Leggett in Parkin’s pocket?

55 comments on “Leggett in Parkin’s pocket? ”

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1. Sirenia 1

   9 August 2016 at 9:23 pm

   Glad you noticed this. I have been wondering where Nick Leggatt’s money is coming from as he has numerous huge billboards and lots of expensive advertising. Seems he has got the backing of the remnants of the ACT Party in Wellington. What is their motivation? All he has mentioned is more roads, They are probably expecting him to do their bidding.
2. ankerawshark 2

   9 August 2016 at 9:51 pm

   http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/labour-mps-forbidden-from-associating-with-right-ring-wellington-mayoral-candidate/

   Good on Andrew Little. Calling it how it is. Interesting it was Shearer and Nash who were going to attend the meeting.
   • Puckish Rogue 2.1

     10 August 2016 at 10:24 am

     Are you now or have you ever been a right winger!
     • adam 2.1.1

       10 August 2016 at 10:34 am

       Don’t give up your day job Puckish Rogue – I’m thinking comedy might not be for you.
   • srylands 2.2

     10 August 2016 at 11:30 am

     “Prohibiting” individuals from associating with people at a dining establishment is despotic. Describing these people as “right wing” is childish.
     • Muttonbird 2.2.1

       10 August 2016 at 11:42 am

       You must have been back in Australia for a large part of the last two years when Key has tagged anyone who opposes him as lefties running a left wing conspiracy.
       • WILD KATIPO 2.2.1.1

         10 August 2016 at 2:35 pm

         @Muttonbird

         Yes…the man is either a cheap version of a second rate Joe McCarthy act or the man is paranoid.

         I would say a little of each , to be honest.

         Especially after all the bald faced lies and double talk he has uttered since 2008. You can only keep that little game up for so long before it all comes unstuck – which it clearly is doing now.
     • WILD KATIPO 2.2.2

       10 August 2016 at 2:39 pm

       I love seeing the far right wing fanatics bawl.

       Like pigs, they squeal loud and long when the food in their trough is taken from them.

       Yet at least the pig is amoral. Which cannot be said in the case of the far right wing neo liberal fanatic. The pig when juxtaposed alongside them shames them completely.
3. Muttonbird 3

   9 August 2016 at 9:51 pm

   Andrew Little right on the money with his call today. Good to see he outed Leggett at the first available opportunity.
4. Muttonbird 4

   9 August 2016 at 10:06 pm

   I can see why Farrar and co are pushing hard the idea that the Wellington council is toxic. They hope to tar Justin Lester, as the default incumbent, with that brush to pave the way for the ‘new blood’; ACT candidate, Leggett.

   Farrar has also gone on today about campaign colours and branding as if to sow the seeds of confusion among voters who see nothing past the mastheads.

   I’ll tell you something for nothing right now. There’s no brand more poisonous that the ACT party brand which can barely scrape together a tenth of 1% of the polled party vote of late. ACT have relied on electoral corruption for some years now in order to survive and not much has changed with their appearance in the Wellington Council race.

   Good luck nailing your colours to that mast, Nick.

   http://thestandard.org.nz/justin-lester-launches-campaign-for-wellington-mayor/
   • Matthew Whitehead 4.1

     10 August 2016 at 3:56 pm

     Pretty sure in this case “toxic” is code for “filled with Green and Labour candidates.”
5. D'Esterre 5

   9 August 2016 at 10:58 pm

   We’ve been cold-called by the Leggett campaign apparatchiks. I’ve politely told them to take a hike. I won’t be voting for him, carpetbagger that he is.
   Last thing we need here: we don’t want Lambton Quay to end up like Hartham Court, do we!
6. Chauncey 6

