National Party

The Maori party is playing like they are important over the government’s mixed ownership model:

The Maori Party is considering breaking from the National-led Government over asset sales.

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia says the party will consider walking out of its relationship with the National Party if a Treaty clause is not extended to those state owned enterprises tagged for partial sale.

Ms Turia said today that the issue was similar to the foreshore and seabed issue for Maori.

“If it comes down to the wire, the Maori Party will have to consider its position with the Government.”

Yep and if it comes down to the wire the Government would have to consider a referendum on the continuation of race based seats in parliament.

It isn’t like Maori aren’t already selling land when it suits them.

The two National party officials involved in the NZ on Air debacle over the poverty documentary, Stephen McElrea and Alistair Bell, really should have known better how this would play out politically. Their ham-fisted efforts have allowed the opposition to get an early start to the new election cycle and get headlines that could have easily been avoided.

With Bell putting his name to the complaint it can now be safely dismissed as politically motivated rather than a real complaint from Mr and Mrs Jones of Warkworth….and Stephen perhaps could have got another board member to raise the issue and then recused himself from deliberations due to his perceived conflict of interest.

Instead Alistair Bell rightly faces accusations of ineptitude that a Board member would lay a complaint, allowing the complaint to be ignored. And Stephen McElrea faces accusations of political meddling. Both situations could and should have been easily avoided.

The ninth floor will be rightly indignant and probably a bit short with these two for a bit. It may well have upset Alistair Bell’s tilt at the presidency this year with such an inept performance and lack of political smarts.

What amazes me is that Bell came out of the murk, shadows and fog of the back rooms where he prefers to operate and stuck his head above the parapet. It may well be the first time he has done this, usually preferring to mount deniable whispering campaigns. More the pity is he got his head shot off.

The F.A.G. are getting all up in arms about John Key’s mate Stephen McElrea having a go at TV3 for running a propaganda documentary in the week before the election.

“We have a lot of members putting pressure on us to ask Stephen McElrea to resign.

“His actions have shown poor judgment and there are real concerns that as he leads a documentary working group responsible for selecting titles within strands he will bring his political hat to the table in this role,” said acting chairwoman Janette Howe.

So what they are saying is they should be allowed to take tax payers money and attack the government with it, and then whinge about the bloke that stood up and said that is not ok?

 

Now we are talking, National is looking at revamping the Crown Minerals Act in order to get the mining sector humming:

The Government is planning “significant” changes to the Crown Minerals Act next year to make it easier for miners to explore and then extract minerals, and it will consult the public and industry soon.

The Government has indicated for some time that it intends reviewing the act, which sets out the regulatory framework for prospecting and mining, activities it wants to boost under its economic development plan.

“We’re going to make significant changes to the Crown Minerals Act because conversations to date under previous ministers have found that there are opportunities to improve the way that companies can access our minerals, apply for opportunities to explore, that type of thing,” Energy and Resources Minister Phil Heatley told the Herald.

A consultation paper will be released early this year to inform the Government on changes to the act.

Karl du Fresne hands out some irony to the left wing:

But let’s back up for a moment. In the general election of 2005, Labour and Jim Anderton’s Progressive Party formed a Centre-Left coalition with a combined share of only 42.26 per cent of the vote. Funny, but I don’t recall the democratic purists of the Left protesting then that the Clark government had no mandate.

The truth is, of course, that it’s mightily difficult for any party to secure an absolute majority under the MMP system. If National can’t even do it with 59 seats to the combined 48 seats won by the two main Centre-Left parties, chances are that no party will ever pull it off. This is the very reason so many anti-MMP campaigners complain that it can lead to political paralysis.

Of course, it suits the Left to argue, now that we have a Centre-Right government, that it has no mandate. It must be a bitter disappointment that MMP, which the Left saw as a way of weakening the National Party’s traditional dominance in New Zealand politics, has let them down. The exquisite irony is that Mr Saxby was one of the original promoters of MMP, but cries “unfair!” when the system delivers a Centre-Right coalition. Well, he asked for it.

For HR to work there needs to be direct repercussions for inept or unacceptable performance.

This means List MPs who everyone knows are useless need to be moved on. MPs in safe seats who are equally useless and offer little to the party need to be replaced by high quality candidates.

Many useless MPs are useless due to being ill suited to the job, not because they are malicious or deliberately useless. It is a bit like a player who is selected for the All Blacks when there are a rash of injuries, someone who just doesn’t have the talent to make it permanent, but gets a step up due to circumstances or a mistake in selection. Unfortunately for political parties MPs can’t be dropped as quickly as All Blacks, and many hang on even though everyone knows they are useless.

Dropping MPs is an important part of building a winning team, just as dropping players is important for the All Blacks.

