Open mike 25/01/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, January 25th, 2013 - 31 comments
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31 comments on “Open mike 25/01/2013 ”

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  1. KhandallaViper 1
    25 January 2013 at 7:54 am

    Are you looking forward to David Shearer’s speech on Sunday from Wainouimata? It will be a full media event, I think the first since the Conference in November at Elllerslie.

    What would I like to hear?

    Firstly that he is retiring those right-wingers, King, Mallard, Robertson, Goff and more. They have fought against the democratising of the party and in-favour of neo-liberal policies.

    I want him to acknowledge the Confidence Vote in Caucus to be a secret ballot. Huge damage was done to his leadership by his insisting that MPs declare their loyalty to him in advance. That was stupid bullying bollox, unbecoming of a leader and contrary to the rules the Conference had just voted.

    I then want him to put his leadership up to ratification by the membership and affiliates. Only then can the promise of membership power become real. It will be a turning point for the party and a rallying cry that would lead us to victory in 2014.

    • Ad 1.1
      25 January 2013 at 8:43 am

      Pretty tough gig in one speech, kv.

      Key has set the year and will cement it today by deregating planning more. That’s the head to head. Aucklands north shore club versus the summer camp!

      I think your wrong that Robertson is a right-winger. And goff got mfat to leak which is no small thing.

      But truly time for mallard and king.

      I just want my personal assent for my leadership of my party. My vote. Otherwise i can presume they don’t need my help or donation next election.

      • Tim 1.1.1
        25 January 2013 at 3:06 pm

        I think you’re correct Ad – in that Robertson isn’t a “right winger”. He is however created in an ‘era’ of a right-swinging political pendulum and influenced by ‘figures’ (icons – errrrk! pardon the expression) he admires. When you live in times when there is an inability to EXPERIENCE certain alternatives, your view of the world is based on just that experience.
        My OPINION of Robertson is that he’s not such a bad sort of bloke. Obviously ambitious. Obviously with a “mushin” and “peshnun” abeart certain things
        Perhaps one of my definitions of integrity would be to do with how much one’s life experiencess and ambition goes towards sacrificing held beliefs and principles.
        It’s a bit of a bugger really – there’s been a cabal of poltishuns that (until now) haven’t really held Labour’s founding principles in such high regard as was due. (Hence btw @ Karol – my disdain for certain lack-lustre spin issued from time to time by – well by some posters).
        BTW Ad ….. are you by any chance an IT type person that may have once worked in DBK environs – as in an A vd T?
        Anyway, Robertson (good bloke that he may be) is never going to get my vote ever again (despite a lifetime commitment to Labour) until Neo-liberal/Corporatist/3rd-Way/4th Reich politics are clearly discarded – and as things stand – NO matter the wishy washy recent spin, that’s not happening. It’s also the reason as an aside – that Labour struggles

  2. North 2
    25 January 2013 at 8:01 am

    Had to laugh at Claire Trevett’s (NZ Herald 23/1/13) sneerings at Hone Harawira. I’d link if I knew how to.

    What the Maori Party needs is stability she says, so stay clear of Harawira.

    What the Maori Party needs is a party. Membership of 24,000 at its peak down to 600 proves there is no party.

    That’s not down to Harawira. It’s the fault of Key-clone Sharples and Toryana Torya with their taste for a cutesy relationship with Dunnokeyo and the baubles of office.

    Good job they’re in the crap and less and less and less respected.

    Go Hone Harawira !

  3. Dv 3
    25 January 2013 at 8:14 am

    I have tries to find out the numbers of registered members for different parties, but nothing showed up.

    Where are the numbers published?

    • Pete 3.1
      25 January 2013 at 8:50 am

      Beyond the requirement to have 500 members made to the Electoral Commission by way of statutory declaration, there’s no requirement to publish those numbers.

      I leave it to you to figure out why a party might not want to announce its membership levels.

  4. Benghazi 4
    25 January 2013 at 9:28 am

    Does anyone know how the Constitution or the supporting LP electoral rules respond to a scenario where Mallard/King decide to install Robertson as the new Leader with only 6 months to the 2014 election? Note we might not have an election date available at the time.

    Presumably this nightmare scenario is entirely possible as there would be time for the vote to be put to the members and affiliates?

