I still have not seen any clear evidence. All I have seen so far is Hagar’s allegations based on a number of emails that possibly could have been taken out of context. If Stuff or The Herald have further information it looks like they are waiting until closer to election day to release it. That will provide less time for the authenticity of the information to be checked. If that happens then it will demonstrate that the media is more focused on changing the Government than on finding truth.
Too soon. They are probably checking it to see what corroborating evidence there is from other sources, and also getting a statement from the accused – then checking the statements by the accused, and running them through their lawyers – how journalists should work.
The other explanation is that their agenda is that of corporate media…
The risk is that the info will be parsed in terms of that agenda and how they perceive politics — the game of it, not the substance of it.
Maybe they’ll balance each other out, maybe not, but we have been seriously let down by the news media in this country of late so I’m not holding my breath.
Not that I have any time for royalty or for for the public outpouring of grief over Diana’s death.
But this article by Stuff is unbelievable, stupid, insensitive and utterly effing unforgivable. Diana was a giver, a kindergarten teacher, who only wanted to be loved, gave herself to charities, was genuine and naive.
Judith Collins krgh..yuck (furball) is absolutely the opposite. A hardened self-serving, power-hungry, manipulative, corrupt individual who wants at all costs to have power. She would never give herself to any charitable cause for genuine caring reasons and is certainly not naive.
J figjam C deserves everything she gets from the media. What was discovered by Rawshark is probably just the tip of the iceberg.
Yep ….. victimhood is always the safe option, bound to conjur sympathy. (It even trumps other ideological positions – personal responsibility and all).
Poor Cam ….
Pooor poor Cam ….
I’m so tuff, but mummy – they’re ALL being mean to me!
Mummy: Oh Chill Cam – get Aaron to deal with it – I’ve got the Caci Clinic and a hairdresser’s appointment – I’ll deal with it when I get back
Princess Judith – she fills the space of the cute animal or celebrity story for today. But Princess Diana was a bit like Cinderella, dealing with problems at home and going out for a break to have some fun and look for a prince of her own. Judith C. would fit the role of one of Cinder’s unpleasant sisters.
I have made a decision that for the next week at least, I am not clicking on stuff. I am stick of giving these bastards the click.
Will catch up on what happening on the Standard. I wonder about a boycott of stuff with just a few people on the left feeding it to blogs like the Standard so we can critique it. That way they get a significant decrease in clicks.
If people think this is a good idea, I am sure we could organise it. I would be happy to be on a roster, where I feed what I thought was relevant to the Standard…………sure we could make it work somehow.
Its curious that there would be quite such a voluminous & one sided response to this if the polls are actually right about Nats being over 50% I think.
However the politics of the conservative right, the new Tories, the Libertarians, are the politics of selfishness. To believe that poverty is the fault and responsibility of the individual, to actively seek the reduction of the welfare state, to reward the rich and punish those left fortunate: that requires an absence of empathy.
My concern is not that people in power behave this way. We should predict and expect that. My concern is that if, as a country, we return this Government to power, if we rubber stamp the heartless and cynical politics that are now a matter of public record, then we implicitly approve of this behaviour.
If that’s the case, then he knows that he’s left out at least half the story. The line’s he’s drawn in his blog post are purely subjective and to his taste. He isn’t writing as a “psychotherapist as scientist” – as far as such a thing is possible – and he’s certainly blurred the line. Theoretically the statement that “poverty is the fault and responsibility of the individual” is both true and untrue depending on the individual and the approach of the therapist/observer. Hypothetically, and not using politics, it should be possible to arrive at both the truth and/or a solution of each case from both positions.
One of my pet peeves is people with social status e.g. doctors, lawyers, philanthropists etc, knowing full well what their status gives their voice in the public arena, betray the science and rules of their profession, maybe even vocation, to present a personal biased political argument. It brings their practice into disrepute, the idea of authority/elders as wise, and a the furthest end, undermines our community.
Personally,I know full well the lie that underpins the idea of “don’t kill/starve/abuse the kids”. I know I can prove that either is acceptable, in a human animal sense. But I choose, through my own bias when faced with an either/or choice, to not kill/starve/abuse the kids.
“One of my pet peeves is people with social status e.g. doctors, lawyers, philanthropists etc, knowing full well what their status gives their voice in the public arena, betray the science and rules of their profession…..”
That’s very perceptive @Croc – but actually also quite prevalent (especially amongst those that have succumbed to the neo-lib agenda – which is often a way of their rationalising their stance)
David Brat anyone?
Ladder puller uppers?
Chief Science Advisors with sons who are … and trauma specialists with previous drug addiction problems who don’t have the balls to challenge the agenda (altho’ to be fair – they may also think not challenging allows them to continue with a positive agenda – @ PU – in your past life – perhaps you’ve crossed paths with them – thru’ a brother – now deceased, I Certainly have!)
Wife beater journalists; complete asshole hotel owners, the voice of morality and conservative ‘once were swingers’ decrying the decay of (there’s no such thing as) ‘society’ as we know it… the list is endless – and most of them are amongst the most judgemental and oppressive of their next generation.
I think though at times such as we have at present – it really is time for them to come clean. For me, nearing my dotage, it’s way passed time.
But then I suppose given the state of our MSM media, at the moment they’d not be given a fair suck of the sav.
Theoretically the statement that “poverty is the fault and responsibility of the individual” is both true and untrue depending on the individual and the approach of the therapist/observer.
Poverty is a result of the structure of our society.
One of my pet peeves is people with social status e.g. doctors, lawyers, philanthropists etc
If you disagree with what’s said then why don’t you say why you disagree rather going on an Ad Hominem attack?
My pet peeve is the way lower socio-economic people with addictions are denegrated – OFTEN by the higher socio-economic classes with the very same additions. I commend them in their recovery of course, but its generally come by being able to take advantage of high cost, private services that are not available to everyone.
Hanmer – dismantled
Marton – dismantled, etc.
Right across the country! Indeed there was a report tis morning (Morning Report I think) discussing a young lady’s morphine overdose pointing out just how services for the ‘average Joe and Josephine are no longer availabe, and haven’t been for quite some time.
I’m sorry if all that offends you, however my brother’s addiction and eventual death was looked upon by his wealthier contemporaries with disdain as though their addictions were somehow excusable and ‘better/more respectable’, whereas his were not.
There but for the grace of God etc.
I’ll refrain from further comment because the double standards and hypocrisy make me just a bit sick at times.
oops – not sure who I’m replying to here – can’t find reading glasses and the numbering is a bit invisible, but gtg.
Later chasps
We know the Herald wants ACT and National to win the election, but this level of bias is worthy of a banana republic….
The Herald’s headline is based on on a snide remark made by (one can only assume, as it I sun ascribed) a Tory hack. Talk about skewing a story to fit your newspaper’s political agenda.
“That hall looks as healthy as the Labour Party,” someone remarked.
And yet you sit on material which looks at corruption within our governing system and say nothing.
Wow. Just wow.
Get used to it, democracy under attack granny styles using one of the more obviously biased nat sycophans audrey young who needs no instructions being a die hard tory.
We should organise demonstrations outside mainstream media outlets pushing for the release of the material they have been given by Rawshark. If they don’t release it soon, it will prove how corrupt our mainstream media. Of course we know that – but so many sheeple don’t.
By holding off releasing any material until just before the election, and thereby preventing an accurate assessment of the validity of the allegations would demonstrate clearly that the media is corrupt.
After all the main purpose of the media is to introduce the public to advertisers. The dissemination of news is secondary and a reliance on truth is not required.
Every where else it is the biggest policy decision being made in the world.
Within these following headlines and still there’s no MSM comments about lack of a NatZ policy press are doing us a huge disservice that will come home to roost in the end.
Lack of a Climate Change policy is NatZ weakest policy along with credibility, that lacks critical glare of the press.
PD Gluckman, Chief Science Advisor has done nothing to focus on Climate change however.
12:20 June 10, 2010 Pacific Press Releases Gluckman: Integrity in Science – Climate Debate Speech – Prime Ministers Science Advisory Committee. “If we overestimate, then in 2050 we might find that we have overinvested in climate change mitigation, but most of those mitigation strategies, such as sustainable energy generation, will help to meet our other challenges. The equation is not equal.”
Importantly this refusal to make a meaningful stand from National coincides with a climate Change debate taking place this week in the pacific Islands.
Dead or alive the stick can still be effective. The opposition parties will all be praying that Jamie Whyte talks about abolishing the OIO all way til election day.
ACT as the Zombie Party. Great image. Look out for that shambling walk and defaced face and bulging eyes of madness. Don’t let them touch you, and keep your baton to hand.
Key has to pretend ACT is alive to use it to announce more neo-lib dross (like the previously announced Charter schools). Probably selling off part of the health system or education vouchers to improve ‘choice’ as part of the ever so necessary coalition agreement. Because National would never do such things, oh noes.
It is to remind the voters not to waste their precious votes on stupid and dead parties such as ACT, Conservatives and the dodgy Dunne’s UF! Don’t tell me you are foolishly thinking of voting for one of these clowns?
Whyte has been getting more extreme (desperate?) everyday. This morning on the News attacking all and Sundry. Show’s he’s ready for Parliament NOT. They would have him for lunch.
Two interesting little local polls on the East Coast. The second is only a street poll of 50 and of little use statisitcally, but they both show up a massive number of undecided voters and a lot of damage to National over the dirty politics saga.
Also, the Waiarapa poll does what no one else has – put the undecided voters into it’s graphic. National is on 34%. However, if you take out the undecided voters, then of the decided the Nats are pushing…. 50%.
I suspect that is where the “govern alone” narrative is coming from – half of all decided voters are voting National, but up to one third are yet to make up their minds. I suspect this is where National’s sudden tax cuts come from – their internal polling told them they took a hit, and there is a huge number of undecided voters they are trying to bribe.
I decent chuck of that non decided generally become non voters. About 30% you say, which is similar, maybe a bit high, to the non vote in past. It is not unreasonable to assume a amount of the electorate won’t vote and therefore their vote is divided amongst the other percentages.
30% is too high, even 2011 had 74% turnout. Usuall the turnout is higher than that, often in the 80s. The undecideds and the non-voters aren’t the same group, although there is some overlap.
Yes you are right my 30% mention is too high, I think it was 25% last election and as CV says below turnout looks like it will be higher and high turnout usually hurts incumbents but my point is clear in that the undecided don’t make polls completely distorted.
The polls, as they are reported, are a complete distortion when the MSM discounts undecideds as non-voters, esp when the undecideds are such a high percentage in a close election.
Worse, at the last election the MSM reported before the election that National would win. How many undecideds did that push into non-voters? How many decideds for that matter (mostly Labour voters who thought it would be a waste of time)?
I think early voting results will show that people are deciding and acting at far higher rates than in 2011. This is of course a very bad sign for National, who would prefer lowered turnout if at all possible (one of the themes of their Dirty Politics).
wonder if John Campbell and TV3 will find that secondary school that has always opposed the ‘official’ polls to be spot on with prediction in the last three .. was it in Hawkes Bay somewhere ? I’ve been waiting …. anyone else remember ?
(And I wonder how JC feels that TV3 holds Rawshark material and is not publishing ?)
Because the difference between polls conducted over similar time periods by different companies show differences far beyond what would be expected by chance alone. In other words, at least some polls are suffering from uncorrected bias. Averaging poor quality data won’t make the results any more reliable.
“Why are the obviously dodgy and unreliable? And if you average them out like Nate Silver they can become very reliable.”
But no one in NZ is doing anything close to Nate Silver.
Also the electoral system the US uses is much easier to model and forecast than NZ’s system, and he also has far more data at his disposal to work with (both demographic and polling data).
It’s not just the left though Gosman. Morning Report had Richard Prebble saying that the polls are all wrong and that the ‘telephone’ model doesn’t work anymore. ACT is going to get 7 MPs apparently.
Except Act doesn’t complain that any flawed methodology is as a result of some deliberate bias against them and also doesn’t claim that it will influence the election.
So why does the US military spend so much time and money on polls and polling in countries they want to influence Gosman? Again you’ve come back with the passive aggression and misdirection bro.
How about you get together a bunch of your lefty mates and create a polling company that does it properly then.
Why bother? The only thing that matters is the actual election result. I would prefer it if polls a few months before the election were banned – they are just a distraction from the real issues that should guide voter’s choices come election day.
Meh. We already have plenty of regulations governing our elections to ensure they are free and fair. Opinion polls are already banned in New Zealand on election day itself (OMG a restriction on free speech!!!). In some other countries, they are banned for longer periods, so it’s an option that is at least worth considering.
It’s easy to imagine a model that would be much more consistent and hopefully less biased than current methods, it’s just it would be too expensive. Which is why we get the current level of shoddy polling that we do.
Probably the closest we would ever get to fair polling, but no government would set such an SOE up due to the embarrassment of having to answer questions about why “the official” polling office has them on such low support, etc.
Like i have already stated the undecided are often at this late stage become non votes.
Where is the evidence of this? Since polling companies do not follow-up with those polled to determine whether or not they voted, I doubt such evidence even exists.
Going by the above graphic 25% of people eligible to vote won’t vote, these are the undecideds.
I doubt large numbers of people who were going to vote suddenly change their minds at the end and suddenly think “Aw fuck it they all suck, I’m not voting!”
Going by the above graphic 25% of people eligible to vote won’t vote, these are the undecideds.
Yeah, no shit. Turn-out is not 100%, I knew that. What you haven’t shown is that these people who don’t vote are the same ones who won’t give a response during a telephone poll.
