Todd McClay

This weekend is the National Party CNI Regional Conference in Taupo. In terms of numbers CNI is 100% blue, with no red seats in the region. Other numbers worth bearing in mind are the outstanding electoral success of three members of the 2008 intake.

Jonathan Young increased his majority in New Plymouth, giving Andrew Little’s hopes of becoming Labour leader a big dent. Provincial MPs often get overlooked, but the word from New Plymouth is Jonathan is a bloody good campaigner and a well liked and well respected local MP.

In Taupo Louise Upston increased her majority from 6445 to a whopping 14115, cementing her reputation as a vote winner, and turning a formerly red seat blue.

Over in Rotorua Todd McClay was one of only three National MPs competing against a Labour List MP to increase his majority, with Tim McIndoe in Hamilton West doing slightly better than Todd in increasing his majority against a Labour List MP. Unlike Boris, Bluey had the huge good fortune of benefiting from the Moroney Effect.

So with no electorates in play the questions for the CNI delegates are more about how members get their voice heard in the party hierarchy. Are there enough remits and is the policy process working well enough that a good party member can have their ideas adopted as government policy? What plans do the party have to get more people between 30-40 involved, not just as members but actually contributing to the party? Should party members directly elect the president to get them more involved in the party rather than having the board appoint the president?

And finally, in what should not be seen as a slight on my long time friend in caucus, Scott Simpson, what is the party doing to ensure that good local people with good local connections win selection in seats in the CNI.

In an otherwise good article explaining why Nick Smith won more Politician of the Week awards than anyone else based on his principles and willingness to have a dust up with anyone over ideology, Matthew Hooton has a shocker when describing potential replacements.

The tragedy of his departure is that, like too many of the appointments after the 2011 election, he is likely to be replaced with a below-average-intelligence, grey, provincial yes-man, unwilling to challenge the status quo and valued simply as a safe pair of hands.

Hooton seems to think that the provinces are inhabited with troglodytes who haven’t succeeded in the real world based on intellectual rigor and their own hard work.

In Tauranga Simon Bridges is Oxford Educated, which not many westies are, and he is far to refined to have leopard skin on his car. In Rotorua Todd McClay build a substantial lobbying business in Brussels, which is arguably not the real world but it was bloody successful, created links with many New Zealand businesses and did a lot of diplomatic work for Pacific nations. And succeeding in lobbying at one of the biggest parliaments in the world may not be my idea of success but it is better than being a successful unionist in a backwater like the New Zealand union movement.

Louise Upston’s mastery of policy details and background in leadership training means she is a safe pair of hands and has the potential to lead, not to just to administer.

From Hawkes Bay Chris Tremain turned a moderately successful family business in to a highly successful one, at the same time as making huge contributions to sports in HB. He is not in parliament “safe pair of hands”, going on record to upset the small minded in Napier, challenging the status quo on amalgamation. Craig Foss may have a gay ute but he was as successful in banking on an international scale as John Key before entering parliament.

Chester Borrows is a bit too wet on law and order, when he could man up and back the prevailing wisdom which is working world wide. His willingness to take a stand that is unpopular in National show he is not “unwilling to challenge the status quo”.

In the Wairarapa highly intelligent former diplomat John Hayes has well over 40 years of standing up for what he believes in, and not being afraid of a turn up for a good cause. At Lincoln he tried to remove the students association from the New Zealand students association, allegedly because they were a pack of communists, radicals, pooftas and other misfits. John can rest easy at night knowing he fights the good fight and is not one of Hooton’s “below average intelligence”.

Further South Amy Adams has shown herself to be willing to take on difficult issues, and no one has ever accused her of being a “yes-man”. Jo Goodhew is hugely popular in her electorate, and it is a travesty for Hooton to describe her as grey.

Michael Woodhouse may not be favored by the voters in Dunedin but he came to parliament with a track record of success in a difficult industry, where challenging the the status quo is an important part of success. Anyone that knows Michael knows he has a fine intellect, and is definitely not “below-average-intelligence”.

Unfortunately the comments that caused me to award Mojo Mathers politician of the week have now been attributed to Todd McClay who has clarified:

My question was in relation to possible charges for online content not their normal broadcasters. Ie they have some great series, programmes etc that whilst they should remain free to NZers, as with BBC, could be on a fee paying basis for foreigners. Just as you can buy BBC dvds, or programmes from overseas radio and news services. They have huge amounts of content which is not even digitized yet.

So it looks like Todd McClay should have the Politician of the Week for suggesting that Radio New Zealand starts charging for some content.

via the tipline

Two non-gay utes, in the wild, off-road no less, outside a strangely closed Maritime Union office in Tauranga. Fossy’s gay ute would have struggled with that off-road action.

Ignore the scum list MP, this award is for the best electorate MP.

Could it be Damien O’Connor, for doing what no other Labour MP could do anywhere else in the country and win a seat off a sitting National MP?

How about Todd McClay who increased his majority in Rotorua and dispatched Steve Chadwick for good?

Nikki Kaye for beating Labour number 4 ranked ‘star’ Jacinda Ardern?

Sam Lotu Iiga for cementing his reputation as a fine local MP and making sure that Carol Beaumont is looking for anew job?

Colin King is invisible in Wellington but his electorate loves him returning him with a massive majority, the shearing community loves him too.

There are many, many choices, put your nominations in the comments and the reasons why you think your local MP should get the Whaleoil Award for Best Electorate MP.

UPDATE: I clean forgot about Nicky Wagner, she was the only National MP to take a hard hat Labour seat of a sitting Labour MP.