   9 August 2016 at 11:05 pm

   It is obvious to local politics watchers that the Wellington Council is toxic at best. In reality, Deputy Mayor Lester has more than a passing degree of responsibility. To start, he is part of the slush fund quartet, along with the Mayor, the faux independent National card carrying sister-in-law of Bill English, Jo Coughlan and the neo-liberal CEO. A big F-up was funding the Leggatt supporting John Morrison’s $300k call centre boondoogle. More recently, there was the multi-million dollar bribe to get Singapore Airlines to use Canberra as a hub to Singapore for the business elite. That of course was to grease the rails for the intended $300m to $600m ratepayer gift runway extension for Infratil’s blod-sucking shareholders. God knows where the other slush fund millions have gone. One couldn’t help but be bored by his repetitive claim of being a businessman on the Nation last Saturday – a below living wage small enterprise employer at that! Following up on the CEO issue – guess who was responsible for the CEO’s bonus assessments and payouts on what can only be assumed to be dubious criteria! Lavery is clearly the public subsidiser of the private sector arch enemy of local democracy. The accusation that Leggatt is in league with developers has to be considered alongside Lester’s executive membership of the Property Council. As an example, he has has supported Willis Bond’s privatisation of public land on the waterfront – happily putting most of the public open space that was gifted to the ratepayers at the disposal of one person on $1 per year leases for 100+ years contracts, and has seemingly supported every Council measure to assist the rogue developer class in the city. Seemingly, Lester is also happy to provide rates relief so that his developer mates can immediately add a $5k ratepayer subsidy to the cost of new house purchases. It is also telling that as the official Labour candidate, his campaign colour is not red.
   Yes, the Wellington Council is dysfunctional, or, as a former employee claimed, ‘toxic’. Sadly, Labour’s disingenuous show-pony is a large part of the problem and will not be the solution. Sadly, as a socialist who is of the far left variety, I could never endorse Lester’s candidacy or Leggatt’s of course. Pity Labour didn’t have a more fitting contender like, say, Annette King or Paul Eagle!
   • The Chairman 6.1

     10 August 2016 at 6:56 am

     “Sadly, Labour’s disingenuous show-pony is a large part of the problem and will not be the solution.”

     Indeed. Labour should be distancing themselves from him – not endorsing him.
     • weizguy 6.1.1

       10 August 2016 at 12:12 pm

       So who will be getting your vote Chauncey? Chairman?

       Or are you happy to assist the election of Mayor Coughlan or Leggett because Lester isn’t pure enough for you?

       If you love Eagle – you’d get him as Deputy Mayor if Lester is elected.
       • The Chairman 6.1.1.1

         13 August 2016 at 9:47 am

         “Are you happy to assist the election of Mayor Coughlan or Leggett because Lester isn’t pure enough for you?”

         Lester’s shortcomings suggests there would be little difference.
   • William 6.2

     10 August 2016 at 7:37 pm

     Paul Eagle! You must be joking. The guy who formed an alliance with Nicola Young to run together and to be her deputy. Who has very little concept of the distinction between Governance & Management, or how to avoid conflicts of interest (being on the committee of the IB Residents Association when a major part of their constitution involves liaising with WCC, where he’s a councillor).
     The guy is a naive numpty. The Get Rid of the Island Bay Cycleway facebook crowd were happy to use him but now that Celia has withdrawn they’re going hard out to screw Labour. There’s significant suspicion that Nicola Young has connections to that group.
     I placed him at No2 on my STV ballot paper last election, this year I won’t place him at all.
7. swordfish 7

   9 August 2016 at 11:47 pm

   Ahhhhh, well that wouldn’t surprise me one little bit.

   Leggett’s a key member of the extra-Parliamentary wing of the Blairite-ABC faction of the Labour Party. Great chum of Phil Goff’s former numbers man, Phil Quin, and the Paganis, Shearer, Nashie, Shane Jones and so on (here he is a few days ago with Shearer and Jones in shot taken by visiting Quin … https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CpAIMvzVIAAeMoz.jpg – presumably the event referred to in the newstalk zb article):

   Mr Little said the event was for right-wingers who have routinely sought to undermine the Labour Party and it’s not right for a Labour MP to share a platform with people who do that. And he’s making it clear he considers Nick Leggett, a former Labour Party member, a right-winger.

