political parties

Was a crime committed when Slater accessed Labour’s computer system?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:32 am, August 17th, 2014 - 46 comments

Occasionally erudite disagrees with one part of rocky’s analysis of the legality of Cameron Slater and Jason Ede’s accessing and copying the data from the Labour party’s computer. However he still thinks it is likely to be criminal.

The Left on policies and values

Written By: karol - Date published: 7:53 pm, August 16th, 2014 - 6 comments

In spite of what John Key & some of the media claim, Labour & the Greens have continued to campaign positively on policies and values throughout the week. The Greens officially launch their campaign tomorrow.

John Key’s defence to Hager’s book starts to unwind

Written By: redfed - Date published: 4:29 pm, August 16th, 2014 - 155 comments

The Herald is reporting that the first of Key’s denials about the allegations in Dirty Politics has been refuted. National did hack Labour’s crippled server in 2011 and even apologised for it but Key claims National had no involvement.

Shadow play: Key’s 2-track politics

Written By: karol - Date published: 11:31 am, August 16th, 2014 - 40 comments

Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics tells of the “two track strategy” of John Key’s leadership of the National Party & the country: a smiley nice front, & vicious, covert black ops behind the scenes. Key has overseen one of the darkest, nastiest periods in NZ politics. Vote Left for necessary, democratic change, for people-centred governance.

Who took Slater’s emails?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:00 am, August 16th, 2014 - 58 comments

Some interesting comments on Hager’s book by John Armstrong and Danyl McLaughlan and the nagging question of who is responsible remains …

Pagani and the Straw People

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 10:34 pm, August 15th, 2014 - 41 comments

I don’t like listening to talkback radio, it’s not my thing. But I was prompted to listen today to a clip of Josie Pagani as she apparently named 3 regular ‘anonymous’ Standard bloggers. More on that in a bit. Whilst I’ve got as frustrated as others who have posted, I’ve not had an anti-Pagani post […]

GCSB, privacy & Facebook messaging

Written By: karol - Date published: 2:42 pm, August 15th, 2014 - 7 comments

How private are communications on social media platforms such as Facebook? It is claimed that the GCSB law’s definition of “privacy” leaves a loophole for warrantless surveillance of messaging by Kiwis on platforms like Facebook.

The Hager Book – National fights back

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:07 pm, August 15th, 2014 - 91 comments

Two days after Nicky Hager’s book has been released and National’s response has been interesting. They are doing everything from attacking the author to the means of obtaining the information, to saying that it is politics as usual and Labour does it too. But John Key’s recent response to TV3 looked desperate. And the veracity of what he said needs to be checked.

Slater and Christchurch – your thoughts?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:00 pm, August 14th, 2014 - 61 comments

Cameron Slater expresses his thoughts on Christchurch and the effects of the second Christchurch Earthquake. John Key thinks that he is a “pretty colourful character”. What do you think?

National Response

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 10:18 am, August 14th, 2014 - 155 comments

National’s standard response is to ridicule – other political parties, Jon Stephenson, scientists etc have all had it. It slots nicely with Cameron Slater’s style. Now they’re ridiculing Nicky Hager, but they need to be taken up on each allegation.

Polity: Dirty politics: My 2c

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:48 am, August 14th, 2014 - 104 comments

The use of clandestine SIS files as a weapon of partisan politics is needs to be investigated. John Key or his office discovered classified SIS files that were embarrassing to Phil Goff, got them declassified, then immediately told a right-wing blogger to seek those same newly-declassified files under the OIA, all as a means of smearing a political opponent.

Dirty Politics: The Brestapo

Written By: rocky - Date published: 7:00 am, August 14th, 2014 - 88 comments

I have foolishly never taken Cameron Slater very seriously except when his attacks have been obviously for the benefit of the National Party. I actually believed that the misinformed and bigoted viewpoints that prevail in his posts were his genuine opinions. It fits his character to drone on about “The Breastapo” “Sucking on the Taxpayers’ Tit”. To discover that such posts were actually written and paid for on behalf of Fonterra actually shocked me.

Just made for Winston

Written By: lprent - Date published: 9:59 pm, August 13th, 2014 - 26 comments

I think I know someone who 5 weeks out from an election who thinks he has just had a few percent tacked on to his parties votes. After all remember the “cup of tea” in Epsom last election. And he may have read some parts of the book?

Dirty Politics: The preface

Written By: lprent - Date published: 9:17 pm, August 13th, 2014 - 57 comments

I do so want to read this book right now. I can hardly wait. The preface is online… http://dirtypoliticsnz.com Nicky Hager is way way more of a gentleperson than I am. Explaining the material that is not in the book – “The fact that Slater and his associates have made a career of exposing the very private details of other people’s lives does not make it right to do that to them.”

Cameron Slater dirties John Key (or vice versa?)

