Hard News: Dirty Politics
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Richard Aston, in reply to
If he grows a pair and demotes here, he then runs the risk of her spitting the dummy and attempting to replace him sooner or later
Intriguing dynamic here , why does Key seem so reluctant to throw Collins to the dogs? He's had more reasons to do that with Collins than he did with Williamson.
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Walter Nicholls, in reply to
The word stuck in my head for the last few days has been "complicit". Perception of this will decide which individuals fall over the month ahead.
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
why does Key seem so reluctant to throw Collins to the dogs?
Over the last few days I've found myself idly wondering what Collins might have on Key. Just idly wondering, let me emphasise.
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The first tranche of messages from Hager’s source is available for viewing here.
- It seems to identify as many as SIX email addresses as belonging to Ede.
- Seems to quite clearly show Slater feeding Ede information to identify activists, including Jolyon White, using ninth-floor Ministerial Services resources.
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So, why hasn't Key already distanced himself from Ede? If Ede was truly a rogue, going about this without political support, surely Key could have said early on "My staff know not to engage in dirty politics, but if Ede or anyone else has crossed that line then they will have to pay the consequences". I can only assume that Ede was not a lone bandit running with the whales, and there are more connections to come.
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Max Rose, in reply to
Ede asking Slater "I do hope I can count on you to run some interference on Wood's local board position" - without knowing the full local context, that sounds a lot more than Key's office "sharing information with bloggers in the same way they do with MSM". Is that a correct interpretation?
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A S,
One of the emails in the @whaledump release (2 Sept 2013) apparently has Ede telling Slater that Ede had asked research (the Nats Parliamentary research unit?) to start compiling data that Slater was wanting.
Not entirely surprising if true, especially in light of what has come out over the last few days, but does add to the wider perception that underhanded things were being run (apparently in close collaboration with Slater) out of level 9 of the Beehive.
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nzlemming, in reply to
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He is a diseased silverback engaged in a truly ugly ‘gorilla war’…
And all he’s got for ammunition is his own sh*t!
Tosser…Lovely imagery, Ian.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
As Minister, she has oversight over their work and budget. Lower voter turnout favours the right. So… if she’s a bad egg, how much focus and budget is she going to put into, say, encouraging voter turnout? How well is she going to resource the department that works to get people to enroll/chases them if they don’t?
No Minister of Justice, not even the Demoness Judith Collins, determines the "focus" of the Electoral Commission -- which is an independent crown entity NOT part of the Ministry of Justice. That's laid out on in the Electoral Act, 1993 as amended by the Electoral (Administration) Amendment Act 2010.
And nobody has their budget set by ministerial fiat. If Ms. Harre is an MP after the election, I look forward to her being a strong advocate for increased resources to the Electoral Commission so they can even better do the job they already do with the utmost integrity and political independence.
As I said up thread, Judith Collins can take whatever slings and arrows come her way. But I think all politicians might want to think really hard about bringing electoral agencies into campaign argy-bargy in any way, shape or form.
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nzlemming, in reply to
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Guy Espiner’s RNZ Morning Report interview with John Key At The End of the Day
I thought that this:
[Key] "anyone who knows Cameron Slater knows that he's a force unto himself".
was interesting as it was almost exactly what Farrar was claiming last week. These guys need better writers.
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A S, in reply to
Re budget setting by Ministerial fiat. In theory, no. In reality, that depends rather a lot on how much pull the Minister in question has. The number of frankly idiotic things that have been funded based on Ministerial whim over the years is mind-blowing. Equally mind-blowing, but much more tragic are the rather large number of successful programmes killed on equally ill-informed whim.
I don’t know the specifics or whether the commissions funding levels match actual need, but I will say that any Minister offering up funding as no longer needed, or not seeking funding to maintain service levels, is not going to face anything like the level of scrutiny that would accompany a request for more resources.
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
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Who is Robert Ridley? A corrupt cop or NZTA employee? Surely they'd use a pseudonym?
(I don't think database misuse is illegal in NZ, but it does get you fired, or at least it should).
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Sacha, in reply to
it was a underwhelming interview
a bloody mess
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stephen clover, in reply to
[Key] “anyone who knows Cameron Slater knows that he’s a force unto himself”.
almost exactly what Farrar was claiming last week. These guys need better writers.
Not only that, but they say it as if it excuses everything.
Newsflash: it excuses not one damn thing.
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kiwicmc, in reply to
The images show screen shots of Slater’s gmail account via a browser so he’s just managed to get the password from somewhere, maybe Cam uses the same one for things on his website… Obviously he hadn’t/hasn’t enabled the gmail two factor authentication which has been around since early 2011.
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linger, in reply to
[Key] “anyone who knows Cameron Slater knows that he’s a force unto himself”.
Stephen Clover:
it excuses not one damn thing.
And it just sits up and begs for the followup question: “So, Mr. Key, are you saying that you know Cameron Slater well?”
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What's dissolving now Mr Prime Minister...
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Email
Now that the Herald has started verifying the claims in the book I expect Key will switch to "yes but so what?" mode.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
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Yet another piece of fall out.
Actually Hilary, probably one of the more significant pieces of fallout over this sorry affair.
Many thanks for putting this up....it was a small but significant battle that some of us watched with interest, cheering from the sidelines.
Gutted when it all went to shit.
"The Principles Agreement established that only BSC members could tender for Government cleaning contracts. This is because our members commit to meet high standards, provide fair working conditions and pay cleaners above the minimum wage. "The implication in Mr Hager’s book is that Grant McLauchlan was bankrolling Carrick Graham and Cameron Slater to destroy an agreement that protected cleaners’ rights to fair pay for a fair day’s work under fair conditions."
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Intriguing dynamic here , why does Key seem so reluctant to throw Collins to the dogs? He’s had more reasons to do that with Collins than he did with Williamson.
I'd say it's because Collins is too important for him to walk the plank. If she did walk the plank, it's tantamount to Team Slater admitting defeat.
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Email
I'm wondering whether if National wind up reliant on NZF for support, Peters will insist on Joyce replacing Key as his price for C&S. It's the sort of stunt he would pull, and would enable him to go out truly claiming to be "kingmaker".
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Certainly don't rely on Winne to go left given the choice. He's a proven liar and will go with whoever offers the best deal.
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Andrew Geddis sums up the disgust felt by many of those who have read the Hagar book.
I'm not going to take you through the cast of this tragedy in any detail, or explain exactly how they all fit together. The book does that for you. All I want to do here is give those of you who haven't managed (or won't be bothered) to read it some indication of why it matters beyond the specific questions of whether accessing a left-open computer system is a crime, or if Judith Collins was "just helping" when she gave a public servants name up for public humiliation, or if John Key's office expedited the release of some SIS information to someone ahead of someone else. Because I want to talk about the sorts of people who this book reveals for who they are, and what their participation in our politics means.
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Steven Price writes about Dirty Politics - worth reading
"As many of you know, I act for Nicky Hager. I vetted his book, Dirty Politics, and the three before that..."
http://www.medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=635h/t @paulbrislen via Twitter
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
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the Hagar book.
Alfie, this is a ‘Hagar’ book…
and this is a ‘Hager’ book.
...in fact browse the 'Hagerographa' here
: – )
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