Shane Jones standing down as MP

Written By: - Date published: 6:12 pm, April 22nd, 2014 - 508 comments
Categories: election 2014, labour - Tags:

One News has just revealed that Shane Jones is standing down as an MP.  Apparently he will not be standing for any other party.

More as news comes to hand.

NZ Herald – Jones to leave politics at the end of next month.

He has been in talks with Foreign Minister Murray McCully for some time about a possible role in an international fisheries management role and expected that to go through.

He said he would leave at the end of next month after reflecting over Easter about his future.

I’ve never been a great Jones fan, especially when he has made some misogynist comments, or support anti-environmentally sustainable activities like mining.

However, he has had his supporters on the left and among Maori. He did an excellent job of raising issues about dodgy practices by Aussie owned supermarket chains.

I can’t help but wonder how much this decision was impacted by the news this morning that he was given a donation for his leadership bid by a National Party minister the husband of a government minister.

3 News reported this morning.

New Zealand Herald reports Mr Jones was given $1000 by the husband of a National Party minister.

Education Minister Hekia Parata’s husband Sir Wira Gardiner says the donation was intended to encourage Maori leadership, and is not an indication of his political allegiance.

[…]

NZ Oil and Gas board member Roger Finlay was also revealed to have donated to Mr Jones’ failed leadership bid.

Stuff reports:

Labour list MP Shane Jones is set to quit Labour and politics to take up a job as “Pacific economic ambassador” for the Government, 3News reported tonight.

Jones did not immediately return calls.

3News said nothing was signed but Prime Minister John Key was aware of the move and Foreign Minister Murray McCully was designing the job.

If Jones steps down immediately, the next person on Labour’s list – Kelvin Davis – will step into his place.

Jones missed out on Labour’s leadership last year and has set himself up as the critics of the Greens this year.

Davis, Labour’s candidate for Te Tai Tonga, said he was “picking [himself] up off the floor.”

“I had no idea at all and I actually have to check out if it is kosher or not.

Well, for those of us that have thought Jones would fit into the National ethos, that is not surprising.

Kelvin Davis as a replacement ahead of the election, is a win for Labour. He has an excellent background in education: His candidacy for the Tao Tokerau rematch was announced last month.

Mr Davis, 47, a former Kaitaia Intermediate School principal, has since been employed by the Ministry of Education in Kaitaia, where he is working with iwi on their education plans.

He declined to discuss his renewed candidacy before he takes leave from the ministry, probably around the end of the financial year on June 30, to concentrate on the election.

Labour’s Te Tai Tokerau electorate chairman, Haydn Edmonds, said he and other party officials had sought out Mr Davis because of his capabilities and the contribution he had made as a list MP.

“Kelvin is a seasoned politician now. We are very excited he has put his name forward again because we think he will bring a clear direction for Northland’s economic development and education,” Mr Edmonds said.

It’ll be useful to have him as an MP when he is campaigning.  And his background will be useful in the face on Harata’s mis-management of the education portfolio.

508 comments on “Shane Jones standing down as MP ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Clean_power 1
    22 April 2014 at 6:15 pm

    As they say: when the ship is sinking…

    • mickysavage 1.1
      22 April 2014 at 6:35 pm

      And how do we respond to the 15 National MPs who are leaving or have left Parliament this term?

      • cricklewood 1.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 6:38 pm

        Are you happy he’s gone Mickey? Or do you think his skills will be missed so near an election?

        • Hamish 1.1.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 8:06 pm

          What skills!!? Being a useless masturbating tory shill! Good riddance to the wanker I say!

      • Will@Welly 1.1.2
        22 April 2014 at 6:41 pm

        With the exception of Tony Ryall, the rest are walking the plank.
        One suspects Jones’ timing is more aimed at scuttling the ship. It’s a pity he can’t be asked to leave immediately, as of now.

      • srylands 1.1.3
        22 April 2014 at 6:41 pm

        With envy !

      • Tracey 1.1.4
        22 April 2014 at 6:46 pm

        touché

      • Clean_power 1.1.5
        22 April 2014 at 6:47 pm

        Dear mickysavage, if that last comment of yours is an indication of the advice you have been given to David Cunliffe, God help the NZ Labour Party.

        To compare this eleventh-hour defection of Shane Jones with those National MPs is ridiculous and a cry of desperation (or incompetence) on your part.

        It’s time for you to take the glasses off and face reality!

        • felix 1.1.5.1
          22 April 2014 at 7:03 pm

          You’re right, it’s not fair to compare them.

          Jones is leaving voluntarily.

          • Not Petey 1.1.5.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 7:39 pm

            Ha ha what a comedian

          • poem 1.1.5.1.2
            22 April 2014 at 10:46 pm

            Lol that’s true Felix !!!

          • Nathan 1.1.5.1.3
            23 April 2014 at 9:52 am

            National are active in renewing the team. Labour’s too pansy to have a proper clean out.

          • Matthew Hooton 1.1.5.1.4
            23 April 2014 at 5:56 pm

            That’s right – Jones is leaving because he personally doesn’t want to continue with Labour, even though Cunliffe says he admires him.
            In contrast, the National 15 have been told time is up by their leader, and have followed his advice.
            One is a party rejuvenating. The other is one collapsing.

            • karol 1.1.5.1.4.1
              23 April 2014 at 7:09 pm

              Jones said on 3 News tonight, that he didn’t want to be part of a Labour-Green government, and that the party is too left for him. Sounds like he thinks that is a possibility, rather than that he thinks it’s collapsing.

            • Hamish 1.1.5.1.4.2
              23 April 2014 at 8:03 pm

              One is a party rejuvenating. The other is one collapsing.

              Labour is indeed rejuvenating, putting pressure on the tory toadies that lie within because they realise it’s impossible to have a truly leftwing party while the caucus is still infested with tory lite scum like Jones who undermine the party all the time for the sake of their own over inflated egos.

              Lord knows what is happening in National because little wanker johnny is admittedly very good at image. But let’s face it…he is merely the wrapping paper on the rancid turd. At some point a fair old squirt of shit is going to come bursting through that thin veneer he has created and sink National faster than you can say ‘Nicky Hagar’.

              Also…you’re a useless little wanker.

              • Not Petey …
                23 April 2014 at 8:05 pm

                Hmmmm not sure if this is a right winger trying to pose as a nutty potty mouth leftie or one of the rabid potty mouth activist left the Shane Jones has escaped from.

                • Hamish …
                  23 April 2014 at 8:13 pm

                  Now that you’ve got that out of your system you can go back to fellating the memory of Shane Jones.

                  • Not Petey …
                    23 April 2014 at 8:17 pm

                    nom nom nom

                    You appear to have a phallus fetish, has this been a long term problem of yours or has it been bought on by the current buggers muddle that is the NZ Labour party ?

                    • Hamish …
                      23 April 2014 at 8:24 pm

                      It’s just that I’m surrounded by tiny wee cocks like you. Puts me a Lorena Bobbitt kindof mood…

                      [lprent: It is inadvisable to even hint at a threat of violence. It tends to leave you voiceless on this site. ]

                    • Not Petey …
                      23 April 2014 at 8:31 pm

                      “It’s just that I’m surrounded by tiny wee cocks like you”

                      Which Labour electoral committee is that then ? Or are you in Cunliffe’s parliamentary office ?

                      [lprent: Not a question that you can ask. I’d strongly suggest that you desist from trying to identify who people are. I have this awkward tendency to defend the privacy policy on this site with draconian measures. That includes badgering others about where they work, even in jest. ]

              • Clemgeopin …
                23 April 2014 at 9:52 pm

                Some nice quotes there.

            • felix 1.1.5.1.4.3
              23 April 2014 at 8:30 pm

              “One is a party rejuvenating. “

              Nope, you don’t get to call that until they actually do it. You can say they’re planning to rejuvenate, but all they’ve done is sack people.

              You don’t get to call yourself a builder for knocking down a shed.

              ps look who’s staying, half of them have been there since the 90s. It’s an ideological purge and it has nothing to do with “dead wood”.

              • srylands …
                23 April 2014 at 8:50 pm

                “…it has nothing to do with “dead wood””

                Really?

                Kate Wilkinson, Katrina Shanks. Tau Henare?

                The ones that are staying are the best performers. The ones coming in are on average a decade younger and smarter than the ones going out. Many of them have skills in business, an attribute sorely lacking on the left.

                So yeah Felix son I’d call it rejuvination with a capital R. Your wheels are falling off.

                • felix …
                  23 April 2014 at 9:04 pm

                  Like I said, you don’t get to call yourself a builder for knocking down a shed.

                  Replacing one pack of voiceless wallies with another pack of voiceless wallies, meanwhile the same old faces remain in the power positions as they have for over two decades. Hardly rejuvenation, and even if it was, it hasn’t happened yet. So no, thus far it’s just a bunch of sackings.

                  And don’t call me “son”, it demeans us both. But you mostly.

        • poem 1.1.5.2
          22 April 2014 at 10:45 pm

          Well, thats a very one eyed hypocritical response Clean_power.

      • Mary 1.1.6
        22 April 2014 at 6:52 pm

        Clear out 15 of Labour’s fossilised neo-liberal old guard?

      • Shazzadude 1.1.7
        22 April 2014 at 7:49 pm

        Of those 15 Nat MPs leaving, only Ryall had any real value. Jones is a big loss for Labour.

        • poem 1.1.7.1
          23 April 2014 at 5:23 am

          I dont think Shane Jones is that bigger loss at all, actually, Labour will be much better off.

        • felix 1.1.7.2
          23 April 2014 at 6:13 am

          1) They’re not “leaving” they’re being sacked.
          2) Jones is a huge loss to National.

          • Jackal 1.1.7.2.1
            24 April 2014 at 9:15 am

            I presume that some of those 15 are voluntarily leaving because they’re aware of the huge financial mess National has mismanaged New Zealand into. They simply don’t want to be around when the shit hits the fan and questions start being asked, which will happen when John Key loses the next election and has to hand over the books.

            • Tinfoilhat 1.1.7.2.1.1
              24 April 2014 at 9:29 am

              Don’t the accounts get opened up by law for public perusal each year now ?

      • kehua 1.1.8
        22 April 2014 at 8:28 pm

        It is called succession or re-generation, kinda foreign to some Parties

      • MartinH 1.1.9
        22 April 2014 at 10:48 pm

        DOnt you realise that this is why National is doing so well?
        They get rid of the dead wood

      • Liberty 1.1.10
        22 April 2014 at 10:48 pm

        Apparently Jones is having a meal with Cunliffe . Will a full transcript be made public?

      • poem 1.1.11
        22 April 2014 at 10:56 pm

        Yes mickysavage, the silence from the media over an unprecedented 15 national ministers standing down in an ELECTION YEAR, speaks volumes !!!

        • The Lone Haranguer 1.1.11.1
          23 April 2014 at 6:12 am

          Get it right Poem. Its 15 Nat MPs not 15 Nat Ministers.

          Regardless of anyones political affiliations, most would have to say the bulk of the departing Nats are simply numbers and (Ryall being an exception) not names.

          No doubt some have done a good job in their constituency – a few new roads and widened bridges sort of thing, but they are foot soldiers and easily replaced by the next bunch of bright young men in blue suits, of whom there is an endless supply.

          Those that get into Parliament (in any party) and make great policy and great laws are few and far between.

          • felix 1.1.11.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 6:26 am

            Don’t pretend National has some sort of naturally regeneration ethic. How many of the current lot have been there since the 90s? Hell, a lot of them were ministers in the 90s.

            Nope, the blue suits are being sacked because they haven’t got the stomach to wear the black suits.

          • poem 1.1.11.1.2
            23 April 2014 at 11:46 pm

            Youre nitpicking the Lone Haranguer, like Felix says they were ministers at some stage, even recently ie Kate Wilkinson. And 15 stepping down in an election IS unprecedented, no wonder its been played down.

            • felix 1.1.11.1.2.1
              24 April 2014 at 5:54 pm

              It’s like they’re all living out their bible “Atlas Shrugged” and disappearing to the gulch.

      • Jim Nald 1.1.12
        22 April 2014 at 11:31 pm

        “And how do we respond to the 15 National MPs who are leaving or have left Parliament this term?”

        Ahem. Make that 15.5 National MPs with the addition of the 0.5 FTE (full-time equivalent) of a national lite mp, given today’s announcement.

        • TightyRighty 1.1.12.1
          23 April 2014 at 9:46 am

          So a heavy hitting labour mp is still only worth half an ordinary national mp. and you think the left is fit to govern

          • felix 1.1.12.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 8:17 pm

            Doesn’t count as heavy-hitting when you’re punching your own team.

          • karol 1.1.12.1.2
            23 April 2014 at 8:26 pm

            Where is this fantasy from that Shane Jones was the outstanding performer in the Labour caucus? He didn’t do anything much before the leadership contest. Then he had a good run against Countdown. Meanwhile, others have been developing policy, steadily destabilising Judith Collins, pressuring Parata from one crisis to another, etc, etc.

            • felix 1.1.12.1.2.1
              23 April 2014 at 8:40 pm

              He was an outstanding performer in the Labour party for the National party.

            • poem 1.1.12.1.2.2
              23 April 2014 at 11:56 pm

              yes, its amazing how the nats have come out as the cheerleading squad for Shane Jones, they certainly were not calling him an outstanding performer before. nats are unashamed hypocrites !!

    • Redbaiter 1.2
      22 April 2014 at 6:37 pm

      Yep, this means more swinging voters writing off Labour as a jobs force and going to National.

    • mickysavage 1.3
      22 April 2014 at 6:40 pm

      Stand by as the site is inundated with Wingnuts running the “this is bad for Labour” line …

      • karol 1.3.1
        22 April 2014 at 6:45 pm

        Kelvin Davis is a very good replacement, I hear.

        • mickysavage 1.3.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 7:09 pm

          Yep he is a very talented and decent person. His understanding of education issues is really good.

          • SW 1.3.1.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 8:47 pm

            Hi Micky – I don’t consider myself a Wingnut. Do you not think is this bad for Labour?

            • poem 1.3.1.1.1.1
              22 April 2014 at 11:04 pm

              Personally, I dont think its bad for labour at all. Do you think 15 national ministers standing down in an election year, and Bill English coming back as a list mp, is bad for national SW?
              Its not a particularly good look that inspires confidence, does it?

          • Labour_Supporter 1.3.1.1.2
            22 April 2014 at 11:41 pm

            Why Labour is standing a strong candidate like Kelvin Davis against Hone? Hone will back a Labour government for sure and winning against him won’t add to Labour’s tally….

            • poem 1.3.1.1.2.1
              23 April 2014 at 5:28 am

              Lets see what happens first.

              • SW …
                23 April 2014 at 8:13 am

                Hi poem – in all honesty I don’t think you can compare the two. As pointed out elsewhere, Tony Ryall is the only Nat leaving that voters will know and his departure didn’t seem to signify party disharmony (rightly or wrongly).

                Shane Jones on the other hand, the guy contested the leadership merely months ago. He was high profile and perhaps the only Labour Minister outside Robertson making traction recently.

                From an outsiders perspective it doesn’t look good (why would he be leaving is the obvious question).

                Regardless, it doesn’t matter what I think or what you think, what matters is how it gets reported and whether those reports help or hurt Labour in the polls. Lets see how this goes….

                • SW …
                  23 April 2014 at 8:16 am

                  Re Bill English – did it hurt Labour when Cullen became a list MP? Do you think the undecided voter that the left must capture if they want a change of government would notice English on the list?

                  • felix …
                    23 April 2014 at 8:46 pm

                    Not sure English has a choice. He doesn’t seem to live anywhere.

                    • SW …
                      23 April 2014 at 9:27 pm

                      Well there is that. So this is good for Labour in your opinion Felix?

                    • felix …
                      24 April 2014 at 8:08 am

                      I think it’s fair to say that it’s good news for anyone who wants a more progressive parliament.

                      Beyond that I don’t think good/bad for any particular party is a very meaningful determination.

                    • SW …
                      24 April 2014 at 11:23 am

                      Thanks for your reply below Felix (I’m finding it difficult to get any meaningful dialogue from the commentators here – I’m a long time reader but new to commenting).

                      Sure, Shane Jones was a social conservative – not my cup of tea.

                      Sorry you didn’t find my question ‘meaningful’. Reframing my question, do you think Jones leaving will have any impact with voters (ie -increasing the left wing bloc’s vote equalling good; decreasing the left wing bloc’s vote equalling bad; or no affect whatsoever).

                      Your an intelligent person who likes to talk politics right? Do you have a view about what is going on within Labour right now and do see a change of government as being likely at this stage?

                    • felix …
                      24 April 2014 at 6:15 pm

                      I didn’t really mean that the question was meaningless, just that I’m not in a position to give a very meaningful answer.

                      I’m not a Labour insider or pollster and I don’t have any special insight into how other people might or might not vote.

                      My instinct is that outside of highly political circles no-one much knows or cares about him. Whenever I’ve talked about him with friends they stare blankly, until I say “you know, the guy who got busted buying porn” at which they usually roll their eyes with a dismissive “oh THAT guy”.

                      Especially women, who seem to almost universally detest him. Never a good sign in judging a man’s character.

                    • SW …
                      25 April 2014 at 8:08 pm

                      “My instinct is that outside of highly political circles no-one much knows or cares about him. Whenever I’ve talked about him with friends they stare blankly, until I say “you know, the guy who got busted buying porn” at which they usually roll their eyes with a dismissive “oh THAT guy”.

                      I agree with your point, and at that level his departure is pretty meaningless.

                      But my concern is that this story fits too perfectly with the wider narrative that Labour is a divided shambles (a concern I think justified by the largely terrible reporting on this).

                      That type of narrative does get through to those not so interested in politics.
                      Even looking at the polls with rose tinted glasses, I don’t think a change of government is possible without that narrative changing.

