Rodney Hide – stupid, corrupt or both?
Hide’s Herald piece today is straight out of Dirty Politics Farrar’s playbook.
Rodney Hide
Hide vs anonymous editorial on Sabin
Rodney Hide vs The Herald’s anonymous apologist on National’s mishandling of Sabin, and what it means for our democracy.
Hide vs Armstrong on Sabin
In which Rodney Hide writes the column that The Herald’s senior political reporter should have written…
ACT: bought by the Nats for a song
The Left are rubbing our hands with glee at the prospect of taking on BrashKey, but make no mistake, Key wanted this coup too. Think about it: former Nat Leader Don Brash, former Nat Minister John Banks, Nat money man Alan Gibbs, former Nat President Michelle Boag – and it goes down while John Key is far away playing smile and wave in Europe.
Blanket Man to make bid for ACT leadership
Ben ‘Blanket Man’ Hana has thrown his loin cloth into the contest for ACT’s leadership. Despite not having any political experience, Blanket Man says he is the man for the job due to his firm commitment to laissez-faire economics, his excellent face recognition, and the virtue that he is not a tired, old, has-been, racist arsehole.
It’s all on Calvert
Hide’s gone if Calvert or Boscawen jump ship. But so is the one that doesn’t jump. I’m picking Calvert will be the key.
Update: As of noon today 3 News reports that Rodney may be about to go…
Brash to roll Hide?
Brash has thrown his hat in the ring for ACT’s leadership.
If the best the far right can do is a failed National MP warmed over then things are looking up.
Some Epsom arithmetic
Unsurprisingly it’s taking the nats a wee while to decide who to stand in Epsom.
I’d imagine that’s because they’re struggling with the maths.
No votes for appointed advisers
It’s been revealed that the Government, having decided against dedicated Maori seats on the supercity council, gave appointed Maori advisers votes on council committees under its supercity legislation. That’s just unacceptable, we can’t have appointees voting equally to democratically-elected council members.
Rolling back transparency
Last year MPs’ spending was opened up to public scrutiny, and many hailed a “new era” of openness. Well it didn’t last long. Now MPs’ travel costs are to become secret again. We won’t get to know about cases like Rodney Hide and Chris Carter. This will prevent incidents like the Carter witch-hunt. But on balance I have to come down on the side of transparency. This move to start rolling it back is a mistake.
“My foolish actions 26 years ago”
Rodney Hide and David Garrett would have us believe that Garrett’s downfall is about youthful indiscretions and skeletons in closets. Let’s nip this in the bud straight away. It wasn’t Garrett’s “foolish actions 26 years ago” that sealed his fate, it was the confirmation that even to this day he is still a liar, a criminal and the worst kind of hypocrite.
The next ACT
Key is strongly backing Hide.
That might be because he doesn’t want to deal with the ideologues who would replace him. Or it might be because Hide knows where the skeletons are buried.
Either way Key’s going to find it harder and harder to distance himself from the mess.
Garrett and McVicar partners in crime
Garth McVicar is head of ‘tough on crime’ lobby group the Sensible Sentencing Trust. David Garrett is a serial offender who now faces further criminal charges for perjury.
So naturally McVicar is backing Garrett to head up a new hard-line law and order party.
Some thoughts on ACT
One way or another ACT’s troubles are going to ripple through the entire political discourse.
So what’s likely to happen with Garrett?
And what does it mean for everyone else?
Hide’s dilemma
Rodney Hide can either ditch Garrett and likely lose his leadership.
Or he can back him and likely kill off Act.
It’s a classic individual versus collective dilemma.
Rodney Hide in control of Key Government policy
According to OIA papers released to the NZ Herald, Key’s plan to extend the 90 day “fire at will” law to all businesses is an ACT party takeover of government policy.
Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson recommended against the extent of the plan. She was overruled by Cabinet in response to ACT threats. As Trevor Mallard said, if Key had any balls he would’ve stuck to his Minister’s advice.
Roy enounters changeable Mr Hyde
Is Heather Roy to depart the ACT caucus? According to TVNZ, Act Party leader Rodney Hide is signalling his dumped deputy Heather Roy will find it extremely difficult to stay on as an MP, despite saying last week that she would be welcomed back into the caucus.
