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Polity: ROPS – Roads of Political Significance
Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, June 30th, 2014 - 131 comments
National’s announcement yesterday of $212 million for 14 roading projects around regional New Zealand hits a lot of bad notes. I think it is a strategic mistake. New Zealanders are not used to pork-barreling as naked as this. All but two of the projects are in National-held areas, and those other two are on National’s target list in September. And some are complete clunkers. For instance Nick Smith rerouting SH6 from the rich houses on to the kids going to schools
The #teamkey personality cult
Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, June 29th, 2014 - 120 comments
National has unveiled aspects of its 2014 campaign with John Key being a cult like figure and a slogan that makes it sound like National cares for ordinary New Zealanders.
It’s the season of books & posters: write your own
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, June 29th, 2014 - 7 comments
It seems to be the season of books and faux movie posters. Mary-Ellen O’Connor has published a Nats’ cook book. Proceeds of the sales will apparently be donated to the “centre left”.
The reality is we’re pretty relaxed about fixing Christchurch
Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, June 28th, 2014 - 28 comments
For so many of the people in this still-broken city, they feel that this is a journey which they have been left to walk alone. Too often they find themselves fighting against the state, rather than working with them. One gets the impression that for all the visits and photo ops, Key just doesn’t get the situation down here.
The people respond to the Herald Editorial on Donghua Liu
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, June 27th, 2014 - 66 comments
Further to lprent’s post this morning there is an avalanche of responses on the Herald website to its Donghua Liu editorial. People are obviously furious and the anger is palpable. And there is a trade me sale of John Key’s book with a very funny series of questions and answers
NZ Herald: Be journalists, check before ‘reporting’
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, June 27th, 2014 - 62 comments
There is a self-serving anonymously authored editorial in the NZ Herald this morning “Editorial: Cries of bias will not stop reporting”. Well for a start the problem isn’t with the Herald reporting. The journalism on the story has been performed by amateur journalists and facilitated by incompetent editors who didn’t check the story. This probably including whoever wrote this pathetic editorial. It appears to have been an abrupt change from their usual competent style of journalism. Of course the question has to be asked about what caused this change?
Dear John Armstrong
Written By: - Date published: 6:45 pm, June 26th, 2014 - 82 comments
A dear John letter to Herald Columnist John Armstrong.
Key and Herald embarrassed as Liu statement changes
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, June 25th, 2014 - 113 comments
The Herald has now published details of a further statement from Donghua Liu which directly contradicts previous claims. So what did it do to ensure the accuracy of the original claims and why did it print those allegations without verification? And who is the mysterious person who prepared a statement that with the benefit of hindsight was clearly inaccurate?
Smith plans sale of trees to fund DOC
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, June 25th, 2014 - 135 comments
Nick Smith is proposing to introduce under urgency legislation which will allow the removal of felled trees from conservation areas on the West Coast. The sense of cynical politics involved in this measure is strong …
Reverse ferret bites PM on arse.
Written By: - Date published: 2:46 pm, June 24th, 2014 - 83 comments
PM John Key has performed a backflip by now suggesting Donghua Liu should front up with evidence to support the NZ Herald’s unsubstantiated claim that he donated substantial sums to Labour. This is a world away from his previous position that it was up to Labour to show that no donation was made. It’s increasingly looking like it simply not true and the Herald has been played like a fiddle. And two, the fiddle planter is Cameron Slater, the PM’s bestie from way back.
Polity: Colin Craig confused
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, June 23rd, 2014 - 27 comments
This morning’s news from the Fairfax/Ipsos poll is that 81% of New Zealanders hate coat-tailing and want it gone. I agree with them. So does Labour. So do the Greens. So do Internet MANA. National, of course, relishes coat-tailing. So – to the 81% – if you want 2014 to be the last election with any coat-tailing, vote for a change of government. In the meantime of course, we have Crazy Colin Craig who thinks that Key’s job is to give just him a seat, entirely of his own accord, with no “insipid” discussions about the quid pro quo. Good luck with that.
