April 2011

How long before someone in Labour pulls this cunning stunt?

Rep. Joe Crowley delivered a “speech” on the House floor without saying a single word. The clip started to pick up steam and eventually went viral. It now has more than 250,000 views in a litle more than a week.

I am heartened that my prediction that National will not rule out a deal with ACT led by Don Brash has been shown to be true.

The Prime Minister, now off a plane and back into circulation, has done what ninth floor sources suggested he would, hosing down the stupid Bill English lines that a vote for Brash was a vote for Goff and other messages that makes this blog question how he managed to even win 21% in 2002.

Mr Key would not say whether he would work with Dr Brash: “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” He revealed he was aware of rumours that Dr Brash was planning a comeback when he said last week that National would seek to keep ACT afloat by campaigning only for the party vote in Mr Hide’s Epsom electorate.

I may not agree with John Key’s policy direction, being far to wet for the liking of a fiscally conservative blogger, but like I admired Helen Clark for her determination to win at all costs while fucking up the country and breaking any rule that got in her way, I also admire John Key for being an once in a generation politician.

It is not possible to believe that a man as politically astute as John Key hasn’t worked out what will happen if his poll & focus group driven, fuzzy message National Party comes up against a party that has clear principles and a clear message. Unlike the faceless people in Wellington who do not get out around the country talking to actual people, and especially National Party members, John has had to bear the brunt of criticism over the ETS, being soft on Maoris and massive government spending.

He also knows National donors are refusing to give as freely as they did in the past, and a lot of this money will go direct to Don Brash. A well funded party lead by Don that has clear, simple messages based on good principles will likely take a rump of right wing support from National. This will free up John to move to the centre occupying the ground vacated by Labour, broadening the centre right vote and preserving Johns chances of being a three term Prime Minister.

Original Post: 25 April 2006

This is my ANZAC Day trib­ute post­ing. ANZAC Day means a great deal for me and my fam­ily. I sup­pose it is because we have a con­nec­tion to the orig­i­nal ANZACS in 1915 and Gal­lipoli and to a vet­eran of a war much fresher in our minds, Viet Nam.

Firstly I pay trib­ute to my Great Grand-father Harry Crozier. I never really knew him, he died many years ago. Harry served in the  Gal­lipoli cam­paign and thank­fully came home alive albeit with one leg. I know he spent con­sid­er­able time in Rotorua con­va­lesc­ing and learned to carve maori carv­ings as part of his reha­bil­i­ta­tion.

The sec­ond per­son I pay trib­ute to is a guy who truly epit­o­mises the ANZAC spirit. He is an Aussie, liv­ing in New Zealand who fought for new Zealand in Viet Nam. He is mar­ried to a Kiwi and has three Kiwi kids, and three Kiwi grand kids. He is also my Father-in-law.

41873 Gnr Atkins KG 161 Bty was in Viet Nam in 1966. Based in Nui Dat and one of the first to arrive and estab­lish the Base and gun posi­tions. “Oz” par­tic­i­pated in the famous  Bat­tle of Long Tan where the Kiwi guns were instru­men­tal in sav­ing 3 pla­toons of D Com­pany of the  6^th Bat­tal­ion, Royal Aus­tralian Reg­i­ment (6RAR) and enabling the thrash­ing of a Reg­i­ment of Viet Cong.

Each gun fired over 1200 rounds that day and night in sup­port of the Aussies. The bat­tle was fought in a rub­ber tree plan­ta­tion near the vil­lage of Long Tan, about 40 km north-east of Vung Tau, South Viet­nam on August 18–19, 1966. The bat­tle was fought all after­noon and most of the night in pour­ing mon­soon rain. The guns ran so hot that wet blan­kets were draped over them in an attempt to keep the bar­rels cool.

Kevin tells many sto­ries of his time in Viet Nam but they are not at all “warry” to use his term. They speak a sim­ple truth that war is tough and bru­tal. He often says he hopes his chil­dren never have to go to war and thank­fully they prob­a­bly won’t have to.

