Simon Bridges has accused NZ First of engaging in the most significant breach of electoral law in New Zealand’s history. But has not ruled out working with NZ First in the future. And has forgotten about National’s neat partition of a $100,000 donation to hide it from the authorities.
It has been ironic at our media frenzy on political ‘donations’. I suspect that our legal structure has been setup for bribing politicians with ‘donations’. Let us just make all politicians and donors guilty until proven innocent of false reporting of ‘donations’. It’d be more interesting than the current farce. Start with Simon Bridges – currently still under investigation by the SFO.
There has been recent media exposure on New Zealand First’s treatment of donations and the use of a trust to receive donations and avoid contribution disclosure requirements by making payments loans rather than gifts.
Jacinda Ardern has publicly slapped Shane Jones down for blatantly racist comments by requiring Immigration Officials to reverse a policy change that was adversely affecting Kiwis who have recently entered into arranged marriages.
At New Zealand First’s weekend conference the party’s youth wing has forced the party to rethink its ultra conservative view on pill testing services being offered at festivals.
Keep it seemly …
Heather du Plessis Allan has concluded that National was responsible for leaking details about Winston Peters superannuation overpayment. And believes that it was business as usual for National.
New Zealand First’s late decision to promote a referendum concerning abortion has caught everyone including its spokesperson Tracy Martin by surprise and is the latest example of last minute changes of position.
Hamish Rutherfurd writes that Winston Peters’ trip to the US to secure a trade deal is far-fetched and a waste of time. I agree. But if Peters has his agenda, so will Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, John Bolton and Dan Coats have theirs. He was scheduled to meet them all. No wonder the 9th floor are worried.
Newshub has revealed that Winston Peters has received death threats. And the allegations involve the European far right, the Christchurch attack, the anti UN Migrant pact movement and the National Party.
Reprinted with permission from the blogsite How Melulater sees it, an important backgrounder to the impending teachers’ strike.
In an unprecedented move yesterday in Parliament Government MPs agreed to Simon Bridges having extra time to harangue them during the general debate.
With the benefit of hindsight the decision not to proceed with a capital gains tax was almost inevitable.
Now that I’ve had time to look through what has been implemented and what is proposed to happen with changes to gun laws and think about it. I’m almost satisfied. Since that so seldom happens that I suspect a gotcha, I’m now going to keep debugging until I am sure that it is actually as good as it looks.
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. We already have the 13 recommendations of the 2017 Law & Order committee that were rejected. Let us at the very least now accept those.
Westland Dairy has done a deal to sell out to Yili industrial Group of Mongolia. This company is the third largest dairy company in New Zealand.
National has resorted to race baiting in its attempt to denigrate the Tax Working Group’s proposed capital gains tax.
It’s been a horror week for two leaders and a leader who will never be leader.
TRP casts a wary and weary eye over three political zombies whose time appears up.
And, oh, Jeremy Corbyn.
Winston Peters went to Washington last December to see US VP Mike Pence and invited the US to engage more in the South-West Pacific without informing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Patrick Smellie described this apparent oversight as “deeply worrying.” Even more worrying is what Peters said when he was there.
In Washington last week Winston Peters urged America to involve itself more in the Pacific, in a speech the Prime Minister was apparently unaware of. Referring to Africa, John Bolton outlined what that involvement would mean – American interests first and only. Dangerous with the neocons in charge of the playpen.
Here’s your chance to vote in the Standard’s Politician of The Year awards. The SPOTY’s are recognised worldwide as the leading indicator of political success in NZ and have been awarded annually for over two hundred years.
Now it’s your turn to prick the Thorndon Bubble, dear reader. Who’s your Politician of the Year?
I like my Huawei phone. Apparently the US National Security Agency can’t break its encryption. That’s presumably the “security” issue why Spark is being blocked from using Huawei, and why Meng Wanzhou is held hostage in Canada at the behest of US neocons.
National and ACT have alleged that a United Nations Pact supported by New Zealand in 2016 will take away sovereign rights even though the pact itself says that it is not legally binding.
National had a spectacularly bad day today in Parliament.
New Zealand First at its conference on the weekend passed a remit to calling for immigrants and refugees to “respect New Zealand values” which are founded on Christianity.
Winston Peters said in Parliament this week that he believes he knows who the leaker of Simon Bridges’ travel information is.
News of the Coalition’s bad health appears to be something of a beat up.
Text of Jacinda Ardern’s major speech delivered today.
In Politik’s 7 September issue we are told that Western diplomats in Wellington are surprised that Winston Peters has not accused Russia of the Skripal poisoning or joined some other countries in taking reprisals. Editor Richard Harman quotes a source to tell us that the British in particular were “pissed” at Peters’ response. Well dearie me. I’m with Winston, a wise old owl.
Winston has suggested that New Zealand First may not agree to an increase in the number of refugees New Zealand accepts. Even though the infrastructure needed for the increase is paid for.
The 1 News/Colmar Brunton poll is out. The Government sails on serenely while Simon meets the people.
Simon Bridges, who is clearly struggling for relevance, has decided to try and improve his political position by bashing beneficiaries.
Winston Peters has commenced legal proceedings against Anne Tolley and Paula Bennett because of the leaking during last year’s election campaign of private information about a superannuation overpayment he received.
New Zealand has a low carbon energy future plan. What is the strategy to achieve this?
Is NZ’s fishing industry just a domestic version of the tobacco companies? And how much would that really matter?
In the second stage of a false flag attack, facts go out the window and the sole issue becomes “are you for us or against us.” Our media and National Party politicians are well into this stage in the Skripal affair. But as questions mount and skeptics proliferate from all sides, Jacinda Ardern and Winston Peters may well be wiser than media advisers by not following blindly the western herd. 26 countries is not the whole world. Update: Porton Down unable to establish Novichok of Russian origin.
