Its 100 days since the NZ Labour Party elected Andrew Little as its leader. What an inspired decision that has turned out to be! Little has galvanised the party, united the caucus and looks set to be the next PM. How has he turned Labour around?
After the formal speeches on the Iraq deployment John Key set off on an extraordinary spittle-flecked rant against Labour. His “get some guts line” is going to haunt him for the next 3 years.
Carmel Sepuloni’s mother has had charges of benefit fraud being laid against her. Andrew Little has done the sensible thing and stood down her as its social development spokesperson. While I’m sure that we will still get the dribbling trolls, this is how potential conflicts of interest should be handled. Updated.
Yesterday the families lost only a small bit of the battle for justice at Pike in an application to get some of the documentation on the Peter Whittall decision. It is clear from the decision that the process of filing itself caused MBIE to agree to release a number of the key documents.
The Electoral Commission has now released individual returns of donations and electoral expenses. And the Donghua Liu donation appears in Jamie-Lee Ross’s return. But the vast majority of electorate campaigns recorded head office donations and the overwhelming impression is that cabinet club donations are collected centrally and then distributed. So what happened with the Liu donation?
The first three speeches from yesterdays session in Parliament on sending troops to Iraq – John Key, Andrew Little, Russel Norman. Little’s speech is cogent, Norman’s is brilliant.
John Key’s frothing exhortation to Andrew Little in Parliament to “get some guts” reminds one of opera’s famous Duke of Plazatoro “who led his regiment from behind, he found it less exciting.” Key’s not going to Iraq – our soldiers are the ones in danger.
Back in 2003, John Key had an interesting take on whether it was appropriate to send troops to Iraq.
Yesterday’s Herald revealed that Donghua Liu made a second donation to National in 2013 which was repaid to him after last year’s election. A brief timeline was provided but in the interests of greater understanding I thought a fuller timeline would be helpful.
The Herald announced today that Donghua Liu donated to National the sum of $25,000 in 2013. But the National return for donations in that year, signed on April 30, 2014, do not include this donation and Lee-Ross did not put it in his declaration of pecuniary interests. Maurice Williamson resigned on May 1 2014 for his attempting to affect a police prosecution of Donghua. But the story broke earlier.
Amy Adams announced yesterday that $600,000 worth of legal reports about the Bain claim for compensation were going to be junked. Judith Collins has some explaining to do.
A new review of compensation for David Bain. Another fine mess courtesy of Collins/Slater and National.
Sometime in the next few days, Winston Peters will announce whether or not he will stand in the Northland by-election. He should run unchallenged by the left and Labour and the Greens should endorse him for the greater good.
It was announced yesterday that Novopay has cost the country $45 million more than intended. The Ministry of Education has accepted some responsibility but in terms of ultimate responsibility the Ministers involved, English, Parata and Foss should be held to blame.
SkyCity’s share price went up just before the recent Government announcement of the deal with SkyCity. Winston Peters wonders if some insider trading was involved.
So the Nats spent $250,000 working out that an Auckland convention center needed 3500 seats to break even, and are now about to be delivered a center wtih 3000 seats.
It might well be in Labour’s best interests to cut the crap now and go into coalition with the National Ltd™ Cult of John Key. It would be the honest thing to do. Kiwis will then know where the boundaries lie and who actually is working to oppose the implementation of the wider neo-liberal ideology.
It’s looking more and more like Labour has found the right leader at last.
The flaws in the process whereby SkyCity promised a free convention centre in consideration of legislative changes are now clear to see. Through an act of brinkmanship SkyCity has embarassed the Government and caused it political damage. And it has achieved a return for investors, the legislative changes will be the same despite there now being a smaller cheaper convention centre.
The PM running from a yacht club when confronted with protestors against poverty. Pretty fair summary of where this country is at.
Steven Joyce has announced (because Key likes to stay clear of bad news) that SkyCity will not be seeking public funding for its convention center. So looks like it will be Key’s “eyesore”.
A staffer in Paula Bennett’s ministerial office has apparently mistakenly withdrawn cash from the Ministerial credit card. The money has been paid back and no harm caused and no further action should be necessary. If only Bennett extended to beneficiaries the same tolerance of predictable mistakes.
The focus group results are in and John Key is backing off from the Government injecting further money into the SkyCity convention centre.
John Key gave a somewhat rousing speech about how New Zealand would not stand back when dealing with the ISIS tyranny. It made me wonder why he is not passionate about dealing with a problem that has the potential of wrecking much of the world’s environment and making much of it it uninhabitable.
The Labour Party is organising a petition against the $140 million bailout SkyCity is demanding – and John Key is insisting we have to pay to prevent getting an “eyesore” of a convention centr
Sky City crying too poor to build a bigger casino – give us a break, please! Casino expert Sudhir Kale estimated the extra pokies gained by Sky to be worth $35million over figures used by government. That’s for year upon year to 2048. It could cover any casino upgrade in four years. Either Joyce and Key are being played for suckers, or they are playing the rest of us for suckers. The deal stinks.
Eighteen months ago Stephen Joyce said about the Sky City Convention Centre deal that anything not written down was not happening. It appears that he was wrong as John Key softens us up for more public money being spent on a private convention centre.
The excellent Gordon Campbell on Key’s divisive and opportunistic lines on “Maori separatism”.
The Salvation Army has all but ruled out being involved in the Government’s Social Housing unless it is provided with capital. And if divestment occurs it considers that tenants should have a role in governance of the houses they live in.
Feinstein Doak has a post up with the Top Political Facebook Posts of 2014, and the results are interesting.
Leaving Mike Sabin in charge of the Law and Order Select Committee was certainly a captain’s call by John Key. Just like Tony Abbott’s award of a knighthood to the Duke (as if he needed more fruit salad), this was a judgment call. And it does call Key’s judgment into question. It’s not about when he knew what he knew, it’s about what he did when he knew.
The latest bout of National’s cult of “personality” was on show at yesterday’s Big Gay Out
There’s a fascinating article in the latest New Statesman titled “An Empire that speaks English: the right’s dream of a new world order.” Suddenly UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond’s recent visit here makes sense. So does John Key’s references to sending troops to Iraq on behalf of the “club” or the “family” – he’s at the heart of the Empire.
It has been claimed that Andrew Little has advocated for Maori to have law making powers. What he has done is reflect on a recent Waitangi Tribunal decision which concluded that Maori never ceded sovereignty to the Crown and properly concluded that this is an issue that needs to be considered.