Looking at previous elections the undecided/non-voter is either being under represented or we’re going to get a much higher turn out than the last couple of elections.
No your right and I stand to be corrected, hopefully someone could point to some studies, but I would say at late stage polling the undecided constitute a large portion of non voters. But your right they are not exactly the same group.
Someone else will know better than me how the methodology of polling works but I don’t think non-voters and undecideds are the same thing. As far as I know the non-voters are removed from the samples, undecideds are those who say they will vote but won’t or can’t express a preference? Interestingly the IPSOS-Reid Fairfax poll which has National polling the highest also has the most undecideds and Tracey Watkins in her analysis of their latest poll said that dividing the undecideds (13% if I recall) support along the same preferences as the polling data would see National’s support drop by 2%.
yes, non-voters and undecideds are different groups, with overlaps. BM is spinning.
I don’t think non-voters are polled in those main polls. I asked the other day about people who said piss off to polsters, and Draco reckons those people are accounted for in the final results, but that’s a different set than official non-voters.
The polls, as reported, are biased. If they wanted to report what the NZ public is really thinking, they would include all the results.
A large number of people refuse to participate in polling.
A useful statistic would be the number of people the polling companies called in order to get their overall sample of around 1000 (or 750 for the Herald Digipoll).
My guess is that the committed non-voters would be more likely to be in the ‘refuse to participate at all in the poll’ group.
I note that in the Wairarapa poll the number of people called was over twice the size of the sample:
“Of the 1069 random calls made, 417 voters agreed to take part in the survey.“
Whats the percentage of people in the telephone polls who said they’re undecided? is it roughly around 25%-30%
Why are you asking me that? Even if the percentages matched (I’m not saying they do), you would still be making an assumption, it doesn’t prove that undecideds=non-voters.
‘A brief reminder for everyone depressed by the msm polls’
By Martyn Bradbury / September 8, 2014
Folks, this is the reality……don’t believe the mainstream media hype that Key will win by a landslide.
The advanced voting since the last election also tell a different story from the one the MSM is claiming, almost 30 000 more votes than this time last election!
lol (not) that Judith Collins doesn’t lie!!! Was she not caught out in Parliament doing just that? Has her sister forgotten about Oravida Dairy?
Does her sister have a perspective on Oravida Kauri ltd (her brother in law’s company)? Adam Bennett in the Herald was rummaging around the topic a few months ago, but has gone quiet. (as has Adam Bennett). Radio NZ mentioned it last week in a programme – exporting of kauri logs with little to no “value added” to them.
A comment I made on the Herald website got “moderated” last week. Took out reference to Oravida Kauri Ltd, but left my other (unrelated) comment.
Judith Collins likened (by her sister) to Princess Diana!
Just one subtle distinction. Being loved by your family, and being loved by a nation.
Good on her sister for supporting Collins, but by coming out in the public domain with her crass comparison, Pamela Cassidy deserves to be mocked mercilessly
When the headline top of Stuff page this morning should have been about emails from Key’s office, we get this saccharine and slithering attempt to rehabilitate Collins image.
This folks is what PR and Crosby Textor do to our country.
So, finally, we get Dirty Politics on the front page of Stuff ! It just wasn’t what we expected or needed. But omg, how they are proven complicit in how the game is played.
Good point, PR. To nip it in the bud, I think Key should tell us where he was on 31 August 1997 and provide evidence of his alibi. While I think it most unlikely he was directly involved (he has minions for that sort of thing) it’s best he clears it up once and for all, lest the election campaign descend into farce. Pip Pip!
I don’t think there’s any call to mock Mrs Cassidy. She’s entitled to her opinion, especially if it concerns her little sister. However, it really isn’t newsworthy, and publishing the story represents both sickening puffery on behalf of Ms Collins and a shameless exploitation of how forthcoming her elder sister is in making an unwitting fool of herself.
Key made that a relevant issue himself, though, by politicising the issue in the first place. The private views of Collins’ sister are different. If she was put up to it in a deliberate and calculated spin to puff up Collins’ image, then she deserves ridicule. However, I have no real evidence that she was. It just looks like the papers spinning to me.
How dare the girl who mr key used to support his great con, speak out, aye BM. Makes it harder and harder for dupes like you to stay the course being reminded of the cons
Spot the deference between the original and the published version ( second one) in today’s NZ Herald’s offshoot The Northern Advocate. I copied the original transcript from the Matters Political Northland F/B. The Rightwing Media twist the factors is clearly illustrated here.
Our Unionist friend done a
super job shaking this Tory Town up well done comrade!
In response to “Organiser defends line up”
I would like to clarify some of the reporting on the Northland Regional Economic forum I organised. Mr Whyte did not contact me at all- not once, his local candidate and I spoke 3 times, and a female candidate called to say she was coming in support of Robin. They made 3 requests in total. It was outlined that it was main party’s that indicated they could work together to form a Government, subject to NZF and all the variables. ACT, Internet & Mana plus the Conservatives all fell outside of this.
The request for National to be included came after a number of people (mainly business sector) intending to come, signaled they would like to hear what National had to offer in the way regional development policy. I thought that’s a fair call, and there were plenty asking. I then contacted Bill English’s office and extended the same offer as to the other 3 political party’s who had excepted. The brief was Leader, Deputy or Co, the offer to send Phil Heatley was rejected as this criteria wasn’t met, however I did make room for National to send a higher ranking MP other than a retiring local MP- no response back.
Collin Craig never contacted me his press secretary did, 5.30pm Sunday 24 hours before the event.
The large crowd of 240 people were very respectful of all main speakers, as were the speakers of one & another and the party’s they represented. However they gave jibes directed at the incumbent government, which is what opposition party’s do. Also fueled by presumably by a frustration of a ‘no show’ by the National leadership and the sanctioning of their local candidate Shane Reti from attending the meet the candidate section.
All political candidates standing for Whangarei were invited, that part was totally democratic. I do take your point Jamie, thus I ended the forum with next time prior to the election let’s have ‘all the leaders of political party’s here’ and let Northland be the place where Regional development policies are heard, we have been left out for too long.
Shane Reti as previously mentioned was not allowed to partake, head office would not allow him, he told me this in person.
The Maori party candidate did not return my call-invitation. All other candidates participated, David Curran represents the Internet Party, Mana doesn’t have a candidate standing in the Whangarei general seat.
In my opinion either way Jamie Whyte was always going to make the headlines, this is politics and as Leader he needs the publicity. No other party is making a fuss, full credit to them.
All candidates were congratulated ‘whatever they & their party’s idealogical views were.
What I am disappointed in, and from the feedback I’ve received. Where is the reporting of the very good policies these political leaders spoke of? The focus was regional economic development not the sideshow reported in Thursdays edition.
Lastly, Thanks to all the positive feedback from those who attended and enjoyed themselves.
Regards
Alby Barr
No contact
Re the Northland Regional Economic forum I organised.
Act leader Jamie Whyte did not contact me at all-his local candidate and I spoke 3 times. They made 3 requests in total. It was outlined that it was main party’s that indicated they could work together to form a Government, subject to NZF and all the variables. ACT, Internet & Mana plus the Conservatives all fell outside of this.
The request for National to be included came after a number of people (mainly business sector) intending to come, signaled they would like to hear what National had to offer in the way regional development policy. I contacted Bill English’s office; The brief was Leader, Deputy or Co. The offer to send Phil Heatley was rejected as this criteria wasn’t met. However, I did make room for National to send a higher ranking MP other than a retiring local MP- no response back.
The large crowd of 240 people were very respectful of all main speakers, as were the speakers of one & another.
All Whangarei political candidates were invited, that part was totally democratic. I take your point Jamie, thus I ended the forum with “next time prior to the election let’s have ‘all the leaders of political party’s here’ and let Northland be the place where Regional development policies are heard, we have been left out for too long”.
The Maori party candidate did not return my call-invitation. All other candidates participated, David Curran represents the Internet Party, Mana doesn’t have a candidate standing in the Whangarei general seat.
In my opinion either way Jamie Whyte was always going to make the headlines, this is politics and as leader he needs the publicity. No other party is making a fuss, full credit to them.
All candidates were congratulated ‘whatever they & their party’s idealogical views were.
Where is the reporting of the very good policies these political leaders spoke of? The focus was regional economic development, not the sideshow reported in Thursdays edition.
Lastly, Thanks to all the positive feedback from those who attended and enjoyed themselves.
I think this is smart politics from Cunliffe, with the usual caveat about NZF. He just said this to Mike Hoskin:
“Labour leader David Cunliffe says there will be a maximum of three parties in any Government he leads, and has ruled out including the Maori Party at the Cabinet table.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning, Mr Cunliffe said he intended to only include the Green Party and NZ First in any government.
People need to know before the election that a vote for the Maori Party is a vote for the National Party.”
But Puckish, a 3.5% shift to the Left would mean Cunliffe as PM. Perfectly possible in 2 weeks and given the polls overstating of the Nats vote in the past. Indeed Cunliffe may be in the box seat now, depending on Winston.
The most accurate poll, the Roy Morgan, had Lab/Gr/NZF 48 Nats 45 in its poll a few days ago.
Me too!
I wrote this comment on his blog. What do you think?
“Great post.
This is the ideal coalition that the country can have now.
It brings in experience, pragmatism, moderation and wisdom.
Labour-Greens-NZF will be the best palatable tonic and medicine for the economic, social and environmental good of the entire country, instead of a dangerously corroding malady that is bound to afflict NZ if a National led coalition takes over. Hopefully over 50% of the voters selflessly recognise this very important fact.
Internet-Mana and the Maori party can, if they wish, give such a government confidence and supply in return for concessions to some of their good policies.
At the same time, the Greens’ excesses(perceived or otherwise)can be moderated, which will ensure a stable, fair and sensible government which can last for much more than a single term, enabling more of the progressive policies implemented over time without alienating the people.
I’m hoping that the Greens and Mana will be able to moderate some of Labour’s neoliberal excesses. I don’t think there is anything excessive in any direction about the Greens.
What are the ‘neoliberal’ excesses of Labour you stupidly speak of? Here are some of Labour’s core policies. Tell me which ones of these, or any other, that you think are ‘neoliberal’ excesses?
*100,000 new, affordable homes
*Free healthcare to under 13s, pregnant women and over 65s
*Raising the minimum wage to $16.25
*Ensure every rental is warm and dry
*Everything paid for, plus we’re in surplus
*Ensure all Kiwis under 20 are in work, education or training
*Best Start for Kiwi kids
*Reduce unemployment to 4% in our first term
*Lower class sizes
*Extend paid paternal leave to 26 weeks
*Ensure that all our rivers and lakes are clean
*Lowering power bills
*Convert the dole to apprenticeships
*Protecting our land from speculators
*Christchurch recovery policy
*100,000 new, affordable homes: these should be built by the state and offered to families at low interest rate government sponsored mortgages.
*Raising the minimum wage to $16.25: this needs to be combined with a jobs guarantee, worker representation on corporate boards and worker ownership of businesses
*Everything paid for, plus we’re in surplus: this is entirely neoclassical/orthodox economics
*Reduce unemployment to 4% in our first term: Labour can’t do this and be in surplus at the same time.
*Lowering power bills: while allowing the private sector to continue to rake in billions.
+1, although I think that, if one is generous, these represent left-wing timidity, rather than neo-liberal excess. Labour has been on a slow drift from the Right to the Centre since the Clark/Cullen years.
That IS the pragmatic, smart way, as we need to take the voters along WITH us because we need to get at least 50% of voters supporting a progressive government to even begin thinking of implementing the urgently needed changes. I am surprised and dismayed that many leftist fools (not you) don’t even understand that!
I think if we have a Labour party with about 33% support, The Greens and NZF at about 10% each would be ideal to achieve spectacular changes to society, slowly and steadily, without scaring the horses (voters and businesses) and be able to electorally last very well for three or more terms and be able to bid adieu to the RW Neo liberal nasty selfish agenda. With C and S from a 4% IMP and 2% Maori party for moderate policy concessions will be even better.
You speak of a pragmatic smart way to bring voters along with you but sorry, this centrist timidity is never going to get Labour back up to 35%. Labour has lost its historical vision in favour of managerial caution, and it will keep being punished for that at the ballot box.
A very good result for Labour this year is going to be 30%-31%. Anything more than that would be a literal miracle.
I guess the argument for that would be that, if Labour can pull enough in this time to put together a government, that would sideline the Right of the party and give Labour a legitimate claim that there is an electoral appetite for more active and better-funded government. This would provide Labour with ammunition to position itself further to the Left in future. Unfortunately, that would be highly dependent on what sort of an agreement they reached with NZ First, and on the right-wing smear machine from National’s corner being severely wounded after the Dirty Politics revelations. I’m not terribly optimistic on the former, and I think we’ll have to wait and see on the latter. Unfortunately, I’m even less optimistic of a left-wing course for Labour should they lose the election.
@ colonial viper 1.18
I think you have nailed it. Your observations remain sharp and I believe absolutely right. Wish they could get more traction,
I am sure they are getting some, but there is so much inertia. But you never know. I can push my car along with just my puny strength when it’s on the flat. Get the right conditions, and a pinch bar, and Labour might be moved from the gravity of its position in this deep rut.
Further to my comment to Colonial viper I found this on Bowalley Road. Chris Trotter has this to say.
David Cunliffe is sending three important messages to the electorate. 1) That he considers NZ First indispensable to effecting a change of government. 2) By very publicly ruling out any kind of accommodation with either Internet-Mana or the Maori Party he is signalling that he understands “Middle New Zealand’s” current distaste for radical ideas. 3) He is inviting them to interpret his reaching-out to NZ First as proof of his moderate bona fides.
