Chris Trotter

Chris Trotter has some stern words about Labour, its caucus and David Shearer:

AS LABOUR’S TRAIN rolls on towards 2014, I feel a bit like the bull in the Georgia politician’s story. Describing yet another doomed campaign waged by his liberal opponents in the Senate, the all-powerful leader of the segregationist Southern Caucus, Senator Richard B. Russell Jnr, observed that their position “reminded him of a bull who had charged a locomotive train. That was the bravest bull I ever saw, but I can’t say a lot for its judgement.”

I should have known that in championing the leadership credentials of David Cunliffe I was backing a bull over a locomotive.

Yes the bull got run down. What about Labour’s caucus and their abilities?  Read more »

The most likely and strident criticism of Grant Robertson is he is gay. Social conservatives will be up in arms that a gay man could lead our country, as if it is some sort of insult to our nationhood.

Political pundits will wonder if New Zealand is ready for a gay Prime Minister, and question whether Chris Trotter’s Waitakere Man is willing to vote for a homosexual.

Grant’s sexuality may cost him some small number of votes, but it will not be as important as the team of people he leads, the financial strength of the Labour Party, and the policies they take into an election campaign. Grant has been careful not to associate himself too closely with gay issues or identity politics, so he won’t be able to be linked to drag queens or poofters prancing in Ponsonby.  Read more »

Labor in Australia is planning a nasty campaign based on envy and class warfare. This is Gillard’s union roots coming out. But it is wrong footed, negative and won’t work.

Labour here need to get this message.

In short, Labor is seeking an old-fashioned, populist, left-wing fight based on envy and resentment. The usual shorthand is “class warfare”. It’s the exact opposite of the approach proposed by Kevin Rudd: “One of the difficult things about leadership is uniting a nation rather than dividing it,” he said last October. “The easiest thing to do in national political life is to divide us; to divide our country, to divide our people. It’s an easy script, historically on grounds of race or even religion, sometimes in terms of class.”  Read more »

Eddie’s kite flying at The Standard appears to have failed. Eddie wrote that the whispers were that David Shearer was going to put his leadership to the membership regardless of caucus.

Vernon Small however has scotched that pipe dream with his tweet this morning:

Stand easy Labour. Shearer says he will put leadership to caucus vote not straight to full electoral college.

— Vernon Small (@VernonSmall) January 22, 2013

Shearer was never going to fall for the kite flying of the disaffected, and his advisors…to a man are all Robertson loyalists and that certainly wouldn’t have helped their cause.  Read more »

Chris Trotter takes gold with this brilliant comment about David Cunliffe on Cactus Kate’s blog

In case you’ve forgotten here is that very special, “infamous bus-stop speech” from David Cunliffe watch after the break:  Read more »

Chris Trotter has written a cogent explanation of why the anti-democratic intentions of the Greens, Labour, Grey Power and the CTU with their asset sale petition is bereft of logic and flies in the face of the government’s electoral mandate to partially sell assets:

The target of 310,000 signatures has been reached – or so we are told.

The coalition of interest groups and political parties seeking a citizens’ initiated referendum on the National Government’s plans to partially privatise the state-owned energy generators has yet to submit its petition to the Clerk of the House for checking.

Even if this final hurdle is cleared, the petitioners will still have to find their way around a much more daunting obstacle: the Government’s mandate.

The government most certainly does have a mandate. And the Greens, Labour, Grey Power and the CTU would like to believe that they don’t. Trotter comprehensively destroys that myth.  Read more »

The blog started Saturday by having a look at a number of Christchurch people taking pictures up women’s skirts at malls.  And wouldn’t you know it?  A teacher was arrested as well.  Iain Lees-Galloway shows he is a slimy git by opening a Burger King and then refusing to take a bite, preferring to preach sensible food choices.  Cam then called for nominations for Worst Political Journalist, and Barry Soper and John Campbell appeared hot favourites.   Next we had a vote on Best Political Journalist, which Larry Williams took out with a massive 47% of the vote.  Graham McCready withdrew litigation against John Banks because it made no sense to anyone – as in – they couldn’t understand what it said.  Whale then claims a win on his Hekia Parata predictions and wonders why Key has let this train wreck happen.  We raise our eyebrows about Nelson looking for a scooter riding bottom pincher and then watch a video of what happens to a pig at the bottom of the sea over 7 days.  Next a post where Greens are fighting Greens over the Google solar plant.  On the one side: solar energy.  On the other? Turtles.   Charles Krauthammer explains why gun control alone isn’t the solution to mass shootings.   A MENSA spokesperson calls people with low IQs carrots and the BBC feels they have to apologise.  There is a property for sale next to Kim Dotcom‘s place.  Cam suggests the GCSB or the US should have bought it to set up spying operations.   WOBH is calling for The Whale Army to send in their holiday snaps, in a new feature called Snapped!  Cam takes a brief look at who will enter parliament if Tim Groser leaves for the WTO.  To close the day, a WhaleTech post looks at a the cull-de-sac that’s the QII roll-up keyboard. Read more »

Chris Trotter has been doing some research about the back story of David Shearer’s back story. It is a fascinating read…and why I am linking to it…it is required reading for anyone in NZ politics and the media.

