Not a surprise outcome
September 18th, 2010 at 6:01 pm by David FarrarIt’s not exactly a surprise but congratulations to Kris Faafoi for winning Labour’s selection to be their candidate for Mana.
Kris will become the MP for Mana (Labour have never not held the seat). I look forward to his maiden speech.
Also congratulations to Fran Mold on her new job as a press secretary for Phil Goff.
UPDATE: A Labour Party member writes about what happened in the comments:
As a local party member I have seen some stitch ups in my time but this was a disgrace and once again the Mana Labour party is lumbered with an out of town drop in candidate.
We should be used to it by now I guess, but it really gets my goat. Almost the entire leaders office staff including the chief of staff and leaders secretary were there today, you had a group of staff including other press secretaries and advisors counting to floor votes and “checking” membership details. They even tried to stop one longtime member in her 70s from voting – she still has Michael Joseph Savage on her kitchen wall and these upstarts tried to say she wasnt Labour!
These Goff staffers brought with them affiliated union members to stack the votes in favour of Faafoi.
The whole thing was a set up and it was a race based selection. Well, Phil Goff has got the man he wanted but he has lost my support and the support of many others in the process.
Ouch, that is not a good look.
September 18th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
“Also congratulations to Fran Mold on her new job as a press secretary for Phil Goff.”
New job? Thought she’d been on the Labour payroll for years.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
No, not exactly a surprise, an expected disappointment. It signals same old for Labour. They can expect same old support, that is of the diminished kind.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Same old, same old. Head Office jacks up the selection, and the local party organisation gets rogered. It’s nice to see that democracy is alive and well in the Labour Party.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Will any of the defeated nominees be standing?
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
At least when Mould next appears she will have to do so without the ridiculous and totally false cloak of “impartial, constructive, neutral” political reporter. How could her employers have continued that charade for so long, do they have no shame.
Vote:Third estate What a bloody farce.
September 18th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Meantime Hekia Parata had 20 of her team including Bill English at the Porirua market for a couple of hours this morning. No sign of any pinko’s as they were watching Goff put his man in the job much to the distaste of the locals.
The PI community are really pissed about this. Goff considers them brown, poor and too dumb to be trusted to pick a capable candidate.
Let the fun begin
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Is TVNZ a Labour incubator or vice versa?
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Can someone refresh my memory: wasn’t it Fran Mold who attempted to gotcha John Key with the share ownership non-event a few days before the election? If she was, then the Nats have nothing to fear from her communication talents.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Chris won?????????????????????? wow, who would have thought
Vote:Fran Mould has replaced Cris??????????????????????, wow, who would have thought
I caught some of the Nation this morning. I thought Chris came across as a prat to be honest. The woman (Palgini??) came across very well .. in my humble opinion
September 18th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
‘The Nation’ was crap. Just political advertising for Chris Faafoi. The decision was made by Liarbore at the top level. Any other Labour Candidate never had a chance. Oh Winnie scratch my back please.
Vote:Phil Goff will never learn, he is becoming the ‘Jim Anderton’ the leader who leads his ego. Quite out of touch really
September 18th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Don’t worry. Q + A is on tommorow, you know, the Phomes show.
Vote:TV Guide lists it as hosted by ‘Guyon Espiner, Paul Holmes and political scientist Therese Arseneau’
Maybe Therese could do some hosting instead of Phomes answering his own bullshit questions. You have had a lot of complaints Holmes, each week you become a bigger jerk. It is Q + A, not your show, so STFU for once
September 18th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
@ jaba – “I caught some of the Nation this morning … ”
So did I. What did you think of the Nation’s “balanced” political panel – hard leftist’s Plunkett, Trotter, Garner and McCarten all relishing their “impartial” comments on ACT and its demise.
A truly loathsome performance by a bunch of gloating leftist cretins – not that anyone would expected anything different. Following on from the media’s savaging of Garrett and attempted savaging of Hide by way of political connection, The Nation’s credibility is now well and truly blown.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
@Positan 7:31 pm
FFS, where have you been, Positan, for the last three decades? Yep, McCarten probably could be described as a “hard leftist”.
