HoS on Labour
The HoS discloses another Labour MP, Iain Galloway-Lees, was involved in their internal polling operations. No suggestion he did anything wrong – just that he helped recruit volunteers and was in attendance.
More damning is the editorial, titled Labour loses moral compass.
This is a time, not for elegant mendacity, but for simple truths.
Senior Labour MP Rick Barker ran a publicly-funded political poll from his Parliamentary office last month.
And, when confronted last week by a Herald on Sunday journalist, he initially denied knowledge of any polling.
To me, the poll itself is not that significant a story – but the denial and attempted coverup is what has pissed off the media.
This was dishonesty.
It was dishonesty of the sort that former Labour Cabinet minister Lianne Dalziel displayed, when she denied knowledge of a leaked immigration report in 2004. Yet that was a foolish deceit, made by an impassioned minister in the heat of the moment. Dalziel, at least, had the grace and integrity to resign from Cabinet.
No such integrity is shown by the Labour Party under Phil Goff.
Ouch.
Rick Barker refuses to admit his intent to deceive. And worse, his party’s parliamentary leadership has largely backed him.
Labour, it seems, has lost its moral compass.
Labour has focused on defending the poll, but has failed to address the more serious issue of Barker lying to the media.
They conclude:
Goff has just cowered and, when confronted by political reporters outside the Labour Caucus room with nowhere to hide, obfuscated.
Labour’s leader must now stand up and take responsibility for the deception that was conducted with funds entrusted to him by Parliament.
Barker should be sacked from all his Caucus responsibilities. Hughes, too, must be left in no doubt about how repugnant his rationalisations are.
These, then, are the simple truths that are demanded of Labour’s tarnished leadership.
And these are the truths Labour has forgotten.
I actually feel a bit sorry for Labour over this. Normally this would be a one day story. But there is a bit of a political news vacuum, so it has ended up in the media most of the week. Part of this is because of their inept response to the story, but part of it is just bad timing.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:14 am
Feel sorry for Labour!!!!! Get a grip. They are playing the hard game. They are out to destroy the National Government using all means at their disposal. They are dishonest right down the Darren Hughes and Rick Barker. There is a cancer of lying and deceit in the Labour Party. They are riddled with it.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:41 am
Wake up HoS! Labour lost that moral compass about 5 years ago.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:41 am
Errrrrrrrrrr … Labour – lost moral compass.
Errrrrrrrrrr … can’t loose what you never had.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:45 am
what do you expect from a party full of lying , cheating , corrupt , arrogant , leaderless has beens…and barker’s like a possum caught in headlights.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:48 am
Former Labour MP David Butcher was convicted in 1999 of fraudulently claiming MPs’ airfare rebates.
I think David Butcher was convicted earlier than that. The HoS might be thinking of some other MP…
November 1st, 2009 at 10:50 am
There will never be a reconciliation now with the VRWC. Feeling sorry is not for hardened members of the VRWC, we don’t even know how to say the word and I had to look it up to see how it was spelled.
You’re out forever….and forever means forever.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:56 am
“Barker had already demonstrated a grotesque lack of judgment in his four-year relationship with Chinese tycoon Yang “Bill” Liu, a wealthy political donor who was seeking assistance from Barker as immigration minister.”
Will the National Party designate a police unit to expose the criminal behaviour of so many Liarbour Ministers holding and abusing positions of authority while enjoying the deceitful regime of Absolute Power? The not so clever Trevor disgrace performance, fatty Field saga and now this ! A Liarbour wing at Paparoa would be great eh Hulun, maybe we could call it H Block and don’t worry I will visit every Saturday.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:56 am
That’s why the public should be able to OIA Parliamentary Services. I don’t think Labour are alone in doing polls from Parliament, despite the public assumption that the buildings are for parliamentary work not party focus groping. If you want to grope for votes, you can bugger off to the electorate offices that the taxpayer also pays for.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:56 am
Lees-Galloway was also sending out that advice on services thing at public expense the Thursday before the election. Not technically illegal blah blah blah.
