Labour to blame for delay
March 30th, 2011 at 11:00 am by David FarrarClaire Trevett in the NZ herald writes:
Former Labour MP Judith Tizard is denying she is playing games by refusing to quickly kowtow to the Labour Party’s hints she should refuse the list seat left empty by the resignation of Darren Hughes. …
She had checked with Parliament’s officials and was told Mr Hughes had not yet formally resigned so the process to replace him had not yet begun.
If Labour had got Darren to do his formal resignation on Friday, then Tizard would have been forced to make a decision by now. As I read the Electoral Act, someone offered a list place must affirmatively acceppt the place or it will be offered to the next person. There is no provision for someone to say “I’ll decide in a few days”.
So if Labour had got Darren to formally resign, then Tizard would have had to make a decision by now, as the Electoral Commission would be under an obligation to fill the vacancy.
Judith is obviously loving keeping Phil Goff, and the country, on tenterhooks – and why wouldn’t she. I imagine she’s loving the fact she can drag it out. But the solution lies with Labour – get the resignation in to the Speaker asap.
Related posts:
- Will the fearful five turn down 11 months salary?
- Do they have tape measures with them?
- How a list vacancy is filled
- Hughes relieved of portfolios
March 30th, 2011 at 11:06 am
If only we could harness the engy released by this implosion… we could reduce our enrgy cost by half for at least 6 months.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 11:09 am
Bob must be proud of Judith. 21 years ago, he was given the push from cabinet and kept them guessing as to whether he would trigger a by-election in Panmure.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 11:10 am
I read in the Herald that Tizard wanted to go back so she would be able to give a valedictory speech, which she was unable to do in 2008 because she was tipped out.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10715366
Two years on from her historic defeat, it’s still all about her.
DPF has already worked out that whoever becomes the new Labour List MP will get around $160,000 in wages, super and similar.
So if Tizard gives a 10 minute speech, (and lets face it, what else will she accomplish this term), that speech will cost $16,000 per minute, or $266 per second.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 11:20 am
This latest charade just confirms the majority of citizens view that Pollies are a waste of oxygen. Just a bunch of self serving me me mes who show utter contempt and arrogance.
Time the good citizens marched on the Parliament and planted a few of heads on spikes at the gates to show whose in charge
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 11:27 am
Is Te Horo beach the venue for this year’s Labour caucus retreat? Anyone have tickets?
Vote:I thought DH was looking a bit sunburnt on telly the other day.
March 30th, 2011 at 11:29 am
Reatreat… theres a good word for it.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 11:34 am
Judith Tizard has had over 2 years to work out whether she would accept a list position if called up – as the question has been regularly “on the table” with various permutations arising from MMP since the last election. No matter what (or if) she thinks …. her current statements show a profund ignorance of how her intransigence plays in the media. All she has done is further damage her meagre reputation with those few people who held her in any regard. She also continues (by association) to erode the legacy of her parents, on whose coattails she road. Judith is a fine example of her demographic: no real principles on any substance which do not serve her own self interest and an overwhelming sense of entitlement.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 11:36 am
I think you’re a little hurried there, DPF.
Darren must first write to the Speaker. The Speaker must then cause a notice to be published in the Gazette. The Governor-General must then issue a writ (which he will do on the advice of the PM). Once the writ is issued to the EC the CEO must check with the Party secretary. Even if you assume each of these steps would be completely done in a single working day (and I don’t) we wouldn’t yet be at the position of Judith being enquired of…
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 11:40 am
No, wait, Richard Worth resigned on (Friday) 12 June 2009. His replacement was declared on 16 June 2009.
[DPF: Yep so the SPeaker would have gazetted it on Monday 15 and the CEO declared the following day. That is exactly what I would expect]
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 11:46 am
Thomas the Unbeliever @ 11:34am – excellent summation of Ms Tizard.
I never much liked Mr Tizard, he was one of the earlier “angry politicians” I recall, seemed to have a bit of a temper on him.
There was that famous incident when he was being interviewed in a TV studio, didn’t like the interviewer’s questioning and got up to walk away whilst still attached to the microphone. It didn’t yank him back, but the wire halted his departure whilst he fumbled to remove the microphone and threw it down, all filmed in glorious black and white.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 11:48 am
“Is Te Horo beach the venue for this year’s Labour caucus retreat?”
Vote:I think it was the venue back in 1987: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092610/
March 30th, 2011 at 11:55 am
Darren is still listed as a MP on both the Labour party website and the Parliament website – so maybe he hasnt formally resigned yet.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
What you are missing is that Goff has worked out delaying Hughes resignation, puts Tizard on the back foot and as such strengthens even further his leadership.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
So what if Labour is one seat down for a couple of days? No one needs to be ‘blamed’ at all
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Inky, I assume DPF has an ipredict contract that he’d like to see the result of.
Also, commentary to publish, needs events.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 12:42 pm
If the member was an electoral member it takes months.
As an aside we are lucky to have prompt by-elections. In Ireland there was a by-election held on 25 November 2010 ti replace a member who left in June 2009. The Irish government only allowed it after a court ruling (not a surprise that they lost the by-election) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donegal_South_West_by-election,_2010
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Go Judith, be brave and take “Paree” Hughes’s seat, you useless woman.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
It’s actually not what happens. The CEO/EC and the Speaker always seem to get their notices in the Gazette on the same day.
Vote:[btw it's nice that you can now search the Gazette on-line]
March 30th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Is Hughes still being paid given he has not officially resigned?