On the surface Labour’s lowest ever result since 1928 is bad but manageable.

However if you look beyond the headline numbers and into the electorates you can see the terrible legacy Phil Goff has gifted the Labour party.

The recent result in Waitakere has only compounded the issue.

In a number of seats Labour have lost their local list MP for good. Take Rotorua, for instance, Todd McClay saw off Steve Chadwick for the second and last time. Labour’s poor showing in the party vote means Steve Chadwick is now handing in her gear and looking for a job. She won’t have an office and neither will labour in Rotorua for three years. In the local press they won;t have to go and seek comment on issues from the local Labour person because they simply don’t exist. For the next three years the only MP commenting on local issues in Rotorua will be Todd McClay.

Napier is the same. Stuart Nash ran a robust campaign and really pushed Chris Tremain. However Tremain prevailed and Labour’s poor party vote now sees Stuart Nash seeking a job as Chief of Staff in Wellington to David Shearer. He won’t be back. Labour loses a spokesperson in the Bay and an office and Chris Tremain will now enjoy unfettered press coverage for three years straight. His majority will bounce back like Craig Foss who enjoyed a similar holiday from a Labour list stalker. Julia Haydon-Carr faced an insurmountable challenge of overcoming the man with the gay ute, Craig Foss, who did not have Julia stalking him for three years like Nash stalked Tremain.

Paula Bennett has now seen off Carmel Sepuloni in Waitakere. Labour loses an office and a list MP who can dog her every move in Waitakere. Labour again through its poor party vote loses exposure, resources and personnel and cedes the argument to National in a key electorate.

In Christchurch Central, Nicky Wagner will likewise enjoy having no Labour list MP dogging her as Brendan Burns at number 29 on Labour’s list was left stranded high and dry. Nicky will now be able to cement her position as National’s voice in Christchurch, an island of blue in a sea of red. Labour loses their office and their voice which will have to be picked up and shared by others. Perhaps Clayton Cosgrove, after his defeat in Waimakiriri might establish a presence, but it will never be a full time one.

Sam Lotu Iiga in Maungakiekie also will enjoy not having Carol Beaumont stalk his every move. He will be hoping that no labour list MPs quit and that David Shearer will tell Beaumont that the face doesn’t fit but until then he too can enjoy an electorate without a Labour office ruining the view.

Losing those resources in key areas makes it very difficult to turn things around in 2014. Labour has less presence, less resources and they must spread thinly to ensure coverage. They don’t realise the significance yet of their decision to keep Goff at the helm so that he could do to Labour what Bill English did to national in 2002. Even the leaders office will suffer cutbacks due to the reduced vote. Some in the Goffice will be very nervous, not just because they were wedded to the disaster that was Phil Goff but because there simply isn’t enough cash now to retain them all.

This is the mess that Labour has inherited, but worse this is the mess they have charged a political novice with fixing. Does David Shearer have an Orewa speech in him? I don’t think so.

Steve Chadwick is finding it hard adjusting to life as a constituent after Todd McClay handed her an electoral spanking.

Judy T is Facebooking her and she is whining about having to look for a job and handing back her iPad and laptop. It certainly looks like she is living Labour’s slogan nice and hard.

What was it that Helen Clark said once? Oh that’s right…”Diddums!”

Todd McClay, Sam Lotu Iiga and Tim MacIndoe all won on Saturday, with increased majorities.

Unsurprisingly they were also standing against some Labour nasties. Steve Chadwick, Carol Beaumont and Sue Moroney. Only Sue Moroney remains in parliament after the blood bath of November 26.

Another Labour nasty who is now unemployed was Carmel Sepuloni. She took the fight in Waitakere to Paula Bennett but Paula showed a great deal of mongrel and proved more adept at wrestling with pigs than the Septic Tank.

There is a moral in this story. If you want to be nasty, spiteful and awful then you will lose to candidates who are likeable and real. Having a sneering smack bum face all the time doesn’t endear you to voters.

Oh look the Repeaters at the Herald are following me again.

Despite being acquitted of the crime, Chris Kahui murdered his twin sons, Chris and Cru, in 2006, National MP for Rotorua Todd McClay has said under cover of parliamentary privilege.

Addressing Parliament last week during the second reading of the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) Mr McClay brought up the deaths of the 3-month-olds as one example of the “very many cases of children being abused, harmed” each year.

“We had another high-profile case of the Kahui twins, who were murdered … I believe Chris Kahui killed those children, but … that is for others to consider now.”

Maybe they found out about what he said from this post yesterday.

The tipline brought be a heads up of this video yesterday.

It’s from Todd McClay’s speech on the anti-child abuse law that Simon Power put through the house.

Boris isn’t an MP that shies away from saying what he thinks. He makes an interesting observation on the Kahui Twins case.

Here’s the video.

And from Hansard:

We had another high-profile case of the Kāhui twins, who were murdered. There were many adults in that home, and nobody knows what happened. There has been a high-profile court case, but nobody stepped up to say they knew what happened, they knew the person responsible, or that this is what we should do. Nobody has even said they wished they had acted to stop that from happening. Personally, I believe Chris Kāhui killed those children.

It’s little wonder why he’s known in Rotorua for being tough on crime. Screaming banshees like Mr Steve Chadwick will moan about what Boris has said about the Kahui case, but this will prove popular with voters because he’s got the balls to say what everyone has been thinking.

The sooks in the MSM who were too scared to publish anything about Chris Kahui can now do so with the protection of qualified privilege.