Great list Clem. And Labour will not gut the RMA; it will not give stupid hairy-fairy tax cuts when we have debts in tens of billions. Labour also has a much better public transport policy.
It is often the things that Labour will NOT do that the Nats WILL do that makes the difference.
Interesting informal poll in today’s Hawkes Bay Today, a rag that usually parrrots the Herald’s lines. Out on the street Labour is ahead when it comes to the party vote. Looks like a change is going to come in the Napier electorate.
I had reason to call in to the Hastings’ office of the HB Today a couple of years ago. The first thing I saw as I walked to the reception area was a notice pinned to the wall advertising the local Nat MP. Subtle as brick to the bonce.
yeah that not so subtle group think that Nats promote through its dark networks particularly in the provinces. There is only “one way” and it is “blue mate” at the lodge, sports club, social club, cop shops, tradies stores and local associations etc.
Lot of pressure put on the young and vulnerable trying to keep a job in some circles. I had to tell a woman the other day bullied by her self employed partner to vote “Key”, not those “Labour poofters” or else; that it is actually a secret ballot and you can vote which way you like.
I know a bit about Auckland’s infrastructure, god knows I wish I didn’t. Our sewage system and indeed our whole storm water system is in trouble – it’s an open secret – ask around. So when I read this this morning, I had the most uncomfortable feeling I was looking into the future of Auckland. A future which working people get hammered once again. Also just so you never feel alone, we are not alone, the things we face, and the troubles we rally against – are not just happening here.
Ok so Matt McCarten talks to whaleoil, but do any labour MPs talk to whaleoil (ABC anyone?), the polls are looking better (for National) and what is it with labour candidates in the south being nuttier then fruitcakes?
But hey I’m sure KDC will introduce (another) game changer on the 15th
Actually we require corporations to be evil. To maximise profit no matter what the expense to society, the environment or the people who do the work for them.
That environment favours the success of sociopaths who cannot, or will not, understand the harm they do.
A sign that the elite see that it’s better to bring Key down now rather than to have a mess in 8 months time. Labour wins, he goes off to work for Merrill Lynch for 4 years and then retires to his home country, the US I believe that is.
The alternative, everyone figures out that the system is rigged. What happened last time when that came to be I wonder.
Just to reinforce the mendaciousness of Nats and Parata. Salisbury School in Nelson is the last girls school in NZ for disturbed or special needs youngsters.
Parata tried to close it and was fought and withdrew. But she is preventing it getting new entrants who would normally have been recommended a place. The figures from the Nelson Weekly 8/4/2014 show student numbers at 71 in 2011 and now turned around to 17 in 2014.
The fraudsters, are reportedly telling customers that their Spark services are about to be cut off because of security issues and then asking the customers to go online to a fake Spark webpage. Customers are also being asked to give remote access to their computer and provide personal banking information as part of this scam.
These calls are not from Spark and Spark strongly advise anyone who receives one of these calls to hang up immediately, do not hand over any personal banking information and do not proceed to the fraudulent webpage. If anyone has passed on information, Spark advise you to contact your bank immediately.
Please be assured that these fraudsters do not have access to Spark systems.
I had a call last week – except they said they were from Telecom – not Spark!
Having had (over the last few years) literally hundreds of the scam “Microsoft service dept” calls re supposed problems with your computer, I smelt a rat straight away and let them get far enough to confirm that it was yet another variation of this scam. I then used one of my responses to these calls – very loud, very foul language and then hung up. Another one of my responses, when I have it at hand is blowing a cheap $2 shop whistle down the phone.
The immediate give away was that I am not a customer of Telecom/Spark!
I was very suspicious, especially the accent, and they were going to cut internet for 2 months.
Didn’t get as far as the scam part as I asked his name, twice. Then he hung up!!
Felix Marwick has apparently been trying to get to the bottom of who in the PM’s office knew about Tucker’s intention to release SIS material to WO, but was thwarted by his OIA request to the PM’s office, He took it to the Ombudsman last week and has had the response that he has tweeted in the above link. Seems the Ombusdmen’s office is going into bat for FM and is seeking an urgent response from the PM’s office.
Great job Felix Marwick. Be interesting to see if Key does respond. If he refuses on the grounds that an enquiry is already under way, then it could be bad publicity for him.
“Key refuses to respond to an Ombudsman’s direction.”
“Key defies due process.”
“Key is arrogant.”
If it was the lowly unimportant Eade then Wow!
Matthew Hooten reckons on RNZ, 9 to Noon that Stuart Nash is targeting the National voters, just wondering if someone can help enlighten me how a Labour candidate manages to target an opposition parties vote? This must be more spin (or something) from Hooten, because this souds like absolute bull shit to me.
Nash is showing Labour’s other regional hopefuls how to kick provincial National’s ass.
It’s a big paper majority turnaround to do it, and he’s going to do it.
In the same way a politician got an easy ride by coming back on the list, so many businesses owners got a easy ride by not paying CGT while their Aussie competition does. Parliaments like to make it easy for themselves and their mates despite it harming our democracy and our economy. As Key has proven, cow effluent clogging our rivers, deaths in forestry, mines, and CTV. And now WINZ.
How? Hooten gave the impression he is some how doing it by going down a divergent strategy to the Labour Party…I struggle to see how that would be possible, just curious.
from twitter – G.Tiso
1. A system was in place for subverting the political process. We have been told repeatedly and haughtily that everyone knew about it.
2. If everyone knew about it, why wasn’t the public told? I agree with Matt Nippert: journalism failed us on this one.
3. This is why the blanket defense of journalism against its critics is distasteful. The media were the third track.
4. If there was a failure, where are the consequences: has any political editor, reporter or commentator resigned?
5. Has any newspaper or TV editor signalled a change in the way things will be done and whom will be asked for comment on politics & policy?
6. It seems to me that none of this has occurred. All the media people mentioned in the book are still employed, including Glucina & Hooton.
7. The Panel carries on inviting representatives of fake organizations that have exposed by Hager as government attack dogs, and so forth.
8. Similarly, the highly-placed journos who ridiculed the story on day 1 are still holding court a month and several stages of grief later.
9. I hope there are some VERY robust discussions going on behind the scenes about the need for the industry to change.
10. Until then, all calls to stop being critical of journalists and journalism should be treated as the tone-based derails they are. ENDS.
followed by
Brent Edwards @rnzgallerybrent @gtiso All fair points.
interesting insight into John Key in the Herald’s rapid fire interviews on the topic of political heroes. All the other leaders referred to a personal quality or ethical stand or public benefit in the person they identified. John Key had to be asked twice what was it he admired and all he could say was Keith Holyoake elected for 4 terms. Even Coin Craig, who chose the same hero was able to identify a quality that was admirable.
Craig and Key are not, and will never be half the man that Holyoake was.
While “Kiwi Keith” despised socialism, he was equally suspicous of free market capitalism, and supported the mixed economy, being a admirer of FDR’s New Deal.
yes I like the story about a train traveller from Auckland down at Wellington railway station who could not find their bags and who rang Holyoake up to get help in the middle of the night ….apparently the story is that he went down to the station and helped them find them….like a good NZ farmer looking after his flock
John Key a Holyoake?….NEVER!….and nor would Colin Craig be ….Holyoake was too ethical and intelligent and too much a pragmatic New Zealander. He would quietly and cynically despise them and Nactional !
…Winston Peters is more in Holyoake’s old National Party tradition
Goff has made his sworn statement to the SIS OIA inquiry
” Statement is attached
—
Statement to Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security
Ms Cheryl Gwyn
Freyberg House, 2 Aitken Street, Wellington
My primary concern in relation to the release of NZSIS documents in 2011 is that the wider context in which this happened represents a deliberate politicisation of the NZSIS in a way which is unprecedented at least since the Muldoon years.
For nine years, first as Minister of Foreign Affairs and then as Minister of Defence, I maintained the total confidentiality of briefings from our security intelligence services.
It has long been the convention that the Minister in charge of the Security Intelligence Service not comment on matters relating to security intelligence.
That convention applied likewise to Ministers with access to SIS and GCSB briefings and to the Leader of the Opposition.
As Leader of the Opposition briefings to me were strictly confidential. I did not comment on them. I was asked that the briefings given to me were given without the presence of staff or colleagues. Documents were not to be retained by me nor was I to take notes. I was not to comment to the media on any information I might have received.
This convention was broken, first by the Prime Minister when he referred publicly to a briefing from the SIS in relation to Israeli backpackers who were suspected to have connections with Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence Service, that he says I was given.
My position then and now is that I never received a substantive briefing on this matter, notwithstanding what the Director of the SIS may have recorded.
The reason I can be confident of this is that having been Minister of Foreign Affairs and having dealt with the issue of Mossad agents criminally misappropriating New Zealand passports, I had a keen interest in the issue of Mossad agents operating in New Zealand. I would have recalled anything which might properly have been described as a briefing.
The only explanation I can guess at is the Director may have said that there was a suspicion around actions of Israeli hitch-hikers in Christchurch at the time of the earthquake but there was nothing to it.
No information of any substance was given to me or I would have recalled it.
That, however, is not the issue under investigation.
The issue is why John Key chose to raise the alleged briefing in a public and political context and how information held by the SIS was released into the public arena.
My suspicion at the time, confirmed by material disclosed in Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics, is that material was disclosed to Cameron Slater who blogs under the name Whale Oil to facilitate his making a specific OIA request.
Evidence for this is the specificity of Mr Slater’s request, even asking for any diary notation, his statement that he knew that the request was to be expedited expecting the documents to be released immediately, and his statement in a leaked email that he had been ‘sworn to secrecy’ about what he knew.
The obvious explanation was that he had a source for this information which in the nature of SIS briefings could only have been either within the SIS itself or the Prime Minister or his Office.
I would hope that the former is unlikely because it would represent improper conduct by the SIS.
The Prime Minister and his Office however have close links with Cameron Slater whose blogs are used to attack political opponents of the Government.
No one in the Prime Minister’s office would provide inside knowledge of what the SIS was saying or doing without the implicit or explicit approval of Mr Key.
That is why I believe Mr Key should be asked to give sworn evidence on precisely who in his office had access to this information and the ground rules he set down for his staff as to how this information was to be treated.
When I spoke to the Director of the SIS who phoned me suggesting he intended to release the documents immediately, he was coy about whether he knew of the identity of the Mr Slater who had requested the documents sought under the OIA. He then acknowledged that he did know who Cameron Slater was. The documents were to be released immediately until I challenged why the SIS was acting in the way he proposed. He at that point suggested he would delay the release for a number of days.
It was unwise for the SIS to be drawn into a highly politicised debate. In my long experience of asking Government Departments for information under the OIA, it is unprecedented for a request to be turned around so quickly.
I believe your Inquiry should examine the full political context of this matter and how and why material which would normally be held confidential was brought into the public and political arena.
The use of SIS briefing material in this way undermines confidence in its role as an agency of state which has extraordinary powers.
It effectively politicises the work of the agency and undermines expectations of impartiality and confidentiality in the way in which information which it holds is used.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you and give sworn evidence on the issues under investigation.
Hon Phil Goff
MP for Mt Roskill
8 September 2014 “
“A document released to blogger Cameron Slater on Thursday by the SIS titled “Investigation into Israeli Nationals in Christchurch” (and heavily blacked out) has a diary note on the top corner “read by/discussed with Mr Goff 14 Mar 11”.
But Mr Goff insists he would have remembered if Dr Tucker had raised it. He said Dr Tucker rang him last week to tell him he was releasing the document to Slater.
“I said, ‘What – I haven’t even seen the bloody document.”
How do you know that Key, his attack dogs or Tucker were not telling porkies when they said that Goff as leader of the opposition was ‘fully briefed’ about it? In this instance, I believe Goff over the National dirty tricks brigade as Goff had no reason to lie about it. Goff has more integrity than these dirty tricks dodgy crooks.
Anyway, the inquiry is not about that. It is about the dirty tricks that went on behind the scenes about the OIA release of documents to their attack dog. The inquiry can not even cross examine Key, the Minister in charge of SIS, as per the narrow terms set/approved by, wait for it, Key himself!
This just looks like a Clayton’s BS inquiry to fool the RWNjobs like you and the gullible voters some more.
The inquiry can not even cross examine Key, the Minister in charge of SIS, as per the narrow terms set/approved by, wait for it, Key himself!
I thought that was a question of the law pertaining to the Inspector General’s powers, rather than terms set down by Key. After all, she’s officially conducting the enquiry under her own motion using the powers of her office, rather than at his behest. Regardless, I’m still not entirely clear on what she can and can’t require of the Prime Minister. She isn’t allowed to conduct an enquiry into his conduct, but can she compel him to give evidence under oath regarding the conduct of those in his office? It would obviously be a step she shouldn’t take lightly, and only if she can’t establish a credible sequence of events by talking to his staff, but she doesn’t seem to be debarred from doing so.
It is also unclear to me how she would be required to handle any evidence that does clearly implicate the Prime Minister in the leak or suggest that he has misled the public, given that she is not permitted to enquire into his conduct.
There was a news item soon after the inquiry was set up that she would be calling the PM for questioning and it was reported that ‘ John Key says he’s prepared to answer under oath too’ [24 Aug, RNZ]
If Key is not made to answer questions under oath to arrive at the truth, then such an inquiry is just a whitewash and a sham. A waste of time. If she has no powers to question the PM, then someone that has the ‘powers’ should be asked to do that part of the inquiry. Otherwise, what is the point of this BS exercise? Key is the guy in charge of the department!