National is as guilty as any party of retaining useless MPs who offer little and block the path to caucus for someone more talented. Katrina Shanks immediately springs to mind, a woman who doesn’t have good credentials, has never really made it, nor will ever make it, and is not a team player. If National had a proper candidates college or a President that was not embarrassingly useless then Katrina would have been discretely asked what role she wanted outside of parliament, and whether she could help National find another a decent candidate who will follow instructions and who could make a far more effective MP than her pathetic efforts.

To have a strong HR function requires a strong party structure. National don’t have this, and since Judy Kirk left the candidates college has become almost as big a joke as the President.

July 2011 – 309 posts

Phil Twyford started stealing underpants, I had to ring Rodney Hide for confirmation and after he got done with abusing me sorted out Phil Twyford’s strategy for him.

I busted Marlene Campbell for comparing Anne Tolley to Goebbels.

Trevor Mallard again makes defamatory and racist remarks on Red Alert. Not only that he is actively repeating gossip supplied to him by the same board member who actively manipulated events in Rodney and Coromandel. National will at some stage have to deal with this board member and his pals in Auckland. It is unconscionable that people in that position leak to Labour MPs so they can help their mates get selected.

I blog about the origins of the Asymmetrical War.

In July Labour released their capital gains tax and I took great delight in quoting their luminaries previous opposition to the tax.

Phil Goff’s and the NZEI’s contention that they don’t work together is well and truly busted.

Labour were referred to the Police after a complaint by me to the Electoral Commission. The Police have yet to announce any details. Labour have actually got away with repeated breaches of the Electoral Act. I point out why Trevor Mallard couldn’t front for Labour, because he had been warned before. To have him front meant they couldn’t use their lie about not knowing the rules. Their continued ignoring of the rules amounts to willful disobedience.

Labour bombs another campaign launch. Plus they steal the intellectual property of a photographer.

Their website woes continue.

Trevor Mallard sends an email to supporters imploring them not to panic, that their campaign is going brilliantly and to use patsy lines in Twitter. Unfortunately the intellectually infirm Labour supporters use the lines word for word and Twitter looks like a redux of Mallard’s email.

Labour didn’t want to get into details about their Capital Gains Tax plans. They didn’t want that because they simply hadn’t done the work. Almost every question was met with a response that the “Expert panel” would be looking at that. Unfortunately for Labour the public very definitely wanted details.

Mallard’s email was picked up by the media.

Labour start bombarding the public with taxpayer funded electioneering. I start writing letters. Still more letters.

Labour meanwhile, after insisting that they would start following the rules breaks them yet again with another mail out. I complain to the Electoral Commission who subsequently refer labour, again, to the Police. The Police still haven’t done anything. Labour calculates that the Police won;t do anything and continues to break the law knowing that there are no consequences for them ever.

Trevor Mallard says “Labour can steal the election and they will”.

I bust the Kindergarten Associations and their millions of dollars of retained funds, at the same time they are crying poor.

Phil Goff says that he wasn’t briefed by the SIS about some Israeli tourists in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake. Things are about to get interesting which I will detail in a separate post. This becomes my second big story of the year.

I write yet another letter to Lockwood Smith about Labour’s spending rorts. And another one.

I start my countdown to the last possible day that Labour can roll Phil Goff before the election. I make a video a day highlighting the terrible inconsistencies of Phil Goff.

My son is assaulted at Rainbows End. The offenders have never been caught.

The SMOGs start to flow from Trevor Mallard. I still don’t know why politicians use Twitter.

August 2011 – 449 posts

Annette King goes nasty on Ali Ikram, Deborah Coddington and Patrick Gower on Twitter.

I announce NZ First’s North Shore candidate before NZ First does.

Sue Moroney provides yet another SMOG.

Winston Peters blames the media for Andrew Williams bad press. Of course it was actually me that caused all his bad press.

Stuart Nash provides a SMOG.

I publish my letter to Dr Tucker, the head of the SIS, this signals the opening of the SIS story I am about to unleash on Phil Goff. This will be covered in a separate post.

I explain what Colin Craig needs to do to win. He ignores every single part of my advice. He is now over a million dollars poorer and still not in parliament.

On 7 August I quit Citizen A and blogged about why. I have never once regretted quitting and resisted the constant begging to return.

I capture the Minister of Twitter in mid tweet at the National party conference.

The Electoral Commission refers the Labour party brochure to Police for breaching the Electoral Act. The Police still have not done anything.

I highlight a NZEI and Labour party nasty, their Whangarei candidate Pat Newman. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Darien Fenton embarks on her campaign of nasty by calling for a boycott of the band that played at National’s campaign dinner. She will do much worse in coming months.

Malcolm Harbrow tells Trevor Mallard what he thinks:

There was a problem with the blakbirdpie shortcode

The Electoral Commission refers Charles Chauvel to the Police on the basis of my complaint. The Police are yet to do anything.

