Did dear Hekia lie?

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A dirty deal requires dirty lies - did dear Hekia lie?


They say you know your opponent’s stand is dishonourable when they resort to spreading lies and promoting falsehoods about your position.

The government’s Acting Energy and Resources Minister in attacks on opponents to deep sea oil drilling has been caught out lying and spreading slurs that misrepresented their position.

Gisborne District councillor Manu Caddie accused (Hekia Parata) of lying, or “deliberately misleading the public”, in an article in The Gisborne Herald on Saturday in which she said the exploration permit would involve only 2D and 3D data gathering, not drilling.

The company would decide whether to start drilling once they had all the information and, if they did decide to drill, they would have to apply for a mining permit, she said.

But Manu Caddie says this was a blatant lie.

The permit signed last year by her predecessor allowed the company to drill one exploratory well within 60 months of the commencement of the permit, he said in a written statement.

“There is no need for Petrobras to come back and ask the Government for another permit before they start drilling . . . the permit expressly gives permission to drill a well.”…

…Ms Parata also said there had been “scaremongering” going on that seismic monitoring could cause earthquakes.

That claim has been made numerous times by anti-drilling group Te Ahi Kaa in various media.

But Mr Caddie said this morning that the group had been misquoted.

“First they ignore you. Then they mock you. Then they attack you. And then you win.” – Ghandi

Acknowledgements: The Standard

The Government wants to emasculate the public service surely?

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The NZ Government wants to emasculate the Public Service surely like they did the union movement in the 1990's?

The government is seriously rethinking the size and scope of the public service as it looks to reduce its squeeze on cash and return to surpluses in the next five years.

Finance Minister Bill English told the Institute of Public Administration New Zealand in Wellington the government has to cut back its role in the nation's economy and focus on what services it has to provide at the expense of less necessary spending.

Prime Minister John Key has already flagged spending cuts at the higher end of the Working for Families package in a bid to help contain the costs of last month's earthquake.

"This is not a time we can afford to indulge in a whole lot of 'nice-to-haves', even though, for sections of the population, they feel the loss of those services or funding streams," English said. "The government will continue to make decisions about what to stop increasing, scale back, or stop doing altogether."

New Zealand dodged a double-dip recession last year by a narrow margin, and last month's 6.3 magnitude earthquake has been called a "game-changer," forcing the government to cut all new spending initiatives, excluding health, education and justice, this year.


The International Monetary Fund is picking growth of just 1 per cent this calendar year, and the global body warned English last week to cut back on 'transfers' to the middle-classes.

English told the conference, the public sector "will be under constant pressure to deliver better services for little or no extra money," and the choke on new spending will effectively be permanent.

New Zealand's fiscal deficit is forecast to reach 9 per cent of gross domestic product as the government takes on more debt to drive Christchurch's rebuild, though it was already facing a structural deficit equal to some 5 per cent of the economy.

The government is looking at ways to integrate more agencies, and English said there will be more consolidation over the next two or three years.

That comes after the National Library and Archives New Zealand were wrapped into the Department of Internal Affairs, and the Food Safety Authority, Ministry of Fisheries and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry were merged.

"Too many agencies in the wrong place risks diseconomies of scale, transactions costs, duplication of roles and back-office functions, and in some cases reduces the cohesion and quality of frontline services," he said. "The direction is likely to lead to fewer government agencies over time."

English said the public service has been too clunky in the past, and increasing contestability of its services will stoke its level of responsiveness and innovation to dealing with the public.

That will go hand-in-hand with the delivery of more services by non-government organisations, the private sector and iwi groups.

Back-office functions will be targeted for more cost cutting, with fewer people expected to take on more projects, he said. This comes after the government identified savings of $115 million over the next five years on joint procurement projects.

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If the polls are even worse, Goff will be off...

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeIf the polls are even worse, Goff will be off...

Goff has handled the " Darren Hughes affair" badly and may yet be deposed as leader of the NZ Labour Party.

The question to be asked is this: If Labour can't win the elections with Goff as leader, why keep him on?

I believe a change in leadership would give Labour a huge boost -  it is because Goff is seen as a loser.

With the right leader Labour can still win with coalition partners. National may not have any partners.

Act NZ will be very lucky to continue as a political party in Parliament, and the Maori Party will be well censored by their voters this year. They may end up with only two MP's. And Hone Harawira may throw in his lot as a coalition partner of Labour, along with the Greens, and NZ First. Jim Anderton will be replaced by a Labour MP this year, because he is not standing any more. He will retire. And blame the first Christchurch earthquake for Jim not winning the mayoralty down there.

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Labour will want Hughes out...

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Labour will want Hughes out...


Otago University politics lecturer Dr Bryce Edwards says Labour will want Darren Hughes out, regardless of the truth surrounding the scandal he's linked to.

Labour will want Darren Hughes out, regardless of the truth surrounding the scandal he's linked to.

Wellington police are investigating a complaint against the list MP made by an 18-year-old man who was a Youth MP at Parliament last year. Mr Hughes is on leave from Parliament while the complaint is looked into but says he's done nothing wrong.

Otago University politics lecturer Bryce Edwards says political parties can't afford anyone to bring them down like this, especially not in election year. He says we expect our politicians to be squeaky clean.

"It's staggering that MPs can allow themselves to get into this situation, It just reeks or someone not losing the plot but losing their sense of what could end up in the public papers," he told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking.

Dr Edwards says the principle of innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply to parliamentary politics, which is a nasty business. He says Phil Goff may be ruing the day he went hard against National's Richard Worth, who was embroiled in a similar scandal.

"Goff really targeted John Key saying 'why did you wait so long, you knew this information for two weeks and didn't act,' and he really caused a stir with that, so he might be regretting that."

However Phil Goff'is promising to hold his MPs to the same standard as he has called on other parties to do with their members. Mr Goff says he has faith in Mr Hughes but will hold him to account if he's done anything wrong.

"You expect the highest standard of integrity in politics and that's what I expect of my MPs," he says.

Meanwhile Labour has closed ranks around Darren Hughes, following news that police are investigating the complaint.

Labour president Andrew Little says he became aware of the allegations against the senior MP only on Tuesday night, as the story broke. He's yet to speak to Mr Hughes and says he's happy for Phil Goff's office to handle the situation at this stage.

Wellington police are also refusing to comment further, with a spokeswoman saying when there's information to be released, a statement will be put out.

I think Darren Hughes may well be dog-tucker.  He is a list MP not an electorate one. For older guys like me with equally  as long memories - there is a touch of the Colin Moyle about this scandal to-be.

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Key the smiling assassin as he sacked hundreds of Merrill Lynch staff...

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John key:  Before politics - the 'smiling assassin'...

Key's first job was in 1982, as an auditor at McCulloch Menzies, and he then moved to be a project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin for two years.[7] Key began working as a foreign exchange dealer at Elders Finance in Wellington, and rose to the position of head foreign exchange trader two years later, then moved to Auckland-based Bankers Trust in 1988.

In 1995, he joined Merrill Lynch as head of Asian foreign exchange in Singapore. That same year he was promoted to Merrill's global head of foreign exchange, based in London, where he may have earned around US$2.25 million a year including bonuses, which is about NZ$5 million at 2001 exchange rates. Some co-workers called him "the smiling assassin" for maintaining his usual cheerfulness while sacking dozens (some say hundreds) of staff after heavy losses from the 1998 Russian financial crisis. He was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1999 to 2001.

In 1998, on learning of his interest in pursuing a political career, the National Party president John Slater began working actively to recruit him. Former party leader Jenny Shipley describes him as one of the people she "deliberately sought out and put my head on the line–either privately or publicly–to get them in there".

He doesn't appear to have changed much - now he smiles as thousands of NZ  public servants lose their jobs

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Keep the Rebels gang out of New Zealand, John key...

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Members of the filthy Australian motorcycle gang, the Rebels, are invading our nation and turning it into a cesspit of crime and corruption. And now some soft ‘gang expert’ is trying to protect the scum. Dr Arthur Veno is claiming that not all members of the Rebels are criminals, and that we need to look at each case on an individual basis. Well, Dr Veno, I hope the Rebels move in next door to you.

