Does the National Party want Te Wananga o Aotearoa?

With the election just over a week away I thought I had better ask the National Party what their policy is on Te Wananga o Aotearoa. After all, I do want to keep my job after the election!!

Here's the first email I sent to them on 26 August:

From: Adam Claydon
To: hq@national.org.nz
CC: bill.english@national.org.nz
Date: Friday - August 26, 2005 10:07 AM
Subject: Taxathon - Te Wananga o Aotearoa

Hi
I thought that I would send you an email today to say that I particuarly like your "Taxathon" campiagn. I agree that the Labour Party have been taxing us far too much.
I have been seriously considering voting National for the first time, however I received a copy of your Taxathon flyer and I was very unhappy to see my workplace, Te Wananga o Aotearoa, listed as one of Labour's "charities".
I am Pakeha and a university graduate and I tutor adult students in the National Certificate in Computing Levels 2 & 3 - an NZQA qualification. I feel that the course I am tutoring, along with many other courses at the Wananga, are of high quality and are very valuable to the local community. There may have been money wasting by some people here at the Wananga, but I am unaware of any of this, and it's not really a concern with my job. My job is to provide a course of the highest quality and I feel it is. I would not be working for Te Wananga o Aotearoa if I felt it did not provide quality education.
I would like to know the National Party's policy on Te Wananga o Aotearoa so that I can still consider voting for National this year.
Thank you very much
Adam Claydon

I received a response quite quickly:

From: Marsha Yamshikova
To: Adam Claydon
Date: Friday - August 26, 2005 10:18 AM
Subject: RE: Taxathon - Te Wananga o Aotearoa

Dear Mr Claydon
Thank you very much for taking the time to write and share your concerns with us.
I have forwarded your e-mail to Gerry Brownlee MP, our Maori Affairs Spokesman.
If you give your Party Vote to National this election in order to change the socialist politically correct Labour government, we will be proud to count you among our supporters.
Kindest regards
Marsha yamshikova
Executive Assistant

I never heard any more about it until this email I received today:

From: Kirsty MacDonald
To: Adam Claydon
Date: Wednesday - September 7, 2005
Subject: RE: Taxathon - Te Wananga o Aotearoa

Dear Mr Claydon
Thank you for your email regarding Te Wananga o Aotearoa. Your concerns are best addressed by the National Party Education spokesman, Hon Bill English. Therefore I have forwarded a copy of your email on to his office for consideration and response.
Kind regards,
Kirsty Macdonald
Executive Assistant to Gerry Brownlee
Deputy Leader of the National Party
MP for Ilam

I wonder if I'll hear back from Bill English? I'll keep you posted...

Petrol...Would you have the strength to do it?

It has been calculated that if everyone in New Zealand did not purchase a drop of petrol for one day at all the same time the oil companies could possibly choke on their stockpiles.

At the same time it would hit the entire industry with a net loss at the current prices of $1.50 per litre (30 litres for a full tank) $45.00 x a conservative estimate of 2,000,000 vehicles in NZ that would equate to $90 million dollar loss (one day) to the oil companies and hit their profit margins.

Therefore Monday September 5th has been informally declared "Stick it up their butts day".

Motorists of New Zealand should not buy a single drop for that day!

The only way this can be done if your forward this e-mail to as many people as you can to get the word out.

Waiting on this Government to step in and control prices is not going to happen and there is an Election coming so why not throw them into a panic.

BOTH PARTIES HAVE REFUSED TO REMOVE THE EXTRA 0.05 CENT SURCHARGE ON PETROL INTRODUCED ON 1st APRIL 2005.

Remember one thing about raising gas prices:

· Airlines are forced to raise their prices
· Trucking companies forced to raise their prices
· These prices affect the cost of shipping
· Flow on effect that your GROCERY BILL goes up
· Flow on effect on clothing, building, medical supplies!
· It effects all of us in every area while companies can write off these expenses, consumers cannot.
Who pays in the end?

WE DO - The consumer!

We can make a difference if they don't get the message after one day we will do it again and again.

Enough of these ridiculous excuses that the oil companies use to justify their increases everything from President Bush missing a golf stroke on the 9th hole to Aunt Fanny's artificial leg falling off.

If you are sick of this manipulation vote with your car and do not buy a drop. Spread the word and mark the date on your calendars.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU CAN!!!!

Katrina's impact

A few days ago Hurricane Katrina hit the southern United States. It of course has been very devastating for all the people involved. I cannot believe that there are people living (and dying) on the streets in those areas. What's Bush and his crazy government doing about it? Perhaps Bush is still on his 5 week holiday at his ranch in Texas!

The effects of the hurricane have been felt here in New Zealand with petrol now over $1.50 per litre for the first time ever. How can something like this that happened in the States affect petrol prices in NZ - any excuse for the oil companies to put the price if petrol up I guess!!

But on the lighter side. My wife's name is Katrina, so we've had a lot of fun teasing her about this one!

Labour's Tax Bribe

The Labour Party today announced yet another election bribe - this time giving tax relief to families. (See: http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=78469)

Will this make me vote Labour - no! We just have one child and with the income both my wife and I earn (which is not much - less than $35,000) we would get an extra $16 per week - WOW!!

This policy only benefits those with lots of kids (for example if we had 4 children we would get an extra $202 per week). This is very dangerous as people will purposly have more children just to get more money! We need tax cuts across the board - not an increase in welfare!

Greg wins Big Brother!

My prediction was wrong - last night in Australia Greg won Big Brother. Good on him! (See: http://bigbrother.3mobile.com.au/news/article_421.asp)

Although there are rumors going round that his brother David took out a $100,000 loan to pay for votes for his brother to win the series (hence he would get half the money). (See: http://www.behindbigbrother.com/showarticle.php?articleID=482) It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this.

We've still got a month to go of Big Brother on TV here in NZ. I just hope New Zealand television treats Big Brother a lot better next year - i.e. screening it one day delayed (not one month delayed) and screening Uncut!!

Big Brother final countdown

Tonight in Australia is the grand finale of Big Brother 2005. I've been following it since the start 100 days ago, and it's down to just two housemates - Tim & Greg. (See: http://bigbrother.3mobile.com.au/default.asp)

I'm not really sure who I want to win - I guess Tim - because he started off as a nerdy guy like me!! The Big Brother website poll currently has Tim at 61% and Greg at 39%. I guess we will find out who the winner is later this evening.

But here in New Zealand we won't see this show for another month!! Stupid state television!

Former PM dies

Very, very sad news over the weekend. Former NZ Prime Minister David Lange passed away. (See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1500960)

I was at high school when he was Prime Minister, and even though I was too young to vote then, I must say he was an excellent Prime Minister in so many ways. He was just so charismatic. Wouldn't it be good to have another Prime Minister like that again. (Wonder if it will happen at this election??)

It's a big pity that there isn't going to be a state funeral for him - he definitely deserves one.

I wonder if the Labour Party are going to turn his death into an advantage for their election campaign???

Petrol not going up??

Oil prices have reached a record $US64 a barrell, but as yet petrol prices have not gone up again here in New Zealand! Very unusual - any hint of anything sends the prices rocketing!
I thought these new petrol companies such as Challenge and Gull that came in to the market a few years back would force the price of petrol down - ha, that didn't last for very long!
There is absolutely no competition whatsoever in the petrol market in this country. Wouldn't it be great if petrol companies competed with each other for cheaper prices - yeah right!
Perhaps some smaller service stations in the country should do what more than 1000 independent service stations in Australiaare doing. They are discounting their petrol prices by 4 cents a litre - now that's the way to go!
(See: http://www.skynews.com.au/business/story.asp?id=63598)