Rodney Hide's laying of a complaint against Winston Peters with the NZ Police is an excellent example of a politician utilising some of the aspects of news organisation that Sue was discussing in last week's lecture. Watch the One News report here and consider how Hide utilised news organisation.
Showing posts with label NZ Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NZ Politics. Show all posts
Friday, September 5, 2008
The organisation of news
Rodney Hide's laying of a complaint against Winston Peters with the NZ Police is an excellent example of a politician utilising some of the aspects of news organisation that Sue was discussing in last week's lecture. Watch the One News report here and consider how Hide utilised news organisation.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Political responses to police actions against activists
So far, only one party has posted comments, the Green Party.
Green Party:
"Greens appeal to police to show more respect
Keith Locke MP, Green Party Human Rights Spokesperson
18th October 2007
The Green Party is shocked by stories of police heavy handedness when executing search warrants under the Terrorism Suppression Act.
“Just this morning we see a pensioner in Tauranga describing feeling violated after police raided his house while he was absent and left behind a smashed window, a broken door catch, mud and a trashed linen cupboard and shed.
“Surely police should repair the damage they caused, especially as he was not charged with anything?
“Police have gone over-the-top in several raids, unnecessarily offending many people,” said Mr Locke, the Party’s Human Rights Spokesperson.
“Tuhoe people are very upset at the excessive display of force in their community. The raids have often left a mess and smashed windows, with little apparent thought of an apology or rectification.”
Green Party Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says she was shocked to hear that police had raided the Taupo home of Eco-Show organisers Jo Pearsal and Bryan Innes."
Read more...
Green Party:
"Greens appeal to police to show more respect
Keith Locke MP, Green Party Human Rights Spokesperson
18th October 2007
The Green Party is shocked by stories of police heavy handedness when executing search warrants under the Terrorism Suppression Act.
“Just this morning we see a pensioner in Tauranga describing feeling violated after police raided his house while he was absent and left behind a smashed window, a broken door catch, mud and a trashed linen cupboard and shed.
“Surely police should repair the damage they caused, especially as he was not charged with anything?
“Police have gone over-the-top in several raids, unnecessarily offending many people,” said Mr Locke, the Party’s Human Rights Spokesperson.
“Tuhoe people are very upset at the excessive display of force in their community. The raids have often left a mess and smashed windows, with little apparent thought of an apology or rectification.”
Green Party Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says she was shocked to hear that police had raided the Taupo home of Eco-Show organisers Jo Pearsal and Bryan Innes."
Read more...
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Continuous coverage of raids on stuff.co.nz
Pita Sharples in stuff.co.nz
"Race relations in New Zealand have been set back 100 years by police raids on Monday at alleged weapons-training camps in the Bay of Plenty, Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples has told an Australian audience.
Sharples also questioned yesterday whether New Zealand security agencies might resort to planting evidence to justify their actions.
His criticism came yesterday as a Rotorua District Court judge denied bail to Tuhoe activist Tame Iti, one of 17 people arrested.
Sharples told a conference on restorative justice in Queensland that police had used "storm-trooper" tactics in raiding homes and making the arrests.
He said the justice system had "lashed out" at Maori. Maori sovereignty activists were among those arrested, as well as peace and environmental campaigners who police said were connected to the weapons-training camps found in rugged Bay of Plenty bush."
Read more...
See on-going coverage here
"Race relations in New Zealand have been set back 100 years by police raids on Monday at alleged weapons-training camps in the Bay of Plenty, Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples has told an Australian audience.
Sharples also questioned yesterday whether New Zealand security agencies might resort to planting evidence to justify their actions.
His criticism came yesterday as a Rotorua District Court judge denied bail to Tuhoe activist Tame Iti, one of 17 people arrested.
Sharples told a conference on restorative justice in Queensland that police had used "storm-trooper" tactics in raiding homes and making the arrests.
He said the justice system had "lashed out" at Maori. Maori sovereignty activists were among those arrested, as well as peace and environmental campaigners who police said were connected to the weapons-training camps found in rugged Bay of Plenty bush."