As it was he only just squeaked in because of the dumass students at Massey sobered up long enough to vote.
Feel sorry for them my pimply white ass. They played a dirty, nasty and immoral game for a decade then got smacked shitless when enough people finally worked it out. It’s called consequences.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:19 am
Ian Lees-Galloway???? Wasn’t he an Alliance MP??
November 1st, 2009 at 11:32 am
Not according to the honking big red shop front with Labour splashed all over it that I go past every day.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:36 am
Never trust anyone with a moustache or a double-barreled name
November 1st, 2009 at 11:44 am
“Labour’s leader must now stand up and take responsibility for the deception that was conducted with funds entrusted to him by Parliament.”
Maybe Phil realise’s now why Clark and Cullen fucked off so fast and left a dipstick like him to carry the can. And he thought it was a promotion. What a dickhead.
November 1st, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Let’s bring back Winston. What is needed right now is the missing centrist party that kept the left and right sensible.
More party votes than ACT, 90,000. Look at the destruction that the Yellow man is up to. Goodness me. Why do the blue folk not just amend the legislation, rather than waiting for a referrendum at the next election. I’ll tell you why, because having a fair MMP system is not in their interest- they could fix it right now if they were a mind to, and the only party that would be likely to object is the yellow one, and they could still have the referrendum at the next election.
And tell me prey, which is worse, a fake poll, or a pretend party political advertisement (for Ch 7).
The media just have to build it up to something it isn’t don’t they!
Anyhow, if you object to getting your Tarakihi fillets from China then you know what to do
November 1st, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Labour, it seems, has lost its moral compass.
Are you kidding, HoS?
Labour backs Winston’s corruption to the hilt, still hasn’t indicated they think Taito did anything wrong, passed the EFA which interfered with free speech in a way that openly benefited itself and nobiled its opponents, and then immediately voted against it at the first opportunity once in opposition, and was led by a woman at the center of Paintergate, speedgate (or whatever that ride through Canterbury was called), and who terrorised the public service.
And now Labour has lost their moral compass? Over this?? Are you f***ing kidding HoS?
November 1st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Jules: “Let’s bring back Winston. What is needed right now is the missing centrist party that kept the left and right sensible.”
Oh please! RAOTFLMAO!
“More party votes than ACT, 90,000. Look at the destruction that the Yellow man is up to.”
Ahhh I remember reading here that with the votes for Rodney in Epsom ACT actually did get more votes than NZ First….someone confirm that? What ‘destruction”? Investigating wheather there are better ways to do things which may include giving people more choice? Oh the swine!
“Goodness me. Why do the blue folk not just amend the legislation, rather than waiting for a referrendum at the next election. I’ll tell you why, because having a fair MMP system is not in their interest- they could fix it right now if they were a mind to, and the only party that would be likely to object is the yellow one, and they could still have the referrendum at the next election.”
Ahhh dear…? Rodney is a fan of MMP.ACT is the only new party that came into Parliment under it….all others being split offs of existing ones. (Maori Party different due to racist seats obviously).
“And tell me prey, which is worse, a fake poll, or a pretend party political advertisement (for Ch 7).
”
The media just have to build it up to something it isn’t don’t they!
Anyhow, if you object to getting your Tarakihi fillets from China then you know what to do
I would like the choice of wheather I CAN buy my Tarakihi fillets from China if China is able to offer them to me.Same with a choice in water supplier,accident cover,education for my kids,healthcare etc etc…so piss off and pedel your envy ridden control freakery some place else Comrade.
November 1st, 2009 at 2:05 pm
DPF – was it an oversight that you left out these comments about Darren Hughes, who is every bit as culpable IMHO?
“And that, unfortunately, is where Labour’s senior whip Darren Hughes – another former minister – has also disgraced himself.
Hughes is smart. But, like Barker, he has been found willing to insist that black is white if that is what the leadership expects of him. Hughes has fronted the media, insisting that Barker’s fraudulent poll was justifiable, allowing leader Phil Goff to duck for cover.
Barker has acted dishonestly.
