Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, October 14th, 2011 - 55 comments
Attentive readers may recall some time back, when talk about illegal police video surveillance was to the fore, that there was also mention of the existence of video surveillance of a politician having an affair with a P user. Now of course having an affair isn’t particularly dreadful by today’s standards, even if the person …
Written By: - Date published: 3:38 pm, August 19th, 2011 - 81 comments
Hey! Psssst! Here’s a hot one! I hear via the tipsy line that Joyce has been doing the numbers and is ready to roll Key! It should all go down at a BBQ some time this weekend…
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, November 7th, 2010 - 205 comments
The rumour mill has been buzzing since a couple of commenters here let slip about Matt McCarten’s run in the Mana by-election. Word around the traps is the campaign will be used to launch a new Left Party with McCarten, Hone Harawira, Sue Bradford and others. It’s an exciting possibility.
Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, August 12th, 2010 - 15 comments
Idle speculation about possible contenders to be the Labour candidate in a by-election seems to be the most important issue of the day. Labour has a good field to choose from it appears, while National will have to choose Parata or publicly slap her down. There are bigger isues at the moment but once the race is underway, it will be a microcosm of next year’s election.
Written By: - Date published: 6:47 pm, May 27th, 2010 - 6 comments
Seems that negotiations are underway to allow Wellington Airport stay open all night (last flights now are about 9pm) during the World Cup so that fans can travel direct to the next game thus avoiding the need for an overnight in Welly.
Written By: - Date published: 2:27 pm, May 25th, 2010 - 27 comments
Trevor Mallard reports being asked by a press gallery member if he knows which nat is about to resign. Trev doesn’t know, but there’s a few choice candidates
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 pm, December 23rd, 2009 - 14 comments
I must say I love the Christmas season. You spend a lot of time catching up with all sorts of interesting people, having a few too many drinks and sharing some gossip. How much of it is true is anyone’s guess but here’s a few things I’ve picked up around the traps. John Key’s office …
Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, October 27th, 2009 - 10 comments
I’ve heard the State Services Commission are investigating their own demise, by looking into whether its functions should fold into the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Has anyone heard anything similar? If true, it would be an incredible power shift in favour of the office of the Prime Minister. And you have to wonder, …
Written By: - Date published: 3:08 pm, October 23rd, 2009 - 57 comments
Heard an interesting piece of gossip last night. Word has it Hone Harawira’s gone awol from the Maori Party. Apparently he’s somewhere in Australia, buzz around the traps is he’s pissed off about the increasingly right-wing direction Tariana Turia is taking the Maori Party in and is thinking about quitting. The last straw was said …
Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, March 25th, 2009 - 55 comments
From The Herald: Former Prime Minister Helen Clark will be named today as head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a report says. Political newsletter Trans-Tasman reported the appointment today, though a spokesman for Miss Clark, prime minister from 1999 until 2008, would not comment.
Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, February 9th, 2009 - 34 comments
There is a rumour in the Dom Post and the Herald that the minimum wage will be announced today and the Nats are going to increase it to either $12.50 or $12.40 depending on whether it’s Fairfax or APN you’re reading. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was true as John Key knows full well …
Written By: - Date published: 2:38 pm, December 8th, 2008 - 50 comments
During this morning’s Nine to Noon politics segment Matthew Hooton was saying how he thought the Government’s 100-day action plan would only include policies signalled prior to the election when he let slip: “And I’m sure while there will be some complaints about one measure… er… some measures…” I wonder what that one unpopular measure …
Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, October 23rd, 2008 - 23 comments
Now I’m not one to gossip (well, not too much) but in the last few days I’ve heard from several people that the NZ Herald has held back an opinion poll. Why might they do this? Well perhaps it’s related to NZ First apparently polling over 5%. That could really set the cat amongst the …
Written By: - Date published: 5:47 pm, September 22nd, 2008 - 12 comments
Dirty politics and personal attacks. They’re two of the phrases of the campaign so far. The Sunday Star Times took the time to investigate what dirty tricks might mean. According to Wanganui mayor and former National MP Michael Laws: “A dirty trick is a covert act “that you would be embarrassed about if you were exposed”. When he was …
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, September 18th, 2008 - 49 comments
The word around the traps is that ACT will be announcing the name of its mystery 5th list candidate at its Law and Order policy launch this weekend and it’s rumoured that the candidate will be David Garrett. Garrett is a Barrister and is also a legal advisor to the Sensible Sentencing Trust who drafted …
Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, August 24th, 2008 - 16 comments
According to the Sunday Star Times the Sensible Sentencing Trust and Family First have decided to refuse to comply with the Electoral Finance Act. While the Sensible Sentencing Trust is outrightly claiming they are going to use their breach of the Act as a publicity stunt, Family First are absurdly claiming they can’t register as …
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, June 4th, 2008 - 82 comments
It’s funny the stories you hear when you’re out in the provinces. I was up in Auckland over the long weekend and came across someone who told me the story of how Key became involved in National. See, Key was never political growing up and certainly not strongly National. He can’t remember where he stood …
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, June 3rd, 2008 - 18 comments
Isn’t this the one issue where we truly know what National will do? Didn’t John Key say ‘there will be no asset sales in the first term of a National Government (we’ll save that or the second term)’? Yes, he did. But that goes against the deepest of National principles and caused real disquiet about …
Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, April 22nd, 2008 - 28 comments
As Robinsod notes below in his insightful review of Wishart’s Absolute Power it’s abundantly clear that the author specialises in a particular brand of “idiocy, madness and paranoia”. I was particularly intrigued by the sensationalist chapter accusing Owen Glenn of Mafia connections. The basis for this defamation? ‘Some of his associates allegedly have names like …
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, March 20th, 2008 - 22 comments
We’d assumed it was all the dancing but perhaps there’s another explanation. Stuff reports that: ACT on Campus – the youth branch of the party – apparently sold BZP party pills last month for $1 each to Auckland University students as an inducement to get them to join ACT.
Written By: - Date published: 9:51 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 54 comments
Today in Parliament Bill English made a very interesting comment which, if true, raises some very concerning questions about either his own honesty or the editorial integrity of APN, publishers of the New Zealand Herald. Referring to a quip from Michael Cullen about John Key’s statement that ‘we would love to see wages drop‘, English …
Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, November 16th, 2007 - 10 comments
Spotted yesterday in the Westin Hotel in Auckland’s Viaduct Basin by our orbiting surveillance satellite & Don Brash in a job interview line. Could it be he’s going for the now vacant National Party general manager’s job? Steven Joyce and Jo de Joux, also of Hollow Men fame, are back at National’s HQ & perhaps …
Written By: - Date published: 7:11 am, November 9th, 2007 - 25 comments
Crown Prosecutor Simon Mount is rumoured to be replacing Bob Clarkson for National in Tauranga next election. Which is a bit rough considering Bob won the seat off Winston last time round. But you can’t blame them – the man can barely feed himself, let alone represent an electorate. And Sam Lotu-Iiga, newly elected C&R …
Written By: - Date published: 12:47 pm, November 2nd, 2007 - 39 comments
An interesting piece in yesterday’s Molesworth and Featherston (off line): Labour will pick a fight over workplace law reform. Trevor Mallard is in there to promote a message of ‘higher wages through better industrial law’ along with a scare campaign that says National will cut pay and conditions. Now we’ve been saying work rights are …
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 pm, October 30th, 2007 - 30 comments
Coming into an election when work rights is going to be a major issue, we’ve heard Ruth Dyson will be relinquishing her labour portfolio tomorrow. The big question is who’s going to pick it up? Across the ditch work rights has become the defining issue of the upcoming election and given National’s desperate attempts to …
Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, October 5th, 2007 - 5 comments
The HMS National Party appears to be adrift and taking on water. No surprise to hear that another leak has sprung up. Strangely though, this one’s from the Northern Club. A source there tells me that National will soon be launching a billboard campaign. Watch this space.
Written By: - Date published: 6:04 pm, October 4th, 2007 - Comments Off
Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, October 2nd, 2007 - 2 comments
No wonder National’s education policy (what we know of it so far, anyway) includes more money for private schools. I know a staff member in an EB school (whose identity I have promised to protect) who said he had heard from high levels within the EB that National promised them that if it formed the …
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, September 17th, 2007 - Comments Off
UPDATE: Whew! Trey and Matt were evidently thinking ahead.
Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, September 5th, 2007 - Comments Off
People the country over were puzzled by the odd choice of Key’s entrance music to the National Party annual conference last month. Originally we were told that Key was holding a competition to choose the song. Next it seemed that Kevin Taylor might be the man behind the strange choice. In a bizzare twist, rumour …
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