ACT’s demise bad news for neo-liberals
No wonder Winston Peters is smiling. His personal vendetta with Hide must be at on the forefront of his mind as he watches his nemesis sink.
But what does ACT’s impending demise actually mean for other parties? It’s not good news for National.
Douglas adds to Key’s ACT headache
ACT’s meltdown continues, with comments from ACT founder and current MP Sir Roger Douglas illustrating that all is not well in the caucus. […]
Ririnui: Ministerial Services approved credit card use
Mita Ririnui has gone on the record on RNZ’s Checkpoint tonight insisting Ministerial Services advised him personal spending on ministerial credit card was ok […]
Privatisation: Day Of Action
John Key continues to let his attack dog do his business, and take the heat. So on Saturday there’s some more heat with a big Day Of Action to fight Rodney’s latest nasty bill. The Greens, Labour and the Maori Party are all fighting this odorous piece of legislation that aims to allow privatisation of water, amongst other attacks on local democracy.
For $200 mil, it better be really super
Congratulations Aucklanders, you are about to become the owners of a supercity. It was forced on you with no referendum and the your concerns have been ignored. This is being done to suit business, not the needs of Aucklanders. Democracy just gets in the way. Rodney Hide said the set up cost would be “minuscule”. And it’s cost you just $200 million… so far.
The Supercity & neoliberalism
A passage from Matt McCarten’s article in the Sunday Herald summed up for me not only the approach of Rodney Hide in setting up his Super City but also the neo-liberal project that has been in vogue for the past quarter century. Democracy under the neo-liberal model is, as far as possible, to be a financial transaction.
Can we save the Maori Party?
Rodney Hide was furious at John Key for signing the Declaration of Indigenous Rights behind his back but he’ll get over it. ACT is getting tonnes of real policy wins. What’s disturbing is seeing the Maori Party celebrating a ‘win’ then meekly rolling over when Key tells them it’s meaningless. Why does this keep happening? Because the Maori Party is stuck. And, sadly, each loss just mires them further.
Sex & the Supercity
What a cynical and politically-driven process this whole Supercity process has been. It is undemocratic to its core. It is not about ‘growth’ or creating a better city. It is about securing power (and, thereby, wealth) for the city’s right-wing elite. Now their plans are falling apart around them. A female candidate to replace Banks is their last gasp attempt to stop Len Brown winning.
‘Oh, oh’: sound of a minister floundering
Which minister will be next to go? Rodney Hide or Anne Tolley? If competence was a condition of keeping their job, both would […]
Lee, Joyce and Hide’s Super City “pig’s arse”
In a letter to the Herald today, responding to Mike Lee’s op-ed of yesterday, Steven Joyce says:
“Contrary to what Mike Lee says, the Auckland Council will be able to appoint or dismiss any member of the Auckland Transport Board at any time.”
Problem is, Mike Lee didn’t actually say what Joyce says he did.
ACT gerrymanders Auckland for the rich
The Local Government Commission released its final ward boundaries for Auckland today and the result is a city gerrymandered by ACT to favour the interests of the rich.
That’s the verdict from No Right Turn, who’s crunched the numbers and discovered a systematic bias for the Right.
ACT tearing itself apart
ACT policies are electoral poison, and the inevitability of that growing realisation seems to be creating strains that are tearing the party apart. Heather Roy’s speech to ACT’s conference suggests that last year’s failed leadership coup is far from over…
Hide opens door for Winston?
Eddie has already covered the story of Hide giving the middle finger to the people of Franklin regarding the Supercity. Franklin is Tory […]
Government barely survives first year
Audrey Young finally gets around to mentioning how close the government came to imploding last month: Rodney Hide survived moves to oust him […]
$100,000 for 10 hours work
No, this post isn’t about the 2025 Taskforce, it’s about Rodney Hide’s round the world holiday with his girlfriend on your dime. Heavily […]
Gerrymandering Auckland city
Due to recovering from a cold over the weekend, I haven’t had time to blog about the super-shitty electoral boundaries released on friday […]
I don’t give a shit about Hone. But the lynch mob is interesting.
Whatever argument there is between the hierarchy of the Maori Party and Hone really doesn’t concern me. While I’m sure Kelvin Davis is […]