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The Persuader
My personal blog, started in 2006. No paid or guest posts, no link sales.
Posts tagged ‘National’
29.08.2017
One thing I love about New Zealand is that weâre not mired in an election cycle years before the event. Weâre three weeks or so out from our General Election, and only now am I feeling things are heating up.
Itâs not that we havenât had drama. Weeks ago, Metiria Turei was co-leader of the Greens, Andrew Little led Labour, and Peter Dunne was aiming for another term as MP for ĆhÄriu and leader of United Future. None of these hold true in late August.
What is unusual is that Iâm undecided because of all these late changes, and we’re still learning about policies in some casesâI remember getting my manifesto out six months before an election, and the uncertainty here isn’t helping. The billboards have done nothing to sway me one way or another. Policy-wise, I have some things in common with each of the parties, excepting ACT, though probably like most New Zealanders, I haven’t had a chance to visit all the parties’ websites yet, though I will in the next few weeks. Various websites helping people decide based on stated policy actually give very different answers: On the Fence suggests I am both a National and Labour supporter (I often kid and say the parties are the same, just plus or minus 10 per cent); yet taken earlier, it said United Future and MÄori Party were the top two with the most in common with me. Vote Compass gives Green and Mana. The websites, then, are no help, because they base their answers on selected issues, and apparently Iâm both right- and left-wing.
Twitter is comparatively quiet in 2017, giving fewer clues about how candidates are thinking, and I hardly look at my Facebook (for obvious reasons). I have spied some of the TVCs, where Labour has done an excellent job, and (last I looked) National has uploaded only one to its YouTube channel, so I canât even see the first one that has been on telly. A lack of coordination between online and traditional media worries me.
Itâs an odd mix, none of whom really stand out.
The incumbent National Party currently has an unimaginative TVC that is an adaptation of the rowers of 2014, and it only serves to highlight that, after three terms, they are out of touch. Say what you will about the former PM, the Rt Hon John Key, he had a pretty keen sense of the electorate. Not so this National Party, where the Deputy PM gave this quote:

I see my friend Andy Boreham suggests âMinsterâ is a misspelling of âMonsterâ, but such a point makes a mockery of New Zealandersâ belief (even if it does not hold true with growing inequality) that being Deputy PM is no greater a duty or more important a job than being a union leader. Some might have voted for National before on the premise that John Key is rich (Iâm sure that worked for Trump, too), but, as we know, they arenât going to return the favour of a vote by giving up a share of their wealth with you. PM Bill English, whom I first met while he was Treasurer in 1999, is an intelligent man with a sense of humour that doesnât come across on television, and that wonât hold him in good stead this time out. Pity: there are many National MPs I like (e.g. Paul Foster-Bell, Simon OâConnor). The Natsâ 2002 campaign with Bill as leader was a disaster: I saw no outdoor advertising when I came back from Europe. This time thereâs a lot of outdoor, but none of it says anything to me, other than National has spent some money licensing new fonts. I should note that no one has won an election for a long, long time in this country using a typeface that has a single-storey lowercase a.
Labour has staged a turnaround like no other, one where leader Jacinda Ardern is neck in neck with the PM on one preferred prime minister poll. I had dismissed Labour earlier on as a party with unhealable divisions, but the speed at which Ardern and her party have pulled together an overhauled campaign is to be commended. Iâve never voted Labour before, and Iâm still not convinced that the divisions are gone, but I will say this of Ardern, just as I once did of myself when I stood for office in my 30s: if we screw it up, we have a lot, lot longer to live with the consequences. She will take this seriously. She has had more parliamentary experience at this point than Key when he first got to the PMâs office, and former PM Helen Clark has endorsed her. Rose-coloured glasses about the Clark administration will help, even if I was critical of certain aspects of it back then. Post-Little, Labour could get more Chinese New Zealanders voting for them, too, after an earlier screw-up with a real estate agentâs list that was handled horribly. Chinese NZers have long memories, and some labelled the gaffe racist. Ardern is a departure from Little and the message here is âDonât hinder Jacinda.â
Peter Dunneâs decision not to stand in ĆhÄriu means that the United Future party is at an end. Itâs a shame, because I have always got on with Peter, and he has been generous to me with his time, more so than my own MP. Similarly, the Greensâ James Shaw I count as a friend of over seven years, but the Turei scandal has left the party hurt, even if its policies remain on track. The signage has been appallingly dull, bereft of imagination, even if Jamesâs performance in a recent Nation debate clearly marks him out as the intellectual, aware of global trends. If we want a globalist (or at least a globally aware MP) in Parliament, then we could do far worse than ensuring the Greens get in above the 5 per cent threshold. Strategically, a party that has its origins in the environment (even if that message hasnât been hammered home of late) makes sense, as I believe we need to protect ours desperately. Vote Compass says Iâve most in common with the Greens this time out, and Toby Morris makes a good point with his latest cartoon.
The Opportunities Party has some good pointsâIâm in favour of closing tax loopholes for foreign companies operating on our shoresâand its leader, Gareth Morgan, who normally comes across as lacking the common touch, did well in the debate, at least when he had something to say. Iâve followed Morgan on Twitter for some time, long before this political foray, and often liked what he had to say. However, at either website TOP and I donât have that much in common.
The MÄori Party, as my supposed second choice based on On the Fence (at least the first time out a few weeks ago), could have received my vote after Peter decided not to stand, but Marama Foxâs performance in the above debate didnât impress me, even if she impressed all the talking heads in the studio. It goes to show how different things are in person. Fox has passion and fire, but didnât have the figures to back up her policiesâand I know from having been on the podium with my opponents that you should have them, and your researchers should have at least come up with an estimate. I donât know where Mana sits; I had a far better idea when Kim Dotcom was involved.
New Zealand First, helmed by the Rt Hon Winston Peters, the most establishment of all the politicians who successfully carries on an antiestablishment message, has signage up with Petersâ face and the words âHad enough?â On that note I find accord with New Zealand Firstâs message. I have had enough of Winston Peters, and I answer their advertisement in the affirmative. But I shanât be voting for them.
Tags: 2017, advertising, Aotearoa, General Election, Greens, Labour, MÄori Party, marketing, National, New Zealand, outdoor advertising, politics, social media, TV3, website, YouTube Posted in marketing, New Zealand, politics | 2 Comments »
23.08.2014
A week and a half ago, I appeared on Back Benches to talk about Winston Peters MPâs âtwo Wongsâ joke, and confined my comments to that.
My response, âThere are still people who enjoy watching Rolf Harris, just as there are still people out there who enjoy listening to Winston Peters.â And, âWe have a politician here who says he does not believe in race-based laws, and yet everything he utters is race-based ⊠Canât he walk the talk?â His is a passĂ© joke, and of course thereâs no way Mr Peters would have heard it in Beijingâsince the Wong surname does not exist in Mandarin.
Itâs a shame he resorts to this old technique because I find myself agreeing with a number of his statements when it came to the Dirty Politics revelations. And had I more time on Back Benches, I would have explored this further.
There were three MPs on the show, Annette King (Labour), Scott Simpson (National) and Russel Norman (Greens). Ms King and Dr Norman were up front enough to call the joke racist, while Dr Norman went so far as to call it âunacceptableâ and âdisgracefulâ, while Mr Simpson merely passed it off as âWinston being Winston.â
Mr Simpsonâs dismissal is in line with his Prime Ministerâs, who called it âa stuntâ. And it brought back the PMâs unflinching reaction to Paul Henry implying back in 2010 that the then-Governor-General, Sir Anand Satyanand, did not âlook or sound like a New Zealanderâ.
That has been covered here before, but I read comments at the time that John Keyâs predecessor, Helen Clark, would have taken Henry to task over the comment.
I plainly donât notice someoneâs colour and I suspect most people do not, but I do notice accents, and Sir Anand sounds exactly like what you would expect from an Auckland Grammar alumnus: if linguists were to pin down just where he was from, Iâm fairly confident they would find it was Auckland.
Once I can forgive. The PM was in the heat of an interview in 2010, he had his points to make, and itâs very, very easy not to answer the question put before you. In the YouTube clip, I didnât directly answer one of Damian Christieâs questions.
But twice? This is not âa stuntâ, this is something that goes to the heart of the casual racism that occasionally gets spouted in this country. It has no place in Aotearoa, and in election year, you would think that the Prime Minister, wanting to capture votes from Kiwis of all stripes, would take a rival to task over it. Politicians in the past aimed to paint an inclusive New Zealand, not one where people are cast out by race or, as we have seen post-Dirty Politics, by whether they are on the left or on the right.
