Comments on: Why did Labour put Trevor up?

By: Shazzadude

Shazzadude — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 02:34:12 +0000

“In fact I understand Annette’s latest thinking is that she won’t stand for Mayor of Wellington, as that would allow Little into Rongotai. Hence so long as Labour looks competitive in 2014, she plans to stand again and will be Labour’s nominee for Speaker after the election. If that is the plan, would have made sense to put her up now.”

If Annette isn’t going ahead with her ambitions to chase the Wellington mayoralty, I would think the main deterrant would be to prevent a civil war with the Greens. I’d imagine if King went head to head with the Green’s Celia Wade-Brown, the Greens would probably retaliate by chucking all their resources behind Norman to win the ensuing Rongotai by-election (which I think would be very winnable for him).

By: Steve (North Shore)

Steve (North Shore) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 07:03:56 +0000

Question is, who will score the first real goal?

John Key – “We won, you lost, suck eggs”

By: Steve (North Shore)

Steve (North Shore) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 07:01:10 +0000

Gee Trevor, seems quite a few people are not happy with you.

What did you ever do to piss them off so much? or is it just your Teacher/Union thingy?

By: Judith

Judith — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 03:21:52 +0000

They could have put Kermit or Mickey Mouse up, it wouldn’t have mattered. It wasn’t about who it was, but more the example it provided. The numbers were the motivation. A numerical figure to demonstrate the starter positions for the new year.

It also defined the type of game we can expect. No warming up, straight into it.
Question is, who will score the first real goal?

By: tvb

tvb — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 03:09:12 +0000

The laughter from the Government benches would have hurt Mallard. But Mallard who can be very constructive and sensible also has this mad side too. He has the wrong temperament to be Speaker. Parliament is a rough and tumble place. A speaker needs to smooth things over but be able to be firm. David Carter will be ideal.

By: davidp

davidp — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 02:53:22 +0000

A Mallard win would have been very inconvenient for local teenagers. They would have had to sign in as visitors at parliament to pick up their over-priced concert tickets, rather than just popping around the back of Mallard’s Wainuiomata electorate office like they do at the moment.

By: dime

dime — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 02:23:10 +0000

“That’s how many people see him, with some justification, reinforcing my astonishment that the Greens would back his bid”

you make it sound like greens are some honorable party.

By: alwyn

alwyn — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:58:36 +0000

@Paulus at 1.08pm
In the Wellington mayoralty election it doesn’t matter whether there are multiple candidates from one side as the vote is not first past the post but is a preferential one. In each round of counting, which continues until one candidate has more than 50%, the lowest polling candidate drops out and there next preference gets the vote.
Kerry Prendergast led for most of the count in the last election and it was only after a number of rounds, and with a number of candidates having dropped out the Celia Wade-brown won.
Thus any number of candidates from one side of politics could run and, provided their preferences were all passed to candidates on the same side one of them could still win.

By: Pete George

Pete George — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:42:57 +0000

I wonder if ‘Adrian’ is Mallard’s press secretary (this is in response to many bangings of foreheads on Standard keyboards):

Oh,Shut the fuck up. If it had come off it would have been biggest bloody nose the Nats had had in the house in 4 years and would have highlighted how their incompetence is a direct result of their arrogance. Even the papers would have torn them a new arsehole, not to mention how having our own referee might have evened things up a bit.

http://thestandard.org.nz/foolish-games/#comment-582282

However it wasn’t National that got a bloody nose, nor did they display any incompetence. Those honours were self bestowed by the plucked duck and shorn shearer.

‘quartz’ is on to it:

Surely you joke, Adrian. Nobody outside of Labour’s inept strategy team could possibly believe that. That said, you seem to be taking it very personally…

By: Pete George

Pete George — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:28:18 +0000

Mallard is a nasty piece of work with no morals. Thank god he was not selected as speaker as it would have been a constitutional disgrace.

That’s how many people see him, with some justification, reinforcing my astonishment that the Greens would back his bid, whether they thought he had any chance of wining the vote or not.

Principles have flown out the Green window.

By: RF

RF — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:19:14 +0000

Mallard is a nasty piece of work with no morals. Thank god he was not selected as speaker as it would have been a constitutional disgrace.

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:17:43 +0000

Two words to explain why the buffoon Mallard can never be allowed near the speaker’s chair (and preferably not near a governmental cabinet): Erin Leigh.

By: Pete George

Pete George — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:16:14 +0000

leftyliberal – Greens took part on the attempt by Labour to sneak Trevor Mallard in as speaker. Backing a nomination that they kept quiet about and was only announced 45 minutes before the vote was far from being transparent.

By: dime

dime — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:10:20 +0000

that lisping buffoon is a disgrace to parliament. imagine him as speaker. my god.

far too much bitterness and outright hate of us rich pricks.

the fact that everyone laughed would make a normal person stop and think about how they were living their lives. not this asshole though.

any labour leader with a set would make kick mallard out of parliament at the next election. but he will hang on for as long as possible. not a lot of job offers coming across mallards desk.

By: barry

barry — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:08:24 +0000

Mallard is an ex teacher union guy – enough said – he would bugger the place.

By: Paulus

Paulus — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:08:16 +0000

I have understood that Helen Kelly had the nod for Rongotai when Annette gets Mayoralty.
Whatever, Kelly will get Rongotai not Little in due time.

BUT

Celia a Greenie has the Mayoralty, and to stand against her with two leftys would split the vote, with neither getting in.

By: leftyliberal

leftyliberal — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:53:35 +0000

@Pete George: Perhaps I’m missing something, but where was Turei not being transparent? Did she not say that they discussed a range of issues with Carter, and that accessability was one of the important ones (to the Greens) on which they disagreed? Surely, then, they’re being transparent about the process?

By: Colville

Colville — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:53:04 +0000

If it had come down to a run off between Henare and Mallard, I can think of an entertaining way to sort it out. You could sell tickets!!

and Mallard could have made a few bucks scalping the tickets on Trademe !

By: Pete George

Pete George — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:46:00 +0000

A curious side issue was the Green Party involvement. They opposed Carter as speaker because “they do not not agree with his views on funding accessibility for MPs with a disability”.

That’s a very narrow view on what is required of a speaker.

And they supported Mallard…

“We chose to support Trevor Mallard in today’s vote given his views on accessibility issues,” said co-leader Metiria Turei.

“Trevor Mallard demonstrated a clearer understanding of the issue, seeing it as an area for parliament to manage rather than a burden for an individual MP.”

… based on the same minor issue, despite all his obvious negatives.

So they chose to do their own bit of grandstanding by joining a secret deal in the selection of one of the most important positions in Parliament – unless they thought Mallard had a shot at becoming speaker and supported the subterfuge to truy and achieve that.

Whatever it was the Greens were more intent on political opportunism than transparent democratic process.

http://yournz.org/2013/02/01/greens-narrow-view-on-preferred-speaker/

By: Paul Williams

Paul Williams — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:30:46 +0000

Agreed PaulL