It seems so long ago, yet for some only yes­ter­day. The Gov­ern­ment to this day still treats vet­er­ans with dis­dain with their han­dling, and obfus­ca­tion of the Agent Orange scan­dal. I say a scan­dal because that is what it is. You need only ask any vet­eran about Agent Orange and they will tell you they weren’t just sprayed with they were doused in it, they drank water soaked with it and were often wet to their socks with Agent Orange. Check out this photo of Nui Dat in 1966 . Every coun­try in Viet Nam at the time has acknowl­edged it hap­pened and com­pen­sated their vet­er­ans and New Zealand con­tin­ues to deny it occurred and con­tin­ues to hold spu­ri­ous enquiries. [The Government has since said Sorry, but for me it was too little, too late]

Kevin didn’t want me to write any­thing about him but I insisted. He didn’t want me to make him out to be a hero. In his words he was there, he was a gun­ner and that was all. Like most vet­er­ans he is intensely proud of his achieve­ments and at the same time intensely bit­ter at the way they were treated upon return­ing. It is high time that Kiwis were proud of what our guys did in Viet Nam, proud of their achieve­ments and proud of their for­ti­tude to fight. I admire any­one who has the gump­tion to stand up and be counted with their own life.

My Father-in-Law is a true ANZAC, some­one I am proud to know and love. I admire his achieve­ments. I fondly remem­ber the ANZAC Day we spent in Syd­ney 11 years ago. Aus­tralians cel­e­brate ANZAC Day, Kiwis com­mem­o­rate it. In Syd­ney on that day Kevin was proud to wear his medals and com­fort­able wear­ing them in the street. Syd­ney was one big party that day and we ate and drank pretty much for free where ever we went. Kids and adults alike pat­ted him on the back and shook his hand and called out “good on ya mate”. The pity is that the same can­not be said of New Zealand. ANZAC Day is treated as a solemn occa­sion. Peo­ple do show their respects and con­tinue to show it by the increased atten­dances at parades all over the coun­try, but is “respects” as in at a funeral rather than respect as in admi­ra­tion.

It is high time New Zealand “cel­e­brated” the achieve­ments of our sol­diers and stopped “com­mem­o­rat­ing” them. ANZAC Day should be like it was in Syd­ney 11 years ago. It is cer­tainly a day I will not for­get.

A cou­ple of things remain for me to pass onto my chil­dren. They are vis­its to Gal­lipoli and to Viet Nam to show the kids where our rel­a­tives fought and shed blood so that they may never know war. Hope­fully they will never know war as other gen­er­a­tion have.

Lest we forget.

As mentioned earlier today National are adopting a very negative stance to Don Brash leading ACT.  With John Key away this is being led by Bill English who is trying to extract utu for Don rolling him, and then showing him up by getting nearly double the vote Bill did, as well as filling the party coffers and repaying all the debt Bill incurred as leader.

This negative approach to Don shows how stupid Bill is. Brash commands a lot of attention, and enjoys a lot of affection within National. Many in caucus owe their place in parliament to the revival in National that was brought about by Don Brash. He has the credibility to take a lot of National members and National voters with him, simply by promising the things that National has weaseled out on. A platform of removal of the ETS, one standard of citizenship and drastic cuts to the deficits will appeal to a lot of voters and donors.

National need to think this through carefully. If they go on the warpath against Don and he ends up holding the balance of power they will have to deal with him after the election, and though Don is a gentleman he may extract some utu of his own.

Careful thought seems to be something National doesn’t have a lot of when the PM is out of the country. The much vaunted campaign team must have brains in their arse if they did not know the moves Don has been making.

A decent campaign team would have been good mates with Brash immediately after the election, looking after Brash not ridiculing him, giving him options rather than forcing him to take the steps he has. The same goes for the other potential new parties, well funded, with good potential leaders, all of whom want to occupy the space on the right that National has vacated in a race to placate the wets on the front bench.

They seem to have forgotten that Don doesn’t actually need to appeal to everyone. If he wins 5 to 10% he will hold the balance of power and he can do that ignoring the need to be poll driven or appeal to the middle. Why the party has highly paid staff members who have not war-gamed this scenario or worked for the entire term to prevent it from happening is impossible for this blog to work out. The National Board should be asking some tough questions about campaign preparedness as it is no surprise to anyone in the political circles in Auckland that Don has been considering his options.

But then that says more about the so-called beltway experts and their real world expertise than anything else.

