Posts by izogi
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to Sacha,
There's an interesting tendency for some in Labour to regard left-leaning voters as theirs by divine right, to be 'stolen' by other parties.
In Ohariu last year I remember people being distraught that all those Tane Woodley (G) voters hadn't voted for Anderson (L) and kicked Dunne out, but there's arrogance in presuming that others should think like you just because they dislike someone you also dislike. It's not like some National supporters don't do it too, though. It's just less of an issue presently because National seems to be the only significant party in that region. ACT and UF are both, more or less, National's puppet parties who exist at National's pleasure for the purpose of cheating proportional outcomes towards the "right" result (to which National is entitled)... or at least that's the narrative.
But as soon as it looks as if either large centre party might need to negotiate with a smaller party, the whole thing becomes about the tail wagging the dog. "How DARE a smaller party be allowed to influence the entity that's most entitled, by right, to govern!! Greens should stick to the niche of environmental policy!! They should all be relieved that we speak to them at all, but instead they're trying to dictate what we do."
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to Shaun Scott,
a very hostile and lazy media
Part of it's likely media, but she's also in an unenviable position from a small party where probably 85% of the electorate wouldn't have voted Green anyway. It shouldn't really be a surprise that so much of the coverage, whether traditional or social media or where they mix together, is around people looking for reasons to justify why others shouldn't vote Green.
It's a contrast to when, for example, John Key had to explain away Dirty Politics. Media went crazy over that to try and attack National, but it didn't really work because at the same time there were a lot of people looking for excuses to justify not voting for what they probably saw as an unenviable opposition, right to the extent where saying "but everyone does it!", even if they didn't, somehow became an adequate defence. Winston faces this all the time: Lots of people despise him and are always looking for reasons to say he shouldn't be there, but he can still excel in his smaller bubble because he speaks to his support base and doesn't care about the rest.
I find it really frustrating how all this superficial partisan horse race meta-crap eclipses the discussion about things like poverty and other issues, but maybe that's just me as someone who really would like the discussion to be about poverty, instead of anything but poverty.
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Like Greg O'Connor, whose "progressive" attitude on drug law reform is touted as so compelling that we're encouraged to forget that given the chance he'd arm the police tomorrow.
Yes but if you're trying to sell a Labour candidate to Ohariu, for which I'm frustrated to be a registered elector (legally!), it almost makes sense.
I don't know what the rest of NZ's like, but National seems to have flooded Ohariu with its billboards compared with most other parties. A week ago I went to visit a friend in Woodridge, which is a dead-end suburb in the sense of there being only one road in and out. I must have counted 5 or 6 National billboards, in a very small space, all set up in people's properties.
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Just to say that (as noted previously) I was toying with the idea of voting for TOP
I've been toying with the idea of TOP, and I often sympathise with or at least tolerate what the likes of Gareth Morgan have to say about things. But today I was casually browsing FB and saw Gareth saying this on Turei, Graham and Clendon (FB link):
We've just seen that with Metirira who is saying that rorting the benefit system is ok because beneficiaries are so hard done by.
Well I'm sorry, because we live in a democracy and there are ways to go about fixing the system faults in our social policy - namely political activism - illegal behaviour is not ok. Metirira's prescription for people to rort the system is simply wrong.
As far as I can tell he's just making stuff up about what she's said, as are so many others, and it really put me off him.
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This evening's Checkpoint sent Mihingarangi Forbes to Manurewa today to ask people what they think about Turei and benefits. There's a strong contrast in that coverage to what I'm seeing in much traditional and social media.
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to izogi,
Just replying to my own comment, the most I've been able to find from Metiria Turei is along the lines of:
"I will never condemn a beneficiary for working as hard as they can to put food on the table and a roof over their head."
While Turei said she could not condemn those who lied to Winz to protect their children, she did not go as far as saying she would encourage beneficiaries to cheat the system.
From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11894932
I still can't find anywhere where she actually condones people breaking the law, but plenty of people seem to be out there shouting that that's exactly what she's said.
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Has Turei actually come out anywhere saying she condones beneficiaries breaking the law?
Maybe she has, but in the mess of so many people screaming that she has, I can't seem to find a clear reference.
The most I've found with a moderate search is her saying that she doesn't regret saying she did it, which is a completely different thing.
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to Russell Brown,
I read that last night and was surprised that Toby Manhire seems to think it's horrible for Labour on the grounds that centre-voters will think it looks bad. My impression had been the opposite.
As far as I've been able to tell, Labour's been losing support to the Green Party on one side, but also to the likes of Nat/NZF because those people are terrified of the Green Party having too much influence on Labour.
If the Green Party's having such obvious problems, wouldn't the expected movement be for people to come back to Labour from both sides instead of merely from the Greens?
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Is the Green Party legally committed to its Party List at this point? ie. Would it be relying on David Clendon and Kennedy Graham to be refusing to accept their election if the GP achieved enough votes for them to enter parliament? Or does it still have time to amend its list?
Meanwhile Hooton's just been on RNZ tearing into Turei alongside Mike Williams (nice to see that commentary about the Greens from some neutral Nat and Labour insiders), then suggesting that it'd be a good idea for Clendon and Graham to be in talks with TOP, and create an incentive for Grant Robertson to step aside in Wellington Central and give his support to TOP's Geoff Simmons.
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Yikes. David Clendon and Kennedy Graham are threatening to resign. Info seems ambiguous right now, but Stuff is presently reporting their resignations were accepted.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95542553/two-green-mps-threaten-to-quit-over-metiria-turei
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/336665/two-green-mps-call-for-turei-to-step-down