                      Going further, accepting your point above is correct, surely having Jones in the Labour Party was not a bad thing (purely from a getting back into government viewpoint)?

                      I find it somewhat worrying that significant numbers of Labour Party members appear to be heralding this as some sort of victory.

                      Is there possibly a disjoint right now between labour Party members and (potential) Labour Party supporters – as in the members are steering the Party in a direction the supporters are not following?

                    • felix …
                      25 April 2014 at 8:28 pm

                      “surely having Jones in the Labour Party was not a bad thing (purely from a getting back into government viewpoint)?”

                      Maybe for getting the Labour party into govt. Maybe not. But I’m not particularly interested in the fortunes of the Labour party, I’m interested in electing more progressive govts. Jones doesn’t really fit into that future.

                      I suppose it’s possible that he inspired more people to vote for Labour than he turned away in disgust. Maybe, maybe not, I have no way of knowing. People in the media say he was important, my highly scientific subjective selective anecdata contradicts that.

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      25 April 2014 at 8:46 pm

                      If you consider how much the media love Labour with Jones in it, it would be an absolute MSM Labour love-fest if Douglas, Prebble, Caygill and Moore all came back.

                    • SW …
                      25 April 2014 at 11:24 pm

                      Felix, Karol and CP – I appreciate the comments, although perhaps K and CP miss my point?

                      My point was simply that Jones leaving the Party is not good for Labour’s chance of electoral success in November. My point is not that Labour gets great press from Jones being in the Party, or that he was the be all and end all (although I think he was making inroads with the Countdown stuff – and he attacked that issue from a ‘left’ perspective – bar Robertson where are other front benchers?).

                      “I’m interested in electing more progressive govts.” – Likewise. So we should both be very concerned about how things are looking for a more progressive govt getting elected come November.

                      Its fine to be ambivalent about the strength of labour, but do honestly think a govt change is possible this year by the Greens/Mana etc growing their vote? Its possible I guess, but if I was a betting man…

                      Karol – its not that he’s a vote winner per se – its that the timing of his departure is unfortunate and IMO should not be celebrated. As unfortunate as the story you link to was, press like this is doing more damage at the present: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-armstrong-on-politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502865&objectid=11242513

                      CV – Haha yes well I hope you realise that I’m sensible enough not to suggest Labour become Act. Was Jones a Prebble? I would have though he was more Winston – Socially conservative/populist but not an economic zealot.

                      Regardless, I think there is a difference between pandering to the media and having a competent PR strategy.

                    • Clemgeopin …
                      26 April 2014 at 12:37 am

                      What you say is mostly correct, but I for one am extremely annoyed at his treacherous act of leaving just five months before a possible closely fought election.

                      He has given a hurtful blow to Labour’s morale when the party is gearing itself to defeat the nasty Nats. Besides, he has colluded in secret with the enemy for his donations as well as now for a bauble of a cushy job somewhere. That is the scum act of a completely disloyal person who is obviously not a team player and uninterested in helping Labour to win.

                      From that point of view, it is better he is gone. He had the propensity to cause more damage for Labour’s prospects from within. With friends like him, who needs enemies? Sure, his leaving may/will affect some support for Labour, but that is not the fault of Labour. That burden lies squarely on the soul of the Judas-like Labour-disciple who betrayed it voluntarily at the eleventh hour.

                      Labour might yet resurrect itself with support from elsewhere on Sept 30 and become the saviour of this nation from the evil right wing rogues. Who knows!

                      Don’t feel guilty. Leave that for Judas.

                    • felix …
                      26 April 2014 at 4:06 am

                      “Its fine to be ambivalent about the strength of labour, but do honestly think a govt change is possible this year by the Greens/Mana etc growing their vote?”

                      Probably not (yet). But that misses what I’ve been trying to say all along:

                      What use to me is a Labour govt if it’s run by right-wing conservatives like Jones?

      • Paul 1.3.2
        22 April 2014 at 6:47 pm

        Well best to ignore them, then.

        • felix 1.3.2.1
          22 April 2014 at 7:05 pm

          Yes Paul, let’s just give the site to the tr0lls, paid and otherwise.

          🙄

          • Paul 1.3.2.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 7:09 pm

            I meant let’s discuss amongst ourselves and not get dragged into long pointless comments on their issues.

            • Redbaiter 1.3.2.1.1.1
              22 April 2014 at 7:17 pm

              You meant lets ignore everything else that is said and do our best to spin this away from the truth that this is a huge defeat for Cunliffe and a massive win for John Key.

              Good luck with that impossibility.

              • mickysavage …
                22 April 2014 at 7:25 pm

                I wish that I had the RWNJ’s utter certainty in the correctness of their pronouncements no matter how inane …

                • greywarbler …
                  22 April 2014 at 7:40 pm

                  ms
                  I wish that I had the RWNJ’s utter certainty in the correctness of their pronouncements no matter how inane …

                  I hope that it isn’t a cunning plan to present themselves as deadbeat thinkers and smart alecs to make us think we are superior. But I think that they aren’t that cunning.

                  The comments come out with the sameness and regularity as from toys with sounds when you press the button. This is our playground folks and we’ve got all these funny noisy trials that are remnants of toy craze furbys or actual trials from the craze of 1963.

                • Not Petey …
                  22 April 2014 at 7:42 pm

                  Isn’t that why your employed as Labour’s very own current Chemical Ali

                  • mickysavage …
                    22 April 2014 at 8:57 pm

                    You should not believe everything that Cameron prints. In fact to be safe you should believe nothing that he prints.

                  • greywarbler …
                    22 April 2014 at 10:17 pm

                    NP
                    Very erudite sounding. Do you always talk in cliches?

                    • miked999 …
                      23 April 2014 at 10:33 am

                      Do you always talk in tautologies?

                    • greywarbler …
                      23 April 2014 at 6:28 pm

                      For miked999 and others here who don’t know what tautologies are –
                      tautology
                      noun –
                      the saying of the same thing twice over in different words, generally considered to be a fault of style (e.g. they arrived one after the other in succession ).

                • Anne …
                  23 April 2014 at 9:57 pm

                  Spelt wrong. You mean insane?

            • Blue 1.3.2.1.1.2
              22 April 2014 at 7:32 pm

              Yes Paul much better to live in an echo chamber. The public like him, he’s affable and has a decency about him.

      • Redbaiter 1.3.3
        22 April 2014 at 6:48 pm

        So now, where is Labour’s connection to the workers they claim to represent. Just academics, lawyers and pen pushing bureaucrats.

        • karol 1.3.3.1
          22 April 2014 at 6:51 pm

          Jones, the Harvard graduate and friend to some corporates.

          • Markm 1.3.3.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 7:20 pm

            Yes Karol a “Harvard” graduate like your leader but unlike your leader he isn’t married to one of New Zealand’s leading corporate lawyers.

            If your going to insult of your own you need to think of the collateral damage

            • karol 1.3.3.1.1.1
              22 April 2014 at 7:32 pm

              I have nothing against Harvard graduates and don’t think it means a person can’t work for the good of the working class.

              I was responding to the comment that implied Jones wasn’t one of the “academics, lawyers and pen pushing bureaucrats” and was more connected to the working clases than all the rest of Labour MPs.

              One of my own? You must have mistaken me for a Labour Party member.

              • Blue …
                22 April 2014 at 7:55 pm

                Being a graduate doesn’t make you an academic. He’s not a lawyer nor was he a bureaucrat. So what was your point. He’s exactly the type of person Labour needed.

                • karol …
                  22 April 2014 at 8:02 pm

                  I stated my points earlier – I don’t think he has done anything for the working classes. He tries to sound learned, using big words unnecessarily. Most Labour MPs are not academics either, and Jones has a higher class academic qualification than most of them.

                  I don’t see Jones as any working class hero. Unfortunately, he’s as neoliberal as some of the long term labour MPs.

                  • TightyRighty …
                    23 April 2014 at 10:26 am

                    shall i hand you the sword so you can fix the knot you’ve tied yourself into?

                    • Hanswurst …
                      23 April 2014 at 11:38 am

                      No knots there. Karol is perfectly consistent. Jones doesn’t stand out as any kind of working class champion when viewed alongside his soon-to-be-ex-colleagues. Shane Jones resembles what we might get if a bunch of neo-liberal plonkers like you tried to build a working class champion out of bits of string and stray shreds of policy.

                • felix …
                  23 April 2014 at 8:14 pm

                  Actually Blue, Jones was a bureaucrat before he entered politics. After graduating from Harvard he worked in the Dept. of PM and Cabinet and the Ministry of Conservation among others.

                  In your terms, just another Labour party academic and career bureaucrat.

        • Mark 1.3.3.2
          23 April 2014 at 11:28 am

          You must be joking. How many of the “workers” supported him in the leadership ballot this year. Three fifths of five eights of fuck all is about right. He is to the right of most of the Nats. If we could only get him to take Mallard, King and Goff with him, then “workers” might even take another look at the Labour Party.

      • greywarbler 1.3.4
        22 April 2014 at 7:26 pm

        ms 1.3
        Heh Heh

      • Nathan 1.3.5
        23 April 2014 at 10:02 am

        It’ll be good for Labour… the party will fail in the 2014 election, the faction in-fighting will escalate, party following will diminish, and some years in the future perhaps a cohesive Labour will emerge from the ashes..

    • Saarbo 1.4
      22 April 2014 at 9:55 pm

      The MSM really liked him, probably means he was one of the main “leakers”…Labour will be stronger losing Jones and gaining Davis. Good move for all….except, not surprisingly…the MSM.

  2. Vic 2
    22 April 2014 at 6:17 pm

    This makes no sense to me hes good.

  3. Rosie 3
    22 April 2014 at 6:19 pm

    On 3 News too. Eyes and ears are glued for more info…………….

  4. BM 4
    22 April 2014 at 6:22 pm

    Off to work for National.

    I have to say, this is really going to hurt Labour, Jones was Labours last link to the kiwi bloke and blokette.

    Jones will take with him a large block of votes.

    • Tracey 4.1
      22 April 2014 at 6:25 pm

      hmmm

      why do you think he has the blokettes? and I thought john key had cornered the ordinary bloke market?

      • BM 4.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 6:35 pm

        Shane Jones was Labours John Key, ordinary people can easily relate to Jones something that is currently severely lacking within Labour at the moment.

        Interested to hear what Jones eventually says about leaving Labour, I have a feeling it’s not going to be good for the red team but great for the blue team.

        • Tracey 4.1.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 6:40 pm

          no shane jones was labours john key and accordingly pushed national policies. HE WAS IN THE WRONG PARTY HENCE HE HAS DISCUSSIONS WITH MCCULLY FOR SOME TIME.

          kelvin davis has always deserved a place

        • felix 4.1.1.2
          22 April 2014 at 7:07 pm

          Jones hasn’t been in the same room as a commoner for decades.

    • swordfish 4.2
      22 April 2014 at 9:56 pm

      @ BM Tory Fella

      Ahhhh yes, an affluent, careerist Right-Wing Corporate Iwi-type like Jones. But wait a minute !!!, he’s Maori– so of course he must be “Labour’s last link to the Kiwi bloke.”

      • The Lone Haranguer 4.2.1
        23 April 2014 at 6:18 am

        The media work on perceptions and soundbites.

        As long as Jones is perceived to be the working mans hero, then thats what hes labled in the media, so he “becomes” in the publics eye.

        Reality has little space in the publics understanding of politics.

        • felix 4.2.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 6:29 am

          Then let’s just discuss him in those terms forever to ensure that the narrative never alters 🙄

          • The Lone Haranguer 4.2.1.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 10:40 am

            Being a right wing type, I would never offer advice to those on the left, on how to frame their politics to capture anyone but the groups already signed, sealed and delivered.

            But you are wrong in your assumptions that everyone to the right of you thinks that Key and the Nats are doing a good job and that Key and the Nats are on the right track. We just think we like them better than we like you.

            But we need Labour/Green/Mana to be an effective opposition to Key and the Nats. Im not too keen on Hones politics, but Im darn sure that we need him in Parliament.

            • felix 4.2.1.1.1.1
              23 April 2014 at 8:04 pm

              I’m concerned with changing the govt this year. If you’re not, then I’m not all that concerned with what you think pal.

              • Not Petey …
                23 April 2014 at 8:08 pm

                Nah the only thing that concerns you is getting the last comment in and picking up your benefit money every second week.

                • felix …
                  23 April 2014 at 8:38 pm

                  Really Doc? I didn’t know I could get a benefit. Please go on.

                  • not petey …
                    23 April 2014 at 8:51 pm

                    Sure you can just go down to the local WINZ office and let them know you’ve had to eat your own dung for the last 12 months I’m sure they’ll put you on the books… if not threaten to play some of your music outside their offices that’ll be the kicker for sure.

    • TE 4.3
      23 April 2014 at 8:54 am

      @ BM 4
      Shane Jones has no committment, he will be right at home with national the party who have no committment to the people they are supposed to be serving.
      Shane Jones is just another trougher and will never take votes cause really we dont trust him,
      His ex wife and six children whom he left for the now present partner the sky city lady; are his cv in committment …Fail big time.
      Ths guy is no kiwi bloke, more like a kiwi joke up here in the Far North.
      The ladies just dont like the man with his over worked left hand and his wandering eye.

  5. Graham 5
    22 April 2014 at 6:22 pm

    Read kiwiblog sounds like national has given him a job

  6. Tracey 6
    22 April 2014 at 6:23 pm

    good. he and tamihere can start the blokes fuckin rool party

    • Ron 6.1
      22 April 2014 at 6:27 pm

      Yes great news, who said there is no God!
      No if a couple more old fossils can follow suit we might have a chance of getting some new blood into the party.

    • Redbaiter 6.2
      22 April 2014 at 6:40 pm

      One day you’ll wake up to the fact that is the Progs and Greens who are costing Labour votes among the working class.

      • karol 6.2.1
        22 April 2014 at 6:47 pm

        What has Jones done for the working casses?

        • Redbaiter 6.2.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 6:50 pm

          Not able to do much in Labour. That’s why he quit.

          Bet that’s what he says when he gives a full explanation.

          He’ll say Labour is no longer working class- and he’s right.

        • Tracey 6.2.1.2
          22 April 2014 at 6:50 pm

          pretended to be on their side as used them as a ladder to the corporate world?

          • dave_1924 6.2.1.2.1
            22 April 2014 at 6:57 pm

            Tracey I don’t think he needed a ladder to the Corporate world. He had a career in things like the Maori Fisheries commission before running for parliament. Not sure its great to lose a mildly dissenting voice in caucus – groupthink is always the biggest risk and having a different viewpoint is valuable….

            • weka 6.2.1.2.1.1
              22 April 2014 at 8:15 pm

              You think the Labour caucus is of one mind?!?

            • Puddleglum 6.2.1.2.1.2
              22 April 2014 at 10:33 pm

              Hi dave_1924,

              What is the voice dissenting within the groupthink of National’s caucus – who, so we are told, are all of one voice and united behind John Key? You must be very worried about the quality of the National Party’s thinking.

              • dave_1924 …
                23 April 2014 at 5:51 pm

                I’m pretty confident the personalities in the National Caucus have their say – make an agreement and then move on…. That’s how business management works….

        • Paul 6.2.1.3
          22 April 2014 at 6:53 pm

          If redbaiter supports Jones, then he clearly isn’t.

          • Redbaiter 6.2.1.3.1
            22 April 2014 at 6:56 pm

            Listen Pal. I’m more working class than most of the overpaid academics and shiney arsed bureaucrats who hang out on this site.

            • NickS 6.2.1.3.1.1
              22 April 2014 at 7:14 pm

              🙄

              Fuck you can be utterly stupid, most of us who do semi-skilled or skilled physical work usually end up to damn tired to comment most of the time. Or just what to do this thing called “recreation”.

              Furthermore, there’s plenty here who say pretty much what I’m thinking well enough that’s there’s usually no point adding in.

        • Will@Welly 6.2.1.4
          22 April 2014 at 7:06 pm

          I’ve watched the “local” fisheries head off-shore into the foreign fishers, the jobs that once promised so much to New Zealanders disappear, and people like Shane and all those who sit at the table of the iwi leaders board turn their backs on the youth of this country.

          • dave_1924 6.2.1.4.1
            22 April 2014 at 7:39 pm

            That’s a fair call re the fisheries jobs. Maori via the Fisheries deal got an opportunity to create jobs for the next and subsequent generations. Instead its dodgy offshore charter boats reaping a lot of the benefits… is there any move inside the Iwi Corpations to build their own fleet and man it with Kiwis???

            • Tracey 6.2.1.4.1.1
              23 April 2014 at 5:50 am

              not if jones past with fisheries is anything to go by. hes a financial bottom line first kind iof guy.

              perhaps he found the workload of campaigning for leader too much

          • TE 6.2.1.4.2
            23 April 2014 at 9:02 am

            Well said W@W +100 we up the Far North feel the same.

        • FredFrog 6.2.1.5
          22 April 2014 at 7:27 pm

          More than the rest of the labour party has, and for some time now. Labour really need to find a more suitable name, as they really are not the workers friend.

    • Rosie 6.3
      22 April 2014 at 6:40 pm

      “good. he and tamihere can start the blokes fuckin rool party”

      Exactly Tracey

    • Mary 6.4
      22 April 2014 at 6:58 pm

      Or the Idiots Party with Mike Williams.

      • Redbaiter 6.4.1
        22 April 2014 at 7:01 pm

        Hey, wisen up.

        John Key has outsmarted you again.

        • Ad 6.4.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 7:13 pm

          Yup how it looks.

          • newsense 6.4.1.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 9:55 pm

            what more proof that the Nats think that they can buy their way out of trouble and that is a legitimate way of doing things? Not a good look for either party. With a ministers husband supporting a potential leader of the opposition. Very murky.

        • Tracey 6.4.1.2
          23 April 2014 at 5:52 am

          if they saw jones as a threat it was not cos of his desire to improve things for the working people… remember they wanted shearer as labour leader.

    • Liberty 6.5
      22 April 2014 at 10:56 pm

      So why was Tamihere banned from standing for Labour?
      A Threat to the leadership?

      [lprent: He wasn’t ever “banned”.

      He made a complete dork of himself with Wishart and tape recorder. He subsequently lost his seat to Peter Sharples and departed parliament. He also let his Labour membership lapse.

      In 2012 he was barred for the Labour party conference because he wasn’t a delegate from an electorate and I don’t think he was even a member, and hadn’t applied to be a media observer. I caught a glimpse of the blowhard posing around outside with some cameras and thought “Oh what a wasteful dork”. I think he was acting as some kind of talking prop for Paddy Gower. Incidentally I was inside at that rather exciting conference as a media observer for this site.

      I believe that these days he has renewed his membership. The problem that he has is that not a lot of Labour members think that he is of much use as a politician of any substance. Probably useful for Paddy and co if they want a prop for a political stunt. ]

  7. phillip ure 7
    22 April 2014 at 6:26 pm

    joy..!..joy..!..joy..!

  8. Will@Welly 8
    22 April 2014 at 6:26 pm

    A deal has been made, set up by Murray McCully.
    Love him, or hate him, this sort of defection, right now, plays straight into snake oils slimy hands.
    The iwi leaders show their hands, just as the Maori Party did, with their sneaky, sneaky dinners.

  9. Tracey 9
    22 April 2014 at 6:28 pm

    karol

    when I heard the news about who he took money from I wondered allowed if he had a job in a fishery.

    if he was ever for others and not himself he will not take parting shots at labour.

    • phillip ure 9.1
      22 April 2014 at 6:33 pm

      “..if he was ever for others and not himself he will not take parting shots at labour…”

      i think you may be overly optimistic there..

      ..as he pissed so much inside the tent..

      ..i can only see him pissing more –

      now that he has moved on for some serious post-parliament troughing..

      ..this is where jones gets paid off for his years of service…

      ..he’s gonna have seats on dirty-energy/industry companies coming out his ears..

      • marty mars 9.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 9:26 pm

        Yep I agree with you phil – he will pay back in full those that support him – dirty energy/industry companies and he will be vicious to those that he doesn’t like or who aren’t able to scratch his back.

        • Once was Pete 9.1.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 11:12 am

          “and he will be vicious to those he doesn’t like….”. You mean sort of like you are being vicious now? The spite and bile of some of the commenters on here is amazing. How nice it must be for you to be so convinced that your view of what the left needs is so correct. And how much in character it is for some in the left to turn spitefully on someone who doesn’t follow their script. He is leaving therefore he must be a traitor, his good works have to be diminished and his character assassinated.
          Shame on you. Don’t you think before you vent your rage and frustration? All you are doing is giving more evidence to left of centre voters (like me) that Labour is completely out of touch with middle NZ.
          So Jones’ resignation is disappointing and a loss to Labour. The snide derogatory comments being offered here won’t change that view in most peoples minds. If you can’t see that and you are a reflection of the thinking in Labour’s ranks then nothing is going to change for the better for some time.

  10. Paul 10
    22 April 2014 at 6:30 pm

    Maybe at last some pressure is being applied to those who still follow the neoliberal line. If so, wonderful news. Maybe too little too late.

    Too late because….

    Jones was a Trojan horse within the Labour Party, paid by a National supporter to run for the leadership.
    When this failed, despite much media publicity and support, he was kept on as the useful idiot by his corporate supporters. Didn’t anyone notice that the media always gave his projects such favourable publicity ( Countdown being the most obvious) while other progressive policies were undermined and the personalities under attack?
    Only with the revelation of his connections to National support did his position become untenable.
    However, a lot of damage has been done. 6 months wasted, with the National propaganda machine now glued to polls that show the damage a divided Labour movement provided.

    Too little because…
    There are others in the Labour Party with too much to lose with the abandonment of neoliberalism by the party.

    • JoT 10.1
      22 April 2014 at 8:43 pm

      I have never felt the urge to comment on this site, but the comments of Paul are ludicrous and insulting to Shane Jones. I could write so much more about your small minded attitude. BUT GROW UP and an apology is probably in order as well

      • Molly 10.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 9:02 am

        My mind must be miniscule, because Paul has said exactly what I think about the situation too.

    • Chooky 10.2
      23 April 2014 at 9:09 am

      +100 Paul

    • Once was Pete 10.3
      23 April 2014 at 11:13 am

      Your comments are a dammed disgrace!

  11. fisiani 11
    22 April 2014 at 6:30 pm

    Jones was forced to leave as he is not a union hack, a rainbow activist or someone with a future in the increasingly Far Left Labour Party. This is a huge blow to Labour especially in Northland.. the rejoicing here of the Far Left proves my point.

    • phillip ure 11.1
      22 April 2014 at 6:39 pm

      no fisani..

      ..he was/is owned by dirty-energy/industry/environment-fucking ‘interests’..

      ..i’d have ‘rainbows’ over that posse of scumbags any day..

      ..good fucken riddance…!

    • Skinny 11.2
      22 April 2014 at 6:55 pm

      Cut it out ‘missed in Northland’ Jones has been woeful in the North, things like preferring to bunker down in a motel rather than show leadership and turn up and support the local LEC when he has been in town to catch a flight the next morning to Wellington. The man was well known as a liability, a real loose cannon, for any one good thing he done (and there weren’t many) he had three other fuck-ups that he lost cred on.

      Labour and supporters would do best by choosing to right him off as a egotistical pervert and ignore his rants and raves, and he will the slimy prick!

      I will abuse the crap out of him on every occasion I run into him.

    • NickS 11.3
      22 April 2014 at 7:27 pm

      /facepalm

      a rainbow activist

      Because human rights is so fucking totes a bad thing to work on, especially rights for “homosexuals”.

      And how in Yog Sothoth is Labour far-left? Oh right, I forget sometimes that you’re a complete idiot for whom reality is whatever the fuck you’ve decided is true, irrespective of any fucking evidence to the contrary, no matter how deep or broad the evidence is.

    • Paul 11.4
      22 April 2014 at 7:36 pm

      It’s great the right wing really want to help by offering so much advice.

  12. Tautoko Viper 12
    22 April 2014 at 6:31 pm

    I am relieved to hear that Shane is leaving Labour. His political views were better suited to National. I think that this will be to Labour’s advantage.

    • Rosie 12.1
      22 April 2014 at 6:45 pm

      Agreed T V. Those winds of change are a blowin’. Timely, perhaps that it’s come to this.

      (with acknowledgements to the recent good work done on Countdown Mr Jones, you were a fair-weather friend to the Left and no friend to women)

    • Jim Nald 12.2
      22 April 2014 at 6:56 pm

      Two things.

      Had to check the date at the bottom right corner of the computer screen: has April 1st just swung around again, so very quickly? No. Ok. Good.

      How many feet does Shane ‘Oil-and-Gas-Roger-Finlay-cum-Natz-supporter-Wira-Gardiner’ Jones got that are yet to be shot and stuffed into his mouth? None left [pun?]. Ok. Good.

  13. outofbed 13
    22 April 2014 at 6:32 pm

    Fucking good riddance

    [lprent: Where is your argument? ]

    • Vic 13.1
      22 April 2014 at 6:52 pm

      stay-in-bed its affecting your intelligence try sleeping upside down idiot.

    • outofbed 13.2
      22 April 2014 at 9:39 pm

      My Argument?
      His appeal to the Woman Voters perhaps? or his ill advised attacks on the Greens. You know the party that the Labour Party (if it ever gets it shit together) will form the next Government?

      I certainly did not want to go door knocking to help someone who gets donations by the oil industry and the National party. Good fucking riddance I say

  14. cricklewood 14
    22 April 2014 at 6:34 pm

    Im going to say he will be sorely missed. Whilst politicly he was on the right side of labour His ability to communicate through and on mainstream media has been second to none recently. He was about the only front bench mp getting positive coverage for labour in the last couple of months and will leave a void not easily filled in this area. The timing is also terrible feeds right into the labour is in disarray meme.

    • Paul 14.1
      22 April 2014 at 6:41 pm

      He was able to communicate with the media because powerful people allowed that to happen. These things don’t happen by accident.
      His departure may have also been timed for maximum disruption.
      Important folk need National to win this election.
      Do not be naive.
      Don’t discount dirty tricks.
      The Hollow Men.

      • Tracey 14.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 6:45 pm

        make the collins thing go away for good?

        • Will@Welly 14.1.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 7:11 pm

          Yes, the timing is perfect. Collins was becoming the noose around John Key’s neck. What a fabulous distraction. Watch Collins slide away for a few weeks.

        • newsense 14.1.1.2
          23 April 2014 at 11:11 pm

          between the Herald cartoon toady (mistyped today, but left it as it was apt on a couple of fronts) and the Armstrong today…there is a new concerted push to call what’s happening to poor Judith a witch hunt. A week or so ago the call was to try to rehabilitate the ‘Crusher’ moniker.

          Anyway, we’ll see what will happen there.

      • cricklewood 14.1.2
        22 April 2014 at 6:46 pm

        Excepting that when he spoke he was able to appeal a large cross section of society. He has a rare talent in terms of his public speaking ability the way he switches from te reo to english etc. This skill will be missed.

        • Tracey 14.1.2.1
          22 April 2014 at 6:52 pm

          no. kelvin davis will fill this gap

          • cricklewood 14.1.2.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 7:00 pm

            In time but he is at this point fairly unknown. Timing is crap for Labour

            • felix 14.1.2.1.1.1
              22 April 2014 at 7:16 pm

              Jones is only known for rubbing one out in a hotel, I doubt most people have ever heard much else about him.

              As for being the great communicator, don’t make me laugh. Word-count isn’t communication.

              The man is an arse. He was always more at home with the National Party and he should’ve gone a long time ago.

              • Murray Olsen …
                23 April 2014 at 1:44 am

                Pretty much my views on him too, Felix. He could talk for a long time because he loves the sound of his own voice. He throws in a bit of Te Reo now and then so pakeha will be scared of accusations of racism if they criticise him. He’s been one of National’s best assets for years.

                Now we need Mallard and Goff to follow him. Can McCully please sort out jobs for them as well?

                • felix …
                  23 April 2014 at 8:11 am

                  “He could talk for a long time because he loves the sound of his own voice. He throws in a bit of Te Reo now and then so pakeha will be scared of accusations of racism if they criticise him.”

                  That’s it in a nutshell.

    • Tracey 14.2
      22 April 2014 at 6:43 pm

      ask yourself why the msm gave him a platform

    • phillip ure 14.3
      22 April 2014 at 6:45 pm

      @ cricklewood..

      i disagree..any other competent mp cn take up that supermarket-duopoly cudgel..

      ..and jones was the cause/source of much of the ‘disarray’..

      ..and he got so much media..

      ..’cos the media were all over him like flies on shit…

      ..jonesing for his next anti-green sneer..

      ..so he will get his five exit-minutes..

      ..then he can clatter off to well-deserved obscurity/undeserved-troughing..

      • cricklewood 14.3.1
        22 April 2014 at 7:04 pm

        I guess time will tell but im not filled with confidence that the ball will be picked up… and run with with the same vigour. Ill bet it disappears off the radar until well after the election.

  15. Hamish 15
    22 April 2014 at 6:34 pm

    Jones is impotent.

    [lprent: At least attempt to formulate an argument. ]

    • Hamish 15.1
      22 April 2014 at 7:22 pm

      Sorry.

      Shane Jones is politically impotent in the Labour party. There is no way forward for him under the new management. So it was just a matter of time until he gave up.

  16. Ad 16
    22 April 2014 at 6:38 pm

    Huge loss, made the only decent hits against government in last four months.
    Labour needs another Blue Dog replacement.

    Still if he’s on to a better gig, he’ll be great to tap for donations.

  17. newsense 17
    22 April 2014 at 6:40 pm

    Odd behaviour just before an election where you are ranked in the top 5 on a party list. Will be interesting to see how the public judge this one. We do know he couldn’t have been Kim Dotcom’s MP.

    It will be interesting to follow his future behaviour. It hasn’t always been that of someone bigger than the party, but this decision is. Or perhaps, if he’d been in discussions with Murray McCully why there was some mistrust. A real ambivalence- had been working hard for Labour, but in talks with a National minister.

    • Tracey 17.1
      22 April 2014 at 6:44 pm

      interesting @ kim dotcom

    • Paul 17.2
      22 April 2014 at 6:46 pm

      Not odd if this was done in cahoots with powerful corporate interests.

      • newsense 17.2.1
        22 April 2014 at 7:03 pm

        It’s odd- I still am not really sure of what to make of Jones as a person. Or to make of the donation by Wira Gardiner, very odd. Not a substantial donation, but an odd one to a political opponent. Need to watch Native Affairs more- hopeful they can explain what is going on!

        • Paul 17.2.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 7:10 pm

          Remember NZ is a plutocracy.

          • newsense 17.2.1.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 9:59 pm

            Yeh. Hmm. Need to read someone much smarter than me about who’s in and who’s out. Definitely one of the tribal and business elites, but stuck with Labour a long while, though he didn’t make much headway until the leadership contest…Really curious about what his motivations were at any given time.

            • karol 17.2.1.1.1.1
              22 April 2014 at 10:10 pm

              It was a surprise when he stood for the leadership… but then, we now learn who his financial backers were.

              • Clemgeopin …
                22 April 2014 at 10:18 pm

                From this evening, every time I think of Jones, I think of Judas. What a shame.

              • newsense …
                22 April 2014 at 10:30 pm

                but it’s not a big donation. And surely Jones isn’t short of money. So is it symbolic? Did he assume it wouldn’t come out? Did he assume it would come out? It seems that it was a surprise to Key or that Key is simply a fantastic actor who should consider a career the reverse of Ronald Regan…

              • TightyRighty …
                23 April 2014 at 10:34 am

                as opposed to not knowing who the backers of the guy who won are? at least one of them is a big money corporate bankster, who are the rest?

                • Not Petey …
                  23 April 2014 at 10:41 am

                  Karol seems to be jumping between a committed Green voter and full on apologist for the Labour party and vilifier of anyone who leaves the fold… looks like the mask is slipping.

                  • karol …
                    23 April 2014 at 11:25 am

                    Wrong, Petey. I have been quite consistent over time. I have always been critical of the influence of the right wing within Labour. It’s one of the reasons I stopped voting for Labour. I’m am not committed to any party long term. I vote on their performance, valeus and policies. I am more of a committed leftie than anything.

                    I have always been more supportive of Cunliffe than Shearer. Cunliffe is my electorate MP and I have voted for him there in the last few elections, while also voting Green Party.

                    I have been critical of Jones for a long time – especially for his right wing views, his support of mining, his attacks on the Greens, and his misogynistic statements.

                    His leaving Labour is no loss to the wider left, IMO.

                    Try sticking to the issues, rather than making it about me with your ad hominems.

              • Once was Pete …
                23 April 2014 at 11:19 am

                Thats right we do know his backers. We don’t know the backers of some other politicians.

  18. Rogue Trooper 18
    22 April 2014 at 6:42 pm

    ahhhh huhhh…deep sigh. Just an average player like Benji.

    • Ad 18.1
      22 April 2014 at 6:57 pm

      … To a more important code, and will do more for NZ inside Foreign Affairs than in politics per se.

      Simon Power is a whole heap more powerful at Westpac than as Minister, with no media scrutiny whatsoever. Enjoy the marlin steaks Shane, you did good, and will do better.

  19. Monty 19
    22 April 2014 at 6:48 pm

    I think this is so interesting on so many fronts.
    I see in the reports on the herald that Shane jones will stand down at the end of next month. So therefore likely that kelvin Davis will step Into the fold. From the position of being in parliament hopefully he can put up a great fight and send Hone to the job queue. I am sure that many northland Maori do like like the Hone politics of hate, and would be quite happy to be represented by Klevin davis.

    But Shane leaving will leave a gap in Labour that will be hard to fill. I believe the cost will be another couple of % points lost in the polls.

  20. Vic 20
    22 April 2014 at 6:49 pm

    I dont think this is good for National though more like “look at the pack of crooks who should resign but hiding within that tainted party Judith Crooklins “.Thats how the average person will look at it.

  21. Tigger 21
    22 April 2014 at 6:56 pm

    Good news – Davis is very solid and good for him to be an MP for elections later this year.

    Husband thinks Jones used his Collins dirt to get the job. But if it’s the same dirt(s) that many of us know I don’t see how – blackmail only works with secret info and there’s lots of open secrets about Collins and her sketchy dealings.

    • Paul 21.1
      22 April 2014 at 7:06 pm

      Simpler than that.
      Corporates sponsored his leadership bid and fed him stories to raise his profile.
      All to destabilise Labour and make Cunliffe look bad, so the Nats will win the election.
      Think it went wrong went his sources of income became apparent.
      His get out clause ..a job organised with Murray McCully.
      Fishy…

  22. dave_1924 22
    22 April 2014 at 7:15 pm

    Did he really jump or was he pushed by Matt McCarten – genuine question.
    I thought Jones was important to Labour as a voice for a slightly different point of view and that would help in Labour policy formulation – groupthink being a sure receipe for disaster in many fields. i also understood he had the ear of senior Maori in Northland……

    Be interesting to watch this play out – though judging on the voices heard here is generally good night and good riddance. howevr the colalteral damage in the eyes of the undecided vote might well be – what the …. Labour are killing each other…

    • karol 22.1
      22 April 2014 at 7:21 pm

      Group think? Good to hear Labour has such a united caucus!

