Judith Collins

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Just answer the questions John

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, August 25th, 2014 - 41 comments

John Key has taken to answering relevant questions about Dirty Politics by refusing to answer them.  But these questions go to the heart of the issue of whether he is fit to be New Zealand’s Prime Minister and deserve to be answered.

Collins speaks – to Glucina

Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, August 22nd, 2014 - 24 comments

Glucina, the NZ Herald gossip columnist, gets plenty of mentions in Dirty Politics as the legitimate establishment face to WhaleOil’s smears.  She is a solid member of #TeamCollins.

Shrinking violet

Written By: - Date published: 2:04 pm, August 21st, 2014 - 14 comments

John Key’s told media they don’t need to talk to him about Judith Collins and her Cameron Slater choices, they should talk to her as she’s no shrinking violet…

But Radio NZ, The Herald, TV3 and I imagine all other media have been trying to contact her for days.

 

John Key’s groundhog day

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, August 21st, 2014 - 52 comments

Poor John Key must think he is in the movie Groundhog Day. The media clearly do not accept his explanation for Dirty Politics. And each day further information comes out which casts more and more doubt on the veracity of what he has been saying.

Gutless!

Written By: - Date published: 3:43 pm, August 19th, 2014 - 114 comments

Key’s giving Collins a “last last” chance! After she’s outed an innocent public servant to an amoral blogger! Duncan Garner said it six months ago about Oravida: “John Key won’t like this, but by Helen Clark’s standards he looks weak.” That’s too generous – by anybody’s standards he looks weak, as well as unprincipled. He’s no leader. Update: Email here – name, job title and phone numbers including mobile

Judith Collins must go

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, August 19th, 2014 - 67 comments

Five months ago John Key gave Judith Collins a final warning regarding her Ministerial Career after misleading him and the media about Oravida.  Following the release of Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics and the allegations, backed up by emails, that Hager has made against Collins her last chance must have now been used up.

Aaron Bhatnagar – I barely know the guy

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, August 19th, 2014 - 26 comments

BLip has a look at Aaron Bhatnagar and his role in the disgusting events documented in “Dirty Tricks”. In particular the way that Judith Collins seems to have rewarded her crony Cameron Slater’s mate on the taxpayers purse.

The moral low ground

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, August 18th, 2014 - 45 comments

Revulsion. That’s what’s coming out from a range of people who have ploughed through the inner thoughts of Slater, Farrar, Ede, Collins, Lusk, Odgers, Jordan Williams – they’re all repulsive. It’s the strength of that gut feeling in response that will sink their plot. Despite all John Key’s efforts to move as quickly as possible to the end of the day, …it’s still not ok.  Key’s try at cover up is pathetic, and doomed to be futile. But what it shows is that he has chosen the moral low ground with the rest of them. TeamKey indeed.

Naming and Shaming

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 pm, August 16th, 2014 - 11 comments

Judith Collins naming the eponymous Simon Pleasants to Cameron Slater as the suspect in a document leak is unconscionable.  She cannot remain a Minister, otherwise Key’s claim to a high standard when it comes to Ministerial behaviour is in tatters. This time the John Banks  defence “I haven’t read it” and “I have taken his/her word” will not do.

Some confirmation about Collins and Slater

Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, August 16th, 2014 - 31 comments

Over at The Ruminator there is a post corroborates the Judith Collins and Cameron Slater mutual back-scratching in private vendettas. It appears to me that there has been rather a lot of fiddling of the OIAs in recent years. In particular I’m thinking about the OIA requests on Liu for TV3.

 

Polity: Judith Collins on crime

Written By: - Date published: 2:36 pm, July 14th, 2014 - 32 comments

Last week, new information became public about potential stat-juking by our Police. The practice of reclassifying crimes as “incidents” has the effect of artificially reducing the apparent crime rate. This practice occurred mainly in the Counties-Manukau police district, which operates in the electorate of then-Police Minister Judith Collins.  That is, of course, troubling on a number of levels.

Updated.

NRT: Hoist by her own petard?

Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, June 3rd, 2014 - 20 comments

One should defend the right of a politician and anyone else to be a complete dork on the net. Even Judith Collins doesn’t need two years in jail for lying to a reporter about another reporter or tweeting bullying abusive rubbish. However many would see Collins’ tweets as “part of the cut and thrust between politicians and journalists”, and they’d be right. But the fact that they would be illegal under her law shows just how awful that law is

Polity: Key – “Meh. Maybe I lied to Parliament.”

Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, May 14th, 2014 - 39 comments

Misleading parliament is serious. If it happens, MPs are supposed to make a stand-alone statement to the House about what they said, why it was wrong, and what they should have said instead. Key didn’t do that at all. He just inserted a pathetic “meh” concession into an answer to a question. And the speaker diminished parliament by letting him get away with it.

The Herald is turning against the Government

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, May 11th, 2014 - 92 comments

The Herald, normally a bastion of support for National, has this weekend printed a number of stories openly critical of the National Government. As John Armstrong asks, have the wheels fallen off the Government’s reelection campaign?

