Hard News: Never mind the quality ...
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Both Newstalk ZB and Morning Report (RNZ) have today reported a direct contradiction between Warren Tucker and John Key. Tucker says he told the PM about Slater's OIA, Key says he didn't.
Until now, I've felt that Key (and Collins) could ride this out, albeit clumsily. But if this latest story is true, then he really is in trouble.
Edit: link to the document on Twitter -
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KDC thinks not.
I will be curious to see if any paper here re-publishes that story, or if the implicit pro-government self censorship of our media that has held sway for the last six years keeps it away from Kiwi eyes lest it contaminate their minds ahead of the election.
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Auto Pilot?
I can only see one source of 'pious handwringing' here...
...but then one would expect this from a beleaguered National supporter, desperate to find some redeeming features to their chosen ones' odious actions...Looks like the 'prodigal chicken' roost is filling up...
(Or in Chaucer words: "And ofte tyme swich cursynge wrongfully retorneth agayn to hym that curseth, as a bryd that retorneth agayn to his owene nest.")
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
I get that you’re hostile towards the book and its author. I think the contents are pretty important.
No, Russell, I'm hostile towards people who like to throw their hands up in horror at the entirely predictable consequences of their actions and choices. It's the same hostility I showed towards the likes of Duncan Garner pontificating about "the dirtiest campaign every" as if he and his colleagues are somehow above and beyond it all.
And how is Tweeting "I don't endorse releasing personal information" NOT distancing yourself from his acknowledged source who most definitely did? (And after he did multiple interviews saying he encouraged the release of at least some of the raw material.) As I said, I don't blame Hager for doing it -- we would have done the same --, and of course he's entitled to the presumption of good faith until evidence shows up to the contrary. But let's call a spade a spade. And if you're going to kick off a coup data (as Ian niftily put it), well coups seldom play out like tea and crumpets with the vicar's wife on the rectory lawn. Sorry about that, but that's how it is.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Both Newstalk ZB and Morning Report (RNZ) have today reported a direct contradiction between Warren Tucker and John Key. Tucker says he told the PM about Slater’s OIA, Key says he didn’t.
Until now, I’ve felt that Key (and Collins) could ride this out, albeit clumsily. But if this latest story is true, then he really is in trouble.
Thing is, Tucker told this to ZB’s Felix Marwick in 2011. In the letter attached to this post. It’s hard to see how Key can continue to claim he wasn’t consulted and knew nothing, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him try. He’s now caught very deep in that lie.
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security’s inquiry will doubtless also be interested in who Slater was talking to for his “expedited” OIA request.
Also: good work Felix Marwick for keeping the paperwork. That's how good journalists roll.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
As I said, I don’t blame Hager for doing it – we would have done the same –, and of course he’s entitled to the presumption of good faith until evidence shows up to the contrary.
What on earth do you mean by that?
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
What on earth do you mean by that?
I believe it's called 'clutching at straws'
in the argot of the drowning... -
Crikey. Goff didn’t mince his words on Firstline this morning:
"I’m not Machiavellian enough to believe that the SIS leaked this to Cameron [Slater]. I believe that it came from Jason Ede in John Key’s office, that John Key knew about it. Jason Ede was his senior adviser at the time – two doors down the corridor. John Key went in, said ‘this will embarrass Goff – leak it’.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
Crikey. Goff didn’t mince his words on Firstline this morning:
This is a man who knows he is not going to have to apologise for that remark.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
This is a man who knows he is not going to have to apologise for that remark.
Yes. I think the same can be said of his blunt statement "the Prime Minister is lying" on The Nation on Saturday.
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Goff sounded like a wronged man dining out on cold, sweet revenge.
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Great post by Paul Buchanan on the "everyone does it" argument.
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So if Phil Goff was incompetent for not having recalled the SIS briefing, (according to John Key) surely it is logical that John Key is incompetent for not remembering being briefed by the SIS about the OIA request.....