Phil may be a recent rogernome but he is quite believable on this one, he seemed stitched up by the SIS at the time.
The wood panelled rooms, leather club chairs and no minutes needed eh what! scenario is all very well for those in the real insiders loop but it illustrates why the current state security apparatus should be disbanded.
I think Goff is an absolute prick and a right wing disaster zone, but I believe he will tell the truth. I suspect the SIS feel almost as much loyalty to NAct as they do to their true seppo masters, and I do not trust them at all. They’re basically the same type as cops, and their behaviour and ethics would be very similar.
Anything the leader of the opposition is briefed on should be signed by that leader. That’s basic procedure. Why don’t they do it?
“I think Goff is an absolute prick and a right wing disaster zone”
What a lot of fashionable ignorant rubbish you are parroting. Goff is one of the most fair, pragmatic, sensible, efficient and decent democratic socialist MPs that is in our parliament.
Israel committed a massacre in Gaza; there was no “war”.
Bryan Crump must know that, so why could he not say it?
Radio New Zealand National, Monday 8 September 2014
Just after the 5 o’clock news, a trailer featuring the voice of Bryan Crump played….
BRYAN CRUMP: Coming up on Nights: our correspondent is Nida’ Tuma from the West Bank. She’s been watching the latest war between Israel and Gaza.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
I am sure I was not the only listener to have felt despair when I heard that. On the off chance that he actually cares about his professional obligations, I sent Bryan Crump the following e-mail…..
Israel committed a massacre in Gaza; there was no “war”
Dear Bryan,
In a trailer for your programme, you say that your correspondent Nida’ Tuma has been watching “the latest war between Israel and Gaza”.
That implies some degree of parity between two evenly matched sides. In fact, what you referred to as a “war” was a massacre against an unarmed civilian population. Israel killed more than two thousand Gazans; according to the United Nations, 69 percent of them were civilians. Four Israeli civilians died. Not one Israeli bomber suffered so much as a scratch.
Surely journalists have a duty to use language rigorously and responsibly. Please leave the distortions and lies to the politicians.
Thanks, Chooky. I’m sure Bryan Crump is perfectly aware that the words he spoke were pure nonsense. What is interesting is that he obviously cannot bring himself to speak plainly and truthfully on this matter.
Internet Mana final Roadtrip event in Otara Auckland TUESDAY Sept 9 6pm
8000 people have attended the small hall meetings so far up and down the country, come along and support the finale! https://www.facebook.com/events/946760495350803/
+100… I wish I could be there!…i wish Internet Mana a great victory in the Election!….they have some very fine policies and candidates led by Hone Harawira and Laila Harre!
With Israel trying to determine NZ’s diplomatic policy, its war crimes against the Palestinians and the visitor permit rorts involving its ex-IDF troops as exposed on Campbell live, why would we want to maintain diplomatic relations?
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The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
“Proposals to curb environmental damage help our coasts and the oceans Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. We at CEAC also ...
David Robie, concluding his three-part series about Iran, profiles an extraordinary pair of Tehran brothers who have been pioneering global research adventurers. They have been dubbed the “Persian Indiana Joneses”. Their adventures are fabled and hair-raising, as shown by a Jivaro shrunken human head and relics from curious rituals ...
Four months ago Caroline Shaw bought an e-bike. She explains why they’re the answer to our lethal car culture.Four months ago we took what felt like a huge leap of faith and bought an e-cargo bike. The combination of three things tipped us over the edge: feeling the need to ...
The online magazine that boasted a bigger Instagram following than most New Zealand media has abruptly come to an end. So what was Auckland Mag? Why did it exist? And who was it mysterious founder Dan Rolph? David Farrier investigates. The reply from Dan Rolph at Auckland Magazine came quickly. It came ...
In the wake of the shocking revelations about Three, Duncan Greive assesses the health of New Zealand’s six big media companies.Winston Peters has studied the cold, pitiless heart of a certain strand of New Zealander for four decades now, and has become our foremost expert on both expressing its feelings ...
US justice reform activists Deborah Small and asha bandele say white supremacy and colonialism are at the heart of punitive drug laws. They spoke to Teuila Fuatai about how drug reform can reverse their effects on minority communities. Deborah Small sees Donald Trump as the US Dorian Gray. “He’s the physical ...
Madeleine Chapman spent a day learning about Christchurch through its most famous dishes.What is there do with with a day in Christchurch? Thanks to the inexplicably early check-out times at hotels all over the world and a 7pm flight back to Auckland, I had a full day to wander the ...
Winston Peters says his party is a handbrake on bad ideas and a "supercharged turbo" for good ones - but will it be in the driver's seat come 2020? ...
Our former prime minister secured a meeting with Chinese premier Xi Jinping outside all normal diplomatic channels. Interest’s Jenée Tibshraeny asks what it means for New Zealand’s evolving relationship with the superpower.Former prime minister John Key secured a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week without the involvement of ...
David Robiecontinues his three-part series about travelling in Iran. I stumbled on the scene by chance. Our host family in Iran’s second city Mashhad, a modern and beautiful metropolis that would comfortably fit in New Zealand’s entire population, was taking us on a drive to the outskirts to ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has lashed out at the media, in particular, MediaWorks, just a day after the company announced it was selling off its television arm. ...
About a hundred disgruntled licensed gun owners have descended on the New Zealand First conference to tell the party leader Winston Peters that they feel like victims. ...
New Zealand First members will vote on a policy today that would allow businesses of all sizes to enforce 90-day trials when they employ people straight out of prison. ...
"Each time she held her lighter underneath the pipe and sucked the smoke into the back of her throat, the promise was there": a New Zealand tragedy by Alice Tawhai. ...
With the future of Mediaworks’ TV business hanging in the balance, Al Jazeera news presenter Kamahl Santamaria reflects on what the imperilled channel meant, and continues to mean, to him.I always liked the logo. The fresh bright colours, the nod to a koru in its shape, and just the fact ...
There are still many barriers preventing people from voting in local elections. Laura O’Connell Rapira proposes some social solutions.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.To vote in the local elections, I cast ...
What’s really stood out for me being back in Tokyo is the unique qualities of Japan’s spectators, writes Richard Light, professor of sport coaching at the University of Canterbury.The Rugby World Cup has thrown a global spotlight on Japan over recent weeks. Not just the rugby: the distinctive culture and ...
As the New Zealand First Party gathers for its annual conference, the question swirling in the year is how it can carve out a path to avoid electoral defeat in 2020, writes Jo Moir for RNZ. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s a familiar break up excuse that’s used ...
To the early intervention therapists, to the teachers, to the speech therapists, the occupational therapists, music therapists, diabetes nurses and all: you change the world.When I was married almost a decade ago we had the following reading at our wedding:You are holding up a ceilingwith both arms. It is very ...
The faces said it all. The smiles of the European leaders crowded round Boris after the Brexit deal was struck. The deal his opponents – no, pretty much everyone – said was impossible.So what’s in it? The detail is still opaque, but subject to gremlins in the fine print, ...
Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved? David Robie has spent several weeks travelling in the country on sabbatical and finds the media negativity far from the reality of the “most friendly” country he has ever visited ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Leigh Sullivan discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan. They talk about Alan Jones accusing Prime Minister Scott Morrison of failing the immediate needs of drought-striken farmers, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Senior Research Fellow in Geometallurgy/Applied Geochemistry, The University of Queensland Last month, scientists uncovered a mineral called Edscottite. Minerals are solid, naturally occurring substances that are not living, such as quartz or haematite. This new mineral was discovered after an ...
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody.Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit ...
Analysis: Two polls show support for Labour sliding, the government is accused of breaking another promise and the Greens's refusal to back a bill forces Labour to rely on National to get it through. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney One spring morning in 1850, over 8,000 Sydneysiders marched through town to protest the resumption of transportation – the act of sending British criminals to Australia. It was the largest protest in Australia thus far, an ...
Two shareholders of failed insurance firm company CBL are leading a class action against the firm's former directors seeking compensation for financial losses. ...
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don’t know how to sew.This episode asks, and sort of answers the main question that millions of people across the world: why would you come on Drag Race and not know how to sew?!There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John M Clarke, Team Leader, Regional Projections, CSIRO Last month we lost Dr Penny Whetton – one of the world’s most respected climate scientists and a brilliant mentor to the next generation of researchers. Penny will also be remembered as a passionate ...
Ten moose were upended into the Dusky Sounds in 1910. Now, their descendants are getting their day in the sun.The climate crisis is affecting wildlife all over the country: rockhopper penguin populations are in drastic decline, tuatara eggs aren’t hatching females, and the ice walls keeping predators away from kea ...
Security footage of NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell being thrown out of a Tauranga bar looks unlikely to ever be aired - despite his leader Winston Peters promising a screening. ...
Amnesty International is concerned that Justice Minister Andrew Little's Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill could have the potential to undermine human rights in New Zealand. The Bill would give the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to ...
Expect the old campaigner Winston Peters to be at his belligerent best as he gears up for another election. He’s kept his party alive for 27 years and he shows no sign of quitting. The omens may be bleak—polls this week showed his party below the 5% threshold– but Peters ...
The National Party has agreed to take down any videos breaching the current rules around the use of parliamentary TV footage, as all parties try to reach consensus. ...
Recently the Health Promotion Agency released a report into hazardous drinking in New Zealand. The report shows that Māori who drink alcohol and live in deprived circumstances are less likely to have a harmful relationship with alcohol if they ...
Turkey-US joint-statement on military ops within Syria’s territory.The Turkish Embassy in New Zealand issued Evening Report this unabridged United States of America-Republic of Turkey joint-statement detailing what both sides agreed to regarding Turkey’s military operations within the so-called security zone within Syrian territory near Turkey’s southern border. It is ...
Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash didn’t mention what winners will receive, when he proudly called for entries for a new public award “to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector”. Nor did he mention the cost to taxpayers of this initiative. Point of Order’s checks with the website where more details have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona R Martin, Senior Lecturer in Convergent and Online Media, University of Sydney One of the basic tenets of the ABC Act is independence from government. Yet once again, in contravention to that principle, the federal government is trying to push through ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Lily Holloway.modernity to globalisationwhen I get there as still life and landscape and also portraitureseeking the cacti in small pots who dot the globeslices of pie offer up the vision after the sermonexpressing emotions without coherent narrative supportbecause no artist responded to this callemploying ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi to rule out any taxpayer-funded purchase or bailout for Mediaworks’s channel Three. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “For the last few months Mediaworks ...
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10470340/Collins-a-media-victim-just-like-Diana-sister
STUFF Stuff! How can they sit on material that could bring down a government and yet publish this sort of STUFF!
Media by name but a large corporate by nature.
Thought it was satire at first..
Danyl Mclauchlan @danylmc
‘Even when you resigned/All the press still hounded you/All the papers had to say/Was that you’d undermined the Serious Fraud Office.’
https://twitter.com/danylmc/status/508716808665169920
😉
Phillip Mason @masph984
@ShakingStick @danylmc
“Your whale-oil burned out long before, your vengeance never did”
Weka, What a hoot man (sorry for the pun)
Lets go finish a version and get Planet Key revised?
“Good bye no-good key, bet you were betting on your first billion you had made , when the feds came and stole your crown again,” ———-
Yes, but that would be comparing Key to Lady Di. I think we can do better.
I still have not seen any clear evidence. All I have seen so far is Hagar’s allegations based on a number of emails that possibly could have been taken out of context. If Stuff or The Herald have further information it looks like they are waiting until closer to election day to release it. That will provide less time for the authenticity of the information to be checked. If that happens then it will demonstrate that the media is more focused on changing the Government than on finding truth.
These guys don’t want the truth
Yea not like anyone sped to an all black match, something this PM would be cheered for byt he and others villified her for.
One day when you wake up and find your kids dont respect you, remember what you taught them;
Intergity doesnt matter
Honesty doesnt matter
Make lots of money
If there was anything in it, it would be out by now.
Too soon. They are probably checking it to see what corroborating evidence there is from other sources, and also getting a statement from the accused – then checking the statements by the accused, and running them through their lawyers – how journalists should work.
The other explanation is that their agenda is that of corporate media…
The risk is that the info will be parsed in terms of that agenda and how they perceive politics — the game of it, not the substance of it.
Maybe they’ll balance each other out, maybe not, but we have been seriously let down by the news media in this country of late so I’m not holding my breath.
I agree with your last sentence.
1. The three media outlets shared one QC on Friday.
2. Not one outlet has even hinted they are working on anything towards release.
3. Not a single word has been published by any of them on the whole issue since the court hearing.
I believe they are complicit in one of the biggest right wing rorts of New Zealand, continuing with what they have been doing for years.
Is it evolving to be a corporate media vs internet battle.
Come in Rawshark, your time is up. Please.
Because they KNOW that the MSM will get an overhauling if Cunliffe gets in. And they know they are dirty and are scared.
Not that I have any time for royalty or for for the public outpouring of grief over Diana’s death.
But this article by Stuff is unbelievable, stupid, insensitive and utterly effing unforgivable. Diana was a giver, a kindergarten teacher, who only wanted to be loved, gave herself to charities, was genuine and naive.
Judith Collins krgh..yuck (furball) is absolutely the opposite. A hardened self-serving, power-hungry, manipulative, corrupt individual who wants at all costs to have power. She would never give herself to any charitable cause for genuine caring reasons and is certainly not naive.
J figjam C deserves everything she gets from the media. What was discovered by Rawshark is probably just the tip of the iceberg.
Stuff’s next piece will involve interviewing Judith Collins’ neighbour who reckons JC is like Mother Teresa.
Not a lot of sympathy in the comments on this one.