Written By: lprent - Date published: 7:11 pm, August 13th, 2014 - 138 comments

I haven’t read the Nicky Hager’s book “Dirty Politics” yet. But I’m not surprised that Cameron Slater is up to his neck in dirt provided by John Key’s dirt merchant Jason Ede. That he has been given information sourced from the SIS is extremely surprising. I had not thought that John Key was quite that stupid.

Hager’s “Dirty Politics”

Written By: karol - Date published: 5:30 pm, August 13th, 2014 - 189 comments

So the book is an expose of the Slater-Ede-Key Dirty Politics machine, based on data acquired and leaked to Hager. Will Update: Update: Hager to be on Campbell Live tonight.

Local Bodies: Greens Riding Above Stormy Seas

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:41 am, August 13th, 2014 - 10 comments

Dave Kennedy (bsprout) looks at the increasingly parlous current state of the smaller parties. He is also looking forward to the Green party campaign launch this weekend in Auckland. Updated with Green campaign launch details.

Naming the game

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 6:34 pm, August 12th, 2014 - 78 comments

It’s been interesting to watch the nats and their busy little helpers working away at branding the election campaign as a nasty one.

It’s been disappointing to watch the media falling for it so hard.

The right’s lack of diversity

Written By: Stephanie Rodgers - Date published: 12:00 pm, August 12th, 2014 - 46 comments

On the right there’s one big party who have the lion’s share of the vote, and a smattering of odd little parties at the kids’ table fighting for scraps and key electorates. It’s one of the reasons National continues to poll so highly: if you’re a rightwing voter, you don’t have any other viable options.

ACT goes weird

Written By: redfed - Date published: 8:05 am, August 12th, 2014 - 43 comments

ACT Epsom candidate David Seymour is complaining that left voters in the seat may vote tactically.

Polity: Mr Angry tries to reheat 2011 campaign

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 12:31 pm, August 11th, 2014 - 13 comments

Steven Joyce is asking about how Labour can afford their policies. Half of the money is what National is planning to spend unwisely. The rest is from documented increases in revenue in a fiscal plan. Unlike National’s mythic surplus, these are solid values. They will produce a solid surplus to pay down National’s debt.

The bottomless Labour-Green divide

Written By: Stephanie Rodgers - Date published: 12:00 pm, August 11th, 2014 - 82 comments

It seems like every time Labour (or the Greens) announce a policy the first question (after “what does John Key think about this?”) is “But the Greens (or Labour) have a different policy to the one you just announced! How can you possibly work together in government?”

Jamie Whyte officially loses it

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:52 am, August 11th, 2014 - 54 comments

Not content with seeking support from the Randian loving Maori bashing incest supporting part of the electorate Jamie Whyte is now targeting those against alcohol by suggesting that Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy has a drinking problem.

How Labour and the Greens win it from here

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:20 am, August 11th, 2014 - 81 comments

A great campaign launch from Labour on the weekend, a couple of bad weeks for National and suddenly there is a chance that David Cunliffe may be our next Prime Minister. But how does he succeed and what can progressives do to help?

Labour – “Ready to Win”

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:10 pm, August 10th, 2014 - 135 comments

David Cunliffe’s campaign launch speech.

Added a video of the speech.

Campaign launch – live stream

Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:08 pm, August 10th, 2014 - 61 comments

For those of you who aren’t going to be at the campaign launch today. Here is the link to where the live stream will be.. It is going to be fun to see what happens this afternoon. But I’ll be there so if I have elbow room, I might write something.

Updated with reaction links.

Polity: When general reporters cover political stories…

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:19 am, August 10th, 2014 - 9 comments

You really have to ask what journalists are trained in. Clearly not learning about existing party policies. Some reporters managing to miss that Labour has been planning to extend Paid Parental Leave for 3 years.

The Labour Campaign Launch

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:26 am, August 10th, 2014 - 40 comments

Labour’s campaign launch is today and it is expected that major health initiatives will be announced.

Leading voices: TV debates

Written By: karol - Date published: 12:17 pm, August 9th, 2014 - 101 comments

There’s much to discuss on the two election-focused TV debates conducted over the last 24 hours. Prime TV’s new show: Prime Time with Sean Plunket – Bennett & Turei on poverty/inequality (Prime TV Fridays 9.30pm): TV 3’s The Nation: Saturday 9.30am

The Lochinver station

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:51 am, August 9th, 2014 - 132 comments

Just over six weeks to go until the next election and we have our first major campaign issue. Not what some young people said about John Key but foreign ownership of our land.

Local Bodies: National and the Poverty Deniers

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:11 pm, August 8th, 2014 - 24 comments

Poverty deniers are also adamant that the ‘relative’ poverty that may exist has been flatlining for some time and the best way of stopping poverty is just getting people into work. They ignore the fact that 40% of children living in poverty have at least one parent in full-time employment.