But to describe any of Plunkett (who will destroy anyone, right or left, in an interview if they don’t have the facts to back their assertions); Garner (who led the campaign against Chris Carter, who is far to the left of Phil Goff); and Trotter (who is a racist and misogynist anachronism from the 70s) as “far left” is just plain silly.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
It really is amusing from all these ex-TVNZ hacks, they claim to not have any political bias, next minute they’re officially on the labour party payroll.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
I must say Positan .. my 1st thought was that it did look a little one sided even though Trotter has been critical of Labour recently. MMMatt is just a plain rampant socialist/communist even though he does make sense every 3-4 week in the HOS. The others times I feel like canceling my subscription because of the crap he says.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Toad as usual doing his best to cover up the truth. The media in NZ is a hotbead of Progressive propagandists who only vary by what degree they lean left, with the spectrum ranging from horizontal (McCarten) to about 10 degrees off the horizontal. If they had gone after Chris Carter with anything like the vigour they pursued Garret, Toad may have something other than smoke to cover their disgusting bias.
Give it up Toad. The blogosphere only exists because the left have destroyed the mainstream media, and one only has to look at leftmedia’s enthusiastic promotion of green propaganda to see how endlessly ideologically corrupt they are. (global warming etc)
In fact I assert there is a NZ version of journolist wherein media attacks on those who cause trouble for the left are coordinated, and if there are any honest and real reporters left in this miserable little socialist backwater, maybe one day I’ll find out if I am right or wrong. If there is such a list, I’ll bet the lines were running white hot during the Garret frame up.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
“If they had gone after Chris Carter with anything like the vigour they pursued Garret” – crap.
“The blogosphere only exists because the left have destroyed the mainstream media,” – crap.
“I assert there is a NZ version of journolist wherein media attacks on those who cause trouble for the left are coordinated” – totally unsubstantiated wishful thinking guesswork, in other words, more crap.
“maybe one day I’ll find out if I am right or wrong” – no sign of that happening.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
As a local party member I have seen some stitch ups in my time but this was a disgrace and once again the Mana Labour party is lumbered with an out of town drop in candidate.
We should be used to it by now I guess, but it really gets my goat. Almost the entire leaders office staff including the chief of staff and leaders secretary were there today, you had a group of staff including other press secretaries and advisors counting to floor votes and “checking” membership details. They even tried to stop one longtime member in her 70s from voting – she still has Michael Joseph Savage on her kitchen wall and these upstarts tried to say she wasnt Labour!
These Goff staffers brought with them affiliated union members to stack the votes in favour of Faafoi.
The whole thing was a set up and it was a race based selection. Well, Phil Goff has got the man he wanted but he has lost my support and the support of many others in the process.
This is the first time I have written on here, but I am just so outraged at the whole fiasco.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Tell you what, Toad – visit TV3′s On Demand and play yourself the last part of this week’s “The Nation.”
Watch the demonstrably-uninformative and decidedly-spiteful free-for-all as these (in your opinion) non-Leftists virtually ejaculate themselves to exhaustion in sheer glee as they burble their dribblingly enthusiastic views as to ACT’s demise.
Then try and persuade yourself as to the lack of bias so glaringly evinced – and the veracity of their opinions.
If you’re able to do that, you probably need the services of an opthalmologist and an otolaryngologist.
(An eye doctor and a hearing doctor.)
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
“Kris will become the MP for Mana (Labour have never not held the seat).”
Mana however has never been contested in a by-election.
[DPF: Yes, but by-elections favour Oppositions not Governments]
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Sounds like an opportunity for a strong independent candidate to send a message to the old guard.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
So yet another journo is unequivocally proven to be a raving lefty after all these years whilst they deceitfully allowed the unwitting useful-idiot-reef-fish-a.k.a. voters; to invite the seductive demon into their very living rooms every night thus cleverly building himself voter recognition night after night. Kuckily this time, he didn’t do it on the taxpayer’s dime. Good on’ya, CanWest.
