Peters is standing by his claim that camp Collins approached him about working with her as PM. Peters says he will “swear an affidavit”, strong language indeed, and Collins has every reason to lie. Why is she still a Minister anyway?
Our PM is fond of telling us all what we think. In the wake of Dirty Politics he is working it overtime, telling us all that we believe his spin. Interesting then to get some actual data on what (extrapolating from a sample) most New Zealanders really do think. Many thanks to the Horizon polling people for putting this up on line.
Judith Collins claims to have been exonerated of claims that she breached the rights of privacy of a public servant by giving his details to Cameron Slater. There is one problem with her claim. She is totally wrong. Update: RNZ is now reporting she is backing away from her claim.
Of course I (and other Standard authors) condemn lyrics that incite violence, and any and all threats to the children of politicians (who are completely out of bounds). Does this even need saying? But – Farrar, his little fan club, and the moral high ground? – it is beyond hypocrisy. There is no equivalence between the actions of a disenfranchised, angry few and the systematic abuse of democracy and decency undertaken by National’s dirty politics.
New Zealander of the Year, Dame Anne Salmond, on how dirty politics tarnished our democracy.
Cartoons and other images of Dirty Politics.
Billed as “Decision 2014 Part 1”, Here’s Michael Hurst staring as John Key’s office…
According to the PM, Bill English saying there won’t be tax cuts was both true and untrue at the same time, like a fiscal Schroedinger’s Cat.
John Key has taken to answering relevant questions about Dirty Politics by refusing to answer them. But these questions go to the heart of the issue of whether he is fit to be New Zealand’s Prime Minister and deserve to be answered.
For me the funniest thing that happened last week was Cameron Slater proudly announcing that he’d put in a privacy complaint about the someone hacking his data. Three days later he finds out that he was the target of a privacy act prosecution for similar acts.
The Prime Minister has so far managed, by the skin of his teeth, to avoid censure by claiming that he was not personally involved in the disreputable behaviour about the SIS OIA that has come to light. But he has been able to do so because we have been asking the wrong question.
So, in the midst of a massive dirty politics scandal involving assorted nats and their attack bloggers Slater and Farrar – who does […]
Key is responsible for the release of SIS briefing notes to Cameron Slater – one of the main issues summarised in Dirty Politics. Here’s the timeline in detail.
Despite John Key’s key message du jour, the parties of the Opposition are talking policy.
A 2011 press conference video has cast further doubt on John Key’s claim that he did not know about the release of sensitive information to Cameron Slater.
Updated: The recollection of Tucker doesn’t match what John Key said in 2011. What spaghetti explanation will Johnnie give today.
Plenty of editorial comment is decrying Key’s dirty politics. Two pieces from the Deep South yesterday were particularly forthright. Can Key walk on sewerage?
[Updated] John Key 8th August 2011: “”What happened is Warren Tucker didn’t come to me, he went to his legal adviser and his legal advisers told him this is the process they have to follow and when he was going through that process it was at that point he told me he’d release it because he has to tell me that under the no-surprises doctrine.”
Poor John Key must think he is in the movie Groundhog Day. The media clearly do not accept his explanation for Dirty Politics. And each day further information comes out which casts more and more doubt on the veracity of what he has been saying.
Here’s a tweet from Felix Marwick this morning that blows a big hole in John Key’s denials about not knowing about the strangely rapid OIS releases from the SIS to Cameron Slater. What is the bet that he is going to argue that he had a sloppy memory lapse – just like the one that he keeps accusing Phil Goff about? Updated: Phil Goff’s response.
I trust that the media will be interested to know which senior Nats Slater was working with on the release of data hacked from Labour servers.
Pot pourri, grab bag… Nicky Hager’s sister’s response, Media Take, John Key’s wanting to talk about policy, political passion, at the end of the day…
Accountability is not dirty politics. You can’t be smeared with the truth. John Key’s lines are as worthless as his promises of ministerial accountability.
Writing in The Press yesterday morning, Chris Trotter argues that politics is essentially dirty. No Right Turn rejects that. So do the authors on this site. None of us do this kind of crap. Nor do most people in the political arena. Why taint us with the brush of John Key’s blackops team.
BLip has a look at Aaron Bhatnagar and his role in the disgusting events documented in “Dirty Tricks”. In particular the way that Judith Collins seems to have rewarded her crony Cameron Slater’s mate on the taxpayers purse.
While the right tries to distract and deflect from Dirty Politics, it pays to take a look at who got hurt by Cameron Slater and his buddies.
A video montage of Key’s denials to recent reporter questions about Dirty Politics.
John Key is sticking to his defensive strategy: deny everything, label Hager’s book a smear campaign, and – when pressed on specific allegations – say he doesn’t know the details. There is of course a very easy way for Mr Key to become acquainted with the details, which he doesn’t seem keen to do, and that’s to simply ask the right people….
Has Jordan Williams been dumped from Franks & Oglivie? Or is it merely coincidence that he disappeared from the web pages within days of the release of “Dirty Politics”? Could this be contributing to his foul mood?
Andrea Vance has reported that as late as last week Jason Ede still had access to the Beehive. And Key’s replies to her questions concerning this suggest that there is a lot that he does not know. It makes you wonder why he can be so insistent that Nicky Hager’s allegations are wrong when he has such little information.
Unmasked by Hager, former activist and police spy Rob Gilchrist says “It may come as a surprise but I have the utmost respect for Mr Hager, He doesn’t write ’baseless allegations’, ’what-ifs and fanciful speculation’ Mr Hager is also not a ‘conspiracy theorist‘, he’s just extremely good at finding conspiracies.”
Occasionally erudite disagrees with one part of rocky’s analysis of the legality of Cameron Slater and Jason Ede’s accessing and copying the data from the Labour party’s computer. However he still thinks it is likely to be criminal.
Judith Collins naming the eponymous Simon Pleasants to Cameron Slater as the suspect in a document leak is unconscionable. She cannot remain a Minister, otherwise Key’s claim to a high standard when it comes to Ministerial behaviour is in tatters. This time the John Banks defence “I haven’t read it” and “I have taken his/her word” will not do.
The Herald is reporting that the first of Key’s denials about the allegations in Dirty Politics has been refuted. National did hack Labour’s crippled server in 2011 and even apologised for it but Key claims National had no involvement.
Over at The Ruminator there is a post corroborates the Judith Collins and Cameron Slater mutual back-scratching in private vendettas. It appears to me that there has been rather a lot of fiddling of the OIAs in recent years. In particular I’m thinking about the OIA requests on Liu for TV3.
Some interesting comments on Hager’s book by John Armstrong and Danyl McLaughlan and the nagging question of who is responsible remains …