If so he is just another socialist low life who thinks he can keep his hands in our pockets.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Why pick on Judith?
Vote:She couldn’t be any worse than some of them – just look at that photo from the ODT.
Good for her – how many of us would turn down that sort of dosh?
After all, we proudly created the ridiculous MMP system that allows this sort of nonsense.
March 30th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Very brave of the producers to spin off this new series while the original is still enjoying such success and popularity with the viewers.
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Speaking as a person who recently resigned from parliament….the pay and and all other perks cease from the end of the day upon which the Speaker’s office receives the resignation (in my case 23 September 2010 – as to the call going out to Judith, someone here will know when Hilary was first summoned to the House)
In the case of list MP in any case (it may be different for an electorate MP, but I very much doubt it) there need be no involvement at all with the party leader. In one respect at least, Hughes an I are/were in the same position: remaining a member of the party concerned, while resigning as an MP, in my case by fax from my sister’s house up North where I had sent my kids to protect them from the media jackals camped outside my house.
So…if Hughes has not yet resigned, that is totally down to him and no-one else. (Although he may of course be taking instructions from the apparatchiks in Labour)
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
One might have thought that Judith would have learned from her father, who was soundly defeated for the Panmure seat in the Auckland Regional Council by Bruce Jesson, who polled 38% of the vote, beating Tizard who could only manage 24%. And that was back in 1991.
Jesson stood for a set of ideals (albeit ones very few people here would support), was an incredibly hard worker and a deep thinker. Tizard was a bellicose sort who seemed to have no real beliefs yet managed to parlay that into a Parliamentary career spanning 31 years.
[Interesting aside: Everyone recalls Shane Ardern driving his tractor up the steps of Parliament, but how many recall Bob Tizard doing the same thing in 1987?]
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Rex: (and others) Bob Tizard may well be described as a bellicose sort, but I also well remember his reaction when the government of the day (Lange’s I think) was making unctuous noises of the usual kind when Emperor Hirohito of Japan died. Tizard said forthrightly – and totally correctly in my view – that after the war, instead of being left on the throne, Hirohito ought to have been executed (that he ought to have been “cut up” were his exact words if I recall).
Such “bellicosity” was even then out of fashion, but then Tizard had either served in the war, or certainly had mates and relations who had. He certainly had a clear belief in the evil that was Imperial Japan, and the right of the allies’ cause. I dont think his daughter is cut from the same cloth somehow…
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 4:36 pm
@Rex W
Shane Ardern’s antics became memorable because of the subsequent charging by the police and hauling into court to face charges of disorderly behaviour.
I think from memory Tizard’s tractor had an expired WOF or Rego, but the MOT said something like “not being driven on a public road, not our problem”
Had Ardern not been charged, it would have simply become just another protest…
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Just heard Soper on ZB claiming that it is well within the Labour Party’s ability to delay naming the List replacement for Hughes and claiming that it is “their list” and that “they are totally responsible for its management” so they could delay naming Hughes replacement right up to the election if they choose.
Now this guy is supposedly an expert on things political so should know what he is talking about.
dpf on the other hand says that the list is engraved in stone since the last election and the place must be offered to the next on the list who must accept or not (no formal rejection required, just a lack of acceptance) at which point it gets offered to the next one and so on. who knows best?
Let the wild ruckus begin …. roll up roll up … a no holds barred heavyweight bout of one round between the title holder Political Tragic Farrar and the pretender to the title All Knowing Soper. My money for the bullshit prize would be on Soper.
An interesting what if springs to mind. If the next on the list declines to accept this round (or is incompetent to accept like being in a coma or something) and another vacancy occurs during this term, is it offered to that person a second time?
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
It begs the question is he actually resigning or is this just talk to appease us, the clamouring hordes?
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Paul
Good point, perhaps he has been told by the NY branch to wait for the next poll results and the inevitable leadership change so he can be restored to the back benches by the new leader.
When that happens I wonder if we will see Chris Carter welcomed back into the party and placed very high on the list?
Vote:March 30th, 2011 at 8:50 pm
Correct BB, Carter will be back his was a noble sacrifice to highlight Phil’s short comings
and
No journalist as far as I have read or heard has reported Hughes vacating his office, i.e physically buggering off.
.
No journalist has enquired whether Hughes is still receiving the salary of a List MP, I wouldn’t think two weeks notice would apply to a trougher position like list MP’s. ( Judy’s waiting they don’t need Darren to show her around)
No journalist as far as I have seen or heard has enquired of Phil Goff when Hughes will be departing from his tax payer funded offices in Parliament meant for List MP’s.
No one has reported whether anyone who is in the chain as required by statute has actually received Hughes formal resignation as a MP which is different from him telling Goff he’s resigning.
In the meantime I presume he is still receiving the salary and the superannuation benefits that are the right of a List MP.
This is news worthy I just wonder why no one is doing their job .
Vote:April 1st, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Don’t miss the next three episodes:
Labour to blame for the Titanic
Labour to blame for the Great Fire of London
Labour to blame for everything
Vote:April 1st, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Looks like those new pills are working for you Maggie
Vote:April 1st, 2011 at 1:00 pm
“Labour to blame for the Titanic”
Ask Kris Faafoi about that.
Vote:April 1st, 2011 at 1:45 pm
tdm, thank you for your concern. Normally I take a blue pill and a yellow one, but today I had neither, so took a green one instead. I’m sure they’ll work it out.
Pity your own medication is so ineffective, though. Maybe you could ask Right Now for some advice?
Vote: