Dave Kennedy - MP for Invercargill

I think so.

I think the Prime Minister's answered the question

No, Eric, no.
He hadn't.
Yours was one of the most flagrant 'protect the boss' calls I've ever seen from a Speaker.
For shame!

Invercargill prison closure

There's only one reason why the John Key Government  is going to close Invercargill prison and that's to feed the new privately run prison at Wiri. The recent $11 million up-grade of the Invercargill prison is waste now, swept aside in the pursuit of National's privatization agenda and their unholy desire to make jailing a business.
This is a disgrace on so many levels. Eric Roy is MP for Invercargill and must be taken to task over this naked exploitation of Invercargill prisoners, their families and the staff at the prison, to name but some of those affected by this sinister ideological move.

Eric Roy bullies Mr Guyton

Invercargill National Party MP, Eric Roy has begun his campaign with a spot of bullying, according to The Southland Times. The headline,
"MP accused of bullying tactics"
leads into this story that describes Mr Roy's attack on ... my son, Terry!

"Political sparks flew over national standards at a candidates' debate last night, with Invercargill MP Eric Roy accused of adopting bullying tactics.
During an election candidates' function organised by the Invercargill branch of the National Council of Women, education became the main flashpoint for debate.
Fernworth School teacher Terry Guyton asked candidates what they would do to "repair the damage caused by national standards".
Mr Guyton said the standards were forcing teachers to label five-year-olds as failures.
Mr Roy took exception to Mr Guyton's comment"

Not a good look, Mr Roy, bullying a popular and quite frankly, wonderful young man like Terry!
The article continues:

"If you are a teacher telling five-year-olds they are a failure you should not be teaching," he said. "You should not even be testing them." Mr Roy said the standards were designed to ensure the one in four pupils currently not reaching an acceptable standard would be more able to.
There were more than 2000 primary schools in New Zealand and of those only 92 were refusing to introduce them, he said.
Many previously sceptical schools were beginning to see their benefit.
He accepted some criticism about the way National had legislated the standards, but said if teachers had ideas about how to make them better they should come to him.
Labour candidate Lesley Soper took the platform after Mr Roy and promptly accused him of bullying.
"You have just seen an example of the bullying ... the Ministry of Education has used on teachers in this country."
Under Labour the standards would not be forced onto schools, she said.
Green candidate David Kennedy, also a teacher and vocal critic of the Government over national standards, said in principle they were a good idea, but not to be used as an assessment tool."

Telling Mr Guyton, teacher at Fernworth Primary School that he shouldn't be teaching is a foolish thing to do, given Terry's wide popularity amongst students, their parents and the staff of Fernworth, as well as teachers in the wider community, and I'm certain Mr Roy has damaged his 'good bloke' image by doing so. I hope that some of those who know Terry and the fabulous things he has done for the children at Fernworth, will make their thoughts known to Mr Roy, perhaps through the local newspaper that carried the story of bullying at the first of the candidate meetings. I know I'll be at the second :-)

2 mystery men

Who could these two blokes be (and what do they have in common)?

Kennedy bags Roy

Dave Kennedy's the Green candidate for Invercargill. He's lining up to give Eric Roy a thrashing at the coming election. Here, he gives both Roy and English a serve over their asset sales soft-soaping.
"A letter in today's Southland Times questions the logic of selling off our public-owned utilities to foreign corporates and likens the sales to "giving our heritage away for two blankets and a musket". Local MP Eric Roy defends the indefensible by attempting to promote the sell off as "gilt-edged" investment opportunities for kiwis and the freeing up of capital for other investments."

Dave Kennedy's onto a winner with this issue and the people of Invercargill will support him in calling the whole plan foul.

Eric's (soft) response to Waituna

Eric Roy's been caught on the hop over Waituna, through the 'letters to the editor' column of the Southland Times and around the blogs. He had nothing at all on his website from anytime during the time he's been in Government but has finally put up a post. It talks about the 'Fresh Start for Freshwater' report and that's about all. While there's some value in that, waving a report in front of the lagoon (imagine the photo opportunity there Eric!) isn't enough by any stretch of the imagination.

Fun and games (more letters re: Russel)

Some hard-bitten citified Nat flunky said this in today's Times:


Photo opportunity?

