nz first

Categories under nz first

No categories

John Carter: sleeper-agent for the Left?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:04 pm, April 12th, 2010 - 20 comments

How dumb was John Carter to use his speech at the Grey Power National Conference to have a cry because Grey Power’s participating in an inquiry into aged care by Labour, the Greens, and the Progressives? You don’t try to bully Grey Power with its 100,000 members. The grey voters will be leaving National in droves.

Hide opens door for Winston?

Written By: Sam Cash - Date published: 12:01 pm, January 23rd, 2010 - 14 comments

Eddie has already covered the story of Hide giving the middle finger to the people of Franklin regarding the Supercity. Franklin is Tory heartland. However the current local National MP for Hunua, the underwhelming Dr Paul Hutchinson, has consistently been taken to pieces over his government’s decision to destroy the district. Locals are furious with […]

Blast from the past

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:56 pm, October 9th, 2009 - 37 comments

I see Winston Peters is trying to resurrect his political career with another racist rant about immigration. I don’t think there’s much point in giving the man any more attention. My views are pretty much the same as No Right Turn. All I’d add is that it’s actually kind of tragic to see Winston carry […]

S59, an opening for Winston?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:00 am, August 27th, 2009 - 18 comments

In 2007, 113 MPs voted for the Bradford amendment to s59 of the Crime Act. Eight voted against it. One of them was Winston Peters. Flash forward to 2009. The referendum has shown widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo – it’s dissatisfaction based on myths but the dissatisfaction is real. And neither of the major […]

Winston rising

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:45 am, July 23rd, 2009 - 32 comments

Like some bad horror movie, from beyond the political grave, it stirs again. Christine Rankin? Unbelievably – yes. Don Brash? Well yes, him too (fresh new thinking from National!). But these are but side shows to the main event. Winston Peters is back. Ironically it is National that has opened the door wide for Winston […]

Vote smart: Winnie cleared but too late

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 5:39 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 33 comments

New Zealand First has now been cleared by the Police or any illegal behaviour. That’s three from three but too late. I’ve never had a lot of love for Peters. Yes, economically NZF is left-wing and they were an important bulwark against the neoliberal revolution. Yes, he’s a cheeky bugger and often hilarious, and its […]

End of Winston?

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 9:30 am, November 1st, 2008 - 82 comments

The Dominion Post has published some pretty damning evidence indicating Winston Peters’ connections with the Vela family. According to the Dom Winston’s right-hand man, Ross Meurant, was telling the Vela’s that their donations to New Zealand First would give them “input” into the party’s policies. Like many others I’m always hesitant to predict the end […]

Will Labour back $15 minimum wage?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:30 pm, October 7th, 2008 - 45 comments

The unions want the minimum wage lifted to $15 an hour, two thirds of the average hourly rate, restoring the historic ratio. The Greens, New Zealand First, The Progressives (I think), the Maori Party* and, oddly, the Kiwi Party are also calling for $15 an hour. Will Labour join them? Labour has an excellent record on the […]

Not with a bang but a whimper

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 6:11 am, September 23rd, 2008 - 38 comments

The Privileges Committee has reported back. Peters is censured for not declaring that he had made a pecuniary gain from his lawyer taking donations for Peters’ legal fund. A minority of the Committee, the Labour and NZF MPs, disagreed with this censure pointing out that the evidence given to the Committee was that, had Peters […]

Roy Morgan has Winston on 5%

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:52 pm, September 19th, 2008 - 93 comments

If the latest Roy Morgan poll is to be believed, John Key’s big gamble of ruling Winston Peters out of any future coalition may well turn out to be one of the stupidest plays in New Zealand’s political history. According to the poll, NZ First has increased its hypothetical share of the vote to 5%, […]

End of the line for Peters

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 9:48 am, September 10th, 2008 - 152 comments

Winston Peters will be wondering why he has let his political legacy be destroyed by not simply declaring donations that came from legal sources and being open in his role in soliciting them. All those MPs and other hangers-on who have ridden on the coat-tails of one of New Zealand’s most successful politicians* must be […]

Why didn’t NZF use Nats’ donations playbook?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 2:22 pm, September 4th, 2008 - 56 comments

This business with donations from the Spencer Trust going to New Zealand First but not being declared. I find it hard to credit that this was an accident. It seems beyond belief that no-one in the party would have seen the donation declaration at some point and said ‘hey, what about that $50K from the […]

Break open the trusts

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 7:05 am, September 2nd, 2008 - 25 comments

As we’ve discussed earlier, it would be highly surprising if the investigations into NZF’s finances find any serious illegality. At worst, a failure to declare donations might be found, an offence for which charges cannot be laid more than 6 months after an alleged offence. Now, TV3 was shown accounts by the Spencer Trust which show that […]

Peters stands down

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 5:49 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 145 comments

Peters has stood down. Clark has taken over his portfolios. It’s good that Peters appears to have accepted that this is a necessity and hasn’t turned on the Government. Clever of Clark to take the portfolios herself too. [we nearly had the scoop on this too but it took too long for me to get […]

But why?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:42 am, August 29th, 2008 - 62 comments

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on Peters because its not the kind of issue that affects Kiwis lives (its messy but its not like secretly planning to sell public assets). I’d rather use my post-writing time taking a deeper look at the findings of the Social Report. But… It seems likely, one […]

Clark cuts the thread

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 1:43 pm, August 28th, 2008 - 192 comments