And rightly so.
Being hounded by the media for your own attempts to hound people you don’t like when you are in a position of power is just deserts.
Have you notice how quickly Slater turns himself into the victim. Oh, look a pile of death threats just turned up in my inbox…
Yep ….. victimhood is always the safe option, bound to conjur sympathy. (It even trumps other ideological positions – personal responsibility and all).
Poor Cam ….
Pooor poor Cam ….
I’m so tuff, but mummy – they’re ALL being mean to me!
Mummy: Oh Chill Cam – get Aaron to deal with it – I’ve got the Caci Clinic and a hairdresser’s appointment – I’ll deal with it when I get back
Princess Judith – she fills the space of the cute animal or celebrity story for today. But Princess Diana was a bit like Cinderella, dealing with problems at home and going out for a break to have some fun and look for a prince of her own. Judith C. would fit the role of one of Cinder’s unpleasant sisters.
I have made a decision that for the next week at least, I am not clicking on stuff. I am stick of giving these bastards the click.
Will catch up on what happening on the Standard. I wonder about a boycott of stuff with just a few people on the left feeding it to blogs like the Standard so we can critique it. That way they get a significant decrease in clicks.
If people think this is a good idea, I am sure we could organise it. I would be happy to be on a roster, where I feed what I thought was relevant to the Standard…………sure we could make it work somehow.
i already do that with both stuff/herald..
..some days there is only one link..to one or the other..
Stuff so impressed with the amount of ‘lol wtf’ type responses they deemed it worth a separate article
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/10472211/Judith-Collins-Top-reader-comments
Its curious that there would be quite such a voluminous & one sided response to this if the polls are actually right about Nats being over 50% I think.
Natural Born Liars
@ draco..
you want demolitions/unpacking of libertarian bullshit..?
..i have quite a bit of that..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=libertarian
Kyle MacDonald.. psychotherapist, huh?
If that’s the case, then he knows that he’s left out at least half the story. The line’s he’s drawn in his blog post are purely subjective and to his taste. He isn’t writing as a “psychotherapist as scientist” – as far as such a thing is possible – and he’s certainly blurred the line. Theoretically the statement that “poverty is the fault and responsibility of the individual” is both true and untrue depending on the individual and the approach of the therapist/observer. Hypothetically, and not using politics, it should be possible to arrive at both the truth and/or a solution of each case from both positions.
One of my pet peeves is people with social status e.g. doctors, lawyers, philanthropists etc, knowing full well what their status gives their voice in the public arena, betray the science and rules of their profession, maybe even vocation, to present a personal biased political argument. It brings their practice into disrepute, the idea of authority/elders as wise, and a the furthest end, undermines our community.
Personally,I know full well the lie that underpins the idea of “don’t kill/starve/abuse the kids”. I know I can prove that either is acceptable, in a human animal sense. But I choose, through my own bias when faced with an either/or choice, to not kill/starve/abuse the kids.
Can you give me the link to the Kylie Mc article Crocodill??? I would like to see it with the view to writing to the psychotherapists board.
http://psychotherapy.org.nz/natural-born-liars/
“One of my pet peeves is people with social status e.g. doctors, lawyers, philanthropists etc, knowing full well what their status gives their voice in the public arena, betray the science and rules of their profession…..”
That’s very perceptive @Croc – but actually also quite prevalent (especially amongst those that have succumbed to the neo-lib agenda – which is often a way of their rationalising their stance)
David Brat anyone?
Ladder puller uppers?
Chief Science Advisors with sons who are … and trauma specialists with previous drug addiction problems who don’t have the balls to challenge the agenda (altho’ to be fair – they may also think not challenging allows them to continue with a positive agenda – @ PU – in your past life – perhaps you’ve crossed paths with them – thru’ a brother – now deceased, I Certainly have!)
Wife beater journalists; complete asshole hotel owners, the voice of morality and conservative ‘once were swingers’ decrying the decay of (there’s no such thing as) ‘society’ as we know it… the list is endless – and most of them are amongst the most judgemental and oppressive of their next generation.
I think though at times such as we have at present – it really is time for them to come clean. For me, nearing my dotage, it’s way passed time.
But then I suppose given the state of our MSM media, at the moment they’d not be given a fair suck of the sav.
Poverty is a result of the structure of our society.
If you disagree with what’s said then why don’t you say why you disagree rather going on an Ad Hominem attack?
My pet peeve is the way lower socio-economic people with addictions are denegrated – OFTEN by the higher socio-economic classes with the very same additions. I commend them in their recovery of course, but its generally come by being able to take advantage of high cost, private services that are not available to everyone.
Hanmer – dismantled
Marton – dismantled, etc.
Right across the country! Indeed there was a report tis morning (Morning Report I think) discussing a young lady’s morphine overdose pointing out just how services for the ‘average Joe and Josephine are no longer availabe, and haven’t been for quite some time.
I’m sorry if all that offends you, however my brother’s addiction and eventual death was looked upon by his wealthier contemporaries with disdain as though their addictions were somehow excusable and ‘better/more respectable’, whereas his were not.
There but for the grace of God etc.
I’ll refrain from further comment because the double standards and hypocrisy make me just a bit sick at times.
oops – not sure who I’m replying to here – can’t find reading glasses and the numbering is a bit invisible, but gtg.
Later chasps
We know the Herald wants ACT and National to win the election, but this level of bias is worthy of a banana republic….
The Herald’s headline is based on on a snide remark made by (one can only assume, as it I sun ascribed) a Tory hack. Talk about skewing a story to fit your newspaper’s political agenda.
“That hall looks as healthy as the Labour Party,” someone remarked.
And yet you sit on material which looks at corruption within our governing system and say nothing.
Wow. Just wow.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11320550
Get used to it, democracy under attack granny styles using one of the more obviously biased nat sycophans audrey young who needs no instructions being a die hard tory.
We should organise demonstrations outside mainstream media outlets pushing for the release of the material they have been given by Rawshark. If they don’t release it soon, it will prove how corrupt our mainstream media. Of course we know that – but so many sheeple don’t.
Or you could request Rawshank release the information to you. If you think he is too difficult to find Hager found him without too many problems.
By holding off releasing any material until just before the election, and thereby preventing an accurate assessment of the validity of the allegations would demonstrate clearly that the media is corrupt.
After all the main purpose of the media is to introduce the public to advertisers. The dissemination of news is secondary and a reliance on truth is not required.
Slater sued for the return of his emails. The judge ruled its in the public interest.
Run back to Cammies site, theres some koolaid awaiting
Tautoko Viper Funny that?
Wasn’t it the press and National that said opposition should be talking policy while they try all we get is this sop.
Surely they should at least be talking about the Government’s lack of any policy for climate change.
NatZ Climate change Minister Tim Grosser was shamed at this debate last week, and never covered in the press.
Opposition should go after NatZ on this in the last days leading up to the elections.
http://www.climatevoter.org.nz/debate/
Every where else it is the biggest policy decision being made in the world.
Within these following headlines and still there’s no MSM comments about lack of a NatZ policy press are doing us a huge disservice that will come home to roost in the end.
Lack of a Climate Change policy is NatZ weakest policy along with credibility, that lacks critical glare of the press.
PD Gluckman, Chief Science Advisor has done nothing to focus on Climate change however.
12:20 June 10, 2010 Pacific Press Releases Gluckman: Integrity in Science – Climate Debate Speech – Prime Ministers Science Advisory Committee. “If we overestimate, then in 2050 we might find that we have overinvested in climate change mitigation, but most of those mitigation strategies, such as sustainable energy generation, will help to meet our other challenges. The equation is not equal.”
http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/06/gluckman-integrity-in-science-climate-debate/
Importantly this refusal to make a meaningful stand from National coincides with a climate Change debate taking place this week in the pacific Islands.
July 2014 climate debate http://news.yahoo.com/pacific-summit-urge-action-climate-change-045854000.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/un-weather-forecasts-2050-climate-change-floods-drought
United Nations predicts climate hell in 2050 with imagined weather forecasts
‘Reports from the future’ warn of floods, storms and searing heat in campaign for climate change summit
Say bye bye to those lovely seedless grapes.
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/09/scientists-american-southwest-faces-megadrought/
act’s Jami whyte pathos this morning with Guyen/Guyan/Guyun?..ACT is dead in the water.
Yet Cunliffe and Peters felt the need to make formal statements on Act policy. Why would they bother if it was dead?
Because it’s a lovely stick to hit National over the head with.
It is a stick with no relevance if Act is indeed politically dead.
Dead or alive the stick can still be effective. The opposition parties will all be praying that Jamie Whyte talks about abolishing the OIO all way til election day.
And the RMA
Er, no, if it is a dead rotting corpse, that’s even better to hit National with, in the hopes some of the rotting flesh will stick to them as well.
Pretty obvious strategy given Key conflates Labour with every other controversial party, policy and person on the left at every opportunity.
ACT as the Zombie Party. Great image. Look out for that shambling walk and defaced face and bulging eyes of madness. Don’t let them touch you, and keep your baton to hand.
Key has to pretend ACT is alive to use it to announce more neo-lib dross (like the previously announced Charter schools). Probably selling off part of the health system or education vouchers to improve ‘choice’ as part of the ever so necessary coalition agreement. Because National would never do such things, oh noes.
Key talks about labour policy all the time, why does he do that if they are dead in the water?
It is to remind the voters not to waste their precious votes on stupid and dead parties such as ACT, Conservatives and the dodgy Dunne’s UF! Don’t tell me you are foolishly thinking of voting for one of these clowns?
Gos-respect for the dead is important
Whyte has been getting more extreme (desperate?) everyday. This morning on the News attacking all and Sundry. Show’s he’s ready for Parliament NOT. They would have him for lunch.
He has selective racism too. He rants and rages against Maori while lambastingwinston for bashing Asians
Two interesting little local polls on the East Coast. The second is only a street poll of 50 and of little use statisitcally, but they both show up a massive number of undecided voters and a lot of damage to National over the dirty politics saga.
Also, the Waiarapa poll does what no one else has – put the undecided voters into it’s graphic. National is on 34%. However, if you take out the undecided voters, then of the decided the Nats are pushing…. 50%.
I suspect that is where the “govern alone” narrative is coming from – half of all decided voters are voting National, but up to one third are yet to make up their minds. I suspect this is where National’s sudden tax cuts come from – their internal polling told them they took a hit, and there is a huge number of undecided voters they are trying to bribe.
I decent chuck of that non decided generally become non voters. About 30% you say, which is similar, maybe a bit high, to the non vote in past. It is not unreasonable to assume a amount of the electorate won’t vote and therefore their vote is divided amongst the other percentages.
30% is too high, even 2011 had 74% turnout. Usuall the turnout is higher than that, often in the 80s. The undecideds and the non-voters aren’t the same group, although there is some overlap.
Yes you are right my 30% mention is too high, I think it was 25% last election and as CV says below turnout looks like it will be higher and high turnout usually hurts incumbents but my point is clear in that the undecided don’t make polls completely distorted.
The polls, as they are reported, are a complete distortion when the MSM discounts undecideds as non-voters, esp when the undecideds are such a high percentage in a close election.
Worse, at the last election the MSM reported before the election that National would win. How many undecideds did that push into non-voters? How many decideds for that matter (mostly Labour voters who thought it would be a waste of time)?
I think early voting results will show that people are deciding and acting at far higher rates than in 2011. This is of course a very bad sign for National, who would prefer lowered turnout if at all possible (one of the themes of their Dirty Politics).
Wairarapa poll http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11320089
wonder if John Campbell and TV3 will find that secondary school that has always opposed the ‘official’ polls to be spot on with prediction in the last three .. was it in Hawkes Bay somewhere ? I’ve been waiting …. anyone else remember ?
(And I wonder how JC feels that TV3 holds Rawshark material and is not publishing ?)
Under FPP it was Tauranga Boys
thx Tracey .. was it only under FPP ? I will ring and ask them if they are doing it again.
That was a while ago, so you may be thinking of another schol?
Maybe Jcampbell has seen them and has special questions ready
The biggest threat to our democracy at the moment are the polls. They are obviously dodgy and unreliable and dare I say it, dishonest.
Ignore the polls; they lie. Unfortunately the majority of voters seem to believe them (if we believe the polls) – see what I mean?
Why are the obviously dodgy and unreliable? And if you average them out like Nate Silver they can become very reliable.
Because the difference between polls conducted over similar time periods by different companies show differences far beyond what would be expected by chance alone. In other words, at least some polls are suffering from uncorrected bias. Averaging poor quality data won’t make the results any more reliable.
“Why are the obviously dodgy and unreliable? And if you average them out like Nate Silver they can become very reliable.”
But no one in NZ is doing anything close to Nate Silver.
Also the electoral system the US uses is much easier to model and forecast than NZ’s system, and he also has far more data at his disposal to work with (both demographic and polling data).
How about you get together a bunch of your lefty mates and create a polling company that does it properly then.
It’s not just the left though Gosman. Morning Report had Richard Prebble saying that the polls are all wrong and that the ‘telephone’ model doesn’t work anymore. ACT is going to get 7 MPs apparently.
Except Act doesn’t complain that any flawed methodology is as a result of some deliberate bias against them and also doesn’t claim that it will influence the election.
So why does the US military spend so much time and money on polls and polling in countries they want to influence Gosman? Again you’ve come back with the passive aggression and misdirection bro.
What has that have to do with Act?
It’s all about you ah Gosman?
Possibly cos the last two elections they have been right about ACT
Why bother? The only thing that matters is the actual election result. I would prefer it if polls a few months before the election were banned – they are just a distraction from the real issues that should guide voter’s choices come election day.