Why are we commenting on another politician who doesn't know what he's talking about; taking a 'photo-opportunity' which then gave rise to asking where Eric Roy was.
  What really matters is did Russel Norman actually come up with any solid means to combat the degradation to the Waituna Lagoon?
  Or is it just that he wanted his pikkie in the local rag, just to show us poor Southland cousins that Wellington-based Greenies do actually know where we are, and that they do recognise that there is a problem.
  They don't actually have any good ideas, but lets pontificate a bit in the public eye.
  Now let me ask all who are interested, was this just a photo-opportunity? Methinks so.

PETE SAYERS
Invercargill

Naturally, I replied:

Dr. Russel Norman of the Greens doesn't lead his party from the comfortable seat of a ministerial BMW. His great concern, and that of the Greens, is with the state of the environment in New Zealand, so he gets out onto the rivers up and down the country to see up-close what's happening to them. His day at Waituna Lagoon, which Mr Roy and his cohorts would like to paint as a photo-opportunity, was spent meeting with concerned scientists, farmers, iwi, Land Care members, councillors and Environment Southland and Department of Conservation staff, hearing their concerns and views about the lagoon. Dr. Norman has a science background and was quick to understand the challenges presented to him. He was also forthright in giving his own views on what needed to be done to stop the damage being done to Waituna. What he didn't mention was the huge contribution the Green Party has already made to wetland protection throughout New Zealand – an $8.8 million contribution in fact. The reaction from those who weren't there at the meetings and out on the lagoon, who claim that the Green leader was merely looking for a 'photo-op' looks, smells and tastes to me like sour grapes, or in the case of Waituna lagoon, sour mud.

Green Kennedy responds

Front-runner for Green candidate for Invercargill Dave Kennedy was swift to respond to Eric Roy's claims about Waituna. He writes in today's 'letters' column of the Southland Times:

Once again I feel obliged to write a letter to correct misinformation from Invercargill MP, Eric Roy.

“Sitting on the sideline” has never been a Green strategy, in fact the very reason we know about the impending disaster in the Waituna Lagoon is because of the $8.8 million the Greens managed to get from the 2007 budget for protecting wetland areas. Before this money was available the science around wetlands was almost nonexistent and the current advisory group for the Waituna and the related community initiatives have been funded out of this money also.

While I don’t question Mr Roy’s personal commitment to the environment, I am aware of a good deal of frustration from many genuine Bluegreen members who see short term economic gain being favoured over the environment time and time again. As highlighted by Campbell Live the other night, the milk industry has become a powerful juggernaut that is causing real damage, both environmental and social, as it bulldozers its way to huge profits. While the income from dairy is important for our economy, the sustainability of the industry is dependent on how well we manage the resources it relies on. 40% of our total water use goes to the dairy industry and the quality and availability of that resource is being compromised in many areas around the country.

Mr Roy mentioned meeting with various groups to look at ways of stopping the degradation of the lagoon, but what he should be doing is ensuring his own government takes the necessary action (through strong fresh water management rules) to give local authorities the mandate and teeth to do their job. We already know what needs to be done and the longer we delay the less likely the Waituna Lagoon will survive an overload of polluting nutrients.

Dave Kennedy

INVERCARGILL

Eternally vigilant and reliably perceptive Invercargill blogger and political analyst Paddy Lewis has Dave already ranked in second place in the race to be MP for Invercargill. Not a bad ranking given that Dave's campaign is in its infancy. I rank his chances even better than Paddy has imagined.

Green blogger in Tory territory

Dave Kennedy's blogging for good in the south. His blog Local Bodies was begun a while ago in response to local body issues but has expanded in its scope with Dave adopting the mantle of Green Party candidate for Invercargill, charged with removing Eric Roy from his plum position as National Party trougher in the south.
Dave has every chance of doing it too. He's bright and alert - typical Greenie I suppose, and has wide support across agencies, especially Education, where he would slay Anne Tolley in any discussion (mind you, who couldn't?).

Dave's big garden

Dave posted on an issue close to my own heart recently, titling it 'Real Men Have Big Gardens'  How right he is! Those of you with tiny plots or none at all would be well advised not to visit Local Bodies, for fear of feeling inadequate!