Colin Craig to run in East Coast Bays – McCully sacrificed
Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 47 comments
In a speech today Colin Craig has confirmed that he will be standing in Murray McCully’s seat of East Coast Bays.
NZ Herald – again that curious lack of detail
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 112 comments
I’ve been around the Labour party campaigners for a long time. I’d have expected to hear of auction sales of near to $100,000 by rumour if nothing else. It is possible that I didn’t. But then so is time travel. Quite simply the NZ Heralds reporting of Liu’s letter without any corroboration or details about where and when isn’t what I expect from journalists. It is what I expect from Whaleoil – a simple smear. I hadn’t realised that the Herald was that desperate.
Turn out and vote National out
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, June 21st, 2014 - 110 comments
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…
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?
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 […]
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.
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…
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?
Polity: Herald poll
Written By: - Date published: 3:14 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 60 comments
Rob Salmond at Polity looks at the Herald poll published this morning and looks at what ground the left has to make up. Over recent polls the right vote appears to have been consolidating more and more strongly behind National over the course of this year. The formation of the Internet Mana Party doesn’t appear to have made much impact on their combined vote. Also the various poll of polls corrected for known biases and looking at probably seat allocations don’t look good either. Some work for the progressive parties to make up over the next 95 days.
Iraq and Syria
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, June 16th, 2014 - 77 comments
The situation in Syria and Iraq is becoming dire as two separate civil wars rage on. This raises as an issue National’s and John Key’s attitude to the war in Iraq which has clearly destabilised any hope of civilised rule. He is now claiming to be an internationalist and to only be interested in multilateral action. But has this always been the case?
Polity: Internet Party: “Ban coat-tailing.”
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, June 16th, 2014 - 26 comments
New Zealand’s democracy would better if we had a lower threshold and no coat-tailing shenanigans. Even without coat-tailing there remains the potential for blocs to make tiny gains by way of electorate deals, but it would ensure the end of manifest unfairnesses like the relative ACT / NZ First results in 2008. The reality is that National had the opportunity to do the right thing, and chose not to for venal self-interested reasons, and are now crying like spoiled brats because their opponents are using it too.
OU Vote Chat programme goes sour
Written By: - Date published: 6:33 pm, June 13th, 2014 - 17 comments
So it appears the intended non-partisan deeper engagement with politicians that is the Otago University Vote Chat has been taken over by the National Party.
Polity: News from National Comms!
Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, June 13th, 2014 - 40 comments
Rob Salmond at Polity on what has landed in his mail box paid for by your GST and also close to the wrong side the permissible limits of Parliamentary Services funds. Or perhaps this is something for “NZ Taxpayers Union” to moan about wasting taxpayers money with. They won’t of course because they seem to be good little front organisation for Act and Jordan Williams appears to have about as much independence as their beloved slaves. But if you received one, then a complaint seems in order.
TPP – the expensive vanity project of NZ diplomacy
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, June 13th, 2014 - 51 comments
Wayne Mapp is worried about the possibility of Labour backing away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). If National and MFAT would like support from the free-trade advocates inside Labour, then I’d suggest that they get off their padded arses and provide some solid information not only to us, but also to the public. But all I have heard so far is some psuedo-religious Randian rants about free-trade that are about as convincing to business people as statements about the imminent arrival of the Rapture.
The National party are in bed with the insurance industry but it’s Christchurch residents that are getting shafted
Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, June 12th, 2014 - 117 comments
The Insurance Council and National are desperately trying to pour cold water on Labour’s popular earthquake court policy.
NRT: Climate change: A carbon tax in action
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, June 12th, 2014 - 5 comments
The Greens promised to scrap the gutted and ineffective ETS and replace it with a carbon tax. National immediately claimed that the sky would fall if we stopped subsidising polluters and allowing them to rort us. But where it is used it has done exactly what it was designed to do: reduce emissions while lowering taxes on ordinary people. National just likes polluters?
Murders out west
Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, June 12th, 2014 - 204 comments
Four alleged murders out west in the past month have caused a great deal of soul searching. What is going wrong? What can we do to prevent any further tragic loss of life?
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