Read more...
See on-going coverage here
NZ Police arrest activists
Does not the title of the article the question answered under the picture?
"Napalm bombs, Molotov cocktails and military-style assault rifles were among an arsenal of weapons that prompted early morning police raids across the country yesterday. "
Read more...
Covering Police "Terrorism" Raid
A few days after the police raids across the country the media are starting to ask the significance of the actions.
Here's Colin Espiner's views:
"Police ‘terror’ raids - blunder or brilliance?
Colin Espiner in On The House | 1:01 pm 17 October 2007
I’ve avoided posting anything on the arrests of activists around the country on Monday because - and this doesn’t happen often, I’ll admit - I’m at a bit of a loss to know what to say.Either the police have uncovered the sort of organised, militant, terrorist activity that New Zealand has so far been blessedly free from, or the cops have made a monumental blunder and trampled over the basic rights of Kiwis to protest and to speak out against authority and the government of the day.Neither answer is particularly palatable. I’ve always considered that New Zealand has its fair share of nutcases, fruit loops, and raving lunatics but that like Douglas Adams’ summation of Earth in The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, they were “mostly harmless”.
Indeed I’d thought people like Tame Iti, with his full moko and passionate belief in Maori self-determination, and the earnest, well-meaning, wet-behind-the-ears “activists” that inhabit the darker corners of Wellington’s Te Aro Valley actually added to the country’s social fabric rather than detracted from it. Even if they did occasionally annoy me by chaining themselves to buildings to prevent the construction of the capital’s much-needed inner-city bypass.
But police claims that these people had semi-automatic weapons and molotov cocktails, held secret training camps in the bush and planned to assassinate key public figures is another matter altogether. It’s deeply disturbing.
I don’t think I’m alone in not really knowing what to say at the moment. The media has been every which way, starting off with blazing headlines declaring police had uncovered “terror camps” and conducted “anti-terror raids” before quickly switching to sympathetic portrayals of wronged activists upset at having their door kicked in by police at 4am."
Read more...
Russell Brown gives some historical perspective:
"Te Qaeda and the God Squad | Oct 16, 2007 11:02
The Dominion Post today covers yesterday's police raids in part by harking back 30 years, to the Full Gospel Mission -- better known as the "God Squad" -- the millenarian religious sect whose apparent stockpiling of weapons at a compound in Waipara was a huge news story in 1977. It's a story with lessons for all sides of our new controversy...
Read more...
Here's Colin Espiner's views:
"Police ‘terror’ raids - blunder or brilliance?
Colin Espiner in On The House | 1:01 pm 17 October 2007
I’ve avoided posting anything on the arrests of activists around the country on Monday because - and this doesn’t happen often, I’ll admit - I’m at a bit of a loss to know what to say.Either the police have uncovered the sort of organised, militant, terrorist activity that New Zealand has so far been blessedly free from, or the cops have made a monumental blunder and trampled over the basic rights of Kiwis to protest and to speak out against authority and the government of the day.Neither answer is particularly palatable. I’ve always considered that New Zealand has its fair share of nutcases, fruit loops, and raving lunatics but that like Douglas Adams’ summation of Earth in The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, they were “mostly harmless”.
Indeed I’d thought people like Tame Iti, with his full moko and passionate belief in Maori self-determination, and the earnest, well-meaning, wet-behind-the-ears “activists” that inhabit the darker corners of Wellington’s Te Aro Valley actually added to the country’s social fabric rather than detracted from it. Even if they did occasionally annoy me by chaining themselves to buildings to prevent the construction of the capital’s much-needed inner-city bypass.
But police claims that these people had semi-automatic weapons and molotov cocktails, held secret training camps in the bush and planned to assassinate key public figures is another matter altogether. It’s deeply disturbing.
I don’t think I’m alone in not really knowing what to say at the moment. The media has been every which way, starting off with blazing headlines declaring police had uncovered “terror camps” and conducted “anti-terror raids” before quickly switching to sympathetic portrayals of wronged activists upset at having their door kicked in by police at 4am."
