Labour

Labour are past masters at breaking rules surrounding electioneering from the tax-payers purse. They were admonished by the Auditor-General about their Working for Families bus stop adverts, they nicked $840,000 from parliamentary services that they had to pay back for Helen’s pledge card rort and this election they are at it again. (Click for larger image)

Parliamentary Services says the following about funding for publicity:

Publicity can be funded from Vote: Parliamentary Service if it meets the rules set out in the ‘Speaker’s Directions’ (or ‘Directions and Specifications for Services and Funding Entitlements for the House of Representatives, its Members, and Former Members’). The rules require that publicity funded from Vote: Parliamentary Service:

• has a parliamentary purpose;
• identifies that it has been paid for by the Parliamentary Service;
• contains contact details for the member or party responsible for the publicity;
• does not contain inappropriate/misleading representation or descriptions of electorates; and
• does not contain electioneering that explicitly seeks support for the re-election of a member or party, explicitly encourages party membership or explicitly solicits financial support.

These fliers definitely breach points 4 and 5.

It is blatant electioneering on the taxpayer purse – and deliberately blurs the lines between taxpayer and party funded campaigning (ie: the Let’s Not segment of the pamphlet).

Furthermore – they use ‘Campbell Live’ as a source for their food price increases – hardly a reputable source!

It claims a 20% increase from Sep 2010 to April 2011 (so actually 7 months not the 8 months they claim).

According to a more reputable source – Statistics NZ’s Food Price Index – food prices rose 3.1% between Sep 2010 and April 2011.

So they are being deliberately misleading not only on the time frame claimed but also on the actual figures. This is a clear breach of Parliamentary Services funding rules. I think it may be time for another complaint to the Speaker and to the Auditor-General.

They’re deliberately blurring the line between party funded and taxpayer funded.  Labour tries to bend the rules again.

Also I am pretty sure there are rules in the size of the crest which must be the same size as the party logo or larger.

Finally I am pretty sure that these fliers also breach Electoral Commission rules regarding authorisation statements. They are completely absent from the fliers.

If Labour cannot or as it seems in this case will not follow election rules then how can we trust them to run the country?

UPDATE: I have just received this advice from the Electoral Commission. It has apparently been sent to all political parties and therefore it shows Labour’s total disregard for all the rules.

PROMOTER STATEMENTS REQUIRED ON ALL ELECTION ADVERTISEMENTS

• All parliamentary-funded publicity you distribute which includes a political message is an election advertisement. It must include a promoter statement.
  • MP publicity must include an MP promoter statement.
  • Leader’s Office publicity must include a promoter statement.
• Failing to include a promoter statement on an election advertisement is an offence, and subject to a fine of up to $40,000.
• A political message is anything that “is reasonably regarded as directly or indirectly encouraging or persuading voters to vote or not to vote for a candidate or party”. A political message can be as innocuous as words like “Working for our community” because that implies a judgement about how good the MP is at their work, and can be seen as indirectly encouraging voters to vote for that MP.

Labour are clearly and demonstrably in breach of regulations.

Matt McCarten eviscerates Phil Goff in the Herald on Sunday:

I can’t see how Labour can keep whistling in the dark over its dismal public support.

I don’t know how its leader, Phil Goff, can keep pretending he has a chance of winning in November.

Two polls this week showed the gap between National and Labour remaining at a yawning 20 per cent. When was the last time a government polled consistently so far ahead of its opposition?

Every poll these days seems to tell the same story: John Key and his party can rule alone. People like Key and trust him.

We have a prime minister whom two out of every three New Zealanders prefer.

That means even voters of other parties support him over their own leaders. Extraordinary but true.

That is why it is completely baffling that Labour’s crippled campaign seems to focus on denigrating the most popular Prime Minister since records began. From the outside it looks like there are actually different factions campaigning. On the one hand the old cripples like Hodgson and Trevor Mallard who seem intent on flinging poo with gay abandon, ably assisted by their Mini-me helpers like Chris Hipkins, and on the other hand smart competent operators like Clare Curran.