Winston Peters’ stories around the Owen Glenn donation to his legal fund are dangerously convoluted and have stretched everyone’s credulity but without real evidence either way it has been impossible to fairly condemn him. Glenn’s letter yesterday provided strong evidence and left Peters ‘hanging by a thread’, as every hack in the country wrote. Now, Helen Clark […]

Herald poll shows Nats’ lead collapsing

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:50 am, August 28th, 2008 - 36 comments

Today’s Herald-Digi poll is the first to be released that was taken after the secret agenda tape scandal had fully emerged and had some time to sit in voters’ minds. Which makes it worrying reading for National. They have lost 5.4% support (54.4% to 50%) and Labour has benefited from that loss picking up 5.5% (30.8% […]

Whom to believe? (2)

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:26 pm, August 27th, 2008 - 63 comments

Owen Glenn’s letter to the Privileges Committee contradicts Winston Peters’ previous statements to the media, the Privileges Committee, and, presumably, the PM. Glenn says that Peters did personally approach him for a donation, contrary to what Peters has said. It’s important to remember that there’s nothing illegal or even unusual about what Glenn claims Peters did. […]

Winston and the wanker

Written By: John A - Date published: 10:26 am, July 31st, 2008 - 49 comments

Today’s front-page story in the DominionPost on New Zealand First is a complete beat-up. It starts off: More questions have been raised about donations to NZ First over a $20,000 deposit to the party’s bank account that does not appear on its register of declared donations. Really? The story goes on: The Dominion Post has […]

Open up the trusts

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 8:50 am, July 24th, 2008 - 55 comments

Bob Jones confirmed on Morning Report that he gave $25,000 in 2005 to New Zealand First. The money was to be funnelled to NZF through the Spencer Trust but, according to the party’s declaration of donations the money was not passed on (parties’ declarations of donations are supposed to include any donations from a legal […]

The Peters saga, a summary

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 7:56 am, July 23rd, 2008 - 35 comments

1 – In 2005, Owen Glenn paid $100,000 towards a legal defence fund for a case in Peters’ name. 2 – Peters was not told that Glenn had been a donor to that fund until last week according to both Peters and the lawyer Brian Henry. There is no evidence to the contrary. Neither Clark […]

Chasing Peters, it’s easier than examining policy

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:22 am, July 22nd, 2008 - 97 comments

For my part, I don’t see the big deal in all this Peters donation stuff. Transparency in election funding is important (and it’s something that National and ACT have constantly opposed) but there is no evidence of Peters has been purposely secretive. A legal defence fund set up for a court case involving Peters received […]

Spinbusting: NZF’s donations are Labour’s business

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 8:59 am, July 17th, 2008 - 52 comments

National is calling on Helen Clark to investigate alleged donations by Owen Glenn to New Zealand First (which, if they happened, were perfectly legal). Consider what that means: National is advocating for the leader of a political party to be able to delve into the internal finances of another political party. That would be a […]

Winnie and Glenn

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 3:05 pm, July 12th, 2008 - 75 comments

It appears, as everyone suspected, that Owen Glenn did give a donation to New Zealand First. There is nothing illegal or immoral in that. Under the law at the time anonymous donations of any sum were legal and National was the biggest exploiter of that fact, receiving over $2 million in secret donations in 2005 […]

Bill to protect workers from labour-hire vultures

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 1:44 pm, June 24th, 2008 - 105 comments

Labour, with the support of New Zealand First, has developed a bill based on Darien Fenton’s private members’ bill that will ensure tens of thousands of workers are no longer ripped off by ‘triangular employment’ situations, whereby their effective employer contracts out the actual employment of staff to a labour hire company. It works like […]

Peters refuses to answer your questions

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:59 pm, June 6th, 2008 - 37 comments

In the final of our ‘Interview the Leaders’ series, we asked Winston Peters three questions submitted by readers. Damian Edwards from his office promptly replied that Peters would be answering no questions from political blogs. So instead we’ve provided answers to your questions in the form of some great political songs. Q. Of which of […]

Polling companies confirm reputations

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:02 pm, June 3rd, 2008 - 61 comments

Another pair of TV polls, another embarrassment for Colmar Brunton as their poll goes widely out of line with the others even as TNS/TV3 is confirming the established trend. Still, neither of the polls looks great for the Left. National would govern alone under either result. That said, given the trend of 35% for Labour, […]

Interview the Leaders IX – Questions for Peters

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 8:44 pm, May 27th, 2008 - 2 comments

We’ve chosen the questions for Winston Peters in the final installment of our ‘Interview the Leaders’ series. The first question remains the same, as for all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the others we’ve gone with Robinsod’s question: Last election you stated you would go with the […]

The Ministry of National Affairs

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 2:05 pm, May 23rd, 2008 - 70 comments

Here’s a good ten minutes from the middle of Winston’s post budget address yesterday. The highlight is around four minutes in, on National’s burgeoning bureaucracy: Did you know that John Key himself in his Wellington parliamentary office employs has 36 people?… they cost the taxpayer, every year… over seven million dollars… Teams of PR people and spin doctors […]

Get your questions in for Peters

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 1:37 pm, May 16th, 2008 - 10 comments

We’ll be selecting the questions for Winston as the final interview in the â€˜Interview the Leaders’ series on Sunday. So, get them in while you can here. It’s been enjoyable having this series and great to give readers the chance to question leaders in a public forum. If you’ve got any ideas for future series […]

Interview the Leaders VIII: NZ First

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 10:08 am, May 13th, 2008 - 9 comments

We’ve chosen the questions for John Key in the seventh installment of our “Interview the Leaders” series. The first question remains the same, as for all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the others we’ve gone with Darryl’s question: Under the last National government most people’s wages fell […]