Read more...
Russell Brown gives some historical perspective:
"Te Qaeda and the God Squad | Oct 16, 2007 11:02
The Dominion Post today covers yesterday's police raids in part by harking back 30 years, to the Full Gospel Mission -- better known as the "God Squad" -- the millenarian religious sect whose apparent stockpiling of weapons at a compound in Waipara was a huge news story in 1977. It's a story with lessons for all sides of our new controversy...
Read more...
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Working on John Key's image
This is from a blog called The Standard. A cameraman follows a camera crew following John Key in Porirua market. Two things of interest here: firstly this shows the ways in which political campaigns stage opportunities for candidates to look in the touch with the people; secondly, this is an example of alternative media strategy since this cameraman reveals the manufacturing of the situation.
Read more and watch the video
Read more and watch the video
Monday, September 24, 2007
Helen Clark and the media
This is one of many more stories likely to appear in the months to come. The question it asks is can Helen Clark win a fourth term for Labour?
There has surprisingly been no discussion of a succession to Helen Clark. This article sets up what are likely to be the terms of the narrative surrounding her leadership.
From The Press via stuff.co.nz:
"Combining David Lange's intelligence and frankness with ferocious discipline, she has dominated New Zealand's political stage as few before her.
On December 10, Clark marks her eighth year as Prime Minister.
Assuming the Government goes full-term (beyond mid-October next year), she could next year move into fifth place in the ranks of our longest-serving premiers – led by Richard Seddon, followed by William Massey, Keith Holyoake and Peter Fraser.
By then she will have led the Labour Party for nearly 15 years. She has been the most popular prime minister of modern times.
So an assessment of Clark's legacy may seem premature.
Aged just 57, she has her eyes on a fourth term next year – a feat if achieved that would place her government alongside Peter Fraser's as the only other Labour administration to have done so.
Early in her premiership, British Labour MP Austin Mitchell quipped that governing New Zealand didn't seem enough of a test for Clark's abilities, and suggested she take a subcontract role running Scotland or Norway.
Yet three terms on, Clark is facing a challenge even for her formidable skills.
Her government appears old and tired. Mired in minor scandal for much of the time since the last election, Clark has been forced to spend her time fighting fires."
Read more...
See also Colin Espiner's article on the topic
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Russell Brown on TVNZ
From Public Address blog (the post contains very good links to background information:
"Ralston also regards the present management as just another bunch of dupes who'll lose their heads when they fail to meet the board's performance targets, or when the government changes. I think he's missing a few things. The development and launch of tvnzondemand and the creation of TVNZ 6 and 7 have been pretty efficient. The wholesale loss of staff from Breakfast to TV3's forthcoming Sunrise has been fairly bizarre, but it would be wise to wait and see whether TV3 can actually turn a dollar out of a shared break TV audience, which was small enough anyway, before declaring a disaster.
The comparison with the Fraser era is telling: that was marked by some awful recruitment decisions -- which did far more damage than the flaps over star salaries -- and a damaging bout of feuding with major independent producers. Given TVNZ's long history of scorched earth and policy reversal under successive management regimes, the shift under Ellis has actually been fairly civilised. The likes of John Barnett -- whose company has done incredibly well for TVNZ -- are welcome back in the building, and seem comfortable being there. The endless discussion over rights issues continues, but it appears to be businesslike, rather than bitter, in tone.
But oddly enough, I agree with Ralston and Fraser's key points: TVNZ can't have the Ministry of Culture and Heritage sitting on its shoulder forever. There are legitimate expectations of a public broadcaster in fulfilling public policy goals. Freeview, as noted above, is one example. But sooner rather than later, a clear, independent role for TVNZ must be established. That doesn't necessarily mean a split or a sale of part of the business: the present management's demarcation of "public value" and "commercial value" in its activities represents a reasonable way of managing its duties. But whatever solution emerges will come from solid thinking about TVNZ's future; not from a repeat season of the soap opera."
Read more...
"Ralston also regards the present management as just another bunch of dupes who'll lose their heads when they fail to meet the board's performance targets, or when the government changes. I think he's missing a few things. The development and launch of tvnzondemand and the creation of TVNZ 6 and 7 have been pretty efficient. The wholesale loss of staff from Breakfast to TV3's forthcoming Sunrise has been fairly bizarre, but it would be wise to wait and see whether TV3 can actually turn a dollar out of a shared break TV audience, which was small enough anyway, before declaring a disaster.
The comparison with the Fraser era is telling: that was marked by some awful recruitment decisions -- which did far more damage than the flaps over star salaries -- and a damaging bout of feuding with major independent producers. Given TVNZ's long history of scorched earth and policy reversal under successive management regimes, the shift under Ellis has actually been fairly civilised. The likes of John Barnett -- whose company has done incredibly well for TVNZ -- are welcome back in the building, and seem comfortable being there. The endless discussion over rights issues continues, but it appears to be businesslike, rather than bitter, in tone.
But oddly enough, I agree with Ralston and Fraser's key points: TVNZ can't have the Ministry of Culture and Heritage sitting on its shoulder forever. There are legitimate expectations of a public broadcaster in fulfilling public policy goals. Freeview, as noted above, is one example. But sooner rather than later, a clear, independent role for TVNZ must be established. That doesn't necessarily mean a split or a sale of part of the business: the present management's demarcation of "public value" and "commercial value" in its activities represents a reasonable way of managing its duties. But whatever solution emerges will come from solid thinking about TVNZ's future; not from a repeat season of the soap opera."
Read more...
TVNZ's Financial Results
TVNZ released its budget results:
Fewer viewers blamed for TVNZ loss
By MICHAEL FIELD - The Dominion Post | Tuesday, 11 September 2007
For the first time in its history, Television New Zealand will not be paying a dividend to taxpayers, after posting a $4.5 million loss - blaming shrinking audiences.
Chief executive Rick Ellis conceded the year to June had been a "somewhat monumental year", and while TVNZ forecast a profit next year, warned "we will not return to revenue levels any time soon".
TVNZ's financial results showed that one staff member - believed to be Mr Ellis - is paid between $670,000 and $680,000 a year. Five employees were paid more than $300,000 a year, down from nine last year.
Mr Ellis said TVNZ had made 125 redundancies in the financial year, including 45 people in management or leadership roles. Restructuring had cost $11.1 million, but had delivered future savings of about $17 million a year.
Advertising had softened after four big years, and in the latest financial year had fallen 6.5 per cent because of a drop in audience share."
Read more...
"Maharey defends TVNZ loss
NZPA | Tuesday, 11 September 2007:
Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey took the flak for TVNZ's $4.5 million annual loss in Parliament today.
Yesterday the state-owned broadcaster released its financial results for the year to June 30, showing it had made an operating profit of $9.3 million on revenue of $375.2 million.
However a major restructure that saw the company shed about 150 staff - many receiving redundancy pay outs - cost the broadcaster $11.1 million, resulting in a $4.5 million loss after tax.
Advertising revenues for the year were down 6.5 percent to $312.8 million."
Read more...
Fewer viewers blamed for TVNZ loss
By MICHAEL FIELD - The Dominion Post | Tuesday, 11 September 2007
For the first time in its history, Television New Zealand will not be paying a dividend to taxpayers, after posting a $4.5 million loss - blaming shrinking audiences.
Chief executive Rick Ellis conceded the year to June had been a "somewhat monumental year", and while TVNZ forecast a profit next year, warned "we will not return to revenue levels any time soon".
TVNZ's financial results showed that one staff member - believed to be Mr Ellis - is paid between $670,000 and $680,000 a year. Five employees were paid more than $300,000 a year, down from nine last year.
Mr Ellis said TVNZ had made 125 redundancies in the financial year, including 45 people in management or leadership roles. Restructuring had cost $11.1 million, but had delivered future savings of about $17 million a year.
Advertising had softened after four big years, and in the latest financial year had fallen 6.5 per cent because of a drop in audience share."
Read more...
"Maharey defends TVNZ loss
NZPA | Tuesday, 11 September 2007:
Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey took the flak for TVNZ's $4.5 million annual loss in Parliament today.
Yesterday the state-owned broadcaster released its financial results for the year to June 30, showing it had made an operating profit of $9.3 million on revenue of $375.2 million.
However a major restructure that saw the company shed about 150 staff - many receiving redundancy pay outs - cost the broadcaster $11.1 million, resulting in a $4.5 million loss after tax.
Advertising revenues for the year were down 6.5 percent to $312.8 million."
Read more...
Internet and spying
China denies role in NZ cyber attack
By HANK SCHOUTEN - The Dominion Post | Wednesday, 12 September 2007
The Chinese Government denies it is involved in attempts to hack into New Zealand Government computer systems - despite strong hints that its spies' activities had been detected.
The Security Intelligence Service has confirmed that its staff detected information has been stolen and software installed to take control of computer systems.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that she had been assured "no classified information has been at risk at all". She would not elaborate on what was deemed classified information, except to say: "Now we have very smart people to provide protection every time an attack is tried. Obviously we learn from that."
She said officials knew who was responsible for the hacking.
SIS director Warren Tucker has suggested China was the culprit by referring to cyber attacks in Canada and Britain that have been linked to the Chinese military.
China has also been accused of targeting sensitive German, United States and French computer systems, including those in the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Defence and State Department networks.
Read more...
By HANK SCHOUTEN - The Dominion Post | Wednesday, 12 September 2007
The Chinese Government denies it is involved in attempts to hack into New Zealand Government computer systems - despite strong hints that its spies' activities had been detected.
The Security Intelligence Service has confirmed that its staff detected information has been stolen and software installed to take control of computer systems.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that she had been assured "no classified information has been at risk at all". She would not elaborate on what was deemed classified information, except to say: "Now we have very smart people to provide protection every time an attack is tried. Obviously we learn from that."
She said officials knew who was responsible for the hacking.
SIS director Warren Tucker has suggested China was the culprit by referring to cyber attacks in Canada and Britain that have been linked to the Chinese military.
China has also been accused of targeting sensitive German, United States and French computer systems, including those in the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Defence and State Department networks.
Read more...
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Colin Espiner and new technologies and NZ Politics
From The Press via stuff.co.nz:
"Texting Miss Clark
Colin Espiner in On The House | 11:39 am 11 September 2007
So Damien O’Connor offered his resignation to Prime Minister Helen Clark via text message. Isn’t technology wonderful? It kind of makes Brad Pitt’s dumping of Jennifer Aniston by fax look positively luddite.
Maybe O’Connor knew that Clark was a bit of a text fan. The Prime Minister’s abilities in this area are well known. She texted her parents after almost falling out of a light plane during the last election. She carried on quite a relationship by text with Grant Dalton during the America’s Cup campaign.
As O’Connor himself said this morning, a text message was the one way he knew of getting through to Clark.
One can imagine the conversation went something like:
O’Connor: “Hln sori i stffed up agn. Went bit ott with rgby & all. Shd rsgn. Rgds doc”
Clark: “Gr8 tks doc can use agnst u lata. Stay put 4 now cos cant find any1 else. Lol hc”"
Read more...
"Texting Miss Clark
Colin Espiner in On The House | 11:39 am 11 September 2007
So Damien O’Connor offered his resignation to Prime Minister Helen Clark via text message. Isn’t technology wonderful? It kind of makes Brad Pitt’s dumping of Jennifer Aniston by fax look positively luddite.
Maybe O’Connor knew that Clark was a bit of a text fan. The Prime Minister’s abilities in this area are well known. She texted her parents after almost falling out of a light plane during the last election. She carried on quite a relationship by text with Grant Dalton during the America’s Cup campaign.
As O’Connor himself said this morning, a text message was the one way he knew of getting through to Clark.
One can imagine the conversation went something like:
O’Connor: “Hln sori i stffed up agn. Went bit ott with rgby & all. Shd rsgn. Rgds doc”
Clark: “Gr8 tks doc can use agnst u lata. Stay put 4 now cos cant find any1 else. Lol hc”"
Read more...
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Hone Harawira to pay back half of his fare to Australia
From NZPA via stuff.co.nz:
" Maori Party MP Hone Harawira has been ordered to pay back half of the cost of his taxpayer-funded airfare to Australia after he went walkabout while on an official parliamentary visit.
Speaker Margaret Wilson told MPs that Mr Harawira's "private visit" to the Northern Territory to see aboriginal communities had come halfway into a select committee visit to Melbourne.
MPs had an obligation to complete their work for which they received public funding, she said.
"As Mr Harawira participated in less than half of the committee's business I consider it appropriate that he refund half of the airfare that has been paid out of public funds," Ms Wilson said.
It has been estimated that the MPs' airfares cost $3000 for a business class return flight."
Read more...
And in a different story:
" Hone Harawira has struck back at the "petty and ridiculous" critics of his Australian walkabout, suggesting a whiff of hypocrisy in their sniping."
Read more...
" Maori Party MP Hone Harawira has been ordered to pay back half of the cost of his taxpayer-funded airfare to Australia after he went walkabout while on an official parliamentary visit.
Speaker Margaret Wilson told MPs that Mr Harawira's "private visit" to the Northern Territory to see aboriginal communities had come halfway into a select committee visit to Melbourne.
MPs had an obligation to complete their work for which they received public funding, she said.
"As Mr Harawira participated in less than half of the committee's business I consider it appropriate that he refund half of the airfare that has been paid out of public funds," Ms Wilson said.
It has been estimated that the MPs' airfares cost $3000 for a business class return flight."
Read more...
And in a different story:
" Hone Harawira has struck back at the "petty and ridiculous" critics of his Australian walkabout, suggesting a whiff of hypocrisy in their sniping."
Read more...
Russell Brown discusses the impact of NZ political blogs
From The Listener:
"Key isn’t the first politician to claim to have been misquoted to get himself out of a fix. But in the old days, it wasn’t so easy for journalists to bite back – and certainly not as rapidly as Young did. Remarkably, it was the second week in a row in which Young, in the less formal setting of her blog, had produced the week’s big political story.
Her account of an interview conducted the previous week with David Benson-Pope (“he misled me as well”) appears to have triggered the end of Benson-Pope’s ministerial career. Again, Young hadn’t mucked about: her post appeared online only an hour or so after the minister had offered his revised account of the Setchell affair during question time in the House...
These blogs have emerged as part of a burst of blogging on the two main newspaper sites. Stuff has had the best of it so far: Dave Moore and Guy Somerset, the Dominion Post’s motoring and books editors respectively, give every impression of having been unleashed, and tech commentator Juha Saarinen, recently hired by Fairfax Digital Media, has brought his popular Techsploder blog with him."
Read more...
"Key isn’t the first politician to claim to have been misquoted to get himself out of a fix. But in the old days, it wasn’t so easy for journalists to bite back – and certainly not as rapidly as Young did. Remarkably, it was the second week in a row in which Young, in the less formal setting of her blog, had produced the week’s big political story.
Her account of an interview conducted the previous week with David Benson-Pope (“he misled me as well”) appears to have triggered the end of Benson-Pope’s ministerial career. Again, Young hadn’t mucked about: her post appeared online only an hour or so after the minister had offered his revised account of the Setchell affair during question time in the House...
These blogs have emerged as part of a burst of blogging on the two main newspaper sites. Stuff has had the best of it so far: Dave Moore and Guy Somerset, the Dominion Post’s motoring and books editors respectively, give every impression of having been unleashed, and tech commentator Juha Saarinen, recently hired by Fairfax Digital Media, has brought his popular Techsploder blog with him."
Read more...
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Coverage of Hone Harawira's trip to Nothern Territories
From stuff.co.nz (The Dominion Post):
" Where the bloody hell are you?