This blog can reveal that the Herald will be running an extensive article on Don Brash’s leadership challenge. Rodney apparently is staying true to his type, and is trying to kick Don has hard as he can on the grounds Don is a doddery old man who will not be around in 2014.

Rodney’s advisors are the ones needing a kicking because they have allowed Rodney to reinforce the left-wing meme that he is a nasty, unpleasant man who has almost no appeal to the average voter. He has given Don a fantastic opportunity to point out that under Rodney it will be highly unlikely that ACT will be in parliament to contest the 2014 election because of Rodney’s unbelievably high negatives.

Don is also able contrast his own principled issues based approach with Rodney’s hypocrisy over perks, and no one actually knowing what Rodney stands for any more now he is a perk taker not a perk buster.

Matt McCarten is back, of course he never left, but he is back threatening:

It’s election year. Every politician who deserves it is getting a good kicking.

iPredict should run stocks on who will kick more politicians in election year, me or Matt.

Or even better I could have a column opposite Matt in the HoS where we compete to bash the most politicians in our columns. Chance would be a fine thing.

Labour are playing out attacks on John Key for using a helicopter to avoid 3 hour traffic jams. Trevor Mallard is playing it up the most and he is being a bit silly.

Kerre Woodham lambasts Labour for their pettiness and rightly so especially over transport arrangements for the Prime Minister. It was while I was researching my previous post that I came across this:

The trans-Tasman anger was enormous. At one stage, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, on her way back to New Zealand from the Middle East, found her aircraft blockaded on the Melbourne airport tarmac by laid-off Ansett workers, who refused to allow the jet to take off. Eventually, an RNZAF Orion maritime reconnaissance aircraft had to be sent to fetch her.

It shows an appalling hypocrisy from Labour when their own leader summonsed a plane across the Tasman to rescue her from picketing Ansett workers. John Key could have probably made 1000 flights between Auckland and Hamilton before he even came close to the cost of a full crew, presumably a back up crew and an Orion and fuel to save a feckless Prime Minister stuck in a picket at Melbourne airport.

If that wasn’t so bad the news reports show an even worse position for Labour and Helen Clark.

A group of Ansett’s aircraft loaders had turned up at Melbourne airport for the early shift, but when they heard the news, they used heavy moving equipment to blockade an Air New Zealand plane in protest.

They didn’t know it but Helen Clark was supposed to be boarding that plane to fly back to New Zealand from a trip to Europe. Instead she was trapped at Melbourne airport for five hours.

In a day of high farce, Victoria police eventually came to the rescue, airlifting Ms Clark from the airport in a helicopter just before lunch.

Using a police helicopter to save yourself from embarrassment. But wait it gets worse:

Helen Clark was flown out in the end on an [RNZAF] Orion – sent over by Acting Prime Minister Jim Anderton. He said he’d acted as a sovereign state to defend our Prime Minister, and accused the Ansett workers of criminal acts. Ms Clark said she was disturbed by Australian Kiwi bashing which she described as absolutely unreasonable.

I’ll tell you what is unreasonable…exactly what Kerre Woodham describes:

A prime minister going by helicopter to an engagement is probably a better option than being in a speeding motorcade and hanging your driver out to dry when you’re found out – as history would note.

Worse when that same Prime Minister who hung out her staff called upon the air force to save her at huge expense in Melbourne. If you are going to point the finger make very sure that your side is squeaky clean before you do.

UPDATE: Of course there was also this incident when Clark wanted to make it to Grey power meeting:

The Prime Minister commandeered an Air Force plane to whisk her to an appointment with Grey Power in Invercargill yesterday.

High winds closed Wellington airport and like hundreds of others, Helen Clark could not get a commercial flight out. Her office made a phone call to Defence Force headquarters, and she was driven up to Ohakea air base where a seven-seater King Air plane was waiting.

She was flown south to keep her appointment – a speech to Grey Power Southland at the Invercargill Workingmen’s Club.

Arriving an hour-an-a-half late, the Prime Minister was warmly received by the 150-strong crowd who had waited patiently.

Not only commandeering a flight but also a massive drive from Wellington to Ohakea, presumably at great speed. Labour really do look silly now.

Kerre Woodham writes up a storm in the HoS this morning finishing up by telling Labour to suck it up.

It’s never nice being on the losing team. It’s even worse when you have to wait years for a rematch (three if you’re the government opposition – four if you’re the All Blacks).

The best thing to do if you’re on a team that’s been trounced is to keep your head down, work on your selection process and devise a strategy that will see you reclaim the spoils that you believe are rightfully yours.

The All Blacks have been doing this; Labour, however, has not.

No they have not. The y lurch from one single issue to the next without any narrative between them. They are and look dis-jointed and without a strategy. The whole lot don’t look fit to run a bath let alone a country.

To be fair, no party looks flash in opposition. Every time they suggest something – like GST-free fruit and vege – the public can quite justifiably ask why that policy wasn’t introduced while they were in government, if it’s such a good idea.

When the public’s going berko over the $36 million taxpayer contribution to Team New Zealand’s America’s Cup campaign, Labour can’t jump on the bandwagon because, after all, it was their decision when running the country to enter into a binding contract to help fund the campaign.

So I accept that it’s hard warming the bench when you’ve been sitting in the box seat for nine years.

It is no good proclaiming an epiphany because you are suddenly in opposition. The fact remains that Labour had nine years in power and they certainly thrust their “we know best” air of authority upon us all. They can’t now claim to have some brilliant ideas so soon after they were tossed from power.

But it’s embarrassing to watch Labour’s performance. As individuals, they all seem intelligent, engaging and passionate people. But as a party, they’re a shambles.

I know that they feel they have to scrape away at John Key’s Teflon exterior, given that Key is the selling point for National. But its recent sniping looks mean spirited and puerile.

David Cunliffe’s comment that it was a bit rich for Key to tell people they had to tighten their belts – when he’d just collected a cool $5 million from his investments – was a case in point.

I will never be seriously wealthy because I don’t have the smarts or the testosterone to take risks. I’m happy being a wage slave and letting ballsier people than me make millions.

So long as I can pay my bills on time, I’m happy.

But if people amass a fortune through legitimate means, good on them. Few people who fly first class or who have multi-million dollar mansions and properties overseas have got them through luck.

You’d think that having someone who was able to invest wisely would be a good choice for a prime minister.

It seems that labour’s only plan is the politics of envy. But at the same time they haven’t thought that through. John Key is the most popular Prime Minister since records began, slamming him just make them look petty.

Similarly with Key’s decision to use a helicopter to fly between Hamilton and Auckland to fulfil his obligations. They weren’t urgent obligations and with a bit of forward planning he could probably have been driven – but Labour’s bollocking of his decision to fly has backfired.

According to reports, use of RNZAF aircraft was higher under the previous Labour administration and Helen Clark was not averse to making use of the airforce aircraft when she found herself stranded.

A prime minister going by helicopter to an engagement is probably a better option than being in a speeding motorcade and hanging your driver out to dry when you’re found out – as history would note.

Kerre Woodham notes well something that afflicts Labour adherents more than most, forgetfulness. She reminds them in the harshest way of the carry-on of Helen Clark when it comes to transport arrangements. Another more egregious example was at the height of the Ansett failure when Clark was way-laid in Melbourne by striking airport workers and unionists who refused to load her plane. She called up the air force Orion to come rescue her on that occasion, at a cost that would have far outweighed a 30 minute helicopter flight to and from Hamilton.

I have no doubt that the Opposition is getting frustrated with all the good press that Key – and by association National – is getting when they feel it is ill-deserved. But instead of blaming Key, the media and the lack of political nous among the population, they should suck it up and get on with formulating meaningful, middle New Zealand-oriented policy that will attract their core voters back to the fold.

Every first-term government has a honeymoon period. Labour just has to bide its time and work constructively on what matters – not get distracted with petty personal politics.

If you need an example of just how out of touch labour are then witness the claims of victory over their ill-advised and illegal Stop Sign campaign. They think that they can just carry on regardless despite the destruction of their campaign by a few enthusiastic individuals who managed to do what their campaign team should have done and checked a few traffic, safety and advertising regulations out.

Labour need to heed the call of people like Kerre Woodham and suck it up and start getting smart instead of being smart-arses.

David Fisher has an article in the HoS about the current ructions in ACT.

Act leader Rodney Hide’s brand is “toxic” and “people don’t like him”, says the man who wants his job – his old mate Don Brash.

