Goff taking my advice
November 18th, 2011 at 3:35 pm by David FarrarIn my Stuff column on Tuesday I labelled the secret tape saga a distraction Labour doesn’t need. A few people scoffed at me but as both the TV polls have shown Labour dropping by over 2%, I think it reinforces my point. Sure it has been messy for National, but it has also knocked Labour out of the media all week.
Today the Herald reports:
Labour leader Phil Goff says he is “sick to death” the teapot tapes are diverting attention away from key issues including asset sales, the cost of living and young New Zealanders’ job prospects, as the country heads into the last and “most important” week of the election campaign. …
“In seven days time our assets go on the block, that’s something we need to be debating.”
My advice to Goff was:
So when Phil Goff was asked for comment yesterday on the tape, his response should have been “I don’t care at all what John Key said to John Banks over coffee, what I care about is why National and ACT plan to sell our assets. This issue is a distraction from the real issues that matter to New Zealanders such as the increased power prices that will eventuate from selling shares in our power companies.”
Where do I send the bill?
Goff should have taken the advice earlier in the week though.
Tags: Phil Goff, secret recordings
November 18th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
DPF, I’ve often wondered about the quality of advice Goff gets. Is it the case that when you go out of govt (and you’re unpopular) that talented people leave/don’t want to work for you. Did National have this problem in 1999?
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 3:46 pm
I wonder if they media will follow their new orders.
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Too late Goff. He just looks stupid now as he like Peters tried to use it to his advantage. You can’t suddenly say your sick of it when you have been trying to get as much political capital out of it as you can just days before. No wonder the Greens are taking votes off Labor, Russel Norman is making Goff look like a complete amatuer.
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Reckon you can advise Bill English to debate the pros and cons of state assets sales with David Cunliffe,sooner rather than later would be nice ?
It’s silly to think just cos the public fawn over John Key that they endorse selling state assets when polling suggests they don’t.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/polls/5993822/Voters-reject-policies?
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Actually he took your advice briefly on Wednesday but by the afternoon / evening he got distracted. Grant Robertson I think on Wednesday on Prime News was very obviously doing what you suggested. Mind you he could well have worked that out for himself, I think you might be better off giving Key advice if you want to get paid for it though.
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Goff gave the teapot issue a damn good shove earlier in the week. Now he is sick of it as labour has suffered the most with the lack of publicity. If it is bad for goff that means it is working for national. I am sure the pm gave the issue one or two flicks just to keep it on the boiler. Utterly extraordinary. Muldoon was a master at getting the media diverted onto utterly irrelevant things when things were getting a bit hot. Goff should know about that he was around then. Really.
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
Mallard and Goff are trying to seeze labour down to keep Little out.
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 7:00 pm
I don’t buy the line that National is winning from the teapot torment because it is diverting attention from Labour’s campaign for the simple reason that Labour’s campaign was self-defeating. Every new policy cost it more votes.
Unfortunately for Labour the teapot has made it seem irrelevant as well as mad. So it is still costing Labour.
But Goff is right about this: everyone is sick of having tea poured down their throats by the media. Message to TV3 (and others): Please move on before we all throw up. Just as John Key has been saying all along, the public want to know about the things that matter to the country’s future. This does not.
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 7:47 pm
I love how Dunne is always a day ahead of everyone else in terms of sensing the direction things are going. That or he reads DPF’s opinions and immediately acts on them.
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Not sure if I am living in a parallel universe but under nine years of labour my power bills went through the roof along with power cuts, my mortgage was ten percent plus and I got shoved into the top tax bracket. Since Key and his tax switch, reform of the power companies and my mortgage payments dropped in half we are better off than ever. Just because Goff talks about it and the rest of the globe has been nailed the reality in NZ is not too bad, we didn’t do corporate welfare and bank bailouts and largely missed all the nonsense. Fuck me the journos are stupid, you want to hear the talk at work (construction) about labour and the media.
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 8:05 pm
The media wankers have totally blown their budgets and credibility on this one. Especially RNZ the supposed non partisan public broadcaster.
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Do ya reckon Labour’s near Pensioner Leaders, Goff and King, know how to use computers?
I wonder if they don’t (hence have missed out on 3 years of free advice from KB’ers here, on what Labour needs to do to get their house in order to become more palatable to the average voter).
Maybe Goff and King have been attending some old-age community computer courses (seeing they are about to retire), and shock-horror have discovered the internet, ya’know the very thing their Labour strategy geniuses like Mallard may have been keeping them away from all this time???
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 8:07 pm
Do you think PG is his KB bagman freddos?
Vote:November 18th, 2011 at 8:17 pm
I mean, take for instance, Red Alert, when ever does Goff and King ever comment on there?
On the other hand for instance, Mallard and Co, do most of the postings and commentary!
Hmmmmmm ….
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