fbpx
Print this page
Thursday, 26 October 2023 09:55

Out to pasture?

Written by  The Hound

OPINION: A mate of yours truly wonders if outgoing Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor will now call it a day on his 30-year long political career.

Not only did O'Connor's Labour Party take a drubbing on election night, but he also lost his West Coast seat to the infamously labelled 'F#$%ing useless' Maureen Pugh.

While O'Connor got back into parliament, courtesy of his high list placing, one would have to wonder if the 63-year-old fancies a likely (at least) six years in opposition before getting back into government again.

That would see him nearing 70 years of age and frankly well past his use-by date.

As a list MP, O'Connor can depart from Parliament without triggering an expensive by-election and the next 'union flunky or gay gagglist' (to paraphrase his own words) from the Labour list can take his place.

More like this

Wrong focus

OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

Burn the village

OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."

Purist problem

OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.

Drill baby, drill!

OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.

Featured

Rural health programme inspires new optometry graduate

Grace Su, a recent optometry graduate from the University of Auckland, is moving to Tauranga to start work in a practice where she worked while participating in the university's Rural Health Interprofessional Programme (RHIP).

National

India FTA negotiations end

A landmark moment for New Zealand. That's how  Prime Minister Christopher Luxon describes the conclusion of negotiations for an India-New…

Machinery & Products