    For this reason alone, I still want the wider vote in February. If Robertson has any ambitions this term then let’s hear from him, see him campaign. I’m reliably informed that a group of MPs associated with Robertson spoke to Shearer twice in the last six months of 2012, suggesting he might need to step down as he wasn’t cutting it as Leader.

    Let’s face it, Shearer’s deficiencies with the media and difficulties answering questions on the spot is unlikely to improve much more. But if we have the wider vote in Feb and he wins, then everyone is bound in to help surmount those issues. It also means it won’t be such an easy option for Mallard/King to force their cabal to pull the trigger on Shearer closer to the election. Let’s have a full and open process now and not let this fester.

    • bad12 4.1
      25 January 2013 at 10:29 am

      i assume, and this is a guess, that the Labour Caucus will have the opportunity if it so chooses to ‘pull the trigger’ on a Party wide vote for the leadership next February,

      On the grounds of ‘ability’ to convey a lucid message in the confines of a 30 second media soundbite i would actually prefer Grant Robertson as the leader of the Labour Parliament Caucus,

      At times,(admittedly not seen often) Robertson conveys a certain gravitas and an aura of power, having only met Him once i know He has a good sense of humor(so He isn’t some aloof stuck up prick),

      Other than screaming at the top of our lungs, ”for f**ks sake roll that also ran” from the roof-tops of Wellington’s tower blocks the Labour Caucus seem content to take only it’s own counsel on the question of leadership so that Caucus must also take responsibility for the end result…

    • Colonial Viper 4.2
      25 January 2013 at 6:28 pm

      Does anyone know how the Constitution or the supporting LP electoral rules respond to a scenario where Mallard/King decide to install Robertson as the new Leader with only 6 months to the 2014 election?

      For starters, it can’t quite happen in the way that you suggest.

      Caucus has now got just two main constitutionally enshrined powers in selecting a new leader.

      1) It can pull the trigger initiating a leadership contest/vote throughout the wider party. This Feb, and 3 months after every General Election, the trigger threshold is 40%+1. At all other times, the trigger threshold is 50%+1.

      2) Caucus gets 40% of the vote in the 40/40/20 electoral college voting system.

  5. ak 5
    25 January 2013 at 9:46 am

    Another good sign from Labour, excellent vibe from Shearer, now more of the same with Winnie and the Greens please.

    Jimmy and Hels making up gave us three terms. Wee Johnny No-mates and the Elites know it, and no amount of one-handed spinning can save them.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10861289

    • Pete 5.1
      25 January 2013 at 10:06 am

      I did think Shearer performed quite well on Morning Report today. Let’s hope he continues to improve.

    • muzza 5.2
      25 January 2013 at 1:42 pm

      Do you believe the elites don’t have a sphere of influence/control spanning wider than NACT?

      Use of the word, us, is cause for concern.

      Please think a little deeper than that!

  6. bad12 6
    25 January 2013 at 10:50 am

    Lost among the applause for Metiria Turei’s announcement of Green Party housing policy was the muted whine of Slippery the Prime Minister in a ‘me too’ announcement that National were wroking on policy to free up more land for building houses,

    Earth to planet Slippery, Earth calling, when your own Minister of Finance says that it takes 8 years for ‘the market’ to provide a home for each individual involved in population growth,(you do know population growth where in a short period of time a population goes from 3.3 million to 4.4 million), then that is an indication of MARKET FAILURE,

    Such a MARKET FAILURE cannot be simply fixed by the provision of more of the same, IE providing MORE land for developers to build upon only leads to MORE of the same, developers building as large a house on the available piece of land so as to accrue to themselves the largest possible profit, that is how the MARKET works,

    As a Government, to address such a MARKET FAILURE there are two glaringly apparent options available as tools, the first being as that Government to actually build the required number of houses of a size that makes them affordable, the second is to legislate as a Government that developers build such houses to address that MARKET FAILURE…

    • McFlock 6.1
      25 January 2013 at 1:40 pm

      “National were wroking ”

      Probably a typo, but somehow gets the mix between “working” and “wrecking”. Kiwiana’s single vowel sound comes in useful sometimes 🙂

    • vto 6.2
      25 January 2013 at 1:40 pm

      bad12, that is a classic example of a bullshit artist in residence. Key and English tell so many porkies and make so much stuff up as they go along that they really do not make any sense.