   Andrew Little: “His campaign manager is well-known ACT party identity. We know that there’s money from the right-wing that has gone into his campaign. He’s a right-wing candidate.” The event was attended by Labour MP David Shearer and former Labour Party activist Phil Quin …

   Quin seems to be advising his old mate Leggett – Presumably doing the numbers, strategizing on second and third preferences and working on lower-preference endorsements from right-wing candidates Coughlan and Young. (The almost entirely unknown Leggett only won the Porirua Mayoralty a couple of terms ago because he was endorsed by the popular retiring Mayor Jenny Brash, allowing him to win with a plurality in a crowded field).

   He has a background, of course, in real estate and property investment.
   • Chris 7.1

     10 August 2016 at 12:57 am

     https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CpAIMvzVIAAeMoz.jpg

     Surely that’s a caption competition.
8. Hanswurst 8

   10 August 2016 at 4:59 am

   Predictably, Tracy Watkins weighs in with a stream of propaganda, likening Little’s actions to a ‘purge’, despite nobody’s having been removed or expelled from any body. Her invoking of the Douglas years towards the end of the article is also clearly calculated to strike fear into the hearts of more working-class and leftward orientated Labour supporters by drawing a false equivalence between the fourth Labour government and her description of the current situation, which paints it (however hyperbolically) as being the exact opposite of that right-wing takeover.

   It doesn’t really matter whether her wonky reasoning is dim-witted or disingenuous, it’s the short of poorly-supported smear that is unworthy of any serious, printed publication.
   • Jenny Kirk 8.1

     10 August 2016 at 8:15 am

     Yeah – Hanswurst – all Andrew Little was doing was following the Party’s Constitution and Rules – and if Watkins read the most basic of these, she would know that it was Nash and Shearer who were breaching the rules as well in supporting Leggett, and if Leggett hadn’t resigned, he would have been expelled from the Party for standing against the authorised candidate Lester.
     Interesting that Quin is still part of that mix. Egoistic, trouble-makers all of them.
     • Matthew Whitehead 8.1.1

       10 August 2016 at 4:05 pm

       Sadly expecting Tracy Watkins to care about the truth seems to be above her pay grade.
       • Hanswurst 8.1.1.1

         10 August 2016 at 6:18 pm

         Below, I think, sadly.
         • Matthew Whitehead 8.1.1.1.1

           12 August 2016 at 8:22 am

           Heh, I suppose it depends on whether you think that corporations expect journalists to do journalism anymore. I don’t think that, so I think that they’d be paying her more if they were requiring her to do any actual investigation.

           But yes, it SHOULD be below her paygrade, as in every employee at a journalistic institution SHOULD care about the truth. But they don’t, as The Truth doesn’t make money.
     • maninthemiddle 8.1.2

       11 August 2016 at 11:36 am

       Does the Labour Party Constitution prohibit its MP’s from attending meetings with ex Labour Party members? Interesting. This sort of draconian paranoid nonsense is just one reason Little and Labour are not fit to govern.
9. Sirenia 9

   10 August 2016 at 8:05 am

   The right wing of the Labour Party became the basis of the ACT Party in the 1980s. Roger Douglas was and remains their ideological leader. Nick Leggett seems to be following that progression in his ambition to run the Wellington region. He was one of the most vocal for amalgamation a couple of years with the aim of running for Mayor of the Wellington super city. But locals didn’t like it and it was voted down. Unfortunately, many still consider him left wing. So it is good to see Andrew Little calling him out.
10. Reality 10

    10 August 2016 at 8:37 am

    Having watched the debate on TV between various mayoralty contenders, with a relatively open mind, I was quickly very irritated by Nick Leggatt’s bumptious, self-important demeanour.