The politics of private dinners

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, May 9th, 2014 - 225 comments

Whether it’s Judith Collins, Michael Woodhouse or the Cabinet Club/s, National Party fundraisers, target the wealthy base they represent.  In the process, boundaries are blurred between mainstream politics, exclusive private spaces & personal relationships.

Moving Collins on

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, May 9th, 2014 - 89 comments

As Judith Collins enters her second day of lying low it’s instructive to look at how the establishment Nats are slowly and strategically removing Collins’ influence so they can ditch her.

Polity: Key lies to Parliament: The proof

Written By: - Date published: 1:24 pm, May 8th, 2014 - 127 comments

Yesterday, John Key lied to Parliament. He made a very specific claim about a set of official documents, and those same documents show clearly that the claim was false. If Key is anywhere near Wellington today, he simply has to come to the House to correct his answer. Deeply embarrassing that may be, but he cannot allow such blatant untruths to stand uncorrected.

Latest Roy Morgan

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 pm, May 7th, 2014 - 168 comments

The latest Roy Morgan poll result is out and although it bounces around and trends rather than individual results are more important National’s support has slumped signficicantly and Labour’s and the Green’s support has risen.

Judith Collins the walking dead

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, May 7th, 2014 - 114 comments

Yesterday in Parliament the Government was completely on the back foot.  Judith Collins cannot be more compromised.  National strategists must be afraid at the damage that its one strength, John Key, is sustaining.

Handouts to make them go away

Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, May 7th, 2014 - 9 comments

The announcement from National that they’d bribe unemployed beneficiaries to go to Christchurch was “An empty grab for headlines”. Perhaps they should have used their strategy for party renewal? Pay more from party funds awash from selling the time of Ministers time seems to work well.

Culture of Impunity

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, May 7th, 2014 - 32 comments

It now appears that Judith Collins would have to commit murder to be relieved of her ministerial warrants – or perhaps not.

Collins resigns: Twitter becomes safer

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, May 7th, 2014 - 8 comments

Yesterday Judith Collins announced that she was quitting Twitter. Some mischief makers may mourn the passing of this well-known troll from Twitter, including an awful lot of journalists and their bottom feeder golem wannabes. But there will be many in NZ who currently tend to avoid Twitter may begin to cautiously test the platform again now that at least one blowhard has retired from it.

Final final final warning

Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, May 6th, 2014 - 59 comments

How many more things does Collins need to do or have come out after her final warning to get the sack?

Crushed Collins

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, May 6th, 2014 - 163 comments

Judith Collins spectacular fall from grace continues. The latest news is that shortly after THAT dinner where business was NOT discussed Oravida received a quarantine clearance certificate from the Chinese Authorities and then coincidentally made a donation to the National Party.

Polity: Even more new, damning evidence on Collins.

Written By: - Date published: 6:52 pm, May 5th, 2014 - 69 comments

Looks like an interesting week of drawn out misery for someone. Rob Salmond at Polity again: “I do not want to talk about Judith Collins’ “private” dinner. There are plenty of people making astute points about her impropriety there already. Instead, I want to draw attention to another damning part of last week’s Friday afternoon OIA-dump.”

Collins is out of control

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, May 5th, 2014 - 232 comments

Judith Collins’s startling attack on Katie Bradford on the weekend has created all sorts of problems for John Key. Relations with the Press Gallery must be at an all time low. Sacking her will cause all sorts of problems within National’s caucus, retaining her in Cabinet will risk further bad publicity. There is no upside.

Spin Slater Spin

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, May 4th, 2014 - 94 comments

Cameron Slater is spinning that an informal question of a police minister about staff leave entitlements by an opposition MP is the same as a Minister effectively requiring the review of a police prosecution of a National Party donor.  There is a sense of desperation emanating from the right over the Oravida issue … Update – and John Key appears to be displeased that Collins has brought a TVOne reporter into the debate …

Collins is in even more trouble?

Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, May 2nd, 2014 - 177 comments

It has been disclosed that Judith Collins asked for and then cancelled an MFAT briefing five days before the infamous private dinner that she had with Oravida directors and an unnamed Chines Border official where she claimed that no official business was discussed.

Media response to Labour’s Monetary Policy Upgrade

Written By: - Date published: 2:32 pm, May 2nd, 2014 - 105 comments

The response to Labour’s Monetary Policy upgrade has been overall very good and it has dominated the policy debate at the same time as a series of scandals start to circle around the National Party.

Corrosive, anti-democratic power of big money

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, May 2nd, 2014 - 86 comments

Too many MPs in the NAct government, & some journalists, fail to understand that the negative impacts of the infiltration into politics of the worst ethos of big business & big money: croynism, networks of power & influence, self-serving, buddy-supporting actions, & deceptive manipulations of public relations.

NRT: Two obvious questions

Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, May 1st, 2014 - 70 comments

Maurice Williamson was sacked within the space of 2 hours this morning after the Herald revealed he had attempted to interfere in a police investigation on behalf of a party donor. Its exactly what should happen when a Minister behaves corruptly and pisses on our constitutional norms like this. At the same time, it raises an obvious question: why hasn’t Judith Collins suffered the same fate? Or is corrupt behaviour only punished when it involves older Ministers the PM would like to dispose of?