Posts by John Morrison
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I'm with RB, I'm sick of it all and really disappointed in the PM in not sacking WP when she had the chance. I simply cannot understand why she hangs on and refused to censure him.
I'm really undecided about who to vote for in 6 weeks time, because Clark used to stand for some principles, but this affair is awfully messy and her customary political skills have vanished. Key is looking more fragile and lightweight by the day so, all in all, an ugly disheartening mess.
Who is to conduct the investigation into how this thing started is a valid question because it isn't about corruption or anything like that. BUT, WP stupidly went on and on and not 'fessing up to being a hypocrite. Well, all I can say he is just like the rest of us.
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There is one thing that fascinates me about this WP affair, and hopefully my memory hasn't failed me.
There was an investigation into the way MFish allocated quota, especially scampi quota, a few years back. Vela was alleging that there was corruption within MFish because Siminovich Fisheries ended up with a majority of the recently-allocated scampi quota. WP and the so-called journalist, Rod Vaughan led the charge, but of course, there wasn't any corruption and the investigation died away suddenly.
Who do we now find funding WP; both sides of this investigation.
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But I do think that journalists can become institutionalised in a number of ways. In political journalist that can manifest as a tendency to report the sizzle over the sausage, and to -- yes, I am looking at you Jane -- depict it all as a grand, jolly game.
Very interesting commentary, RB. I never saw political commentators as being institutionalised, but on reflection it is a pretty good description.
<Rant>They do have a tendency to report the sizzle over the sausage which I put that down to laziness and arrogance. Colin Espiner, and a few others, mused largely about the lunch, the size and unattentiveness of a recent ChCh audience of Cullen's. But they paid no courtesy to Cullen by reporting what he did actually say. To me this is rude and typically reflects the current state of the msm political commentariat in this country. And, of course, when you tackle these commentators over such issues, well..., their humility is hardly apparent. Then they have the audacity to go on about politicians being arrogant and not being in touch with the ordinary voter! </Rant>
Thank God we have people like yourself, and this blog, to try and keep these people honest.
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National should not be surprised that this has blown up in their faces.
They have spent 9 years effectively sitting on their arse without doing hardly any policy groundwork, so that they are now going into an election without a platform that they all subscribe to. Instead, we have a series of 1 page policy statements, comprising mostly of present govt policy. What do you expect National MPs to say when they have been asked to swallow so many dead rats?
If they had done the work and developed a policy platform that the party believed in, they wouldn't be facing the prospect of the campaign going pear-shape simply because of loose lips that hint distrust.
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A couple of questions for Key: 1) Why do we need to spend an extra $5b on infrastructure (roads?) where most economists agree NZ's problem is productivity growth? 2) NZ does have a debt problem, it is called the current account deficit - so how can you be sure any NZ govt additions to this debt mountain won't degrade NZ's current ranking with the world's financiers?
I don't buy the line of 'borrowing just for infrastructure' is really just spin, debt is debt.
NZ has struggled to get rid the debt noose we have had over the last 30 years, and I certainly do not want to go back there. Why can't our govt to set an example to the population of living within one's means, but it does show you the corner National are now painted into, where they have to borrow to exercise their program.I'm not sure what a government might have done about that though.
Capital gains tax, stamp duty, enforcement of the current tax code on people trading property for income, steps to make shares relatively more attractive
Add in there, Kiwisaver being established in their first term.
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I thought Obama would be too inexperienced for the top job, and if elected, would become a lightweight after being ground down by the Washington commentariat and lobby groups.
Now I'm not so sure.
You have to admit it is a very smart campaign he is running. Going to Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Europe is certainly courageous, and pulling it off without even a small gaffe is really something to behold. Then he makes an inspirational speech in the same place where JFK spoke makes people sit up and take notice. Obviously McCain is - now moaning about media bias.
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Here in the wop wops we have good connections, both landline and DSL, provided by Telecom. Nowadays, we get a consistent download speed of ~1.5mb/sec so really I cannot complain given the state of development and the fact we are 5km from the nearest cabinet.
However, a Vodafone neighbour closer to this cabinet complains it takes 20mins just to send an email because his broadband 'drops out' regularly.
I have taken the position of sticking with Telecom because it gives us a better chance of any upgrades that happen to pass by
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Stuff tells me that Shane Arden "had no idea what was really in the policy" because only Key and English are privy to it.
So, hey, it's not that the party as a whole has secret policies - it's just that the leadership doesn't trust the backbenchers enough to tell them what those policies are!
Seriously, is that not bizarre?
Yep, and only 3 months out from an election! Obviously, there will have to be a steep learning curve for all the candidates once these policies are released 1 month out. That's of course, they do not already know which brings into focus FletcherB's suspicions.
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But I'm more exercised, to be honest, by Key's cynical implication that someone in the Parliamentary Service is corrupt, to try and divert attention from the more obvious conclusion that someone in his organisation is leaking stuff to Nicky Hager.
And Key was, quite clearly, making shit up about Sparc. In both cases his targets weren't part of the political hurly-burly, but people for whom it is hard to defend themselves. So I don't see that he really has the moral high ground.
Hear, hear!! I notice Sparc has replied in ...wait for it... today's Herald. But to continually insunuate there is a leak in Parliamentary Services after a supposedly thorough police investigation is particularly nasty.
I'm with you on this, but I still say a fresh set of faces on the Labour frontbench early in the third term would have made little difference to their current predicament.
In part, this predicament is of the Government's own making: its cautious, often placatory style, its concentration in its early years, when it had great authority, on rebalancing the economic and social priorities and its consequential focus more on past battles than future prospects and so its failure convincingly to depict a future New Zealand.
I though the public had enough of governments projecting a future NZ back in 1999 because there were too many disappointing efforts up till then. I would argue that rebalancing of economic and social priorities stands NZ in good stead for the future, and the science behind climate change has only become conclusive for most of the public in the last few years. As well, you certainly cannot accuse them of being lazy whilst in power, c.f. National between 1990-99.
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I don't believe the mood for change (of Government) would be so prevalent if Labour had stayed fresh and with an ongoing vision.
I think you're right. They needed fresh talent and a plan for a fresh orientation immediately after winning three years ago.
RB, do you really think if Clark had replaced most of the front bench then, but leaving Cullen there, and brought in the anti-smacking bill etc, things would be different now? I don't think so.
People are not dumb, contrary to what Craig says, but once they have a snitch against you it is very hard to shift.