Labour has latched on to an anti-privatisation agenda as an election winner, given the fact that more than 62 per cent of New Zealanders oppose those asset sales.

We would normally expect a lift to Labour after this Budget.The party should also have hoped for additional positive profile from its national congress last weekend. But neither opportunity has made an iota of difference.

Mind you, the congress was insipid, at best. Labour barred media from most of the event and spun to a resentful press three policies that didn’t create much excitement.

Replacing the Families Commission with a Ministry for Children isn’t fooling anybody, given Labour was happy to govern for most of its nine years with the present arrangement.

Even Labour’s major policy of massive investment in research and development would have gone over the heads of most people except, of course, the farmers who are being tapped to pay for it.

I imagine the cockies will be adding an extra zero to their cheques made out to the National Party’s re-election campaign fund.

Labour’s policy announcements are dis-jointed and completely un-related except for their inability to pay for anything.

For some reason, though, Goff isn’t connecting. I’ve come to the conclusion that voters have taken their phones off the hook and aren’t listening to anything Goff is saying.

I’ve said it before in this column, but Goff has no choice but to step down and let a fresh face have a go as leader.

He has had two years as leader and the gap between the two main parties has widened. No one, surely, believes that a Goff-led party has any show.

It is clear the whole Labour caucus is made up of a bunch of gutless wonders, resigned to coast along for the next six months and lose, rather than get a backbone and make the change.

Labour needs a new messenger if it has any chance.

Frankly, it’s a dereliction of duty for the current caucus to flag this election away. If it does then it doesn’t deserve any support from its core constituency.

And there is Matt making a pitch for the Mana party, or more likely the Greens to step up to the proper and fitting role of an opposition party. But Matt is right to say the phone is off the hook. I have been saying that for two years, voters don’t care what labour has to say right now, whereas Labour is still believing that the naughty voters just made an awful mistake and they will return if they can just show them that John Key is evil.

It would have a better chance in November if it put the names of its current MPs on a wall and then have some kid throw a dart at it.

Whoever gets their name lanced by the dart gets the job.

It’s a bit over the top but it’s a better strategy than the one Labour’s running now

I’m not sure that there is any great need for Labour to change right now. Julia Gillard waiting till closer to the election to roll Kevin Rudd and then go on to win. The one thing that national fears though is a someone other than Goff leading Labour because right now anyone is better than Goff, and the two political cripples, Mallard and Hodgson, being axed and replaced with someone competent like Clare Curran.

It is now obvious that Mallard and Curran have had a falling out of sorts over strategy. Mallard has now openly slagged off Curran on Kiwiblog and on Twitter.

Matt McCarten is right Goff needs to go and someone who can run the sandpit should take over.

The latest Herald Digipoll is out:

• National  - 54.4 per cent
• Labour  - 33.7 per cent
• ACT - 1.7 per cent up from 0.9…nearly 100% increase in support
• Greens – 5.5 per cent
• Winston First 2.7 per cent

Mana didn’t register, expect Bomber to now start abusing the Herald for their polling because his beloved Mana party wasn’t mentioned.

As Farrar notes in his Herald column (still has it despite Bombers rude emails):

So one would expect the only debate to be about how much of a bounce this budget would give Labour – how much would the gap between National and Labour close.

The gap in the last Herald-Digipoll was 15%. Five months ago (before National announced its privatisation plans) National was at 52% and Labour at 37%.

In today’s Herald, the first post Budget poll is revealed, and it shows the opposite to what most would expect – the gap has increased from 15% to 21%. National has gone up 2% and Labour has dropped 4%.

Labour’s budget response was pathetic. I said on radio Live yesterday that the Greens were now the default opposition, despite their numbers. Only they provided a decent counter to the budget. Labour are becoming more and more irrelevant and to prove it we have Labour’s campaign manager releasing the latest stunt to claw back vital poll ratings in the lead up to the election.

