Rachel Smalley stop telling lies about Labour

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, August 31st, 2017 - 65 comments
Categories: Economy, journalism, labour, making shit up - Tags: , , , , ,

I know I shouldn’t sweat the small stuff, but this piece by Rachel Smalley is full of lies about Labour. On the tertiary education policy:

It’s straight out of Helen Clark’s book on how you win an election. Her last minute decision in 2005 to make student-loans interest free was a masterstroke – it secured her a third term. But it saddled the country with an enormous debt that now sits at more then $14 billion.

It didn’t saddle the country with debt, Labour continued to pay down debt throughout it’s third term. We have a huge debt now courtesy of the global financial crisis and the spending priorities of the National government (mainly the unaffordable tax cuts for the rich).

It wasn’t a policy that was thought through. It wasn’t costed.

It was fully thought through and costed, you can find the costings here. 10 seconds on Google is all it took.

And the economic burden to the country is huge. … a report by the New Zealand Initiative says…

The NZI are a bunch of right wing nuts who write right wing spin. They’re your source for this? Really? Check out the costing link above, not a “huge” cost at all. Smalley then turns to health care:

Clark abolished waiting lists and hundreds of thousands of Kiwis have lived in pain, and have been denied treatment ever since.

Waiting lists were abolished by National in 1996 and replaced with a points-based booking system (ref here, here, here). It is true that the following Labour government effectively removed some “low priority” bookings, but the current National government has done the same and worse. After nine long years the current rundown state of the health system is entirely National’s responsibility.

Rachel Smalley, it’s election year. We the people deserve better journalism than this.

65 comments on “Rachel Smalley stop telling lies about Labour ”

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  1. One Anonymous Bloke 1
    31 August 2017 at 7:15 am

    I wonder if Smalley made up these lies all by herself, or whether she was duped into reporting/believing them by a third party.

    Who knows, there might even be a story in it.

  2. red-blooded 2
    31 August 2017 at 7:46 am

    One assumes that the venerable Ms Smalley doesn’t see a problem with promising post-election tax cuts (yet again). That’s not an attempt to buy votes..?

    This is a partisan hit job on Labour. That’s OK if its claims can be validated, but this article is spin all the way. Sigh.

  3. lprent 3
    31 August 2017 at 7:47 am

    To date I haven’t read anything from NZ Initiative that couldn’t have been drafted from a purely ideological position. They are a toppling over to the right anti-taxation lobby group.

    To be precise, when I read their stuff what I never see is any hint of ANY benefit of applying taxation or government funding to any new proposal. For that matter if you applied their same approach to any investment in any business then you’d literally never be able to grow anything.

    Their approach is purely one of hoarding gold. And in essence hoarders are just a dead weight on political or economic basis.

    About the only difference between them and the so-called “Taxpayers union” is that NZI are simple hoarders.

    They don’t add the additional politically selective bias of the TU in their hypocritical practice of seldom applying the same logic to all parties and operations.

    That makes NZI slightly more useful as a critic than TU. But not much.

  4. UncookedSelachimorpha 4
    31 August 2017 at 8:39 am

    Both NZI, and the Herald are garbage beneath contempt. But “know your enemy”, I suppose.

    “But it saddled the country with an enormous debt that now sits at more then $14 billion.”

    What rubbish. This debt is saddled on the citizenry in either case, whether assigned to a large number of private students or the whole community via the government. Best if it was wiped.

    • Ed 4.1
      31 August 2017 at 8:43 am

      Once upon a time I thought Smalley was an ok journalist- but it’s impossible to get a steady career in the corporate mainstream media if you don’t spin big business ‘s lines.

      • Bearded Git 4.1.1
        31 August 2017 at 10:28 am

        Never thought much of her-more of a newsreader than a journalist. She is showing her true blue leanings in this piece though.

        A real journalist would not tell lies in this way-its called balance.

  5. Neil 5
    31 August 2017 at 8:41 am

    The Herald have given up pretending to be anything other than a trashy Labourphobic propaganda publication, staunchly aligned with the National Party.

    This piece is just one example of the anti democratic ignorance cultivation coming out of this appallingly partisan rag.

    Boycott this rubbish, and tell your friends. https://www.facebook.com/groups/fearfacts/

    #nzheraldwherebalancedjournalismgoestodie
    #nzheraldholdingtheoppositiontoaccountsince2008

    • Ed 5.1
      31 August 2017 at 8:44 am

      Have not bought the Herald for over 5 years.

      • UncookedSelachimorpha 5.1.1
        31 August 2017 at 12:54 pm

        I can’t bear to spend more than a minute on their website – clickbait and trash talk.

    • jcuknz 5.2
      31 August 2017 at 9:36 am

      That is funny Neill because over at Kiwiblog they are convinced the Herald is a den of left wingers plotting the demise of our Nation 🙂

      From my time in the newsroom I guess they must have it just about right. The H not KB 🙂

    • WILD KATIPO 5.3
      31 August 2017 at 12:54 pm

      … ” And the economic burden to the country is huge. 
 a report by the New Zealand Initiative says ”


      OHO ! ,… the New Zealand Initiative , eh ?

      Well now , … if those grubby manipulating neo liberal shitheads start squealing about economic burdens they had best start with themselves then , – instead of putting students who are primarily young in decades of debt and servitude.

      The New Zealand Initiative.

      The original treasonous bastards who backed Roger Douglas and his Mont Pelerin Society mates plunder and steal New Zealand’s assets and wealth and destroy our national sovereignty. Don’t believe me ?…

      THEN READ THIS !!!

      New Right Fight – Who are the New Right?
      http://www.newrightfight.co.nz/pageA.html

      No talk about the NZ Initiative SHOULD EVER be complete without this vital information being taken into consideration , – in fact , – if there was a govt / peoples movement to root out the historically treasonous individuals that originally caused the poverty and break down of our public services and all the wealth being siphoned out of this country , – and make them appear before our courts on treason charges ,- the NZ Initiative would be top of the list and then all the rest of these neo liberal scumbags would be slung on trial by working outwards from there.

      These criminals should be running and screaming and begging for mercy before an angry murderous mob intent on their slaughter rather than sitting in their ivory towers living the high life at our expense dispensing their democracy destroying non advice to gullible people like Rachel Smalley.

    • NewsFlash 5.4
      31 August 2017 at 1:02 pm

      I’ve been hoping the herald would follow the old Auckland Star and disappear into oblivion, albeit, there are many RWNJ’s who support it.

      Unfortunately, globally, most RW “news papers” do not report FACTUAL news, nearly all political content today is nothing more than OPINION

      • tc 5.4.1
        31 August 2017 at 1:12 pm

        They are messaging tools not profitable businesses.

        Murdoch’s leaked financials last year showed this with his newspapers in Oz and thats the nzme/fairfax merger rationale…….cost reduction/consistent messaging.

        • NewsFlash 5.4.1.1
          31 August 2017 at 1:54 pm

          Murdoch just lost big time in Aus over the sale of channel 10, CBS beat them to draw and Turnbull tried to change the rules to allow Murdoch to buy, I think Murdoch lost $600M on that one, good bloody job.

          Murdoch, imo, needs to be removed from any media, in any country, easily the most dangerous individual in the world today.

          • tc 5.4.1.1.1
            31 August 2017 at 2:42 pm

            All his own fault along with billionaire bed fellows gina reinhardt, bruce gordon, james packer and golden child lachlan.

            Turdbull cant pass an eye test let alone laws with a toxic senate cross bench of xenophobic interests…..that’s on malcom also.

    • Tony Veitch (not etc) 5.5
      31 August 2017 at 4:57 pm

      Mark Twain got it right:

      “If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed!”

      • Incognito 5.5.1
        31 August 2017 at 10:43 pm

        A sloppy & lazy piece of tabloid ‘journalism’ or disinformation? Has Rachel Smalley ever worked with Mike “Disinformation” Hosking?

    • Muttonbird 6.1
      31 August 2017 at 9:06 am

      Must be an anti-Labour day today for Ad, because you are clueless on what the meme means.

      This is not a ‘trivial article’ distracting from ‘serious news stories’. This is an author discussing shock-jock journalism using false equivalence, and also the quoting of partisan lobby groups as independent sources.

      Today’s example of a ‘trivial article’ is the one about Hosking asking Adern what she’s wearing tonight.

      Please don’t let your jealous squabbles with fellow authors distract you from what’s important. That’d be great.

      • Ad 6.1.1
        31 August 2017 at 9:34 am

        You need to try a lot harder.

        Anthony knows like I do that Labour is now highly likely to win this election.

        Rachel Smalley is the distraction.

        • Muttonbird 6.1.1.1
          31 August 2017 at 9:45 am

          You still don’t understand the meme which you linked to. I assume it’s because you’re not of the age group who grew up with these things. Credit for trying though.

          Also, it’s pretty arrogant of you to state right here that it’s all over and Labour has won. That might well happen but there are many forces against it which you are also presumably aware of and small seeds of dishonesty and subterfuge can grow very quickly in a volatile campaign.

          Just can’t believe you’d air such confidence right now by dismissing the opposition and their attacks.

          • Ad 6.1.1.1.1
            31 August 2017 at 9:51 am

            I have such confidence.

            And with good reason.

            Check the polls in 9 hours.

            • Muttonbird 6.1.1.1.1.1
              31 August 2017 at 9:57 am

              Fine, but it’s naive of you to publicly state this is game over and dismiss discussion about the continued attacks on socially progressive policy.

  7. Dot 7
    31 August 2017 at 8:52 am

    Thank you for your vigilance Anthony.
    I do not listen to Smalley on the radio nor do I buy the Auckland daily newspaper
    because of its history of right wing bias. Was this story printed in the newspaper?
    As a young person in our local peace group, I remember we could never get a letter to the editor printed thirty years ago, sadly no real change.

    • lprent 7.1
      31 August 2017 at 11:18 am

      Who reads the news on paper any more? I will occasionally read a copy lying around the lunch room or a the cafe I frequent while I am at work. But typically I read 3-4 newspapers online in the morning before heading to work.

      • weka 7.1.1
        31 August 2017 at 11:27 am

        I read the ODT if I’m in a cafe, quite like the regional news.

        Lots of small places have weekly papers that are easier to read in print than online because they’re using awful online platforms.

        • tracey 7.1.1.1
          31 August 2017 at 11:37 am

          I read the Press when in a café. But perhaps we are both spoiled by two of the better publications in t he country?

          • weka 7.1.1.1.1
            31 August 2017 at 11:52 am

            This is true! I read the Press if I can find it, and also the Southland Times if it crosses my path.

  8. tracey 8
    31 August 2017 at 8:55 am

    No wonder young people do not vote. When a journalist finally provides something analytical it is in fact more unsubstantiated opinion.

    Well paid celebrity broadcasters seem to be panicking

  9. roy cartland 9
    31 August 2017 at 9:17 am

    “Journalist”, ptooie.

    Wasn’t she the one whose most notable moment was referring to “heifers” and lardos”?

  10. Muttonbird 10
    31 August 2017 at 10:07 am

    But it’s worth pointing out Ardern has had little more than one item a day on her campaign schedule for quite a while.

    – Stacey Kirk

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96340607/live-on-the-campaign-trail

    This is another lie from a right wing journalist in an attempt to paint Ardern as nervous and ill-equipped. I know for a fact she had at least three commitments on Monday at Western Springs College, Penrose, and Gisborne.

  11. tc 11
    31 August 2017 at 10:29 am

    A puppett with a pulpit who wouldnt know how to do the job of a journalist.

  12. ianmac 12
    31 August 2017 at 10:48 am

    Smalley is a blatant liar but will feed the Nat/Act appetite for lies, in the hope of halting National’s slide back into the swamp. Won’t work.

  13. silvertuatara 13
    31 August 2017 at 11:23 am

    It is my belief that the right are well aware that Jacinda is appealing, to many voters, however also strongly to the female voter for a number of reasons, and especially to woman that perhaps have voted in the past 2 elections for parties other than Labour.

    In terms of the recent issues with gender pay equity, what could be more fitting than the population of NZ, strongly reflected in a large percentage of woman voting for Jacinda, not just as the leader of the Labour Party, but as the next NZ Prime Minister on 23 September 2017.

    Such a display would go along way in addressing democratically the issue that gender bias in the current preferred PM contest can be also tackled outside of statute, based on today’s societal values that are espoused as fair, yet have recently been largely retrenched with the lengths National have taken to appease employers in the wake of the Kristine Bartlett case , by effectively making it extremely hard for others to make their cases, through Nation’s subsequent punitive and retrospective legislative changes.

    The main stream media, have seen the back lash in the polls against white middle age reporter/presenter attacking Jacinda’s and other woman’s statutory and human rights on matters that lie firmly in gender. Such public attacks have likely increased Jacinda’s appeal and also engaged more people who believe in the fairness of pay equity to actually support Jacinda as the preferred prime minister.

    I too was shocked with Rachel Smalley’s conclusions in her article, but this does not surprise me in the slightest, with my prediction that leading into the election the right leaning MSM will give a platform to a swathe of right wing leading woman, who will attempt to undermine, Jacinda/Labour, by espousing the line that Labour are too focussed on new taxes.

    The wedge has already been repeatedly planted on this matter over the past 3 weeks in the MSM, and the right will be aware that the female swing voters contemplating voting for Jacinda Ardern as prime minister are now less willing to be manipulated by the likes of Hosking, Soper, Garner, Gower, or any other highly paid male reporter, and therefore watch for the appearance of a slurry of sloppy, inaccurate and biased right wing propaganda being delivered from the mouths/pens and keyboards of right leaning political reporters/commentators.

    The problem for the right is though, is that many young and middle age woman have experienced negatively the gender bias within the workplace first hand, and are not as willing to accept without question as their mothers and grand mothers before them may have done, the validity of historical gender roles that in the past lead to the inequity of pay based on gender alone.

    As a distinct block of voters these same women are now in a powerful position to credibly support Jacinda into NZ’s top political job based on Jacinda’s political tenure and experience, positive attitude and an abundance of the right skills to comfortably assume the role of NZ’s next prime minister, and the political leader of NZ.

    I am therefore hoping that the NZ voting population have the common sense to see through further sloppy, biased and inaccurate reporting leading up to the 23 September 2017, should my prediction be validated with the spread of highly paid (but no where near as well remunerated as their male counterparts) female political reporters/commentators pushing commentary that is not accurate and favoring the political right in a biased way as a consequence of the use of omission or misreporting of the correct facts.

    • popexplosion 13.1
      31 August 2017 at 1:19 pm

      Tax wedge. Hey. If I get govt welfare, super, working for families, etc, then it’s like a tax cut right? Govt taxes the non-old, childless, etc more. That’s unfair. All welfare should be equal, yes every kid too. And lets not forget govt services, wealthy people use customs and diplomatic services, blind people don’t drive, rich people take their yachts and go help hunting, those doc services, coastal services, etc are all subdized. The lower half infrequent use should see better progressive taxes. Like crime, why does a millionarie pay the same fee for speeding, he has the ability to benefit from speding more and to write off the cost. So we heavily provide benefits to fewer and fewer ad inequity grows, in any society rebalancing means higher taxes on wealthy people. Not 200,000 on top up Peters. But the media highly paid front people immediately attack tax rises. As K.Marx predicted. Wealth would pull up the ladder, keep the gains, and moan about any potential loses, higher taxes.

  14. Psych nurse 14
    31 August 2017 at 11:31 am

    When I lived and worked in Dublin 02 to 05 Rachel Smalley was a news reader on Irish TV, therefore she wasn’t here for the events she records as happening. Someone is feeding her rubbish.

    • Wensleydale 14.1
      31 August 2017 at 11:56 am

      Probably the New Zealand Initiative. And people really need to be reminded that the NZI used to be the Business Roundtable (merged with the New Zealand Institute), so they’re hardly a reliable source of objective analysis. Someone really needs to haul people like Smalley over the coals for shit like this. She’s either gullible, disingenuous or incompetent, and as standards of journalism go, it’s pretty abysmal.

    • tracey 14.2
      31 August 2017 at 12:05 pm

      …and she can’t google it seems.

    • dukeofurl 14.3
      31 August 2017 at 12:33 pm

      You are right P N

      from Linkedin: her own words
      Rachel was appointed the first non-Irish news presenter for Irish channel TV3 in Dublin in 2001 – a position she held for two years before moving to London.
      Rachel was a Senior Producer for the multi-award winning Sky News UK for three years during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 2005 British Election, the death of Pope John Paul II, the July 7th London bombings, Hurricane Katrina, the Bali bombings, the trial of Saddam Hussein, the Avian Flu pandemic, the Lebanon-Israel war and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

  16. McFlock 16
    31 August 2017 at 1:09 pm

    “But it saddled the country with an enormous debt that now sits at more then $14 billion.”

    That seems to be the current level of student loans owed by students. This was not increased by making the loans interest free. It was generated when tertiary education fees were raised to a point that people needed to take out loans to pay them, and allowance eligibility cut so people needed to take out loans to live.

    The damage was done thirty years ago.

  17. Michael who failed Civics 17
    31 August 2017 at 1:41 pm

    More to the point, why isn’t Labour’s campaign team insisting on correction? Isn’t that what opposition spin doctors are hired to do?

    • tc 17.1
      31 August 2017 at 3:24 pm

      Expect the lying to increase.

      It seems labour are taking the positive approach which is risky as the sheeple are easily led by the msm. There’s ample material to bury national with especially on the power gennie flogging, their gutting of health/housing nz etc

  18. North 18
    31 August 2017 at 1:54 pm

    Problematic asserting wilful lying by Smalley….more likely to be the love of the throw away line soundbite that so many of the savoir faire cafe society are into. They employ little else….makes them look authoritative, onto it. Ever scratched beneath the surface of such types. Usually bugger all there. I remember particularly one such of my onetime fairly close acquaintance. Pull them up they acknowledge but then pour enormous energy into detailing what they really meant….which of course is no advance on the shallow soundbite they advanced in the first place. Seems to me they are in the main incumbentists (if there is such a word) who take strength from placing themselves alongside power. So really it’s all about them….no matter what ‘it’ is.

  19. Eric Crampton 19
    31 August 2017 at 1:58 pm

    The many interested fans of the Initiative here at The Standard are encouraged to read our report on zero percent loans:
    https://nzinitiative.org.nz/insights/reports/decade-of-debt-the-cost-of-interest-free-student-loans/

    Long story short: the programme hiked the cost of tertiary education to the government, so it responded by layering on a pile of bureaucratic cost control measures on the tertiary sector and by restricting access to the loans programme in ways that disadvantaged students who faced higher living costs, and older students, and students in longer programmes of study. And if you want the simplest explanation for why the government’s been focused on turning university study into employment training: it’s the cost of zero percent loans combined with a means-tested repayment scheme.

    We argued that, instead of shoveling $600m per year in interest rate subsidies towards students who would disproportionately go on to be richer, the money instead should be split between means-tested funding for tertiary students and greater support for tertiary preparation in lower decile secondary schools that need help in getting their students through to tertiary. We weren’t recommending scrapping the programme to provide tax cuts, we said to flip the money over to things that would be more effective in actually improving access to tertiary education – and would be more progressive to boot.

    It’s a pretty left wing recommendation from what y’all are calling a right-wing think-tank. The shift would mean a pretty substantial transfer from richer and soon-to-be richer university students over to poor schools and poorer students.

    Have a great day!

    • r0b 19.1
      31 August 2017 at 2:57 pm

      I appreciate you dropping in Eric. It’s true that I dissed your report without reading it – assuming it was the source of Smalley’s nonsense (since she cited it). Apologies if I have done you an injustice.

    • WILD KATIPO 19.2
      31 August 2017 at 3:01 pm

      Interesting.

      Yet it was under the auspices of the then Business Roundtable ( now the New Zealand Initiative ) that provided the framework for student loans in the first place, – what ?,… are they now trying to present a new face on the stack of feces that they created to rescue their National party enablers?

      To soften the blow and make it more acceptable looking as it were ?… or has Labour’s policy of taxing multinationals kinda put the wind up the old boys club?

      I seem to remember , … that on one of the documentary’s The Standard provides, – possibly hosted by Ian Fraser , – that it was a particular female member of the Business Roundtable ( NZ Initiative ) who not only was in charge of pushing for private schools , – but also had financial interests in many of them.

      It strikes me and thousands of others that at one stage pre 1984 this country had no problems at all providing free education , – that is , until , a few shady opportunists saw an angle with which to enrich themselves.

      Same goes for our health services, … hell ! … lets go the full hog about this , – how about our rail , power company’s , telecommunication company’s , our forestry , Ministry of Works , banks ,- oh yes our banks – BNZ ring a bell? – or maybe Fay / Richwhite and the Cook Islands?

      And that’s only a few to boot.

      There was a time in this country where our public services created more or less full employment , – and the wages of those workers went in to the local economy and provided tax to finance our social services and keep them world class. Just like our education was.

      AND THERE WERE many , many millionaires in this country .

      But all that wasn’t good enough for the psychopaths who wanted to rape , pillage and plunder this nations wealth ,… oh no ,… so after dreaming up fictitious lies for use as reasons , – primarily the joke about govt ‘ waste’ , of all things, – to justify their theft , they proceeded to use Roger Douglas to do the thieving. And when he was all used up and tossed aside they went on to use Ruth Richardson to complete the job.

      Funny how BOTH Roger Douglas AND Ruth Richardson were active Board of Directors of the Mont Pelerin Society ,…… eh.

      Who were good mates of the Business Roundtable / New Zealand Institute .

      NEW$ZEALAND
      _____________________
      Hon. Sir Roger Douglas <——————————————
      1998, Life$Member

      Mrs. Hanne Janes
      1990

      MONT PELERIN SOCIETY DIRECTORY – 2010

      19/20_ = Year of Membership * = Past President

      Mr. Roger L. Kerr <——————————————————–
      New(Zealand(Business(Roundtable
      1986

      Honorable Ruth Richardson <—————————————–
      Director
      Ruth(Richardson([NZ](Ltd
      1996

      Dr. Bryce Derek Wilkinson
      Capital(Economics(Limited
      2000

      Mont Pelerin Society Directory – DeSmogBlog
      https://www.desmogblog.com/…/Mont%20Pelerin%20Society%20Directory%202010….

      And again ,… Hugh Price of Hugh Price Publishers got their number and called their name out back in the 1980's and 1990's concerning the Business Roundtable / New Zealand Initiative theft of the commons wealth and subversion of NZ' democracy , our Keynesian based social democracy – our SOCIAL DEMOCRACY that thousands of NZ soldiers fought , bled and died to protect .

      Those thousands who fought and died against the very scum sucking NAZI bastards who were the financial and philosophical founders of the Mont Pelerin Society.

      New Right Fight – Who are the New Right?
      http://www.newrightfight.co.nz/pageA.html

      Its time New Zealanders wised up to just whose been behind all of this poverty and massive social breakdown in this country and start demanding action against them.

      • In Vino 19.2.1
        31 August 2017 at 6:14 pm

        Good summary and informative. With you Wild Kaitipo.
        I would add that the Government’s focus is wrong. (Eric Crampton paragraph 2.) This foolish government sees no public good in education, so clamps down on expenditure instead of putting funds where they should go to do some good.

  20. Delia 20
    31 August 2017 at 3:15 pm

    Quite shocked at Rachel, she clearly wants the people to have more slugging from National for another three years.

  21. peterlepaysan 21
    31 August 2017 at 9:05 pm

    There are very few media denizens (I hesitate to use “journalist” or “reporter”) would know what verifying facts/statements means.
    They are too busy grooming their egos as they interview their keyboards/microphones/cameras.
    Alternative facts and fake news is alive and well in NZ.

    Take a bow rachel smalley.