know his youngest brother Duncan quite well and briefly knew his other brother Ian. A talented family. Didn’t click that David was the older brother till he replaced Goff. Small world.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 10:27 am
Maybe Mrs Shearer should be the Leader of the Labour Opposition.
Vote:Ah, but then behind every great man there is a greater woman. 8)
December 17th, 2011 at 10:29 am
Ah, but then behind every great man there is a greater woman.
…or in some cases, another man
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 10:53 am
Excellent sense of humour, Polly.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 11:02 am
Don’t give a stuff about Shearers back story eh !
What’s his stance on state asset sales…Is he gonna try to stop them or accept their inevitability as his henchman Jones has stated.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 11:15 am
Hes already shown he is gaggle captive.
Vote:More wilderness will follow.
December 17th, 2011 at 11:38 am
His back story could not be better for a Labour Leader and it is damn good. But typically the Labour Party is all about spending money whereas the National Party is about making money – i.e. creating wealth. The Labour Party only knows how to tax wealth and then giving it to the feckless. Shearer saving 50 million lives v’s Key making $50 m will appeal to different people and the divide will define NZ politics.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 11:40 am
Shearer and his wife worked for the UN.
And that is an endorsement?
Democracies have been a minority within the UN since 1958.
Vote:The UN is controlled by a bunch of corrupt, anti-semetic, mysogonistic, dictatorial countries.
Last year……
Libya had a chair on the Human Rights Council.
China, Russia, Cuba,Saudi Arabia and Cameroon all had seats on the Human Rights Council.
North Korea had the presidency of the UN Conference on Disarmament.
Iran had a seat on the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women.
Pakistan served as acting head of a U.N. body called the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force.
Hardly an organisation that can be taken seriously on anthing.
December 17th, 2011 at 11:46 am
pollywog says:- “or in some cases, another man”
Behind the great man or behind his woman? And what about the other woman? Y’know, the one on top of the great man?
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 11:51 am
His back story could not be better for a Labour Leader and it is damn good.
yeah yeah backasswards stories generally are. It’s when you turn around and face the future people tend to lose the narrative.
I want to know if he’s committed to the polices Labour ran their election platform on and how he plans to sell them.
CGT, Raised age of Super, Youth apprentice scheme replacing dole, increased top earner tax rate and umm oh yeah…
STOP STATE ASSET SALES
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 11:54 am
How about the Clinton protocol Scott ?
In front of every great man, is a woman on her knees…
…and a cigar at the ready
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
tvb bankers create wealth ? how the fuck do they do that ?
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
I’d say if a war was ever started by a woman/women, it would be Kiwi(s).
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Hooray – a new Mahatma Ghandi and Mother Teresa.
Vote:Both were highly paid, tax free, in US Dollars, mercenaries, so one must query the ethics behind their rise to fame.
The NZ media will lap it up, – BUT what are they going to do with the fractionalised Labour.
Shearer is really still a schoolteacher that he was, turned do gooder – for cash – a new mercenary.
December 17th, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Both were highly paid, tax free, in US Dollars, mercenaries, so one must query the ethics behind their rise to fame.
Well, one can hardly expect everyone to display the same scrupulous adherence to the highest ethical standards as Merrill Lynch staff – I mean, let’s be realistic…
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
“Well, one can hardly expect everyone to display the same scrupulous adherence to the highest ethical standards …”
If they (Or the media) lay claim to it you can.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
“STOP STATE ASSET SALES”
Too late. We won.
The only thing I need to know about Shearer is that he thinks the Labour Party, a party of lying, arrogant, and corrupt feminists, homsexuals and unionists who despise people that create and produce wealth, should run this country.
All the feelgood pap does not change the fact that the Shearers of the world are traitors and enemies on their own nations and civilisation.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Not too late. Nothings been sold yet.
If ‘you’ win and ‘they’ go ahead, the country loses…WE, as a nation, ALL lose.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Reading the profile online and in the Herald has reminded me why I always support National.
Anything unpatriotic, anything subversive, anything politically correct, anything a bit dirty and filthy – the Labour people are right into it; and want to impose it on honest decent folk.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Polly,
they will be sold before the next election, too late for Shearer to do anything about it.
