In Australia in the midst of the election campaign an ordinary Australian, Duncan Storrar, talked publicly about how difficult it was to live and support his children on the minimum wage. The response of the right through News Corp was to attack and humiliate him.
Why did the police offer Cameron Slater the soft option of diversion when he doesn’t qualify?
As reported by Newshub: “Slater sought a court order to keep his name and the details of this case secret forever. However Newshub and others, including the owner of The Standard, fought him in court and won.”
Hide’s Herald piece today is straight out of Dirty Politics Farrar’s playbook.
Is our political culture getting more angry and aggressive? If so, why?
The Police’s return yesterday of Nicky Hager’s data, equipment and belongings is – too little and too late – a measure of justice for Hager. But the process doesn’t end there, and open questions remain.
The UK has done the sensible thing for public health and introduced “a new tax on sugary drinks”. The Herald asks: UK sugar tax – could NZ be next?
Any campaign against cyberbullying is going to need a more plausible figurehead than Key.
A term made up by the usual suspects to mock and belittle any criticism of their primary asset.
Physical attacks on politicians is going too far. So too is faking a hate-speech outbreak.
“Yesterday, the New Zealand Police informed Nicky Hager through their counsel that they are electing not to appeal the decision of the High Court given in December last year.”
Some random musings on what happened in New Zealand’s media this year.
Justice Clifford’s decision that the police raid of Nicky Hager’s home was illegal raises serious questions about what political pressure was applied on the police.
“Wellington High Court judge Justice Clifford issued his judgement today on the legality of the police search of Nicky Hager’s home on 2 October 2014.
The judge found that the search was illegal.”…
Yesterday saw the release of the Obmudsman’s review of the operation of the OIA. I think it makes clear an unacceptable level of political interference in the process – albeit not at the level that was rampant in Dirty Politics.
No, Judith Collins was never investigated, let alone “cleared”, of the serious issues raised by Dirty Politics. After a token year off Key is happy to have her back because he has precisely as many principles as she does.
The severed limbs of National’s Dirty Politics machine are still twitching, with TV3 reporting plans to target Phil Twyford.
Keith Ng has been wading through some not-previously-released material on the Rawshark Rachinger Slater affair. No useful way to summarise it – go read it on Keith’s blog.
Today’s anonymous editorial in The Herald makes for interesting reading, with the right conclusion in the end – Hager’s Dirty Politics served a genuine public interest, and should be legally protected as such.
Westpac passing over Nicky Hager’s details was probably illegal, and may turn out to have been a very bad move…
Twelve months on from the last election and that brighter future we were promised has not happened.
And they’re off!
I/S at No Right Turn on the OIA into communications between Key and Glucina.
Colin Craig is serious about suing Williams, Stringer and Slater. His pamphlet is appearing in letter boxes (as far south as Dunedin). He’s putting dirty politics back in the spotlight, reminding NZ what a sleazy and amoral government this is, and the tactics and tools to which it will stoop. Updated with the soap-opera latest developments.
An excellent piece by Graham Adams – well worth reading the whole thing in Metro, but here are some extracts “on the slow unravelling of a small democracy”.
The Press Council has ruled that Rachel Glucina and the Herald breached the requirement of independence contained in the Press Council’s principles.
The cyber bullying legislation is a cynical piece of law which allows National to claim that it has left dirty politics behind.
It won’t come as a surprise to any Standardista, but it’s good to see Brent Edwards being up front about some of the systemic problems in politics and the media.
Andrew Little on the latest round of dirty politics.
“It beggars belief any politician – like John Key and Judith Collins – wants to have anything to do with him [Cameron Slater].”
Cameron Slater has posted one statement in response to Ben Rachinger’s allegations. It was by way of a jpg and was not searchable. As a public service broadcast I thought that New Zealand should have the benefit of the text of his response.
A brief roundup of coverage and developments in the latest dirty politics revelations.
You might want to tune in and watch The Nation this morning at 9:30.
John Key yesterday went on the attack and implied that Labour did something about Sheepgate in 2007. What it was he did not say but the implication was that Labour did it too. A brief review of dirty politics shows that this is alway’s National’s desperate last line of defence. Update: Labour tried to table in Parliament the Cabinet Paper that John Key talked about yesterday and National refused leave …
Sepp Blatter. John Key. Hmmmm.
Ken Livingston talks about Lynton Crosby and neoliberalism.
The Auditor General has decided that Katherine Rich, head of the Food and Grocery Council which includes Coca Cola as well as Alcohol and Tobacco interests has no conflict in being a member of the Health Promotion Agency, a quango with the role of supporting healthy lifestyles.