+111
Ban the damn polls. That should force the MSM to actually do some journalism and report actual news.
Now there’s a surprise. A solution from someone on the left wanting to ban what is essentially free speech [/sar].
Meh. We already have plenty of regulations governing our elections to ensure they are free and fair. Opinion polls are already banned in New Zealand on election day itself (OMG a restriction on free speech!!!). In some other countries, they are banned for longer periods, so it’s an option that is at least worth considering.
@ Gosman …”free speech ” or free manipulation of statistics for a ‘poll’ instrument of right wing PR warfare?
Now there’s a surprise, a RWNJ using the excuse of free speech to continue the corruption of our voting system by the MSM.
It’s easy to imagine a model that would be much more consistent and hopefully less biased than current methods, it’s just it would be too expensive. Which is why we get the current level of shoddy polling that we do.
You want the left to stick their hands in their own pockets? Surely there should be a state funded polling company instead…Kiwipoll sounds about right
Probably the closest we would ever get to fair polling, but no government would set such an SOE up due to the embarrassment of having to answer questions about why “the official” polling office has them on such low support, etc.
We have a state funding polling company — it’s called “The Electoral Commission”.
Next time you start waving around your latest big shiny poll why don’t you examine the importance of the undecided percentage?
I’m talking to you TV3, TVNZ, Fairfax, Herald, Colmar Brunton and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all.
I double dare you.
Of all the qualities Courage is the most important for without it all the rest are at risk. (Paraphrase J M Barrie)
Like i have already stated the undecided are often at this late stage become non votes. 100% of the electorate does not vote.
Where is the evidence of this? Since polling companies do not follow-up with those polled to determine whether or not they voted, I doubt such evidence even exists.
http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/chart-of-the-day-used-to-vote-for-you-but-now-doesnt-vote-man-edition/
Going by the above graphic 25% of people eligible to vote won’t vote, these are the undecideds.
I doubt large numbers of people who were going to vote suddenly change their minds at the end and suddenly think “Aw fuck it they all suck, I’m not voting!”
Yeah, no shit. Turn-out is not 100%, I knew that. What you haven’t shown is that these people who don’t vote are the same ones who won’t give a response during a telephone poll.
Whats the percentage of people in the telephone polls who said they’re undecided? is it roughly around 25%-30%
Depending on the poll I think it has ranged from about 6% to 18% in this campaign.
Looking at previous elections the undecided/non-voter is either being under represented or we’re going to get a much higher turn out than the last couple of elections.
The undecideds and the non-voters are not the same group.
The undecideds will become the non-voters.
Simply saying it over and over again doesn’t make it true.
“The undecideds will become the non-voters.”
Some of the undecideds will become non-voters
fify.
Your problem is you have no idea how many.
Plu, the general consensus is that non-voters who become voters tend to vote left.
No your right and I stand to be corrected, hopefully someone could point to some studies, but I would say at late stage polling the undecided constitute a large portion of non voters. But your right they are not exactly the same group.
Someone else will know better than me how the methodology of polling works but I don’t think non-voters and undecideds are the same thing. As far as I know the non-voters are removed from the samples, undecideds are those who say they will vote but won’t or can’t express a preference? Interestingly the IPSOS-Reid Fairfax poll which has National polling the highest also has the most undecideds and Tracey Watkins in her analysis of their latest poll said that dividing the undecideds (13% if I recall) support along the same preferences as the polling data would see National’s support drop by 2%.
yes, non-voters and undecideds are different groups, with overlaps. BM is spinning.
I don’t think non-voters are polled in those main polls. I asked the other day about people who said piss off to polsters, and Draco reckons those people are accounted for in the final results, but that’s a different set than official non-voters.
The polls, as reported, are biased. If they wanted to report what the NZ public is really thinking, they would include all the results.
A large number of people refuse to participate in polling.
A useful statistic would be the number of people the polling companies called in order to get their overall sample of around 1000 (or 750 for the Herald Digipoll).
My guess is that the committed non-voters would be more likely to be in the ‘refuse to participate at all in the poll’ group.
I note that in the Wairarapa poll the number of people called was over twice the size of the sample:
“Of the 1069 random calls made, 417 voters agreed to take part in the survey.“
Why are you asking me that? Even if the percentages matched (I’m not saying they do), you would still be making an assumption, it doesn’t prove that undecideds=non-voters.
he’s wrong on the %s too.
Imagine if you applied that analysis to john key and the revelations of ms odgers and mr hager…
I reckon early polling data this week will show that you are quite wrong – interest in this election is far higher than in the last.
+100 seems like this is the case
‘A brief reminder for everyone depressed by the msm polls’
By Martyn Bradbury / September 8, 2014
Folks, this is the reality……don’t believe the mainstream media hype that Key will win by a landslide.
The advanced voting since the last election also tell a different story from the one the MSM is claiming, almost 30 000 more votes than this time last election!
Vote NOW!
– See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/09/08/a-brief-reminder-for-everyone-depressed-by-the-msm-polls/#sthash.5xgzxBjk.dpuf
lol (not) that Judith Collins doesn’t lie!!! Was she not caught out in Parliament doing just that? Has her sister forgotten about Oravida Dairy?
Does her sister have a perspective on Oravida Kauri ltd (her brother in law’s company)? Adam Bennett in the Herald was rummaging around the topic a few months ago, but has gone quiet. (as has Adam Bennett). Radio NZ mentioned it last week in a programme – exporting of kauri logs with little to no “value added” to them.
A comment I made on the Herald website got “moderated” last week. Took out reference to Oravida Kauri Ltd, but left my other (unrelated) comment.
Media complicit in all this.
Judith Collins likened (by her sister) to Princess Diana!
Just one subtle distinction. Being loved by your family, and being loved by a nation.
Good on her sister for supporting Collins, but by coming out in the public domain with her crass comparison, Pamela Cassidy deserves to be mocked mercilessly
I always suspected it was John Key driving the white Fiat Uno in that Paris underpass.
When the headline top of Stuff page this morning should have been about emails from Key’s office, we get this saccharine and slithering attempt to rehabilitate Collins image.
This folks is what PR and Crosby Textor do to our country.
So, finally, we get Dirty Politics on the front page of Stuff ! It just wasn’t what we expected or needed. But omg, how they are proven complicit in how the game is played.
Don’t say that someone on here will probably believe it
Good point, PR. To nip it in the bud, I think Key should tell us where he was on 31 August 1997 and provide evidence of his alibi. While I think it most unlikely he was directly involved (he has minions for that sort of thing) it’s best he clears it up once and for all, lest the election campaign descend into farce. Pip Pip!
🙂
Its not a true lie til cam cam posts it on behalf of someone paying him to fib.
“I always suspected it was John Key driving the white Fiat Uno in that Paris underpass.”
Conspiracy theorist. There was no fiat. Everyone knows Judith’s limo spun out on oravida milk before crashing head first into a whale’s arse.
As does the idiot that scribbled that drivel.
I don’t think there’s any call to mock Mrs Cassidy. She’s entitled to her opinion, especially if it concerns her little sister. However, it really isn’t newsworthy, and publishing the story represents both sickening puffery on behalf of Ms Collins and a shameless exploitation of how forthcoming her elder sister is in making an unwitting fool of herself.
Almost as bad as that John Key, Aroha girl story rehash they had on stuff yesterday.
I get the feeling stuff is going like the daily mail, all their stories are designed purely to get a reaction from people.
Key made that a relevant issue himself, though, by politicising the issue in the first place. The private views of Collins’ sister are different. If she was put up to it in a deliberate and calculated spin to puff up Collins’ image, then she deserves ridicule. However, I have no real evidence that she was. It just looks like the papers spinning to me.
How dare the girl who mr key used to support his great con, speak out, aye BM. Makes it harder and harder for dupes like you to stay the course being reminded of the cons
so very very true!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/p526x296/10534702_707474005974808_8620712377705254402_n.jpg?oh=68daa0a1f42faa3b6d9d91a3f7c7b724&oe=54826BB8&__gda__=1418254597_a524fc03717b5f6be00a1750f5545221
that’s a good bit of graffiti you found there..fred..
Spot on!
Spot the deference between the original and the published version ( second one) in today’s NZ Herald’s offshoot The Northern Advocate. I copied the original transcript from the Matters Political Northland F/B. The Rightwing Media twist the factors is clearly illustrated here.
Our Unionist friend done a
super job shaking this Tory Town up well done comrade!
In response to “Organiser defends line up”
I would like to clarify some of the reporting on the Northland Regional Economic forum I organised. Mr Whyte did not contact me at all- not once, his local candidate and I spoke 3 times, and a female candidate called to say she was coming in support of Robin. They made 3 requests in total. It was outlined that it was main party’s that indicated they could work together to form a Government, subject to NZF and all the variables. ACT, Internet & Mana plus the Conservatives all fell outside of this.
The request for National to be included came after a number of people (mainly business sector) intending to come, signaled they would like to hear what National had to offer in the way regional development policy. I thought that’s a fair call, and there were plenty asking. I then contacted Bill English’s office and extended the same offer as to the other 3 political party’s who had excepted. The brief was Leader, Deputy or Co, the offer to send Phil Heatley was rejected as this criteria wasn’t met, however I did make room for National to send a higher ranking MP other than a retiring local MP- no response back.
Collin Craig never contacted me his press secretary did, 5.30pm Sunday 24 hours before the event.
The large crowd of 240 people were very respectful of all main speakers, as were the speakers of one & another and the party’s they represented. However they gave jibes directed at the incumbent government, which is what opposition party’s do. Also fueled by presumably by a frustration of a ‘no show’ by the National leadership and the sanctioning of their local candidate Shane Reti from attending the meet the candidate section.
All political candidates standing for Whangarei were invited, that part was totally democratic. I do take your point Jamie, thus I ended the forum with next time prior to the election let’s have ‘all the leaders of political party’s here’ and let Northland be the place where Regional development policies are heard, we have been left out for too long.
Shane Reti as previously mentioned was not allowed to partake, head office would not allow him, he told me this in person.
The Maori party candidate did not return my call-invitation. All other candidates participated, David Curran represents the Internet Party, Mana doesn’t have a candidate standing in the Whangarei general seat.
In my opinion either way Jamie Whyte was always going to make the headlines, this is politics and as Leader he needs the publicity. No other party is making a fuss, full credit to them.
All candidates were congratulated ‘whatever they & their party’s idealogical views were.
What I am disappointed in, and from the feedback I’ve received. Where is the reporting of the very good policies these political leaders spoke of? The focus was regional economic development not the sideshow reported in Thursdays edition.
Lastly, Thanks to all the positive feedback from those who attended and enjoyed themselves.
Regards
Alby Barr
No contact
Re the Northland Regional Economic forum I organised.
Act leader Jamie Whyte did not contact me at all-his local candidate and I spoke 3 times. They made 3 requests in total. It was outlined that it was main party’s that indicated they could work together to form a Government, subject to NZF and all the variables. ACT, Internet & Mana plus the Conservatives all fell outside of this.
The request for National to be included came after a number of people (mainly business sector) intending to come, signaled they would like to hear what National had to offer in the way regional development policy. I contacted Bill English’s office; The brief was Leader, Deputy or Co. The offer to send Phil Heatley was rejected as this criteria wasn’t met. However, I did make room for National to send a higher ranking MP other than a retiring local MP- no response back.
The large crowd of 240 people were very respectful of all main speakers, as were the speakers of one & another.
All Whangarei political candidates were invited, that part was totally democratic. I take your point Jamie, thus I ended the forum with “next time prior to the election let’s have ‘all the leaders of political party’s here’ and let Northland be the place where Regional development policies are heard, we have been left out for too long”.
The Maori party candidate did not return my call-invitation. All other candidates participated, David Curran represents the Internet Party, Mana doesn’t have a candidate standing in the Whangarei general seat.
In my opinion either way Jamie Whyte was always going to make the headlines, this is politics and as leader he needs the publicity. No other party is making a fuss, full credit to them.
All candidates were congratulated ‘whatever they & their party’s idealogical views were.
Where is the reporting of the very good policies these political leaders spoke of? The focus was regional economic development, not the sideshow reported in Thursdays edition.
Lastly, Thanks to all the positive feedback from those who attended and enjoyed themselves.
Alby Barr
Whangarei
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11319031
The reporter is having a moan on Cameron Slaters Uncles, Matters Political Northland Facebook page. Back to journalism school lady!
.
Repeating an announcement made on Open Mike yesterday:
Public Speech
NICKY HAGAR
in Hamilton TONIGHT
Waikato University, Lecture Block L
7pm Monday 8 September
I understand that this will be livestreamed at http://t.co/0b99kQ60td
Bugger the polls, keep calm and vote left.
+1
I think this is smart politics from Cunliffe, with the usual caveat about NZF. He just said this to Mike Hoskin:
“Labour leader David Cunliffe says there will be a maximum of three parties in any Government he leads, and has ruled out including the Maori Party at the Cabinet table.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning, Mr Cunliffe said he intended to only include the Green Party and NZ First in any government.
People need to know before the election that a vote for the Maori Party is a vote for the National Party.”
See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11320534
He also said crown limos for everyone. Yipee!
@cancerman-Where is Jason Ede?
yeah, should I be worried? chop chop for Jasey?
as i understand it..the last sighting of him was going on a deep-sea fishing trip..
..with his ‘mates’..brownlee..and slater..and lusk..
..that was a week or so ago..
lol
Of course confidence and supply is another story…
Yes, it is. Do you want a gold star?
