End of the Internet Party?

Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, November 22nd, 2014 - 192 comments
Categories: internet party - Tags: ,

192 comments on “End of the Internet Party? ”

  1. rados 1

    Time to delete the IP app off my iPad!

    What about the Dotcom war chest – reappropriated to Mana for 2017? Would it then be a poisoned chalice?

  2. Draco T Bastard 2

    Not necessarily:

    Laila Harré to step down – member survey still open

    I wanted you to know before the public that I will be stepping down from the leadership of the Internet Party at the completion of our current review.

    As I said after the election, I am committed to guiding the Party through the review so that members have the final say on what the future looks like.

    I thought it was important for you to know my own position before decisions are made. I can see from the survey results so far that you have appreciated me and my leadership – and I can tell you that it’s mutual. I am very proud of what our candidates, staff, active members, and on-line forum participants have created and achieved in just a few months. I really hope that you will all take part in the survey and decision-making process as it’s important to reach into the whole membership for your views.

    The survey will close at midnight this Sunday 23 November.

    Here is the link again: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/InternetPartyFutureMemberEma…

    Thanks to those who have already responded to the survey on the future of the Internet Party.

    If you haven’t please do. Whatever your opinion of the future we want to hear from you.

    This survey is not a vote – it is intended to canvas all the options and engage members. One we have identified those options (nothing ruled in or out yet) members will make the decisions on the future.

    Thanks for participating.

    Laila Harré,
    Internet Party Leader.

    The IP still have active members and candidates. One person isn’t the party.

    • Chooky 2.1

      +100 thanks DTB…i am a great fan of Laila Harre and Dotcom and the Internet Party…they are ahead of the political game in NZ

      ….and they could have quite easily have won four seats with Mana…if it hadn’t been for the other parties ganging up on them ….and ‘Dirty politics’ ….a concerted campaign against them by the likes of Slater, Farrar, Hooton, the right wing msm….and Sean Plunket and Paul Henry …it was relentless…which showed how much of a threat they were to the John Key Nact right wing and the USA corporates

  3. Is ‘Notices and Features’ the name of “The Standard” (aka notices and features). or is it at author’s personal pseudonym?

    [lprent: Is there any content in this post that is an opinion by the author? That is what Notices and Features is for. To quote the policy.

    If the site is reposting material from another site with no opinion or minimal opinion from an author, then it will go up under the name of “The Standard” (aka notices and features).

    I guess your conservative spite blinded you into not reading the post. ]

    • Laila did well with a very difficult job in an exceedingly short time frame by party political norms.

      Lest we forget;
      –the election result would have been even worse if not for the various “get out and vote” campaigns
      –left disunity in all directions scuppered the ship ultimately, Green vs Labour and everybody vs Internet Mana. It will not be forgotten for a long time by some, that Labour well resourced Kunning Kelvin in the West Auckland end of Te Tai Tokerau (which was where the votes came from that denied Hone and Laila) when some Labour insiders have revealed woeful organisation and lack of resources in several general seat Auckland LECs.

      As for Internet Mana, they dropped the ball in the final few weeks with the changed smart arse bill boards, and other fundamental mistakes, but Mana Movement’s class based approach with community action regardless of parliament lives on.

      I hope the internet party continues too.

      • weka 3.1.1

        I’m not sure if they should continue. KDC’s disappearance into videoland is disappointing and has reinforced the perception, mistaken or otherwise, that he is self-serving. If he’s not going to have intergrity at this point, the IP will be hard pressed to live down its beginnings.

        I agree we definitely need a party/parties to the left of the G/LP, and that many of the IP’s policies and strategies are important and worthwhile.

        • dave brown 3.1.1.1

          Weka
          Why should KDC have to jump over higher bars than sundry political hacks to prove his political ‘integrity’.
          I wouldn’t say KDC has ‘disappeared into videoland’.
          I would say that he is fighting against being ‘disappeared’ into the bowels of US security state. (Chooky makes this point below).
          I think a lot of us at the time saw exactly what was happening.
          Mana became a big threat to Key only when IP joined forces.
          Mana reaches into the dark side of colonial NZ, and challenges the racist authoritarian mindset that JK is now fatuously displaying openly.
          IP was even more of a threat. The right meme was KDC was getting ‘personal’.
          Yet Key was the one taking its personally because he was the ‘little president’ carrying the can for the US in NZ.
          It was IP (KDC) that exposed the international 5 eye links that almost had Key on the ropes.
          Most of this commentary about Laila Harre is parochial and does not establish the geopolitical context.
          The email sounded genuine to me. That is exactly how Key would relate to a Hollywood bigwig. Keys deniability is hollow.
          Holder, the AG who gunned for KDC is a key figure in Obama’s spy war prosecuting hackers, whistleblowers, and responsible for Aaron Swartz’s death. KDC is also up there as an ‘enemy of the state’.
          But there was more hinging on the election well beyond the internet and 5 eyes. The completion of the TPPA and NZ being locked in as a US client state and like the other TPPA lackeys a backdoor mat to US penetration of China.
          Post APEC and G20 this scenario is already playing out, but that’s another post. http://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/chinanew-zealand-win-win-deal.html
          So in the last analysis the NACTs were desperate to win the election at all costs to complete the neoliberal trifecta, and KDC was a big fly in that ointment.
          So IMP got done over by not only the NACTs but by the whimpish L/G/NZF centre as well because their parochial political horizon was limited to the narrow self interest of NZ middle class ‘centre’ voter.
          Rent rorting myopia is the political centres handicap and it defines the centre left politics.
          Those who don’t escape this parochialism have nothing useful to say about NZ politics.
          Mana and IP are two opportunities to break out of this swamp.

          • weka 3.1.1.1.1

            Thanks Dave, that’s good analysis.

            “Why should KDC have to jump over higher bars than sundry political hacks to prove his political ‘integrity’.”

            I completely agree and it’s been sad to see so many on the left, even relatively radical lefties, take the view that he should somehow have been exemplary (ffs, he wasn’t even standing for parliament). The great kiwi knocking machine was out in force too.

            “I wouldn’t say KDC has ‘disappeared into videoland’.”

            It’s more the perception I think. His presence on twitter has been largely about the video games he’s been playing. I’m sure he needed to do some major destressing, but unfortunately he’s come across as someone looking after himself rather than staying involved in the things he just spent 6 months working so hard for. This reinforces the meme that the IP was all about his Key vendetta/avoidance of extradition (an incorrect meme IMO).

            (and I agree he has a lot on his plate with the court issues).

          • Tracey 3.1.1.1.2

            Well thought through dave. Thanks.

          • marty mars 3.1.1.1.3

            Good analysis dave

            “Mana became a big threat to Key only when IP joined forces.”

            I agree, especially with the ‘big’ bit.

          • karol 3.1.1.1.4

            Mana became a big threat to Key only when IP joined forces.

            That part kind of negates the rest of your main argument. IMP were ill prepared for the opposing forces that their joint manoeuvre unleashed on them. The hook-up was done too hastily, without a lot of careful planning.

            I think you paint too positive a picture of KDC’s motives.

            Yes, he has been very badly treated by the Key-US campaign against him. And KDC has done us all a big favour by exposing what was happening.

            However, KDC was also driven by as big an ego and as Key. KDC DID as much to make it personal against Key as Key did. Key would always respond aggressively to such personal challenges as KDC made towards him.

            Mana and IP are two opportunities to break out of this swamp.

            I get that many people were so pleased to see someone (IMP) stand up and take on Key, the NACts and their collusion with the US-military industrial complex. I’m not sure how deep KDC’s desire to change the system goes. he still comes across to me as a neoliberal entrepreneur.

            However, IMP was a doomed endeavour because it was done too hastily, had too much of KDC front and centre, and they just weren’t prepared for the attacks unleashed on them.

            And part of the repercussions were that Labour and the Greens were caught on the hop, unprepared for the kind of attacks coming to the left. All they probably saw was their careful preparations for the election being derailed.

            Yes, I’d like to see a stronger left take on the right. But, IMP just wasn’t the way to do it. And it’s not helpful to the left in the future to put most of the blame with the non-IMP left.

            More fruitful to learn from this failure, and to think of a better, stronger, more left-wide inclusive way forward.

            • weka 3.1.1.1.4.1

              “IMP were ill prepared for the opposing forces that their joint manoeuvre unleashed on them. The hook-up was done too hastily, without a lot of careful planning.”

              Labour and the GP were also ill prepared for the opposing forces, and they’ve been around for a while and done lots of careful planning. What does that tell us?

              • karol

                Hmmmm… yessss…. but Labour and the GP did not set the IMP in motion, and had to respond at short notice. It put them in a very difficult position.

                I only partly agree with you on your comment @ 12.25am, weka..

                I do think Labour and the GP have still not really found a way to deal with the Nat smear machine.

                Part of the problem is that, as Lusk explained, attack politics works more for the right. Labour and the GP were trying to run a positive election campaign at the point of the Mana-IP hook-up..

                I can imagine that some of the Labour and GP people, like me, would not be happy being aligned with KDC’s initiative or with his approach to politics. From my position on the margins, I found it a bit difficult writing posts about IMP during the election. I tried to focus mainly on any thing I liked in their policies. But I had many criticisms of KDC’s involvement, and really had to restrained myself from being critical of him online or of the whole IMP endeavour during the election.

                • @ karol..

                  ..and you are quite happy about labour/greens parroting the rightwing attack-memes against mana/imp..?

                  ..singing along with the media-douchebags like gower..?

                  .and you are still doing this..parroting their postscript-script..

                  ..labour and the greens lost the election for the left..

                  ..by both refusing to run mmp-campaigns..accomodating each other..

                  (..and they thus cannabilised each other..handed dunne/act their fucken seats..f.f.s..!)

                  ..and by attacking/doing all they could to kill off their allies.. the mana/internet party..

                  ..that is what lost the election…

                  ..that is why you are still sitting in the opposition camp..

                  ..and not in govt…

                  ..not ‘kim dotcom’…

                  • The Green Party really didn’t say anything negative about IMP until after the campaign, at which point Russell talked about the strategy being frustrating and ill-advised.

                    I’d say attack politics works great for Labour, but only when they aim it at genuine left-wing parties. They continue to be the electorate party of the centre and haven’t yet figured out how to deal with a large Green Party to their left, or the fact that there’s still a significant chunk of New Zealand that thinks they’ve gone too far right.

                    I think there needs to be a solid two-party or three-party strategy on the left, (Labour is now so clearly sitting in the centre ground that there is probably room for three left-wing parties. If IMP showed anything, it showed that) with each of these parties giving principled, positive messages that don’t attack each other, and being able to unite around a leader in a way that makes them look like a solid team.

            • dave brown 3.1.1.1.4.2

              How does the point that Mana became a threat only when IP joined forces with it negate my argument Karol?

              You seem to have missed the point. Mana was certainly a threat to the NACTS for the reasons I gave. Take Emmerson’s cartoons about Hone Harawira. But it was the alliance with IP that saw the right go really rabid.

              Why, because people were offended with a fat German ego buying his way into parliament? Hardly. No, Mana plus IP was a bomb about to blow comfortable, patronising rich crony pricks off their perch.

              You are buying into the right’s demonisation of IMP by reducing it to KDC’s ego and lack of preparation. Personally I think that IMP was better organised than the Greens or Labour. I think Robertson’s ego is twice as big as Dotcoms, and Key’s three times as big, because they put their ego before their convictions. Nobody with a big ego gets up and makes the sort of mea culpa KDC made on election night. The internal ill discipline in IMP was half that of Labour’s divided caucus and the Greens mixed messages about Labour and National.

              The Greens and Labour only reacted badly to IMP because they saw their centrist politics also under threat from the left. Yes they were thrown by Dirty Politics, but their response was gutless because they allowed themselves to join in Key’s dirty politics rather than making dirty politics the No 1 election issue.

              Your comment makes my point that those who are bogged down in the superficialities of parochial politics have nothing worth saying about NZ politics.

              • Clemgeopin

                Yes, you are quite correct.

                To me the biggest mistake of Labour was not giving Davies a high list position if they felt he was indispensable. Had they done that and embraced IMP and supported Hone, today Labour would have been leading the coalition, with some excellent people as MPs.

                True, KDC went a little too overboard and crowded the news, but he was not to know how things would actually pan out in our media which accentuated the negative sensational biased stuff rather than policies and real issues.

                We are all talking after the fact from hind sight.

              • karol

                You are buying into the right’s demonisation of IMP by reducing it to KDC’s ego and lack of preparation.

                Oh please, give me some credit for making my own judgement. That’s just a weak ad hominem.

                The lack of preparation is a legitimate criticism. Harre pretty much as admitted it in pointing to the IMP weakness in the face of the right smear machine.

                KDC has an ego as big as, and he put it in the centre of the whole IP and IMP thing. He could not take a back seat. It was there for everyone to see. KDC has a very macho aggressive approach that I do not like, in or out of politics.

                Yes, all politicians have a big ego, and Key has one of the biggest. KDC DID make it personal between him and Key. It’s there in his appearance before the select committee and many press statements he made. He thought he could use a corporate style approach to politics, without any real understanding of the way things can play out in the political arena. His whole MO is riddled with celebrity culture, individualistic, entrepreneurial corporate style capitalism.

                Other politicians are way too political savvy to put their ego out there as the centre-piece of their politics, in the way KDC did.

                KDC and the IMP leaders, if they had any political savvy, would have been able to foresee the kind of opposition they would get. Now some of them and their supporters are blaming everyone else for IMP’s failure.

                They used an approach – the coat-tailing thing – that many of us on the left had been highly critical of in the past. I frequently criticised NACT for “gaming the system”. It was painful to me to see the left resorting to that. That is NACT territory, and they play hard ball. A folly to ditch principles in a win-at-all-cost approach.

                The whole IMP enterprise grated strongly against many aspects of my politics and principles. It’s not surprising that the right smear machine would pick up on that clash of principles within the left.

                The IMP endeavour failed – there are many factors in that. But some of us have been opposed to if on principle, and because it never would have achieved any medium-to-long term success for the left.

                Blaming everyone else for IMPs failure does not magically make considered criticisms somehow weak or irrelevant.

            • Colonial Rawshark 3.1.1.1.4.3

              1) Saying that IMP was “unprepared” is unfair. How can a tiny political party be any more prepared for a grand coalition of National, Labour, Greens and NZ First voting against you, in their first time running jointly for Parliament. Seriously. Again as I have said previously, Harawira was just 800 votes away in Te Tai Tokerau from both him and Laila Harre getting into Parliament. A 800 vote loss is not a crash and burn from my way of looking at things.

              2) Trying to criticise KDC for having a big ego without looking at the other side of the coin is bullshit. Why? Because it is both a strength and a weakness. You don’t attempt to upset the political applecart of an entire country by being a shrinking violet.

              All in all people criticising Internet Mana for being “too hasty” fail to see both its tactics and its strategy: a surprise maneuver by a political party insurgency on the flanks of the NZ political economic establishment. That establishment, including Labour and Greens, then acted to crush it.

              Again I say, IMP failed to reach its objectives by a mere 800 votes. Trying to use that to characterise and attribute all kinds of personal and fatal flaws to KDC and IMP is ridiculous.

              • williams is pretty puke-inducing on the nation when he fails to even acknowledge that ganging-up on harawira by all the other parties..

                ..he just continues the sneering campaign he has run since day one..

                ..he totally grinds my gears..that williams..

                ..the past godfather of neo-lib trouts..

                ..and now an obedient-tool/mouthpiece for the right..

                ..(disguised/working undercover as a spokesperson for ‘the left’..

                ..i’ve said it before..the only time williams turns/looks to the left..

                ..is at the end of his fucken driveway..)

                ..williams is the walking symbol of the lazy/lost labour party of yore..

              • karol

                1)”Unprepared” is a very fair criticism. Throwing together a party so close to the election was never a good idea. I’m pretty sure you are one to say a party needs to start campaigning at the beginning of a term, not at the end.

                2)You just don’t get that I am opposed to that whole style of KDC macho, individualistic approach to politics. The means will infect any ends that are achieved.

                You over state the case about some concerted Labour-Greens effort to crush it. As far as I could see, there was a strong Labour effort to crush Harawira in Te Tai Tokerau. The GP largely held back and refrained from attacking IMP, as far as I recall. They just tried to keep on with their planned election campaign.

                I have seen such late, high profile runs in the US, as kind of anti-establishment, entrepreneurial counter to establishment politics – enabled by someone with a load of money. They never succeed past a brief glare of publicity and short-lived momentum. Where is Ross Perot now?

                There is no quick left wing fix. Any real success will need to mobilise wide sections of the population from above and below, and it will need to be steadily built over time.

                • “unprepared”

                  How can you isolate that as of any relevance? Quoting US parallels out of context won’t do.
                  That is not a political analysis.
                  I would say better late than never given the context explained above.
                  IMP coming in late did more to challenge the NACTs than Labour and the Greens have done in decades of “preparation”.
                  You obviously don’t share that view because the IMP also challenged Labour and the Greens politics as usual.
                  That is why L/G/NZF joined in Keys demonisation of KDC to smash IMP.
                  If the Greens didn’t exactly hold the knife they looked in the other direction.

                  “macho”

                  You too share that demonisation by reducing IMP to your dislike of KDCs ‘macho’ style. I won’t even go to ‘individualism’. Even if that was true of KDC, or by a stretch the IP under Harre, was it also true of the Mana component in IMP?

                  I think that “macho” is more of a personal slander than a political analysis.

                  I don’t think we have time to indulge in platitudes about “steadily building over time” in the face of global recession and climate change. That is why I said earlier that Mana and IP pointed the way forward. At least these parties share the view that to survive in a system that is engaging in endless war, destroying nature, and removing our freedoms to resist, demands some urgent new political initiatives, now!

                  • weka

                    While I agree that KDC has a substantial ego, I don’t see his style as macho. In fact, what I’ve seen of his personal way of interacting with people is that he comes across as respectful and thoughtful, and appears to learn from his mistakes when they are pointed out to him. His apology on election night was not the style of someone embedded in macho politics. Have another look at it (below). This is the genuine, thoughtful apology of someone who is willing to take responsibility for his actions and who regrets how his actions have impacted on others. That’s not macho.

                    His submission to the select committee on the GCSB bill was also not macho. It was a sublime piece of political action from a powerful man who knows how to use his personal and institutional power to speak truth to the rotten power of John Key. Yes, he engaged in humiliating Key but I didn’t see that as vendetta, I saw it as a considered, targeted action of power meeting power and KDC standing up and saying “you cannot get away with this”.

                    It wasn’t macho, and for me personally it was the point at which I started to trust KDC and put aside the celebrity stuff and really look at the political.

                    I think calling his actions in that process macho misunderstands power, and perhaps that is what is really at issue here. People don’t like someone with a lot of power supporting the left. Karol, I think there is an important, ongoing conversation here about power and its place on the left, but for me power itself isn’t macho, macho is a specific kind of relationship with power.

                    I think the tendancies for KDC’s power to negatively affect the left (and his ego, celebrity etc) were balanced by who he was working with. The IMP candidates were an amazing bunch of people, including Harre, and I have only seen respect amongst them.

                    I think that KDC went through a learning curve in his engagement with Mana, and it is clear from the election night speech that he received a lot of support from them too. I think Annette Sykes spoke early on in the campaign about KDC having to front up to meetings at Marae and that he would have been challenged on any bullshit at that point. I seriously doubt that Māori would have been glamoured by him and let his personality/celebrity override their own politics and perspectives.

                    The thing about individualism infecting process and the party, well all I can say is that the only way that would happen is if the party didn’t have its kaupapa sorted to begin with. I don’t see that failure, but would be interested in some examples.

                    I think it’s fine for you to dislike KDC and his influence. However I find some of your arguments illogical eg the idea that if IP had taken time to build a party they would have been prepared for Dirty Politics is belied by the two main left wing, long established parties not being prepared for DP.

                    http://www.3news.co.nz/politics/dotcom-to-mana-im-deeply-sorry-2014092023

                  • weka

                    “I don’t think we have time to indulge in platitudes about “steadily building over time” in the face of global recession and climate change. That is why I said earlier that Mana and IP pointed the way forward. At least these parties share the view that to survive in a system that is engaging in endless war, destroying nature, and removing our freedoms to resist, demands some urgent new political initiatives, now!”

                    Completely agree with this. There is nothing inherently wrong with moving fast, and it’s not like half of IMP wasn’t an established party anyway. We don’t have ten years for the IP to build itself, establish a reputation with the mainstream and establishment and then work towards getting into parliament. We needed something radical and they just about pulled it off.

                    I like what KDC says in that election night speech about having woken people up irrespective of not winning seats in parliament. Even with the failure, they did something mighty.

              • weka

                “Again I say, IMP failed to reach its objectives by a mere 800 votes. Trying to use that to characterise and attribute all kinds of personal and fatal flaws to KDC and IMP is ridiculous.”

                Spot on analysis CV.

              • Chooky

                +100 CR…”IMP failed to reach its objectives by a mere 800 votes. Trying to use that to characterise and attribute all kinds of personal and fatal flaws to KDC and IMP is ridiculous”.

              • David Hallimore

                The problem with KDC he let his ego get in the way. It is one thing to fund IMP but that is where his involvement should have ended. He didn’t need to be on stage for any of the events took place.

                Average NZer got sick of seeing him.

                • greywarshark

                  @ Dave Hallimore
                  Speak for yourself and mates. Others were interested, concerned, fascinated, to see the guy and hear more – straight from the horses mouth. Much about him was fed to us by the media, and they work out their line of attack each morning while they are putting on their socks and shoes.

                  • Clemgeopin

                    It is astonishing that there are strong groups of quite unfair and nasty people and strangely unbalanced prejudiced media around on the RW side of politics, when most ordinary people themselves are quite fair minded, caring and decent! A puzzle!

          • Chooky 3.1.1.1.5

            +100 dave brown ..well said

      • karol 3.1.2

        I was never happy with the IMP arrangement. It confused the issue with respect to the identity Mana had developed and the values/policies it most strongly favoured. I’d prefer Laila to go with Mana directly.

      • Chooky 3.1.3

        TM…+100

      • Murray Rawshark 3.1.4

        I wouldn’t miss the Internet Party, but I’ll do my bit to see Mana lives on. We need it now more than ever.

        • Molly 3.1.4.1

          The development of the tools for policy discussions and press releases by the Internet Party, would be valuable for Mana to use as a small party.

          • phillip ure 3.1.4.1.1

            @ molly..+ 1..

            ..i was particularly impressed by their policy-making process..

            ..it was a seachange for the better in democracy..i felt..

            ..and much better than the current method used by most parties..

            ..where a small group of people (policy-wonks?) draw up the policy..

            ..under the direction/approval-regime of the party leadership..

            ..i will be arguing for mana to adopt that..

            ..’cos the fact is..as just one example..that had the party members drawn up ..say..the pot policy..in a free and open forum..

            ..the mana policy pot wd have been in step with the internet party policy..

            ..which wouldn’t have hurt..

            ..and/but mainly..wd have been more an example of democracy in action..

      • Salsy 3.1.5

        +1 Lest we forget, Labour 2014. Wiped out the entire left.

    • Draco T Bastard 3.2

      You trolling already PG?

    • karol 3.3

      It’s a notification of tweets without an additional comment, appropriate to Notices and Features.

      • Draco T Bastard 3.3.1

        Pretty sure that PG has had that explained to him before.

        • weka 3.3.1.1

          +1

          and if he hasn’t he’d have to be pretty thick to not have figured it out himself, given how much time he’s spent here.

          I see the trole is back then.

      • Pete George 3.3.2

        It’s a collection of Tweets fairly obviously selected to target, Patrick Gower despite the title. You could pick a few tweets to say anything, as has been done here. It’s a bit of a stretch calling that “notification” but it’s your call.

        • weka 3.3.2.1

          the person who put up the notice picked the tweets they wanted. What’s the problem with that? You really still don’t get how the standard works do you Pete.

          • Tracey 3.3.2.1.1

            It is all about pete. Isnt it?!?

          • Pete George 3.3.2.1.2

            Who was “the person who put up the notice”?

            In referring to “how the standard works” do you mean technically? Bits and bytes sort of stuff? From what Lyn says I understand that is all there is to “how the standard works”. Or is supposed to be.

            [lprent: Read the about and the policy. You don’t have to invent complicated conspiracy theories. We make that as transparent as we can. Where we cannot, as in the privacy policy and why we use and encourage the use of pseudonyms, we explain why we do it a particular way. That you don’t like it just makes me wonder about why you don’t like the policies and feel compelled to question them with the inevitable results. ]

            • weka 3.3.2.1.2.1

              “Who was “the person who put up the notice”?”

              Do you mean what is their name? Why would anyone tell you that?

              “In referring to “how the standard works” do you mean technically?”

              Yes, we are all bots, and pretty clever ones at that because we can fake community and make decisions about content and moderation and organisation.

            • r0b 3.3.2.1.2.2

              I put up this post Pete. Does it matter? Your obsession with The Standard is unhealthy, and frankly creepy.

              • Why didn’t you put it up under your own ID the r0b? I thought you were usually upfront, but thanks for letting me know.

                I’m not obsessed with The Standard, far from it. I comment on a number of blog issues and blogs, The Standard being just one.

                It’s up to you whether it matters. Talking about it seems to matter to some here, a willingness to debate issues raised rather than revert to the same old is not a strong point.

                [lprent: Because it was merely a set of tweets on a topic. r0b didn’t write them. He didn’t even comment on them. Only a dumbarse like you could have considered that they were anything that should have been put into a post apart from “Notices and Features”.

                I haven’t noticed you actually dealing with anything that was actually in the tweets. You appear to have only considered that there was some kind of odd conspiracy. Perhaps you should take your own advice, deal with the content of the post, and stop wasting my time. ]

            • McFlock 3.3.2.1.2.3

              Now he starts fact-checking. 🙄

    • Lanthanide 3.4

      Really PG?

      These things used to be posted under “The Standard”, I (and a few others) pointed out that it would be better if “The Standard” didn’t publish anything, since it’s simply a piece of computer hardware. Lynn changed it to Notices and Features approx 12 months ago.

      Anything under Notices and Features is generally posted verbatim from a 3rd party source with links to that source, and very occasionally might have a clarifying / additional comment from an author, but otherwise contains no opinion or analysis.

    • Clean_power 3.5

      Welcome back, Mr George.

  4. chris73 4

    Oh dear, how sad, never mind

  5. Glen Jacobs 5

    When and why did Pete George get his ban lifted?

    Whilst I find his pathetic ways somewhat entertaining, I hope whoever was behind the amnesty does realise he’s just going to fuck the forum again

    [lprent: He doesn’t have one at present. They are generally time limited. His last one expired quite a while ago.

    PG tends to ban himself to the great delight of most readers. I guess it helps with his usual senile victim routine as he routinely lies about why he got banned. But I believe he has recently been getting banned from other sites recently. So he is back to get his jollies here. ]

    • lprent – I don’t believe I lie about bans. You keep claiming this, incorrectly. Perhaps it’s you who is getting senile.

      Glen Jacobs – you can try and talk up a ban but I think but lprent decides for himself when he does it. I don’t intend to “fuck the forum again”, that’s usually orchestrated by regulars well practised at it. But hey, that’s what some people seem to think makes a good blog here.

      [lprent: You routinely do. I always give the reason why I ban someone based on what is in the policy. That could be anything from questioning the site rules, to diverting off a posts topic, to simply appearing to waste moderators time by initiating boring flamewars that are invariably about you and your behaviour.

      Rather than deal with that and just modifying your own behavior, you invariably choose to interpret that as some kind of hidden agenda or conspiracy rather than dealing with what is said. What you appear to not accept is that it is your own behaviour on our site that triggers the warnings and bans. Your behaviour in this post is absolutely characteristic. Your interpretation of our clear rules about the use of notices and features was just outright wrong and quite indefensible. But you managed to divert a large portion of the comments on the post completely off topic.

      You also appear to be oblivious to your usual behaviour after you get a ban which is the basis of why I say that you routinely lie about it. Felix in a comment in this marathon comment scan (I’m currently on page 12 of 50 comments heading back to about 2pm yesterday) gave a pretty concise description of your usual behaviour.

      If you’d just content yourself with actually addressing the topics of the post or the derived debate, and not making whole swathes of commentary being about you, it’d save me a whole lot of time. It’d take a while before the automatic responses by other commenters die down, but just ignore them or confine your responses to your own blog and stick to topics raised, and eventually you’d wind up commenting without the collective “FFS it is PG self-indulgently wanking again” response that you currently get.

      Commenters automatically respond to you going off topic because they have seen you use your usual tactics far too many times. Instead of writing when you have something relevant to say, you seem to have an obsession with simply typing crap and asserting it is fact – because you think so. That isn’t debate. Then you complain that people don’t like it, disagree with you, and tell you why. That is the behaviour of someone who has a narcissistic need to be the centre of attention – not someone who is actually interested in discussion and debate.

      BTW: If I have to ban you again, I have already decided that the date will be November 21 2017. I really don’t have time for this type of shit again. ]

      • weka 5.1.1

        “I don’t believe I lie about bans”

        lolz at the senility of that statement.

        Shall we start a book on how long it takes for Pete to either get a ban, or self-ban? His comments seem to be mostly about criticising ts, so I’m guessing he either goes quickly, or he’s trying out a new strategy for how long he can do this and stay just under the bannable level of offense.

        • felix 5.1.1.1

          We all know how it ends.

          Can’t someone just ban him in advance and be done with the stupid prick?

        • Pete George 5.1.1.2

          I’ve no idea what ” just under the bannable level of offense” is weka. But I do know that when the usual suspects start to swarm it raises the prospects.

          Thanks. And to you too felix. We know how it’s done, don’t we.

          • felix 5.1.1.2.1

            Yes we do. It starts with you raising stupid irrelevant points that no-one gives a fuck about (“omfg someone reposted a tweet”),

            then you blow it out out of all proportion (have you written an OUTRAGED STANDARD DISGRACE post on your website about it yet?),

            then you use this pretend issue to shoehorn your big issue (“why doesn’t the world take more notice of Pete George?”) into every thread on this site until one after another everyone here gets sick of you and, in one way or another tells you to fuck off,

            and then you have a tanty because the web isn’t recognising your god-given right to post whatever you want on every site you stumble across as if you owned it,

            and eventually a mod decides they’ve had enough of your passive-aggressive bullshit and bans you for something that, on its own, probably doesn’t rate as much of an offense without the context of the months of trooling that led to it,

            and then you fuck off back to your site to write a martyrdom post that no-one except Lynn will ever read and spend the next three weeks reposting it at kiwiblog and whaleoil and having a big cry about the unfairness of it all.

            Yes Pete, we know exactly how it works. And we know it’s going to work exactly the same this time too. Seriously, it would save everyone so much trouble if you just fucked off and started working on your martyrdom post now.

            • Pete George 5.1.1.2.1.1

              You’re as funny as ever felix.

              Wouldn’t the logical approach to comments or commenters “that no-one gives a fuck about” be to ignore them? /rhetorical

              • felix

                Yes Pete, the logical approach to things no-one gives a fuck about is to ignore them.

                Your approach, however, is to take those things that no-one gives a fuck about, and mix them in a blender with your dog-shit of a personality, and spray the resulting filth all over this site,

                and you’ll be doing it all day, every day, until someone bans you,

                because that’s how it works.

                • I don’t intend to comment here anywhere near all day every day. I have a lot of other things I usually prefer to do, unlike you it seems, destined it seems to grump it out here trying to chase anyone away you don’t approve of.

                  • Tracey

                    How about that laila harre leaving the internet party. I wonder if the party will end now.

                    Sorry pete for diverting your thread. It was just on my mind for some reason.

                    • I’m not surprised she is leaving. She had severely compromised her integrity, she might be hoping that dropping out for a while will mean others will forget about it.

                      And there’s little the Internet Party can achieve over the next three years, especially with Dotcom distracted by his legal issues that seem to be deteriorating for him.

                      I think it’s unlikely IP will survive this – which is a bit of a shame, some of their ideas where worthwhile.

                      [lprent: Ah – a comment from you that is finally on topic (rather than some odd conspiracy theory about this site). See I knew you could if you only tried…. *encouragement* ]

                    • karol

                      I hardly think Harre is “dropping out”. She seems to be already launching into a new, and very left, initiative – maybe one that has benefited from her experience of the IMP roadshows.

                  • felix

                    “I don’t intend to comment here anywhere near all day every day.”

                    No-one intends that you do. But that hasn’t stopped you yet.

                    Why don’t you comment on whaleoil instead? Cameron’s getting desperate for attention, he could do with the page views.

            • Tracey 5.1.1.2.1.2

              You mean the title of the thread wasnt

              What is pete george thinking about today?

            • Stephanie Rodgers 5.1.1.2.1.3

              have you written an OUTRAGED STANDARD DISGRACE post on your website about it yet?

              Spoiler alert: he totally did, complete with pearl-clutching about the ~misuse~ of the “notices and features” handle.

              [lprent: Two so far (midday sunday). He is a complete fool. And you have to wonder about someone who seems to find delight only in inventing motivations for others that are so strange. He must have a hell of lot more spare time than I do. ]

        • Tracey 5.1.1.3

          And the thread has deteriorated to be about pg, not the topic of the post.

          ITS ALL ABOUT PETE

          And when its not

          ITS ALL ABOUT JOSIE

  6. Draco T Bastard 6

    Laila has a post up on TDB: Campaign reflection, Laila Harré reaching out for radical minds

    To a person, the Internet Party and MANA crews were uncompromisingly focused on a change of government.
    To achieve that, there were always at least three things every “change of government party” had to do to be a credible alternative: (a) supporting Cunliffe; (b) building acceptance that a Parliamentary majority did not have to look like a single sun (National) with a few planets rotating around it; and (c) demonstrating respect for each other and sharing constructive feedback.
    The spin that Labour and Green leaders have put on the impact of Internet MANA needs to be critically analysed. It was only the momentum created by the deal and then the growth of support during the road show that put Labour and the Greens within winning distance of government. We took the fight to Key in a way that they were not prepared to do, and for a while it paid off.
    Later in the campaign our momentum fell off dramatically. Our own political mismanagement weakened our ability to respond to a full attack by the right, and the capitulation of other change the government parties to that narrative.

  7. millsy 7

    It would be sad if the internet party did fold up. Imagine if Social Credit folded after it first came on the scene in 1954, or Values shut up shop in 1972?

    It had a genuine vision for the transformation of this country, placing an emphasis on technology to make people people’s lives better.

    Looking back, the 2 mistakes the party made were not kicking Dotcom upstairs, and hooking up with Mana. The alliance with Mana probably turned off a lot of voters who would have voted for the Internet Party, (and probably turned a lot of people off Mana as well).

    It may suprise some people on here, but it was the first political party I joined, and from the looks of it, probably the only.

    RIP Internet Party — the greatest “what might have been” of NZ politics.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 7.1

      KDC treated it like a startup business, which he was good at, but at politics he was atrocious.
      Didnt do any basic reaserch on what voters would think of a ‘internet party’.

      Would have been better to fund just Mana

    • Chooky 7.2

      @ millsy…+100…”It had a genuine vision for the transformation of this country, placing an emphasis on technology to make people people’s lives better.”

      i also voted for Mana/Int and the combination of Mana and Internet Party did not put me off….or I suspect many others…..it was a brilliant conception!

      …but the right wing media forces unleashed and railed against it were just too much! ( and Labour and Nactional and NZF actively worked to oust Hone)

      • srylands 7.2.1

        “it was a brilliant conception!”

        No it was batshit crazy. If it was a brilliant conception they would not have crashed and burned, would they?

        and there are no “right wing media forces” in New Zealand. At all. In any shape or form.

        The Economist put it like this:

        “.. securing an increased majority over its first and second terms, as National did on Saturday, is astounding.”

        That was no small part due to Internet-Mana.

        Internet-Mana will go down in history as the cluster fuck of the decade. That you see it as “brilliant” says a lot.

        • felix 7.2.1.1

          “and there are no “right wing media forces” in New Zealand. At all. In any shape or form.”

          Except all of the newspapers, and all of the radio stations, and all of the tv news, and most of the blogs.

        • Chooky 7.2.1.2

          @ srylands -100 …..well you would say that wouldn’t you ? …doesnt make your right wing spin true though!

  8. Cave Johnson 8

    And the winner is… Sue Bradford : )
    .
    To re-post my post from when IMP was originally announced…
    “Laila has a vehicle. KDC has a weapon. Hone has funding. Sue has principles.”
    .
    I wanted to see Laila in parliament but they lost three votes in our household when it looked like Hone would lose his electorate, and also DC worked hard to earn my vote as well and I was pleased to be able to give it to him.

    • weka 8.1

      “And the winner is… Sue Bradford”

      Which makes her just another ego in politics.

      • karol 8.1.1

        Really? She stated her position and dissatisfaction when Mana linked with the IP. Then she withdrew, and as far as I’m aware, didn’t comment further during the election. She was not in any contest, so she won nothing.

        It just seems to me that some of us will never be forgiven for having a different view on IMP than that of its supporters. Hardly very democratic.

        • weka 8.1.1.1

          my comment was a response to Cave thinking it was about winners and losers and that Bradford was a winner. That’s ego (irony alert re criticisms of KDC). But it was more in reference to Cave than Sue.

          • Cave Johnson 8.1.1.1.1

            Some folks have trouble detecting light-hearted comments even when emoticons are used…

            • weka 8.1.1.1.1.1

              some people like to pass off their highly politicised comments as a joke as if that somehow makes a difference.

        • Mark 8.1.1.2

          That was incredibly helpful to the left wasn’t it. All we got after that was the smear machine from Slater saying what an intelligent and insightful person Sue was and how she had seen through the farce that was the Internet /Mana party.
          Really helpful to the left, especially when Key was slowing sliding to 45% and lower at the time. If high profile people on the left can’t say anything positive about their fellow travellers on the left then they should shut the fuck up.

          • karol 8.1.1.2.1

            Slater will do what Slater does. It seems, from many IMP supporters, no-one on the left was allowed to criticise the hook up. it seemed like Harawira made the decision, and he pushed on to get everyone else on board.

            The damage was more from the mixed messages about values and principles sent by the hook-up. The right would have targeted that, without without Bradford’s distension.

            Once Bradford left the Mana Party, she refrained from further public comment (as far as I’m aware).

            According to Laila Harre, the IMP increased support after that, and it was their failure to predict the kinds of repercussions that would come from the hook-up, and KDC’s high profile involvement with it. Harre pretty much says that. I am surprised that political experienced people like Harawira & Harre, had not thought through all the kinds of attacks they would get from the right.

            The whole hook-up was done too hastily, without a enough planning, careful thinking and preparation.

            Bradford was just a bit player in it all – and still many IMP people are scapegoating her for taking a principled stand.

            • marty mars 8.1.1.2.1.1

              I thought a lot of people including lefties and Mana supporters criticised it. I did initially then decided to give it a go because of the potential upside for the left. I don’t think any additional planning, thinking or preparation would have helped much – at least for the last election. The fact is it didn’t work, it didn’t galvanise the disaffected to vote for it and it did give opponents from every part of the political spectrum a bone to gnaw away at. I admire Sue but her principled stand was equivalent to others principled stands to support IMP – no more or less imo.

              • karol

                Pretty much agree with that, mm.

                I admire Sue but her principled stand was equivalent to others principled stands to support IMP – no more or less imo.

                Yep. I’m just responding to the continued demonisation of Bradford.

                • “Yep. I’m just responding to the continued demonisation of Bradford.”

                  Yes and I support you in combating that.

                  I do think we differ in the – should have taken more time/thought etc re IMP. It imo had to be a quick fizz up to generate interest, capture imaginations and inspire actions to make change – such a pity it didn’t work but I’d say it had more potential to work that way.

                  For me KDC was the least trustworthy of IMP but I do think he was positively influenced by hanging around with Mana for a while. It is a fair point that I am sympathetic with that if he had shut up and taken a back seat more traction would have build – we’ll never really know now.

          • greywarshark 8.1.1.2.2

            @ Mark
            I felt that Sue would have been better to be less mouthy about her wonderful ideals. We don’t need saints in politics, we do need principled and pragmatic people. Sue holds herself up as an ‘untouchable girl’ and there is only one way to go, her way.

        • alwyn 8.1.1.3

          Why should you be forgiven for holding views about a party that disagree with its supporters?
          You aren’t, apparently a member so why should you care?
          Perhaps I should propose that members of the Labour Party should accept my views about the party, without complaining about them.
          Green Party supporters should say “hear hear” when I am rude about the actions or words of Green Party MPs.
          Well I don’t see why they should and I don’t see why you should be forgiven either. I think that politeness, and a willingness to debate are desirable but forgiving a different view of a party to its members doesn’t need or deserve “forgiveness”

          • lprent 8.1.1.3.1

            I’m not much into the politeness myself. But I just finished saying essentially the same thing elsewhere.

            Critical examination of everything is something that needs to be done for all parties and not just by their members.

    • Tracey 8.2

      what did she win again… 3 more years of nact mp and the hairdo.

  9. Tracey 9

    i hope she stays around politics.

    gower is grating

    of all things to write thats what PG thought of?

    🙄

  10. Clemgeopin 10

    I think the internet party and the Mana party should continue either as IMP or separately. I prefer it as IMP…a left wing pro poor party for social justice and pro technology party for advancement of modern technology and thus the country.

    Labour should be centre and centre left in social and economic issues. Support bulk of the pragmatic environmental policies of the Greens and conservative policies of NZF…..and say so publicly, indicating which ones.

    Greens concentrate on environmental issues, left, right and centre. Get out of social issues. Leave that to IMP and Labour. Greens should support the social policies of IMP and Labour.

    NZF concentrate on conservative policies independently as they do now.

    There needs to be electorate seat arrangements in a few crucial/marginal electorates between these four parties, or at least between Labour, Greens and IMP.

    This way, Internet-Mana, Labour, the Greens and NZF will cover most of the bell curve of voters in the left half of the curve (IMP and Labour) as well as a proportion of the right of centre area (Greens and NZF).

    There you have it!:
    Labour led coalition under Little as PM : 55% (or 60%) plus
    National, ACT, Maori, Cons, Dunne under Key or Bennett=45% (or 40%) minus.

    • weka 10.1

      The GP will never get out of social justice issues, because the links between social justice and the environment are inseparable. Unless you can get to grips with this, your vision of how the left can work is redundant.

      All left wing parties should be addressing social and environmental issues.

      • Clemgeopin 10.1.1

        If the Greens are too thick to understand the damage they do to Labour and possibly IMP (and thus the left’s success by scaring away potential centrist/centre right voters) by their overlapping of left/far leftist social policies, they and the left will be confined to remain under 50% of the vote against National, ACT, Maori and Conservatives. The Greens have their 6 to 10% traditional left vote in the bag anyway. They should try to grow that from the centre and right of centre voters, rather than cannibalise the Labour and IMP votes which is just stupid.

        • weka 10.1.1.1

          What does it matter if votes move between Labour and the GP? It won’t affect the outcome of an election.

          Why is it ok for IMP to take votes from L or the GP, but not for the GP?

          • Clemgeopin 10.1.1.1.1

            That is not my worry or my point. You have misinterpreted or misunderstood my post.

            • weka 10.1.1.1.1.1

              ok, so you want the GP to give up some of the left vote so Labour can have it?

              • Clemgeopin

                No. They HAVE the 6% to 10% traditional (30 years?) vote already, most, if not all of it is left vote anyway. They need to grow further from the blue side, rather than just rearrange the deck chairs from the left further and end up sinking the entire left as usual.

                • weka

                  This has been explained to you ad nauseum Clem. If the GP goes blue they die.

                  re their %

                  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_of_Aotearoa_New_Zealand#Parliament

                  • Clemgeopin

                    I am not saying they should go blue, but they should attract more of the blue green votes through their environmental policies which are dear to most people and most of New Zealand, including the blue voters.

                    The Greens should refocus primarily on environmental issues and a few other non overlapping social/economic issues: [from your link]

                    Mining of national parks,
                    Fresh water,
                    Climate change,
                    Peak oil
                    The release of genetically engineered organisms.
                    Sustainability.
                    support of human rights,
                    Against military operations.
                    Warn homes etc

                    Modify their tax, income tax and carbon tax policies (or better still, endorse Labour’s moderate taxes, housing and economic policies)

                    Leave far left issues such as for example, feeding the children, free tertiary education, excess taxes etc for Mana (or IMP).

                    It is smarter to be able to form a government to collectively implement various policies rather than stupidly feel happy and smug stealing each others policies and remain in opposition.

                    • weka

                      The GP is inherently left. It’s environmental polices won’t appeal to blue voters unless they make them more right wing. If they do that, they will lose their core values.

                      The GP want change not power for its own sake. They’ve developed their own policies, haven’t been stealing anything from Labour. Labour should be going after the non-vote, not chasing GP votes or expecting the GP to suppress its growth.

            • karol 10.1.1.1.1.2

              Still on your anti-GP campaign?

              How many times do we need to point out what the GP’s founding principles are?

              I’m quite happy for Mana and IP to continue separately. if IMP continue in a linkage, I’d prefer if KDC took a back seat. IMO, it was his presence that doomed the whole enterprise, and the result is Mana with no MP this term. IMP stimulated a lot of resistance to Hone, which I doubt would have been as intense if Mana had not joined with the IP.

              • weka

                “IMO, it was his presence that doomed the whole enterprise,”

                Did you see Harre on the Nation? Summary of a bit here http://thestandard.org.nz/end-of-the-internet-party/#comment-929110

                ie KDC’s presence coincided with an increase in party support.

                • karol

                  Thanks. But your link just comes to your comment here.

                  I read the Daily Blog post by Harre. I asked by how much did that support rise, and would it ever have been maintained in the election vote?

                  KDC’s presence coincided with an increase in party support.

                  But how long would that ever have been maintained – more than a sugar hit of infotainment style attention-getting?

                  In her TDB post, Harre then went on to say:

                  Later in the campaign our momentum fell off dramatically. Our own political mismanagement weakened our ability to respond to a full attack by the right, and the capitulation of other change the government parties to that narrative.

                  This was always likely to have happened given the role KDC played – and the way he took his fight personally to Key.

                  I think that KDC jumpred into the whole IP thing with enthusiasms, which seems to have been infectious for some. But it was all done too hastily, and with little thought for the likely repercussions.

                  I much prefer the original Mana approach, which was to build flaxroots support over time. It has more potential for sustained and growing momentum.

                  • weka

                    So let’s say that KDC has stayed in the background.

                    No road shows would have meant no or less mobilising of the core people they wanted to reach.

                    But had IMP reached people and gotten support, do you really think the full force of the right’s trash machine wouldn’t have targeted them?

                    What’s the choice there? Relative obscurity, or making headway and getting taken to with a stick?

                    I’m in two minds about the flax roots thing (I think both approaches are valid), but I think it’s highly likely that had the IP not existed that the attack on Mana would still have happened and Harawira would still have lost his seat.

                    (yes, my link was to my summary below of Harre’s interview with Gower)

                    • karol

                      Thanks. re the link.

                      Small parties always do have difficulty sustaining their support in the long term.

                      You choices really show that the last minute IMP initiative really was not that much more likely to have achieved either way.

                      A better option would for KDC to have out his money behind Mana, gave them his blessing, and left them to it. Or to have jst stayed out of politics altogether.

                      The road shows are always a good idea. But they need to happen well before an election.

                      I am more positive about the Harre sister’s road initiative – good time to start building at the start of an electoral term.

                    • weka

                      Why would KDC give his money to Mana? He wanted an internet party, and Mana were never going to appeal to the people he wanted to reach.

                      “You choices really show that the last minute IMP initiative really was not that much more likely to have achieved either way.”

                      I don’t think so. Mana are a flax roots, time taken to build, party.

                      The big issues I see were Labour and to a lesser extent the GP not being open to working with them (why bother voting for a left wing govt that wasn’t going to happen?).

                      The bungling of the big event the week before the election. Even if Greenwald didn’t want to be associated with the Warners letter thing, the IP should have front footed this and given everyone notice that there’d been a change of plan for the event. That they didn’t signaled an appalling misjudgement on their part.

                      Some, but not all, of KDC’s actions. I thought the road shows were great. How amazing to see the range of people turning up to those (and it belies what conservative lefties, including Little this morning, say when they claim that ‘NZ’ didn’t want or trust KDC. The IP wasn’t trying to convince NZ, they were speaking to a small, unrepresented part of the population. It’s ridiculous for middle class commentators to claim KDC was wrong for NZ just because they didn’t like or understand him. I don’t mean you btw, am thinking of Little, Norman, some of the bloggers).

                      Most of what people were anti was what they saw in the MSM, with all the spin that entails. Conservative lefties I talked to could see past the MSM projection to the actual policies and strategies of IP (these were people who get almost all their political news from the MSM). I guess there was poor judgement there from Harre, KDC, and Corkery in not pre-empting this.

                      The thing that stands out from all of that for me is how many people actually believe that the people that the IP was reaching out to don’t deserve represenation. Or Mana for that matter. I’m not surprised to see that attitude from the likes of Winston Peters, or the neoliberal Labourites like Josie Pagani, but have been surprised to see just now many more left wing people believe it too (again, not referring to you).

                      tl;dr, I think that the failure of the left this year was a mix of complex reasons, and like Labour and the GP, IMP weren’t prepared for the full effect of the attack machine. I would rate the unwillingness of L/GP to work co-operatively as one of the most crucial factors.

                    • Clemgeopin

                      @weka.
                      Very good points. I agree!

                    • weka

                      @ Clem 🙂

                    • Clemgeopin

                      @weka. Not all, but with most of what you said.

                      For example, I don’t agree with your view, ‘I would rate the unwillingness of L/GP to work co-operatively as one of the most crucial factors’. Labour gave enough indication of post election coalition, including cabinet positions. I think even that was too much of a give away before the election. Any greater embrace than that would have diminished Labour vote still more.

                      I am OK with electoral seat adjustments between Labour, IMP and the Greens, and perhaps even NZF, in order not to waste the opposition votes stupidly and thus indirectly benefiting the RW rouges.

                      I am also OK with advance notification prior to election by Labour broadly indicating which of the policies/principles of the other parties (The Greens, IMP and NZF) it will support (with or without some modifications) and which it will definitely not support. That seems to be the thinking of Andrew Little going by a recent statement he made. That will clearly differentiate the parties and indicate to the public how to cast their own party votes.

                • Chooky

                  +100..”KDC’s presence coincided with an increase in party support.”

                  …personally i like Dotcom, ( although I dont know him personally)…he has great guts (lol) and courage ….he is generous, he puts on great political parties, especially for for youth….and great political education shows (eg Grenwald, Snowden, Assange, Amsterdam … NZ has never seen a show like this before !!!)

                  ….and he is brilliant and he has defied the USA Hollywood corporates

                  …most important he also supported Mana with much needed funding

                  Dotcom has bowed out to fight his battles with the Hollywood moguls and monopolists …he is not a quitter

                  …..GO Dotcom! ….and come back and support Mana /Int….again in the future…NZ is the better for having you as a citizen

                  • Chooky

                    What Kim Dotcom’s international lawyer has to say about the importance of Kim Dotcom’s fight for internet freedom and copyright implications

                    …really Dotcom’s fight is all NZers fight against corporate monopolies control and for intellectual and economic and creative freedom

                    http://www.lawfuel.co.nz/news/1547/kim-dotcoms-guest-star-lawyer

                    “1) Megaupload had an excellent record of compliance with takedown requests, and even went one step further to provide direct access to many content companies for instant takedowns on demand.

                    “2) The U.S. prosecutors are trying out a new legal theory in which civil charges are transposed into criminal charges, including mass seizure of private property without hearings, and the deployment of violence and surveillance despite the absence of any threat. It cannot be repeated enough: there exists no federal criminal statute for secondary copyright infringement.

                    “3)Additionally, it must be recognized that the outcome of this case will play a definitive role in the ongoing struggle between regulation, innovation, and the politics of the Internet.Considering how so many other online services companies work, what, exactly, had Megaupload done differently than other market leaders, such as RapidShare, Dropbox, Google Drive, or even YouTube?

                  • srylands

                    “NZ is the better for having you as a citizen”

                    Can you provide any evidence that he is a NZ Citizen?

                    He is not a citizen and is most unlikely to ever be granted citizenship.

                    Why a left wing woman like you goes for KDC I have no idea. Is he a vaccine denier?

                    • adam

                      Need a napkin srylinds?

                      You seem to be dribbling again.

                      That desire to be right, really undermines you as a human being.

                    • Chooky

                      @srylands ….ok not a “NZ citizen”…but a “permanent resident”…(my mistake…will some NZ woman please fall in love and marry the man!…and make it “NZ citizen” …lol)

                      …but i fail to see what “vaccine denier”…has to do with anything in your argument ….except that you must be getting quite desperate and nasty srylands …maybe you dont like his international lawyer Robert Amsterdam’s arguments ?…i wonder why?….where are your loyalties exactly? … certainly NOT with New Zealanders and their freedoms!

                      “Why a left wing woman like you goes for KDC I have no idea….”…well sorry srylands …i am not the only New Zealand admirer of Kim Dotcom..(.male or female )

                      ….i think Dotcom has a lot to offer New Zealand and New Zealanders by way of entrpreneurship , standing up for your rights against USA Hollywood corporate monopolies and bullies . standing up for the internet freedom…and all the other issues Robert Amsterdam has so eloquently argued for and laid out.

                  • Clemgeopin

                    Well said! (Note: KDC is not a citizen but a permanent resident)

                  • nadis

                    i don’t think dotcom wanted an internet party, he wanted a “no extradition” party.

                    Leila Harre was also a problem for the internet party. Not a natural fit – the IP would have been more successful with less focus on hard social justice issues and more on technology/surveillance/innovation/education/R&d. Mana, Greens and labour make sense for HArre, but turning the IP into a hard left social justice party was only ever going to redistribute already left voters without attracting non-left technology minded people.

                    • Chooky

                      ..actually you are wrong…a lot of young people voted Mana/Internet and they are interested both in computing, internet freedom …and social justice!

                      ….and many of them come from the new under 30s underclass …weighed down with tertiary loans, no prospect of owning a house in artificially inflated house prices by foreign investors , and no security of work thanks to draconian Labour laws under John key Nactional ….interested in social justice issues YES!!!

                      …and how many “non-left technology minded people” are there really?!…maybe you are thinking of David Farrar?…and his ilk…lol

                      Laila Harre was a brilliant leader of the Internet Party …savvy , cool , highly intelligent , a trained lawyer, experienced in political, union and social justice issues.

              • Clemgeopin

                No, not on a anti GP campaign. I like and support many of the Green party environmental issues. I am just trying to put some ‘political’ sense into their narrow counter productive thinking which deprives them of fruitfully growing their vote from the blue corner rather than simply rearranging some votes from the left corner and scare away the blue votes at the same time.

                • nadis

                  Chooky – if you define “a lot of people” as 1.2% then you have very low standards. I believe there are enough homes on the left for all of those you refer to – the problem is that none of the left parties are successful enough at engaging them. Harre had no credibility as leader of an Internet party when she made cringeworthy statements that showed she was a technological dunce. She would have had plenty of credibility as leader of Mana or even Labour but not a tech party.

                  The only real difference between the Labour party and the IP party was branding. On every policy they were mostly the same.

                • karol

                  The scare tactics come from the right. It’s calculated to destabalise any left coalition.

                  There has been some slippage to the Greens from Labour as Labour moved away from it’s core commitment to the elast well off. It’s up to Labour to regain the confidence of many of us left voters.

                  Labour and the Greens come to their policies and values from different positions.

                  Labour tends to put economic issues central, and there is a tendency for many to regard other social justice issues (gender, ethnicity, etc) as secondary and “nice to haves”. The Greens have a more holistic approach. They focus on all social justice issues as necessary to an environmentally sustainable society – so issues of ethnicity, gender, sexuality etc, are as important as those based in labour relations.

                  Labour has a strong historical affiliation with unions, which the Greens don’t have. So I think Little as leader does mark a core difference from the Greens.

                  Mana has a lot of the same core values, approaches and policies as Labour historically, with more of an emphasis on social and economic justice for Maori and Pacific people.

                  One of the things for me that slightly differentiates the Greens from Mana and the internet Party, and Labour, is that the GP has less of a conventionally masculine/macho approach – less combative, more focused on a co-operative approach.

            • The Al1en 10.1.1.1.1.3

              The greens may well turn some idiot centrist voters away from supporting labour in government, but, in my opinion, way less than mip or solo mana ever would, hence the distancing from them by DC and the successful predicted nat attack line throughout the last election campaign.

              The issue clem clearly has, and for a while, is the greens don’t fit into his little boxes of how politics should be working. Personally I have no issues with MT and RN taking as many labour votes as it possibly can, I mean, which party looks unstable and full of flakes? It’s probably an easier sell for the green party than it is for labour with it’s baggage and splits, so expect that poll reversal to come in the years ahead, then his only worry will be can GR stave off JA for the party top job.

  11. weka 11

    Harre to Gower,

    – in the first part of the election campaign where KDC was very active, ie the time of the IP roadshow, support for IMP increased.

    – at that point, the right went into full attack mode on KDC, and used the IMP agreement as the basis for an attack on the left

    – at that point, L and the GP had a choice: join John Key’s narrative, or accept that for the left to form govt it would mean working contructively with other parties.

    – L/GP weren’t responsible for IMP’s downfall, but they played into the right’s narrative and made it more of a problem.

    • karol 11.1

      I agree with some of this, but I think it was KDC taking a highly public and visible role with the IP that really was the problem, and ultimately IMP’s downfall.

      Did the IMP support increase by that much?

      KDC always made the IP about him and his desire to bring down John key – he made it seem personal. That set KDC up as a target for the right.

      The Labour and Green Parties were put in a difficult position at short notice. As far as I’m aware, the GP kept some distance from the IMP, but didn’t spend time actively bagging them.

      The Labour Party should never have gone all out for Davis in Te Tai Tokerau – that involved a collusion with the right.

      • Lanthanide 11.1.1

        “KDC always made the IP about him and his desire to bring down John key – he made it seem personal. That set KDC up as a target for the right.”

        Which was strange, considering he kept saying he had nothing to do with the day to day running of the party, was just the “visionary” and after donating the money he had nothing to do with it.

        Actions really did not gel with his words, at all.

      • nadis 11.1.2

        if labour had given Davis a high list ranking I suspect he would have been less strident in attacking Mana. Classic example of individual incentives outweighing what is best for the team.

  12. Clean_power 12

    It was inevitable once the largesse of the German tycoon came to an end.
    Miss Harre can now chalk another failed political party to her long, long list

    • Chooky 12.1

      why dont you stick your head in a bucket of iced water?

      [lprent: Why would he want to do that? I can’t see the point in your comment. ]

  13. dale 13

    Im still waiting for that email thats gonna take Key down. Some say that it was fake but Harre and Kim wouldn’t take the voters as fools, would they?

    • Tracey 13.1

      Warners say it was fake… And why wouldnt they in the two hours it took them to research and reach that conclusion.

      Turns out greenwald and Snowden were right and nsa has people based here. Key said that was wrong, but it wasnt.

      You probably think keys declassified documents proved the point he said they did too. And if you do think that it shows you never actually read them.

      • nadis 13.1.1

        There are CIA people based here too, as well as representatives of the British intelligence community, Australians and probably a bunch of others. I think what Key said is that there are no NSA bases here which I am sure is technically true. I would be surprised if there are not NSA staff attached to the US embassy and or seconded to GCSB. But is there an american owned or operated NSA base here – no.

        • Tracey 13.1.1.1

          Yeah, cos he had no idea what the crux of the issue was. He could have just clarified

          ” if he means are their nsa operatives working out of nz, then the answer is yes.” but he didnt. Dance on that pin carefully lest you fall and crack an ankle.

          • nadis 13.1.1.1.1

            Not justifying it, just explaining how it works. You can bleat on all you like from your “I hate John Key” perspective, but if you want to understand how he gets away with what he does, you should take a step back and at least try to be objective in viewing his modus operandi

    • Jim 13.2

      Anyone with half a brain knows it was fake.

      • Tracey 13.2.1

        Proof?

        • srylands 13.2.1.1

          Of course there is no proof. But it appeared laughable. Turn the question around – are you confident it was genuine? You didn’t cringe with embarrassment on that long awaited day? Anyway it sank without trace, and the voters didn’t buy it. That says a lot.

          • Tracey 13.2.1.1.1

            Nope and never said i was sly. Thats the difference, no brain and half a brain above are 100% sure. Thats why you had to answer not them. They ran out of lines.

            Nope didnt cringe. Not a ip voter. I definitely didnt enjoy the prying ministers lying about what HIS documents proved. But you probably only read Div Farrars version rather than the source documents so you are probably lost right now.

          • Clemgeopin 13.2.1.1.2

            My understanding of it was that KDC was advised not to reveal it at that stage, but to use it later in his defense in court. But, who knows, may be there is no proof that it is genuine. We can only guess.

        • Murray Rawshark 13.2.1.2

          The proof is that Jim and SSlands have half a brain between them and they know it’s fake.

      • Tracey 13.2.2

        And given you have no brain…?

      • Mark 13.2.3

        You then.

      • Clemgeopin 13.2.4

        So, all those that say it is fake have half a brain?

      • Shrubbery 13.2.5

        Anyone with half a brain knows it is genuine. It simply wasn’t enough of a bombshell to be worth faking.

    • Mark 13.3

      No just tossers like you.

  14. Tracey 14

    which of pg comments in this thread was on topic? Perhaps his general queries about how the site runs could go to open mike?

  15. nadis 15

    Internet party has unpaid bills to a bunch of small contractors – claiming that they will get paid but there is a “funding difficulty” at present. We’ll see.

    • Tracey 15.1

      WO or KB?

    • weka 15.2

      link please.

      • nadis 15.2.1

        Brother in law has a small business that is owed money. Very simple, just ask IP staff to confirm all bills are paid.

        • nadis 15.2.1.1

          You must know somebody who works there. I don’t. And I can tell you that if these aren’t paid by 20 Dec you’ll see an application to wind up the IP. IF the money gets paid I’ll be sure to come on here and say so. But its really simple – ask someone who works for the IP to comment.

          • Tracey 15.2.1.1.1

            Why would weka know someone who works there? Do all people who vote left know each other?

            Did your brother in law miss all of the rights doomsday warnings about the evil german?

            I genuinely hope they get paid soon. Tell him to go to bay corp if he needs the mobey quickly. Loses a chunk if tgey succeed but jumps him over those just waiting for the bill to be paid. A wind up application will cost several thousand bucks

        • weka 15.2.1.2

          Ok, so that’s one small business. How much is owed? How overdue is the bill?

  16. nadis 16

    I’m not going to specifically identify. But low 10s of thousands and overdue since before the election. Plus there are several others – i dont know how many but I’d guess low single digits – who are coordinating with each other to maximize pressure.

  17. nadis 17

    And Tracey u wasn’t specifically meaning weka. It was a general “you” So far the up has the benefit of the doubt as they say they will pay but bear in mind these invoices are from pre election when the ip was rolling in dough plus previous bills had been settled promptly.

  18. Ecosse_Maidy 18

    One party down…Who is next????

  19. The lost sheep 19

    So if the National Party bedded up with a rich uber-capitalist donor, that would be a RW 1% conspiracy wouldn’t it?

    But Mana thought their supporters would see it differently.

    FFS. Biggest miscalculation in NZ political history?

  20. Murray Rawshark 20

    Mana and the IP weren’t responsible for Key being PM again. Labour have to take full responsibility. The way they presented as a disorganised selfish backstabbing rabble was enough to put anyone off. Realising that their unattractiveness would leak votes to the left, they went into attack mode against IMP. They did NAct’s dirty work in the end.

    Yeah, Dotcom should have taken a back seat, but he wasn’t the problem. Even though I never liked the idea of IMP, I never did anything to keep them out of parliament. Labour did that. Oh, I know NAct did too, but that’s their role. Labour didn’t have a clue what its role was.

    • Chooky 20.1

      MR…+100…Labour was their own undoing and Mana/Ints as well …unfortunately Labour let the entire Left down …including the Greens and NZF

      • tinfoilhat 20.1.1

        You are certifiable chooky…………. Labour was the undoing of Mana/Ints.. what rubbish, Mana was doomed from the day that they decided to join forces with Kim dotcoms vanity project.

  21. Clean_power 21

    Will Miss Harre return to her roots, the red Greens? Time will tell.

    • tinfoilhat 21.1

      I can confidently say she will never be invited back to any position with the green party while any of the current members or organisation is present.

  22. Ad 22

    I think some commentators could step back for a second and review Laila’s achievements for more than the last year.

    Her record under the Clark administration was strong despite a narrow portfolio.

    Her contribution to the Green Party’s policy coherence and professionalisation was excellent.

    Her part in the Auckland Transition Authority enabled a groundbreaking and successful organization to emerge out of seven legacy councils undergoing a forced merger.

    (I don’t have sufficient information about her term at the ILO to evaluate it – help).

    And she still had the will and whit to drive a new political party for a change of government (I was no fan of IMP I admit, but that’s not the point).

    There’s plenty of counterfactuals to the last election, which are futile. What she has done is live a full and productive activists’ life, and there’s no sign she’s stopping yet.

    There are too few Laila Harre’s in this world or in New Zealand, so I’m hoping for a good sized comeback.

  23. Jules 23

    Feel a bit sorry for Laila Harre. But personally I hope this is the beginning of the end of the Internet Party. KDC is as repugnant as Key. He’s damaged the left and has buried Mana. I knew the minute Hone took the deal he was sunk. How can anyone on the left trust a billionaire who courted ACT first?

  24. Jules 24

    Rarely. But not from right-right libertarianism to left wing socialism. And not overnight.

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    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
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    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
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    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
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    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
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    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    6 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    6 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    11 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    12 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
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    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
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    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
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    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
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    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
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    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
    The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
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    6 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
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    1 week ago
  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
    Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
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    1 week ago
  • Government lowering building costs
    The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
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    1 week ago
  • Trustee tax change welcomed
    Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister’s Ramadan message
    Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness.  It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister appoints new NZTA Chair
    Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
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    1 week ago
  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
    Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.  It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
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    1 week ago
  • Progress continues apace on water storage
    Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
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    1 week ago
  • Government agrees to restore interest deductions
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    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister to attend World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium
    Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

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