Archive for June, 2014

Open mike 22/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 22nd, 2014 - 323 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

The Purpose of Government

Written By: - Date published: 9:40 pm, June 21st, 2014 - 7 comments

Bryan Gould writes on this in the latest post on the AUT Briefing Papers website. Gould quotes from Senator Elizabeth Warren’s classic speech “Nobody got rich on their own. Nobody.” Gould’s conclusion – A renewed debate about the purpose of government is well overdue – amen to that.

Kia Kaha

Written By: - Date published: 1:57 pm, June 21st, 2014 - 132 comments

David Cunliffe’s message to members and supporters (repost from email) It’s been a tough couple of days for everyone in Labour, but I have been greatly heartened by the messages of support that my Caucus and I have received from members and supporters. As I’ve stated in many media interviews over the last 24 hours, […]

Hamstrung

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, June 21st, 2014 - 46 comments

David Cunliffe forgets an eleven year old pro-forma letter. John Armstrong calls for him to resign. Then it turns out this was a National Party smear campaign. John Armstrong says he should still have resigned but y’know only to prove the confidence of his caucus. Two National party ministers, one of them the Deputy Leader, […]

Turn out and vote National out

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, June 21st, 2014 - 110 comments

At the last election, the high non-vote spoke to one important truth – many voters saw no reason to turn out. The media had told them that National would win by a landslide and they either didn’t mind or thought that one vote wouldn’t make any difference. This election is radically different. It is rapidly becoming clear that we are losing control of our country.  Vote on September 20, and vote against this Government.

Open mike 21/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 21st, 2014 - 260 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

NRT: An abuse of the OIA

Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, June 20th, 2014 - 39 comments

So it turns out that Immigration released letters from David Cunliffe and Chris Carter in support of Donghua Liu. However, the Department of Internal Affairs refused to release the letters sent by Mr Williamson and Mr Banks under the privacy and commercial provisions in the Official Information Act.  This looks like a blatantly political release decision to advance the interests of the government of the day.  Transparency of official information applies to everyone, not just the government’s enemies.

 

Is the $15,000 even true?

Written By: - Date published: 1:28 pm, June 20th, 2014 - 214 comments

John Key’s alleging that hundreds of thousands flowed to Labour from Donghua Liu, but as the Nat’s smear campaign unravels, even the $15,000 can’t be found. Who do we trust – an unnamed ‘party source’ in the Herald, or Party records? $15,000 is a sizeable donation that is likely to be noted or remembered. And where’s Donghua himself in all this – surely he could clear this up very quickly…

It takes a child to raise a country – so Tick for Kids

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, June 20th, 2014 - 80 comments

Overshadowed by the  political smears that have dominated the past few days, the Tick for Kids campaign has been launched to put our children at the centre of the election campaign.

Emmerson on John Key in the US

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, June 20th, 2014 - 12 comments

Emmerson in todays Herald captures the essence of what John Key is doing there. How a picture can convey more than thousands of words.

Local Bodies: National’s Campaign Strategy Stinks

Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, June 20th, 2014 - 25 comments

We all know from reading Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men (or watching the documentary) that the National Party actually advocates for a small section of society. Their policies rarely support most New Zealanders and after each period of a National led Government we have costly messes like leaky buildings and dead miners as the aftermath. This isn’t to say that Labour shouldn’t take responsibility for not repealing dodgy legislation, but National has always stood for less regulation, fewer protections for workers and the environment and an upward flow of money to the already rich.

Polity: The game is the game

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, June 20th, 2014 - 24 comments

Rob Salmond offers some advice to the National smear team. When you screw up and start contradicting each other’s stories, you look like a pack of low-rent numpties. And it reveals your tactics for all to see, which is what you were trying to avoid in the first place. Bill English and John Key should really communicate so they don’t trample over each others stories. And the  spectacle of Michael Woodhouse changing his mind within hours about when he first saw the letter, and what he did with it? Pure comedy

The anatomy of a smear campaign

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, June 20th, 2014 - 322 comments

David Cunliffe does not recall signing a letter 11 years ago which did not advocate for Donghua Liu’s application for residence yet gets pilloried by the media for stating that he did not advocate for Mr Liu.  Michael Woodhouse denies telling John Key about the letter, then says officials from his office briefed Mr Key’s office on the letters and then his office admits that he told Key’s office about the letter yet there is no media criticism of what clearly is an attempt to hide a smear campaign.  Is this yet more evidence of media bias?

Open mike 20/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:17 am, June 20th, 2014 - 171 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Bomber: sensitive and inexperienced

Written By: - Date published: 3:56 pm, June 19th, 2014 - 73 comments

My comment at The Daily Blog responding to a section of one of Martyn ‘Bomber’ Bradbury’s post got moderated out. That does rather reinforce what my comment said. So I will simply repeat it here. The political scene is a very bad place to have as sensitive ego in as Bomber has. Most people involved around the political scene will have different opinions and they usually aren’t hesitant in expressing them. It appears that young Bomber lacks the backbone to withstand that diversity without having a fit of pique.

Arses and Elbows

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, June 19th, 2014 - 123 comments

So, the Deputy Prime Minister insists that no-one from the ruling National Party knew of an eleven year old letter from Labour’s David Cunliffe asking Immigration about time frames for decision making. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister states he knew of the letter for some weeks. Scandalously, some ministers from the ruling National Party have sought […]

Puddleglum on Christchurch

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, June 19th, 2014 - 17 comments

There is a very long but worth reading post over at The Political Scientist. If you’re serious about campaigning in NZ at present, then it is definitely worth setting aside the time to ponder it. In particular the demographics and the occupational changes across Christchurch that may affect this years election outcome. Tony Milne also has a good post on Christchurch and its continuing travails..

Polity: Free trade fundies

Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, June 19th, 2014 - 2 comments

The great tragedy in New Zealand trade policy came in the 1990s when we almost literally gave away the farm, dismantling most of our tariffs unilaterally to “demonstrate” how much fun life is with no tariffs. You can’t get much more fundie than that.  And now – quelle surprise – we have basically no cards to play when negotiating with other countries. Who would have thought it?

The dirtiest election campaign backfires

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, June 19th, 2014 - 280 comments

Yesterday wasn’t a good day for Labour. But it’s not the end of the world – because we know how this game goes.

Stand up – for an inclusive, caring & sharing NZ

Written By: - Date published: 7:21 am, June 19th, 2014 - 57 comments

Stand up: fight back: We know what we are up against. We’ve seen the depth of the negative, right wing campaigning.  NZ wants and needs better politics, and a more inclusive society.

Open mike 19/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, June 19th, 2014 - 232 comments

Open mike is your post.For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Good news, National are afraid of David Cunliffe

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 222 comments

The weak and transparent smear attempt from National says more about them than David Cunliffe.

NRT: Shifted

Written By: - Date published: 6:07 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 21 comments

Yesterday, we learned that the government was reviewing its future contribution to peacekeeping missions, with an eye to turning us into an American footstool. As I pointed out, this would be a major shift in our foreign policy, and one we need to stop. Unfortunately, we’re too late: Cabinetagreed to the change last October. In secret, without consulting the people on behalf of which those troops will be deployed.

Lincoln Kidd

Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 9 comments

Lincoln Kidd was killed in a forest just before Christmas last year.  He was 20.  Rebecca Macfie wrote powerfully about him and his family  in this Listener article.  The new health and safety organisation Worksafe had six months to press charges in relation to this workplace deaths and as we know of the 900 serious harm […]

The Donghua Liu letter – is that it?

Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 324 comments

judith collins dumpster diving?

It is a damn form letter written to immigration by electorate offices every day. Prepared by electorate office staff. Signed in a stack by the MP. Requesting information about a constituent case or even a drop-in to the office. I’ve seen many of these per day going on in a neighbouring electorate office. Their files are strewn all over immense file directories. It is seldom that the MPs meet with the people until after the information is received from immigration. It isn’t “advocacy”. It is just dumpster diving for crap by National’s researchers.

Herald loses perspective

Written By: - Date published: 3:36 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 74 comments

So apparently forgetting about signing a form letter for a constituent 11 years ago is a resignable offence now.

Update: Key memory lapses

Key on Iraq

Written By: - Date published: 6:54 am, June 18th, 2014 - 52 comments

John Key on Iraq in the Herald today:

“We are not a country out there looking for a fight.”

John Key in Iraq in 2003…

Open mike 18/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:35 am, June 18th, 2014 - 335 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

NRT: A major shift in our foreign policy

Written By: - Date published: 7:34 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 33 comments

No Right Turn points to potential unacceptable changes in the basis of our foreign policy and the deployment of our armed forces. A secret review of peacekeeping keeping roles revealed by an OIA request recommends that rather than going on UN missions to support peace and keep combatants apart, we’ll be taking an active and direct role in America’s wars, against the wishes of the international community and even against the wishes of our own citizens.

Time to do the authorisation notice

Written By: - Date published: 7:18 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 8 comments

This site frequently has opinions from authors and comments promoting promoting political positions and telling people who they should vote for or not vote for, and why.  I’ve been making the site conformant to the rules about 3rd party promoters. You have a few days to comment on that before I start treating nuisance complaints as being a reason to get banned from commenting. Speak now or hold your peace until after the election.

😈

Do the Conservatives really want a cup of tea with National?

Written By: - Date published: 6:20 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 22 comments

The Conservative Party appears to have this strategy of insulting National and yet expecting to go into coalition with it and being gifted an electorate seat.  The advertisement for their latest meeting reads like something that I would write.  What is going on?