Kiwiblog

John Ansell requested a billboard yesterday, so the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy leaped into action. First we had this excellent response from Whale Oil:

Now who wants to donate some money to get that up on a billboard?

And an overseas based reader sends in another version:

Also an excellent effort. Feel free to promote these via blogs, e-mail etc.

As for why the PM declared this election is about trust? Leftie blog Adding Noughts points out she is copying the John Howard playbook as noted by the Sydney Morning Herald:

THE New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, has taken a leaf out of John Howard’s book, calling an election and immediately defining it as being about trust.

Miss Clark yesterday said the country’s future would be at stake on November 28, when New Zealanders would decide which party they trusted most. …

“I do believe the future of New Zealand is at stake,” Miss Clark said. “I believe that Labour has shown, through its record in office, that we can be trusted with the future of New Zealand.

“It is about which leader and which major party we New Zealanders trust our families’ and country’s future with.”

When he announced Australia’s 2004 election, Mr Howard said: “This election, ladies and gentlemen, will be about trust.” He asked voters to trust him with the economy and interest rates and in the fight against terrorism.

Speaks for itself.

Peter McCaffery designed this one:

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Hat Tip: Not PC

People seemed to like the billboard I put up yesterday. Another reader has done a similiar one:

Very nice. Note that the graphic is an election ad if you use it anywhere but on a non-commercial blog!

There have also been some amusing parodies of the National billboards. The Standard has some:

I quite like the “Choose a righter future”.

08wire also has a few – some funny, some less so. My favourites:

Heh. I also like the changed tagline. Humour is much more effective when it is funny, and not nasty. Let the billboard wars continue!

Whale Oil also has some new billboards but site seems to be down at the moment. I’ll try grabbing them later.

Sent in by an offshore reader. Note that to avoid confusion, this is not a real advertisement for Labour or NZ First, and has not been authorised by them!

Colin Espiner also has some good insights:

I am going to criticise the Prime Minister for something else, however. Her decision yesterday to launch into the Serious Fraud Office and claim the agency tipped off the National Party about its pending inquiry into donations to the New Zealand First Party was extraordinary. I don’t think a prime minister in this country has made such an accusation against a law enforcement agency before. …

It’s difficult to see Clark’s outburst as anything other than a deliberate attempt to undermine the credibility of the agency investigating one of her ministers, whom she clearly wishes to be cleared of wrongdoing as soon as possible. She has gone out on a limb on this one. The attack looks desperate, unwarranted, and unfair.

As Colin says, one can’t even recall Muldoon at his worst attacking law enforcement like Clark has.

Asked whether any of his MPs had met Lord Ashcroft, Key said: “I think so, yes.”

Here’s what Key should have said to Duncan Garner’s first question: “Sure I met Lord Ashcroft. Why wouldn’t I? He’s close to a friend of mine, David Cameron, and I always take the opportunity to meet my counterparts from like-minded parties overseas, as does the Prime Minister.”

It’s this automatic first instinct to avoid an issue that has got National into trouble before. Why wasn’t Key’s meeting with Lord Ashcroft in his diary released to the media? Why not offer journalists the opportunity to talk to the pair? I’m sure he’s an interesting fellow. If the meeting had been released, I could almost guarantee the media would have ignored it.

I agree strongly here. I guess it is easier with hindsight, but the meeting should have been in the diary. It would have prevented any suspicion, by front footing it. Clin provided the perfect response to any questions.

Finally a word on the billboards. So far: Lame. National is missing John Ansell, the man behind the party’s wickedly clever 2005 billboards terribly. Apparently National isn’t Right-wing enough for Ansell these days, and he’s gone off to support ACT – so look out for some clever billboards from them.

Colin must have missed the news that John parted ways with ACT.

There does seem to be a consensus that the first National billboard isn’t particularly good. The most common complaints is it has too many design elements, and is not clearly a National billboard.

National have released their first billboard. The PR says:

The billboard, on taxation and migration, was launched in Auckland this afternoon. The same billboard is going up at sites in Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, and Tauranga.

“Our first election billboard promotes our intention to introduce an ongoing programme of personal tax cuts. It will be a responsible and a transparent programme,” says Mr Key.

“National will build on Labour’s planned October tax cuts. We will treat those as the first tranche in our tax cut programme. There will be further tax reductions on 1 April 2009, and again on 1 April 2010.

“The billboard also highlights Labour’s failure to stem the tide of people voting with their feet and leaving New Zealand.

“The figures are sky-high. Recent statistics show that more people than ever are leaving. In the year to July, 80,872 people packed their bags and headed overseas for good.

“That’s the highest loss for a year ended July since 1979, and the second highest loss ever. The figure equates to more than 1,500 people per week.

It’s election time alright!