An extraordinary blog post by David Cunliffe on Red Alert. Let’s take it one step at a time:

When this country is in recession and Kiwi families are doing it bloody tough, I cannot bear to stand by and see rich and powerful private interests – whom I will not name at this point

A classic Winston tactic. Refer to dark vile secret forces.

and this post is not about SCF – rorting the rules and using their clubs and networks to finesse processes.

Thank God it is not about SCF. David seems to have become the spokesperson for a small Timaru cult. The latest cult newsletter proclaims:

In the end though, the only way Michelle, Keiran and I can help you is if you help yourself, and help us help you. If we stay out here alone, we are targets.

I have always felt like asking the Chinese Government how they intend to shoot a billion people.  …

David Cunliffe just called me and we have a thing or two planned which will help, watch this space.

David said “tell the investors to speak with one voice, and throw everything you have at John Key and Bill English and Simon Power – full force, don’t hold back……let RIP!

Anyway back to his blog post:

It makes Godzone look like “the coldest banana republic in the world”.

I thought that was when we had a foreign minister who took out ful page ads campaigning against his own Government’s great foreign policy sucess – a FTA with China. Now that was banana republic.

For goodness sake interests associated with the Natural Dairy Crafar farms bid (potentially with Nat links) reportedly gave $200,000 to the National Party while the Natural Dairy application was still before the OIO and while National has a ministerial policy review underway.

I blogged these donations when they were disclosed. In fact I blogged them before the media reported them. The association with Natural Dairy is rather weak – the husband of the wife who made the donation is an advisor to the Chinese Business Roundtable, and the founder of that Roundtable is involved in Natural Dairy NZ.

I suspect most Chinese businesspeople in Auckland are involved in the Chinese business roundtable. It is a fairly tight community.

National should IMMEDIATELY reject that bid – otherwise what is left to separate this from complete corruption?  Brown envelopes?

Here Mr Cunliffe jumps off the deep end. The public will judge any decision by the Government when it is made, and thanks to transparency with donations can judge whether or not they think that was a factor.

But it is bonkers to be screaming that the Government must interfere with the OIO process and destroy the ability of the Crafar recevers to recover maximum value from the assets, because of a donation from a Chinese businesswoman who is not involved in the bid.

I have a much better example of corruption for David Cunliffe.  In fact it is made in the comments section of Red Alert:

Bill Liu gave a donation of $5,000 to the labour party. His citizenship application was supported by Dover Samuels, who was at that time a Minister. His citizenship ceremony was presided over by Labour ministers, who knew that immigration were unhappy with him being in NZ. None of this is news to you, yet you have the temerity to accuse National of awarding corrupt favours to its friends.

Yes Labour ignored the strong advice from officials not to grant Liu citizenship due to his multiple fake identities, yet they did.

You want another example of corruption – your caucus colleage Taito Field – whom you associate immigration minister did so many favours for,

Or another – how about accepting $100,000 three days before the election, and not declaring it until after the election. From the same source that donated to Winston, whom Labour voted had done nothing wrong and never knew about the Owen Glenn donation despite the telephone logs.

Was it OK for the OIO-overseeing Minister of Finance to lease his (trust’s) house to the govt for a staggering ministerial rent

No, and the money was paid back. But what has that got to do with the OIO.

or accept hours of free TV for his “Plain English” ads?  Isn’t it time we Kiwis stood up and demanded that the tories do sweat the small stuff like the rest of us?  Isn’t it time John key held SOMEONE to account for SOMETHING rather than smile, wave and make excuses?

Now he is in full rant mode.

Beyond political donations, look at the ability of the rich and powerful to get their way while the poor and middle struggle: $2 billion a year of tax avoidance through LAQCs and trusts that National in government has refused to touch.

So the Government is corrupt as it did not abolish LAQCs. So does this mean the last Labour Government was also corrupt. Or that Labour’s policy is now to abolish LAQC’s?

Or it is just more part of a bizarre rant?

And he also rails against trusts. Well now we get to the hypocrisy. He suggests National is corrupt for not somehow stopping the use of trusts to avoid tax. So what does the Register of MPs Pecuniary Interests say for Cunliffe:

The Bozzie Family Trust (discretionary trust)

The hypocrisy is amazing.

Half the top 100 welathiest NZers are still not on the top tax rate!

Yes – and this happened under Labour!This is what happens when teh trust and top personal tax rates are not aligned – something that National has now fixed.

Well what is the point of getting our savings rate up (and asking hard working families to go without consumtion) if the investment vehicles we need to get the money to our struggling firms are being milked and siphoned by fees and sweet deals to the cronies in the markets?  Why would any sane Kiwi sweat 80 hours a week to build a real business here?  Where will our kids choose to live?

So no Kiwis will work 80 hour weeks because of the cronies in the markets? I’m sorry, but even I can’t follow his chain of thought any more. It seems to be just one big primal scream

It will only get worse until we have a Govt with the guts to stand up to it.   The smiling millionaire from Bankers Trust is hardly likely to do that!

Oh I see. It is all John Key’s fault.

Vodafone have dropped their mobile data roaming rate in Australia to $5/MB from $10/MB.

This is obviously a step in the right direction, but for me the price point is still too high.

Vodafone has had a temporary rate of $2/MB over the last two months for Australia. That was set at an affordable level so during my 8 days in Australia I kept data turned on and Vodafone made around $50 from me – did around 3 MB/day.

In July/August I spent a month in Europe. As data roaming cost so much I turned it on as little as possible, and used only 3 MB over four weeks. I just used local wireless networks instead.

So $5/MB, while cheaper than Telecom, still has a long way to go.

Most of the photos I take are actually macros, but the subjects are typically a lot less popular than the vertebrates. Hopefully, the chap below isn’t seen as very threatening.

One of the more fascinating aspects of NZ ecosystems, is that our native fly species do a lot of the pollinating. There’s a bit of a gap in our native bee lineup.

This very small creature you might see flitting around your gardens from time to time

As always, clicking the image will bring up a larger version.

On to my second double espresso already…hope everyone has a good Friday.

Roger Kerr blogs:

It was with deep sadness that I learned of the sudden death of Graeme Hunt today. Graeme was a widely-respected author, historian and journalist, and a tireless campaigner for electoral reform in New Zealand.

He was also standing as an independent candidate for the Albany ward of the new Auckland Council and was reportedly leading in the polls.

Graeme was passionate about New Zealand history and one of our foremost business historians. He was a walking encyclopaedia who, while chatting, could go into extraordinary detail about a huge variety of topics including long-forgotten people, places, organisations and issues. …

Graeme was an award-winning journalist and former editor-at-large of the National Business Review. The NBR reported his death this morning.

I’ve lost a good friend and a much respected colleague, and New Zealand has lost one of its most talented and public-spirited journalists.

My sincere condolences go to his wife Saluma and his son Robert and daughter Ellen.

As do my condolences.

The Government has announced:

At New Zealand Post, Hon Michael Cullen has been appointed chair from November 1.

Thanks National. Words are inadequate to describe how I feel. The closest sensation it reminds me of is a colonoscopy.

Cullen replaces Jim Bolger, so at least it means there won’t be any change in policy!

The Herald reports:

Former MP Brian Neeson and pharmacy owner Warren Flaunty are each standing for election to five local authorities, heading a bigger than usual field of candidates who have put their hands up for three or more Super City roles.

Both men say they can cope with the workload if they are successful in several of those bodies.

But it is the possibility of both of them serving on two local boards of the Auckland Council that has raised rivals’ eyebrows.

Mr Neeson, an MP from 1990 to 2002, is nominated for the council’s Albany Ward as well as the Rodney Local Board and the Upper Harbour Local Board.

If he was elected to the council, he said, he would drop the boards.

But there is also the possibility of him being elected to the Waitemata District Health Board and the Waitakere Licensing Trust.

So Brian wants to be a quintuple dipper. Actually it is worse than that. Simon Power, in a moment of insanity, also appointed him to the Human Rights Review Tribunal, he is trying to be a sextuple dipper.

I would change the law for local body elections, so that candidates can stand for one office only. You can stand for either the City Council or the DHB – not both. You can stand for Council or a board – not both. Also – you can stand for Mayor or Council – not both.

90% of local body elections is name recognition, and your skill at writing a 200 word blurb. People stand for multiple roles to increase their name recognition. Works well for them – doesn’t work well at getting people dedicated to the one role.

The Herald reports:

He declined to be interviewed yesterday, but said in text messages that he still considered himself a Labour MP.

Another story reports that he considers himself to be in dispute only with Phil Goff, not with Labour.

He is the only nominee for the Labour ticket for Te Atatu for the next election, but nominations are open until October 8.

Only 15 days to go.

It is understood there is some pressure from local Labour members and constituents for him to stay on as the Labour nomination.

Mr Goff said that Mr Carter appeared to have recovered as he was back in Parliament, and he should now front up to the council to defend his case if he wanted to stay in the party.

I will make a rare prediction. I do not believe the Labour Party Council will expel Chris Carter as a member. Why? Helen has told them not to, and it is still her party.

Helen has let it be known that Labour is Chris’ life, and it would be cruel to expel him when he has spent his life working for Labour.