    I also heard him speak at a public meeting when amalgamation of the Wellington region’s councils was under discussion. He came over as bossy and one who would/could not listen to other viewpoints, because he absolutely knew better than others.
11. Clean_power 11

    10 August 2016 at 10:14 am

    Leggett is a sure win and will be the next Wellington Mayor. Happy to wage $100 to any taker.
    • weizguy 11.1

      10 August 2016 at 12:14 pm

      That’s not what any of the polling is saying – Leggett’s included.
12. Ad 12

    10 August 2016 at 11:14 am

    From the Dominion Post this morning, an attack by Little against Leggett:

    “Little has drawn a new battle line in the mayoral campaign by claiming one of the front runners, Nick Leggett, is a “right wing” candidate, backed by right wing funding. He also claimed Leggett’s campaign manager was a “leading identity” in the ACT party, which Leggett rejects, as he does the “right wing” label.

    None of this would be particularly extraordinary except Leggett is the long time Porirua mayor and a former Labour Party member who only resigned the party when he entered the mayoralty campaign in opposition to its official candidate, Justin Lester.”

    I have almost no need to understand the arcane fissures and alliances within Labour about who props up whom, but it would be great if Labour’s leader could at least say something positive rather than crapping on Labour people. It’s not like experienced and credible candidates grow on trees. At least English had the sense to intervene positively.
    • weizguy 12.1

      10 August 2016 at 12:16 pm

      “He also claimed Leggett’s campaign manager was a “leading identity” in the ACT party, which Leggett rejects, as he does the “right wing” label.”

      Parking was the first Chairman of the Wellington Branch of the ACT party. Leggett might want to reject it, but he can’t refute it – it’s a fact.
      • Ad 12.1.1

        10 August 2016 at 12:31 pm

        So, Weizguy, which candidate would you prefer, and why?
        • weizguy 12.1.1.1

          10 August 2016 at 12:58 pm

          I’m voting for Lester.

          He’s a story of success out of adversity, who unlike many we hear about, hasn’t turned his back on his roots. He appreciates the value of the support his family received while he was growing up and wants to ensure that’s available for future generations.

          He’s a business owner who recognises that it’s not all about the bottom line.

          I’m particularly supportive of his policy on housing. In particular, his plans to invest in social housing.

          It’s a pretty easy decision.
          • Chauncey 12.1.1.1.1

            10 August 2016 at 8:42 pm

            You have to be joking weizguy! You are praising a candidate who, if the surface is scratched, is full of contradictions. Obviously he has a propensity for snuggling up to power and comes across as more than a tad duplicitous. You say he hasn’t turned his back on his roots but his voting record, personal business management and associations with developers and land-bankers say otherwise, unless his back story is all smoke and mirrors. His plans to invest in social housing are a sham as the Clark Government sorted that out years ago with ‘an offer you can’t refuse’ as a means of subverting a proposed sell-out to the developer league Lester is associated with on a professional basis. Do some research – it’s not hard!
            Lester…Leggatt both are from the dregs of the same deep barrel, along with the other current Councillors who have put their names forward for the Mayoralty. It looks as though we are stuck with having to either vote for the lesser of all evils, or give up and let the ‘power behind the throne’ CEO run the shop with the policy directions of the C. of C., Mr. ‘City Shaper’ Pike and the Property Council.
            • weizguy 12.1.1.1.1.1

              11 August 2016 at 8:18 am

              I’ll back my research over yours. Your analysis appears somewhat… unhinged.
              • Chauncey …

                11 August 2016 at 9:21 am

                So weiszguy…
                Pays all his staff at above living wage level?
                Not on the executive of Property Council?
                Didn’t support Site 10 development?
                Doesn’t want to have ratepayers cover $5000 rates relief that will inflate prices charged by developers?
                Voted to save Illott Green?
                Has demanded a comprehensive business plan for the runway extension?
                Need one go on or will you present some facts from your alternative universe?
                • weizguy …

                  11 August 2016 at 2:10 pm

                  I’ll play your game…

                  Pays all his staff at above living wage level?
                  According to his statements in October last year – “In place for all staff with dependents and staff with 2 years service. By the end of the year all trained staff included.”
                  https://twitter.com/wellingtonista/status/659562114143551488
                  Unless you have information that he’s lying?

