Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, June 25th, 2014 - 113 comments
The Herald has now published details of a further statement from Donghua Liu which directly contradicts previous claims. So what did it do to ensure the accuracy of the original claims and why did it print those allegations without verification? And who is the mysterious person who prepared a statement that with the benefit of hindsight was clearly inaccurate?
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, June 25th, 2014 - 114 comments
The underbelly of John Key’s “rockstar economy” is mostly kept in the shadows, but every so often more tales emerge from the growing numbers of homeless. Vote left & vote the bastards out, this election!
Written By: - Date published: 11:41 am, June 24th, 2014 - 10 comments
John Key is abandoning hope of a TPP deal. As it stands at present there is nothing in it for New Zealand. Of course the usual ugly swamp that is US internal politics is making the deal descend into a mire.
Expect nothing to happen for another year or two, and maybe the damn thing will never happen.
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, June 24th, 2014 - 50 comments
Jan Logie’s post: “Work and Income – stories from hidden people” is a must read: stories from a divisive society, under a callous government that benefits the few at the expense of too many. We can do much better than that. Vote for change this election!
Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, June 24th, 2014 - 257 comments
The media seem to be mesmerized by John Key. He can start a media beat up by talking publicly about a rumour then get a sympathetic headline when stating that Donghua Liu should reveal his evidence, even though it was Key who made the claim publicly. Yet after a week of bad press for Labour over a claim for which there is no real proof Key’s role is not scrutinised and he seems to get away with it.
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 pm, June 23rd, 2014 - 36 comments
Before we get too carried away patting those Labour MPs on the back for withdrawing from the list process in order to ‘give way’ to fresh talent, someone should take a closer look at clause 356 of the Labour Party constitution.
Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, June 23rd, 2014 - 44 comments
In previous elections, the major parties have submitted lists heavily dominated by men, and this passes without comment. This year, Labour has submitted one with a slight imbalance (53:47) towards women. The reaction is sadly predictable. Misogynist reporting. Also incorrect, there is no gender rule. Not mentioned: Labour’s list is gender-balanced up to position 40; that slight imbalance comes from the bottom, unelectable end of the list and will not translate into caucus places.
Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, June 23rd, 2014 - 20 comments
Some things are so predicable that Imperator Fish can write about them years ahead. Like the typical reactions to the Labour list. Let us observe the predictability of the right and others to it today. Marks for any bit of originality, but don’t be surprised if there aren’t any.
Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, June 23rd, 2014 - 189 comments
The Labour list for 2014 has been announced.
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, June 23rd, 2014 - 27 comments
This morning’s news from the Fairfax/Ipsos poll is that 81% of New Zealanders hate coat-tailing and want it gone. I agree with them. So does Labour. So do the Greens. So do Internet MANA. National, of course, relishes coat-tailing. So – to the 81% – if you want 2014 to be the last election with any coat-tailing, vote for a change of government. In the meantime of course, we have Crazy Colin Craig who thinks that Key’s job is to give just him a seat, entirely of his own accord, with no “insipid” discussions about the quid pro quo. Good luck with that.
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, June 23rd, 2014 - 34 comments
John Key claimed he didn’t know about the big shift in the US-NZ surveillance relationship in 2009. Now he claims he always likes to be fully briefed on intelligence matters. Robert David Steele points the way from such anti-democratic governance & misinformation, to an open source everything revolution.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 23rd, 2014 - 10 comments
I had a conversation at our farmer’s market this morning about how my election campaign was going and the person I was speaking to had the view that all politicians don’t actually do much, apart from talking. I find that this thinking is actually fairly common, many people talk about the nonsense that goes on in Parliament and how all politicians are as bad as each other, “It doesn’t matter who you vote for, nothing really changes.” I find this view really frustrating, but at the same time I can see why people may feel this way.
Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 24 comments
Scott Yorke makes some excellent arguments in favour of a full police investigation into the Liu saga.
Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 47 comments
In a speech today Colin Craig has confirmed that he will be standing in Murray McCully’s seat of East Coast Bays.
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 112 comments
I’ve been around the Labour party campaigners for a long time. I’d have expected to hear of auction sales of near to $100,000 by rumour if nothing else. It is possible that I didn’t. But then so is time travel. Quite simply the NZ Heralds reporting of Liu’s letter without any corroboration or details about where and when isn’t what I expect from journalists. It is what I expect from Whaleoil – a simple smear. I hadn’t realised that the Herald was that desperate.