Instead of focussing on what matters to Kiwis he is trying to have a pissing contest with a right wing blogger.

It’s official. Labour has admitted it. They have No Plan and No Vision and it is on the front page of their website. They proclaim it in large letters right under their logo.

It is obvious that the political cripples like Mallard and Hodgson are still in control of their strategy when epic fails like this keep on appearing.

I wonder too what their spokesperson regarding communications, technology and intellectual property thinks about the stealing of registered trademarks and colours of their opponents. She said in November 2010:

My interest is in NZ ensuring it doesn’t sell out our ability to control out intellectual property, particularly in the digital environment. New Zealand produced content is our economic edge. It’s also our identity.

Hmmm…and now Labour is stealing intellectual property and putting it all over their website.

Support for the etcetera policy….

Chris Hipkins says:

May 9, 2011 at 8:10 pm

Monty – happy to debate the bigger issues with National any time, any place. Unlike the govt we’ve actually proposed changes to address cost of living issues (GST off fresh fruit and vege, cheaper early childhood education, etc), raise incomes (minimum wage increases, tax-free threshold, etc) and get the economy moving again (monetary policy changes etc).

Seems the strongest policy here is ETC….

• Fresh fruit and veges – at the most $6 a week for a household…
• ECE – where’s the cash coming from and when?
• Minimum wage – 6000 jobs lost.
• Tax free threshold – $10 by 2016 – if Labour can work out how to pay for it…
• Monetary policy changes – bigger mortgages/higher interest rates ….

The non-etcetera promises here amount to $16 a week…. maybe….. by 2016.

I certainly support etcetera.

January 1, 1970 12:00 pm viaReplyRetweetFavorite

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So now the so called party for the working Kiwi is attacking police officers who work shifts and weekends for taking a break together?

F*cking pathetic.

And he definitely shouldn’t be reporting on their movements.  I doubt they’ll appreciate that.

As a former PM’s office staffer he should know better than that.

A great sentiment from Australia’s Finance minister Penny Wong.

”These savings will help bring the budget back to surplus in 2012-13 and show the government is determined to lead the way by tightening its own belt first,” Senator Wong said.

Why isn’t there a Labour leader in new Zealand that can say the sorts of things that are being said by top Labor politicians in Australia.

FOr that matter why aren’t there any politicians in New Zealand prepared to say what needs to be said to the New Zealand public that is used to be ing bribed with other peoples money.

The good folk at Act on Campus are to be commended for their sign making efforts.

The Turtle sign is pure GOLD!

Some more suggestions have come in via the tipline:

Labour’s “Stop” campaign is taking a bit of a hammering. Remember to download an image and change your Facebook profile picutre and then Like their Facebook page. They can’t remove people who like their page, though they have been removing images that have been uploaded.

Screenshots are your friend though.

Here are some more examples for you to use.

Once again Phil Goff is all over the show with his responses to a crisis. This time it is his inconsistent approach over comments by Damien O’Connor’s “gaggle of  gays” comments.

Here are two clips that show his foolishness.

The first clip has Phil Goff saying that he thought Damien O’Connor should have been higher on the list and then finishes up with some “newspeak” where he says that the list has “winners and not winners”.

Then bFM from Monday morning Phil Goff essentially laughs off the comments from Damien O’Connor, no mention of them being inappropriate or him needing to apologise. (Full interview: http://www.95bfm.com/assets/sm/199235/3/mondayphilgoff[dot]mp3

Phil Goff on Damien O’Connor’s Gaggle of Gays comments by whaleoil

Where I come from “Not Winners” are called losers. In labour they obviously aren’t allowed to use such derogatory terms like loser. “Gaggle of Gays” is fine, that is just Damien, but you cartainly cannot, and must not use the word losers.