The country does not lose, it wins. The only problem with Nationals proposal is that it does not go far enough. The assets in question should actually be sold, in full, as should every other government asset not essential to policing or national-civil defense.
The government is a bloated monoploy. We as a nation ARE losing because of a lack of economic freedom and a fat and lazy state that, like a parasite, feeds off the productive.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
they will be sold before the next election, too late for Shearer to do anything about it.
More right wing spin trying to create self fulfilling prophecy. Sorry don’t buy that at all.
If Shearer beleived in the inevitability of doing something changes nothing, he wouldn’t have done what he did in the real world.
As a test of his character and ability to mobilise and lead a nation, he needs to inspire people to rise up and act in their own best interests.
That means leading the protest action to stop state asset sales or resigning himself to being another rightwing apologist masquerading as a moderate centrist.
He needs to state his intentions and act accordingly or move aside. Shit or get off the pot.
We as a nation ARE losing because of a lack of economic freedom and a fat and lazy state that, like a parasite, feeds off the productive.
and how would you propose powercos will be more productive under private management ?…Asset stripped, price hiked, needing eventual gov’t bailout to re invest in infrastructure and regulation to protect the consumer sound familiar ?
we are losing cos people with money don’t want to pay taxes they should, would rather be slumlords and in business, would rather hire the underclass at wages they can’t afford to live on while deferring the real cost of economic freedom on future generations.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
paulus>Both were highly paid, tax free, in US Dollars,
Tax free? As someone who owned real estate in NZ, I presume Shearer would have considered himself to have been a NZ resident and paid NZ taxes. Even if that was technically voluntary. Otherwise we were paying for the police to protect his properties, and for a social welfare system that Shearer could have enjoyed if he hadn’t been able to find work when he returned to live in any of his properties. He would also have avoided compensating NZ for his education, and avoided providing welfare for the people he grew up with and helped to develop him socially.
I think we need to know whether Shearer paid NZ taxes. Or whether he was a tax exile.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
What struck me about the profile is how positive it is. Fair enough,give the guy a break-all good.
But what I notice is that people of the left get positive treatment. People of the right-not so much.
But look I could be wrong? I just wonder how the same reporter would treat hypothetically the newly elected to Parliament leader of the conservative party? Would it be all positive? As this article was about Shearer. Somehow I think not.
Vote:December 17th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
UN worker = paid mercenary?
Vote:UN worker = comfortable, risk-free, lucrative job with not the slightest chance of being shot, wounded, kidnapped, or held hostage, in fact a very cushy number. Right, got it. Pass the cheese on crackers.
December 17th, 2011 at 11:57 pm
Shearer is already failing: by letting Trevor Mallard shape his team. Mallard is still dissing Cunliffe, and Shearer is not strong enough to manage the shop. It is also obvious that Shearer did deals on positions for votes with Parker and more. Offering Cunliffe Environment knowing he can’t accept, because of his wife has the country’s top environmental law practice, is childish.
Vote:Shearer has only a few days to be seen to be on top. Tick, tick, tick…..
December 18th, 2011 at 6:12 am
Tick, tick, tick…
Vote:Sounding desperate Anna.
Shearer is a new experience for the electorate, we are only just learning who he is and how he’ll work. The clock is ticking in anticipation, rather than towards a near end, his life’s experiences, dedication to helping others will have formed his vision of NZ so the country is likely to be entering a new political phase. Don’t for a second under estimate his leadership. He’s been a natural and popular leader most of his life and he’s replete with understanding and committment to others.
December 18th, 2011 at 6:44 am
Nostalgia-NZ (68) Says:
December 17th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
“UN worker = paid mercenary?
UN worker = comfortable, risk-free, lucrative job with not the slightest chance of being shot, wounded, kidnapped, or held hostage, in fact a very cushy number. Right, got it. Pass the cheese on crackers.”
actually….
“A local guide with an AK-47 took Anuschka hostage, and then turned the gun on Dave,” explains McNeill,
from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10773675
Vote: