Kiwiblog

Metro magazine have released their annual ratings for the 43 Auckland MPs. You need to buy the magazine for the full ratings, but some extracts are:

• Mean rating 4.5/10
• Averages per party are 5.7 Maori, 4.8 National, 4.2 Labour, 3.5 ACT and 3.5 Green
• Top five MPs are Steven Joyce 8.2, John Key 7.8, Phil Goff 7.5, Judith Collins 7.4 and Keith Locke 7.3
• Bottom two are Chris Carter 0.9 and Ashraf Choudary 1.5
• Top three National backbenchers are Tau Henare 5.9, Nikki Kaye 5.5 and Sam Lotu-Iiga 4.1
• Top Labour MPs are Phil Goff 7.5, David Cunliffe 7.1 and Phil Twyford 6.8

Note these are the ratings of the unnamed panel Metro uses, not my own.

Transtasman has published its annual ratings for our 122 MPs. As usual, I do some analysis. The overall average rating is 4.5

Average Ratings per Party

1. Maori 5.7 ((+0.5 from 2009)
2. United Future 5.5 (+1.5)
3. National 5.2 (+0.1)
4. ACT 4.4 (-0.2)
5. Labour 4.3 (+0.4)
6. Green 4.1 (+0.6)
7. Progressive 2.0 (-1.0)

The overall average rating increased from 4.5 to 4.7.

Top MPs

1. Simon Power 9.0 (+0.5)
2. John Key 9.0 (nc)
3. Tony Ryall 8.5 (+0.5)
4. Bill English 8.5 (+0.5)

Bottom MPs

1. Chris Carter 1.0 (-2.5)
2. Paul Quinn 1.0 (-1.0)
3. Ashraf Choudary 1.5 (+0.5)

Top Labour MPs

1. Annette King 6.5 (nc)
2. David Parker 6.5 (+0.5)
3. Darren Hughes 6.5 (+0.5)

Top Third Party MPs

1. Tariana Turia – 7.5 (+0.5)
2. Peter Dunne – 5.5 (+1.5)
3. Sue Kedgley – 5.5 (+1.5)
4. John Boscawen – 5.0 (+0.5)
5. Jim Anderton – 2.0 (-1.0)

Top 2008 intake MPs

1. Steven Joyce 7.5 (nc)
2. Rahui Katene 6.0 (nc)
3. Simon Bridges 6.0 (+2.0)

Biggest Increases

1. Lindsay Tisch, Simon Bridges, Sue Moroney and Hone Harawira all +2 from 2009

Biggest Decreases

1. Pansy Wong -3.0
2. Chris Carter -2.5

Group Ratings

1. Ministers 6.6 (+0.4)
2. Cabinet 7.1 (+0.4)
3. National frontbench 7.9 (+0.2)
4. Labour frontbench 5.0 (+0.5)
5. National 2008 intake 4.2 (nc)
6. Labour 2008 intake 4.1 (+0.4)

Tracy Watkins and Vernon Small rate the front benches. Their scores:

• John Key 9.0
• Bill English 6.5
• Gerry Brownlee 6.5
• Simon Power 8.5
• Tony Ryall 8.0
• Nick Smith 5.5
• Judith Collins 7.5
• Anne Tolley 3.5
• Chris Finlayson 7.0
• David Carter 4.0

• Tariana Turia 7.0
• Pita Sharples 6.0

• Rodney Hide 2.0

• Phil Goff 7.5
• Annette King 6.5
• David Cunliffe 6.0
• Ruth Dyson 5.5
• Parekura Horomia 4.0
• Clayton Cosgrove 6.5
• Chris Carter 2.0
• Maryan Street 5.0
• Darren Hughes 6.0
• David Parker 8.0

• Russel Norman 6.0
• Metiria Turei 4.5

While most of the ratings are common sense, I actually would disagree with a few. I can’t imagine how you can say the Shadow Attorney-General (David Parker) is a point higher than the actual Attorney-General (Chris Finlayson). I agree Parker has been one of the better Labour MPs.

