Will Miss You Aunty Helen
 

I don't think anyone can legitimately deny that you were a great leader.

She was at the start,but ended up prostituting her policies to stay in power in the last election.No I won't miss her.

I'ma bet plenty of people will be soon once National start doing shit. We had a solid leader for a long time. While far from my favorite politician (oxymoron?) she was a good leader. If John Key manages to lead as well i'll be impressed. 50/50 odds of him getting the boot as soon as shit starts going wrong though. Yay Nat's, stable leadership for all. Yeah right.

Yeah, I am going to miss her. I think people were calling for change for the sake of change, although to be honest Clarke's complete denial of the disgust most NZers had towards Winston Peters didn't help things.

She was a pretty hard worker for NZ, and had a reasonably firm control over her MPs most of the time. I don't think anyone can doubt her commitment and for the most part her integrity (inconsequential bullshit like the painting signature aside).

Regardless of your politics I think she was a fantastic PM and deserves to go down as one of the well-remembered and respected leaders of NZ. I think she'll be superb in a UN ambassadorial style role, if that's what she does.

GG Helen.

he wont get the boot. firstly he was clearly voted in and secondly any radical changes that he gets fast tracked through - one after the other - will be excused and explained by the economic crisis. national in the past have always been against, naturally, anything that labour did. that's just what they do. if they had been voted in earlier i suspect they would have gone through a period of undoing anything labour (and green for that matter) such as kiwibank. now i'm not so sure as they seem to have become a little labourised.

May not agree with everything she has done in her term but I certainly respect what she has accomplished for New Zealand. Will look forward to seeing who will be her replacement as they certainly have a lot to live up to.

At the acceptance speach John Key looked like he couldn't wait to get home for a victory shag with his pretty young blond wife.

Pretty sure that was his daughter lol

She started out good, last couple of years she watched and learned too much from the Bush administration.. as in 'ahh.. I get it.. actually I can just do whatever the fuck I want and no one can stop me, I don't even have to listen or acknowledge them because I AM THE QUEEN'. So good riddance I say, it's dangerous to have people like that in charge. Crime is becoming a massive issue here, labour is soft and giving these morons no incentive to 'behave'. Labour "did a lot for NZ"? Like what working for families tax breaks? That is a joke because the tax should never have been taken in the first place.. way too much tax in this country. Very interested to see how things turn out with Key. I almost voted act so good to see them both teaming up.

The pretty young blonde was his 15 yr old daughter so Im prety sure he doesn't want to shag her. His wife was the brunette in the blue dress.

Goodbye Helen I won't miss you. Your third term was a disgrace and showed us how much your lust for power was. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

*rolls eyes at all the crime arguments*

In many American states citizens have a pretty big incentive to behave (capital punishment for those who don't follow). Do they behave?

My point exactly.

Getting tough on crime isn't the answer, but that's not what the great unwashed want to hear.

Thanks for all the hard work you've put into this stinking useless ungrateful country, Helen. It is a real shame that you will only really be appreciated in hindsight.

Hell yes they behave, you can bet your arse some punk in the US is less likely to commit an act of crime if he faces going to a hell hole like Rikers vs. going to a dorm like wall to wall carpet hotel with nice beds, tv's, fitness center, etc. crime is bad in the US even with tough incentive not to do it, just imagine if there was no incentive it would be totally out of control there. The solution is multi-pronged ensure victims get justice and offenders get sent to an environment they fear like nothing else. At the same time work to break the cycle and the root cause issues that led them to crime in the first place. instead of spending 60k a year per inmate spend 15k a year and dump the rest back into education, youth centres etc.. just rough examples..

Thanks for me having to wait (still waiting) for treatment for a medical condition I have 24 months + after it was first diagnosed.

Thanks for pharmac not allowing sufferers of breast cancer to get the best and full treatment they deserve.

Thanks for making unemployment a record high and manipulating the figures
by establishing temporary "training " courses that rotates people on the dole.

Thanks For New Zealand now slipping lower than Greece as a developing country.

Thanks for getting the police (whats left of them) to focus on parents disciplining their children in an acceptible manner by focusing on fearmongering.Meanwhile voilent crimes by youth offenders is now getting worse,as is the crime rate in general.

I sure am grateful. :rolleyes:

and you think National is gonna change all that?? (particularly the health aspects, they'll probably just privatize the whole thing)
what a retard.

How about we wait and see?
Give them 9 years and see what its like then..
till then..go fist yourself you're obviously upset about something mr fencepost and you need to unwind.