Trevor Mallard won the bike race. Meanwhile I won the war, having Labour campaign strategist focused entirely on beating me in a bike race for 6 weeks. I managed to come second in a 60km race against a professional cyclist and part time politician.

Clare Curran attacks the Greens for stealing Labour’s votes. Labour are in meltdown as they start to realise that their social media campaign is failing.

Just after Phil Goff declares that Labour will focus on the things that matter Sue Moroney lets rip on Twitter.

I blog about anti-depressants and how ineffective they were for me.

September 2011 – 530 posts

Trevor Mallard continues to show the nasty and delivers up another SMOG.

Clare Curran continued to show that Labour was focussed on important matters….like volume on adverts.

Trevor Mallard compares John Key to mass murdering dictators, proving that Twitter and politicians are the gift that keeps on giving.

I blog about Jim Anderton and his illegal letter to constituents. I complain to the Electoral Commission and they later refer the letter and Jim Anderton to Police.

Clare Curran continued to focus on the things that matter…like teletubbies.

Trevor Mallard and Clare Curran had a twitter fight about Cheese Rolls.

Jacinda Ardern complained about the congestion around the toaster at the airport lounge. Letting all us peasants know how important she is that she is in the lounge and troughing it up at the same time.

Labour’s new election posters were begging for a photoshop.

I blog about hugs being banned at my daughter’s school.

I introduce the concept of the Blink Test. Which politicians pass the Blink Test?

I suggest that Labour is waiting for the Langoliers.

I bust Greens candidate Max Coyle for the sad little story in the Waikato Times that he fed to them. The Greens withdraw Max from their candidate list. Tim McIndoe didn’t need a Greens candidate to win handsomely, he was benefiting from The Moroney Effect.

I wonder whether John Minto will get a 1000 votes. It turns out he couldn’t, getting just 461 people to vote for him.

Trevor Mallrd starts a smear campaign against Bryce Edwards. It ends up being called #bryceedwardsconspiracy on Twitter and shows Labour and Mallard are all at sea with their election strategy.

Chris Trotter asks why Trevor Mallard is Labour’s campaign strategist. The question remains unanswered.

Dimpost provides the comments of the week:

Oh the hours of endless speculation? Personally, I reckon Labour’s campaign strategy is being run by a crew of demented P-addict gerbils with a KFC fetish, whilst playing Elton John and Queen simultaneously. Of course, the gerbils could be running ACT’s campaign; Labour may be guided by a crack team of lemmings…

Darien Fenton launches her now infamous attack against The Mad Butcher.

Trevor Mallard continued to prove that his personal demeanour was more suited to drunken pub brawls than to Twitter. Yet he was trotting along to caucus and telling everyone that Labour would win using Social media.

On September 28 I relaunched the site with the help of Cre8D Design.

Sir Peter Leitch calls me to talk about Darien Fenton’s scurrilous attack on him. He says he was “gutted” by her comments.

Labour is alrady experiencing the problem of long serving by inept MPs blocking new blood by staying on long past their useful political life. By failing to refresh it meant that they went into the first post-Clark election with a whole bunch of ex-Clark ministers as their main faces. The electorate decided that those faces still don’t fit. National runs the risk of repeating Labour’s mistakes in 2014 if they don’t start looking at refreshing some of the caucus.

Political parties should look at proper human resources management of MPs. There are many in National and Labour that are well past their use by date but stick around damaging the party because no one has the courage to to tell them to move on so that party renewal can take place.

Instead they sit in nice safe seat choking the life out of membership and potential replacements with their intransigence. The Board and Senior political management need to really be sitting down some senior MPs and explaining to them their extremely limited career prospects, the fact that if they stay they will be put on a black list so that they never get a government appointment and how it would be best for all if they signalled their retirement.

National’s constitution and rules have some handy clauses that would make the exiting of problem MPs relatively easy. Plus the time honoured tradition of a good challenge in a few seats should be encouraged by a board that finds its balls. John Key after all won selection in a challenge.

Some National MPs aren’t getting the message, it is time the message firmed up for them.

Thanks to seriously and serially inept planning and non existent leadership by National Party President Peter Goodfellow there are now only five members of caucus who are Maori.

Paula Bennett
Hekia Parata
Simon Bridges
Tau Henare
Jami-Lee Ross

Left caucus:

Georgina Te Heu Heu
Aaron Gilmore
Paul Quinn

Thanks to the hopeless candidate college National has become whiter, blokier and less representative of New Zealand. Heads should roll for this, as it is the basic function of the party to bring through good candidates who represent New Zealand.

Alfred Ngaro lead off the Address and Reply debate with his maiden speech. It is very, very good.