Su’a William Sio

As Labour and Helen Kelly attack over the appointment of Jackie Blue perhaps they need reminding about the forgotten the frenzied quadruple appointment of Dianne Yates?

The appointment of former Labour list MP Dianne Yates to four boards since she left Parliament in March this year has been described as the price the Government paid to get another Samoan into Parliament.

The remark by a Labour Party insider referred to Ms Yates’ standing down, as part of Labour’s third term rejuvenation drive, after almost 15 years in Parliament.

It allowed South Auckland Samoan community leader Su’a William Sio to replace her in Labour’s caucus.

Since leaving Parliament, Ms Yates has been appointed to the boards of Trust Waikato Community Trust, the Waikato Institute of Technology and Learning Media.

Yesterday she was also appointed by the Government to the high-powered Food Standards Australia New Zealand board.

The Labour Party insider told The Dominion Post: “It’s the price the Government has paid to allow Mr Sio to enter Parliament.“

Her last appointment to the FSANZ Board was astonishing in its brazenness:

“Dianne is ideally suited to this role on all levels. She’s from the Waikato, arguably the food bowl of New Zealand, and has close links to the primary sector.

If Labour want to chuck rocks about cronies I am going to start chucking them back, one a day, for about a year.

David Shearer went large on the GCSB story. He is the leader of the Labour party and so you would think that other Labour MPs would have charged along behind their leader lending support as he went after John Key.

Fortunately most of the top members of the Labour caucus believe in social media as a way to engage with the public on matters that they think are important to the public….like GCSB allegedly recording the Prime Minister telling a joke about a fat German fraudster.

Let’s see what they tweeted in support of their leader.

Grant Robertson is Labour’s deputy leader and has been leading the charge on Kim Dotcon in Parliament, on Twitter he had this to say about Shearer’s accusations:

RT @nzlabour Parliamentary inquiry launched into crisis in manufacturing bit.ly/Q3u0DB

— Grant Robertson (@grantrobertson1) October 12, 2012

What about Jacinda Ardern?

White paper has proven to be an opportunity lost. Govt cannot continue to ignore child poverty if we want to improve outcomes for kids.

— Jacinda Ardern (@jacindaardern) October 10, 2012

Clare Curran?

@rmi I don’t like Twitter emailing meGrrrr

— Clare Curran (@clarecurranmp) October 11, 2012

Trevor Mallard?

don’t always agree with “@garethmorgannz but this is goodWhy the Green’s Suggestion to Print Money is Silly ow.ly/envqV”

— Trevor Mallard (@TrevorMallard) October 10, 2012

David Cunliffe?

Labour, Greens and NZ First have today announced a parliamentary inquiry into the crisis in manufacturing. http://t.co/fWL908JN

October 12, 2012 1:35 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@DavidCunliffeMP

David Cunliffe

Maryan Street?

Recently downloaded GeoNetQuake. These little islands are way shakier than I thought! #toomuchinformation

— Maryan Street (@MaryanStreetMP) October 12, 2012

Su’a William Sio?

Abuse paper intervenes too late. What resources will Govt make available to implement and address poverty?: Labour news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8…

— Su’a William Sio, MP (@SWSio_MP) October 10, 2012

So including above there is all those on Labour’s front bench who tweet and some others who are supposed to be thought-leaders for the party and they are all focused on other things.

No one, not even Mallard, was backing Shearer’s attack. Even Robertson who has been leading the charge in Parliament has been silent.

David Shearer is a man alone going over the top, a surfboard under one arm and a guitar under the other. He really needs to go, it is obvious when you look at social media that he doesn’t have the support of his caucus anymore.

This is looking more and more like he has been stitched up by Fran Mold…if that is the case then cui bono?

ᔥ NewstalkZB

I love that Shearer told MPs not to be distracted by side shows, then within minutes, Kris Faafoi was wading into the gay marriage debate and giving his colleague Sio a backhanded slap around the chops.

Another Pacific Island Labour MP is feeling the heat over his decision to support gay marriage, but Mana’s Kris Faafoi says he’s not backing down.

The Labour caucus was given a talking to by leader David Shearer today over ill-discipline, including Mangere MP Sua William Sio’s claim the gay marriage Bill may cost it votes amongst the Pacific community.

Mr Faafoi has a large Pacific Island community in his electorate and says he is working to try and allay some of their concerns.

“I’ve got a lot of Pacific Island support and I’m speaking to a lot of the leaders in my Pacific Island community. I’ve told them straight up that I’m going to be supporting the Bill right through all its stages and that’s because I don’t believe that we should discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation.”

ᔥ NewstalkZB

In-fighting in Labour is spilling over and it is the marriage equality bill that is causing the boil over:

A Labour MP is telling his colleague to tell the whole truth when it comes to the gay marriage debate.

It follows comments by Mangere MP Su’a William Sio who has decided against voting for his colleague Louisa Wall’s Bill.

He says it would cost Labour the next election and is against the wishes of his electorate.