Author Nicky Hager is now, according to the PM, ‘a screaming left-wing conspiracy theorist’ for writing his book, one where the allegations have been carefully written to avoid legal action, and one where there are no emails to refute what he claims. Watching the fallout has been instructive: the ACT Party has completely defused the allegations over the Rodney Hide âblackmailâ stance thanks to early, measured, and direct statements from Mr Hide and from lawyer Jordan Williams, and the burden has been lifted. It didnât take much. David Farrar, who admittedly is not a central figure in the book, comes across as an intelligent and genuine National Party member and supporter. But National has played a divisive game once again, and that has been disappointing, especially for those quality MPs the party has outside of the Cabinet.
You can say that its poll numbers are comfortable enough for National not to attempt to get voters on âthe leftâ, but if I were running right now, I honestly wouldnât care what your political leanings were. Iâd want your vote. Iâd know there were swing voters out there, and Iâd also know that most New Zealanders, who tend toward centrist politics, have policies on the left and the right that they favour. Why isolate them by insulting some of their beliefs, or pigeonholing them as belonging to one group or another?
Or, why, for that matter, associate with blogger Cameron Slater if he is a âforce of nature unto himselfâ (if I have quoted the PM correctly).
And he is. I actually have little problem about the man having an opinion and expressing it on the internet. Iâll even go so far as to defend his right to hold an opinion and to express it freely even if I do not agree with it.
I might not agree with Mr Slaterâs venomous âI have come to the conclusion that Maori are thick. Dumber than your average bear. Stupid. Dumb and Dumber rolled in one. Dumber than a sack of hammers,â and âMy patience with Maori is at an end. They are venal, corrupt, lying, lazy useless fuckers,â but he has a right to say it.
Itâs like âtwo Wongsâ.
Those who donât like it can say so, too.
The PMâs defence so far of his and his partyâs association with Mr Slater (which suddenly has become less tight than it was portrayed earlier this year) is effectively âthis is OK, because Labour contacts left-wing bloggersâ. Sorry, John. If there is a blog out there that spews this kind of hatred, the normal thing for any right-thinking New Zealander to do is to isolate its writer. To make sure that his brand of venom is as far away from you as possible. You just donât risk it for the sake of votes. You do not cozy up to him, even minutelyâwhich is now the image you wish to portray. To have your government and your party willingly associate with him is precisely the sort of divisive politics that has no place in this country.
The tactics have been compared to the Muldoon days. I disagree: if Rob Muldoon thought you were a knob, he would come out and call you a knob.
I donât think he would recognize his party.
As Muldoon himself put it (in Muldoon):
A great deal of New Zealand’s history has in fact been recorded in detail and it as [sic] at least as interesting as that of older countries. To read it is to understand why so much damage is being done by a small group of stirrers who have fomented the hateful cry of “racism” in recent years. New Zealand does not have a colour bar, it has a behaviour bar, and throughout the length and breadth of this country we have always been prepared to accept each other on the basis of behaviour and regardless of colour, creed, origin or wealth. That is the most valuable feature of New Zealand society and the reason why I have time and again stuck my neck out to challenge those who would try to destroy this harmony and set people against people inside our country.
And I can’t see decent National Party people like Paul Foster-Bell or Simon O’Connor ever engaging in these sorts of tactics. At the local level, Kerry Prendergast never did when I ran against her in 2010.
Despite these efforts from our politicians, I still believe in inclusiveness, and that when you stand for public office, you are prepared to represent everyone in your constituency, even those you might not like or hold different beliefs to you. I said of a racist who wrote on my wall in 2013, âIf elected, Iâm happy to represent you, too.â I donât think thatâs an idealism found in the Coca-Cola Hilltop commercial, but the reality of someone who wants the job of public office. Maybe itâs naĂŻvetĂ©, but I canât see what division and negative campaigning get you in New Zealand.
Tags: 2014, Aotearoa, Back Benches, blogosphere, election, General Election, Greens, Helen Clark, John Key, Labour, MÄori, media, National, New Zealand, New Zealand First, Nicky Hager, politics, racism, Sir Robert Muldoon, Sky TV, TV, Winston Peters, YouTube Posted in culture, leadership, media, New Zealand, politics, TV, Wellington | 3 Comments »
05.08.2014
A Kiwi friend, based in Australia, and I were discussing the General Election yesterday on the phone.
First, I told her, you wouldnât know one was on. Itâs like Christmas when the global financial crisis hit: people werenât in the mood.
Secondly, minor parties like Internet Mana are probably doing better than the polls say: as with the mayoral election last year, those on cellphones are being missed in telephone polls, and, unlike local body elections, more young people come out for these.
In Rongotaiâhistorically a Labour electorate other than a brief period under National when Graeme Reeves was our local MPâthere are plenty of Labour hoardings. In my postbox, surprisingly, Conservatives and Greens have delivered more, while two Labour loyalists did some door-knocking. Nationalâs activity, that I found out about ex post facto, was a visit by Paul Foster-Bell. Interestingly, it has also bought a lot of ads on the Lucire website via an ad network that we work with, and it got to the point where I wondered if people thought our publication was sponsored by National.
Iâm exactly the sort of swing voter who these folks would target because I donât go to the polls on autopilot. Paul does well with interacting with us on Facebook, and, as I told the two Labour people, I havenât physically seen Annette King in this area in 21 years. (Iâve seen her at parties though, and to be fair, I saw her at one official function in Newtown, which is part of this electorate.) I also saw Graeme a lot, and Peter Neilson before that.
But Labourâs poor showing in the polls, in my opinion, has less to do with the invisibility of its members in the community and more to do with the perception of division. Itâs what got John Major in the UK in 1997âyou just canât fight an election alone.
Chris Hipkins and I did chat briefly about the fact certain media seem to enquire with National first about a few Labour announcements, which is a curious journalistic approach, and that certainly weakens their case.
But I have just watched a TV3 Nation âdebateâ (I use the term advisedlyâSteven Joyce does himself a disservice by shouting down his opponent and the host, when I actually wanted to listen to his side of the story), where I can now say I have seen, and heard, more of Grant Robertson than his leader, David Cunliffe. I even saw Grant at the weekend with Maryan Street. I thought: good, Labour is campaigning. I want to see an election battle.
Labourâs image of division isnât new. It started after the resignation of David Shearer and the long drawn-out process of selecting a new leader. Why Labour wanted this to be so public I have no idea. It might have thought it a good opportunity to get some air time but all it did was show that there were two camps: the caucus, who favoured Grant, and the membership, who favoured David Cunliffe.
My Australian-based friend was under the impression that Grant only lost out because of his sexuality, that that was wholly inappropriate in 2014 given that he is the better speaker, thinker and leader. If his sexuality played a part in his loss then I agree that it should not have been a consideration. I’ve a feeling she’s disappointed with Labour and won’t be voting for them.
While David Cunliffe moved quickly to give his rivals high positions in the Shadow Cabinet, the damage had been done.
I think occidental voters want to see unity, because, in the General Elections I have watched, that plays a greater role than the policies themselves. The reality is that every party has factions, and itâs a matter of first, how deep they are, and secondly, how one stage-manages them to the public. No matter what Labour does, it found itself on the back foot.
It may be time to look beyond the stage management and ask ourselves what we want in terms of our aspirations for our country.
I want to see a high-tech base along with our traditional primary sectors, because we have an advantage in innovation that doesnât get talked up anywhere nearly enough. Thatâs one of my biggies, along with a government that is prepared to foster the growth of New Zealand businesses, not those of foreign technocrats in the hope that trickle-down might start working one of these days. Foreign ownership of enterprises doesnât put that much back into our economy. Iâll go for a party that will work to narrow the income gap, and has a workable plan to do so.
In the materials I have been delivered, and in the media that I have been served, I havenât seen anyone hit all of these.
The restâsensibly investing in education, health and our poor, go without sayingâbut every party says they care about this trifecta. They are nevertheless worth investigating.
This means Iâll continue digging to see who matches up with my wish list the best. Itâs worth the effort if we are to get past the smoke-and-mirrors games of the spin doctors.
Tags: 2014, Aotearoa, business, General Election, income gap, journalism, Labour, media, National, New Zealand, politics Posted in business, globalization, media, New Zealand, politics, Wellington | Comments Off on The 2014 General Election: the impressions the parties have left, so far
07.05.2014
Polity has gone through the MFAT OIA documents relating to Judith Collins’s visit to China, where she met with Oravida thrice.
I’ve been reading them but out of order (the second bunch only) and their summary of what I have read gels with my take on things.
These matters have been covered better on political blogs, but I can’t but help drawing comparisons between the stubbornness of this government with the days of Neil Hamilton, Jonathan Aitken and others in the UK Conservatives in the 1990s.
The Minister’s latest, that the Greens were quick to capitalize on (as they did with Simon Bridgesâwhich begs the question of where Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is), is this quotation: âDoes that have anything to do with me? Am I the minister of wetlands? Go and find someone who actually cares about this, because I donât. Itâs not my issue ⊠I donât like wetlandsâtheyâre swamps.â
This Cabinet has opened itself up to media attacks because of the relatively large holes in its conduct, of which the above seems typical.
The odd one, at least to 21st-century eyes, has to be the PM’s defence of Collins, as reported by Radio New Zealand: ‘Meanwhile, the Prime Minister blames Twitter for the stress Ms Collins has faced over her involvement with Oravida ⊠Mr Key said Ms Collins had been under a lot of stress and much of that was driven by comments on Twitter.’
One of my friends responded, ‘If he’d ever seen the abuse she dished out in her tweets, he’d know she was the instigator of most of it, not the victim.’
And the PM makes one critical mistake here: he seems to portray social media as some sort of foreign world, where specialist knowledge is required. It’s certainly one that certain members of the old media fraternity love to use.
The truth is social media arenât that different: they are merely extensions of what one already knows. If you have been in business or in public service, you should know how to write and communicate. If you’re a reasonably competent writer in your everyday life, then it’s a cinch that you’ll be good at communicating with social media.
I might get sucked in by the odd troll every now and then, but Twitter stress isn’t a valid enough excuse in my book.
However, the PM is a smart guy. He knows that most of us will forget in a short space of time and there’ll be another scandal that will surface. So the disappearance of Collins through a time-out might be a good calculated moveâat least that’s what he’s counting on.
But the fourth estate might not be as forgiving this time. Duncan Garner wrote (also noting she needed a Twitter break): ‘The truth is, her story about what she was doing in China with Oravida has completely collapsed. She has lost all credibility. What started as a pop-in cup of milk and a private dinner turns out to be a turbo-blasted official dinner involving both Governments, their officials, a senior Minister (Collins) and a National party donor (Oravida).’
The problem with all of this is: where’s Labour, in the midst of the greatest gift an opposition has been given for years?
One friend of a friend noted that maybe Labour shouldn’t be attacking, because we Kiwis don’t like whingers. It is the charge I hear from friends on the right. Labour should, instead, be coming up with solid policies and leave the attacks to the Greens (which is doing a marvellous job) and Winston Peters (need I say more? He remains a great political wordsmith).
For me, I’d like them to do both if they are to stand a chance. The job of the Opposition is to oppose.
And failure to oppose strongly may suggest to the electorate that the same thing could happen under Labour.
Six months out from the election I contested, I had my policies publishedâwhich one blog noted was unusual but welcome. That meant my policies were out for twice as long as my opponents’.
We’re talking about a party that has been in opposition for a long time, long enough to know what it wishes to do should it be handed the reins of government.
And yet, apart from a few policy announcements here and there, it has been silent. You’d think the names of the Shadow Cabinet would be in our consciousness by now. Embarrassingly, I even forgot David Cunliffe’s name recently in a conversation. I could only call him ‘not-Robertson’. (It is better than the PM calling Grant Robertson ‘Perry Mason’ today, I hasten to add.)
It makes me wonder if Labour isn’t working and whether the anti-National vote will, indeed, head even more to the Greens this year.
Tags: 2014, Aotearoa, David Cunliffe, ethics, General Election, government, Grant Robertson, Greens, John Key, Judith Collins, Labour, National, New Zealand, New Zealand First, politics, Radio New Zealand, TV3, Twitter, Wellington, Winston Peters Posted in business, China, internet, media, New Zealand, politics | 3 Comments »
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