Author Archive

Key’s growing Dotcom problem

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:00 am, October 10th, 2012 - 29 comments

People don’t just vote for politicians because they like their policies. Just as important are trust and perceived competence. Key’s policies were never popular. He won on the other two – particularly trust. That’s why the Dotcom saga is so ruining for him. As more details of what Key knew or should have known come out day by day, perceptions of Key’s competence and trust in him plummet.

Mr Wrong

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:51 am, October 9th, 2012 - 32 comments

No wonder Key’s losing his credibility. He just keeps on getting it wrong.

• 24 Sept: I wasn’t briefed on GCSB’s spying on Dotcom. Yes, he was.
• 28 Sept: there’s no need for a Police investigation into the GCSB. Yes, there is, say Police.
• 4 Oct: It’s highly unlikely I’ll discuss Dotcom in Hollywood. He discussed Dotcom in Hollywood.
• 5 Oct: I won’t offer incentives to Hollywood. He offered them more incentives.
• 8 Oct: Intervening in the currency is “whacky”. Governments are intervening in all the free-floating currencies, except a handful of third world countries – and us.
• 8 Oct: There’s no crisis in manufacturing. 40,000 lost manufacturing jobs say otherwise.

From cock-up to cover-up

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:30 pm, October 6th, 2012 - 49 comments

The narrative that the Government has tried to sell, and which has been largely accepted to date, is that the GCSB’s illegal spying on Dotcom was a cock-up. They claimed that Key wasn’t briefed, when he was. The Nats also claimed only a change in immigration law in 2009 protected Dotcom. Now, we know that’s rubbish. Cover-up it is.

A red herring?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:19 am, October 4th, 2012 - 23 comments

Call me cynical but I just don’t think it’s credible that it took over two weeks after Key supposedly learned of the GCSB’s involvement in the Dotcom raid before they realised he given a presentation featuring Dotcom by GCSB a month after the raid. They’re amateur, they’re not that amateur. No, I think the ‘presentation on a laptop screen’ is a red herring.

Collins’ faction tries to magic up an ally

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:32 am, October 2nd, 2012 - 35 comments

It’s been interesting to watch the Collins Faction of National talk down the Conservative Party all year. It’s not hard to see why – they occupy space/take votes that a Collins-led National would want for itself. What the Collins Faction would like is a decent liberal-right party. That would allow National to swing conservative and give up liberal votes to an ally, rather than to the Left.

On Planet Key, the market always provides

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:16 am, October 1st, 2012 - 16 comments

We’re told 36,000 workers are needed for the Christchurch rebuild. But since the earthquakes began 2 years ago, 9,000 people with the skills needed for the rebuild have left New Zealand. We’re making no effort to keep the skilled workers we have but the Government thinks those 36,000 workers will just magically appear when needed.

Key fails to guard the guardians

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:41 pm, September 27th, 2012 - 87 comments

Our government’s spies are overseen by two people – the Prime Minister and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. The former asked the latter to investigate he found out the GCSB had been illegally spying on two Kiwis. And, guess what, the report blamed underlings. It didn’t even investigate the question of oversight.

Many questions left unanswered in Banks affair

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:54 am, September 26th, 2012 - 43 comments

“Ignorance gets us nowhere”, it’s National’s new slogan and it certainly applied with Key’s feigned ignorance in answer to questions on Banks’ corruption last week. Key’s behaviour is jeopardising our reputation as a democracy that doesn’t tolerate corruption. And he’s got a lot of questions still to answer. Two particularly interesting angles are what exactly […]

Bennett’s fantasy world breaks down

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:15 am, September 24th, 2012 - 45 comments

Paula Bennett on Q+A: “I don’t think that every child actually needs to be in early-childhood education” says Bennett. There will be cases where parents can do just as good or better job for their child. Yet, her policy is to take away half the incomes of parents and children on benefits who don’t go to ECE. The gap between Bennett’s spin and what she is actually doing has never before been so clearly revealed.

Nats say: land owned collectively

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:31 pm, September 20th, 2012 - 30 comments

Anyone notice that the Right’s arguments against ownership of water – apart from being a willful confusion of ownership in rights to water, which is what iwi are actually inserting and which are clearly enjoyed by a range of people under our law at present, and ownership of water itself (something, apparently, limited to bottled water sellers) – would apply equally to land?

Sam Lotu-Iiga for mayor?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:39 am, September 18th, 2012 - 7 comments

Slater/Lusk are spending a hell of a lot of time talking about how the Key Government’s one-seat majority is at stake if a dissatisfied, bored backbencher decides to quit. One name that keeps popping up is Sam Lotu-Iiga. I understand the next stage will be a ‘Draft Sam’ faux mayoral campaign to pressure Key and Joyce into making him a minister.

None so blind

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:53 am, September 17th, 2012 - 75 comments

So, this is what Key is reduced to: refusing to read the Police Report on John Banks so that he can avoid answering questions on it. Key’s circular position is that Banks will remain a minister as long as he has Key’s confidence. The test: Banks’ll continue to have Key’s confidence as long as Key trusts him and Key has to believe whatever Banks tells him.

Labour hits the motherlode

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:16 am, September 13th, 2012 - 82 comments

The Police Report into the Banks.com affair, which Labour has distributed to the media, is a gold mine. Banks is shown to be a liar and completely unethical. He insisted that Dotcom’s donation be anonymised. He used the donations, which he had told media he didn’t remember, as an excuse not to help Dotcom while a minister. Banks is lying low now. Key has to sack him.

CIR & the silience of the citirats

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:28 am, September 10th, 2012 - 6 comments

The Nats’ lines on the citizens-initiated referendum on asset sales are very weak: ‘we don’t care because we have a mandate’ and making up stories about invalid signatures. Those lines will only hold until the petition is certified by the Clerk of the House later this year. Then, they’ll have to grow up a little. Their first decision will be when to hold the referendum.