Rajen Prasad

I’ve been thinking a fair bit about David Shearer’s leadership.

To my mind he is doomed. The much heralded and signalled…well required…leadership vote was held and afterwards Labour rather embarrassingly announced that David Shearer was endorsed as leader in a ballot that had only one candidate by “an overwhelming margin“.

That got me thinking and it got me scratching around my Labour sources…that didn’t sound right…”an overwhelming margin”…what does that even mean?

Then I was emailed by a reader who heard Katie Bradford-Crozier talking to Justin duFresne this morning on NewstalkZB. She said that int he leadership vote there were 10 abstentions.

This confirms what I have heard too from my Labour sources. Ten abstentions.  Read more »

Another hypocrite can be revealed.

The Labour party constantly harps on about foreign ownership of banks, especially Australian Banks. All the while sitting on the opposition benches is a director of a foreign bank, the Bank of Baroda.

Dr Rajen Prasad.

It isn’t like he is hiding it either…it is plastered all over his LinkedIn profile proudly and his Wikipedia page and the MPs register of pecuniary interests.  Read more »

There were a great many comments, but the finalists are:

Raymond Huo – Mr Invisible except for his terminally boring posts on Red Alert..then he is the SMOG master now that Trev has gone silent.

Hekia Parata – Nominated for obvious reasons…may take out this award plus the Worst minister award. She has talked herself up sine like forever, and failed deliver for just as long. In the Mana by election she skited that she came close but in the general election faded. In her job as a minister on the basis of tokenism rather than merit, and protected in her ineptitude by Bill English’s mob and for some reason John Key.

Asenati Lole-Taylor – Her first name should be AseNasti. Moderator Travis Poulson is quite accurate:

Asenati Lole-Taylor by a long shot. A NZ First list MP with more ego and arrogant nastiness of someone that actually has a mandate. Someone needs to tell her that twitter and alcohol don’t go together.

100% nasty piece of work.

Rajen Prasad – A more useless MP you couldn’t train if you tried

Gareth Hughes – Teletubby comments:

Definitely Hughes – hypocrisy beyond measure, flying around the country bitching about carbon footprints

Gazzaw adds:

Gareth Hughes though gets my overall vote as a whining, bludging hypocrite – with a name like his is there any possibility that we could deport him back to Wales?

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The nominations are in, vote for the Best Back Bench MP.

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Who should buy Truth this week:

Brendan Horan, Trevor Mallard, Darren Hughes, Len Brown, Rajen Prasad, Gareth Hughes, David Cunliffe, David Shearer and Jacinda Ardern should all buy Truth this week.

Plus a musical interlude for you:

Good to see some output from Rajen Prasad – one of New Zealand’s most inactive politicians according to Pinko’s stats.

It is also good to see that Rajen is concerned that

“ethnic New Zealanders continue to face enormous barriers in the job market and in gaining access to basic public services – a situation that must be addressed.”

“there are barriers to people of different ethnicities getting the same opportunities and the same outcomes as other New Zealanders,”

Obviously Mr Prasad will be supporting Louisa Wall’s marriage equality bill.  Many ‘ethnic’ gay and lesbian New Zealanders are ‘twice blessed’ and face “enormous barriers”.  This bill sends a message that they aren’t second class citizens and can have access to marriage – surely Rajen would be all for that?

Being an “ethnic MP” is not just about representing community interests, but it is also about education and demonstrating a bit of  leadership.

Transtasman has the following to say about Labour:

The Labour caucus must be a peaceful place to be these days for those who don’t seem to be doing much. A handful of MPs are showing some spirit, among them Jacinda Ardern, Sue Moroney, David Cunliffe, David Parker, Chris Hipkins, Phil Goff and Clare Curran. There’s hardly a peep from Nanaia Mahuta since she was given the education portfolio in a peace-making move after the leadership contest, Shane Jones is an invisible man, Parekura Horomia has lapsed into silence, Phil Twyford wakes up sometimes, Maryan Street is taking her health portfolio seriously but isn’t making much of an impact, not much would be heard from Andrew Little if Judith Collins wasn’t suing him for defamation and Rajen Prasad maintains a profile which isn’t on the radar. Deputy leader Grant Robertson, a very sharp operator, has to leave most of what he would like to say to David Shearer. When Robertson is front man because Shearer isn’t around he’s way better at putting Labour’s case and it’s being noticed. Shearer is at the dangerous point where, if he doesn’t start to shape up, rumours are going to start he’s going to ship out.

Yikes!

We all know that generally List MPs are scum. Some are more so than others.

Here is your chance to vent about the invisibile, the useless, the hopeless, the inept and the scum list MPs.

Ashraf Choudhary would have to rate as one of the worst List MPs, not only was he useless he was also invisible. Rajen Prasad would also qualify for this and labour rated him at number 20 above capable MPs like Stuart Nash and Kelvin Davis. While Prasad warms a seat in parliament the other two are looking for jobs.

Then of course you have the nasties: Darien Fenton, Steve Chadwick, Carol Beaumont and of course Sue Moroney. All distinctly unelectable and unlikeable.

Katrina Shanks would be up there for her completely inept speech on the “Skynet Bill”, speaking about that which she knows now’t.

The entire Green party would qualify except perhaps for Kevin Hague and Russel Norman.

Labour’s inept campaign strategist, Trevor Mallard, is strangely silent on Twitter these days. After spending months telling caucus that Labour would win the campaign with social media he is now deathly quiet.

When Mallard is quiet then something is being plotted.

Fellow MP Trevor Mallard was unwilling to say who he backed. Asked whether the Labour number nine had any future leadership aspirations, he said: “You never know.”

That is quite a movement from his previous statements rejecting outright the leadership of Labour. Bryce Edwards thinks that Mallard could be a good caretaker leader though:

Edwards agrees the party has to get back to its roots. Mallard’s best days are over, but he would be a good caretaker leader, he says: “The party could use his mongrel, street-fighting sense to bring the party back to something that isn’t totally media-managed and scripted. At present it reeks of being a party of middle-income people and careerists.”

Michael Wood, the man who wanted ban penis-lollies, would have something to say about a resurgent Trevor Mallard though:

List candidate and Goff campaign manager Michael Wood, who at 32 on the list also missed out, is another one to watch, the source says. “They have to find spaces for these people. They have to ease people out of the party. They need to pick people solely on their ability.” Fenton, Ruth Dyson, Rajen Prasad and Trevor Mallard all need to go, he says.

For once I am in agreement with Michael Wood, Mallard needs to go.

UPDATE: I have received and email from Michael Wood who says those weren’t his words. I have re-read the passage and It may well be my poor comprehension.

Here is what Michael had to say:

None of those comments were mine, in fact there isn’t a single comment from me in the entire article. The comments are all from the source referred to throughout the article. The way that the para is written is slightly confusing so I can see how a genuine mis-reading of it could occur.

You may have a genuine view that I am an idiot, but I can assure you that I have a strong policy of not publicly calling for the heads of senior party MPs who I like and respect. In fact, on the basis that I am the narcissistic, careerist lickspittle you seem to think I am, you’d have to concede that a comment like that would be an unlikely act of self-immolation.

Michael might not think Mallard has to go, I how differ from the opinion, and am prepared to say so.

Remember Daljit Singh?

He was the Labour candidate charged with vote rigging at the local body elections in Papatoetoe. Phil Goff should remember Daljit Singh because his predident, Andrew Little said at the time:

“The Labour Party is deeply disappointed that a candidate standing under its name is being prosecuted for alleged irregularities in enrolments for the local body elections”, Little said.

“There is no tolerance in our party for conduct that undermines the integrity of the electoral process.”

You have to wonder why then Phil Goff, Carol Beaumont, Rajen Prasad, Sunny Kaushal, Michael Wood, Ross Robertson, David Cunliffe, Su’a William Sio and other Labour candidates all attended a slap up feed and fundraiser organized by  Daljit Singh to fundraise on behalf of the Labour Party. They even posed for photos with Daljit Singh. This fundraiser was held two Friday’s ago on October 7.

You have to ask why it is that Labour’s leader risks his already poor reputation attending a fundraiser organised by a man still before the courts, poses for photographs with the same man and all for a small amount of around $10,000 which was the amount raised.

It surprises me that Phil Goff continues to associate the Labour Party and accept funds from a man currently before the courts.