The former National Party leader upset his usual mates yesterday when he described Prime Minister John Key as “mooching” the country into debt then saying he wanted Hide’s job.

Brash also raised the stakes for Act by saying he might launch his own party if he doesn’t get Hide’s job.

Brash’s enthusiasm for the job also brought speculation that former MP and Auckland mayor John Banks might challenge Hide for Act in the coveted Epsom electorate. Banks did not return calls yesterday.

Ever since the news broke about Brash’s move the tipline has been running hot with information about the ACT leadership, and some very interesting information has come through.

Apparently Rodney has already been taken into the mythical smoke filled room where he has had ACT’s financial backers tell him his personality is the problem, and that with ACT polling at the margin of error he could destroy the party. What was intended to be a session where Rodney resigned ended up as a session where Rodney negotiated and stalled for time.

The problem for Rodney is ACTs backers are most unhappy with him, and could easily withdraw financial support for him. He also has to face the distinct possibility that a strong independent or member of another party will stand in Epsom, against him, either winning the seat or allowing National’s candidate to win. Rodney’s negatives are so high that any credible centre right candidate is likely to beat him.

More visits are expected to the smoke filled room, and with them more bad news for Rodney in the form of additional polling information confirming what every other poll has said, that an ACT party led by Rodney is doomed to irrelevancy.

National’s initial response comes direct from Bill English (see Farrar’s couple of posts) as the PM is travelling. Bill has promised all sorts of retribution on ACT and Don, perhaps in payback for Don rolling Bill. Bill English is one of the most spiteful and grudge-holding politicians I’ve have ever had the displeasure to encounter. Sources close to the PM are hosing this down, as it is nonsensical. A strong ACT is a party that will allow National to have a decent coalition partner to the right, and allow National to campaign more towards the middle ground. It is hard to believe that National would turn on Don because this would mean moving to the right, leaving space in the centre.

Not content with breaching their confidentiality agreements of 7 years ago, with Mark Hotchin and Kerry Finnigan, the Herald is really going gang-busters today with Hotchin Over-use Syndrome (HOS). Now I’m no mate of Hotchin but when I read that banal article today it really ticked me off.

In their article they used one and half pages and 3157 words to say almost nothing. In that 3157 words they used the name of Mark Hotchin no less than 8 times. About once every three paragraphs.

This is almost as bad as Jock Anderson’s repeated cut and paste of Mark Hotchin’s name and details in order to help Barry Colman sell a few more issues of the NBR. Between the Herald and NBR they are really challenging David Farrar as the cut and paste king.

The NZ Herald has sat on this story for more than seven years and then when it suited them to put the slipper into Mark Hotchin, they regurgitated it two weekends in a row purely because it contains, and due to their HOS contains a lot, the name of Mark Hotchin.

The Herald and the NBR should be giving Mark Hotchin a cut of all the additional revenue they are scoring through the over use of his name.

The worst thing about their continued campaign to denigrate a man who hasn’t even been charged with anything is that he can’t retaliate because the authorities have tied up all his cash in an attempt to starve him of legal oxygen. This is not only a case of state authorities bullying someone who is innocent and not even charged with anything but also a case of the media bullying him as well through the gratuitous use of his name so they can sell a few more newspapers.

It seems that the names of Hanover and Mark Hotchin can sell newspapers in the good times and now in the bad times. And all the while it is the media outlets that have creamed it off of their backs, good news or bad news.

What would be good is some honest reporting of the situation, and some honest analysis using facts and not emotion. Fat chance of that happening. Between Jock “Cut Paste” Anderson and Fran(k) O’Sullivan the truth seems to get slaughtered along the way.

While I am slamming the Herald I may as well ask why they haven’t as yet started legal proceedings to over-turn the name suppression of the prominent politician who is fighting over a couple of dogs in the Family Court. Exactly the same reasons they trotted off to court and spent over $100,000 with their top notch lawyers over-turning Mark Hotchin’s name suppression and at same time destroying any pretense of protecting victims of crime from ever having their details revealed apply in this case, and it is far more relevant because it is happening now, not seven years ago. In fact in this case there are no victims, no children, just a couple of silly adults and some silly dogs.

Surely the Herald should exhibit some consistency, or was it just the chance for another free hit on Mark Hotchin that drove them to assail victims rights in such an egregious manner?