John Key’s government is going full tilt at dismantling everything of value in NZ, and selling as much as possible to the overseas investors. It’s the government of Drill It, Mine it, Sell it. Find out about the asset sales referendum & how to vote.
National’s, weird, favourite line at the moment is to say ‘we’re going to ignore the asset sales referendum and the opposition are hypocrites because they ignored the smacking referendum’. Russel Norman finally had had enough yesterday, and asked Jonathan Coleman just who had been PM when the referendum happened. Coleman’s answer was textbook cowardliness.
Answering questions on the up-coming Asset Sales referendum, John Key spoke some appalling un-truths. He is rewriting political history to suit “Crazy” Colin Craig’s possible coalition bottom lines on the “anti-smacking” law. Cunliffe finally got there in the General Debate, but the opposition was too slow in countering Key’s lies & spin.
The asset sales have been an unmitigated failure. They’ve raised less money than expected, they’ve cost more than twice as much as National said they would, no ‘mums and dads’ have shown up to buy the shares, and the public is waiting for its referendum. Now, it turns out that Treasury warned Key not to flood the market but Key plans to keep on flooding it.
Key’s big whine today is that the referendum on asset sales, which over 10% of Kiwis have requested as required by law, will be ‘extremely costly’ at $9m. This guy’s joking, right? Mr ‘2-billion-of-tax-cuts-in-the-middle-of-a-recession’ is whining about $9m on democracy? All up, Key’s squandered well over a hundred million on asset sales so far.
Russel Norman’s let the cat out of the bag with a series of tweets: “We’ve done it!! Citizen initated referendum on asset sales is on! #fb” and “OOps, there was an embargo on the CIR result until 1pm which I didn’t realise until after I tweeted. Apologies to Clerk of the House”
Many business people say that a country should be run like a business. Maybe they are right. It should be run like a SUCCESSFUL business. It is appropriate for Government to take lessons from business success, and the reverse. But when it comes down to details, right wing Neo-Liberal business do not want Government and country they govern to become too successful or democratic…
Holly Walker dragged out of Judith Collins that the government will not implement the Electoral Commission’s recommendations for MMP. Collins argues there is no “consensus” between all political parties on possible changes. The Greens say National has not kept the promise of changes, out of self interest.
John Key has committed to giving up the National Party’s leadership if he loses the next election. That didn’t stop him from committing the next National Government from reversing NZ Power and putting up electricity prices whenever it comes to power . It got me thinking about the people who are so keen to kill NZ Power in its cradle and why. Today: MRP CEO Doug Heffernan.
Former banker Bruce Wills and current head of Federated Farmers has joined the chorus attacking NZPower. Given the tired old arguments he raises, it would be interesting to know if his farmer members would rather have lower power prices, or banker Bruce as their spokesman.
The Keep Our Assets petition will be submitted today at 12.30 at Parliament with approximately 400,000 signatures. It is the largest petition in New Zealand history. The referendum that will follow will test National’s mandate for asset sales – clearly and unequivocally. Well done to the thousands of collectors and all the signatories. National – stop the sales and listen.
Colin James has expressed my response to Judith Collin’s politicialising of the MMP review. “Elections do not belong to MPs. Elections belong to the people. MPs should be very wary of appropriating what belongs to others.”. Self-interested bleating by Act and United Future doesn’t mean that National should go off and do another short-term hack of the good proposals as they did in after 1993. The recommendations are clear and an accurate reflection of public mood. Just implement them as they are.
The Nats’ lines on the citizens-initiated referendum on asset sales are very weak: ‘we don’t care because we have a mandate’ and making up stories about invalid signatures. Those lines will only hold until the petition is certified by the Clerk of the House later this year. Then, they’ll have to grow up a little. Their first decision will be when to hold the referendum.
The Keep Our Assets Coalition has now collected 250,000 signatures for the petition for a referendum on asset sales in just four months. You need to help with the big final push – the Spring Collection – to get the last 60,000 signatures and the 10% spares within the coming month.
The Greens have collected 100,000 signatures for the Keep Our Assets Coalition petition to force a referendum on asset sales – in fact, my Asset Keeper email says they were up another thousand at the end of Friday. The Coalition’s total is rapidly approaching 200,000. That’s after just 3 months. Another 150,000 or so to go – with margin for invalid signatures. Play your part.
National pollster and Herald columnist (I know!) David Farrar has revealed what National has up its sleeve for asset sales. No, I’m not talking about how they would put ‘mums and dads’ at the ‘front of the queue’, or any such nonsense. I’m talking about how they will attempt to de-legitimise the referendum or, alternatively, try to slam the sales through before it happens.
The Greens have hired the equivalent of 8 full-time staff for two months to get their signature collecting as part of the Keep Our Assets Coalition rolling. It comes out of the fixed budget allocated to the party’s leaders’ office – not one additional cent from the taxpayer, just a choice: other parties spend millions of taxpayer money on polling. It’s a good use of our money.
