The scandals that hang around John Key's neck

John Key's cabinet has been the most scandal ridden in recent political history

The writing is definitely on the wall for the Key owned National Party. The list of disgraced MPs and forced resignations from the Cabinet from this administration is the worst in recent political history.
From Richard Worth, Pansy Wong, Nick Smith, Phillip Heatley, John Banks, Hekia Parata, Judith Collins and, now, Maurice Williamson the scandals are clear demonstrations of John Key's inability to act as a responsible and ethical PM. The questionable behaviour by the rank and file MPs like Garrett (ACT) and Aaron Gilmore add more to the public concern about the National-ACT government.
In the light of these scandals it should become obvious, even to the usually deaf John Key, that Judith Collins is, like so many of his cabinet, a liability not just to the National Party but to the reputation of the country and as such she must go and go quickly. (When Fran O'Sullivan, who usually shills loudly for the Key owned National Party, declares that Collins is a liability to the National Party & Government then one knows that the skids are truly under the PR created government of John "Smile, wave, scuttle and run" Key.
Despite Bill English's protestations at this weekend's National Party regiona conference it would be hard to find anyone who would believe in the competence of Key or his corporate crony hugging ministers especially as rumours of discontent, fueled by National blogger, Matthew Hooton, with Key within the National Party have begun to swirl in the blogosphere.
The disarray and sense of panicked lack of direction in the National Party was in clear evidence in the Judith Collins- John Key linked blogger's attempts to muddy the waters around the scandal of Maurice Williamson's ties with the $22000 Chinese donor to the National Party and, after being told that her complaint to TVNZ about the reporting of her Oravida dealings had been rejected
(Television New Zealand's rejection of a complaint from Justice Minister Judith Collins is another blow to the Justice Minister's battle with the media.
The complaint relates to a TVNZ Press Gallery report on One News in March, looking at revelations in Parliament about Oravida, but the state broadcaster has rejected her complaint following an investigation.
TVNZ declined to spell out the findings of its investigations, or the date of the rejection letter.
But it has been confirmed the minister was told well before her altercation in the weekend, when she accused TVNZ political journalist Katie Bradford of seeking intervention in a personal matter in 2010.), Collins' own vicious outburst attacking a TVNZ journalist by name followed up by trying to accuse the NZ First Deputy Leader of actions similar to that engaged in by Williamson and the messages of impending defeat on September 20th delivered by English at the Waipuna Lodge this weekend may have been supported by the substantial earthquake in Wellington which would have shaken Key's belief that he is truly a national treasure.

National Party Shaken, Stirred and Split.

The disaster ridden government of John, PinoKeyo, Key is reeling as another Cabinet Minister is enveloped in scandal.

Ever since Key became PM his cabinet has been known for scandal and questionable behaviour. From Key's dealings with Sky-City and Warner Bros to Richard Worth's forced resignation and Pansy Wong's disappearance from Botany to Phillip Heatley's credit card slips  and John Banks' donation slip ups through to Judith Collins and her Oravida connections with the associated large donations to the Key led National Party the Key administration has always looked to be one that was prone to act without due regard for the requirements of the Cabinet Manual and the behaviour expected by the voting public.

The National Party caucus has also been consumed by the closetted struggle for power and post Key leadership being fought out by Joyce and Collins which, up until Collins spoilt her chances with her arrogant denials of meeting and dealing with the Chinese Oravida company, had been kept out of scrutiny by the media.

It is, therefore, not surprising that so far 14 of Key's MPs have deserted the ship and headed for safer ground outside of politics.

We can, though, expect more to scuttle and run as the fall out from the latest scandal to spill out of the Key appointed cabinet hits the news media.

The scandal and fall out from Maurice Williamson's  involvement with Chinese businessman and National Party donor, Donghua Liu is yet another example of Key's bad judgement and ability to manage his party let alone the country. Key, if he was anyway responsible as a PM,  should demand that Williamson, along with Collins, offer their resignations and depart from politics and government.

Unfortunately for NZ John Key is seriously lacking in ethical leadership which should mean that, unless Williamson displays a sense of honour, all that will happen is a wet bus ticket slap and a smug "I'm reluxed about it" grin from Key as he smiles, waves, scuttles and runs. The usual strategy he has when the going gets tough... there is, thinks John, nothing like a quiet game of golf with a wealthy foreign donor to the National Party to calm the nerves.

Updated: 11.15 am: Maurice Williamson displays a sense of honour and resigns as Minister, leaving John Key to respond in his usual limp manner as he reels as his cabinet collapses around him.

 Here is the Taranaki report on Key's announcement:
Prime Minister John Key today announced he has accepted the resignation of Williamson as a minister.
"I have been made aware that Mr Williamson contacted police some time ago regarding their investigation of Mr Donghua Liu," Key said.
"Mr Williamson has assured me that he did not in any way intend to influence the Police investigation.
"However, Mr Williamson's decision to discuss the investigation with Police was a significant error of judgement.

One now must wonder why, if Key is "showing strength" in accepting Williamson's resignation as a Minister why he hasn't shown the same "strength of leadership" with his other scandal ridden Minister, Judith Collins? Is the decision made based on the number of golf games paid for plus the amount of donations received from wealthy cronies?

As the Herald editorial says: "The number of such incidents involving members of the Key administration has reached a concerning level. It seems almost as though the Cabinet Manual is an irrelevance unless media disclosure is guaranteed. How much of this behaviour is never revealed, hidden away tidily through "no surprises" - the insistence that bureaucrats warn politicians in advance of potentially embarrassing publicity?"

It is now up to the Herald and the other MSM to dig deeper into the Key administration and its willingness to take large donations from its wealthy mates in return for "making back room deals" in favour of the donors and reveal how naked the "emperor" really is when it comes to running a political party, running a Cabinet and running a government.  
Duncan Garner appears to be leading the charge with this RadioLive blog while Fran O'Sullivan, who is best known for her glowing reportage of the Key govt, made this very telling comment in her opinionista piece in the Herald:

Williamson - like too many of our senior politicians including Justice Minister Judith Collins with her pandering to Oravida's principals while she was supposed be in China carrying out her Justice portfolio duties - have been beguiled by relationships with "important foreign investors".
They should come down to earth.
The investors - like Liu and Stone Shi who has arguably had more ministerial attention than other NZ investors in the wake of the botulism scare - should not be treated differently to ordinary New Zealand citizens.
New Zealand's reputation will be damaged if they don't wake up soon.

Unfortunately for New Zealand our reputation has already been damaged - and that damage can be sheeted home to the Crosby-Textor created Prime Minister - John Key and his appointed cabinet.

The scrutiny that should follow from this major scandal should provide the voting public with even more evidence that the present government must fold its tent and depart in the ignomny it deserves.

The Key scandals begin to roost

The scandals that have swirled around the Key led National Govt since 2008 are flocking in to roost as Key announces the election date.
For too long Key has operated as this cartoon illustrates:

Key attempts to distract the voters from real issues.

Since the Pansy Wong and Richard Worth resignations, the bus ticket flaps at Double-Dipton English, Heatley, Banks, Dunne, Smith and others NZ has witnessed Key manipulating the truth a gross of times.
Now the scandals that have flowed from the Sky City deals, the Warner Bros sell out, Welfare payuts to Rio Tinto and other cash for favours deals we see an arrogant Cabinet minister declare her self innocent of serious conflicts of interest in her dealings with a company her husband is heavily involved in.
The inability of John Key to act and severely discipline his out of control minister demonstrates to the nation that he is, behind the carefully PR crafted image, a weak, ineffective and ethically challenged Prime Minister and figure head leader of the once proudly honourable National Party.

It is obvious that there are serious problems and conflicts crawling from the closets of the Key cabinet as the previously concealed leadership struggles, held in check until Key officially told them that his boredom (The Bellman reckons that unofficially Key has been canvassing his desire to quit NZ politics among his associates as he has ticked off his bucket list of things to do as leader of the National Party. This quotation from John Armstrong's Herald opinionista piece amply illustrates this rumour:
However, there is an eerie feeling that the current circumstances are about as propitious as things can get for National, yet the party is by no means guaranteed victory on September 20.
The onus is thus on Cabinet ministers and MPs to hold the line until polling day by projecting an image of competence and confidence while ensuring as much as possible that this picture is not clouded by foul-ups or embarrassments.
National MPs will be asking why Collins failed to see how her actions were compromising this strategy - and whether, for all her undoubted strengths, there are some previously hidden flaws in her character which have now put her leadership credentials in serious question.
This is not an academic matter. Key made it very clear this week that should he lose the September election, he will not be hanging around Parliament for very long afterwards.) with the position had reached its limit, within the National Party break for open ground.

Botany MP Caught OUT??

How much credibilty does Pansy Have?
The answer: NONE.
Earlier in November,Pansy Wong assured the Principal of Howick College that the much vaunted "National Standards" testing had gone even before lunchtime. It appears that Ms Wong was somewhat economical with the truth or else she, as a cabinet minister, was considerably out of the policy loop, which doesn't say a lot about her influence, or that she was following the party mantra of simply tailoring her response to the Principal to suit the political circumstance.

Whichever way it was it appears that she deliberately misled a large group of her constituents following the Howick College Senior Honours Ceremony as Mr Slippery has announced the decision to ram through the "National Standards" testing inside the first 100 days.

Either Pansy comes clean and publically apologises to the Principal, staff and parents of Howick College for deliberately misleading them or she admits that she is an ineffective and purely token member of the cabinet and remains silent on the issue.

Perhaps, more honorably, she should speak and voteagainst a piece of legislation she obviously disagrees with. Now, wouldn't THAT be a change?

Cabinet Appointees -stable or not ? a Key question.

The National cabinet has been appointed in the manner befitting an autocrat. Key has appointed a group of courtiers who, in the manner of the Fairy Tale Emporer, will, on seeing his new clothes, inform him that they are a perfect fit even though all other observers can recognise the imperfections, the fakery and appeal to vanity that is the reality of those clothes. The new cabinet will soon find that their appeal, as acolytes, will soon fade both for Key and the real politic in the electorates as , very soon, the repeated blanishments of empty praise pall for both the appointer and the wider audience.
In an earlier blog I pointed out that Key had been, folowing the advice of Crosby-Textor, dressing himself in clothing borrowed from greater men in preparation for the election campaign and that the imagery behind these borrowed vestments would be exploited for the duration of the campaign and the first symbolic 100 days of power.
After this Key would initially keep wearing the clothes but, like the Anderson's emporer, slowly cast them aside until someone (Maurice Williamson perhaps?) cries ot that "There are no real clothes being worn" and the demands for Key and the party he represents dress in the manner to which they are accustomed.
At present Key has surrounded himself with those, like him, who wear the election campaign image. Their tenure and security will remain until the demand from the Party's traditional constituency to return to their philosophic basics reveals his fundamental insincerity and philosophic shallowness.
Cracks in te artifical gloss on this cabinet are already apparent for those, unlike the Herald reporters, look in depth at the blogs and research sources.
Here, for instance is Paula Bennett, Minister for Social Welfare, on the National Party during her student days:

"Newly elected National Party MP of Waitakere has been found out about her past days as a National Party bagger. Using her pseudonym Paula Poo she lambasted the National Party for cutting Education and increasing student fees , these comments made when Paula was President of the Massey University Student Association;

"Fees suck and fee increases just piss me off. Damn the Nat's who bring cuts to our education system, make us pay for them out of student loans that will take many people decades to pay off. In my own case, I will probably still be paying off my student loan when my daughter gets to university age; her future looks promising!"
When urging her fellow university students to make their vote count she said ... "don't vote for f**k wits."
Reconciling these views of her favoured political party with her present reality will take a lot of doing ... unless, of course, she is locked into the groove of praising new clothes.

Another crack in Key's reality comes from Pansy Wong who informed the Principal of Howick College, after he had made a speech to the school prize giving ceremony calling for the policy to be abandoned, that the much trumpeted testing against "national" standards had been swept from the table even before the lunchtime bell had been rung despite her local colleague and cabinet minister (outside the room) Maurice Williamson telling the Eastern Courier that the policy still stood.

There has been a glimmer of analysis of the wisdom of Key's appointments appearing in the media, especially over the relationship with Rodney "Rheinfeld" Hide and his role as "Minister" of Local Government for it is in this area that the real agenda that lies beneath the "emporer's"new clothes will be revealed.

Once "Rheinfeld" Hide begins to cry "Master! Master! Help me!" to Nosferatu Douglas and John Key begins the return to the National Party's roots the electorate will see the dismantling of the image... watch out for slash & burn attacks on Kiwisaver, on welfare, the Cullen Fund and other areas of social expenditure with the excuse of " dire economic times" and the "international credit crisis" have forced the Government to back down on so many of the implied policies offered during the election campaign ... we will see how apposite Paula Bennett's earlier advice to the readers of her blog were.