Maori Party MP Hone Harawira is in trouble after ditching a taxpayer- funded parliamentary trip to Melbourne to visit Aborigines in the Northern Territory instead.
Labour MP Shane Jones said Mr Harawira's tribe were alarmed at his disappearance and were saying: "SOS: A dingo's got our Hone".
His impromptu walkabout has left some MPs fuming – though Green MP Nandor Tanczos says he would have liked to have gone too.
Speaker of the House Margaret Wilson is investigating whether she can dock Mr Harawira's pay for the costs of the trip, which include accommodation in a luxury hotel and business-class airfares to Melbourne."
Read more...
I paid my own way - Harawira...
Maori Party break silence on Harawira's trip...
Uluru leader hails NZ MP
Walkabout MP not on his own, says backer
Greens back Harawira but others aren't happy...
Blog: Harawira's walkabout like an Agatha Christie novel...
Harawira goes walkabout in Australia...
Harawira supporters thin on ground...
TV3's coverage...
" Where the bloody hell are you?
Maori Party MP Hone Harawira is in trouble after ditching a taxpayer- funded parliamentary trip to Melbourne to visit Aborigines in the Northern Territory instead.
Labour MP Shane Jones said Mr Harawira's tribe were alarmed at his disappearance and were saying: "SOS: A dingo's got our Hone".
His impromptu walkabout has left some MPs fuming – though Green MP Nandor Tanczos says he would have liked to have gone too.
Speaker of the House Margaret Wilson is investigating whether she can dock Mr Harawira's pay for the costs of the trip, which include accommodation in a luxury hotel and business-class airfares to Melbourne."
Read more...
I paid my own way - Harawira...
Maori Party break silence on Harawira's trip...
Uluru leader hails NZ MP
Walkabout MP not on his own, says backer
Greens back Harawira but others aren't happy...
Blog: Harawira's walkabout like an Agatha Christie novel...
Harawira goes walkabout in Australia...
Harawira supporters thin on ground...
TV3's coverage...
Friday, August 10, 2007
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Colin Espiner's blog, Labour and Key
As part of its strategy to make stuff.co.nz a platform for many of Fairfax media activities the site has launched several new blogs including one by Political Editor of the Christchurch Press, Colin Espiner.
Following the National Party Convention this weekend and the official countdown to the next election, Labour is launching a new series of attack on Key:
"Labour’s policy of quietly ignoring National’s bushy-tailed leader John Key and hoping he would go away came to a spectacular end in Parliament today, with no less than three senior ministers having a piece of him over three seperate issues.
Defence Minister Phil Goff reckons Key’s told porkies over his stance on the war in Iraq, and produced transcripts of media interviews to back his claims. And certainly if the reported comments he gave to the Rodney Times back in 2003 are correct, Key has shifted his position on the war a long way.
He told the Rodney Times: “Blood is thicker than water and we should stick with the family which has supported us in the past and will support us in the future.” In other words, where America goes, we go.
If there were any doubt, Key followed up by saying: “I know it might not be a popular decision, but at the end of the day we have to look to the future and that isn’t with some Franco-German coalition.”
Read more...
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
New Zealand on the Daily Show
The New Zealand Herald covers the story:
"One of America's most watched cable television shows has made of mockery of our politicians' attempts to ban satire of Parliament.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which pulls an audience of 1.4 million each night, explained that New Zealand's government recently passed an order prohibiting broadcasters from using footage of lawmakers in their parliament for satire.
"This cannot stand. As we have done so often in the past, once again America to the rescue," says host Stewart."
Should this be in the entertainment section of the paper or in politics?
Sunday, July 22, 2007
National Party reconsidering ban on Television Satire of Parliamentary debate
Saturday morning on Agenda, TVOne:
"The National Party will talk with the media about revising the ban on satire from the debating chamber.
On TV One’s Agenda National MP Anne Tolley, who is on the standing orders select committee, said the party would meet with broadcasters to address their concerns.
“We are happy to sit down with the media and find a way through all of this.”
Read more...
Monday, July 16, 2007
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