I had a lot of respect for Helen as a Prime Minister up until her third term as PM began. The past three years have killed it.

Good bye Helen, i didn't always agree with you
some times i screamed bad things at you when you were on the Tele
some times you supported people that i couldn't stand
but i can not deny that you have been a one of the better leaders to come out of this little contry in a long time
your passion for the betterment of all New Zealander's was genuine and undeniable.


Unlike Winston your leadership will be missed.

This & this.

So, those of you who believe she "sold-out" simply to keep power; what else should she have done in her position? The only way to keep a Labour-led coalition was to compromise. Should she have instead refused to form a coalition?

The problem there is with MMP and the douchebags in NZ politics in general who ultimately manage to get some form of power/influence, not with Helen herself. I doubt very much that she enjoyed most of her last term, or the decisions she had to make and the public "support" (read: noncommittal lack of chastising) she had to show for certain individuals.

See EFA.

That was one of my major problems with Helen. The Prime Minister should always have the interests of the country as their number 1 priority. But I felt like she put the country behind herself with her UN Tax.... (a.k.a. Carbon Tax etc.).

She has been positioning herself for a UN role and been shafting us in the process.

Thats how I feel anyway.

Yeah I think she jumped the shark two to three years ago. She went from ruthlessly Labour to just ruthless.

hope to see her chillin proper at an arty farty event

Good grief! CCS and Macca agreeing on something!

she's gone, party on !

Apart from not smacking her team around enough I think she rocked. I was ready for her to retire if Labour won again though, as I think she has been losing touch for the last year or so. I really don't like Key. I'd prefer her for another term than him. He's a complete drip.

Obviously it wasn't enough to keep her in power lol.

Hip Hip Hooray

Hip Hip Hooray

Hip Hip Hooray

I'm not sorry to see the evil woman go at all.

And, Lightspeed - Hitler was one of the greatest leaders of modern times. In just a few short years he convinced countless people to join up and follow him on his crusade. Good leader, but oh so evil.

Lange was a great leader by NZ standards. So was Muldoon. clarke, well, she was nothing but a horrid little dictator who squashed all those that tried to raised their head above their station.

God i find myself agreeing with GT.


*HAPPY DANCE*

It's like winning a trifecta:
Labour - gone
Helen - gone
Winston - gone

and as a bonus ball - Michael Cullen effectively gone _b

In Cullen's such eloquent words after the last election "...We won: You lost. Eat that!" [Such a class act will be sorely missed as deputy PM]

lol
helen hasnt gone at all
she may not be leader, but
she's still there for at least a few more years of public service

what an angel _b

I'm sure the good people of Mt Albert will be thrilled as their representative starts the after-dinner-speaking circuit and starts pimping herself for a UN position.

Let's face it, the Labour Party is fucked. It's in the same position the Republican Party is in in the USA. No obvious leader; huge gap of experience at the top; a bunch of fresh faces new to the game and in a minority. Who the fuck is going to turn things around? Goff? King Cunliffe? Prashad? Jeez, if those are Labour's leaders things are REALLY bad.

Don't forget, with the EFA as law now it will be awfully hard to dislodge National and ACT from government. I hope they stick to their principles and repeal it ASAP - but it must be awfully tempting to find other more pressing issues that need fixing first...

Anyone able to summarise the EFA? People keep saying how bad it is but I just realised I have no idea why. A quick skim of http://www.elections.org.nz/rules/ec...ll-191107.html doesn't show me anything particularly bad, only strict accounting and bugger all anonymous donations.

I'm assuming I'm missing some wording or way it's implemented.

hehe, biff is crazy

I can only assume you have been living in a cave for the past year :)

The Big NZGames EFB/EFA Thread

I summarised the EFA in these words:

The EFA is the worst law ever passed in New Zealand. If you don't believe me, ask the Human Rights Commission, the Law Society, and every newspaper in the country. Even the ELECTORAL COMMISSION -- you know, the government body charged with administering electoral law -- says it's a steaming turd.

Pretty good summary of the EFA from the Dominion:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4284208a1861.html

Yes, the EFA is a bad law. I do hope National repeal it and replace it with something better, addressing the problems highlighted in the article Ab linked to such as a lack of bi-partisan negotiations. I don't think I'd even be opposed to state funding of parties if someone could come up with a sensible way allocating funding included in a bill.

Ahh ok, so it's mostly a wording thing that means it applies to more than was intended (giving the benefit of the doubt here).

Looks like it needs a bit of tweaking but I'm all for the general idea.