Price on Marshall - a sneaky journo from a NZ Sunday paper...

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Price on Marshall...

Lawyer Steven Price writes:

I have been contacted by a student at Victoria University who said he was approached by the Sunday Star-Times’ Jonathan Marshall at university last week, on the hunt for information about the 18-year-old at the centre of the Darren Hughes incident.

He said Marshall asked him to go to a university office and pretend to be a long-lost friend of the 18-year-old and ask for his class timetable. The student refused, saying this was a “morally bankrupt” thing to do, and good on him.

If true that would represent a new low in an already tarnished journalistic career. Marshall's style of tabloid journalism is the sort we associate with UK red-tops like The Sun. It's a style I don't particularly like.

Price continues:

I note the Press Council’s principle on subterfuge states:

The use of deceit and subterfuge can only be condoned in cases when the information sought is in the public interest and cannot be obtained by any other means.

I don’t think there can be much doubt that Marshall was trying to use deceit and subterfuge here, even if he was enlisting someone else to do the actual dirty work. Was it, then, really in the public interest? And mightn’t there be other ways of getting this information?

Price also reports that Marshall has denied engaging in any such activity, and that Marshall's editor is backing him up to the hilt. So whose version of events is true?

And why is the SST editor so confident there has been no wrongdoing? Has he spoken to the person who made the allegation?

Or is he just reflexively protecting his prized asset? Just as he weekly defends Michael Laws for writing indefensible hate-filled dross because it helps to sell papers?

True or false? Not surprising some would suggest.

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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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National Puts Kiwi Supergold Free Travel Scheme At Risk Again...

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National Puts Kiwi Supergold Card Free Travel Scheme At Risk Again...




 The possibility that pensioners in Dunedin may have to pay for what have been free bus trips under the SuperGold Card free travel scheme shows National can't be trusted to keep the scheme going anywhere, says Labour transport spokesperson Darren Hughes.



"Grey Power has every reason to be fearful of a report in the Otago Daily Times today that says the Transport Ministry has told the Otago Regional Council it wants to cut the SuperGold Card bus subsidy from 75 percent of the adult fare to 65 percent," Darren Hughes.



"Grey Power knows how important it is to keep the pressure on John Key's National Government over this issue.



"Since March this year, when Transport Minister Steven Joyce seemed to suggest consultation was starting on a review of the scheme, Grey Power has been left in no doubt how slippery National is on this issue," Darren Hughes said.



"As soon as National realised at that time how angry pensioners were, it quickly backtracked, of course.



"Steven Joyce lamely and unconvincingly tried to explain that his media release might have been confusing --- and that he was never really talking about eligibility, but just about getting a better deal from transport operators," Darren Hughes said.



"Now, six months after John Key asked people to watch his lips, and promised that the scheme would not be cut back, the Transport Ministry, no doubt acting on Mr Joyce's instructions, is trying to back the Otago Regional Council into a corner where it is forced to try to screw more funding from bus companies.



"Steven Joyce's office says nothing has yet been approved by the cabinet, but who can trust National given what was first said in March, and given what Steven Joyce tried to fudge a few days later," Darren Hughes said.



"Otago Regional Council is not making this up. Nor is the newspaper making it up. Nor is the Transport Ministry making it up.



"Grey Power knows that, and that's why it smells treachery.



"The problem that National is finding is that when you start being slippery on an issue, people stop trusting you," Darren Hughes said

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