Likewise the Dom Post seem to be reflecting Trevor Mallard’s view of Anne Tolley, than the real world. They have rated Parekura Horomia higher than Tolley. Yes, Anne Tolley was a bit unsteady in the House in her early days, but doesn’t look as bothered now. And frankly blaming Tolley for not getting the teacher unions to support national standards as absurd. That is like giving Michael Cullen bad marks as the former Finance Minister for not getting the Roundtable to endorse his policies.

I also can’t see where you rate Carter a 4.0 for Agriculture – just because he is low profile. The feedback I get is that Carter is very respected by the industry.

And on the Labour side, a totally lack of mention of Goff’s biggest fuck up during the year – the Richard Worth scandal. His championing of Neelam Choudary as some shy and retiring person who could not handle Worth blew up massively in his face and damaged his brand. He dropped significantly in the polls after that. A 7.5 is well rather generous for the man whose party is 25 points behind in the polls.

But hey it gets boring if everyone agrees on every rating.

Transtasman has published its annual ratings for our 122 MPs. As usual, I do some analysis. The overall average rating is 4.5

Average Ratings per Party

1. Maori 5.2
2. National 5.1
3. ACT 4.5
4. United Future 4.0
5. Labour 3.9
6. Green 3.7
7. Progressive 3.0

The influx of new MPs saw the overall average rating drop from 4.8 to 4.5. All parties except National had their average drop. National went up 0.3.

Top MPs

1. Lockwood Smith 9.25
2. John Key 9.0
3. Simon Power 8.5

Bottom MPs

1. Hone Harawira 0.0
2. Ashrad Choudary 1.0

Top Labour MPs

1. Annette King 6.5
2. David Parker 6.0
3. Darren Hughes 6.0

Top Third Party MPs

1. Pita Sharples & Tariana Turia – 7.0
2. Jeanette Fitzsimons – 6.0
3. Roger Douglas & Heather Roy – 5.0
4. Peter Dunne – 4.0
5. Jim Anderton – 3.0

Top New MPs

1. Steven Joyce 7.5
2. Rahui Katene 6.0
3. Amy Adams 5.0

Group Ratings

1. Ministers 6.2
2. Cabinet 6.7
3. National frontbench 7.7
4. Labour frontbench 4.5
5. National 2008 intake 4.2
6. Labour 2008 intake 3.7

It will be interesting to see in a year how the ratings have changed. Hopefully by then the Labour frontbench has had a reshuffle. That is a huge disparity between the frontbenches.

The Dominion Post has done a feature of several pages to evaluate the first year of the Key Government. Part of that is a ranking of the National Ministers. They have not ranked John Key (there’s a sort of automatic assumption that he would be top ranking) but have ranked Lockwood Smith, even though he is Speaker, not a Minister. The ratings are:

• 10/10 – Lockwood Smith
• 9.5/10 – Simon Power
• 9.0/10 – Steven Joyce
• 8.5/10 – Tony Ryall
• 8.0/10 – Judith Collins
• 7.5/10 – Chris Finlayson
• 7.0/10 – Bill English and Paula Bennett
• 6.5/10 – Nick Smith
• 6.0/10 – Gerry Brownlee, Murray McCully and Tim Groser
• 5.0/10 – Phil Heatley, Anne Tolley, Wayne Mapp, Nathan Guy
• 4.0/10 – Jonathan Coleman, Maurice Williamson and Georgina te Heuheu
• 3.0/10 – Kate Wilkinson, David Carter and John Carter
• 2.0/10 – Pansy Wong

The Dom Post refers to the top six rated as “the stars”, and I agree they have all handled their areas very well, even though of course I may disagree with some of the policy decisions. If it were not for the housing issue, I think Bill would have been there also.

These are of course the ratings of the Dominion Post gallery team.Not sure if the Herald will do their own ratings. In December I expect we will get the annual Trans-Tasman ratings of not just Ministers, but all 122 MPs.