Hughes has sacrificed principle for patsy-ism.”
November 1st, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Don’t knock Jules … he is the living proof that you can fool some of the people all of the time.
November 1st, 2009 at 2:47 pm
As taxpayers we pay the wages and the, at times, exorbitant expenses of this bunch.
Do we get value for our money? it certainly doesn’t look like it, we get a prime minister that should have been charged with forgery, we get a govt prepared to break the law then change the law to legitimize what they did, we get an ex minister in jail for corruption, we get a cabinet minister addicted to air travel getting getting his fix at our expense, and now we get MPs prepared to lie, first to the voting public about their identity, then to the public again, through the media about it even having happened.
They need to remember that we put them where they are, it’s us that take them away.
November 1st, 2009 at 3:25 pm
What a lot of huffing and puffing. Mr Barker appears to have lied. He shouldn’t have and has been exposed for this. Not good and he joins one or two others in the Opposition parliamentary leadership who should be put out to pasture. As Mr De Cleene points out, his type of polling activity is done by others and the Speaker confirmed that there is no rule broken when interviewed on this issue. Presumably that defence, which works properly for Mr English and his housing circumstances, works for Labour on this. Sauce for the goose etc. It may not be a good look, but it’s not good for everyone who does. If we don’t like it, then someone should change the rules. The rest of HoS article is hyperbole.
November 1st, 2009 at 3:54 pm
“I actually feel a bit sorry for Labour over this.”
I don’t. The socialist crooks and thieves deserve every bit of bad news that come their way.
They almost broke the country, mismanaged it, squandered its wealth, and you feel sorry for them? Harden up, DPF.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:39 pm
James “Ahhh dear…? Rodney is a fan of MMP.ACT is the only new party that came into Parliment under it….all others being split offs of existing ones. (Maori Party different due to racist seats obviously).”
Maori party is no different at all, that was a split from the Labour party as well!
November 1st, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Clint Heine said … “Ian Lees-Galloway???? Wasn’t he an Alliance MP??”
No, he’s just a slip of a lad. Comes from good stock though. His parents moved from Palmerston North to neighbouring Rangitiki just so they wouldn’t feel obliged to vote for him.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:48 pm
“Ahhh I remember reading here that with the votes for Rodney in Epsom ACT actually did get more votes than NZ First….someone confirm that?”
NZF 95356 4.07%
ACT 85496 3.65%
http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2008/e9/html/e9_part1.html
November 1st, 2009 at 4:55 pm
“Don’t knock Jules … he is the living proof that you can fool some of the people all of the time.”
Forgive Ross, for using tired old colloquialisms, and believing the media hype without doing independent investigation.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Ok Jules … so just when are you bastards going to pay the money back?
November 1st, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Really? News vacuum or not, since when has it been that an MP lying to the media is a one day story??
November 1st, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Feel sorry for Labour ?? … pass me a bucket. We have just rid ourselves of minge 1 & 2 to UN pastures, have had the first ever jailed for corruption, they never paid back the $800k they stole, gave us Green shite all over the floor and luved up Winston who still hasn’t paid back the $158k he nicked … and you feel sorry for these bastards! Never mind the lesser sins of these corrupt, lying, thieving crooked bastards that pass for Labour. I don’t feel sorry for them, I wish them out of opposition as well.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:20 am
..I wana go one step further..I want cullen and klark tried for gross mis-management , corruption and theft …
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Jules,
You need to read the question again.
“Ahhh I remember reading here that with the votes for Rodney in Epsom ACT actually did get more votes than NZ First….someone confirm that?”
From the link you provide it shows,
Party, Party Votes, Electorate Votes,
——– —————- ——————-
ACT 85,496 68,852
NZ First 95,356 38,813
So from this you can see that ACT got far more votes than NZ First in the Electorates. NZ First followed a bad strategy, Winston Peters as best I can make out only got about 9000 votes in Tauranga, not enough to win the seat, and they did not go hard enough to get the 5%, it was Winston or nothing. ACT put its effort into making sure that Rodney won Epsom and thus got extra seats.