Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, November 23rd, 2011 - 175 comments
Debate over. Not a walkover for Goff like the TV3 debate, but a win to Goff on points. Communicated effectively, came across as honest and open (compared to Key’s shifty body language), and had Key on the ropes several times.
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, November 23rd, 2011 - 140 comments
Any minute now, we should find out whether we are allowed to know the secret plans that John Key and John Banks were foolish enough to discuss in a public cafe in front of the country’s media, or whether that information will be denied us before we vote on Saturday.
Update: Judge has declined to make a decision.
So it can be published without breaking the law. Publication is only illegal if publisher knows the interception was illegal. No-one can now know that.
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, November 23rd, 2011 - 12 comments
Download debate-bingo and see if you can be the first to mark off John Key’s hollow catchphrases in the final Leader’s debate tonight.
The winner will be all of us if we choose a better government on Saturday.
Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, November 23rd, 2011 - 97 comments
Phil Goff has signed a pledge that Labour will not sell Kiwibank if it becomes government. Other party leaders have been invited as well. I expect the Greens, New Zealand First, Mana, and the Conservatives will (who knows about the Maori Party). But will Key sign? National is secretly itching to sell Kiwibank, Bill English got caught out admitting as much.
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, November 23rd, 2011 - 81 comments
John Key is really showing the strain of campaigning, he’s not bearing up under the stress of it at all well. Clearly the National Show Pony was not built for endurance.
Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, November 22nd, 2011 - 53 comments
According to reporter Derek Cheng (#dchengnzh) inside the courtroom “Judge reserved decision til 215 tomoro #votenz #ambrose“.
Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, November 22nd, 2011 - 11 comments
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, November 22nd, 2011 - 104 comments
The 2nd TV debate was a 2nd win for Goff. He was human and humane, visionary and realistic. Key made excuses for his poor record, tried to hide in detail, and cast a sullen eye to the future. The worm told the story. So did the Right’s reaction. But, next debate, ditch the ‘expert’ panelists. […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:10 pm, November 21st, 2011 - 275 comments
A clear win to Goff – Bravo!
Written By: - Date published: 6:42 am, November 21st, 2011 - 152 comments
Phil Goff said yesterday we had “Six days to save our assets” – now we have 5. Here’s what University of Auckland’s economics professor thinks about asset sales, and some more reasons why we desperately need to avoid a National-led government on November 27.
Written By: - Date published: 2:19 pm, November 20th, 2011 - 74 comments
John Key has announced today that if Winston is re-elected, New Zealand will be forced to go back to the polls within weeks.
Meanwhile elsewhere on the limping catastrophe that is the John Key Campaign, Aroha Ireland has decided to leave New Zealand and join the record numbers of kiwis leaving permanently for a Brighter Future in Australia.
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, November 20th, 2011 - 59 comments
I have no sympathy for politicians complaining about their ‘private’ political conversations being made public. What politicians say on politics is inherently of public interest. Don’t say different things in private then in public, and you won’t get caught out. It’s a matter of integrity. We can now reveal what John Key really thinks about climate change.
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 pm, November 19th, 2011 - 107 comments
Bradley Ambrose, the cameraman widely maligned by John Key and his pudgey lapdogs David Farrar and Cameron Slater for daring to hold the PM to some basic standards of accountability, is demanding an apology from John Key or he’ll take the PM to court for defamation.
UPDATE: The final week of the campaign will kick off with a police raid on the Herald Monday morning.
Written By: - Date published: 3:58 pm, November 19th, 2011 - 18 comments
We missed this at the time – thanks to toad in comments (and link to g.blog) for the heads up! Especially relevant now that John Key has personally tied himself to ACT with his endorsement.
Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, November 19th, 2011 - 20 comments
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, November 18th, 2011 - 26 comments
Outraging families of suicide victims. Insulting the Police as layabouts. Declaring war on the media. Negative teapot stories every day, now spreading to over coverage. The Nats are spinning this was planned; that they decided to go nuclear on the media as a vote winner. What a joke. They were successfully running a small target campaign until a week ago.
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, November 18th, 2011 - 116 comments
The International Federation of Journalists has condemned police demands for media organisations to hand over information about the tea tapes.
Much as some of us have enjoyed watching Key squirm, this has gone too far. Time to call off the cops and release the tape.
Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, November 18th, 2011 - 77 comments
Kazakhstan police have ordered four media organisations to hand over evidence of an alleged illegal recording of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The police said they would carry out searches to get the material. Opposition politicians have accused Mr Nazarbayev of trying to gag the media in the run-up to an election next weekend.
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, November 18th, 2011 - 21 comments
John Key says that it’s OK for the Police to waste time trying to intimidate the media on his behalf because they have “spare time” with the drop in crime. There were 220,000 unsolved crimes last year including 8 homicides. The cops solved 15,000 fewer crimes than the previous year. Don’t tell me they’re sitting around waiting to do the PM’s bidding.
Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, November 18th, 2011 - 64 comments
John Key has a history of choking under pressure but this time, calling on the police to raid the premises of our national broadcasters TVNZ and RNZ, and our major privately owned newspapers – he’s cracked under the pressure of the campaign and the spectre of losing it all. There’ll be no knighthood if Key becomes the first National PM to lose after just one term.
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 pm, November 17th, 2011 - 57 comments
Interesting looking at the current law on getting and using search warrants on media organisations. There are some quite clear guidelines from a 1965 case.If the guidelines are adhered to it is hard to see how warrants could be obtained. Reading and publishing the search warrants and the supporting materials looks to be the only way that the public will be able to decide if John Key is walking down the path of close cooperation between the police and the current prime minister used by other ‘democratic’ countries.
Written By: - Date published: 3:47 pm, November 17th, 2011 - 52 comments
Winston is leaking details of the teapot tapes. Plenty of other rumours doing the rounds, including a TV1 poll tonight that shows no damage to the Nats on voting intentions yet.
Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, November 17th, 2011 - 22 comments
Whenever the PM is talking politics, that is a matter of public interest. If he doesn’t want to be embarrassed when private conversations become public, the solution is in his hands…
Also a hugely funny video by a distraught supporter of John Key, or so it seems.
Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, November 17th, 2011 - 67 comments
This headline speaks for itself. Tea tape: TVNZ, RNZ to be searched – “Four media outlets, including Radio New Zealand and TVNZ, are to be searched for any material they might have in their possession that relates to the tea pot tapes”. Outrageous.
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, November 17th, 2011 - 7 comments
This is just from one news outlet. Stuff, the Herald, RNZ, TVNZ – they’re all focussing on what’s making Key looking like a fool. They aren’t interested in hearing what National has to say about anything until they fess up. Nine days from an Election, now that’s a spectacular agenda setting fail. Who’s advising Key’s campaign, Melissa Lee?
Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, November 17th, 2011 - 13 comments
Minor Leaders’ debate: Winston Peters 36%, Hone Harawira 27%, Don Brash 14%.
Fairfax Epsom poll: Paul Goldsmith 45.5%, John Banks 29.1%.
Impact of Key endorsement: More likely to vote Banks 23%, Less likely 30%.
Taranaki Daily news debate exit poll: Andrew Little 64.5%, Jonathan Young 28%.
Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, November 17th, 2011 - 19 comments
Key would have had slightly better grounds for opposing the release of the teapot tape if he hadn’t led a government which trampled on civil rights in its determination to strengthen search and surveillance powers. I wonder if his “anyone who is innocent has nothing to fear” line is sounding quite so good to him now…
Written By: - Date published: 6:29 am, November 17th, 2011 - 120 comments
The Right’s crying we should be talking about policy, not certain tapes. Funny, until recently they were mocking Labour for putting out so much policy. Fact is, we don’t elect policy implementing automatons. We elect leaders for their policies and because we trust them to act with integrity on our behalf. The tea tapes matter because they go to Key’s integrity.
Written By: - Date published: 3:32 pm, November 16th, 2011 - 114 comments
There’s a theory going round that Key deliberately “staged” his walkout from questioning over the teapot tape fiasco. 3 News has a version, and Tracy Watkins really goes to town with it. I don’t buy it. It looks like what it is, a panicked reaction from a PM trapped by his own hubris.
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