The truth is, if you’re in a gang, you are an evil criminal. You’re an evil criminal who likes surround yourself with other evil criminals. And if you choose to associate with evil criminals, you deserve to be eradicated from society. Simple as that.

This is what you get with a government like the National Disgrace Party led by the biggest disgrace of all, John key. No Aussie criminal gangs in New Zealand - all gang members are criminals!

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Is National heading for a fall? Could well be.

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Is National heading for a fall?  Could well be.

The NZ  Prime Minister, John Key,  is rejecting any suggestion the Government is trying to take charge of the Christchurch rebuild.

He says they're working closely with the city council in what's an enormous task ahead.

"The scale of the second earthquake and the size of the rebuild will require a different structure to the last one," he told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking. "Last time we had the Earthquake Recovery Commission and it really sat alongside the council."

John Key says they've been asking for advice from officials about the structure of any government focus organisation should be.

Meanwhile the Government may buy people out of earthquake-damaged neighbourhoods and help them move elsewhere.

The Prime Minister says GNS scientists have already reported that the Port Hills have moved up 40cm and those suburbs have dropped considerably.

John Key says after the last earthquake there was a plan in place to fix that land but that process is now being questioned.

"I have had, and I got it when I was on the ground in Christchurch on Friday, quite a number of people coming up to me saying 'I like where I live but unfortunately this is too difficult to deal with, and if you could show me another option I'd like the money and I'd like to move on to another property'."

Mr Key says the question is whether land can be rebuilt on, as some areas will now be prone to flooding.


KR says:  That may well be true, but the National Party Government's coalition partner  ACT NZ has came out and blatantly said that you have to take full advantage of the Christchurch earthquake! Really? Too bloody right! I was accused of politicising the EQ in a letter to the editor, but the National government was still publicly discussing the welfare reforms after the earthquake.  President John key and his cohorts are a bunch of hypocrites. You take what they say with a grain of salt,  but actually the effects and follow up of the EQ will may have some detrimental effects on their election chances. Act NZ came third in the Botany bi-election on Saturday. A brand new Asian based political party formed in the last few weeks, squeezed Act into fourth place. Worth thinking about,eh?

Acknowledgements:  © 2011 NZCity, NewsTalkZB

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An effing tragedy not a loss or an accident either

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Key  is a Joke

John key was visiting an Auckland primary school and the class was in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings.

The teacher asked Mr Key if he would like to lead the discussion on the word 'Tragedy'.

So our illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a 'Tragedy'. A little boy stood up and offered: 'If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a tractor runs over him and kills him, that would be a tragedy.'

'Incorrect,' said Key. 'That would be an accident.'

A little girl raised her hand: 'If a school bus carrying fifty children drove over a cliff, killing everybody inside, that would be a tragedy.'

'I'm afraid not’, explained Key, 'that's what we would refer to as a great loss'.

The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Key searched the room.

'Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?'

Finally, at the back of the room, little Johnny raised his hand and said:

'If a plane carrying you and Mr. English was struck by a 'friendly fire' missile & blown to smithereens, that would be a tragedy.'

'Fantastic' exclaimed Key, 'and can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?'

'Well', said Johnny, 'it has to be a tragedy, because it certainly wouldn't be a great loss, and it probably wouldn't be an effing accident either!

Simon Power quitting politics - Key losing touch with his party...

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Labour questions Power's explanation for quitting politics - Key losing touch with his party.

The Labour Party leader is questioning whether problems within Cabinet are behind fourth-ranked minister Simon Power's decision to quit politics.

The MP for Rangitikei, who holds the justice, commerce and state-owned enterprises portfolios, says he wants to explore opportunities in the private sector.

Prime Minister John Key said he was stunned and flabbergasted when Mr Power told him he would stand down at the election. He said Mr Power had the potential to be leader of the National Party.

Labour leader Phil Goff says it's very unusual for a first-time minister with a high ranking to leave politics. He expressed doubts about the simple explanation being offered for Mr Power's announcement.

But Mr Power said through a spokesman that suggestions of a split in Cabinet are laughable. He said there had been no ructions in caucus or Cabinet with Mr Power and his colleagues were shocked about his decision.

He has had a gutsful of neanderthal fscists in the National Party.

Acknowledgements: © 2011, Radio New Zealand

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