      • dave_1924 22.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 8:05 pm

        Indeed Karol unity is good – but you know what I am getting at driving out different opinions can easily lead to stuffed policy formulation. It pays to at listen to a different view, even if you subsequently ignore or disregard it, just to see the hole sin your thinking…

        • karol 22.1.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 8:14 pm

          I do think labor needs more diversity of views, and more strong champions of the working class and of beneficiaries and Maori- Pacific people, especially in the senior positions. But I don’t think Jones is it.

          • FredFrog 22.1.1.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 9:34 pm

            Labour just needs some champions of the working class. Currently they have none.

            • mickysavage 22.1.1.1.1.1
              22 April 2014 at 9:38 pm

              Wow a new commenter with a green friendly name lecturing the Labour Party on the working class. Who would have thunk it?

              • Reid …
                22 April 2014 at 10:17 pm

                Maybe cause you don’t appear to be doing so well with them in the last say, 11 years, Fred kindly thought a bit of advice might be useful micky. I mean it’s not as if current tactics are producing results, is it.

              • FredFrog …
                23 April 2014 at 12:48 am

                Yeah, and doing a better job of it than a hack lawyer, too.

    • Ad 22.2
      22 April 2014 at 7:22 pm

      No it’s of his own volition.

      The jump is an open invitation for any one caucus player to step up. The Economic Developnent and Fisheries portfolios are in play. Tonight.

      • karol 22.2.1
        22 April 2014 at 7:35 pm

        Ah, yes. I always thought Jones was a bit of a misfit in the economic development role.

        • Ad 22.2.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 7:43 pm

          Political impact is more media and political space for Norman and Peters – Cunliffe is already stretched covering for his weak bench.

          • newsense 22.2.1.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 10:53 pm

            Or a chance for some newly promoted talent to get stuck in

            • Colonial Viper 22.2.1.1.1.1
              22 April 2014 at 11:01 pm

              What new talent are you referring to?

              • newsense …
                23 April 2014 at 12:40 am

                Cosgrove, Clark, Hipkins, Lees-Galloway, Twyford, King, Mahuta….

                You’re right though- none of those guys would seem to be able to carry the load Shane has been pulling…

                • Colonial Viper …
                  23 April 2014 at 8:46 am

                  I’m not sure that “new talent” is the correct way to describe MPs who have been there for 3, 4, 5, 6 terms…

  23. Pete 23
    22 April 2014 at 7:17 pm

    Probably the best move for Jones. He gets to go on his terms, when the donation he received undermined his position completely. He will be full of his usual bluster when asked about that issue, but anyone can connect the dots.

    Whether Labour in general can capitalise on this remains to be seen, but it does give the party some precious media oxygen over the next 24 hours. Maybe even into the weekend papers and political shows – assuming Anzac coverage doesn’t overwhelm everything.

  24. Ennui 24
    22 April 2014 at 7:19 pm

    Lets face it Jones was dead meat as a possible leader since the hand shandy blue movie incident did not have a happy ending. Working for the Nats , well that sort of confirms the moniker which goes with that predilection.

    • Wensleydale 24.1
      22 April 2014 at 8:21 pm

      At least he’ll be in good company with all the other wankers.

      hah! slaps thigh

  25. Te Reo Putake 25
    22 April 2014 at 7:31 pm

    The biggest loser here is Winston Peters. There goes the succession plan.

    • Ad 25.1
      22 April 2014 at 7:51 pm

      Whats your logic? Peters needs no successor for 3 more terms. That NZ ageing voter pool is big and getting massive. And he’s half Mandela half Mugabe, both running strong into their seventh decade.

  26. Jimmie 26
    22 April 2014 at 7:32 pm

    The biggest conundrum for the left to ponder is this: Jones is reported to be leaving Labour and Parliament for a cushy government job of some sort.

    Now if he thought that there was any chance of Labour winning in September why would he do this?

    Surely the first thing David Cunliffe would do on Sept 21 is seek utu and sack Jones? Five months in a cushy job isn’t much chop.

    The only conclusion that can be made from his decision is that Jones has concluded that Labour has no hope of winning this year with enough certainty that he is willing to stake his future career on this.

    That needs to ring some ding dong bells in Labour – this is one of their most senior MP’s throwing in the towel – Labour sitting in late 20’s in the polls, greens snapping at their heels……not a good look.

    • Paul 26.1
      22 April 2014 at 7:34 pm

      It’s great the right wing really want to help by offering so much advice.

      • FredFrog 26.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 9:32 pm

        Maybe the right wants a decent opposition instead of the broken-down has-beens and never-weres that inhabit the grebour chorus…..uh, concourse……..uh caucus

      • TightyRighty 26.1.2
        23 April 2014 at 10:41 am

        so anyone who offers insight from the party line is a concern troll? believe me, as i’m not concerned at all, that some of the advice being rejected is little more than commonsense.

        • Hanswurst 26.1.2.1
          23 April 2014 at 12:08 pm

          Your “common sense” is basically: 1. “I think National will win.”; 2. “Therefore, Labour might have a better chance of winning if it were exactly like National.”

          You might forgive people of a leftist bent for seeing any such “victory” as a massive defeat.

          • FredFrog 26.1.2.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 4:42 pm

            I’d call people of a leftist bent bloody idiots. More people in the country support National than any other party, so unless you embrace the cente and try so sneak a few choice left bits of legislation past, you of the leftists bent will always stare defeat in the face.

            The majority of the votes are in the centre. For any party to have a hope of running the country, those are the votes they need attract. Comrade Auntie understood this, hence her student loan and WFF election bribes. Lurching to the left will not accomplish this. Cuddling up to the completely insane left will especially not accomplish this.

            Credit where credit is due. When labour actually stood for the working man, they accomplished wonders, and changed the world – We no longer have poor workers in the mills lorded over by oppressive capitalists for tuppence a day. We have paid holidays. We have access to education. The world has changed. the problem for left is that they haven’t – they’re still fighting a “class war” that no longer exists, as they fail to understand that humans are not products of a cookie cutter. Some will sink, others will rise. In this day, labour and the left are becoming increasingly irrelevant, championing minority issues that the man in the street wasn’t aware of, and couldn’t care less about.

            So, Greg P., that advice you’re giving your dear leader – most of it is useless, and gets you nowhere except lower in the polls, because it’s all about the snapper, stupid.

    • anker 26.2
      22 April 2014 at 9:35 pm

      equally possible Jones is leaving because he thinks Labour/Greens will get in and then he has no shot at the leadership.

    • felix 26.3
      23 April 2014 at 4:59 am

      Oh fuck off Jimmie.

      Jones has spent the last year sabotaging Labour’s relationship with their only certain governing partner.

      He’s a deadbeat scumbag MP with a long track record of doing nothing but ponce around bigging himself up and who many, many people said was in the wrong party all along.

  27. lprent 27
    22 April 2014 at 7:33 pm

    Why does this not surprise me?

    Well you could look at the conclusion of my post from 2012 when I’d finally (after 5 years) gotten pissed off with Shane Jones disrupting the Labour caucus every time that they’d managed to get it together.

    Shane Jones: now pimping for Sealords

    Could someone inside Labour please tell this idiot to stop looking at his future job prospects outside of the caucus and to do his damn job without making it harder for everyone else on the left. He already has been involved in one issue this year and is currently stood down from the shadow cabinet while the Auditor General looks at the Yan immigration.

    The issue that Greenpeace raised was in my view completely legitimate and Shane Jones did absolutely nothing to address anything raised in the video because he appears to not understand the issue.

    Having Shane Jones prancing around making a complete fucking wanker of himself might be a good distraction for the beleagured National. But could the Labour party please please put someone up who has actually taken the time to look at the problem from beyond a balance sheet. If you cannot, then perhaps you should cede the portfolio to the Greens?

    Basically he was a liability for Labour if only because he always dropped his wee bombshells into the public debate when ever Labour was starting to get ahead.

    Sure he is a great orator. But he was a useless politician for the Labour party. Not because of his views. But because he could never stop waving his dick around at the wrong times.

    • karol 27.1
      22 April 2014 at 7:42 pm

      Ha! Interesting looking back on that post.

      And Bradbury reckons there have been rumours. that the Bill Liu case could still have been a problem for Jones.

      …my personal fear with Jones was always that at some stage (probably 2 weeks out from the election) some nasty right wing blog would leak some of the rumours that were always swirling around Jones over the Bill Liu case. With Jones leaving, he’s National’s problem now.

      • lprent 27.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 7:54 pm

        Yeah. There were a number of other posts from various authors over the years and some quite irritated commentary.

        BTW: Fixed the markup in the post. I’m going to have to look at why the new visual editor in wordpress 3.9 is such a pain over the next few days..

        • karol 27.1.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 7:58 pm

          I’m not sure what you fixed, but I have had some formatting problems. I saw you had taken over editing. Had left the edit file open after updating.

          • lprent 27.1.1.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 8:02 pm

            There were differing fonts coming over from the quoted test. I could see them onscreen. There was quite a lot of HTML in the “text” view with spans for the fonts and text sizes everywhere.

            That used to mostly get stripped during the paste operation in the backend of the editor.

            Not an issue for authors. Just a post-wordpress-update issue for me to look at.

            • karol 27.1.1.1.1.1
              22 April 2014 at 8:12 pm

              OK. yes. That thing with fonts is one of the issues I’ve had. There’s less options for correcting it using the visual editor than there used to be. And when I looked to the Text version, I did see a long mess of code that caused me to just close the text editor and go back to visual.

              In previous posts I’d corrected it by copying a word document, and changing the fort there. Then copying it back into the post.

    • Ad 27.2
      22 April 2014 at 7:59 pm

      Labour needs more dick waving not less. His bon mots have more cut-through than Labour’s bottom 15 MPs. We knew what he stood for. Jobs. Used to be what Labour stood for. Labour sounds currently like standing up for everything; result: nothing.

      • Not Petey 27.2.1
        22 April 2014 at 8:01 pm

        “Labour needs more dick waving not less.”

        Perhaps they should call Darren Hughes back ?

      • lprent 27.2.2
        22 April 2014 at 8:12 pm

        Labour needs more dick waving not less.

        Yes and no. Need more dickwaving – yes.

        Needs to be synchronised dick waving. Not just one dick shooting the team to pieces. That is a no-no. Unfortunately that is what Shane Jones is more known for than his occasional flashes of brilliance.

        For instance the slow dismemberment of Judith Collins has been a pretty good team effort across a number of parties.

        But hey when that starts to happen, then we know what diskhead will blow it all away eh? Shane Jones splatters the media again with an irrelevancy.

        Hopefully this will be the last time.

        😈

        • Ad 27.2.2.1
          22 April 2014 at 8:25 pm

          Ok you need to withdraw and apologise for putting “synchronised dick waving” into public discourse. 🙂

          • lprent 27.2.2.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 8:38 pm

            Yeah. Great image….. I’m sure I will get some feedback about that

            But I mean how can one respond to ““Mutually consenting” dick waving”.

            🙂

      • greywarbler 27.2.3
        23 April 2014 at 12:23 pm

        Ad
        But that was a mixed message – about jobs and Jones. Because of the foreign workers on the boats and the apparent lack of encouragement for Maori to train and get the jobs. They really needed support and didn’t seem to get it from Sealord, for instance.

        So he gave the feeling of a go-ahead. But what jobs was he promoting? Perhaps you can enlarge on that.

    • felix 27.3
      23 April 2014 at 5:10 am

      “Basically he was a liability for Labour if only because he always dropped his wee bombshells into the public debate when ever Labour was starting to get ahead.”

      Surely a coincidence. We can have absolute faith that Jones wouldn’t be involved in any jiggery-pokery, especially now that we know McCully was involved.

  28. ffloyd 28
    22 April 2014 at 7:34 pm

    I think Jones was/is a very unsettling influence and if natz think they can corral him good luck with that. Jones is a political animal and he is there for Jones. He has an ego the size of a bouncy castle. Big sigh of relief. On what felicity

  29. Paul 29
    22 April 2014 at 7:40 pm

    Corrupt.
    A bought puppet.

    “Senior members of Labour were not aware of his decision to leave.
    Foreign Minister Murray McCully confirmed he had approached Mr Jones early in the year about a role focussing on economic development across the Pacific.
    He denied the role was created for Jones, saying he would have appointed somebody else if Jones declined.”

    • Wensleydale 29.1
      22 April 2014 at 8:29 pm

      And if you believe Murray McCully, you’ll believe Graham Norton is a heterosexual pig farmer from Glasgow.

      I thought Shane Jones was a bit of a knob to be honest. And I really believe the working class will see this for what it is — a grubby Judas throwing the few principles he had left in the bin, in exchange for a comfy chair and sack full of money. Given the timing, I suspect David Cunliffe is spending the rest of this evening inventing new swear words.

      • FredFrog 29.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 9:27 pm

        The working class are not labour supporters, so they will see this as nothing of the sort.

        • cardassian 29.1.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 9:22 am

          Funny. I drink at a workingmen’s club. With builders, mechanics, concrete cutters etc… Proper working class people. 90%+ of them support Labour. I’m one of the few that doesn’t. So I think you’re making crap up.

          • You_Fool 29.1.1.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 9:51 am

            It is the right’s new slogan – Labour is not working class, Jones was so therefore Jones leaving will lose more votes, somehow to National – you know that great working class party.

            • FredFrog 29.1.1.1.1.1
              23 April 2014 at 4:48 pm

              Define “working class”. You see, to me it’s someone who puts in time at the workplace, working hard, and taking home a salary.

              Are you trying to tell me that the 48% of the population who support National don’t work?

          • FredFrog 29.1.1.1.2
            23 April 2014 at 5:22 pm

            48% of the adult population support National. 28% support labour.

            Are you trying to say that only 28% of the adult population are workers?

            • One Anonymous Bloke 29.1.1.1.2.1
              23 April 2014 at 5:48 pm

              Adult population ≠ people who responded to an opinion poll.

              Adult population ≠ people who voted in 2011.

              Are you trying to say you’re so incompetent and/or ignorant of demographics and statistics that you would make such a stupid error?

              • FredFrog …
                23 April 2014 at 6:02 pm

                I’m well aware that adult population is not equal to poll results. However, the responses are close to what actually transpires.

                So, I’ll rephrase the question:

                Are you trying to say that less than half of the adult population are workers?

                And pose another:

                Are you trying to say you have only a single functioning brain cell, or did you deliberately misunderstand the gist if the question as originally phrased?

  30. Stuart Nash 30
    22 April 2014 at 7:42 pm

    Kelvin is a fantastic replacement and I think the vast majority acknowledge that he should have been there after the 2011 general election. The real loser in this scenario: Hone.!

    • Paul 30.1
      22 April 2014 at 7:45 pm

      Only if Labour is true to its socialist roots.

    • Shazzadude 30.2
      22 April 2014 at 7:55 pm

      You should’ve been there after the 2011 election as well.

    • the pigman 30.3
      22 April 2014 at 8:42 pm

      Awww Nashie, you’ve been hitting the good stuff early again I see…

      For better or worse, you are seen as reflecting the views of NZLP advisers/insiders. How cool is it to be crowing right now about blocking a left-wing party and potential coalition partner from entering parliament at no cost to the Left?

      Think about the OPTICS, isn’t that what people like you are supposed to do?

      • weka 30.3.1
        22 April 2014 at 9:29 pm

        “How cool is it to be crowing right now about blocking a left-wing party and potential coalition partner from entering parliament at no cost to the Left?”

        +1000

    • Jim Nald 30.4
      22 April 2014 at 9:18 pm

      Hone Key?

      Or do you see the Mana Party as ‘the enemy’?

      • the pigman 30.4.1
        22 April 2014 at 9:48 pm

        I blame the booze, (Hawkes Bay’s finest)
        we must learn to ignore
        the Nashing and tearing
        of his teeth and his claws.

    • North 30.5
      22 April 2014 at 9:30 pm

      Dream on Nashi Boy ! For one thing Old Shaney won’t be on the plane every Friday afternoon gnawing Hone’s ear off about how fabulous he Shaney is.

    • marty mars 30.6
      22 April 2014 at 9:40 pm

      We’ll see about davis – personally I don’t rate him as highly as the ‘vast majority’ that you claim – I think you’re dreaming if you think Hone is the real loser in the sliding away of one of labour’s recent leadership contenders – shit what would have happened if he had won?

    • Paul 30.7
      22 April 2014 at 10:28 pm

      You need Hone.
      Do you have a brain?

      • Jim Nald 30.7.1
        22 April 2014 at 10:46 pm

        Someone should point out to Mr Stuart Nash that the current leader of his party had campaigned with the Mana Party in the lead up to the 2011 General Election.

        Mr Nash should try to keep up.

    • Will@Welly 30.8
      22 April 2014 at 11:19 pm

      Do us all a favour Stuart and go back to school, and learn about MMP. While I agree Kelvin Davis is a great choice to replace Shane, and should never have been so low down on the list, this time I would give the “nod and wink” to Mana, and let them have the seat, in the hope that Annette Sykes can unseat Te Ururoa Flavell and add to the left. Strategy Mr. Nash, it ain’t First Past the Post. Whether you like it or not, it is about building coalition partners.

  31. Paul 31
    22 April 2014 at 7:42 pm

    Now a deal may be possible.

    “Jones missed out on Labour’s leadership in last year’s run-off and has set himself up as the party’s strongest critics of a deal with the Greens this year.”

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9966660/Shane-Jones-to-quit-Labour

  32. Clemgeopin 32
    22 April 2014 at 7:47 pm

    I feel quite sad he will be leaving Labour, but I am also glad he is.