Vote:September 18th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Has the race relations fellow been informed?
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 8:05 am
Labour party selections have always been a stitch-up. Democracy is not something the Labour Party has much time for with the block vote and much else when making selections.
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 10:27 am
“you had a group of staff including other press secretaries and advisors counting to floor votes and “checking” membership details. They even tried to stop one longtime member in her 70s from voting – she still has Michael Joseph Savage on her kitchen wall and these upstarts tried to say she wasnt Labour!”
They were all Labour activists checking membership details, mostly Young Labour activists. They needed people from out of the electorate to do this for obvious reasons. I am sure if they did question a longtime member it is because they have not been involved in the party as long as many others. They were young members who were just volunteeres and were doing a job, which was to ensure those voting were Mana Labour members. No “press secretaries or advisors” were involved in counting the floor votes. These young guys gave up half a bloody day to go out and help out because they are passionate about the party, for you to say they were just there to “stitch it up” is dillusional and disgraceful.
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Not a good start for Kris “Paratrooper” Faafoi.
Just another eason my grandfather would not recognise the labour party of today.
Or cross the street to piss on it if it was on fire.
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Bill Pitt why don’t you have your internal argument somewhere else,
just because some one from the labour party has written a honest account of what transpired you have gone and got your tits in a tangle because the Labour operation has been laid bare.
We all know how the labour party operates and what transpired in Mana was SOP so why the indignation?
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Hush Paul, just sit back and share the popcorn.
Fine holiday viewing for the whole family.
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
It’s Phil’s attempt to ensure that after Labour lose the next election he isn’t dumped as the opposition leader.
After all, allowing the man in the street to have a say is so democratic, which the Labour party haven’t been for 30 years.
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I have blogged the vote including the numbers of those who took part in the community vote. There were more unionists and Labour staffers than community members – but the community members actually supported Pagani and the LEC was controlled by Laban and voted as she dictated.
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
The local members vote was 34 Pagani, 16 Faafoi and 2 others. The 60 union votes went all to Faafoi. Local members got out voted by union members who have never worked for Labour in Mana.
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Alex in the North reports accurately the feeling in the electorate: there is considerable annoyance among local Libour faithful at having had an outside carpet-bagger foisted upon them. With luck many “loyalists” might not vote in the by-election and a big shock might be coming the way of Trades Union Hall. The demography of Mana has been changing, with almost all the population growth from Paremata through to Raumati; ie largely rich whities who are more inclined to vote blue than red. Note too that on TV the Liborites were stating that 27% of Porirua City were Polynesian, but in the wider Mana electorate it’s nothing like that. At the 2008 election Winnie Laban enjoyed a massive personal majority but the party vote for Labour dropped to a 2500 majority. Since then Hekia Parata has been an exceptionally energetic Govt List MP in Mana and she has built up tremendous new support for National and for herself. I’m confident she will slash the Labour majority to turn Mana into a marginal seat (ready for the taking in 2011?) and I don’t think it’s totally out of the question that she could achieve an amazing turnover right now! I’m going to do my bit to try and help her…
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Got to love unions. It must be so nice not having to have your own opinion all the time, to have someone to think for you and to be able to be righteous in unison without fear of someone questioning you as an individual.
Vote:September 19th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
William Pitt;your moniker and the subject matter of this post really does put me in mind of Blackadder Series 3.
A hung parliament and Pitt is going after Prince George.
To thwart Pitt Blackadder enrolls Baldrick to run in a rotten borough,Dunny on the Wold.Blackadder is the returning officer,recent resident and single voter who casts 16000 votes.
“Right now all we have to do is fill in this MP application form”.
Now we know that Faafoi is Baldrick ,is Goff Blackadder? No,not funny enough and he doesn’t have any cunning plans.
Vote: