Written By:
notices and features - Date published:
5:28 pm, November 5th, 2009 - 40 comments
Categories: national/act government -
Tags: breakfastgate, john key, Rodney Hide
Interesting comment from ‘gobsmacked’ on Rodney Hide’s statement that John Key “doesn’t do anything” and how he as a minister can ram pretty much anything he likes through cabinet:
There’s a bigger story here, incidentally.
Rodney Hide has been caught out in a lie. The whole ‘fundraiser’ row was all about whether Hide was acting as a Minister (who cannot charge a fee) or a Party leader (who can).
The comments clearly show he was acting talking as a Minister. Of course, everybody knew that, including the PM, but he pretended not to.
Now we have the evidence that Hide knowingly broke the rules. So the Prime Minister must sack him.
Oct 21:
Prime Minister John Key said there was no problem with Hide charging as long as he spoke as ACT’s leader.
‘If it’s a genuine part of explaining your portfolio and communicating with audiences, obviously ministers don’t charge for that,’ he said.
(Stuff website)
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Even if gobsmacked has the assessment correct, the odds that Key will fire Rodney are essentially zero – he needs at least one Act nutcase as a Minister to propose all the hard-right policies that are a bad look for National, so that Key can come out with the “moderate” approach.
And if he dispatched Rodney, it seems likely that Act would require another Minister as part of their support for National, so it would be goodbye to Rodney The Clown and hello to Roger The Living Dead. There’s no way Key would countenance that.
All this has undoubtedly occurred to Rodney, and he probably figures there’s nothing short of getting caught with his fingers in Parliament’s till that will result in his departure. So Key had better start getting used to being spat on by Rodney.
If the bar on integrity wasn’t set so low under Labour (and defended by partisan hacks who care little for democracy and more about the name of the party) then we could all lobby Key into doing something about this.
I think that Rodney has lost the plat and I’ve withdrawn all financial support for the ACT party as a personal protest. Bill & Ben are looking like the party of choice for me at the next election unless Labour sack Goff and Little steps aside then I’ll go back to my natural choice of being a Labour voter again.
However as much as it pisses me off, Key has a very easy job looking like a highly principled man after Labour’s last efforts protecting Winston & Field (to name just two). Key will play the line “We might not be perfect but we are better than Labour” and he has a long way to slide before he is wrong about that.
When you defend your team based on “they did it too” as many Labour supporters did it is hilarious when you get upset about National doing the same.
Burt
“I think that Rodney has lost the plat …”
He has also lost the plot.
BTW what is a plat?
Rodney used to plat John’s hair during the more intimate moments of repose in the last campaign.
he doesn’t do it any more 🙁
a “plat” is a typo in this instance. plot was the word I was intending to type.
Good on you burt.
This just in from the Herald.
“Rodney Hide’s taxpayer funded trip with partner Louise Crome to Britain and North America was timed to coincide with the wedding of Crome’s brother, TVNZ reported tonight.”
Perk busted!!
ms, yeah i saw that. the man has absolutely no shame.
i agree with Clarke’s points, Hide is going to be one very drowney millstone around National’s neck. Mr Key, meet your Winston Peters 😆
He is not as bad as Winston. Winston lied: Rodney didn’t. Winston (or his party) broke the law: Rodney Hide didn’t. Check your facts “the sprout”!
bro i think you’ll find the Electoral Commission, Police and SFO inquiries all cleared Peters of any crimes.
there you go, facts checked. unfortunately Wodney is clear for now because none of those organization prosecute for rampant hypocrisy.
anyway, as per usual you’ve completely missed the point.
Winston lied: Rodney didn’t.
Oh hah. Hide lies all the time.
Winston (or his party) broke the law: Rodney Hide didn’t.
Uh huh. Turns out Hide broke the law just as much as Winston. Plus this murky business has (as far as I know) never been resolved…
and then there’s still that matter of Hide letting out his office for the dodgey Pacific Island tax avoidance scheme in 1999
Baseless allegations – [holds up big “NO” sign and is protected by self serving PM who would rather not see this investigated]
good idea burt, Hide should have his own “NO” sign
Of course he is not as bad as Winston. But hey there is a catch here – Rodney must be judged on what he has done not relative to some other scum sucking waste of oxygen.
If you have a defense for what Rodney has done then lets hear it – saying he is not as bad as Winston is just childish unless the standards set by Labour are good enough for you. (They did it too…. )
“Rodney must be judged on what he has done not relative to some other scum sucking waste of oxygen. ”
So Rodney is also a scum sucking waste of oxygen?
Burt I agree with you!!!
Why do his comments indicate that he was speaking as a Minister and not a party leader? It seems he could have easily made those comments in his role as a party leader.
Who cares?
He is a trougher and has made his career saying that troughing is really bad.
He also made money inviting people to a meeting where he would talka bout local government issues and he is the relevant minister.
Why do wingnuts think that all issues should be debated, even where the result is so clear cut?
Because it is democracy!
Like it or not everyone (not just you) are entitled to freely express their opinions.
Nick C
From the Press report:
He told the table guests before his formal speech that a person could get a “s…load” done in government as long as “you set the agenda” and have a clear direction.
He had been amazed at how much he was able to achieve in the Cabinet because “you turn up with your papers” and “they are too busy with their own stuff; they’re not bothered”. …
His ability to make progress on the Auckland super-city plan had been an example of his achievements, he said, and he talked about getting rid of 700 bureaucrats and saving $66 million. “You’re thinking, s…”
(end)
That is the Minister of Local Government, talking about his job.
So Kiwi (is that really your name?)
It is OK because someone else has been worse?
Hide has made a career out of perkbusting. He has spent most of his career out of complaining about the waste of taxpayers money. And he went on a big trip and took his girlfriend and travelled in luxury to go to her brother’s wedding.
He is a hypocrite, he is a hypocrite, he is a hypocrite. He is corrupt. He is the sort of politician who puts the rest in a bad light. Many of them do, but not all of them.
Rodney did lie. He said that he would be a perk buster. Instead he is a perk abuser.
Unfortunately, Micky, I was replying to “the sprout”.
I do not believe that it should make a difference, obviously sprout does.
He did not lie, That is not a lie because its true. He is a perk buster.
any person with a wit is welcome to reply on my behalf.
had you been capable of reading you’d have seen i also replied above.
night night now kiwiteen, time for beddy byes
sprout: the rule is go to bed when you’re told
Well at least being told to go to bed is better than being told to find a weapon and kill yourself.
kiwiteen123
“He did not lie, That is not a lie because its true. He is a perk buster.”
He is a hypocrite. He is not a perk buster, he is a trough buster.
Why are you bothering to defend him? When the argument is crystal clear it pays to stop arguing, all that you do is to draw attention to his shortcomings.
Kiwiteen
“He did not lie, That is not a lie because its true. He is a perk buster.”
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha
He may not be a liar if you poll a lot of lawyers, but he is a hypocrite.
So do you think that he is not a hypocrite?
mickysavage
Change what kiwiteen has said to “Helen did not lie” and what he has said could have been something you wrote last year.
You can tell when the wingnuts are on the ropes, they say “but what about Helen”.
When things are really really desperate they say “but what about David or Norm or Peter or Micky”.
Want to argue about the merits of the current politicians actions, especially when compared with their past statements of principle?
those who can not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
I can go all night sprout…
sprout: so can the spam filter. bye
Nah burty only ever wants to talk about commenters at The Standard.
He thinks that if he can show they are in some or any way hypocritical then, um, something.
But it’s totally not done as a rhetorical defence of Rortney hide, who he agrees is corrupt, but like john key and all the work he does for charity, burt doesn’t like to talk about that.
So he blathers on and on and on about commenters here. Who’s traits are obviously of much more concern to him than those of politicians. Even the one’s he voted for and held up as exemplars of the priestly caste that he demands. Even when they turn out to be the hypocitical shits we said they were back when Rortny was pretending to give a shit about perks and abuse of ministerial roles.
How can Key sack his prime minister?
😆
Oh please! For any Labour suck up to be hurling accusations of corruption at anyone else is beyond a joke.Louises travel cost was $5000….it came from the travel “perk” ALREADY deducted from Rodneys total salary…as its been done for years and that Rodney himself has been trying to get eliminated so that theres no more confusion (as this issue has proven there is) about whos spending what.Pay back the stolen $800.000 Labour then you may be in a position to speak.
1: Louise’s travel cost the tax payer $25,163.00
2: Labour repaid the $800,000.
it came from the travel “perk’ ALREADY deducted from Rodneys total salary’
really james? If he hadn’t got the taxpayer to pay for her to go to her bro’s wedding then he would have been given the cash anyway? Bollocks. Stop lying mate, your boy is no better than any of them and as soon as he got into govt, his perk busting days were over baby. Which explains what they were about. He went after winnie the pooh out of jealousy. Plain and simple.
You got played, get angry at him, sucker.
first rigging trips to coincide with your girlfriend’s brother’s wedding, and now trips to Disneyland.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10607595
what a perk buster!
sprout: the rule is go to bed when you’re told
That’s really funny sprout. Timing, brevity…everything!
😉
I hadn’t realised that Rodney’s trip was only 10 days. So we paid about $5000 a day for him and his friend to enjoy this privilege.
I note that you can get a King Executive room for two at the London Hilton on Park Lane, dinner bed and breakfast, for about $1000 a night, so even allowing for first class travel for the two lovebirds, this sounds like a Very Handsome Perk indeed. How the other half live, eh?