by Russel Norman
Gerry Brownlee will release the mining discussion paper “soon”, he said in Question Time today. But when is “soon”? Is it tomorrow, is it next week, next month, next century? Lindsay Tisch was filling in for Lockwood today during Question Time so he tried to help me understand what “soon” meant.
Dr Russel Norman: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The question I have is about the use of the word “soon”. The question was on notice; it was not a supplementary question. The use of the word “soon” is not, I think, an acceptable answer-
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member-
Dr Russel Norman: -in the light of the fact that the question was on notice.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sit down; I am standing. It may not be acceptable from the member’s point of view, but “soon” reflects a timeframe of shortly, or whenever that may happen.
It seems that if something will happen “shortly or whenever” then that is soon. Yeah whatever.
Published in Environment & Resource Management by Russel Norman on Wed, March 17th, 2010
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on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
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‘insubstantial’ (think: Gerry Brownlee’s rumps, only, the opposite), ‘fleeting’, (Key’s interest in New Zealand’s untouched environment), ‘tenuous’ (Tolley again, her hold on her Portfolio) and lastly, ‘barely detectable’ (Bill English’s presence in Dipton).
I thought everyone knew these things!
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Dipton? You mean South Karori?
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Speed reading, eh Russ!
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We really do need a glossary of terms so that we can decipher what is being said by our National Ministers. We are now a multi-lingual country and should embrace Nationalese as a language in its own right. Here we are ridiculing Anne Tolley for saying that the introduction of National Standards was going “really well” when really the Nationalese translation is “an unmitigated disaster” because, when taken in context, the original meaning doesn’t make any sense at all.
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Notice how Key, when talking about mining, emphasises the surge in surgical?
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And the mine in mine?
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It will be released ‘soon’.
I doubt very much he’s deliberately putting it off but rather most likely making sure his legal eagles and enviro writers are being as accurate with the facts as possible.
Remember the longer it takes the better prepared you can be for it’s arrival
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I remember about mid last year I think Steven Joyce said he would be announcing how the CBD rail tunnel would be funded “shortly”. And then it too him another 4 or 5 months. So if soon means the same thing as shortly you could be waiting a while russel.
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Perhaps they are backsliding in the opposite direction, due to the weight of public opinion?
In which case their spin and pr depts have to cede that their efforts to frame this issue to the advantage of the private interests that the NAct’s represent have failed.
Now they need to try and salvage the situation as best they can, which also means backpedaling on promises to mining interests – all of which requires a significant amount of framing, under intense pressure.
Meanwhile and ironically they are mining their own political capital, and the longer it takes the bigger their hole gets.
The way they go about governance, this will not be the last time they do this to themselves. They take a short-term and narrow approach to achieving their priorities, without regarding the associated complexity or implications (e.g. as demonstrated by the side-lining of treasury impact assessments).
Put simply, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.
Keep up the pressure! enjoy watching them squirm, they will crash and burn eventually, and then there will be a whole lot of work to do trying to clean up the mess and distortions they have created.
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Have we checked that he meant ‘soon’ in English?
I believe the word may appear in Korean, as well.
There does appear to be a need for a concerned researcher in Linguistics to take on the task of discerning how far NZ English has shifted since the National Government came to power in Novemebr, 2008. Perhaps someone could get onto Dr Janet Holmes at the Language in the Workplace Center? [a chunk of the Linguistics School at VUW]
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It was ‘swoon’ and he learned that from Tolley.
(It’s what she does when asked any question on education).
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Maybe “soon” has the same meaning as “I’ll do it directly” as they say in Devon in the UK. It generally translates as “in the time of your grandchildren”. Brownlee will no doubt mean well before that as he doesn’t look that far ahead.
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