A lot of politics and political blogging is all about the details. This includes National’s pollster David Farrar who falsely asserted yesterday that Winston would have received 7 annual letters about his superannuation status. So why is National trying to irritate their only possible coalition partner?
In an excellent piece on The Spinoff, Nicky Hager reflects on three years after Dirty Politics.
Time now to sweep the party of these disgusting tactics out of office and #ChangeTheGovernment.
The ongoing Barclay scandal has taking a familiar turn, with the PM’s office trying dirty tactics on journalists. Meanwhile the pressure builds on English over Barclay’s taxpayer funded disappearing act.
National’s conference was supposed to be a tour de force, setting them up for the home stretch to the election. Instead it was empty of policy or vision, and coverage was drowned in a rising tide of Billshit.
We may never know if Todd Barclay was one of the Simon Lusk / Cameron Slater Dirty Politics ‘clients’. However if you read the Whaleoil today, he has finally received instructions (umm) figured out the spin line … Whatever…
Marwick: “The other thing you can deduce from a three year battle over access to correspondence is that the most senior politician in the land probably had something to hide.”
The Privacy Commission issues a ruling that should not have been unnecessary.
In the Manakau District Court later this morning the trial of Ben Rachinger on fraud charges related to a admitted solicitation attempt to hack this site by Cameron Slater begins. The trial is set down for 5 days. Unfortunately I won’t be there. However there aren’t any court orders to prevent me from expressing my views and advice on the trial.
As the confused media pile-on to Labour continues, it’s good to hear that the party is planning to stick to the high road.
A couple of dirty politics related stories that slipped under the radar in the last hectic week.
Investigative journalist Nicky Hager has been awarded interim legal costs towards $475,082 spent suing police.
An old handle flickered back into life briefly this afternoon: In 2014 I dumped: https://t.co/UhZSYEYyar — Whaledump2 (@whaledump2) September 14, 2016 Rawshark – presuming […]
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.
Physical attacks on politicians is going too far. So too is faking a hate-speech outbreak.
Good news for law abiding bloggers, the foolish Cameron Slater has to find about 8k to pay for his latest legal hiding by Matthew Blomfield. Whining about these actions to the press like Cameron always does, won’t stop the disciplinary actions. He needs to stop acting like a arsehole blogger.
“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.”
“On 2 October last year the police raided our home and I had the hugely encouraging experience of watching hundreds of you coming to my aid on Givealittle: giving money and, just as important, sending kind messages and giving moral support. The financial support made it easy for us to decide to launch legal action…”
“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.
For the observers of the continued disaster that is Cameron Slater, here is a snippet observed in the High Court list for tomorrow. There is a first call for action against him for contempt. A new application? He only just got done for 7 charges.
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.
This pathetic young nat dickhead has slapped up a site purporting to be Labour. But he left his fingerprints all over the site. He is employed by a National party list MP Brent Hudson. You’d think he’d be old enough to not to leave his fingerprints while jerking off in dirty politics… Or not do dirty politics at all. Updated: site removed.
You have to ask why Rachael Glucina departed the NZ Herald for National’s beneficary and friend Mediaworks. No Right Turn has been trying to find out how much contact John Key or his office had with Glucina when she did the dirty and unprofessional interview with the victim of John Keys ponytail pulling. Why he still illegally trying to cover those contacts up?
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].”
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.