                  Not on the executive of the Property Council?
                  He is. This is clearly a big problem for you. I assume you think that being on the executive is an insurmountable issue. Maybe you think that membership means he’s in lockstep with all property developers. I suspect the fact that the Wellington Branch’s latest news release is criticising the council (where, you’ll recall, Lester is Deputy Mayor) on rates will not sway you in any way at all.
                  http://www.propertynz.co.nz/index.php/news/cat/news_latest_block/post/Wellington_City_Council_Rates/

                  Didn’t support Site 10 development?
                  I can’t find the information, but think he did vote for it. Why is this a problem? At the moment, it’s a carpark. Getting a lot of use out of that “public space” are you?

                  Doesn’t want to have ratepayers cover $5000 rates relief that will inflate prices charged by developers?
                  Wow, you really like to jump to unsubstantiated conclusions don’t you? The policy is:
                  “I’ll provide a $5000 rates rebate for first home builders”
                  It’s not clear what your objection is, or how you’ve jumped to your conclusion… Are you suggesting that because first home builders will get a rebate, that developers will (for some reason) add $5000 to their costs in a fit of pique?

                  Voted to save Illott Green?
                  I can’t tell if you think this is bad or good… Lester was behind the campaign to save it:
                  http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/81603614/wellingtons-jack-ilott-green-a-step-closer-to-being-saved

                  Has demanded a comprehensive business plan for the runway extension?
                  Interestingly, this is the phrasing that Guardians of the Bays prefers – the same site that speaks warmly of Whaleoil. See how guilt by association isn’t so clever? Oh, mayoral candidate Keith Johnson likes that phrasing too.
                  As far as I can see, Sapere has prepared a business case. You might disagree with methodology and outcome, but it’s there for all to see:
                  http://www.connectwellington.co.nz/static/documents/26%20WIAL%20Runway%20Extension%20-%20Draft%20Cost%20Benefit%20Analysis%20-%20November%202015.pdf

                  In summary, you clearly have a chip on your shoulder about Lester. From my “alternate universe”, it appears that your “facts” are more than a little coloured by said chip.
                  • Chauncey …

                    11 August 2016 at 11:57 pm

                    Nope – no chip on my shoulder re Lester – just don’t like duplicity, but then the same applies to the other contenders anyway. Won’t continue playing your game as you obviously have a ‘vote Lester’ mission, a lack of hard facts on some points and can’t sort the spin from reality on others. That said, it is interesting the way you have hedged your bets with most of the responses. The last one was a doozy – if the Sapele report stacked up, why isn’t Infratil buying it. Even Steven Joyce had that one sorted!
                    • weizguy …

                      12 August 2016 at 8:01 am

                      I provided links. People can decide for themselves.

                      You call it hedging. I call it “only a Sith deals in absolutes”.

                      I’ll put my question again. Who do you think I should be voting for?
          • Petite Kiwi 12.1.1.1.2

            15 August 2016 at 8:45 pm

            LOL @ Lester not having turned his back on his roots, as if to say Leggett has. It would be a huge mistake to think that people from Tawa normally associate themselves with the rest of us from Porirua. I’m from Cannons Creek, Leggett is from Tawa. Growing up, Tawa was always a world apart from the rest of us. Tawa = white bread NZ (see def below), so I wouldn’t infer that Leggett is turning his back on his roots, he’s sticking true to them!

            White bread (according to Urban Dictionary). http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whitebread
    • Petite Kiwi 12.2

      15 August 2016 at 8:39 pm

      I’m from Porirua and find it so offensive that some people accept, without question, the argument that ‘none of this would be particularly extraordinary except Leggett is the long time Porirua mayor’.

      For goodness’ sake this small fact does not refute the argument that he is right wing; just as saying Rogernomics was ushered in by the 4th Labour Government doesn’t mean the reforms weren’t right wing!
13. Muttonbird 13

    10 August 2016 at 11:24 am

    To facilitate a new Sports Museum and Virtual Reality Centre for Wellington.

    As if Wellington and the rest of the country doesn’t have more pressing issues to contend with, this is what Leggett is campaigning on. He’s a legacy seeker.
    • Ad 13.1

      10 August 2016 at 11:55 am

      Seriously Wellington needs a virtual reality centre when they have Parliament?
      • Matthew Whitehead 13.1.1

        10 August 2016 at 4:13 pm

        I’m pretty sure even those of us in Wellington who care about tech for tech’s sake want a “virtual reality centre.”

        Sounds like a giant boondogle. And fancy trying to say you’re not right-wing while launching your campaign in a yacht club and promising a sports museum? lol
14. DoublePlusGood 14

    10 August 2016 at 12:31 pm

    Is there anyone not abysmal running for Mayor of Wellington? It looks like an atrociously bad selection, to be honest.
    • Ad 14.1

      10 August 2016 at 12:32 pm

      Helpfully the Wellington local election matters only slightly less than that of Carterton.

      It’s the Wellington Regional Council that has the power to do actual stuff.
    • Matthew Whitehead 14.2

      10 August 2016 at 4:41 pm

      I absolutely hear you, I’ll probably be voting for Justin Lester because he looks like the least horrendous and there are one or two actually unqualified good things in his policy mix.

      It’s also bizarre that we don’t have anyone Green-aligned running given that Wellington is now an outright stronghold for the Green party, and that running on that sort of policy mix would basically guarantee someone election.
    • Stunned mullet 14.3

      10 August 2016 at 10:12 pm

      Would you like us to fend Penny Bright down?
      • DoublePlusGood 14.3.1

        11 August 2016 at 1:14 am

        She might on my ballot just edge out the other contenders for the number one position, even though she’s entirely unsuitable for any sort of elected office…
15. rhinocrates 15

    10 August 2016 at 3:04 pm

    From the link:

    When it was pointed out to Little that Shearer had attended the same function, Little said: “I’m saying it is not right for Labour MPs to be associated with events like that and with people who seek to undermine the Labour Party.”

    Nice words, but it’s hardly the first time that he’s given a middle-finger salute to real Labour principles – so why is Mumblefuck still on the front bench? Little’s weak.
    • Matthew Whitehead 15.1

      10 August 2016 at 4:16 pm

      Same reason Collins is a Minister again.

      Not because of competence, but because they represent wings of their party that the leader can’t afford to fight.
      • rhinocrates 15.1.1

        10 August 2016 at 5:40 pm

        Had a terrible manager once, even HR suits would explode at the mention of her name, and usually they sided with senior managers against junior staff. They claimed that they couldn’t get rid of her because they’d have to make a huge payout, but the fact is, this manager kept causing so much trouble and making such a fool of herself, over the years they paid out more in court and to people she pissed off or unfairly forced out of their jobs that she was a much bigger cash haemorrhage in her job than she would being forced out of it. She’s still there, still draining money and driving out good staff.

        Some people are simply incapable of changing. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet because it will cost more otherwise.
      • rhinocrates 15.1.2

        10 August 2016 at 5:45 pm

        His numbers could be declining. Goff’s leaving (I never thought that I’d feel sorry for Auckland, but really, you poor bastards if you get him as mayor), Mallard’s got a nice shiny Speaker’s chain dangling in front of his nose and will play nice from now on. Self interest will overcome any vestigial loyalty he ever had.
16. whateva next? 16

    10 August 2016 at 5:48 pm

    Leggett….”doesn’t believe there’s a place for party politics in local government.” WHAT? everything is politics, down to who budgeting the family household, so saying no place for “party” politics is just saying he doesn’t want to declare his values/priorities/sponsorship…but why?
    We are not stupid Mr.Leggett
17. Stunned mullet 17

    10 August 2016 at 10:12 pm

    Bah and bum holes!

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