Labour’s Charles Chauvel says has spoken to him and says Mr Sio isn’t telling the whole story.

“For every conservative person born in a pacific island and brought up there, and now living in New Zealand, there’s probably four or five younger New Zealand-born people who don’t see what the fuss is about.”

Mr Chauvel says he respects Mr Sio’s opinion.

“But when you say this Bill or that Bill’s going to have electoral consequences – you really need to tell the whole truth.”

In other matters Gordon Campbell has noted just how right-wing David Shearer’s recent speech was and how Shearer is openly bashing bennies now:

What are we meant to take from this? That the leader of the Labour Party will stand shoulder to shoulder with them pointing an accusatory finger at those slackers on sickness benefits? This isn’t an encouraging glimpse of how Labour is planning to express its opposition to the next round of welfare reform, assuming that it will be opposing it. Perhaps this is why Labour hates David Cunliffe so much. Didn’t he say earlier this year that one reason Labour why lost the last election was that on important issues, it sounded too much like the National Party?

I’d say the split that is showing in Labour is instead a schism.

The only thing to work out is whether these Labour pains are real or actually Braxton Hicks contractions.

You know it’s ugly when Stuff starts running a preferred leadership poll… and Cunliffe’s in front…well sort of in front…a guy called “Someone Else” is actually leading:

This heaps pain and suffering on in the wake of the rebellion shown by Su’a William Sio. I have had another think about that while driving around today and I think the media have missed something.

It seems that some of the commentators around the traps don’t realise the significance in Sio turning on Shearer. You see this isn’t all about Sio railing against the ‘gaggle of gays’ this is also about crushing the Leader that allowed the gaggle to get strong – inside caucus as well as on staff. It was Shearer that promoted Sio to number 10, just off the front bench. At the time of promoting Sio, Shearer said:

“Labour has a lot of work to do to refresh our connections with New Zealanders. I have built a team that brings forward new faces.”

Shearer had grand plans of using Sio as the token Pacifika face to look as though pacifika voices would be heard in the caucus. Perhaps Sio has now worked out Shearer doesn’t listen to caucus, or anyone else for that matter. He certainly struggles to communicate with anyone.

Sio’s issues are nothing to do with Wall’s bill but are completely to do with Shearer’s leadership and his loss of faith in it. Why else would you make these sorts of destabilising comments when you know that the Leader is making a major speech that same day?

Ill discipline is one thing but it is a whole different problem when the MPs Shearer promoted turn on him – biting the hand that feeds.

Patrick Gower was interviewed about Labour’s pains on Firstline today.

He was asked about Su’a William Sio’s comments, but he also reveals what David Shearer had to say when asked what he thought of Sio’s view that it could cost Labour the next election. Hilarious.

I really hope this is Shearer’s new interview strategy…

ᔥ 3 News

Labour is really battling this week and it is showing. Patrick Gower follows on from Garners larrup yesterday with a hit out of his own. If it wasn’t bad enough that there is massive caucus ill will at the moment Louisa Wall’s marriage equality bill is causing anguish in the base:

The gay marriage bill has started to tear the Labour Party to pieces.

Labour’s Mangere MP Sua William Sio has basically called for a divorce from the bill, saying it should be withdrawn – because it could cost the party the next election.

Yes, that’s right – Sio says the bill could cost Labour an election.

And you can’t really fault Sua’s logic: he says it will wipe out the Pacific vote in South Auckland – that’s Labour’s heartland, that’s where it wins elections.

Ouch.

As Sio told Radio NZ this morning: “There are weightier and more pressing issues, like holding John Key to account for the weakening economy and the lack of jobs – and that’s where our priority ought to be.”

Now that has to hurt David Shearer, who is out shaking hands in Nelson today trying to woo provincial voters back to Labour – while Labour’s stronghold in South Auckland is burning.

I’m not sure Su’a William Sio is properly briefed on the latest polling data that I have seen. I suspect he is talking out of his arse. If he does know then he is simply causing unnecessary animosity to a caucus that is obviously strained. Not only that I suspect Su’a will have had his arse kicked for overshadowing his boss’ yawn inducing speech today.

Meanwhiule Duncan Garners hand greandae has gone off in the left blogsphere and online with comments like this being left everywhere:

Duncan, you’ve been listening to Trevor again. Like when he lied to you about the Shearer/Cunliffe vote. He’s been doing numbers for Grant in the last week or two. This must be his attempt to hobble the opposition ahead of trying to roll Shearer. All he’s doing is hobbling Labour. He needs to go.

All the notable (I know) left wing blogs are now commenting ont eh stoush and all seem to be blaming Trevor Mallard and Grant Robertson for this bursting out of the caucus room. Chris Trotter has written about the “unfortunate experiment” again:

The cynical calculation that persuaded Mr Cunliffe’s enemies to unite behind Mr Shearer in December 2011 has delivered a very paltry harvest. The public was prepared to give Labour’s new boss a fair go at growing into a credible Opposition leader, but their patience isn’t endless. Above all other things, a political leader must be a communicator – and Mr Shearer isn’t. Not surprisingly, the major public opinion polls are all now registering declining levels of public support for both Mr Shearer and his party.

To gain some idea of just how poor a communicator Mr Shearer is, pay a visit to the NZ on Screen website and watch the 1973 interview of Labour Leader and Prime Minister, Norman Kirk, by the celebrated British broadcaster, David Frost. Not only does “Big Norm” speak in fully-formed sentences, unpunctuated by umms, errs and you-knows, but with the calm assurance and persuasive eloquence that only a person in absolute command of his facts, his thoughts, his convictions and, most importantly, himself, is able to project.

He too calls for Mallard’s head:

If Labour is to be saved, then its younger MPs must not resist but make common cause with Mr Cunliffe. This is the only alliance that holds out the slightest hope for a renewal of the party’s purpose and the rebirth of its fighting spirit. Mr Robertson and his friends have time on their side: they, unlike the political movement to which they have devoted their lives, can afford to wait.

The Labour Caucus has nothing to lose but Trevor Mallard.

Mallard is certainly looking like the fall guy. The problem he has is that he has angered so many Nats over the years that any attempt to try and lobby for diplomatic posting to his preferred locations would be met with utter contempt. If it was up to me I would send him off shore but to places he can’t pronounce…like Thwitherland, Thweden, Thamoa or Thwathiland.

Frankly I wonder if Shearer has the stones to arrange his de-selection.

Happy times though for us ont eh right watching the blood bath boil over in public. Happy days indeed.

ᔥ Radio New Zealand

Labour’s base is in an uproar. Not only is there a nasty caucus and activist split but now also the marriage equality bill is causing angst:

The Labour Party’s Pacific Island Affairs spokesperson, Su’a William Sio, wants fellow Labour MP Louisa Wall to withdraw her member’s bill proposing the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

Mr Sio says the bill is causing deep divisions in Labour’s heartland Pacific vote and could cost the party the next election and he will vote against it because of widespread resistance to it from his constituents – especially churchgoers.

He says it is the wrong bill at the wrong time.

“This issue cuts deep into fundamental beliefs and will divide the community,” Mr Sio says. “There are weightier and more pressing issues, like holding John Key to account for the weakening economy and the lack of jobs – and that’s where our priority ought to be.”

The MP says Labour lost as many as 30,000 Pacific voters over homosexual law reform and civil unions, and the same-sex marriage bill could do the same.

Mr Sio is the MP for Mangere, the electorate with the biggest Pacific population, and his view on this issue is backed by Labour’s Pacific Islands vice-president, Efu Koka, who also says the bill is likely to significantly hurt the Pacific vote at the next elections.

ᔥ Stuff.co.nz

In their haste to make the most of a stolen set of board minutes Labour has failed to notice their own civil war breaking out in their voter heartland of South Auckland. It seems their Auckland chair is too distracted running David Cunliffe’s new campaign website to notice either.

Labour’s Mangere MP Su’a William Sio is facing a rebellion from a big group of his own Samoan people who plan to stand their own candidate against him.

Sio, who holds the seat with a 15,159 vote majority, recently went on ethnic radio and spoke out against fundraising efforts by Samoan groups in his electorate.

Many, mainly church groups, routinely visit to raise money from Auckland Samoans.

Sio said the fundraising was an economic burden on Samoan families in New Zealand.

His comments coincided with a fundraising bid by the people of Safotu, in Savai’i, who were in Mangere to raise money for hospital improvements.

Around $110,000 was raised for the hospital that serves 50,000 people in the powerful Gagaifomauga political district in Samoa, which has three seats in Samoa’s parliament.

According to the Talamua news website (www.talamua.com) Sio’s comments outraged one of Gagaifomauga’s tulafale, or orators, Tuilo’a Anetele’a.

He called on all descendants of the Gagaifomauga district who were eligible voters for the Mangere seat not to support Sio anymore, and in the 2014 election.

“Rather, we will find a candidate to support and to run orator against Su’a in the upcoming general elections,” he told a large gathering in Mangere.

via the tipline

One of my readers seems to think that Su’a William Sio has a right to be a leadership contender and explains why:

Message: Tena Koe Mr. Slater,

I’ve looked at the actual numbers for Labour in terms of party-vote and there is only one electorate that held out against the Labour disaster. That electorate is Mangere. On current numbers Labour is only 119 party-votes  down on 2008. The specials still need to be counted there if any. All other electorates lost Labour party-votes in the thousands, even Goff’s one.

So, on these figures, there is only one person, in my opinion, who can morally and legitimately claim the Labour Leadership and that is Su’a William Sio MP for Mangere. He maintained the Labour Party’s party-vote in his electorate. All the others like Parker, Shearer, Cunliffe, Robertson and Jones were just worried about winning their electorates and in the process, they lost the war.

I thought I would just put it out there Mr. Slater. What are your thoughts on this?.

Well, let’s have the Whale Army’s thought on the suggestion that Su’a William Sio has the moral authority based on performance in Mangere to lead Labour.