      They make absolutely no sense.

    • aerobubble 6.3
      25 January 2013 at 2:27 pm

      National say councils should do more. The accountancy equation says you can
      lower prices (put more land on the market), raise wages, or reduce the perceived
      value of housing (capital gains on non-home properties). Since National hate
      raising wages, or lowering taxes on the lower and middle income citizens (GST
      went up), they have only one option increase land availability, and land is controlled by
      councils and so National can do nothing making it a council only problem.

  7. Colonial Weka 7
    25 January 2013 at 1:17 pm

    Can someone please explain why women’s issues, or Maori issues are identity politics but class isn’t?

    • Richard Down South 7.1
      25 January 2013 at 1:36 pm

      MSM generally dare not have people worrying about those who are worse off than you… just think what heads of media organizations, as well as management earn… think many want less tax cuts etc?

      • karol 7.1.1
        25 January 2013 at 1:56 pm

        Wikip says class is part of identity politics. They define it as a self-interested, self-awareness of their shared experience. I’m not keen on it’s disparaging description and explanation, which leaves out a crucial focus on oppression, inequalities and the need for social and economic justice.

        But I’m also not keen on the term “identity politics”, and think “politics of difference”, may be a step in a better direction: ie to campaign against the way people perceived as “different” from dominant group/s in society are marginalised, excluded, discriminated against and treated unfairly.

        • Colonial Weka 7.1.1.1
          25 January 2013 at 7:25 pm

          I know what you mean Karol, but I would take it a step further and say that all politics are identity politics, only some people aren’t very honest about their own identity (those favoured by the dominant culture). If we had true democracy, there would be no such term as ‘identity politics’.

          • karol 7.1.1.1.1
            25 January 2013 at 8:00 pm

            Good point, weka:

            some people aren’t very honest about their own identity (those favoured by the dominant culture).

            Except some among those with privileged/dominant identities, quickly claim their identifications when they see the disadvantaged and marginalised starting to move to a more equal status. Some of the dominant ones start to complain they are being ignored, left out… etc.

    • Bill 7.2
      25 January 2013 at 1:48 pm

      Can I ask where you picked up the notion that gender and race (fuck, I hate that term, but anyway) issues are any more or less ‘identity politics’ than class issues? As I see it they are fairly densely inter-related spheres that can’t be approached in any meaningful way if they’re seperated out from one another. But hey, maybe that’s just me.

      • Colonial Weka 7.2.1
        25 January 2013 at 7:22 pm

        Completely agree Bill. It’s just something I’ve seen from time to time, when the term ‘identity politics’ is being used disparagingly.

  9. Dave Kennedy (bsprout) 9
    25 January 2013 at 1:51 pm

    The campaign for a low carbon economy grows stronger after a successful festival while the Government continues to blindly support extracting fossil fuel.
    http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/shaping-southlands-future-without.html

  10. bad12 10
    25 January 2013 at 6:11 pm

    it appears from Slippery the Prime Ministers ‘state of the nation speech’ today that Nationals affordable housing plan in Auckland relies upon the Auckland City Council speeding up permission for Slippery’s Government to bowl over 100s more of the HousingNZ portfolio in Auckland,

    If you see inherent in that an oxymoron in terms, your right but don’t blame me it appears the Prime Minister invited Moron, His cousin, to the speech-making,

    In His best simpering display of childish speech His claim is that they only want to bowl over a ‘few’ houses to free up land for development, code that if recent history is anything to judge by means that 100s of State Houses will be bowled and most of the land sold to Slippery’s developer buddies who will then proceed to build even more large mansions as icons to our propensity to waste the scarce resources in both man-power and materials we have available only replacing a third of the previous tranche of HousingNZ properties,

    Now openly threatening the Auckland City Council to speed up the process of providing even more land to the speculators and developers to build the icons to over-consumption upon Slippery again shows the lack of intellectual rigor that has been the hallmark of His time as Prime Minister He refuses to address the main point of the current affordability issue which is on the supply side of the availability and willingness of the developers to build smaller properties that newer entrants in the housing market can afford to buy,

    It’s a pity we as a country are stuck with this empty suitcase of intellectual rigor until 2014 when we can elect a Labour/Green Government to repair the stupid mess made to affordable housing by far too many years of Neo-Liberal market driven idiocy…