Some excerpts:

IT’S SURPRISING how little we know about David Shearer. For most of us, his sudden appearance among the contenders for Helen Clark’s vacated seat of Mt Albert was the first appearance he’d made upon the New Zealand political stage. For Mr Shearer, however, the 2009 Mt Albert By-Election was a case of third-time-lucky. He had already stood for the Labour Party twice before: the first time, in 1999, as a lowly ranked candidate on the Party List; and the second, in 2002, in the safe National seat of Whangarei.

Our ignorance of those earlier attempts is forgivable, however, because Mr Shearer has always been a political paratrooper. In contrast to the party foot soldiers who slog their way through the Big Muddy of branch meetings, canvassing exercises, billboard construction and pamphlet deliveries, rising through the ranks to fight the good fight on policy committees or the NZ Council, Mr Shearer’s preference has been to jump into parliamentary candidacies from a great height and out of a clear sky.

Chris is a good old fashioned campaigner and clearly treats with suspicion anyone parachuted in.

But Chris has also delved into the dark past of Shearer:

Such ideological agnosticism – explained away as good old Kiwi pragmatism – does, however, offer us a way into the most unusual and contradictory aspect of Mr Shearer’s entire career: his support for mercenary armies, or, as they prefer to be known these days: private military and security companies (PMSCs).

It is possible to trace this thread all the way back to Somalia in 1992 where Mr Shearer headed up the relief effort of the Save the Children Fund. It is more than likely he enjoyed a close working relationship with the United Nations Mission in Somalia and would, therefore, have been aware of their appeal to the PMSC, Defence Systems Ltd (DSL) for 7,000 Ghurkha mercenaries to protect their relief convoys. In the end DSL turned them down, but it is clear that the notion of PMSC involvement in UN protection work (as opposed to soldiers provided by UN member states) made a deep impression on Mr Shearer.

That impression was intensified by Mr Shearer’s experiences three years later as the UN’s Senior Humanitarian Advisor in the West African nation of Liberia. Just across Liberia’s northern border, in the ravaged state of Sierra Leone, the PMSC known as Executive Outcomes had been employed under contract to the Sierra Leone Government. Shearer was deeply impressed by this mercenary army’s lightning-fast defeat of the Liberian-backed forces assailing the ruling regime.

There are many more revelations about Shearer’s back story…the wonder is why no one in the media has done this sort of work on Shearer.

Could Shearer have done some work for Britain’s spies?

Festive season wishes from the Owl

Firstly I would like to thank all the people who have read and commented on my observations on Whale Oil. A big thank you to Cameron Slater who to this day doesn’t really know who I am yet allowed me to publish freely on his blog.

I have never done any of this for any financial gain, reward or recognition. While the majority of my observations were for the benefit of union members I was pleased that four times during the year my Observations were recognised.

1. Chris Trotter wrote that I was mis-guided in my direction and understanding of union finances. I think I won that discussion point.
2. Andrew Little showed his true colours when he wrote “the only parasites are employers” and was challenged in parliament – that comment will hurt his political career with the 1 million self employed business people in New Zealand
3. But finally in 2012 we saw Unions start to file their accounts and some had to spend thousands filing correct returns.
4. We uncovered finally that Unions were failing to disclose millions in funds and expenditure

Secondly – I believe my policy of always apologizing if wrong and only using information freely available in the public domain meant I could sleep each night knowing that I hadn’t gone into the “dark world” of reporting. All I have ever done is read what people put out and observed.

Finally I have only one goal for 2013 – NZCTU is held accountable for the complete lack of governance and to be finally shown to be nothing but a cult wasting millions of member’s funds. I hope ACC pulls all their funding because under the Health & Saftey programs – NZCTU have just failed completely to deliver on the program that they were contracted to do.

The Owl retires

Scott Yorke at Imperator Fish makes some predictions. My favourites are:

Changes in the blogosphere

David Farrar will retire from blogging, move away from politics entirely, and devote himself wholeheartedly to a new business selling dietary supplements and self-help books. Chris Trotter will take over at Kiwiblog.

Someone should tell Scott that Chris has been ghost writing Kiwiblog for some years.

The world will end again

2013 will happen, and the world won’t end on December 21 this year. But someone will discover that they calculated the date wrong and that Doomsday is actually scheduled for late 2013, just after morning tea, when Jesus will turn up to announce who is to be saved from the fiery inferno to come. Confusion will reign when the first person on his list turns out to be Cameron Slater.

We are all saved Scott.

New show

TV3 will launch a new entertainment show called Labour’s Caucus Has Got Talent.

No it hasn’t.