What is most likely to happen is Carter will be suspended – probably for 18 months, or maybe indefinitely. And after the 2011 election the suspension will be lifted.

That will be a massive slap in the face for Goff.

The ODT profiles presumptive new ACT MP Hilary Calvert:

“Back in the day, I trained in couple counselling. Who knows, that might be very helpful,” Ms Calvert said yesterday.

Heh.

Radio NZ reports:

Labour leader Phil Goff says the Maori Party needs to start listening to Maori voters and put a future coalition with Labour back on the table.

He told Waatea News that the meltdown of ACT and improving polling among other opposition parties means the next Government could well be a coalition of Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First.

Mr Goff said the Maori Party needed to face up to the fact National “hasn’t delivered for Maori”.

He also said the majority of Maori voters gave their party vote to Labour last election.

Firstly I note how Labour are openly talking up NZ First. They campaign on transparency in electoral laws, yet say they believe WInston didn’t know about the Owen Glenn donations. Ha.

Anyway, don’t you like the arrogance of demanding the Maori Party must support them, as most Maori gave Labour their party vote.

Goff has had Mallard and Jones spend most of the last two years attacking the Maori Party, and finally it has clicked he will need them to have a chance to form a Government.  What a stroke of genius.

The Herald reports:

Four of the nine people standing for four seats in the Otara-Papatoetoe subdivision are Indian – Labour candidates Daljit Singh and Sukhdev Singh Hundal, and Citizens and Ratepayers candidates Avtar Hans and Narinder Kumar Singla.

Mr Gutry said candidates and campaign staff would be contacted as part of the inquiry. Yesterday, none of the four Indian candidates said they had been contacted by the police.

Daljit Singh yesterday said he knew of people who believed that because there was one Super City, they could vote anywhere.

People who may have unintentionally enrolled were being told to correct the matter with the Electoral Enrolment Centre, he said.

Unintentionally enrolled? Is this what it is about? Let us see what TV3 report:

Manjit Kaur and her husband Avtar have been living in Pukekohe for 10 years, so imagine their surprise when police turned up asking why she’d enrolled in the South Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe.

“We never lived at that address, and that handwriting was not belonging to us, ’cause we had not filled that form,” says Mr Kaur.

Ms Kaur signs her name in English, yet the police had a form with her date of birth and a signature in Punjabi.

Now this makes the alleged crimes even more serious. It is one thing to tell people to enrol at an address they don’t live at. That is bad enough. But to actually forge their signature on an enrolment form and re-enrol them against their wishes is even more serious.

Quite a mystery over who could have done this.

“We’ve executed a number of search warrants within the Papatoetoe area, residential and commercial properties,” says Det Insp Mark Gutry.

One of the properties searched was the real estate office where Labour candidate Daljit Singh works. He said today police had not contacted him.

“What we’re doing at present is investigating the enrolments,” says Mr Gutry. “As part of that process we are going to end up speaking to candidates right throughout the Papatoetoe area.”

Another address visited was Indo Spice World, where coincidentally today a support vehicle for Mr Singh was parked at his office next door.

What an absolute coincidence.

A couple of media outlets have reported this poll from Horizonpoll:

National has an 8% lead over Labour in the latest HorizonPoll voting intentions survey covering 3,673 New Zealanders.

National has 30% of decided voters (3% down on its 2008 share of all registered voters).

Labour has 22% (3% down on its 2008 share of all registered voters).

Even before one looks at what type of poll this is, warning bells should emerge over one claiming National has only 30% of “decided” voters when every other poll has them around 50%.

Also when they compare the percentage of “decided” voters to the percentage of “registered” voters. This would only be useful if there was 100% turnout.

But the big reason why the media should not report this as a poll, is it is not a phone poll, but an Internet panel survey.

At some stage I will do a fuller post on the pros and cons of Internet panels. In some circumstances they can be very useful – especially when surveying the opinions of a discrete group.

But generally they are unreliable when it comes to being a fair sample of all New Zealanders. Because they are only representing those NZers who have joined that online panel. And even with weighting, this does not mean it is representative. A weighted sample can still be unrepresentative.

Over time they will become more useful, as panels become larger. But in my opinion you need really really large panels. The only political poll I currently trust which is done through online panels is You Gov in the UK. They have a fine record of accuracy. Their large panels, means that every poll they do is not the same 3,000 or so people responding to it.

As I said, online panels do have some valid uses. And it is inevitable they will become more dominant over time, as the challenges for phone polling increase.

But my view is that at this stage in NZ, they are not a reliable indicator of New Zealand public opinion. I have seen many online panel polls like the above, which produce results massively different from those produced by phone polls. Normally I ignore them, but as some media reported this one, I thought it is worth making the point.

It would be useful if media did not report online panel polls just as “polls”, but always make it clear it is a “Internet panel survey”.

Not bad this week. Quiz is here. 10 out of 10 and in 24 seconds.

The person who writes the quiz obviously has a fascination with Muldoon trivia. Luckily – so do I 🙂

The Dom Post reports:

Chris Carter is due back at Parliament today as his sick leave runs out.

The Te Atatu MP refused to say this week if he was returning. And Labour, his former party, did not know whether he would show up.

Mr Carter took two months off after a clumsy attempt to topple party leader Phil Goff in July, saying he was “stressed”. He was later dumped from the caucus and is now an independent MP.

I hope Chris has recovered from whatever condition it was that necessitated two months sick leave.

Hopefully he has seen specialists to ensure it is not contagious.

The Police announce:

A number of search warrants have been executed on residential and business addresses in Auckland’s Papatoetoe ward over the last two days as part of the police inquiry into electoral roll enrolment irregularities.

Detective Inspector Mark Gutry, crime manager, Counties Manukau Police, said the search warrants were executed at “properties of interest” to the inquiry which follows a complaint from the Electoral Enrolment Centre.

Up to 40 officers are involved in this latest phase of the inquiry.  People at the addresses or associated with them have been very helpful.   Candidates and campaign staff will also be contacted for information as part of the inquiry.

The Registrar of Electors last week removed 306 enrolments after establishing that people did not live at addresses stated on enrolment forms.

“Police are very aware of the electorate interest in this inquiry and we are working to complete it as thoroughly and quickly as possible,” Detective Inspector Gutry said.

“It’s too early to say what the outcome of our investigation will be.  Elections and the right to vote are part of New Zealand’s democratic process.  If people do have concerns about irregularities in the Papatoetoe ward then it’s important they have the confidence to speak up and get in touch with us.”

Well done NZ Police. 40 officers is a very serious commitment. Hopefully they will get a result quickly, as this could affect the election. If a candidate (or party) is found to be involved, then people should know this before they vote.

The Herald reports:

Discredited MP David Garrett will reportedly resign his seat in Parliament tomorrow, after last week quitting the Act Party over revelations he acquired a passport in 1984 using a dead child’s identity.

Mr Garrett – a list MP – in recent days has indicated that he won’t stay on as an independent MP but is yet to formally announce his decision.

However Radio New Zealand, which Mr Garrett used to announce his resignation from ACT, is reporting that he will now step down altogether.

I’ve been saying all along that I was sure David would resign from Parliament, once he quit ACT.

I’m in Auckland this afternoon, and going to an Albany Meet the Candidates Meeting. With Williams and Whale both invited to speak, it should be great fun. Come along, if you are free.

It starts at 5 pm in the Dove Theatre at Kristin School (cnr of Rosedale Road and 360 Albany Highway), Albany.

The meeting will hear from mayoral candidates, Albany ward candidates and Upper Harbour board candidates.

Mayor Williams has been talking it up on my Facebook page:

Well, well, well. What happened to Cameron Slater tonight at the Albany Candidates meeting at Paremoremo village? He was a no show. Didn’t turn up. Maybe being that close to a prison was a bit too scarey for Slater, being a convicted criminal as he is now. Or perhaps his WINZ benefit doesn’t stretch as far as petrol al…l the way from Howick to Paremoremo. Maybe he’ll have enough money for petrol to come to Albany tomorrow night. But then again???

Actually the answer quite simply was that Cameron wasn’t invited to speak at the Paremoremo meeting.

Incidentally I checked the timing, and looks like the Facebook post was made just after midnight – the traditional time for e-mails and texts from the Mayor – and now Facebook posts.

TV3 report:

John Key is accusing Labour of lying in advertising material it’s sending out ahead of next week’s GST increase of 12.5 percent to 15 percent.

Labour leader Phil Goff says he stands by the flyers, which claims National is adding 15 percent GST to all power, phone, rates and food bills.

Pretty clear they are lying.

Chris Wright thought something was wrong when a Labour Party pamphlet turned up in his letterbox, and he was right to question it.

“It’s just wrong, they’ve just added 15 percent to everything and that’s what GST is going to be. And that’s not the case, no I thought it was going up 2.5 percent,” says Mr Wright.

The pamphlet sent out by Labour MPs highlights the increase in GST next week.

But instead of saying it’s going up 2.5 percent it adds what it calls National’s 15 percent GST rate to all power, phone, food, rates and car bills.

“It says National 15 percent as though National has just added 15 percent,” says Mr Wright.

But Mr Wright was further confused when he rang Labour’s head office – he says the woman there told him, yes 15 percent is being added to the current 12.5 percent.

“She told me GST was going up 15 percent and I said ‘does that mean it is going to be 27.5 percent’ she said ‘yes’,” he says.

I guess merely telling the truth that the GST increase will push prices up by 2.2% doesn’t scare enough people.

In one of the examples Labour starts with a GST exclusive $189.34 power bill and adds National’s 15 percent of $28.40. The power bill becomes $217.74.

But Labour should have started with a $212 power bill including the 12.5 percent GST that Labour introduced.

National’s 2.5 percent increase actually amounts to $5.74, not $28.40.

Prime Minister John Key is accusing Labour of lying.

“Labour is using taxpayers money to get these lies out into the public domain,” he says.

National, or someone, should complain to the Advertising Standards Authority. I’d say it was an open and shut case.

Mr Goff says it is not his problem.

“National has increased it to 15 percent; therefore it’s National’s 15 percent.”

Do you really want Labour back in Government with this attitude?

The equivalent would be Labour putting income tax up from say 19% to 21%, and National putting out pamphlets that tell you that your take home pay is going to drop by 21% because of Labour.

It is so fundamentally dishonest, that it really i indefensible.

One senior Labour MP told 3 News the brochure is technically correct but he accepted it was a bit “exuberant” in places.

Just like the 2005 pamphlet claiming National will evict state house tenants if elected.

Clare Curran blogs:

Do you want to contribute to Labour’s policy on open and transparent government?

Following the public event on OpenLabourNZ at the end of August a draft policy on open and transparent government is now available for comment.

If you would like to have a look at the draft policy it is now up on the wiki here.

You have until the beginning of October to comment on it. Your input and thoughts are welcome and important.

Labour will then have their conference in October, where their policy will be considered at a workshop, and hopefully work their way into the manifesto.

If you have a genuine desire to improve their policy, go to the wiki and suggest enhancements.

Some of the ideas which I hope make it into policy are:

• Open Parliament to the OIA within limits
• An OIA website with automatic release level
• Publish agenda of Ministerial meetings along with papers
• Public sector data and information should be seen as a “national resource” and be released free of charge as a matter of course with exceedingly rare exceptions
• All research done by ministries and their advice to the minister should be put on the internet in an easily searchable database
• All payments (and receipts) of Government should be available for scrutiny
• Create policies and guidelines to allow public servants to use social media
• That Parliamentary proceedings such as Select Committees be broadcast over the internet and television
• To help engage citizens, let’s run a contest. Let’s get MAF (or Landcare or both) to release four datasets and we’ll run a contest for the best mashup using the data. “Best” means “has the most value for NZ citizens.” The winner must be a Kiwi, and wins one hour of face-time with the minister of MAF.

To some degree this is the easy part. The challenge will be getting the party to formally commit to doing some of these as part of their manifesto.

For me that is a win-win. If Labour wins, then at least they will have some policies I approve of. And if they adopt some of these policies, it may encourage National in that direction also.

I am not a fan of Glenn Beck. I do like many of the Fox News presenters (long live Hannity), but Beck is just too over the top with the language he uses against the Obama Government, and holding them responsible for everything bad.

It occurred to me, that we now have our online equivalent in New Zealand of Glenn Beck. This goes to No Right Turn for declaring the Government is a Cabinet of murderers for not lowering the blood alcohol limit for driving. He even states:

So, Cabinet decided to kill 66 people and pay more than $500 million so the liquor industry could continue to make money. They’re murderers, nothing more.

This is extremism that goes beyond even the Glenn Becks of this world.

I guess by NRT’s logic, the last Labour Government decided to kill around 300 people by also not lowering the limit.

The Dom Post reports:

Lawyers for New Zealand’s only member of Parliament to be prosecuted for bribery and corruption, Taito Phillip Field, have begun his appeal against conviction.

Field, who turns 58 on Sunday, is serving a six years jail term for bribery and corruption, and obstructing justice. …

Ms Cull said that what Field was accused of was not bribery, which she defined as receiving a benefit to influence the behaviour of an official in office.

Field had done nothing that was illegal in helping with the immigration cases of the Thai tradesman who worked at various properties field owned, she said.

At best he received gratuities, which was not an offence.

Field is entitled to an appeal.

The arguments put forward by his lawyer are seemingly shared by the Labour Party, as they went out of their way to never say they accept their colleague was corrupt – the only statement they made was they “acknowledge” the verdict.

Who knows – if Field wins his appeal, he may still be in time to get a list nomination for them.