The curia poll of polls has Labour/Greens/NZFirst on 45% whereas the same poll has National/NZFirst on 54%
then surely you (pr) can do the numbers yourself on Labour/Greens/NZF vs the rest ?
oh, and farrar owns curia ? there we go then; you can rest now until the nurse comes.
But Puckish, a 3.5% shift to the Left would mean Cunliffe as PM. Perfectly possible in 2 weeks and given the polls overstating of the Nats vote in the past. Indeed Cunliffe may be in the box seat now, depending on Winston.
The most accurate poll, the Roy Morgan, had Lab/Gr/NZF 48 Nats 45 in its poll a few days ago.
Yup, cos MP arent at the cabinet table under Nats
Chris Trotter is thinking along the same lines here:
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/threes-company-labour-greens-nz-first.html
Me too!
I wrote this comment on his blog. What do you think?
“Great post.
This is the ideal coalition that the country can have now.
It brings in experience, pragmatism, moderation and wisdom.
Labour-Greens-NZF will be the best palatable tonic and medicine for the economic, social and environmental good of the entire country, instead of a dangerously corroding malady that is bound to afflict NZ if a National led coalition takes over. Hopefully over 50% of the voters selflessly recognise this very important fact.
Internet-Mana and the Maori party can, if they wish, give such a government confidence and supply in return for concessions to some of their good policies.
At the same time, the Greens’ excesses(perceived or otherwise)can be moderated, which will ensure a stable, fair and sensible government which can last for much more than a single term, enabling more of the progressive policies implemented over time without alienating the people.
Bring it on, I say!”
I’m hoping that the Greens and Mana will be able to moderate some of Labour’s neoliberal excesses. I don’t think there is anything excessive in any direction about the Greens.
What are the ‘neoliberal’ excesses of Labour you stupidly speak of? Here are some of Labour’s core policies. Tell me which ones of these, or any other, that you think are ‘neoliberal’ excesses?
*100,000 new, affordable homes
*Free healthcare to under 13s, pregnant women and over 65s
*Raising the minimum wage to $16.25
*Ensure every rental is warm and dry
*Everything paid for, plus we’re in surplus
*Ensure all Kiwis under 20 are in work, education or training
*Best Start for Kiwi kids
*Reduce unemployment to 4% in our first term
*Lower class sizes
*Extend paid paternal leave to 26 weeks
*Ensure that all our rivers and lakes are clean
*Lowering power bills
*Convert the dole to apprenticeships
*Protecting our land from speculators
*Christchurch recovery policy
+1, although I think that, if one is generous, these represent left-wing timidity, rather than neo-liberal excess. Labour has been on a slow drift from the Right to the Centre since the Clark/Cullen years.
That IS the pragmatic, smart way, as we need to take the voters along WITH us because we need to get at least 50% of voters supporting a progressive government to even begin thinking of implementing the urgently needed changes. I am surprised and dismayed that many leftist fools (not you) don’t even understand that!
I think if we have a Labour party with about 33% support, The Greens and NZF at about 10% each would be ideal to achieve spectacular changes to society, slowly and steadily, without scaring the horses (voters and businesses) and be able to electorally last very well for three or more terms and be able to bid adieu to the RW Neo liberal nasty selfish agenda. With C and S from a 4% IMP and 2% Maori party for moderate policy concessions will be even better.
You speak of a pragmatic smart way to bring voters along with you but sorry, this centrist timidity is never going to get Labour back up to 35%. Labour has lost its historical vision in favour of managerial caution, and it will keep being punished for that at the ballot box.
A very good result for Labour this year is going to be 30%-31%. Anything more than that would be a literal miracle.
I guess the argument for that would be that, if Labour can pull enough in this time to put together a government, that would sideline the Right of the party and give Labour a legitimate claim that there is an electoral appetite for more active and better-funded government. This would provide Labour with ammunition to position itself further to the Left in future. Unfortunately, that would be highly dependent on what sort of an agreement they reached with NZ First, and on the right-wing smear machine from National’s corner being severely wounded after the Dirty Politics revelations. I’m not terribly optimistic on the former, and I think we’ll have to wait and see on the latter. Unfortunately, I’m even less optimistic of a left-wing course for Labour should they lose the election.
@ colonial viper 1.18
I think you have nailed it. Your observations remain sharp and I believe absolutely right. Wish they could get more traction,
I am sure they are getting some, but there is so much inertia. But you never know. I can push my car along with just my puny strength when it’s on the flat. Get the right conditions, and a pinch bar, and Labour might be moved from the gravity of its position in this deep rut.
Further to my comment to Colonial viper I found this on Bowalley Road. Chris Trotter has this to say.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/threes-company-labour-greens-nz-first.html
Great list Clem. And Labour will not gut the RMA; it will not give stupid hairy-fairy tax cuts when we have debts in tens of billions. Labour also has a much better public transport policy.
It is often the things that Labour will NOT do that the Nats WILL do that makes the difference.
Thanks. I agree!
It will be monumental mistake for the country if the voters fail to vote for a strong Labour led coalition government on Sept 20.
CV has answered for me. I wasn’t going to bother, because you didn’t ask nicely.
And you weren’t that nice character assassinating Mr Phil Goff.
Cunliffe cooking up a storm on TV1-looking very relaxed and that blue cod looks superb.
Interesting informal poll in today’s Hawkes Bay Today, a rag that usually parrrots the Herald’s lines. Out on the street Labour is ahead when it comes to the party vote. Looks like a change is going to come in the Napier electorate.
@tony: If that is true it is really interesting as party vote was 49-29 to National last time.
I think the Nats have lost Hawkes Bay/Dunedin/CHCH/Wellington/West Coast this time around. I wonder if the polls are too Auckland-centric?
Incidentally, National have also lost mana.
I don’t think mana were ever going to go with National
[“I don’t think mana were ever going to go with National”]
True that too! Lol!
Anyway, an adjective is an attribute, not just an electorate with a capital.
Mana and Nactional is a contradiction in terms
I had reason to call in to the Hastings’ office of the HB Today a couple of years ago. The first thing I saw as I walked to the reception area was a notice pinned to the wall advertising the local Nat MP. Subtle as brick to the bonce.
yeah that not so subtle group think that Nats promote through its dark networks particularly in the provinces. There is only “one way” and it is “blue mate” at the lodge, sports club, social club, cop shops, tradies stores and local associations etc.
Lot of pressure put on the young and vulnerable trying to keep a job in some circles. I had to tell a woman the other day bullied by her self employed partner to vote “Key”, not those “Labour poofters” or else; that it is actually a secret ballot and you can vote which way you like.
I know a bit about Auckland’s infrastructure, god knows I wish I didn’t. Our sewage system and indeed our whole storm water system is in trouble – it’s an open secret – ask around. So when I read this this morning, I had the most uncomfortable feeling I was looking into the future of Auckland. A future which working people get hammered once again. Also just so you never feel alone, we are not alone, the things we face, and the troubles we rally against – are not just happening here.
http://libcom.org/blog/no-water-no-peace-states-emergency-water-shut-offs-detroit-31082014
Ok so Matt McCarten talks to whaleoil, but do any labour MPs talk to whaleoil (ABC anyone?), the polls are looking better (for National) and what is it with labour candidates in the south being nuttier then fruitcakes?
But hey I’m sure KDC will introduce (another) game changer on the 15th
🙂
*yawn*
I don’t know. Do you have dinner conversations with your own excrement? Evidence to the contrary or you do.
Aw don’t be like that 🙂
Who is PR’s paymaster? Is it the national party or a corporation?
The ABC club obviously
PR that’s Matthew Hooton some honesty at last!
Because all corporations are evil.
Actually we require corporations to be evil. To maximise profit no matter what the expense to society, the environment or the people who do the work for them.
That environment favours the success of sociopaths who cannot, or will not, understand the harm they do.
Talking isnt the problem… Its what you reveal, howthe ones who pay doug graham and john slaters boys are
They’re not “evil” as such, they just have inhuman and immoral value systems.
Now after reading this. My first thought was who wrote this? And it still is.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11320529
A sign that the elite see that it’s better to bring Key down now rather than to have a mess in 8 months time. Labour wins, he goes off to work for Merrill Lynch for 4 years and then retires to his home country, the US I believe that is.
The alternative, everyone figures out that the system is rigged. What happened last time when that came to be I wonder.
(July 14, 1790 when they figured the system was rigged ? Interesting results.)
Seriously though, don’t see him going back to Merrill Lynch. He will go back to Federal Reserve to serve his true masters.
Anyways Merill Lynch is merely a shadow of its former self within the struggling Bank of America.
Doesn’t the IMF need a new head soon.
‘ Labour wins, he goes off to work for Merrill Lynch for 4 years and then retires to his home country, the US I believe that is’
.yep, off to smack the rimimbi around, cretin
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11224933
and NZ$ with it.
Our resident fox liberal actually says something leftist. I can see why you questioned that one David H.
You don’t think it was Pagani?
I’ve never heard her be that left Weka. I can’t think when she has not been right of centre in her opinion or comments.
Nope she usually writes right wing drivel. This was way too well thought out for her
Just to reinforce the mendaciousness of Nats and Parata. Salisbury School in Nelson is the last girls school in NZ for disturbed or special needs youngsters.
Parata tried to close it and was fought and withdrew. But she is preventing it getting new entrants who would normally have been recommended a place. The figures from the Nelson Weekly 8/4/2014 show student numbers at 71 in 2011 and now turned around to 17 in 2014.
In the interests of international labour.
Big ups to the truck workers in China.
http://libcom.org/blog/port-trucker-strike-ningbo-china-06092014
A scam Heads Up
I have just had this call, he would not give me his name.
From the spark website-
http://www.spark.co.nz/help/servicealert/phoneservicealert/
Spark has become aware that some of its customers have been contacted by fraudsters claiming to be from Spark.
The fraudsters, are reportedly telling customers that their Spark services are about to be cut off because of security issues and then asking the customers to go online to a fake Spark webpage. Customers are also being asked to give remote access to their computer and provide personal banking information as part of this scam.
These calls are not from Spark and Spark strongly advise anyone who receives one of these calls to hang up immediately, do not hand over any personal banking information and do not proceed to the fraudulent webpage. If anyone has passed on information, Spark advise you to contact your bank immediately.
Please be assured that these fraudsters do not have access to Spark systems.
I had a call last week – except they said they were from Telecom – not Spark!
Having had (over the last few years) literally hundreds of the scam “Microsoft service dept” calls re supposed problems with your computer, I smelt a rat straight away and let them get far enough to confirm that it was yet another variation of this scam. I then used one of my responses to these calls – very loud, very foul language and then hung up. Another one of my responses, when I have it at hand is blowing a cheap $2 shop whistle down the phone.
The immediate give away was that I am not a customer of Telecom/Spark!
I was very suspicious, especially the accent, and they were going to cut internet for 2 months.
Didn’t get as far as the scam part as I asked his name, twice. Then he hung up!!
Oh Goody I love these guys. Run them around for an hour and then in with a mouthful. I had a Miccysoft fraudster on the hook for 90 mins once.
(i see this as being pretty much inevitable..
..and should the planet-fucking tories get back in again..
..we could kick off with this..sooner than other countries..)
“..The rebellion to save planet Earth: Why civil disobedience could be our last best hope.
Traditional methods for fighting global warming have proven fruitless.
It’s time for the people to take a stand..”
(cont..)
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/07/the_rebellion_to_save_planet_earth_why_civil_disobedience_could_be_our_last_best_hope/
For all of those who are feeling let down by the media re the Rawshark dumps, at least there seems to be one media person trying to do something.
https://twitter.com/felixmarwick/status/508715576412217344/photo/1
Felix Marwick has apparently been trying to get to the bottom of who in the PM’s office knew about Tucker’s intention to release SIS material to WO, but was thwarted by his OIA request to the PM’s office, He took it to the Ombudsman last week and has had the response that he has tweeted in the above link. Seems the Ombusdmen’s office is going into bat for FM and is seeking an urgent response from the PM’s office.
cheers!
Great job Felix Marwick. Be interesting to see if Key does respond. If he refuses on the grounds that an enquiry is already under way, then it could be bad publicity for him.
“Key refuses to respond to an Ombudsman’s direction.”
“Key defies due process.”
“Key is arrogant.”
If it was the lowly unimportant Eade then Wow!
thx vv .. so good to know.
And another positive this morning (in addition to my comment at 24).
The Court of Appeal has ordered the Police to release clones of all Dotcom’s electronic records back to KDC asap. (And those of the others).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11320761
The Court seems to be fair no matter who you are, though you have to spend an awful lot of money to get that fairness.
Matthew Hooten reckons on RNZ, 9 to Noon that Stuart Nash is targeting the National voters, just wondering if someone can help enlighten me how a Labour candidate manages to target an opposition parties vote? This must be more spin (or something) from Hooten, because this souds like absolute bull shit to me.
Nash is showing Labour’s other regional hopefuls how to kick provincial National’s ass.
It’s a big paper majority turnaround to do it, and he’s going to do it.
In the same way a politician got an easy ride by coming back on the list, so many businesses owners got a easy ride by not paying CGT while their Aussie competition does. Parliaments like to make it easy for themselves and their mates despite it harming our democracy and our economy. As Key has proven, cow effluent clogging our rivers, deaths in forestry, mines, and CTV. And now WINZ.
@ad
How? Hooten gave the impression he is some how doing it by going down a divergent strategy to the Labour Party…I struggle to see how that would be possible, just curious.
http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/315127/privacy-laws-apply-all-even-slater
– Good call ODT
Puckish-the author of this twaddle failed to address the central issue-the stench surrounding National which permeates all the way to Key’s office.