Electorate Reporting

Roger Douglas explains his policies to an incredulous voter while campaigning for support for the ACT candidate in Botany.
A photo opportunity Mr. Tan missed while reporting for The Herald







In an earlier post I pointed out the ironies (Ironies on the Campaign Trail ) present at a meet the candidates meeting in the new electorate of Botany. There was a full muster of candidates present on the stage which seems to have escaped the notice of the Herald's intrepid reporter - Lincoln Tan whose report of the same meeting focused entirely on the more incoherent candidates on the platform - one Kenneth Wang who, like Pansy Wong seems to consider that the appellation "Asian" is synonymous with "Chinese". (Incidentally,in keeping with his political mentors Rodney and Roger, the only coherent aspect of Mr.Wang is his billboard)
Any observer, like Mr. Tan, should have noticed that the census data lumps Indians (regardless of origin) in as Asians so the simplistic analysis practised by the Wangs & Wongs in Botany presents a substantial miscalculation of their possible support base.
While on the subject of reporting One does wonder why, if Mrs Wong was so upset about the Wang message on his billboards, that she complained to the Electoral Commission; why the two candidates have taken to placing their billboards side by side like kissing cousins or why Mr Wang has not been forced to remove the Wong name from his boards? One must ask if the noise over the Wang boards wasn't just a ploy to get reporters, like Mr.Tan, to fall in love with them and constantly photograph them for lazy publication in the Herald or, more sinisterly, a real indication of the possible emergence of a Nightmare on Elm Street of Roger Douglas rising, like Nosferatu, from the political grave as National reaches to embrace its long term political lover and enter an unholy alliance in the the manner signalled by the Wang loves Wong Billboards??

Ironies on the Campaign Trail

Last night I went along to a "Meet the Candidates" presentation to hear and see those who would represent the electorate in Parliament. The evening was one of irony and Monty Pythonish humour.
First, there were three candidates who were immigrants to New Zealand - each proclaimed that they were here because they saw opportunities and possibilities for them by moving from their country of birth. The National and Act candidates, both Chinese born, then condemned New Zealanders for following their example and traveling overseas for experience, opportunity and gaining knowledge of other cultures and societies. One was left wondering why it was OK for them to emigrate, to travel overseas but for young New Zealanders to do the same is to be seen as betraying the country?
Second, there was a Kiwi Party candidate who supports the repeal of the law protecting children from violence in the home on the basis that this would stop parents being classed as criminals for chastising their children, sincerely advocating the use of the rattan, a la Singapore, as a deterrent to criminals while declaring that N.Z. shouldn't become a police state. Well, at least he was consistent even if confused about the nature of a police state.
Third, the ACT candidate called for deregulation of business so that they could flourish as businesses do in the deregulated environment of China as well as calling for the removal of bureaucrats who interfere with the free market practices of business while advocating the expenditure of $1 Billion to crack down on crime.
He seemed to forget that in the deregulated, free market of Chinese business where the bueaucracy didn't maintain checks on the business practices criminal behaviour was rife. A point well appreciated by Fonterra!!
Then, again, the ACT candidate argued for the removal of taxation to allow the individual to decide how best to spend their money but then failed to explain where the money would come from to pay for their $1 Billion Anti-crime policy as well as the provision of what education, justice, defence, infra structure maintenance....
He, too, didn't seem to appreciate that the policies he was calling for would create a police state in New Zealand even though he'd decided to emigrate here to escape such a police ridden state!
Then, the National candidate was prepared to defend Lockwood Smith as a credible politician when, apparently, the only value Lockwood would have placed in her would be her small hands.
Mind you she also declared that her esteemed leader was an responsible experienced manager of finances while glossing over, or conveniently forgetting, his role in the 1987-88 money trader speculation on the NZ dollar that almost caused a collapse of the NZ economy. Hardly the actions of a responsible New Zealander one would have thought but, then, as I stated it was a night filled with ironies.

National endorses Labour Candidate.

Today's Herald carries an interesting story about the new Botany Electorate where the marriage of the natural bedfellows Act and National is being heralded on billboards around the electorate.
Apparently National's candidate has threatened to throw the weight of the EFA, legislation they opposed on the grounds it would stop "free" speech, on the Act candidate because he has endorsed their candidate without consent.
This must be very pleasing for the Labour candidate especially as, in censuring the Act candidate, the National candidate appeared to endorse, in fact encourage Botany voters to vote for him when she is reported to have said: "Botany doesn't want more Chinese MPs as the electorate is multi-ethnic and voters will vote on the strength and commitment of candidates...." Obviously National would rather have their Botany candidate returned from the list and Botany return an indigenous MP to represent the seat more equitably across all the ethnicities within the electorate.