Kiwiblog

Agenda was a good watch today. Jim Bolger was in great form as he told off the interview for trying to trick him, and proclaiming he is far too experience to fall into those traps. It brought back fond memories.

But the main guest was Trevor Mallard, and Trevor said some interesting things:

TREVOR Well I’m happy to have floats as long as it’s non core assets.  I mean we’re not gonna float for example the wind farms of Meridian.

My God, imagine if a National MP was saying this. It would be “Privatisation Alert, Privatisation Alert”.

I am glad to see Trevor say it is okay to float non core assets. Could someone ask him for a list.

GUYON What you’re telling me is that you want to sell the subsidiaries but you haven’t been able to.

TREVOR I’m happy for things which are not part of the core to be partially floated, at the moment there’s none of those that are big enough to be interesting, but what I’m not prepared to do is to have the state owned assets either sold and leased back the way John Key has been looking at or prepared for sale the way he indicated that he would use first three  years in government.

Trevor gets marks for always trying to score a point, and invent a policy for National. The important thing to note again is he says it is fine to sell non core assets.

GUYON Okay, can I look at the appointments to SOE boards.  You’ve recently, well not you personally, but Diane Yates has recently been appointed, the former Labour MP to the board of the SOE Learning Media, I mean isn’t this just another example of political cronyism and you’re not getting the best people on these boards you’re getting your old mates appointed to the boards of SOEs.

TREVOR Well I think if you have a really good look and analyse who I have appointed to SOE boards you’ve got one of the classic ones coming on your programme soon, we’ve gone for the talented people, the people who can do the jobs, and if you look very carefully at the chairs of the SOE boards…

This is very interesting. Trevor is ignoring the fact four of his colleagues have gives Yates a Board job, and is just stressing that he personally has not, and he appoints talent only.

This is a very clever way to get across the point he had nothing to do with her appointments and that he does not think she is talented. Otherwise he would have defended her appointments on the basis of the skills she would bring to those boards.

The Press labels the four board appointments for Di Yates as a golden handshake:

In a bid to rejuvenate its greying ranks and stave off looming electoral disaster, Labour has been weeding out those it believes do not fit the image of youth and energy it wishes to present to voters at election time later this year. But for those given the shove it appears the Government is prepared to soften the blow by finding them lucrative positions elsewhere. At least that seems to be the conclusion one can draw from a succession of appointments bestowed on the former Labour backbencher, Dianne Yates. …

Now, however, out of the House, no fewer than four Cabinet ministers have lined up like midwinter Father Christmasses to give her jobs. The Food Safety Minister, Lianne Dalziell, appointed her to Food Standards Australia New Zealand (a prime qualification, according to the press release, was that Yates came from the Waikato, “arguably the food bowl of New Zealand”). The Minister of Finance, Michael Cullen, appointed her to Trust Waikato Community Trust. An Associate Minister of Finance, Clayton Cosgrove, and the Education Minister, Chris Carter, appointed her to the board of the education book publisher Learning Media, and Carter lined up again to give her a job on the board of the Waikato Institute of Technology.

All of these add up to about $80,000 a year, plus top-level travel and accommodation costs and various other tidbits, which will put Yates well above the income of the average New Zealand wage-earner. She no doubt has the skills that will make her admirably suited to these various positions. They will certainly cushion the pain of being nudged out of the House, if that is what happened. One Labour insider said it was the price Labour had to pay to get another Samoan into Parliament. The insider should have said it was the price the taxpayer has to pay.

What is especially outrageous over these appointments is that Yates was so lowly regarded by her own colleagues. I’m not trying to be nasty but in a poll for Cabinet she would come last or second last. She was not regarded as a strong performer by anyone in Parliament.

Having four seperate Ministerial appointments is obvious signs of a formal deal, rather than just a Minister thinking an ex-colleague would be a good fit for a Board.

My God. Tim Donoghue in the Dom Post reveals that former Hamilton List MP Di Yates has been appointed to four Boards in the three months since she left Parliament to make way for Su’a William Sio.

That is just obscene. Sure ex MPs can contribute a lot to some organisations, but not even senior Cabinet Ministers get four appointments in a row, let alone highly obscure backbenchers.

The Labour Party insider told The Dominion Post: “It’s the price the Government has paid to allow Mr Sio to enter Parliament.”

Except we are paying the price, not the Government. And the fees for three of the Boards come to $69,000 so the total revenue from the four appointments is probably over $80,000 a year.

How many more appointments like this will happen before the election?

Lianne Dalziel has appointed former Labour List MP Dianne Yates to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Board. Yates stood for election last October to the Hamilton City Council and filed to even get elected as a City Councillor despite being an MP at the time.

So why did Lianne appoint Yates:

Dianne is ideally suited to this role on all levels. She’s from the Waikato, arguably the food bowl of New Zealand …

Yes, her qualification is she lives in Hamilton, and Hamilton is in the Waikato and Waikato grows a lot of food, so hence she is qualified to sit on the Food Standards Board of Australia and New Zealand.

You really know they are stretched for justification, when they have to rely on “She’s from the Waikato”.

And what do we pay Ms Yates for her hard work:

According to the Australian Remuneration Tribunal, Ms Yates will be paid $A30,000 ($NZ38,440) a year and reimbursed for first and business class travel as well as accommodation and other expenses.

FSANZ’s last annual report said most board members attended about five meetings last year.

Wow first class travel just to cross the Tasman. And $8,000 per meeting. Not bad.

If there is a change of Government, I would like to be considered for appointment to the FSANZ. My qualifications are I live near Boudeaux Bakery in Thorndon and they sell food. We also have a Subway down the road.

NZPA reports on the valedictory speech of Di Yates.

Yates stood for the Hamilton City Council in October last year. Despite having been an MP for 15 years she failed to get elected to the Council, coming 7th in her ward.

You know the exodus to Australia is getting bad when a sitting Labour MP announces he is off to Australia a few weeks after he gets out of Parliament.

When Samuels quits Parliament he will be replaced by Su’a William Sio. Sio, a trade unionist, is Deputy Mayor of Manukau City and Labour Candidate for Mangere. A profile says:

Su’a, who like Taito is Samoan and has strong links to the trade union movement, has endeared himself to a younger generation of Pacific Islanders by pushing strongly on youth issues and community initiatives. Politically he is thought to be conservative because of his strong church links. But he has also embraced the achievements of Pacific peoples in the arts, sports and music, and sharing a vision of a future where the impact of Pacific peoples in the wider communities will be felt at all levels, especially in business.

Di Yates is due to be pushed out in a few weeks also. Her replacement will be Brendon Burns – Labour’s Christchurch Central candidate.

Labour will be very pleased having two of their candidates able to access taxpayer funds to help with their campaigns legitimate parliamentary communications.

UPDATE: I thought Dover was one of those packing his bags early and resigning.  It seems he is staying put until the election.  In which case S’ua will be Yates replacement and Burns will have to wait for November or hope a List MP gets a really really bad cold