The Keep Our Assets Coalition has collected a phenomenal 80,000 signatures already, quarter of the way there. The signatures are pouring in. Collecting will get harder closer to the end but we’re going to get our referendum – if we all play our part. If you haven’t signed, or your friends and family haven’t, download the form and send it in.
The Aotearoa is Not For Sale hikoi departs from Te Papa for Parliament at midday today. There has been great turnout in towns and cities all over New Zealand. Join in if you can. Also, remember to sign the Keep Our Assets petition and get involved (via Labour or the Greens) in collecting signatures. We can still save our assets.
Lots of people… get down to Britomart.. Mind you Britomart is filling up rapidly. They need a few more megaphones by the look […]
The wording for the citizens-initiated referendum has been approved. Now, we just need to get 300,000-odd signatures. The petition form is here but the Keep Our Assets Coalition needs more than your signature, you need to help get signatures too. The Greens and Labour are signing people up for the campaign. Rallies in Auckland and Nelson today as part of the Hikoi. Official campaign launch: Wellington, May 10.
A petition for a citizens initiated referendum is to be launched by a coalition led by Grey Power, the Greens and Labour. I would kick off with getting every activist in Wellington to do blanket coverage of Ohariu. This is going to be a massive thorn in the government’s side. If I was Key, I would almost be praying Dunne decides to go against the legislation
Economic sovereignty is suddenly the hot issue with the vast majority of Kiwis opposed to more foreign ownership and asset sales. The Nats are in a spin: Key is desperately trying to upgrade English’s ‘guess’ on the fiscal impact of asset sales to a “best estimate”. Time for that asset sales referendum petition. Maybe you can help draft the question.
Official Election results are out. Carmel Sepuloni takes Waitakere back for Labour by 11 votes, and National loses one seat to the Greens. MMP wins by a mile. Well done Carmel – I’m really glad she stays in Parliament. I don’t think a recount will change anything – I scrutineered the official count last election and the people doing it were very very careful.
So, a government says that the people will have the say on its budget, and global markets plunge. Was there ever a clearer sign that the interests of the capitalist elite and the people are at odds, and the capitalists know it? It’s interesting that Papandreou has chosen to force a crisis and headed off a coup. Around the world, ordinary people want radical change.
The Campaign for MMP has a series of vids that we’ll be running. This one looks at how MMP has lifted the representation of women in Parliament. Makes you wonder about the people who want to send us backwards. By the by, due the paucity of women on National and ACT’s lists, the next Parliament is likely be to be first since 1978 to see the number of women decrease.
Vote for Change, Peter Shirtcliffe’s anti-MMP vehicle a grassroots movement discussing the need for change in the electoral system, has launched an ad competition for their movement. There’s $10,000 in prizes. I guess they raised the money from cake stalls. We encourage to submit your entries to VfC, and send them to us too!
Peter Shirtcliffe’s Vote for Change is reeling. On Sunday, they had to boot out Alex Fogerty after the Young Nat’s neo-Nazi affiliations were made public. Yesterday, they lost their token Leftie, Bob Harvey, when he realised that being used by a collection of capitalist elitists and white supremacists wasn’t the legacy he wanted.
Peter Shirtcliffe’s Anti-MMP Vote For Change group has just 16 members and one of them has turned out to be a neo-Nazi. Is it a case of being so short of mates they’ll accept anyone who turns up, or does this give us a truer picture of who really wants to get rid of MMP? The latter, I think.
Good piece in today’s Herald by John Armstrong focussing on Vote for Change declaring that they are not in favour of any particular form of electoral system at this stage. He doesn’t find it believable, and nor do I. His take is that “Vote for Change looks very much like the National Party Preservation Society in drag.” I agree. I think they have a classic bait and switch strategy, it involves Key, and we should not take it lightly.
Times that the Government had the support of the majority of voters under FPP from formation of Reform (beginning on multi-party system) in 1911: 7 out of 27 (26%)
Times that the Government has had the support of the majority of voters under MMP: 4 out of 5 (80%)
By its own admission, Vote for Change is anti MMP. Its website homepage has “More Accountability” as its first principle. It is also an Incorporated Society. So I had a look at its rules – you can find them on the Societies website. It seems more like the Politburo to me. Not a good look for a group supposedly promoting better democracy.
Peter Shirtcliffe’s latest attempt to destroy MMP has finally launched. The man who spent a million dollars in 1993 is a shadow of his former self. Now, he and his cronies are so despised he can’t front the organisation himself, he’s got some kid doing it. And FPP/SM is so despised they won’t actually campaign for it overtly.
If there is one silver lining to the cloud of a National government, it is that the MMP referendum has come up on their watch. It rather cripples their attack lines.
The Right hates MMP. Back in the good old FPP days, about 20% of voters backed leftwing parties like Values, the Alliance, and Social Credit but got nearly no representation. National could govern alone with just 35% of the vote or fewer votes than the other major party. The Right was happy with that. So, they’ll be pissed Kiwis prefer MMP.