And its being generous to Key to say he forgot rather than that he was lying.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Webiscite?
... an electoral system that accounts for people who don’t have fixed abodes. Maybe by allowing enrollment on polling day by producing ID.
...quick before they reinvent the wheel
- what about RealMeSafe, secure and officially backed by the government
The RealMe service is officially backed by the government, and was created in partnership by the Department of Internal Affairs and New Zealand Post. RealMe is built to make doing things online easy and very secure. Anyone living in New Zealand can apply for a verified RealMe account....could be a starting point!
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Unfortunately I failed to recall.....
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Oh I forgot the...
"at the end of the day ordinary New Zealanders aren't interested in three year old news..."
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"allowing enrollment on polling day by producing ID."
You can cast a special vote on the day if you are not on the roll but believe you should be.
Apropos RealMe, to obtain validated RealMe is an onerous process that requires fronting at a Post Office etc with documents. Otherwise there's nothing stopping you setting up a RealMe account for Donald Duck -- it's the validation that makes it ok to use for serious business, and that of course requires an in-person transaction with a bunch of papers.
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Tucker joins in with backing the Emperor with his plausible deniability
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So if we take both Key and Tucker at face value (which I don't), then the nation's security and intelligence services have been overseen by a Minister who doesn't want to know and a Director who can't write.
Don't tell the enemy ...
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Stephen R, in reply to
Apropos RealMe, to obtain validated RealMe is an onerous process that requires fronting at a Post Office etc with documents. Otherwise there's nothing stopping you setting up a RealMe account for Donald Duck -- it's the validation that makes it ok to use for serious business, and that of course requires an in-person transaction with a bunch of papers.
I have not validated my RealMe identity, but they were happy to send me a passport renewal requested via realMe, which makes me think the RealMe validation is for purposes other that making it "Ok for serious business".
(I did have to upload a photo, which I guess was sufficiently similar to the previous passport for them to think it was really me, and I paid via Credit card with the sameish name, so I guess they had some reasonable grounds to think it was valid, but I don't know why anything else would require more validation than a passport request).
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Tucker has clarified that he briefed the Prime Minister "through his office", not the PM himself.
So we're back to to the scenario of a Prime Minister who is innocent of any and all doings in his own office, even where they involve the Security Intelligence Service, an extremely sensitive agency for which he is directly responsible.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
So we're back to to the scenario of a Prime Minister who is innocent of any and all doings in his own office, even where they involve the Security Intelligence Service, an extremely sensitive agency for which he is directly responsible.
In light of the fact that Key had been busy calling at the time Goff on this very thing, Brent Edwards - using one of the most wonderful euphemisms in the history of public radio - just called this revelation "surprising".
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CJM, in reply to
Will the Prime Ministers diary for the day on which Slaters request for the OIA was made, show exactly what it was that he was doing that precluded him casting a heavily-lidded eye over the papers that had come through his office?
With his continual “I wouldn’t know”, “I wasn’t privy”, “It was nothing to do with me”, “I don’t remember” litany one would have to ask – purely as a matter of trying to establish the value we get from our politicians – what exactly the fuck it is that John Key does?
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An interesting link off that article - John Armstrong on the Inspector General investigation into the SIS/Slater/Key
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11312115 -
linger, in reply to
Have been tour(ist)ing around the top of the South Island this week, and finally got to see a range of party billboards.
Impressions:
National have the most effective design by far: uncluttered blue field with the very clear instruction to “party vote National” + tick.
Greens: text in white on a detail-rich coloured field is harder to read, and the “party vote” instruction is too small to read on a drive-by, but the party name is still relatively prominent.
Labour: “Vote positive” is all very nice, but in effect it means even their own billboards lack the confidence to instruct us, unambiguously, to vote Labour. Frustratingly incompetent messaging and graphic design, failing to get even the basics right. What the hell are they playing at?
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