It’s called shooting the messenger.
Where is Jason Ede?
Where is Jason Ede?
– Who cares, its three more years (for National)
nup…it is three more years of cooking sherry for you
PR pity you haven’t seen some of Tremains cartoons pertaining to Key Slater Collins!
from twitter – G.Tiso
1. A system was in place for subverting the political process. We have been told repeatedly and haughtily that everyone knew about it.
2. If everyone knew about it, why wasn’t the public told? I agree with Matt Nippert: journalism failed us on this one.
3. This is why the blanket defense of journalism against its critics is distasteful. The media were the third track.
4. If there was a failure, where are the consequences: has any political editor, reporter or commentator resigned?
5. Has any newspaper or TV editor signalled a change in the way things will be done and whom will be asked for comment on politics & policy?
6. It seems to me that none of this has occurred. All the media people mentioned in the book are still employed, including Glucina & Hooton.
7. The Panel carries on inviting representatives of fake organizations that have exposed by Hager as government attack dogs, and so forth.
8. Similarly, the highly-placed journos who ridiculed the story on day 1 are still holding court a month and several stages of grief later.
9. I hope there are some VERY robust discussions going on behind the scenes about the need for the industry to change.
10. Until then, all calls to stop being critical of journalists and journalism should be treated as the tone-based derails they are. ENDS.
followed by
Brent Edwards @rnzgallerybrent @gtiso All fair points.
now, that’s a read and a half. thx cnrjoe
Internet Mana final Roadtrip event in Otara Auckland TUESDAY Sept 9 6pm.
8000 people have attended the small hall meetings so far up and down the country, come along and support!
https://www.facebook.com/events/946760495350803/
(I suspect Tiger Mountain meant this for today’s OM, not yesterday’s)
interesting insight into John Key in the Herald’s rapid fire interviews on the topic of political heroes. All the other leaders referred to a personal quality or ethical stand or public benefit in the person they identified. John Key had to be asked twice what was it he admired and all he could say was Keith Holyoake elected for 4 terms. Even Coin Craig, who chose the same hero was able to identify a quality that was admirable.
maybe Key doesn’t do human qualities…just winning
Craig and Key are not, and will never be half the man that Holyoake was.
While “Kiwi Keith” despised socialism, he was equally suspicous of free market capitalism, and supported the mixed economy, being a admirer of FDR’s New Deal.
yes I like the story about a train traveller from Auckland down at Wellington railway station who could not find their bags and who rang Holyoake up to get help in the middle of the night ….apparently the story is that he went down to the station and helped them find them….like a good NZ farmer looking after his flock
John Key a Holyoake?….NEVER!….and nor would Colin Craig be ….Holyoake was too ethical and intelligent and too much a pragmatic New Zealander. He would quietly and cynically despise them and Nactional !
…Winston Peters is more in Holyoake’s old National Party tradition
Goff has made his sworn statement to the SIS OIA inquiry
” Statement is attached
—
Statement to Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security
Ms Cheryl Gwyn
Freyberg House, 2 Aitken Street, Wellington
My primary concern in relation to the release of NZSIS documents in 2011 is that the wider context in which this happened represents a deliberate politicisation of the NZSIS in a way which is unprecedented at least since the Muldoon years.
For nine years, first as Minister of Foreign Affairs and then as Minister of Defence, I maintained the total confidentiality of briefings from our security intelligence services.
It has long been the convention that the Minister in charge of the Security Intelligence Service not comment on matters relating to security intelligence.
That convention applied likewise to Ministers with access to SIS and GCSB briefings and to the Leader of the Opposition.
As Leader of the Opposition briefings to me were strictly confidential. I did not comment on them. I was asked that the briefings given to me were given without the presence of staff or colleagues. Documents were not to be retained by me nor was I to take notes. I was not to comment to the media on any information I might have received.
This convention was broken, first by the Prime Minister when he referred publicly to a briefing from the SIS in relation to Israeli backpackers who were suspected to have connections with Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence Service, that he says I was given.
My position then and now is that I never received a substantive briefing on this matter, notwithstanding what the Director of the SIS may have recorded.
The reason I can be confident of this is that having been Minister of Foreign Affairs and having dealt with the issue of Mossad agents criminally misappropriating New Zealand passports, I had a keen interest in the issue of Mossad agents operating in New Zealand. I would have recalled anything which might properly have been described as a briefing.
The only explanation I can guess at is the Director may have said that there was a suspicion around actions of Israeli hitch-hikers in Christchurch at the time of the earthquake but there was nothing to it.
No information of any substance was given to me or I would have recalled it.
That, however, is not the issue under investigation.
The issue is why John Key chose to raise the alleged briefing in a public and political context and how information held by the SIS was released into the public arena.
My suspicion at the time, confirmed by material disclosed in Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics, is that material was disclosed to Cameron Slater who blogs under the name Whale Oil to facilitate his making a specific OIA request.
Evidence for this is the specificity of Mr Slater’s request, even asking for any diary notation, his statement that he knew that the request was to be expedited expecting the documents to be released immediately, and his statement in a leaked email that he had been ‘sworn to secrecy’ about what he knew.
The obvious explanation was that he had a source for this information which in the nature of SIS briefings could only have been either within the SIS itself or the Prime Minister or his Office.
I would hope that the former is unlikely because it would represent improper conduct by the SIS.
The Prime Minister and his Office however have close links with Cameron Slater whose blogs are used to attack political opponents of the Government.
No one in the Prime Minister’s office would provide inside knowledge of what the SIS was saying or doing without the implicit or explicit approval of Mr Key.
That is why I believe Mr Key should be asked to give sworn evidence on precisely who in his office had access to this information and the ground rules he set down for his staff as to how this information was to be treated.
When I spoke to the Director of the SIS who phoned me suggesting he intended to release the documents immediately, he was coy about whether he knew of the identity of the Mr Slater who had requested the documents sought under the OIA. He then acknowledged that he did know who Cameron Slater was. The documents were to be released immediately until I challenged why the SIS was acting in the way he proposed. He at that point suggested he would delay the release for a number of days.
It was unwise for the SIS to be drawn into a highly politicised debate. In my long experience of asking Government Departments for information under the OIA, it is unprecedented for a request to be turned around so quickly.
I believe your Inquiry should examine the full political context of this matter and how and why material which would normally be held confidential was brought into the public and political arena.
The use of SIS briefing material in this way undermines confidence in its role as an agency of state which has extraordinary powers.
It effectively politicises the work of the agency and undermines expectations of impartiality and confidentiality in the way in which information which it holds is used.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you and give sworn evidence on the issues under investigation.
Hon Phil Goff
MP for Mt Roskill
8 September 2014 “
Hes just sad he got outed as telling porkies
hardly !…explain yourself!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10743290
“A document released to blogger Cameron Slater on Thursday by the SIS titled “Investigation into Israeli Nationals in Christchurch” (and heavily blacked out) has a diary note on the top corner “read by/discussed with Mr Goff 14 Mar 11”.
But Mr Goff insists he would have remembered if Dr Tucker had raised it. He said Dr Tucker rang him last week to tell him he was releasing the document to Slater.
“I said, ‘What – I haven’t even seen the bloody document.”
or: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/5339779/SIS-did-tell-Goff-about-spy-inquiry
and for a real hoot: http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2012/01/whaleoil-redux-2011-the-sis-files/
So your sources are NZH, Stuff and Slaterville. awesome
+100 CnrJoe .. and I think his nurse must tell him some stories in the afternoon as well !
lol
lol yeah
and of course if they’re prepared to flagrantly abuse the OIA process, who’s to say that they wouldn’t edit one or two memos after the fact?
Mr tucker says he “discussed” the OIA with the ” prime minister”. So you agree that mr key was told about the OIA being released?
How do you know that Key, his attack dogs or Tucker were not telling porkies when they said that Goff as leader of the opposition was ‘fully briefed’ about it? In this instance, I believe Goff over the National dirty tricks brigade as Goff had no reason to lie about it. Goff has more integrity than these dirty tricks dodgy crooks.
Anyway, the inquiry is not about that. It is about the dirty tricks that went on behind the scenes about the OIA release of documents to their attack dog. The inquiry can not even cross examine Key, the Minister in charge of SIS, as per the narrow terms set/approved by, wait for it, Key himself!
This just looks like a Clayton’s BS inquiry to fool the RWNjobs like you and the gullible voters some more.
I thought that was a question of the law pertaining to the Inspector General’s powers, rather than terms set down by Key. After all, she’s officially conducting the enquiry under her own motion using the powers of her office, rather than at his behest. Regardless, I’m still not entirely clear on what she can and can’t require of the Prime Minister. She isn’t allowed to conduct an enquiry into his conduct, but can she compel him to give evidence under oath regarding the conduct of those in his office? It would obviously be a step she shouldn’t take lightly, and only if she can’t establish a credible sequence of events by talking to his staff, but she doesn’t seem to be debarred from doing so.
It is also unclear to me how she would be required to handle any evidence that does clearly implicate the Prime Minister in the leak or suggest that he has misled the public, given that she is not permitted to enquire into his conduct.
There was a news item soon after the inquiry was set up that she would be calling the PM for questioning and it was reported that ‘ John Key says he’s prepared to answer under oath too’ [24 Aug, RNZ]
If Key is not made to answer questions under oath to arrive at the truth, then such an inquiry is just a whitewash and a sham. A waste of time. If she has no powers to question the PM, then someone that has the ‘powers’ should be asked to do that part of the inquiry. Otherwise, what is the point of this BS exercise? Key is the guy in charge of the department!
pretty damning evidence of Key’s misuse of power imo…and SIS information filtered through Slater !
Phil may be a recent rogernome but he is quite believable on this one, he seemed stitched up by the SIS at the time.
The wood panelled rooms, leather club chairs and no minutes needed eh what! scenario is all very well for those in the real insiders loop but it illustrates why the current state security apparatus should be disbanded.
I believe Phil Goff has always been honest..if he says he was not briefed ….I believe him!
I think Goff is an absolute prick and a right wing disaster zone, but I believe he will tell the truth. I suspect the SIS feel almost as much loyalty to NAct as they do to their true seppo masters, and I do not trust them at all. They’re basically the same type as cops, and their behaviour and ethics would be very similar.
Anything the leader of the opposition is briefed on should be signed by that leader. That’s basic procedure. Why don’t they do it?
“I think Goff is an absolute prick and a right wing disaster zone”
What a lot of fashionable ignorant rubbish you are parroting. Goff is one of the most fair, pragmatic, sensible, efficient and decent democratic socialist MPs that is in our parliament.
Oz has its own OIA release probs questioning if Abbott may not be eligible to hold office at all ! This is fun …
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/09/02/17/35/tony-abbott-may-have-been-ineligible-to-stand-for-election#wwTX87BqviihfDAp.99
Israel committed a massacre in Gaza; there was no “war”.
Bryan Crump must know that, so why could he not say it?
Radio New Zealand National, Monday 8 September 2014
Just after the 5 o’clock news, a trailer featuring the voice of Bryan Crump played….
BRYAN CRUMP: Coming up on Nights: our correspondent is Nida’ Tuma from the West Bank. She’s been watching the latest war between Israel and Gaza.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
I am sure I was not the only listener to have felt despair when I heard that. On the off chance that he actually cares about his professional obligations, I sent Bryan Crump the following e-mail…..
Israel committed a massacre in Gaza; there was no “war”
Dear Bryan,
In a trailer for your programme, you say that your correspondent Nida’ Tuma has been watching “the latest war between Israel and Gaza”.
That implies some degree of parity between two evenly matched sides. In fact, what you referred to as a “war” was a massacre against an unarmed civilian population. Israel killed more than two thousand Gazans; according to the United Nations, 69 percent of them were civilians. Four Israeli civilians died. Not one Israeli bomber suffered so much as a scratch.
Surely journalists have a duty to use language rigorously and responsibly. Please leave the distortions and lies to the politicians.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
+100 Morrissey…good you are watch dog on this crime against humanity!
..and from Robert Fisk, The Independent, 8 September
‘Israel’s ‘land for lives’ is theft. Pure and simple
World View: Israel takes land, Palestine loses land; that’s the way it works’
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/israels-land-for-lives-is-theft-pure-and-simple-9705378.html
Thanks, Chooky. I’m sure Bryan Crump is perfectly aware that the words he spoke were pure nonsense. What is interesting is that he obviously cannot bring himself to speak plainly and truthfully on this matter.
@morrissey..
..did you do that weasel miller who was on panel 2day..?
Internet Mana final Roadtrip event in Otara Auckland TUESDAY Sept 9 6pm
8000 people have attended the small hall meetings so far up and down the country, come along and support the finale!
https://www.facebook.com/events/946760495350803/
+100… I wish I could be there!…i wish Internet Mana a great victory in the Election!….they have some very fine policies and candidates led by Hone Harawira and Laila Harre!
There must be some legs in this Israeli ambassador thing.
Most New Zealanders, to quote Jong Ki, would not want a bar of Israeli demands on this issue.
Stupid idiot Jong Ki will only have Murray McCully onto this though. Bound to be a disaster.
With Avigdor Lieberman at the helm Israeli foreign relations aren’t going to be too flash.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/we-must-stop-the-nationalist-and-racist-lieberman-1.353217
http://www.thejournal.ie/israel-embassy-ireland-controversy-1614325-Aug2014/
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2014/02/24/ambassador-left-under-a-cloud/
With Israel trying to determine NZ’s diplomatic policy, its war crimes against the Palestinians and the visitor permit rorts involving its ex-IDF troops as exposed on Campbell live, why would we want to maintain diplomatic relations?