Boag on way, Farrar to follow?

Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, February 20th, 2010 - 14 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, community democracy, corruption, democratic participation, national, rodney hide - Tags: , , ,

Former National Party President Michelle Boag has been told to remove herself from the consultancy charged with selecting executive staff for the Auckland Supershity, despite reassurances from Boag, her close friend John Banks (for whom she is a campaign advisor), the ATA and the Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide that there was no conflict of interest.

What did it take to rectify this blatant instance of cronyism?

Not much: a few stupid words of encouragement  from one of our dimmer trolls, a correction of the troll’s stupidity, and a bit of a spotlight and amplification from Opposition MP Phil Twyford. Oh, and Hide’s dare to Twyford that if he thought he had a case he should take it to the AG, which Twyford cheerfully did. Next morning, hey presto ding dong, The Boag is gone. Hide is left looking like the abject fool he is, one more crony is banished to the shadows and National is left looking just that little bit shadier.

What are we to take from this? Well, there are rich pickings out there when it comes to the actually and apparently dodgy dealings of the Key administration. It just takes a bit of scratching, backed up with the possibility of formal investigation, and it’s not hard to get them running. Unfortunately the really momentous injustices this Government are, for now at least, too awful for many voters to allow themselves to believe, particularly when corporate media like the Herald are doing such a good job at covering up so many of the Government’s mistakes and intentions (the Boag story was carefully obscured in the middle pages despite having front page significance for Auckland voters). But peripheral targets like Boag, Lee, and Worth are easy meat. While their neutralization may not do much to Key yet, they do contribute to the dawning popular awareness of this Government’s incompetence and untrustworthiness. Every small cut helps to drain them.

So then there’s National’s Cheif of Propaganda David Farrar. There certainly seems to be some shonkey deals going on in terms of the Government money his company’s getting. As a taxpayer concerned with State accountability and transparency, I welcome a thorough investigation into the propriety of these arrangements. The spectre of Farrar’s conflict of interest has already been raised and considering the brazen arrogance of this Government and its track record, it wouldn’t take much more digging to compile a very compelling prima facie case. Then it would just need some formal power to investigate. Perhaps the AG?

14 comments on “Boag on way, Farrar to follow? ”

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  1. randal 1
    20 February 2010 at 11:13 am

    well there is no point in being inpolitics unless there are some spoils to divide.
    boag and hide and co. try and hide behind the notion of a higher purpose but nup its just collecting the cash so they can retire to the south of france or somewhere.

  2. ghostwhowalksnz 2
    20 February 2010 at 11:21 am

    All those sub $10,000 contracts Farrar would be picking up

    I bet all his private clients would wonder why they cant get the same or better deal than the government ?

  3. samiam 3
    20 February 2010 at 11:36 am

    hi,
    If say you were going to look into Farrar’s dealings, why would you state your intentions in such a public forum?

  4. John Dalley 4
    20 February 2010 at 12:23 pm

    Might be time for Labour or Green MP’s to start asking some questions in the House.

  5. felix 5
    20 February 2010 at 12:43 pm

    Nice one, Sprout. (And Gosman, heh heh)

  6. logie97 6
    20 February 2010 at 3:14 pm

    Of Mr Farrar. He was recently on Afternoons RNZ proudly talking about his trip to Tehran, where he said he was catching up with a staffer in the embassy, and then onto Israel. I was hoping he would publish some of his holiday snaps – maybe I missed them. Perhaps he was on business. Conducting some sort of poll perhaps?

  7. Steve 7
    20 February 2010 at 5:15 pm

    So The Standard will not be supporting or commenting on other Candidates?
    Len will miss you

    [lprent: As far as I’m aware there are only two declared mayoral candidates in Auckland who authors have commented on.

    The council candidates (and everyone else) are waiting for final boundaries which may be done by march (yet another incompetent job by Rodney Hide). Authors can hardly comment on possibilities.

    You look almost as stupid as Hide is, making such a moronic statement (and wasting my time). ]

  8. Rex Widerstrom 8
    20 February 2010 at 6:59 pm

    While there’s no excuse for actual corruption, New Zealand is a small place, and anyone dull enough to be actively interested in politics is part of an even smaller subset.

    People who gain useful political experience which they later take into the private sector inevitably do so through work at a political party, often for free and almost always at less than they could earn in the private sector.

    It’s also a natural instinct for a political party to want to hire people it feels it can trust, especially to conduct sensitive work like polling. If Mike Williams went back to his old job, do you seriously expect the Key government to consider a tender from him?!

    Personally, I wish politicians would wake up to the fact thet they’re better off hiring at least a handful of consultants who look cynically at all of them and are thus going to challenge every proposed decision and statement from a position at least as cynical as that of the Opposition of the day (i.e. consultants like me :-D). It would make for more robust and considered policy, as well as being advantageous politically. But that’s working against human nature.

    I think the focus needs to be on openness, just like with any electoral finance laws. Let people behave as they wish, but in the open, under a spotlight. Then the rest of us can make our decisions as to the propriety of those actions.

    • the sprout 8.1
      20 February 2010 at 10:08 pm

      Agreed Rex, it’s all about transparency and accountability.
      As long as that’s all crystal clear and satisfactory, there’s no problem.
      But with Boag, and I suspect Farrar, it’s not what it should be.

  9. Santi 9
    21 February 2010 at 8:07 am

    David Farrar will do anything for money. He praises Key for a handsome price. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him filling Boag’s shoes.

  10. Phil Twyford 10
    21 February 2010 at 12:38 pm

    Sprout, for the record Heather McCracken broke the story in the Herald on Sunday last week. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10626021

  11. Gooner 11
    21 February 2010 at 9:45 pm

    Lprent, perhaps you’d like to explain how Rodney Hide is responsible for setting the boundaries of the new Council.

    • lprent 11.1
      22 February 2010 at 12:10 am

      Because in the supershitty acts he set the rough boundaries. Furthermore that overrode the local government act, which has an ability for local residents to initiate referendum to move in or out of local governments. Read the legislation…