Written By: - Date published: 9:40 pm, June 21st, 2014 - 7 comments
Bryan Gould writes on this in the latest post on the AUT Briefing Papers website. Gould quotes from Senator Elizabeth Warren’s classic speech “Nobody got rich on their own. Nobody.” Gould’s conclusion – A renewed debate about the purpose of government is well overdue – amen to that.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, June 21st, 2014 - 110 comments
Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, June 20th, 2014 - 39 comments
So it turns out that Immigration released letters from David Cunliffe and Chris Carter in support of Donghua Liu. However, the Department of Internal Affairs refused to release the letters sent by Mr Williamson and Mr Banks under the privacy and commercial provisions in the Official Information Act. This looks like a blatantly political release decision to advance the interests of the government of the day. Transparency of official information applies to everyone, not just the government’s enemies.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, June 20th, 2014 - 80 comments
Overshadowed by the political smears that have dominated the past few days, the Tick for Kids campaign has been launched to put our children at the centre of the election campaign.
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, June 20th, 2014 - 25 comments
We all know from reading Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men (or watching the documentary) that the National Party actually advocates for a small section of society. Their policies rarely support most New Zealanders and after each period of a National led Government we have costly messes like leaky buildings and dead miners as the aftermath. This isn’t to say that Labour shouldn’t take responsibility for not repealing dodgy legislation, but National has always stood for less regulation, fewer protections for workers and the environment and an upward flow of money to the already rich.
Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, June 20th, 2014 - 24 comments
Rob Salmond offers some advice to the National smear team. When you screw up and start contradicting each other’s stories, you look like a pack of low-rent numpties. And it reveals your tactics for all to see, which is what you were trying to avoid in the first place. Bill English and John Key should really communicate so they don’t trample over each others stories. And the spectacle of Michael Woodhouse changing his mind within hours about when he first saw the letter, and what he did with it? Pure comedy
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, June 20th, 2014 - 322 comments
David Cunliffe does not recall signing a letter 11 years ago which did not advocate for Donghua Liu’s application for residence yet gets pilloried by the media for stating that he did not advocate for Mr Liu. Michael Woodhouse denies telling John Key about the letter, then says officials from his office briefed Mr Key’s office on the letters and then his office admits that he told Key’s office about the letter yet there is no media criticism of what clearly is an attempt to hide a smear campaign. Is this yet more evidence of media bias?
Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, June 19th, 2014 - 17 comments
There is a very long but worth reading post over at The Political Scientist. If you’re serious about campaigning in NZ at present, then it is definitely worth setting aside the time to ponder it. In particular the demographics and the occupational changes across Christchurch that may affect this years election outcome. Tony Milne also has a good post on Christchurch and its continuing travails..
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, June 19th, 2014 - 280 comments
Yesterday wasn’t a good day for Labour. But it’s not the end of the world – because we know how this game goes.
Written By: - Date published: 7:21 am, June 19th, 2014 - 57 comments
Stand up: fight back: We know what we are up against. We’ve seen the depth of the negative, right wing campaigning. NZ wants and needs better politics, and a more inclusive society.
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 222 comments
The weak and transparent smear attempt from National says more about them than David Cunliffe.
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 9 comments
Lincoln Kidd was killed in a forest just before Christmas last year. He was 20. Rebecca Macfie wrote powerfully about him and his family in this Listener article. The new health and safety organisation Worksafe had six months to press charges in relation to this workplace deaths and as we know of the 900 serious harm […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 324 comments
It is a damn form letter written to immigration by electorate offices every day. Prepared by electorate office staff. Signed in a stack by the MP. Requesting information about a constituent case or even a drop-in to the office. I’ve seen many of these per day going on in a neighbouring electorate office. Their files are strewn all over immense file directories. It is seldom that the MPs meet with the people until after the information is received from immigration. It isn’t “advocacy”. It is just dumpster diving for crap by National’s researchers.
Written By: - Date published: 3:36 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 74 comments
So apparently forgetting about signing a form letter for a constituent 11 years ago is a resignable offence now.
Update: Key memory lapses
Written By: - Date published: 7:18 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 8 comments
This site frequently has opinions from authors and comments promoting promoting political positions and telling people who they should vote for or not vote for, and why. I’ve been making the site conformant to the rules about 3rd party promoters. You have a few days to comment on that before I start treating nuisance complaints as being a reason to get banned from commenting. Speak now or hold your peace until after the election.
😈
Written By: - Date published: 3:14 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 60 comments
Rob Salmond at Polity looks at the Herald poll published this morning and looks at what ground the left has to make up. Over recent polls the right vote appears to have been consolidating more and more strongly behind National over the course of this year. The formation of the Internet Mana Party doesn’t appear to have made much impact on their combined vote. Also the various poll of polls corrected for known biases and looking at probably seat allocations don’t look good either. Some work for the progressive parties to make up over the next 95 days.
Recent Comments