    Sad because he could have been a more loyal member and done good to the party, but unfortunately some of his actions and statements did a lot of damage to the party in subtle ways. The least of which was his porno tapes, not because he watched them, but because he used tax payer’s money to do that. Sure, he paid it back after the fact, but the damage was already done to himself and to the party by then. I am not sure he was fully loyal to the elected leader, which is a duty and an essential ingredient for the party’s success. May be he was, but he did not show it well enough or sincerely in his interviews and statements, in my opinion. The revelation today that he accepted money from the mining/oil interests as well as from the the National block, the enemy, for his Labour leadership contest is such a shame and belies common sense and sense of propriety. That is very awkward and damaging to himself and to Labour. His public attacks on the Greens was very unhelpful too to Labour, the Greens and the left block which is trying to win the election from the untrustworthy crooked right wing. The fact that he has been working secretly with Key and McCully for weeks or months for this new ‘fisheries’ job is another black mark for him, in my book. I am sure one of the motivations for Key and McCully would have been to destabilise Labour and its leadership before the election. Seems to me Jones, willingly or unwittingly, has been a party to this.

    For the above sad reasons, I am glad he is out of Labour. Like Tau Henare, he is better suited in National or the right wing politics. His leaving might do some harm to Labour, but that is politics, often dictated by some individual’s behaviour and shenanigans.

    In the meantime, it is better for Labour to keep its head held high with integrity, honour and a sense of purpose, concentrating on good policies for the good of the nation in the long term.

    I am sad that his worthy fight against the price gauging super powerful supermarket gangs has been an unfinished business. I wonder if THEY had a hand in getting rid of him!

  33. Not Petey 33
    22 April 2014 at 8:03 pm

    Hahahahah

    What a pack of fucking muppets Labour and the Standard if you lot are the best of the ‘left’ in NZ we’re stuffed for the next couple of terms for a decent opposition to keep the Nats in line.

  34. Philj 34
    22 April 2014 at 8:05 pm

    xox
    My theory is Cunliffe/McCarten whispered in his ear that he toe the line, or take a hike. Mc Cully whispered in his other rear.
    I say Jones was always a talented liability, who was in the wrong party. Maybe Maori, Nats or Act.

  35. Jim 35
    22 April 2014 at 8:11 pm

    Shane Jones will be missed in the Labour Party. It was good when attending the Wellington forum for the Labour leadership last year to see Shane speaking with out notes and reminding us all that the routes of the labour movement in New Zealand where in the working class and in mines in particular. Shane also represented Maori issues and the Maori caucus well. Shane does not represent many things that the modern day Labour Party stands for, but does represent many of the views within the party membership including myself.

    • millsy 35.1
      22 April 2014 at 11:12 pm

      What sort of views?

      • greywarbler 35.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 12:44 pm

        Jim’s views would no doubt be nostalgic and wishful.
        His views would tend to the general – on the Role-Related Positions in the Handy Guide to Public Policy Proposals Jim would probably be:
        a Counteracting Conservative with a View of present and future being of – Crime, centralisation and crumbling civilisation with
        Future proposals for Law, order, soap, haircuts, Truth and Morality.
        (Michael Marien)

  36. Philj 36
    22 April 2014 at 8:18 pm

    xox
    NZ Oil and Gas, and Wiri Gardner funds his leadership bid? ? Which corporates backed Parker and Cunliffe? Labour has to be seriously question about its integrity and relevance.

    • Ad 36.1
      22 April 2014 at 8:27 pm

      Try campaigning with cake stalls. Purity sucks big time.

      • Ergo Robertina 36.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 8:51 pm

        Without principles there is nothing to campaign for.
        There is a growing adulation it seems on the New Zealand left for the United States and its cynical politics, fundraising, campaigning; many have spent time over there.
        It should be the very model to avoid.

        • Ad 36.1.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 9:01 pm

          God I wish you were right.
          Virtue is taking a while to make its comeback shall we say.
          There’s an interesting new study outlined in Salon about how much more effective big corporate lobbying money is compared to grassroots campaigns when changing law. Wish it weren’t so, but Les Mills donating to the Greens is a stronger media-market signal than granny’s $2.00 cake.

          • Colonial Viper 36.1.1.1.1
            22 April 2014 at 10:44 pm

            Labour should be receiving thousand dollar donations from NZ owned small business and medium sized enterprises.

            Not going after multinational corporate money.

            • TightyRighty 36.1.1.1.1.1
              23 April 2014 at 11:35 am

              why would nz owned small businesses take $1000 out of the small amount of money they make each to give to a party that views trade with aristocratic disdain?

            • FredFrog 36.1.1.1.1.2
              23 April 2014 at 4:57 pm

              Except that labour regard small business owners, as they regard all other business owners, with absolute disdain.

              They’d probably raise more money with a cake stall than by trying to go that route.

          • Colonial Viper 36.1.1.1.2
            22 April 2014 at 10:47 pm

            There’s an interesting new study outlined in Salon about how much more effective big corporate lobbying money is compared to grassroots campaigns when changing law. Wish it weren’t so

            That’s what happens when you remove all limits on campaign financing so that only billionaire sponsors have any effective say.

            In essence, the politicians just end up serving their oligarchic patrons.

          • greywarbler 36.1.1.1.3
            23 April 2014 at 12:59 pm

            The ‘health’ bureaucracy have stepped in and created a barrier for cake-stall fundraising with things cooked at home, even inoffensive things like cakes and probably pickles, sauces, jams. They have to be prepared in approved kitchens, even though there is little chance of food-borne illnesses occurring in non-meat, egg, protein food.

            The larger businesses complained that it wasn’t fair to them who have to comply with such stringent standards (and recall foods bottled in glass when slivers are found or perhaps particles of steel from the machines. There are a range of things that can turn up in foodstuffs and which might cause a throw-up. In the old Griffins, someone cut off their thumb and it went through the system emerging as a wrapped sweet. Now they make their biscuits in Fiji not Auckland so the sweetmeat might be Island-flavoured.)

            • Ergo Robertina 36.1.1.1.3.1
              23 April 2014 at 11:34 pm

              Yup, exactly. Meanwhile, the food regulations that are essential for a healthy population not dessicated by a highly processed diet will never happen because the food lobby’s too powerful.

  37. Redbaiter 37
    22 April 2014 at 8:39 pm

    The Greens, the lawyers, and the far left academic faction own Labour now. There’s nothing there for the working man.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 37.1
      23 April 2014 at 9:29 am

      That explains the support of the affiliates and the doubling of the membership.

      • You_Fool 37.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 9:54 am

        Apparently that was all to do with Shane Jones and nothing to do with Cunliffe, you know the guy that the ordinary members voted overwhelmingly in favour for in the leadership contest last year.

  38. Bob 38
    22 April 2014 at 8:40 pm

    What puzzles me is why he is getting out so quick. The normal thing is to wait until the election and just not stand again like say Tony Ryall. He is obviously fed up with Labour unless there is personal antagonism.

    My guess is all is not well in Labour ranks. Where does Wira Gardener fit in? Did he know something when he made that donation?

    • karol 38.1
      22 April 2014 at 8:43 pm

      Taking funding from an opposition party minister’s husband, colluding with the opposing party over a job….. pretty much a traitor to his party, don’t you think? How could he stay after that was revealed?

      • Clemgeopin 38.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 9:09 pm

        I thnk that if Jones had even an iota of true loyalty to the Labour party and its success at the next election, he would have remained in the party until the election and worked hard for it’s electoral success. His newly and specially created job could surely wait for another five months. In my opinion, it is all a nasty right wing dirty conspiracy to destabilise and damage Labour.
        Hopefully, the ordinary voters, the fair minded good Kiwis will see through these dirty tricks.

        • Paul 38.1.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 9:31 pm

          +1

        • The Lone Haranguer 38.1.1.2
          23 April 2014 at 9:40 am

          Yes it looks like a bunch of dirty tricks, and lets be honest here, Labour and Jones are both the losers.

          Jones couldnt stay on in Labour given hes a Nats stool pigeon. Bought for one thousand dollars of gold – cheap at twice the price!.

          I can assure you that the “ordinary voters, the fair minded good Kiwis” that you hope will see thru the dirty tricks”, will not actually give a toss. Its only tragics on here (myself included) who actually think about that stuff.

      • Colonial Viper 38.1.2
        22 April 2014 at 10:48 pm

        How could he stay after that was revealed?

        Easily. By saying that he wouldn’t be standing at the next election. Or do you think that the moral shame was too much for Shane Jones so he chose to fall on his sword immediately?

        That’s very unlikely.

        • karol 38.1.2.1
          23 April 2014 at 7:52 am

          Although, once the story of his Nat-linked support was in public, he would have become a target for right wingers and the media as a weak link for Labour. That, with his unpredicatable tendency to score own goals for Labour, mean he would have been a liability going in to the election.

      • Once was Pete 38.1.3
        23 April 2014 at 11:33 am

        Since Jones revealed it, he must have been definite in his decision to leave.

        • karol 38.1.3.1
          23 April 2014 at 11:42 am

          He had already been talking about leaving Labour and had talked to both Cunliffe and Moira Coatsworth about it. The final decision was pretty hasty.

          It’s still a question of did he jump or was he pushed? He could have resigned without mentioning who his leadership backers were. So why did he make that announcement? Often such announcements are made when someone else has threatened to make the information public.

          • lprent 38.1.3.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 1:18 pm

            He had to declare into some transparency documents for parliament in the near future. The limit for anonymous donations was $500. So he released it early.

            It was in one of the reports on it yesterday morning – Claire Trevetts ?

            More transparency in parliament about donations etc appears to be working. Looks to me like we need some more of it and more frequent. After all, the donations were from last year – september/october?

    • RedBaronCV 38.2
      22 April 2014 at 9:22 pm

      Taking the heat off Judith Collins

  39. Debsisdead 39
    22 April 2014 at 8:47 pm

    Just as well the party effected by this is one I considered voting for no more than an instant after Cunliffe took office and made his predictable tango to the right.

    The Labour Party has been set up and Shane Jones has been set up and there isn’t much anyone can do to alleviate the damage.

    It is pretty bloody obvious that the natz are concerned at the inroads Jones’ own brand of redneckism has been making into what they consider their electorate – white middle aged working men, so they released the dual edged sword of the Wira Gardner donation.

    Only Jones is both egotistical enough and silly enough to think that Wira’s koha wasn’t coated in fishooks.
    By letting that cat out of the bag the Natz signaled to Jones that they were prepared to uncover a few more bodies of, how shall I put it, more incriminating Jones’ activities.
    The other edge of this sword is that it gives the Natz ammo to insinuate it was Cunliffe who shoved Jones out because of his alarum at the Jones tory lite impersonation being ‘ideologically impure’ when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Cunliffe doesn’t care why people vote for his party as long as they vote for it ..and of course he is the leader.

    That won’t stop whale slime et al from alleging it though.

    I would be more concerned were it not for the sad reality that picking between Key & Cunliffe is akin to choosing between Tweedledum & Tweedledee.

  40. dv 40
    22 April 2014 at 8:47 pm

    Just a thought
    the Nats saw Jones a a risk to their reelection so they bought him out?

  41. Paul 41
    22 April 2014 at 9:05 pm

    Shock.Horror!
    It wasn’t much of a secret that Jones held his Labour colleagues in contempt. Jones jumping to new role makes perfect sense, and he had put out feelers for some time.
    No doubt right wingers will be thrilled at Jones apparently jumping a sinking ship, but Kelvin Davis is a formidable politician, and I think Labour have gained.

  42. Stuart Munro 42
    22 April 2014 at 9:06 pm

    The best thing is that he went sensibly, and early. If he’d waited two months to maximise damage that would’ve been pretty bad.

    Someone maybe ought to take a serious look at what McCully is funding btw – I’m not sure Jones is a poster boy for the kind of artisanal sustainable fisheries development the smaller pacific nations ought to be contemplating.

    NZ really ought to be fishing a bit better too. We have an industry that employs and returns approximately 1% of what the Japanese industry employs and returns. Japan is relevant because they have a similar or slightly smaller temporate littoral area. We should not of course do everything that they do, cetacean fisheries for example, but 1%? We can actually do a little better than that.

    • Jim 42.1
      22 April 2014 at 9:42 pm

      That Jones is leaving now is probably timing dictated by the Nats. Makes you wonder how the Collins/ Key saga in parliament and the open rumors of more to come are being perceived by Key. We need to go after Collins /Key even harder once parliament resumes.

  43. North 43
    22 April 2014 at 9:19 pm

    The self-serving waha’ Shaney-Boy goin’ home what ? Good riddance ! Any bets he pops up in a choice spot on the National List in 2017 ? A literate replacement for that other slug Ray Henry of the Union.

  44. the pigman 44
    22 April 2014 at 9:40 pm

    Whilst I’m pleased to see his commodious posterior exiting via the egress, I’m not sure the timing of the announcement is great, apparently leaked out of Murray McCully’s office for the 6pm headlines and totally blindsiding Labour (including Cunliffe and Jones himself) comment-wise. I think there is a story in itself about how this story unfolded.

    That alone should be raising red flags to Shane about his new (old) masters..

    • karol 44.1
      22 April 2014 at 9:45 pm

      How do you know it was leaked by McCully’s office?

      • the pigman 44.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 9:50 pm

        Sorry, said “apparently” but perhaps “seemingly” is more appropriate? I don’t want Pete George stinking out the room again..

        It sure as fuck didn’t come from Labour, did it?

      • Paul 44.1.2
        22 April 2014 at 10:13 pm

        The whole story stinks of powerful manipulating democracy.

  45. fisiani 45
    22 April 2014 at 10:18 pm

    Shane Jones
    Winners – Shane, National, Kelvin Davis,
    Losers -The Cunliife , Labour, Hone

    The Left Right Axis in Labour has shifted from 10-55 to 10-50 therefore totally unelectable.

    • Paul 45.1
      22 April 2014 at 10:31 pm

      What’s with these nonsensical made up numbers you have generated?

      • McFlock 45.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 10:39 pm

        tories often think that arbitrary slide-rules substitute for actual knowledge about complex things.

        • Paul 45.1.1.1
          22 April 2014 at 10:51 pm

          These guys aren’t Tories.,..they’re not old school conservative..their views seem to lack any empathy towards people in need.
          Almost psychopathic.

  46. Redzone 46
    22 April 2014 at 10:32 pm

    Jones was only ever about, well… jones. Labour are better without him. I’d say Mcarten told him it was FIFO and the nat donation was the last straw. Good he has gone and there’s some other neo lib dead wood that should bugger off too.
    Davis is bloody sound and has great potential. Good (re) gain.

    Oh and don’t worry – Collins will keep. Her horror vida isn’t over yet

  47. karol 47
    22 April 2014 at 10:43 pm

    Cunliffe talking about it now on Henry show on TV3,

    Says he was told about Jones thinking of leaving at 10.00am this morning.
    They met at WAipu hotel and had fish and chips this arvo.

    Cunliffe doesn’t feel betrayed and doesn’t see it as a disaster. Cunliffe talking confident. Henry trying to destabilise him.

    Cunliffe is talking up Shane’s contribution to Labour. He respects Shane’s decision. Cunliffe acknowledged National may have had a hand in getting Jones to stand down.

    Something about the timing of when McCully learned about Jones’ decision – 9 o’clock… was it 9pm tonight?

    • karol 47.1
      22 April 2014 at 10:57 pm

      Trotter provided commentary – pretty much followng is Waitakere Man type line – blow to Labour’s morale. Jones had a big following in old style Labour people.

      But, Trotter didn’t mention that Jones didn’t score that highly in votes in the leadership contest as I recall. His oratory was well appreciated.

      • newsense 47.1.1
        22 April 2014 at 11:01 pm

        someone said overall they laughed at his speeches and language, but didn’t clap a lot. Good if you are a comedian, not so good if you are a politician.

    • fisiani 47.2
      22 April 2014 at 11:25 pm

      The Cunliffe is not even a good liar let alone actor/

      • Jim Nald 47.2.1
        22 April 2014 at 11:38 pm

        Natz are worried, they are very very worried.

        • fisiani 47.2.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 12:08 am

          Yup/ Very very worried so toasting the Jones boy all night. The once broad church is now just a cult.

      • scotty 47.2.2
        23 April 2014 at 7:53 am

        Yep Cunliffe’s a hopeless liar and actor.

        Two qualities Fisis’ idol – has in spades.

      • felix 47.2.3
        23 April 2014 at 8:06 am

        Cunliffe has no need to be either a good liar or actor.

        • Tinfoilhat 47.2.3.1
          23 April 2014 at 8:14 am

          Well he is neither a good liar nor a good actor, although no doubt he is trying his best to be both at the moment.

          I still find him even more smarmy and less trustworthy than Key and that astounds me. Still all good for the Greens hopefully more labour voters will migrate across.

      • Molly 47.2.4
        23 April 2014 at 9:15 am

        Yes, that’s what we look for in our elected representatives – superb liars and exceptional actors!

      • Clemgeopin 47.2.5
        23 April 2014 at 10:05 am

        I am glad he isn’t! What a great compliment you have just expressed about Mr Cunliffe.

  48. Not a PS Staffer 48
    22 April 2014 at 11:15 pm

    Jones has done the Labour Party a favour.

    The vast majority of women voters found him sleazy or creepy or misogynistic.

    I saw him at two of the leadership debates and thought he was a vainglorious arse.

    The Nats are welcome to him.

  49. fisiani 49
    22 April 2014 at 11:30 pm

    Shane Jones is a conscientious objector. Shame on those who call him a coward or a knave.

    • Jim Nald 49.1
      22 April 2014 at 11:51 pm

      🙄

      Umm …. Shame Jones was regarded by some as cynically attempting the spoiler effect during last year’s inaugural democratised party leadership contest.

      Now, it has become clear that a ‘paid-up Tory’ and Oil & Gas interest were his political patrons.

  50. Will@Welly 50
    22 April 2014 at 11:47 pm

    Need to sort out who will take over the Maori affairs portfolio. After the death of Parekura Horomia, almost one year ago, Shane Jones took over the role. Gee, what a leader he turned out to be.
    Perhaps after Shane’s packed up his office, and before he heads home, a stop-off at Tologa Bay might be appreciated, if only to apologize to the big fella. Now there was a man with mana – perhaps Shane found the shoes too big to fill.

    • Jim Nald 50.1
      22 April 2014 at 11:55 pm

      “perhaps Shane found the shoes too big to fill”

      Well, the shoes seldom had the opportunity of being tested as he would often fill his mouth with both his feet, after shooting at them bombastically and enthusiastically etc etc.

    • karol 50.2
      23 April 2014 at 7:55 am

      I thought Davis said on First Line this morning that he would be taking over as leader of the Maori caucus….?

  51. Charlieboy 51
    23 April 2014 at 12:18 am

    Jones has been a loose canon,a Kim Philby. The give away is the McCully job for services rendered. A cushy job in the National kremlin.

  52. Mike the Savage One 52
    23 April 2014 at 12:46 am

    Some votes lost, others potentially gained, no big drama, apart from perhaps a brief drop in polling support. Jones wanted to be leader, and he realised he never would be. He accepted donations from a National Party member and the oil industry to get the top job, but he now rather goes and works for the political “enemy”, as ultimately he loves a good salary more than political loyalty.

    Guess what Sean Plunket and the other right leaning talk back hosts and radio personalities will exploit to the maxx to morrow? It will be more endless Cunliffe and Labour bashing, I am afraid.

    This though may be a blessing in disguise, if Labour under Cunliffe finally get the message and courage. The leaning to the right and neo liberal third way kind of approach may finally find an end in NZ political history.

    Good luck, Shane Jones, do not forget to pick up the cheque at the paymaster’s office.

  53. pollywog 53
    23 April 2014 at 5:30 am

    Shane Jones – Pacific economic ambassador ?

    Yeah nah. There’s already enough self serving blowhards floating around without Jones.

    Couldn’t they make him Eastern European economic ambassador and send him to the Ukraine instead? …Please!

    • Clean_power 53.1
      23 April 2014 at 6:45 am

      No, unfortunately that post is already reserved for Darren Hughes.

      • Chooky 53.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 9:24 am

        lol….and may more follow….who is for Venezuela?…i think the older blonde plump one …friend of Roger… who is for Libya?…what about the mallard…?…after all Carter fled to Afghanistan….what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

  54. Harry Holland 54
    23 April 2014 at 6:57 am

    That’s a serious win for McCully. That will help them paint Labour into a trendy lefty corner. Could help NZ First a little maybe since Jones seemed to appeal to the same crowd as Winston. I wouldn’t rule out a return by Jones to politics one day, but not to Labour.

  55. phillip ure 55
    23 April 2014 at 7:15 am

    and i am sure it is just a coincidence that jones has just clicked over the nine-years-in-parl..

    ..why does this matter..?

    ..well..y’see..nine years is when the full/100% benefits from that eyewateringly generous superannuation scheme that mps voted in for themselves..

    ..that’s when that kicks in…

    ..serious-troughing..forever..

    ..is he grateful..?

    ..hell no..!

    ..jones is making a point of ending in/with bad grace..

    ..sneering..and putting his neck out looking down his nose..

    ..sell-out tory trout..

    • Tinfoilhat 55.1
      23 April 2014 at 8:08 am

      Is it only nine years phil?

      Gosh they really do look after themselves and each other don’t they regardless of whether they’re in labour or national.

      • phillip ure 55.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 8:22 am

        one of the few/rare times that all political parties agree on something..

        ..voting in their gold-plated super-scheme..

        ..and yep..!..jones is sweet-riding now..

        ..plus all those mining/oil/fishing-industry board positions/pay-offs..

        ..for his services rendered..

        ..they cd well make his super scheme look like peanuts..

        ..but hey..!..it’s always all been about shane..really…

        • phillip ure 55.1.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 10:18 am

          and it really was a beautiful-moment..when they all came together in agreement like that..

          ..around that gold-plated super-scheme for themselves..

          ..i understand..that after the vote…they all stood in a large circle..holding hands..

          ..(thinking about/celebrating the riches they had just voted themselves..)

          ..and they all sang kum-bay-a…together..

          ..(gerry brownlee has a surprisingly high singing-voice..)

  56. amirite 56
    23 April 2014 at 7:23 am

    The timing of Jones leaving could not be worse. Had he left 6 months ago or waited up until after the election, it would be less suspicious. This was timed so he can inflict maximum damage to Labour’s election chances this year. I can imagine a field day the Nats will have in Parliament at question time, every answer will contain a jibe about Jones.
    With MPs like Jones, Labour doesn’t need enemies.

    • BM 56.1
      23 April 2014 at 7:51 am

      I’d be more concerned by what Jones says about labour and the greens.
      Once he steps down he can say whatever he wants and I’d put money on it that it won’t be flattering.

      He’s going to be on the radio, TV endlessly giving his perspective on the left.

  57. James 57
    23 April 2014 at 7:35 am

    God to be good for labour? Yeah right! He has been one (of not the) best performing member of labour this year.

    Leaving for the Nats? Yep Joe Public will see that as good for labour. – you are kidding yourselves. Most people assume you leave for a better job, better prospects, job security.

    And given how much he knows – how much dirt do you think he will pass to the Nats? Yeah that going to be good (for a laugh).

  58. Tom Gould 58
    23 April 2014 at 7:54 am

    Jones has made a rational decision to get out of Labour, and the comments here evidence how rational it was. Completion of the purge will be a formality now.

  59. Charlieboy 59
    23 April 2014 at 8:18 am

    One of the best performers you say, did you say that when he was paying for porn or helping Bill Liu. Now some self-interested parties are praising a man who is no more than a traitor,a quisling, a turncoat, at the very least not a man to be trusted. It’s a war folks, get rid of all dead wood for the battle ahead.
    Bring on Kelvin Davis.

  60. RRM 60
    23 April 2014 at 8:47 am

    Pity.

    One of very few sensible Labour men I could imagine myself voting for.

    An actual loss to the opposition and, therefore, New Zealand.

    Get ready for the Green Party to be leading the opposition after the election. Labour are now hopelessly lost, stuck between a Trade Union and a Gay place, and not really representing either very well…

  61. Delia 61
    23 April 2014 at 8:56 am

    The party is a whole lot better off for him going and that is all I am saying.

  62. One Anonymous Bloke 62
    23 April 2014 at 9:02 am

    The Right seem awfully upset by Jones’ departure. I’m not.

    Not a team player, bit of a talker. Dubious allegiances.

    The MSM narrative is revealing of their allegiances.

    I expect we will now be treated to several months of Jones pouring his heart out as opposed to coverage of the election campaign.

  63. TeWhareWhero 63
    23 April 2014 at 9:34 am

    I never much liked Shane Jones’ because I think that his blokey public persona is an affectation and as phoney as John Key’s representation of himself as an ‘ordinary kiwi bloke’.

    A member of a caucus has a responsibility to the collective – if you don’t want to work collaboratively, go off and stand as an independent. This isn’t to say people should toe the line mindlessly but there’s legitimate dissent (a good thing) and there’s calculated division and disruption (a bad thing) and it looks like Jones was engaged in the latter. Was that fuelled by ego or ideology or a mix of both? Did he jump or was he pushed? Is he being rewarded by the Natz for his services? One thing’s certain – they don’t reward their enemies.

    What matters now is what servile churnalists and talk back hosts / schlock jocks will turn it into to try to influence swing voters.

    To my very simple way of thinking, the NZLP has to be seen to be prepared to stand up to the sort of Corporate interests that Jones and his ilk would have colluded with. They need to stop using the justification that the Corporates are too big to pick a fight with, that as you can’t possibly beat them, you have to join them and see if you can persuade them to let a few extra crumbs drop from the table. If the LP and its coalition partners aren’t prepared to stand up to the Corporatocracy, they leave potential voters between a rock and a hard place, Democratic and Republican, New Labour and Conservative…

    • greywarbler 63.1
      23 April 2014 at 11:25 am

      TWW
      Fascist and ? The Italian fascists were supported majorly by their corporatocracy. So if that is what fascism is about, government serving the interests of, being puppeted by big business, it looks as if we are all being steered towards that iceberg.

      Labour needs to talk about business as if it understands and means business. Shane gave the impression that he did. I think he just liked contention and it made him seem attractive because he had vitality and seemed to be doing something that ordinary working people could relate to. Even if they didn’t understand exactly where the vitality would be channelled. But he could talk the talk and now has walked the walk. But leaves a gap for some dynamo to step into who speaks job and business sense to the eager public.

      Matthew H this morning kept referring to him appealing to some NZs – I think he referred to middle NZ. Whatever that is. I wonder how it is made up? Is it all the decent earners aspirational for 4WD and holidays and a bigger house than they already have? Or the tradesmen and women, the skilled people still doing physical work? Or the agricultural sector who aren’t into building empires and gold piles like Donald Duck’s Grandpop?

  64. Not a PS Staffer 64
    23 April 2014 at 10:07 am

    Jones was interviewed on National Radio this morning.

    He tells that in 2009 or 2010 he asked Murray McCully for a job!

    Did he tell the Labour Party members during the Leadership campaign? No.
    Did he tell Goff or Shearer? I bet not.

    For the past four years the National Party’s chief strategist has known that a senior Labour MP wanted to work for National.

    What other information has McCully got from Jones about Labour?

    Jones is a 100% traitor to the Labour cause. He should be expelled from the party.

    • Clemgeopin 64.1
      23 April 2014 at 10:18 am

      The most appropriate symbolic parting gift for him would be a miniature cercis siliquastrum plant.

      • Not a PS Staffer 64.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 11:36 am

        Cercis siliquastrum, commonly known as the Judas tree, is a small deciduous tree from Southern Europe and Western Asia which is noted for its prolific display of deep pink flowers in spring. Wikipedia
        Appropriate!

  65. Clemgeopin 65
    23 April 2014 at 10:08 am

    It is a relief to have a hurting prick outside one’s body than embedded within.

  66. Puckish Rogue 66
    23 April 2014 at 10:09 am

    🙂

  67. phillip ure 67
    23 April 2014 at 10:11 am

    1st shane jones exit joke..?

    ..cosgrove sez ‘it’s like losing richie mccaw’..

    ..i reckon it’s like a rugby team losing benji marshall..

    ..(i rarely do a sports-joke..)

    • the pigman 67.1
      23 April 2014 at 6:16 pm

      Cosgrove’s hysterical media comment reflects very poorly on him.

      You really have to wonder why the media would pay attention to someone like him at all, right…?

  68. RRM 68
    23 April 2014 at 10:40 am

    I love how people here are denouncing him as a “TRAITOR” and demanding he be excommunicated (or shot.)

    It’s so much like the opening scene of 1984 that it’s quite frightening.

    And a reminder of just how unfit Labour people are to govern anything at all.

    I hate to think what you lot would be capable of, if any of you found yourselves in positions of real power…

    • phillip ure 68.1
      23 April 2014 at 10:46 am

      so..rrm..had a contendor for the national party leadership been funded by the spouse of a labour party minister..and say..greenpeace..?..

      ..and then walked out of the party..in full-sneer mode…five months before an election..

      ..into a cushy little number arranged for him by another labour party minister..

      ..you and yr fellow rightwing rats wd be quite relaxed about that..eh..?

      ..you really are full of it..aren’t you..?

      ..and we already know what yr lot ‘is capable of’..eh..?

      ..hence the urgencies to throw you out on yr arses..

      • RRM 68.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 12:40 pm

        We are “capable of” supporting unemployed bums like yourself in the manner you’ve become accustomed to PhailUre. All you really need to say is “Thank You”.

        Labour these days seems to be more about the Bene than about the workers who are taxed within an inch of their lives to provide the Bene. (The “Labour force” if you will.) So, little wonder you’re here singing their praises. Four legs good, two legs better!

        Applied for any good jobs recently?

        • greywarbler 68.1.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 1:06 pm

          RRM
          No one believes you are a worker. You have time to sit and play at being a wise guru commenting about politics. Anyone who was so meshed into the worker sector would be doing the hard yards now. The rest of us snatch time away from our jobs because we want to be informed about what’s happening in our country because we care about it. You’re just filling in time – a deadbeat non-participant with an acid stomach and attitude and possibly on an old-age pension or paying others minimum wages so you can take time off. Phony.

          • RRM 68.1.1.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 1:30 pm

            I have a lunch break.

            I like to talk politics in between earning money to pay taxes to keep Phool (and others) afloat.

            YOU have the Labour Party delusion. “I know what working people want, I don’t need to go out and actually rub shoulders with them and ask them for their opinions!”

            You even deign to speak on behalf of your fellow blog commentors… “No one believes you are a worker.” etc etc etc. Pfft. Speak for yourself, your worshipfulness.

            • greywarbler 68.1.1.1.1.1
              23 April 2014 at 2:16 pm

              RRM
              Get on with your lunch. Rest and refresh your brain, or spend your time looking for it. You don’t have anything to offer us of value, so why not read up the manuals about your work. You don’t seem like a person who is excellent at what you do, rather boosting your own low self esteem making silly comments about others.

              Watch out, unless you are related to someone in business you’ll be the first to go and you won’t get a good position like Shane. And being on welfare is no picnic.

        • TeWhareWhero 68.1.1.2
          23 April 2014 at 1:44 pm

          There is little more unpleasant a sight or sound than a member of the Amygdala Brigade baying for the blood of some powerless person or group – and beneficiary bashing is their favourite past-time.

          I take it you’d support raising taxes on the rich RRM- especially rentier income – to relieve some of the burden on the overtaxed workers you refer to? Introducing a wealth tax and/or increasing the top levels of tax and a tax free allowance of $18k as they have in Oz, removing GST on essentials like medical care, kids clothes, basic food staples etc would increase disposable income of the low paid and middle income earners, and, as they spend most of their income locally, that would stimulate the economy. The country could continue to pay state benefits to those who need them – like superannuants’ income support and subsidies for things like rest home care and medical treatments.

          Have you ever sat down and calculated how much of ‘the Bene ‘ goes straight into the pockets of the private sector? And needlessly so?

          • RRM 68.1.1.2.1
            23 April 2014 at 1:57 pm

            “…I take it you’d support raising taxes on the rich RRM….”

            No, “the rich” already have to pay the state a bigger proportion of their income than “the less rich” and I can’t for the life of me understand why that’s considered fair in dark smelly corners of the left like this.

            Even if we went to a far-right, rich-prick Tory la-la land an introduced a flat income tax rate – say, everyone pays income tax at one simple rate of 25% – someone earning $70k would still be paying TWICE AS MUCH TAX tax towards the upkeep of the country (and the Arts Minister’s whims) as someone earning $35k.

            But that’s not enough for the left, it’s UNFAIR that the rich guy ONLY pays TWICE AS MUCH TAX as the poor guy. He should have to pay EVEN MORE. And he should be called a RICH PRICK as he pays it.

            And I bet you don’t want to EVER talk about a system like a poll tax, where the burden of running the country would be shared evenly among all New Zealanders. Your tax bill for this year is $18,652, just like everyone elses’. Please pay in full by the 20th of April.

            • freedom 68.1.1.2.1.1
              23 April 2014 at 6:27 pm

              ah-ha RRM has Road Freight Syndrome 😉

              A debilitating condition where a fifty tonne truck that is on the road 24/7, complains loudly when told they should pay more in road user charges than a one tonne vehicle which spends three hundred days a year parked up in the garage.

              • RRM …
                28 April 2014 at 9:30 am

                You are a liar.

                The truth is I have no problem with heavy trucks that damage the roads in using them (for profit) paying their fair share of the upkeep.

                If someone twice as much as me, it doesn’t do me any harm. They’re not taking money away from me. They’re not causing me to incur maintenance or repair costs. So why should they be punished with a higher tax rate?

                • freedom …
                  28 April 2014 at 9:55 am

                  it’s a socio-economic metaphorical analogy RRM

                  p.s
                  “If someone ——- twice as much as me, it doesn’t do me any harm” ???

                  what word did you mean to include in that sentence?

            • One Anonymous Bloke 68.1.1.2.1.2
              28 April 2014 at 9:40 am

              The biggest beneficiaries of society pay the most, and that is a good thing, especially since wealth erodes personal ethics.

          • greywarbler 68.1.1.2.2
            23 April 2014 at 2:25 pm

            About RRM Trying to get some sense out of what is a grinning mask of a face over a very simplified version of a humanoid is a waste of time. By replying to someone at this low level I am just reassuring him that despite his doubts, he actually is alive and not only sentient but also an intelligent being. But that’s all that is achieved, and on he goes and will remain the same until his end, soon or later. So I’m adopting the DFTT line.

        • TeWhareWhero 68.1.1.3
          23 April 2014 at 1:51 pm

          RRM – you posted at 8.47am, 10.40am, 10.42am, 12.40pm and 1.30pm – thats a long lunch break. Are you using your employer’s time and resources to indulge your passion for politics? Are you one of those people who screams blue murder about ‘benefit cheats’ whilst happily ripping off their employer? If so, it’s not the ripping off I object to – it’s the crass hypocrisy.

          • RRM 68.1.1.3.1
            23 April 2014 at 1:59 pm

            “Are you one of those people who screams blue murder about ‘benefit cheats’ whilst happily ripping off their employer? If so, it’s not the ripping off I object to – it’s the crass hypocrisy.”

            No – I only ever do this on my own time!

            Next question?

      • Skinny 68.1.2
        23 April 2014 at 9:39 pm

        Phil your bang on the money trail in your posts on this thread. Jones is nothing but a spoilt kid done no good. His rant with Gower was a total kick in the guts to all the hard working people trying to bring a change in Government. Think I will give him a biff for all those good Lefties Jones so dislikes.

    • karol 68.2
      23 April 2014 at 10:48 am

      Who is asking for Jones to be shot? Jones has resigned and is contemplating working for National. Ex-communication has no relevance to this. He has moved himself out of play as far as Labour is concerned.

    • greywarbler 68.3
      23 April 2014 at 11:28 am

      RRM
      Are you a new spoiler or an old one in different clothes? Talking pub gossip rubbish at this time of the morning? Better take a break, have a sit down and a cup of tea old thing.

    • Puckish Rogue 68.4
      23 April 2014 at 12:08 pm

      “I hate to think what you lot would be capable of, if any of you found yourselves in positions of real power…”

      I believe its called a purge…

  69. Jenny 69
    23 April 2014 at 1:27 pm

    As the dust settles

    Token MSM media Leftist, Josie Pagani, exposes how Right Wing she actually is, by dishonestly conflating Shane Jones decamp from the Labour Party as a “purge” of Labour voters:

    “Labour cannot win if it loses people like Shane Jones and voters who support him…..

    “The grave threat to Labour are the people, many of them Cunliffe supporters and workers in his own office, who are celebrating Shane’s departure and calling for even more Labour voters to be purged.” [etc. etc. etc. blah, blah, blah].

    Josie Pagani April 23, 2014

    Compare Pagani’s unbalanced panicked twittering to the more rational commentary at the Centrist Blogsite Dim-Post, who actually back up their claims of lack of voter support for Jones with figures.

    Jones performed poorly as an electorate candidate during multiple elections: actual voters were never as impressed with him as the gallery were. During the Labour leadership campaign Jones’ support among Maori voters was only 37% – which strikes me as shockingly low, considering they’re being offered the chance to endorse a contender for first Maori Prime Minister. It reflects – I suspect – Jonsey’s incredibly low support among female voters across the board.

    I guess this is ‘bad for Labour’. It makes them look weak and disorganised, and the gallery will run around wailing that Labour have just lost their brightest star. (I think they’ve lost an undisciplined, waffling misogynist who probably cost them more votes than he ever won.)

    Dim-Post April 23, 2014

    • TeWhareWhero 69.1
      23 April 2014 at 2:12 pm

      The Press has weighed in with a similar doomy analysis from Vernon Small – ‘if anything was designed to scream ‘crisis’ it was this”. Headline – ‘Jones quits, Labour Party in shock. ‘

      The churnalists will strive to make it look as bad for Labour as possible -presenting it as evidence of disarray, division, leadership weakness etc etc. After disclosures of having had some strange political bed fellows, just a few months out from a critical election, not having discussed the job offer with his comrades, Jones jumps ship into a luxury life boat provided by the government he’s supposed to have been in opposition to – and we are expected to see this as evidence of LP disarray – not NP dirty tricks?

    • Pete George 69.2
      23 April 2014 at 2:43 pm

      Pagani’s post was titled Warning to Labour; the heretic hunters are driving people away.

      Sounds familiar, there seem to be a few heretic hunters active here.

      This is a warning call for Labour; very few extra votes will be attracted to Labour because people like Shane are being driven out. And the more people who are driven out of the party, the more the party is dominated by people who don’t even realise there is a problem, let alone what the problem is. The risk then, is not just that Labour ends up in opposition next year, but that it is in no better position to heal itself for future elections.

      But there’s time…

      In 1996 the Labour party dropped to 14% in the polls, ten weeks out from an election. They choose not to batten down the hatches and double down on failed strategies. They looked at why they were so unpopular, and changed. They reached a more respectable 28% on election day, and laid the seeds for victory, and the most successful Labour government of my lifetime so far in 1999.

      But Pagani may be just another horrible heretic.

      • mickysavage 69.2.1
        23 April 2014 at 3:16 pm

        Pete it is rather tiring to hear people from outside of the party talk rubbish and for then a group of nodding heads to keep echoing it until it becomes a weapon to be used against the party. Jones was not driven out of the party. He left of his own accord on good terms to follow a career path. He was treated with respect by Cunliffe and held a senior position on the front bench. Don’t you think that the reality is somewhat at odds with the breathless pronouncements by those that should know better?

        • Once was Pete 69.2.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 4:37 pm

          It may be irksome to hear people outside the party voicing their views. How many people not members of the party actually vote Labour? A good many more than members I would have thought. I am well in my 60’s now and have voted Labour more times than all others combined. As long as the party marginalises people like me, and doesn’t listen to any but its own acolytes then nothing will change.
          I have been appalled at the nasty remarks expressed on here about a person who has put in 9 yrs for labour and has wide community respect. I don’t particularly like Jones, but I certainly respect his abilities. For the last few hours I have been out and about and listening to talk back. The overwhelming view is the Jones will be a loss.
          It is good to hear that Cunliffe treated Jones with respect – and so he should. Jones has done more to keep positive focus on labour in the last three months than everyone else combined. Having said that Cunliffes remarks in the press today were less than respectful. It is a pity a few more labour supporters here couldn’t just take the long view, bury their spite and just suck it up.
          This attack on Jones by quite a few people here has a very nasty and unseemly look to it.

          • One Anonymous Bloke 69.2.1.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 5:37 pm

            Asking Murray McCully for a job in 2009/10 and not telling your colleagues about it until yesterday is an attack on Shane Jones I tell you!

        • Anne 69.2.1.2
          23 April 2014 at 5:50 pm

          The problem is mickysavage, they don’t recognise the reality even when its staring them in the face.

          Nobody drove Shane out Pete. He went of his own accord for his own private reasons. For instance apparently he’s had a few health problems recently and that was one of the considerations. Parliament is a stressful place to be and the hours are long and anything but routine. As a former shift worker, I know the toll that can take on one’s health.

          Members of the Labour Party (note: members!) by and large respected Shane even if they didn’t agree with his views. Cunliffe put him straight back on the front bench when he became leader. Is that the action of someone who was hell bent on driving him out?

          As far as I know Josie Pagani is no longer a Labour Party activist. She may have been once when she was a candidate but I suspect she’s done nothing for the party in years. Yet she professes to know all about everything. No, I don’t read her posts. I know from her meanderings on RNZ and Q&A that her analysis’ are shallow and lacking in substance. She seems to think because she was once involved in the British Labour Party that she is…better and cleverer than us back-water colonials. She’s not.

        • Pete George 69.2.1.3
          23 April 2014 at 5:53 pm

          ms – Jones has made it clear he chose to leave Parliament and Labour of his own accord, so in that respect he hasn’t been driven out of the party, he has chosen to leave.

          But why? Not that long ago he put himself forward to be leader of Labour and said he wanted to be Prime Minister. Now he wants out.

          Because he is mentally tired of being an MP. He isn’t inspired to do what he can for himself and for Labour. He has put his own interests ahead of his party. Why?

          Driven out may be too harsh a description, but he certainly seems to feel unwanted and without enough incentive to stick it out.

          Why?

          • One Anonymous Bloke 69.2.1.3.1
            23 April 2014 at 5:59 pm

            I think Petty George knows a lot more about leaving political parties than Micky Savage does. In Petty George’s case, he wasn’t wanted so he went on to obscurity and failure. Not sure that’s exactly what happened with Shane but…

        • Not Petey 69.2.1.4
          23 April 2014 at 6:14 pm

          “Pete it is rather tiring to hear people from outside of the party talk rubbish and for then a group of nodding heads to keep echoing it until it becomes a weapon to be used against the party.”

          Pete it is rather tiring to hear people inside the party talk rubbish and for then a group of nodding heads to keep echoing it.

          FIFY

      • Paul 69.2.2
        23 April 2014 at 5:27 pm

        It says more about Pagani than anything else.

    • Paul 69.3
      23 April 2014 at 5:26 pm

      Pagani only gets MSM coverage because of the message she provides.
      Same reason Jones got positive framing by the corporate media.
      It does tell you a lot if you note who gets uncritical attention in the media.
      Jamie Whyte of the ACT Party for example.

  70. Steve James 70
    23 April 2014 at 1:52 pm

    Good on you Shane;
    Thanks for being one of the very few labour MP’s who represented me, an honest working heterosexual male. I wish you all the best. 🙂

    • karol 70.1
      23 April 2014 at 6:28 pm

      Oh, right. No hard* working het males are Labour MPs…except maybe a few Daves, a Clayton, a Damien…. oh wait.

      Where is this idea that het blokes (even blokey type blokes) are an endangered species in politics?

      *honest is hard to in down in politics, and it often means different things to different people so it’s a mess.

    • newsense 70.2
      23 April 2014 at 11:27 pm

      hang on a minute mate, (Barry Crump reference, mate) are you suggesting it is honest to do the dirty on your mates like this, mate?

    • RedLogix 70.3
      23 April 2014 at 11:38 pm

      @ Steve James

      As a very hard working het male (and middle-aged to boot) myself – I completely disagree with the idea that Shane Jones represents anything important to me.

      Especially not in the loyalty department.

  71. captain hook 71
    23 April 2014 at 2:27 pm

    good luck SJ. Its been fun listening to the creeping jesus’s wringing their hands and forecasting the end of the world especially when they dont even belong to the NZLP.
    bit of alarf if ya knowaddy mean.

    • Steve James 71.1
      23 April 2014 at 3:19 pm

      Didn’t know one had to belong to the NZLP to offer opinion on this site. Usually a leftish wing voter I am all for intelligent factual debate. Good men like Shane jones and Damien O’Connor should be celebrated as they are representative of core Labour voters. That is of course unless we are not wanted.

    • Anne 71.2
      23 April 2014 at 4:01 pm

      How true captain hook and that goes for the creepin jesus’s in the MSM! They are buried deep in the beltway quagmire and they listen to certain pollies (and their sycophants) who invariably have private agendas. They profess to know how “the Labour Party” has reacted to the SJ news. Apparently we’re shocked and shattered and our morale has been struck a terrible blow. Labour is in worse disarray than ever!

      What insane, infantile, delusively, fantasy-laden codswallop!!!

      The following may have been commented on (not inclined to plough through 350 comments) but here an interesting excerpt from today’s Rachel Gluchina column:

      It would have been a sleepless night for Sir Wira Gardiner who was embarrassingly exposed yesterday as a cash donor in Shane Jones’ aspiring Labour leadership campaign. Embarrassing because he hadn’t told his Tory wife – National Party Cabinet minister Hekia Parata. The Herald’s Claire Trevett broke the news to the PM, who then broke it to Parata.

      (my bold)

      First:
      The Herald’s Claire Trevett broke the news to the PM.

      That suggests a cosy little professional arrangement between them. I wonder how many bottles of wine from Key’s South Island estate she has received thus far?

      Second: It was reported om RNZ this morning that Shane Jones had confided recently in several of his close friends in Caucus. One of them leaked the information in advance.

      The Labour Caucus Judas is at it again? If so, there are no prizes for guessing who it is. And if I’m right, it was almost certainly done to embarrass David Cunliffe. It’s time the Caucus stopped protecting this individual and threw him to the wolves.

      • karol 71.2.1
        23 April 2014 at 4:11 pm

        It as also revealed on RNZ that Jones had been talking to Hooton, off the record for quite a while, about being unhappy in Labour.

        Any number of people could have leaked it.

        • Anne 71.2.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 4:18 pm

          Quite possible karol, but the RNZ comment I heard specifically referred to Shane having confided in “several close friends in Caucus” and went on to infer that it was one of them who had leaked it.

          Unless I misheard, but don’t think so. I was horrified at the time because I thought that pratt behaviour was a thing of the past.

          Edit: Thanks karol – hope I’m allowed to edit this time.

          • karol 71.2.1.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 6:34 pm

            sigh that destructive factionalism was on the ebb. A long time dying.

            Ah, watching a recording of 3 News tonight, with Jones saying he could have participated in a Labour-Green government and Labour has gone too left..

            Well, I’ll be continuing to vote Green. Labour still can keep moving forward positively.

      • Anne 71.2.2
        23 April 2014 at 4:12 pm

        Sorry few typos. Last paragraph is my response to RNZ report.

        Edit function won’t let me edit.

        [karol: I’ve removed the italics from the last paragraph – that OK?]

  72. fisiani 72
    23 April 2014 at 3:17 pm

    Purging Jones who was no longer to stomach 3 more years in Labour is just the tip of the problem. The crop of new Labour candidates for 2014 who will have any chance of list selection is bereft of centrists. Even a top talent like Kelvin Davis will be pushed down the list to accommodate some ‘keeper of the true faith” .The only centrists left in Labour are in safe seats and many have only 3 years or less till retirement. Labour has now moved so far to being just a collective of strident minorities that swathes of voters throughout NZ are abandoning tribal blind loyalties and considering voting for the brighter future which is being daily delivered by National. The prospects of 4th and 5th term for National seems more and more likely.

  73. Jenny 73
    23 April 2014 at 3:40 pm

    So if I and many others think that Shane Jones departure from the Labour Caucus is good for Labour. Why did the National government facilitate it?

    Maybe we are looking through the wrong end of the telescope.

    Maybe the question we should be asking is why the Government needed to create this special post and needed someone like Shane Jones to fill it?

    Was it just to get him out of the Labour Party?

    I just don’t buy it.

    So what does Shane Jones bring to this position?

    Shane Jones is Maori Polynesian politician with conservative views and exemplary oratory skills.

    Shane Jones has a proven track record in supporting the fossil fuel industry and opposing any calls to address climate change.

    Increasingly the Island nations of the Pacific have been taking a more militant stand against climate change. Last year John Key on our behalf signed up to the Majuro Declaration on Climate Change, in which he vowed to endeavor to cut down our CO2 emissions. Within weeks of signing the Majuro Declaration John Key and his government paid out $170 million to prop up New Zealand’s biggest coal miner. The bail out of Solid Energy was in clear breach of the intention of the Majuro Declaration.

    Has the Government sensed that they may be in for some trouble in the up coming Small Islands Developing States, (SIDS) conference to held in Apia this September?

    Is Shane Jones seen as the best chance of heading off this criticism?

    Has Shane Jones appointment a last minute emergency measure to head off any censure or criticism of New Zealand possibly even censure from the SIDS?

    Increasingly as well as climate change, Small Island States have been taking a harder line on protecting their economic zones from the rape of their fisheries by multinational companies. With his links to Sealords and the Talleys family and his Maori heritage was Shane Jones seen as the best man to represent the interests of the big fishing companies with these Island nations?

    “The Pacific is fighting for its survival. Climate change has already arrived”

    “I say ‘welcome to climate change’ when people come here,”

    “We will not stop telling people that it is a real issue for humanity. We will be the first to feel it, but it will come to them and they should realize it.”

    “New Zealand can and should do more. They are the fifth highest per capita emitters in the world and Kiwi emissions continue to climb.”

    Christopher Loeak President of the Marshall Islands

    “These low-lying islands risk being swamped by rising sea levels and their inhabitants forced to emigrate. Weather extremes in the Pacific are not about a distant future. They have become the new normal. Heat waves, floods, droughts and rising oceans are the new reality of an ever warming world. And this should not come as a surprise. Scientists have been warning for years that as the planet heats up, we will have to deal with more severe, more changeable, more unpredictable weather.

    Connie Hedegaard EU Climate Commissioner

    Pacific Islands fighting for survival as sea levels rise

  74. Populuxe1 74
    23 April 2014 at 3:42 pm

    How do you get
    “he was given a donation for his leadership bid by a National Party minister”
    from
    “Mr Jones was given $1000 by the husband of a National Party minister.”?

    It’s odd, certainly, but not as far as I’m aware, illegal. It’s not even very much, and it would hadly be a unique situation where a husband and wife supported different political parties.

  75. rhinocrates 75
    23 April 2014 at 5:25 pm

    Good riddance! He’s a thoroughly corrupt and repulsive individual. Paid by National and Sealord, systematically sabotaging potential alliance with the best likely partner, a reactionary misogynist creep – I’m delighted to see him go from Labour.

    Labour needs to be the party of the people and Jones was the representative of the corporates.

    All this BS about him speaking in the language of the common bloke is just that, BS, like the BS about Key being an ordinary bloke. He enabled bigots to justify themselves, trying to pretend that people who aren’t “ordinary blokes” can’t vote.

    Next, the Rogernome fossils like Goff, Thing, Hipkins, Curran, Mumblefuck. Fingers crossed.

    • Not Petey 75.1
      23 April 2014 at 6:16 pm

      The thing is a Labour MP ?

      I knew the invisible woman was a Labour MP but not the Thing !

    • Once was Pete 75.2
      23 April 2014 at 7:42 pm

      Don’t you get it? The public has soundly rejected the type of party you portray. Read your post again. You might get more respect by expressing your views without bile! Like it or not Jones had wide appeal to a group that is currently beyond the reach of Labour. The missing 800,000 voters will stay missing until someone in Labour can articulate an inspirational message that can appeal to the wider community, not just the narrow groups that currently have Labour in their grip.
      Labours current approach does not come across as inclusive.

      • quartz 75.2.1
        23 April 2014 at 8:11 pm

        Like it or not Jones had wide appeal to a group that is currently beyond the reach of Labour.

        You mean wealthy, harvard educated overweight, porn watching, men who like to use latin terms (badly) and add “etc” to the end of every sentence?

        I think Labour can live with that.

        But I think you’re talking about working class conservatives and I don’t think you spend a lot of time with them because everyone I know who fits that description thinks Jones is a weird poncy freak.

        What I really think you’re talking about is National Party voters who wouldn’t vote Labour if their wives lives depended on it. Kinda like you. You can have him.

    • Hamish 75.3
      23 April 2014 at 8:15 pm

      Beautifully said, Rhino!

  76. Tanz 76
    23 April 2014 at 5:31 pm

    who will represent the right and the working person in Labour now? The party has gone way left, and Jones leaving it is sure proof of this. Right wing party needed.

    • Clean_power 76.1
      23 April 2014 at 6:10 pm

      O’Connor left to fly that flag, but he is a lonely voice swamped by the more vociferous left-wing.

      Labour is about to test all this factional infighting in the coming election. It will all end up in tears, exactly what McCarten and his radicals want.

    • karol 76.2
      23 April 2014 at 6:36 pm

      Right wing party needed.

      Oh. So National and ACT and the Conservatives, and NZ First are not viable right wing parties then?

    • Anne 76.3
      23 April 2014 at 6:47 pm

      who will represent the right and the working person in Labour now?

      That’s just bullshit nonsense Tanz. Labour is no further to the Left than it has been in the past. Savage/ Fraser/ Nordmeyer/ Kirk/ Rowling – to name the historical Labour PMs – were further to the left than the current Labour Party. Were they wrong? No, they damm well weren’t. They are universally recognised as changing NZ for the better. Many overseas countries copied out policies under their stewardship. It was commonsense policies mixed with a ‘genuine’ desire to help the ordinary worker.

      The right wing under Bolger/Richardson and John Key have destroyed the lives of thousands of workers!

      You’ve been had good and proper by the right wing and their MSM acolytes if you believe the Right are “for the workers”.

  77. fisiani 77
    23 April 2014 at 6:13 pm

    Jones really ripping into Norman and the Greens on TV3. Damien O’Connor ripping into Labour nutters. They represent Labour voters. Labour represents Labour activists. Labour voters outnumber activists by 1000 to 1 . Activists Cheer and voters change forever to National. The purist rump left after September will be moulded by Matt to a generation of failure.

    • Not Petey 77.1
      23 April 2014 at 6:18 pm

      Labour party in complete disarray is great for us political junkies on the right but particularly bad for parliamentary governance to have the largest opposition party in such a state.

      • BM 77.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 6:26 pm

        Yeah it’s not good.

        But you can put that down to John Key and the way he’s running the country , he’s more CEO than PM, which is the reason he’s having so much success.

        He’s not following the “rules” of politics and labour cannot adapt to this new approach and have become irrelevant.

        Shame, but that’s the way it goes.

        • greywarbler 77.1.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 6:51 pm

          Bubble boil and trouble. All the RWNJs huddling round the pot stirring and chanting
          and cackling about Labour and Jones. Very funny.
          NotPetey, Tanz cleanpower, fisiani, BM et al. The old boys club, old in mind.

          • Ben Adam 77.1.1.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 7:05 pm

            Combined, these right wing nut bars continuously write plenty of vicious crap here and try to produce some stink. They seem like the smiling assassin’s dishonest dirty trolls sent in here to disrupt Labour.

          • Not Petey 77.1.1.1.2
            23 April 2014 at 7:41 pm

            Your pseudonym is absolute gold.

            • Hamish 77.1.1.1.2.1
              23 April 2014 at 7:47 pm

              Yours is shit but it’s fitting considering what a useless little wanker you are. You couldn’t argue your way out of a political paper bag.

        • Hamish 77.1.1.2
          23 April 2014 at 7:43 pm

          Hey BM ya useless wanker, guess what Labour is going leftward and it’s fucking great! dropping the dead weight useless tory shills like Jones is the best news ever.

          Maybe Key will win the festering turd party another 3 years, cant wait for the housing market to pop under him, the useless little wanker will be scuttling away pretty quick then!

          • BM 77.1.1.2.1
            23 April 2014 at 8:00 pm

            Never happen.

            National is going to become a generational party, something Clark tried to make happen but fortunately for NZ wasn’t good enough.

            A truly golden age is in front of us, led by John Key a man who will go down as a true visionary and the history books will proclaim him as NZ greatest leader.

            • Hamish 77.1.1.2.1.1
              23 April 2014 at 8:10 pm

              Poor old BM, that brighter future for you is always going to be just around the corner mate.

              • Not Petey …
                23 April 2014 at 8:12 pm

                Bit like the next great Labour leader eh ?

              • BM …
                23 April 2014 at 8:13 pm

                My future is pretty bright, it’s you slow ones that need to get with the program.

                Should I send around the short bus to pick you up?

            • freedom 77.1.1.2.1.2
              23 April 2014 at 9:44 pm

              well BM, yup, if that surplus comes in as projected, good times. That 2-3 billion a year of debt repayment it promised to deliver, means it will only take three decades to pay off what National borrowed over the past six years.

              that’s a vision all right

              a vision Delacroix presented in Löwe ein Pferd reißend

      • fisiani 77.1.2
        23 April 2014 at 7:00 pm

        Once the public thinks that Labour cannot win their vote could go anywhere or nowhere. We are well past that point. Will the Greens go all out for the party vote? You bet. They are more organised , disciplined and coherent .If Labour and the Greens each get 20% in 2014 then they each get 24 MP’s. Labour would 22 current electorate MP’s plus win another two seats and get none in on the list. By 2017 a Green/Labour government could be a reality.

        • Hamish 77.1.2.1
          23 April 2014 at 7:45 pm

          it will be when the housing market blows up under National and useless little johnny wanker wont have a fucking clue how to handle it.

          Look how they fucked up Christchurch! That’ll be the whole country in 3 years if Key gets in again.

          • Not Petey 77.1.2.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 7:58 pm

            Ha ha if Key gets in again it’ll be doom doom I tells ya !

            All will look upon me and despair !

  78. Tanz 78
    23 April 2014 at 7:13 pm

    Labour has gone wildely left in the past year, and they are losing the middle voter in droves.
    National is not a right wing party, not under Key. He is far left also, but he builds a good looking argument, the salesman’s pitch, and the populace love him for it.

    • TeWhareWhero 78.1
      23 April 2014 at 7:18 pm

      If you think that the Keyster is ‘far left’ you are in serious need of some political education.

    • Anne 78.2
      23 April 2014 at 7:21 pm

      Is there a brain surgeon in the house?

    • Clemgeopin 78.3
      23 April 2014 at 7:25 pm

      Key and National are NOT left wing. They are right wing rogues fooling people by pretending to be left wing by copying some important left wing policies and programmes put in place by Labour during their nine years in power.

      You better not be one of those fooled hook, line and sinker by the smiling assassin.

  79. Ergo Robertina 79
    23 April 2014 at 7:13 pm

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11242992

    ‘Mr Cunliffe said he didn’t know if the National party had attempted to court any other Labour MPs and he was sure there would be a place in the Labour Party caucus for Mr Jones if he changed his mind.’

    Really? A place for Jones if he deigns to change his mind?
    Cunliffe needs to drop the soft-soaping CEO tone and adopt that of a political leader.
    I know he’s being gracious, but he could learn a thing or two from the Greens on how to handle this unctuous cretin. Today TV3 went to Dr Norman for a response to Jones’s criticisms, and to paraphrase was told no, because Jones is leaving and is thus irrelevant.
    It’s different for Cunliffe obviously, as Jones is a caucus member, but there’s no need to be supine.

    • Ant 79.1
      23 April 2014 at 7:24 pm

      Ah there is a very real need to be supine, because at the moment both parties are acting civil, but Jones will start throwing muck if Cunliffe tries to play the “Phil Goff Hardman” and the fallout would be fracking terrible for Labour.

      • Ergo Robertina 79.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 7:30 pm

        Jones didn’t seem very civil tonight in his TV3 interview with Gower.

        • FredFrog 79.1.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 7:39 pm

          He seemed, and in fact, was, very truthful.

        • felix 79.1.1.2
          23 April 2014 at 7:47 pm

          Yeah. He’s not very civil in general.

          • Clemgeopin 79.1.1.2.1
            23 April 2014 at 9:34 pm

            Jones is coming across as an ungrateful, disloyal, selfish, self centred, egoistic, damaging, traitorous individual. A Trojan horse that didn’t want to stay till the election to help Labour win. The ‘true kiwi bloke’ forgot all the help he received from Labour over the yeas for his positional aspirations and also while he was in serious troubles. What a prick. What a shame!

          • Ant 79.1.1.2.2
            24 April 2014 at 7:38 am

            But he’s not being as bad as he could be, if he blows up the media will be playing his soundbites with John Key commentary for the next 6 months on how Labour is a shambles – they will not feature a rebuttal from Cunliffe.

            Better to let him say his peace have his whinge then piss off to be a tory iwi leader.

      • Hamish 79.1.2
        23 April 2014 at 7:39 pm

        Good luck to Jones if he does, there’s more dirt on him than the blue movies!
        You don’t get to be a smug useless prick like Jones without doing some pretty fucking stupid stuff!

        Im so pleased the useless tory scum has gone! He says labour is losing its broad church because it wont accomodate him well what does he expect, the Labour party isn’t for useless tory schills anymore boyo!

        • Once was Pete 79.1.2.1
          23 April 2014 at 7:51 pm

          Thats just crazy talk. Jones generated more positive traction for Labour than all the rest of the parliamentary team combined this year. Labour have lost a very important voice for the election campaign. Every time Cunliffe opens his mouth he muffs it (may be a bit of an exaggeration, but his performance has been very ordinary). Jones had a knack of cutting through and reaching people. There is no one else in Labour that I can see with this gift.

          • karol 79.1.2.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 8:03 pm

            Jones appealed to some people, but he is a turn off for a lot as well. I don’t think he has a great following.

            • Once was Pete 79.1.2.1.1.1
              24 April 2014 at 9:15 am

              Well I don’t think there is any dispute that some didn’t like him, and he obviously didn’t get enough support to win the leadership, but I think there is considerable doubt about your contention that he did not have a wide following. It also says a lot about the current Labour party (Not a broad church as Trotter puts it).
              Any way you slice this the loss is huge. His energy on the hustings, public perception, value in the Maori seats, ability to gain positive headlines etc, etc. Don’t under estimate the importance of his anti green stance either. There are a large number of left of centre voters who are not comfortable with the greens. Jones stance was seen as a moderating influence against the possibility of undue influence from a green coalition party. The greens might have some useful ideas but to many they are seen as being extreme and intransigent. Why do you think Labour went with NZ First previously and left the greens at the altar.

          • Hamish 79.1.2.1.2
            23 April 2014 at 8:11 pm

            He’s tory scum. Not welcome in Labour. Not a team player. Glad he’s gone. Pleased to see the back of the masturbator. You’re a fucking wally.

          • felix 79.1.2.1.3
            23 April 2014 at 8:57 pm

            Pete, what would you think of a National MP who was widely disliked by just about every National supporter who had an opinion, while being loved and praised (but not voted for) by just about every Labour supporter?

            Also, what Hamish said.

            • Once was Pete 79.1.2.1.3.1
              24 April 2014 at 9:04 am

              Frankly it is not worth responding to Hamish’s trash talk. All negative emotion and no content. All mouth and no brain. What would I think of a National MP is not relevant. I am not a National Party member. We are talking about Shane Jones.
              I don’t particularly like Jones, but you would have to be blind not to see his value in the upcoming election campaign. You don’t have to like someone to see their value or even to vote for them. He was seen as a very strong character, something Cunliffe is not.
              Who has generated the positive headlines for Labour this year? Jones thats who. He got traction for the party on his own, in spite of Cunliffes poor performance. Who was pivotal to Labour winning back Maori seats?
              You may not like him but he was able to talk to a wide audience and he had a very large support base outside the labour synchophants.

              • felix …
                25 April 2014 at 6:27 pm

                I’m not Hamish and I asked that question because if you were being honest the same logic would apply.

                I’m not a National member either and I can easily answer the question. Why can’t you?

    • FredFrog 79.2
      23 April 2014 at 7:36 pm

      Why would National court any other labour MPs?

      Jones was the only one capable of anything, and also the only one with any chance of actually doing a job outside parliament. The rest are worth nothing.

    • Tanz 79.3
      23 April 2014 at 7:47 pm

      I would not vote for Key if you paid me a fortune.
      Yes, I have a brain, thank you, and a degree in progress…

      • Anne 79.3.1
        23 April 2014 at 7:51 pm

        and a degree in progress…

        How long ago did the progress start? 😛

        • Pete George 79.3.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 8:00 pm

          That’s a bit of a mean shot.What does it matter? Doesn’t seem reasonable to laugh at it.

          • Anne 79.3.1.1.1
            23 April 2014 at 8:46 pm

            Oh for god’s sake Pete. Have you no sense of humour. See the little gentle ‘tease’ face? Nothing like a bit of teasing to ease tension and all that. Where’s your brain surgeon? Looks like it might need a bit of a grease and oil. 😛

            • felix 79.3.1.1.1.1
              23 April 2014 at 8:51 pm

              I think it’s very telling that Pete immediately assumed your comment was mean-spirited. It obviously wasn’t, as anyone with warm blood would have recognised.

        • TeWhareWhero 79.3.1.2
          23 April 2014 at 11:12 pm

          I was wondering where you go to do a degree in progress – sounds an interesting subject.

          • greywarbler 79.3.1.2.1
            24 April 2014 at 6:20 pm

            TWW
            A degree in Progress. Yes, a new era of study and thought opens for Wellington beehive denizens.

  80. fisiani 80
    23 April 2014 at 7:38 pm

    http://youngnats.org.nz/meet-the-candidate-barbara-kuriger

    Look at the calibre of the next crop of National MP’s no wonder the party vote aim is 50% plus
    Labour lose one of their best and Nats gain a star.

    • felix 80.1
      23 April 2014 at 7:49 pm

      Nope, National have never ever achieved a party vote of over 50%.

      That is a lie, fizzy. You should be ashamed.

      • fisiani 80.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 7:57 pm

        Grammar lesson for felix
        achieved is ‘the past”
        aim is ‘the future’
        felix you should be very ashamed.
        I, like John Key, never lie.

        • felix 80.1.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 8:35 pm

          I am ashamed fizzy, that was terrible reading on my part. Thank you for the lesson.

    • mickysavage 80.2
      23 April 2014 at 7:55 pm

      Interesting she has two lefties as her role models …

      • fisiani 80.2.1
        23 April 2014 at 7:59 pm

        That’s because National is truly a Broad Church. Labour is merely a pew these days.

        • BM 80.2.1.1
          23 April 2014 at 8:34 pm

          Agree, labour’s more a mosque these days.
          Diversity is definitely a dirty word in labour land.

        • captain hook 80.2.1.2
          23 April 2014 at 8:58 pm

          nup. national is and will always be a clique of lowbrow thugs. they might manage to hide their true colours for a while but eventually their desire for loot and pyschological bashing emerges and their little puupets smile turns into a rictus and then they will be gone. poof!

  81. Lloyd 81
    23 April 2014 at 8:14 pm

    The last thing the fishing nations of the Pacific need is a person who doesn’t understand sustainability.
    Where does Shane Jones stand on whaling?
    I suspect we may live to regret this change in Mr Jones’ occupation.

    • Jenny 81.1
      23 April 2014 at 10:12 pm

      “The last thing the fishing nations of the Pacific need is a person who doesn’t understand sustainability.”

      And this Lloyd is why the Nats wanted him so badly. Where else were National gonna get a Right Wing Polynesian politician allied with the fishing companies intent on raping the pacific, and the fossil fuel companies intent on drowning the coral atoll nations? Not within their own overwhelmingly pallid ranks, that’s for sure.

      We haven’t heard the last of Shane Jones, the next time we see Jonesy will be on TV addressing the conference of the SIDS (Small Island Drowning States) in Apia in September, telling them of the importance of ecosphere destruction to the economy.

      UN Conference on Small Island Developing States in Samoa 2014

      “Samoa is honoured to host in September 2014 the third International Conference on Small Island Developing States. As a United Nations conference the 193 UN member countries as well as observer organisations are anticipated to attend.

      As part of preparations for the conference a high level delegation from the United Nations arrived in Samoa in April this year for discussions on logistical arrangements for the conference.

      “Samoa has selected as the overarching theme of the conference the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States Through Genuine and Durable Partnerships.

      The Theme highlights the high regard Samoa has for the critical role, the contribution and strength of its partnerships with other governments, institutions and major groups in progressing its sustainable economic development agenda.

      The success of these partnerships are demonstrated with Samoa’s graduation from the list of LDCs, as well as support for efforts in areas such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, renewable energy, resilience to natural disasters, disaster risk reduction, sustainable management of our oceans and forests and many others.”

      Meanwhile back in New Zealand in the National government cabinet.

      Holy crap! What are we gonna do?

      We don’t want any more talk of this sustainability BS. We have a hard enough time of countering it here, we don’t want it spreading through the Pacific.

      Right, who is the best man we can get up there?

      Someone who hates the whole idea of sustainability with a passion.
      Someone who can identify with the locals and could even pass as one of them.
      Someone who is a skilled orator, and fluent in at least one of the main Pacific Languages.
      Someone who hates any talk of climate change, and is a big supporter of mine it, drill it, frack it, burn it.

      How about Hekia Parata?

      No, we need someone more aggressive, more macho, someone who can cut it, someone quick with a quip, and the smart come back.

      Well how about Shane Jones?

      But he works for the other team.

      I know, but if we create a special role just for him and offer him a truck load of money we might have a deal.

      Ok then, but I want it done by the end of the week.

      OK boss.

      • Clemgeopin 81.1.1
        23 April 2014 at 10:42 pm

        Well how about Shane Jones?

        But he works for the other team.

        I know, but only ostensibly! He is in our bag! We have had the Parata’s, the Oil and Gas mafia etc funding his political ambitions in secret! He he he!

        That is so crafty!

        Yep, the dumb fool fell for it hook, line and sinker! It is amazing how the soul blackens with baubles!

        Wow! A Trojan horse?

        Yep, even Judas would be proud!

        Yeah? What is his possible version of the 30 coins of silver?

        If we create a special role just for him and offer him a truck load of money we might have a deal.

        And lots of special videos to while away his time in the Pacific paradise?

        Yes, of course! But all this shenanigan will cost lots of money. Who will pay? The Nat party?

        No, no! The the tax payers!

        Of course!

        Cool bananas! What a Troty! This definitely deserves a three way handshake!

        Just you and me?

        No, of course not! Go get the Judas in here now, quick!

  82. tricledrown 82
    24 April 2014 at 12:03 am

    Not to mention his attacks on supermarket giant woolworths/countdown.
    That probably meant the National Party had to pay a higher price sooner than later.

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