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It may be that we have heard publicly from John Banks for the last time. If so this will be a good thing. The man harbours rather extreme racist views and has not improved with age. Decades ago Metro Magazine called him the most culturally…
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The polling has spoken. After testing the waters by announcing a possible tilt for the Super City mayoralty and then no doubt polling furiously John Banks has decided not to run. From the Herald: John Banks has confirmed he will not be having another…
auckland supercity john banks john tamihere phil goff supercity
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John Banks may be on the comeback trail. Or at least the folk at Topham and Guerin and Crosby and Textor may be investigating the possibility of a campaign. From Bevan Hurley at Stuff: John Banks has hired a team of heavyweight political strategists as he…
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Passing stringent gun controls is far from a knee-jerk reaction to the Christchurch massacre - our politicians of all stripes have procrastinated over this ever since the 1990 Aramoana massacre. This blood-on-their-hands dithering contrasts with Australia’s decisive action following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, when…
chris bishop john banks paula bennett Politics Simon Bridges stuart nash winston peters
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For background this piece by Professor Geddis should be required reading: "If you want people to believe you are honest, then it's best not to file false donation returns". In comments Geddis sums up: The point here is that by signing the donations return in…
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Disgraced former National MP, ACT leader and Auckland Mayor John Banks has had his appeal against conviction for electoral fraud upheld and his conviction quashed. He has been formally acquitted and there will be no second trial. The Court of Appeal has accepted that Kim…
Abuse of power accountability democracy under attack john banks Politics
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As the matter seems to be heading for trial now is a good time for the audio from the teapot tapes to be released. Enjoy ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehz9M6huaDg
humour john banks john key parody Satire you couldn't make this shit up
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGoyAHhm9I
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Key and his government are ramping up their powers to spy in us all, one of their justifications is that if we the people have nothing to hide we have nothing to fear. Yesterday in Parliament John Key declined to release his communications with Cameron…
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Reposted from The Jackal I'm not sure how to break the news to all those desperate right wingers out there wanting the NZ First party to form a coalition government with National, but, despite the mainstream medias misleading coverage, it doesn't look like a realistic…
election 2014 john banks john key national nz first winston peters
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The Epsom seat may be the difference between National winning or losing the next election. So the recent announcement that Christine Rankin will be standing there adds an extra degree of chaos which National may or may not appreciate. She declared confidently this morning on Morning…
conservative party greens john banks john key labour national
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In breaking news John Banks has not applied for a discharge without conviction and a conviction has been entered. This is a realistic choice by him. A discharge was never going to be given in a case like this. But he could have faced reality…
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You know the large German Industrialist who gave Auckland $500,000 for a fireworks display and John Banks $50,000 for his Mayoral campaign? The man whose house was raided by helicopter riding armed police for the heinous offence of breaching copyright? The man who the Government has been…
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Reposted from No Right Turn So it turns out that Immigration released letters from David Cunliffe and Chris Carter in support of Donghua Liu, but kept letters from government MPs secret: Letters of support from two Government MPs for Donghua Liu's citizenship bid have been kept…
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Reposted from No Right Turn. Writing in the Herald, Fran O'Sullivan tells us what we all knew: that political donors have expectations, and want favours in exchange for their cash. She's too polite (and Establishment) to call it corruption, but that's what it is. Naturally, this being…
corruption democracy under attack election funding elections john banks len brown
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This repost from No Right Turn looks at the process of National trying to rewrite political history. Yesterday John Banks accepted the inevitable and announced that he would resign from Parliament. Good. His continued presence there debased the House and brought it into public contempt, and I…
christchurch earthquake Gerry Brownlee john banks john key law national same old national
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There was no alternative. Either Banks could have sabotaged National's re-election prospects or he could resign. John Banks has done the decent thing for National and announced his resignation effective from this Friday. No doubt the platitudes will now start. But as far as I am…
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It's looking very likely that John Banks will be gone from parliament by Monday. Meanwhile, several mainstream journalists, head in sand, are going to bat for John Banks, claiming he hasn't really done anything wrong with respect to the verdict of guilty for filing a…
accountability crime election funding john banks newspapers spin
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Reposted from Imperator Fish where Scott Yorke likes to indulge in satire. At least we hope this is satire. It seems rather hard to tell when ex-police ministers are involved. As a senior member of the New Zealand Police, I would like to respond to…
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In Kiwiblog this morning, David Farrar appeared to be running a 9th floor pre-pump for John Banks to resign. But I was rather incredulous when I read the following paragraph... I don’t think the Judge has actually helped the Government by delaying the decision on entering a…
blogs crime David Farrar education electoral systems john banks john key police political education you couldn't make this shit up
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Justice Wyllie's decision has been released and if you have ever worried about the independence of our Judiciary this decision should remover all concerns. He has drafted a simple yet comprehensive review of the evidence and his conclusion is IMHO logically faultless and damning of…
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It says a lot about the morals of this government that they're willing to continue to rely on the vote of a man who has been found guilty of electoral fraud. But Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee's happy with the outcome, with Banks not…
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The decision is out and John Banks has been found guilty of electoral fraud. I will post a link to the judgment and some analysis later. Basically the Judge must have thought that Banks knew about the donations and engineered things so that the campaign treasurer…
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This afternoon Justice Wyllie in the High Court at Auckland is expected to announce his decision on the guilt or otherwise of John Banks of the charge of falsely declaring that donations from Kim Dotcom and Sky City were anonymous. This is a criminal trial…
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bsprout at LocalBodies has a look at the hysteria about polls over the last few weeks. In an earlier post I questioned the danger of reading too much into polls and predicting elections based on a couple of polls months out from an election. Many commentators were…
bill english Gerry Brownlee greens Hekia parata john banks john key Judith Collins labour Metiria Turei national paula bennett peter dunne polls same old national Steven Joyce
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The Fairfax Political Team has awarded prizes for the best and the worst in political life in New Zealand for 2013. Most of the awards were somewhat predictable although I thought that John Banks was a shoe in for Wally of the Year. This was…
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Yesterday on politics from the left and the right on Radio New Zealand Matthew Hooton sounded what may be the death knell for ACT's future. He mentioned how tens of millions of dollars have been spent over the past two decades on a failed political…
act capitalism conservative party don brash john banks national uncategorized
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From the Herald: Act party president John Boscawen has confirmed John Banks won't seek re-election in 2014. A statement from Mr Boscawen was posted to the Act party website 15 minutes before he and Mr Banks were due to hold a press conference at Parliament.…
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So, a second judge has confirmed that John Banks will go to trial for alleged fraudulent electoral returns. NZ Herald reports: The case was taken over by Solicitor-General Michael Heron QC but the Act Party leader filed an urgent appeal to the High Court at…
accountability act john banks john key national united future
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Clare Trevett details in today's Herald how Key has taken to bringing Ministers with good news to his Monday news conferences "to lambast the media with good news about the progress being made in a certain area." Making use of the captive audience at the…