Comments on: Respect!

By: deepred

deepred — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:01:11 +0000

#14: On the other hand, the Fairfax poll is a bit more nuanced.

By: Flynn

Flynn — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:01:20 +0000

Anyone noticed the poll? The options are “brave and bold”, “solid and dependable” or “average”. Truly a stirring and non-partisan spread of options there.

By: peterlepaysan

peterlepaysan — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 07:59:14 +0000

Gordon Campbell encapsulated the reshuffle when he asked what the problem was if reinstating Nick Smith was the answer?

As for Parata, someone, I suspect on this blog site, made the observation that sack her in a few months means I made a mistake, sack her after 12 months she made the mistakes.

Then I can smile and wave and be relaxed as Minister of Tourism as I can spend my time in Hawaii when on holiday..

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:38:54 +0000

I disagree with the premise that if Ministers do not perform, they are out. Hekia Parata and Paula Bennett are still very much in. Wilkinson has been used as a scapegoat but I’m glad to see her go because she isn’t very popular in her electorate. Bringing in Kaye was a job well done though.

By: Psycho Milt

Psycho Milt — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:34:51 +0000

Gareth Morgan will be pleased.

Now that was pure comments thread gold.

By: danylmc

danylmc — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:03:07 +0000

Armstrong gets really aroused when politicians sack people. Here he is back when Judith Collins tried (and ultimately failed) to fire her Corrections CEO:

Wielding a calculated, but ruthless combination of raw power and tactical guile, Corrections Minister Judith “Crusher” Collins has torn up the public service rulebook and effectively engineered the sacking of her departmental chief executive.

Technically, she cannot fire Barry Matthews, the long-suffering head of the problem-plagued Corrections Department. But “technically” is not a word in this Collins’ dictionary.

That finding is sufficient for Matthews to have fallen on his sword without prompting. But respite will be shortlived. In place of the sword, Collins has plunged her stiletto into the hapless Matthews.

Matthews is still in his job – but in name only. For all intents and purposes, his scalp now hangs in Collins’ sixth-floor Beehive office – a reminder to other chief executives of what might be termed National’s “new age of accountability”.

Whether Matthews will go before he is pushed could not be ascertained yesterday. Collins’ humiliation of her chief executive extended to her instructing him not to comment and leave the talking to her while she tightened the noose.

Matthews left when his contract ended a few years later.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10557321

By: Andrew Geddis

Andrew Geddis — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:59:55 +0000

“I’m pretty sure that every time John Armstrong editorially masturbates, God kills a kitten.”

Gareth Morgan will be pleased.

By: Gregor W

Gregor W — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:49:03 +0000

John Key’s dramatic Cabinet reshuffle displays a streak of ruthlessness hitherto rarely seen in a New Zealand prime minister. Key has displayed all the sentiment of a corporate restructurer…

I’m pretty sure that every time John Armstrong editorially masturbates, God kills a kitten.

By: lyndonhood

lyndonhood — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:46:00 +0000

And yet the man himself was simultaneously insisting nobody had done anything wrong (they’d just… had their chance). It *could* be a shallow reverse psychology to make the gallery feel clever, but it doesn’t convey ruthlessness viewed on its own.

By: alex

alex — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:33:18 +0000

Ruthless my ass. One word, Parata.