Labour has been pinged repeatedly for flouting road rules. They simply don’t care. The Police also seem to care little about our electoral alws.
It has become farcical in the extreme where we have one political party wilfully and flagrantly breaching laws with impunity.
This is a photo from New Plymouth of a STOP ASSET SALES sign about 20m from an intersection parked on the road. The vehicle it was attached to was an EPMU branded vehicle.
Andrew Little thinks that visits by Phil Goff are not helpful, not only that he wants John Key to come back to the electorate to help…probably why Labour are now putting John Key on their ads and not Phil Goff.
Andrew Little’s cost justification for ignoring New Plymouth raises some impertinent questions:
At the candidates’ meeting, he is asked if he will still move there if he does not win the seat but gets in on the list. He answers no. It is a question that has come up before and he’s managed to come up with a cunning excuse – that it will save the taxpayers’ money if they don’t have to pay his Wellington accommodation and commuting costs.
If Andrew Little won’t make a commitment to New Plymouth if he doesn’t win because it will save accommodation and commuting costs, is he now encouraging all scum List MPs to base themselves in Wellington?
Is this now Labour’s standard attitude towards the provinces?
Faced with a polling disaster of his own, Andrew Little has started debranding:
At that meeting, Mr Young diligently stuck to his party line while Mr Little largely avoided his party line.
He did not mention Labour leader Phil Goff or most of his party’s main policy planks. Instead, he talked about the port, oil, gas and dairy farming. He promised to push for roading realignments north of the city and to “shake every tree and push every button that needs to be shaken or pushed to get the funding for it”. He proposed ramming a tunnel through Mt Messenger.
Debranding won’t work, neither will promising millions in spending he can’t and won’t deliver. Little’s main problem is no one believe him about his commitment to New Plymouth:
He is also aware that he is a carpet bagger – he lives with his wife and 10-year-old son in Wellington and is bunking with his mother for the campaign. He has promised to move to the electorate if he wins, but the locals have made it clear he needs to establish his credentials, hence the emphasis on local issues.
At the candidates’ meeting, he is asked if he will still move there if he does not win the seat but gets in on the list. He answers no. It is a question that has come up before and he’s managed to come up with a cunning excuse – that it will save the taxpayers’ money if they don’t have to pay his Wellington accommodation and commuting costs.
Weasel words tend to collapse your vote not enhance it. Of course this is yet another prime example of someone not wanted by the local constituency but they sneak into parliament with a high list ranking. If Labour drops a few more points though Little is trouble there too.
Andrew Little is committed to New Plymouth but only if he wins.
At a New Plymouth candidate debate on Monday night Mr Little said he would not live in New Plymouth if he lost the election then got into Parliament as a List MP.
Check out this nasty little smear too:
“The last time I heard this conspiracy theory was on Kiwiblog with David Farrar who does National Party research. He runs this line out every now and then . . . because their campaign in New Plymouth isn’t running so well.”
Haha, the only seats Labour are talking up are the ones their internal polling says they are losing. New Plymouth is one of those.
Now just for confirmation on his committment:
Mr Little said if he wins the New Plymouth seat he will “absolutely” stand again in 2014.
Oh only if he wins…what happens if he loses…will it be Rongotai?
via the tipline
Further to your “Stupid Hippies” post, here is a photo of the Occupy New Plymouth taken at ~16:00 yesterday. There were apparently more there initially for the photo op then they buggered off.
Occupy New Plymouth is a real success….looks like they are the 1% or even less.
Len Brown is not the only council parasite. Read this from the Taranaki Daily News:
Almost $1000 was spent by the New Plymouth District Council wining and dining a potential employee.
A member of the public found a payment notice for the June dinner at L’Escargot Restaurant, totalling $922.25 and charged to the NPDC, on the street and handed it to the Taranaki Daily News.
Inquiries by the newspaper revealed the dinner, for eight, was part of the recruitment process for a senior member of council staff.
“For a very small number of senior vacancies where the position involves important relationships with key partners and sponsors, we will sometimes arrange a dinner or other social occasion to observe the preferred candidate’s social skills,” council communications manager Nick Maybury said.
He said the occasions were useful to introduce the “preferred candidate” to others who were not on the selection panel but whose support for the final appointment was important.
Mr Maybury said he had attended the dinner but would not name others in the party for privacy reasons. “The type of people we would invite includes relevant general managers, elected representatives, external stakeholders and their partners.”
Unfortunately for Mr Maybury I have already proved that you can’t keep dinner guest secret, I forced Len Brown to name his dinner guests at Volare after 6 months and much complaining to the Ombudsmen. The good folk of New Plymouth should likewise chase this issue.
Being secretive and furtive like Len Brown is so un-becoming.
The New Plymouth District Councillors had the guts to stand up to vested interests and vote for a referendum on Maori Seats on their council, rather than arbitrarily gift Maori seats on the council.
At a district council meeting on Tuesday, councillors decided against establishing two Maori wards and instead will let voters decide by including it on the ballot paper of the 2013 local body elections.
The NPD Councillors deserve plenty of credit for taking this principled stand. They will be attacked for being redneck and racist, the standard Maori playbook when they don’t get what they want, and being called racist or redneck is never pleasant even if it is wrong.
In the 2010 election campaign Len Brown promised a referendum on Maori Seats for the new Auckland Council. Len should follow the lead of the New Plymouth District Council and run a referendum on Maori Seats in 2013. That way all Aucklanders get a chance to have a say on whether Auckland needs Maori seats, Len gets to keep a promise, and the Auckland Council get to demonstrate they respect democracy.
Pedro Gower (I do the nicknames, no-one else) has posted that Andrew “Two-Hats” Little is about to stand for selection in New Plymouth as a carpet-bagger candidate.
Labour high-flyer and union boss Andrew Little will launch his Parliamentary career by standing in the New Plymouth electorate.
Nominations open today, and 3 News has learned Little will put his name forward – confirmed by top-level sources in the Labour hierarchy.
Of course there is a selection process to follow, but Little is the Labour Party President. Make no mistake: he will win the candidacy.
I’m not sure sure that Three Hats can win the selection. Labour MPs I have spoken to don’t seem too enamoured with Three Hats. Certainly Annette King and Trevor Mallard aren’t big fans as they have refused to relinquish their seats to enable Three Hats to get into parliament. The talk around Labour too, is that Three Hats hasn’t delivered in the fund-raising stakes either, something both main parties seem to have a problem with.
It seems that companies that were previously scared into giving cash to Labour through Mike Williams bully-boy tactics aren’t that scared of Three hats though confusion does reign juast as to what he is seeing them about. Is it about his union pals as leader of the nations biggest union or fundraising for Labour.
It does beg the question, and something likely to be tested in a court next election, are the EPMU really a third party of the industrial wing of the Labour Party? If the EPMU boss is also the boss of Labour and a Labour candidate there does seem to be a real credibility issue on the separation of third parties, particularly those affiliated to and voting for candidates inside Labour
Even if Andrew Little does manage to get selected he will still need a high list placing to get into parliament because he has no chance of winning New Plymouth. That electorate was only Labour through Harry Duynhoven, who was a hard working and popular MP, though when the tide went out and with boundary changes that still couldn’t save him. Jonathan Young has been working diligently to cement his place as local MP and a carpet-bagger from Wellington will struggle even if he is the Labour Party president.
