Patrick Gower blogged:
The Hone-Dotcom-Laila political triangle is one of the dirtiest deals in New Zealand political history.
It is as dirty as National-Act in Epsom.
It is as dirty as the Key-Dunne deal in Ohariu.
Frankly, Lalia Harré made me feel sick today when she said “it’s time for New Zealanders to take back MMP”.
That’s because Laila Harré is wrecking MMP.
Hone Harawira is wrecking MMP.
And Kim Dotcom is wrecking MMP.
They are using Harawira’s seat and MMP’s “coat-tail” rule to get a back-door entry into Parliament.
It is a rort.
It is a grubby deal, made all the worse by the fact Harawira holds the Te Tai Tokerau seat – a Maori seat.
The Maori seats are special. They have a unique constitutional role which is to give the Tangata Whenua a place of their own in the New Zealand Parliament.
The Maori seats have been hard fought for.
Never, ever was it envisaged they would be used as a back-door entry for a German millionaire to get his proxy into Parliament.
His $4,000,000 proxy. We should refer to Laila as the four million dollar woman!
Gower is right to point out that this does weaken the case for retention of the Maori seats.
This will give those opposed to Maori seats ammunition to get rid of them.
A referendum on keeping MMP at the moment would be very interesting. Likewise on the Maori seats!
Sadly, the Internet Mana deal has diminished the mana of the Maori seats.
And even sadder too, this deal involves money.
Harawira wants Dotcom’s money.
Annette Sykes wants Dotcom’s money.
John Minto wants Dotcom’s money.
They are all willing to pervert the MMP system for the sake of money and it is a venal deal.
Don’t try and tell me Laila Harré cares deeply about the internet. She cares about getting into Parliament.
Her first press conference was about pretty much every leftwing issues there is, and almost silent on Internet issues except vague platitudes on the importance of the Internet – something that was dated even back in 1996 – when Harre entered Parliament initially.
I have a lot of respect for Harawira, Sykes and Minto. They have spent their lives fighting for what they believe in – for points of principle.
But that respect has been tarnished.
They are obsessed by power, obsessed by money and will trample over the rights of New Zealand voters to get it.
This Internet Mana deal is so wrong.
I feel sorry for all those who signed up to the Internet Party thinking it was about Internet issues. Instead it is merely a vehicle for Dotcom to fund the Mana Party into Parliament. They should be honest and cut out the middle man, and just have Dotcom give the money directly to Mana. Harre is not a candidate for the Internet Party. She is a candidate for Mana. I bet you there isn’t a single Mana Party policy she disagrees with, and she probably doesn’t even know what policies the Internet Party has.
The Press editorial is no less strong:
There can have been fewer link-ups in New Zealand politics more cynical and crassly opportunistic than the one just formed between Hone Harawira’s Mana Party and the Internet Party, masterminded and financed by the internet developer Kim Dotcom. There is not the shadow of any principle involved in it.
Before he arrived in New Zealand, Kim Dotcom’s public image was of a high-living, luxury-loving party animal. For all his technical skills, there is not the slightest evidence that either now or in the past he has had a serious political thought in his head.
It is almost certain his only contact with the poor and dispossessed whose interests Harawira purports to represent would have been as employees. Indeed he may be a little startled to find that he is financing the far-left Laila Harre, the newly announced leader of the Internet Party.
As for the internet issues the Internet Party is supposedly concerned about, if Harawira and Mana had any particular interest in them before Kim Dotcom and his money came on the scene they kept very quiet about them.
Sames goes for the Internet Party Leader.
The ultimate composition of the next New Zealand government may wind up in the hands of a fringe collaboration bankrolled by a German fugitive from American justice. New Zealand politics should be better than that, surely.
The Dom Post editorial notes:
Harre’s arrival sharpens a dilemma for Labour. If its Te Tai Tokerau candidate Kelvin Davis defeats Harawira, it could cut Internet-Mana’s throat and waste a lot of votes for the Left bloc. The best strategy might be for Labour to go softly on Harawira without actually cutting an Epsom-style deal with him. This would require a U-turn, even if it is done in semi-secret.
I understand there is a huge shit fight in Labour over this. Kelvin Davis thinks that he can win the seat as Hone cuddling up to German multi-millionaires will go down like cold sick with many Te Tai Tokerau constituents. If Davis is allowed to run an aggressive campaign for the seat, he could win it.
But Cunliffe and McCarten don’t want to win it. They need Mana-Dotcom in Parliament. So they’ve decided that they will unofficially not campaign to win the seat. This makes Davis the sacrificial lamb who would love to the MP for Te Tai Tokerau, not a List MP.
The endangered NZ dotterel or tūturiwhatu at Okura. This small shore bird has declined to about 1700 birds in scattered populations.
“The Long Walk”
Click for larger, higher res image
Sadly the coffee machine at work is broken so the caffeine-grieving process has begun…
The Herald reports:
The secrets of some of the highest-performing lower decile schools have been unlocked in an attempt to address one of the biggest problems in New Zealand education.
Seven schools that draw their students from relatively poor areas have been visited by the Education Review Office (ERO), in an effort to find out what they are doing well. …
A study of high-performing lower decile schools cited numerous reasons for their success. Here are some of them.
Trident High School, Whakatane, decile 5:
Induction for new staff includes a trip from Ruatoki to Whakatane, hosted at several marae en route. This enables staff to fully appreciate where many of the students come from.
Mt Roskill Grammar School, Auckland, decile 4:
Staff are encouraged to trial and use new practices, including “flipped classrooms” – where teachers use videos to pre-teach ideas before class, then use lessons for collaborative work and individual tutoring.
Otaki College, Kapiti, decile 4:
Phone calls from parents are returned with urgency, and responses to situations are rapid and often involve the community beyond the college.
Naenae College, Lower Hutt, decile 2:
Timetable changes include a 100 minute period every day – which means staff can be more flexible in teaching, and work more with students one-on-one.
Gisborne Boys’ High School, decile 3:
A Tu Tane programme helps boys develop with a strong sense of themselves and their place in the community. Based around celebrating manhood, it is run with support from Gisborne Police.
McAuley High School, Otahuhu, South Auckland, decile 1:
Considerable sums are raised to pay for uniforms, trips and lunches so girls from the most disadvantaged backgrounds can participate in school on an equal footing.
Opotiki College, decile 1:
A morning tea group of students identified as at-risk makes it more likely they will attend school, and is a time for staff to mentor them.
There’s nothing as good as sharing success – which is why the Government’s plans to pay the best teachers and principals more to share their success is an excellent idea.
Nick Smith has announced:
The application by Riverstone Holdings Limited to build and operate a $240 million monorail in Fiordland has been declined by Conservation Minister Dr Nick Smith.
“This proposal does not stand up either economically or environmentally. The independent tourism and financial analysis concluded it was not viable. There would be a significant impact on the area’s flora, fauna and natural heritage. The route is not sufficiently defined to properly assess the impacts,” Dr Smith says.
“Developments in an area with World Heritage status and which impact on the Fiordland National Park must meet the highest of standards and I have concluded that the risks of this proposal are too great.”
The Fiordland Link Experience proposed a new link between Queenstown and Milford Sound consisting of a 20-kilometre boat excursion across Lake Wakatipu to Mt Nicholas Station, a 45-kilometre all-terrain vehicle ride to Kiwi Burn, a 43.8-kilometre monorail ride to Te Anau Downs and a 90-kilometre coach journey to Milford Sound. The application included a lease, licence and concession for the monorail and related infrastructure through the South West New Zealand World Heritage Area including the Snowdon Forest and Fiordland National Park.
I think this is an incredibly disappointing decision. The monorail proposal would have provided a hugely enhanced visitor experience to tourists, and been a real boost to jobs and tourism. It did not go through Fiordland National Park, but merely neighbouring basic conservation land.
It wasn’t just going to be a monorail, but also have a mountain bike trail next to it (using the construction track), plus a catmaran link. Could you imagine a cool 40 km mountain bike trail into Te Anau Downs? Stunning.
I regard the reference to economic considerations to be a red herring. The job of the Conservation Minister should be to assess the environmental impact, not the business case. All that one needs to do is to have a condition that if the project fails, then there are sufficient funds held in trust to remove the infrastructure.
So that leaves the environmental considerations. Well two independent DOC officers (and DOC is hardly a hotbed of pro-development staffers) recommended that the consent be granted as the environmental impact was relatively minor (my words). So we have the Minister going more green than his own department. It’s what I’d expect from a Labour/Green Government – not National.
Incidentally my company Curia did a very small poll for the developer on public attitudes towards the proposal. The cost was tiny, and is not a factor in my views.
I don’t mind Governments being pragmatic, so long as their decisions still move New Zealand in the right direction. I don’t think this decision moves NZ in the right direction. I think it is a kick in the face for tourism and jobs. It will deter other operators from trying to get permission to do developments that boost tourism, if they think that their proposal won’t succeed regardless of the merits.
One News has reported that Kim Dotcom has put $4 million into the Internet Party. No wonder he has no money for creditors, nannies or staff!
I recall the CTU (Harre’s current employer) said donation limit should be $5,000. The Greens (her employer before that) say $35,000 limit. But I bet you neither condemn Dotcom donating $4 million to buy a pet party, despite it being 800 times and 110 times what they said the limit should be.
Now just imagine that say the ACT Party received a $4 million donation from a convicted criminal fighting extradition for alleged financial crimes. Could you imagine the outrage from the left who would spend months decrying it and protesting against it.
Anyone who thinks this is not about trying to prevent extradition has to be kidding themselves. Why else would he be spending $4 million? It certainly isn’t to promote Internet issues.
The new Internet Party leader admitted today she actually knows almost nothing about Internet issues such as net neutrality, the HDC Bill, filtering, software patents, copyright, cybersafety, digital divide, rural braodband, ultrafast broadband, telco competition issues, the proposed copper tax, ISP liability and the like.
Here’s what she talked about in her press conference as *Internet* Party leader:
Does that look like an Internet Party to you? It’s an insult to those of us who have spent 20 years actually fighting for Internet issues. Her issues are the issuees of the Alliance and Mana. She’s a great MP for the typical hard left issues. But her selection as leader shows that the $4 million is purely about trying to change the Government, and has nothing to do with promoting policies good for the Internet.
UPDATE: Matthew Beveridge points out the Internet Party Leader has sent fewer tweets in 12 months than he does in a typical day. Laila as Leader of the Internet Party is like having Colin Craig as the Leader of the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party! Did she even join the party before she was asked to become its leader? I guarantee you the answer is no.
Judith Collins announced:
Significant improvements to our nation’s privacy laws will deliver stronger protections for New Zealanders’ personal information, Justice Minister Judith Collins announced today. …
Key proposals in the reforms include:
Mandatory reporting: Organisations will have to report data breaches to the Privacy Commissioner, and notify affected individuals in serious cases.
New offences and increased fines: Actions such as failing to notify the Commissioner of a privacy breach or impersonating someone to obtain their personal information will be illegal and carry a fine of up to $10,000. Existing maximum fines (for example, for obstructing the Commissioner) will increase from $2,000 to $10,000.
Enhanced powers: The Privacy Commissioner will have new powers, such as the ability to issue compliance notices. The Commissioner’s current power to independently decide to investigate a privacy issue will be enhanced.
Guidance and clarity: The Office of the Privacy Commissioner will provide more guidance about how to comply with privacy laws. Also, technical improvements to the Act will make it clearer and easier to understand.
Ms Collins says the reforms will ensure New Zealand privacy law reflects the digital age and brings us into alignment with our major trading partners.
Recognising the importance of the Privacy Commissioner’s role, the Government recently boosted the Office’s funding by $7 million over four years as part of Budget 2014.
I’m pleased to see the Government adopting the recommendations of the Law Commission. The offence to impersonate someone to obtain personal information is desirable. Also the mandatory breach notifications.
Just done some quick calculations on what someone on the minimum wage would have in terms of real take home pay today, as opposed to six years ago.
The gross minimum wage has increased 19%.
However tax has been reduced, so despite earning 19% more income, they are now paying 14% less tax.
The ACC rate is slightly higher today than in 2008 (when ACC was near insolvent) so that has gone up. Hopefully next year will drop again.
The net income of a fulltime minimum wage earner is 27% higher than six years ago.
The key thing is how have costs risen during the period. And the good thing is that even with the GST increase the cost of living only increased 14% in six years, so a minimum wage earner has had an 11% increase in their real disposable income in that period.
Brian Rudman writes in the Herald:
Labour leader David Cunliffe has tried just about everything to put a dent in the Government’s poll ratings without success. He’s now dipping into Winston Peters’ murky bag of tricks and started pointing the finger at migrants as the cause of our woes.
He wants to cut back from projected migration levels of over 40,000 in “total flows” to the “zone of between 5000 and 15,000”.
He wants “enough new migrants to fill our skill gaps but not so many that it overwhelms our housing market or the ability of our schools and our hospitals to cope”. In the case of hospitals, he seems to be forgetting that without migrants as staff at all levels, they would gradually grind to a halt.
At least he’s stopping short of the New Zealand First proposal that migrants spend their first five years in purgatory in Wanganui or Ruatoria or some other remote outpost before being allowed into the big smoke of Auckland, where most migrants want to live.
Labour’s vote is so low, they’re now trying to steal votes off Winston. Hey, I’m in favour if it knocks Winston below 5%!
To his credit, Mr Key has resisted the mob, telling 3 News that “New Zealand is a country that has been built on migration. We’ve done very well out of it and I think we should be very cautious about taking knee-jerk steps”.
Praise for Key from Rudman – very rare.
Virginia Chong, the president of the New Zealand Chinese Association, calls Labour’s policy “scaremongering”, pointing out the obvious that the answer to rising house prices is to build more homes.
Yep, and for that you need more land available for housing as land is the biggest component of house prices.
Without migrants, our hospitals, about which Mr Cunliffe frets, would be so short of staff, there’d be patient queues stretching around the Auckland Domain. The All Blacks wouldn’t be world champions, and my favourite band, the Auckland Philharmonia, would be but a pale shadow of its present self. And goodness knows where we’d dine out.
And the level of migration is pretty much unchanged from when Cunliffe was Immigration Minister. In fact fewer residency visas are being granted. The big change is fewer Kiwis are leaving, more Kiwis are returning home and more Aussies are wanting to live and work here.
I’m pretty certain Laila Harre has in the past campaigned on capping the amount any one person can donate to a political party. The CTU submitted in 2007 that there should be a maximum cap of $5,000. The Greens have supported a cap. These are her last two employers.
Does she still support a cap of $5,000?
Does she have no problems leading a party that so far has had (at least) $250,000 donated to it by one person?
Amazing how flexible principles are, when you’re receiving the money.
Questions for Oral Answer.
Questions to Ministers 2.00PM-3.00PM.
Today Labour are asking four questions. These are about consumer prices, housing, the size of University Councils, and corruption. The Greens are asking two questions about the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Patsy of the Day goes to Jacqui Dean for Question 12: What recent announcements has she made about funding to support implementation of the EEZ legislation?
Government Bills 3.00PM-6.00PM
1. Appropriation (2013/14 Supplementary Estimates) Bill (The Budget) – First Reading
2. Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 3) – Committee Stage
3. Veterans’ Support Bill – Committee Stage
The Appropriation (2013/14 Supplementary Estimates) Bill (The Budget) is guided through the house by the Minister of Finance, Bill English. This bill seeks parliamentary authorisation of the individual appropriations and changes contained in The Supplementary Estimates of Appropriations for the Government of New Zealand and Supporting Information for the year ending 30 June 2014.
The Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 3) is being guided through the house by the Associate Minister for Local Government, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga. This bill would implement the Government’s second phase of legislative reform relating to the operation of local government.
The Veterans’ Support Bill is being guided through the house by the Minister for Veteran’s Affairs, Michael Woodhouse. This bill proposes a new support scheme for veterans of military service that would replace the current scheme prescribed in the War Pensions Act 1954.
The Herald reports:
Destiny Church is inviting Aucklanders to share in the official opening of its long-promised ‘City of God’ headquarters in Manukau this weekend.
Australian Idol 2009 winner Stan Walker will sing in a free concert in a giant marquee put up yesterday in front of the converted pillow factory in Druces Rd, Wiri, which the church bought in 2010.
The price has not been disclosed but the 3.1ha site has a 2011 rating valuation of $7.65 million.
Guided tours will be offered of the sprawling complex, featuring what is said to be New Zealand’s biggest permanent LED wall, a 24-metre-wide screen which arrived from China last week to form the backdrop for the main 864-seat auditorium.
Giant photographs of founders Bishop Brian Tamaki and his wife Hannah hang in several public spaces in between a school with 170 students, an early childhood centre for 70, a gym, a recording studio and function rooms.
Oh dear. Rather North Korean isn’t it.
The Herald reports:
NZ First Leader Winston Peters refused to answer questions about his ugly parliamentary put-down of his rogue former MP Brendan Horan in his first day back after making the comment a week ago.
Reacting to a series of interruptions from Mr Horan, who is running a campaign against his former political mentor, Mr Peters had referred to him in the House as “the Jimmy Savile of New Zealand politics”. British broadcaster Savile was accused after his death of child sex abuse.
Mr Peters avoided reporters on the way from the House after offering the insult but was back yesterday. Asked what he meant by the comment his response was “next question” which he gave 10 more times to follow up questions.
So he cowers behind parliamentary privilege. Such a nasty piece of work. If he said outside the House, what he said inside, he would be facing the largest defamation suit in New Zealand’s history I’d say.
Stuff reports:
“I’ve got no brakes, brace yourselves,” a train driver yelled to his passengers, seconds before the new Matangi unit smashed into a concrete buffer in Lower Hutt.
The front carriage was pushed two metres into the air as the train failed to stop at the end of the Melling line at 8.10am yesterday.
Very fortunate there wasn’t a serious loss of life.
Greater Wellington Regional Council, which owns Tranz Metro’s fleet of new Korean-built Matangi trains, said they had no history of brake troubles.
“The trains do not have a problem with their brakes,” council chairwoman Fran Wilde said, adding that the fleet was insured and still under warranty.
I’d say the brakes not working is a problem. And who cares about the warranty. I care about trains being able to stop.
Deborah Hume, KiwiRail’s general manager, passenger, said commuters were not at risk. “I take them [trains] myself and I believe they are safe.”
How can you say that? Unless the crash was obviously human error, then there is potentially a very serious problem.
Stuff reports:
Serial threat-maker All Means All has gone to jail for four months maintaining that he will not eat or drink until he is released.
The Oxford farmer is likely to serve two months’ jail time of that sentence for his repeated letters threatening to kill Prime Minister John Key over a long standing dispute with successive governments.
It’s somewhat sad when people allow a grievance to become an obsession.
All Means All politely thanked the judge when he was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment.
He had himself ruled out of home or community detention as a punishment by refusing to make his property available.
He said he would not do community work, and he had paid nothing of the $20,000 fine imposed last time he did this and went to trial.
That meant imprisonment was the only option left, in spite of All Means All’s hunger strike threat.
Well that will at lest reduce the food bill during his imprisonment.
Duncan Garner writes:
Last night’s two polls tell us two things:
The first – National is on track to win the election, and the public has endorsed its budget.
And the second – if Labour is to govern after the next election it will need a three-way coalition including Winston Peters, with his New Zealand First Party, and the Greens. And that’s tricky – really tricky.
I think they would need a five way coalition. They’d need Mana and Dotcom also.
So, under this scenario what happens?
Labour and NZ First agree to a formal coalition and shaft the Greens, forcing them to support a centre-left Government on confidence and supply. They don’t get Ministerial jobs or they get very minor executive jobs outside of Cabinet. It’s entirely possible. And Winston Peters will be able to tell NZ he saved us from the Greens.
The Greens have been consistently shafted by Labour for years, but they are a tougher bunch now. I can’t see them putting up with this, but, then again, would they have any other choice?
What will the Greens do faced with this scenario? Will they put up with being shafted again? Or would they allow National to govern in some way? Surely not. Would they?
The Greens just have to take their lumps and get shafted. Also if Nandor Tanczos is the new Internet Party Leader, that will suck votes off the Greens also.
All this leads back to one person: David Cunliffe, the Labour leader. He simply hasn’t provided the silver-bullet Labour was looking for; not that such a thing exists in politics. He’s under ten percent in the preferred PM stakes. It’s lower than David Shearer was.
Voters had a look at him to start the year and he was terribly unconvincing. They took the phone off the hook and never returned.
I actually think he has improved somewhat since the start of the year. He appears more relaxed and he’s communicating well. Labour has had some ideas recently and they have been reasonably well sold and received.
But then the Budget came along and knocked him out. Incumbency is powerful and National is using its position in office well.
This leads me to this conclusion: the public appears to have deserted Cunliffe, because they simply don’t like him in comparison to John Key. He knows all this, of course, but he’s hanging on hoping for a three percent swing so he gets the chance to put together a centre left-coalition, just like I have described.
That’s why he’s saying, in reaction to these latest polls, “It’s early days”. It is not, David – the public sees through that.
He’s also saying the polls are low because “people have yet to get to know him”. I think they have, however, and they are unconvinced. He is showing no signs of getting Labour to the crucial 37 percent mark.
Not sure 37% is the crucial mark. The promise was to outpoll National and be the largest party.
So, what about this scenario: is it time for Cunliffe to stand down as Leader and give it to someone else?
But who? Jones is gone. Ardern isn’t ready yet.
NBR and the Daily Blog both report that Laila Harre is the Leader of the Internet Party.
I think this is great. Laila is a good politician, but she will attract zero votes from National supporters. She will however attract votes from the Greens – the party she worked for just a few months ago.
I also love the hilarity of a life long unionist getting paid a whopping great salary from the multi-millionaire convicted criminal who was accused by his staff of not even paying them minimum wage.
I also don’t think Laila has ever shown any interest or involvement in Internet issues. She is a staunch unionist and hard left activist. Laila becoming Leader of the Internet Party because she presumably uses the Internet is like me becoming Leader of the Greens because I eat them sometimes.
Next we’ll see Rajen Prasad being announced as the new female co-leader of the Maori Party.
Heh just had this e-mailed to me.
From the BBC:
I await public health campaigners declaring NZ must be margarine free by 2025.
It is obviously vital that younger contestants win.
National’s two Hutt candidates are Lewis Holden and Chris Bishop.
There are also two senior public servants called Lewis Holden and Chris Bishop. They are not the same people.
National’s Lewis Holden works for IBM Oracle. He is not Lewis Holden who is the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.
National’s Chris Bishop works for Steven Joyce. He is not the Chris Bishop who is the Acting Manager of the Communications and IT Policy Group at Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment.
This is a free public service announcement to reduce confusion of having people congratulate the wrong people on their selections 🙂
From the Internet MANA agreement:
To publicly and formally commit in writing that all candidates from both component parties, if elected to Parliament, will not support the formation or ongoing operation of any government that includes the National Party.
So let us be very clear. A vote for Internet MANA is a vote for a Labour-led Government.
Unless terminated as per section 25, this agreement will remain in force until at least six weeks after the 2014 General Election polling day.
Not really a marriage, more a Las Vegas style One Night Stand.
The Privacy Commissioner now has a blog. Worth subscribing to, if you are interested in privacy issues.
I took part with the Commissioner in a forum last night, organised by IPANZ on what is the price of privacy. Was very enjoyable with a wide range of issues ranging from the recent European Court judgement on Google to data sharing between Government agencies, to data breaches.
One example I touched on was the request to have statistics on the percentage of homes owned by non residents. I agree that such data would be desirable. But it is worth noting that to get very accurate data you would need to data match between the property registers, citizenship registers (and we don’t really have one), immigration status databases, travel records and current address records. Is that level of data collection and matching warranted for the information we would gain from it?
The Dom Post editorial:
So the Maori radical and the German squillionaire have spawned their odd little party. No surprise there. The deal suits both partners. The Internet Party now has a chance of getting into Parliament whereas before it had none. And Mana wins a chance of finding more supporters among the geeks and the worshippers of Kim Dotcom.
Radicals like Mana’s John Minto reject Sue Bradford’s charge that they have sold out to the wealthy German. Bradford, staunch and true to her ideals as usual, has predictably stormed out. But, in a sense, Minto is right. He has not abandoned his support for progressive taxes and soaking the rich. He has not had to swallow a dead rat.
What is glossed over is how can you stand up for low paid workers, when you effectively merge with a party controlled by a guy who is accused of not even paying the minimum wage to his staff.
The only question now is: will this political oddity, bred on the wrong side of the bed, have any appeal to the voters? Its best hope is to win about 2 per cent of the party vote – double what Mana got last time – and bring the still-unnamed leader of the Internet Party in on the list. If Annette Sykes won Waiariki, that would be a big dollop of cream on the cake.
Actually if Sykes won Waiariki, then the Internet Mana Party would have one fewer List MP and the Internet Party leader may not get in.
Maybe the geeks and the radical Maori and Pakeha can persuade enough voters to back their odd little band. It’s also perfectly possible that Harawira will lose his seat to Labour and Sykes will fail in Waiariki. That would sink the Internet Party, which will certainly not pass the 5 per cent barrier by itself. The whole strange experiment could easily collapse.
I suspect Labour will quietly tell Kelvin Davis not too campaign too hard so Harawira retains his seat.
Some interesting data from a Ministry of Education report.
Here’s the median earnings for different levels of education, five years after study concludes:
Also of interest are the median earnings five years after study for different bachelors degrees:
Hamish Rutherford at Stuff reports:
Brendan Horan claims he has been inundated by people wanting to share information about NZ First as he makes new allegations that his former party had breached Parliament’s rules.
Horan’s office today released a memo written by Apirana Dawson, NZ First’s director of operations, to party leader Winston Peters addressing “poor party financial structure and inadequate funds to support the party and to run a campaign”.
Horan alleged last week that Dawson and other NZ First staff were engaged in party work when they were meant to be focused on parliamentary activities. Speaker David Carter has confirmed he is investigating.
In today’s document, from July 2012, Dawson called for the establishment of a system where party members had their fees increased to at least $3 a month, to be paid by direct debit.
Parliamentary staff should not be working on membership issues for the party. That is a bright red line.
Peters has not fronted in Parliament for almost a week. No doubt when he does he’ll huff and puff and bluster.