0 Tweet of the Day - 9 July 2014

Here's a turn-up for the books. Either Grant Robertson has stood aside ( and we have no reason to suspect he has), or Labour is planning to stand two candidates against each other in Wellington Central:

The lower image comes directly from the Labour Party website - the one with the Vote Positive branding. But how do you Vote Positive when you have to choose between two candidates in the same electorate. People may just as well vote for National's Paul Foster-Bell!

Labour is making so many cock-ups with its digital and social media proclamations that keeping up with them all is becoming very time-consuming. We might have to start charging for our proof-reading time, and as a nod to our Scottish heritage, Labour should be warned that we charge like a wounded bull.

But it really is a worry that a party that wants to govern New Zealand in just over a couple of months time is making so many basic errors and displaying such ineptitude. It certainly doesn't fill the floating voter with confidence.

0 Quote of the Day - 21 June 2014

Whilst this entire Dominion-Post column from Duncan Garner is well worth a read, the opening in particular stood out. The piece is headed Don't follow the leader: Cunliffe's demise will be Granted and Garner opines:

Labour ditched former leader David Shearer because he struggled to string two sentences together on a good day. So surely it couldn't have got any worse, right? Wrong.
It's a train wreck under David Cunliffe and Labour's MPs are grumpy, nervous and wondering what they may be doing for a crust after September 20. The prospect of losing your job and the $150,000 salary always focuses the mind.
This week Labour slumped to 23 per cent in Fairfax's stuff/Ipsos poll - under Shearer it was in the low 30s when he was dumped.
Cunliffe has taken the party backwards when he promised to take it forward. Could Labour be on track to record its worst-ever election defeat? Yes.
When Cunliffe utters a word or two these days the collective intake of breath among his MPs is simply frightening.
He's had a host of gaffes this year - and the best he's looked was when he shut up and stood in the background while his wife, Karen Price, talked about the birds (chickens) and the bees in an interview at their home.
Cunliffe was parachuted into the job of leader, not because his MPs really wanted him - most dislike him - but because Labour Party members and union affiliates were desperate for someone to articulate their values.
To say he's been a disappointment is an understatement. After this week's horrors he looks unelectable as the next prime minister. He's genuinely gone from bad to worse. 

Garner certainly hasn't pulled any punches in his op-ed this morning. And we don't imagine that David Cunliffe will have felt any particular fondness towards the RadioLive host and former 3News political editor as he read the piece this morning over his bircher meusli with honey (freshly gathered) and trim latte at his Herne Bay "mid-range do-up".

We do suggest that you read the whole piece, which ends by suggesting that Grant Robertson could roll David Cunliffe right now, but that he and Jacinda Ardern will wait until after the election. Whilst Robertson's lack of action now very likely condemns Labour to a third term in opposition, you can hardly blame him.

0 Smith on Mr Cunliffe's tales of woe

Mike Smith was general secretary of the Labour Party up until mid-2010. You don't get to be much more of a party insider than that. He now blogs from time to time at The Standard.

And in his most recent post, he is scathing about Labour's message. Under the headline Communication upgrade needed Smith opines:

David Cunliffe badly needs a new stump speech. On Thursday in Whanganui I heard him depress a large and sympathetic audience for ten minutes with tales of national woe, then promise a positive campaign but give no details. It is good to know that a positive campaign is proposed. Labour has promised an economic upgrade; it also needs a communications upgrade, and besides being positive it must be relevant. That could shift the polls.
The policy bones are all there – they’re just not connected in a narrative that relates to voters. Because they are not connected they can’t be repeated, so too much communication is undisciplined and unfocussed, as we saw last week from several players. Focussed and disciplined communications are necessary for voters to have a clear idea of what is on offer, how it relates to them, and why Labour’s alternative is best for them and for the country.

Now far be it from us to give the Labour Party advice, but Mike Smith is dead right. We were invited to Hamish McDouall's campaign opening, the speech referred to above; we're Facebook friends with Mr McDouall, and he invited us all! We chose not to go, but from what we've heard from a couple of people who did (both of whom lean to the Left), Smith's description of Cunliffe's performance is accurate.

Now sure; one of the key functions of the Opposition is to oppose. But Labour has now spent almost six years in opposition, and as of this moment is failing to present itself as a credible alternative to the John Key-led Government.Three months and nine days out from the General Election, Labour is running out of time.

And Smith makes it clear that this problem is not confined to David Cunliffe and his caucus; here's how his piece concludes:

Too much of Labour’s communication has been relentlessly negative, coming from what appears to be a pervasive view that “the purpose of opposition is opposition.” That’s fine if your purpose is to stay in opposition; my view is that the purpose of opposition is to get into government as soon as possible. To do that people have to know what is on offer, have a sense of hope and purpose, and that can’t be done with a negative approach.
Finally if Labour is going to run a positive campaign, the its media unit needs to get with the programme. We’ve been getting their feed for several years, and endless series of negative or critical straplines is very off-putting. They also all follow a similar pattern; gripe followed (sometimes) by alternative. I suspect many of them by now don’t even get opened.
Hopefully David Cunliffe will kick-start Labour’s positive campaign tomorrow today in Christchurch. I can’t wait.

Now we saw this piece on Monday, but other commitments have prevented us getting to it this morning. Sadly for Mr Cunliffe, gallons of cold water have already been poured on his Earthquake Courts idea. When Christchurch lawyers start saying there's no need for it, you'd have to wonder who was telling Mr Cunliffe this was a game-changing.


Footnote: Someone should tell Jacinda Ardern to focus on the things that matter too...
 

0 Dirty deals

Just in case Labour and the Greens are trying to claim the moral high ground over coat-tailing and dirty deals, here's a reminder that both parties have form:

Probably the worst aspect of this video, sent to us by e-mail today, is Green MP Denise Roche's porkie when asked if she had advised people to vote strategically. The camera and the audio, which came from 3News' The Nation does not lie.

Let's also not forget that when a referendum was held alongside the 2011 General Election, both parties fought hard for the retention of MMP. Now you know why.

0 Finlayson on "financial illiteracy"

Jacinda Ardern is widely regarded as a future leader of the Labour Party. But she's been sent back to school by Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Christopher Finlayson.

Ms Ardern has been critical of apparent reductions in arts funding in the Budget, and has repeated her criticisms despite them having been proved to be false. So Finlayson sent out a very terse presser yesterday; here 'tis:

Christopher Finlayson

23 May, 2014

Labour once again shows its financial illiteracy

Jacinda Ardern has yet again shown why New Zealanders do not trust the Labour Party even to read a Budget correctly, let alone write one, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Christopher Finlayson said today.
Ms Ardern has made numerous incorrect statements about arts funding in Budget 2014, despite these errors being repeatedly pointed out in Parliament and online.
“The supposed ‘cut’ to public broadcasting claimed by Ms Ardern reflects the fact that last year $4.5 million was spent on the Going Digital project, helping the switch over to digital television,” Mr Finlayson said. “That spending is not in the budget this year, because, well, we have Gone Digital.”
“We have in fact allocated extra funding within public broadcasting on new projects, including the maintenance of the TVNZ archives.”
“There is no reduction in heritage spending, as she has claimed. What may have confused Ms Ardern is that heritage now appears in two appropriations, one of which is earmarked for World War One centenary commemorations, a key heritage project. The total is slightly higher than last year.”
“In future, perhaps she should read further down the page before firing off indignant press releases.”

Mr Finlayson is regarded as one of Parliament's best debaters. He also writes a pretty good presser. And he goes on to remind those receiving his media release that Labour is vulnerable over another arts issue; the film industry:

“Funding for regional museums has been maintained throughout the two terms of this government, and remains at its baseline funding of $6.67 million per year," Mr Finlayson said. "However, last year the appropriation was higher because unspent funds from the previous year had been carried over. This is spelled out in the Supplementary Estimates of Appropriations.”
"This government has revitalised the screen industry, a point she obscures. We saved the production of the Hobbit trilogy in New Zealand from the unions, and have ensured that not only will three Avatar sequels be filmed here but that the production will employ New Zealanders in key roles."
"This is quite aside from the important recent structural reform of the Arts Council and Heritage New Zealand (formerly the Historic Places Trust), which were ignored by the previous government."

Readers will remember Labour being labelled Hobbit-haters; a reference they fully deserve. In siding with the trade unions representing actors, Labour was complicit in the making of the movies almost not happening in New Zealand.

Readers may also remember the hypocrisy that followed, best illustrated in this photograph of Grant Robertson and Ms Ardern basking in the glory of a walk along the red carpet at the Hobbit premiere in Wellington.

Hobbit-hating is bad enough. Repeatedly making accusations that arts funding has been cut when it hasn't, and when the accuser has repeatedly been told she is wrong is even worse. Mr Finlayson has a final word for Jacinda Ardern:

"National politics is not high school,” Mr Finlayson said. “Jacinda Ardern shouldn't think professing to care about the arts means she can opt out of  maths."

Quite so Mr Finlayson. Maybe the Labour Party needs to admit another mistake, and get back the Treasury assignee to scrutinise their media statements and policies, and to help Labour MP's to understand the Budget. There have been so many gaffes from Labour this year alone that any numbers or dollar figures that the party presents must be taken with a truckload of salt.

Jacinda Ardern is clearly an advocate for the old adage to never let the facts get in the way of a good story. She will have to do better than this is her early promise is to be realised.

0 Cash for access?

The Botany branch of the Labour Party held a fundraiser over the weekend at the Lucky Fortune restaurant.

Interestingly, after all the protestations this week about "cash for access" and dodgy fundraising dinners for wealthy Asian guests, a number of senior Labour MP's attended, as you will see in the photographs below.

David Cunliffe, David Parker, Phil Goff and Jacinda Ardern; the former Labour leader, the current leader and deputy and the woman tipped to be the next Helen Clark were all in attendance at a dinner which by Botany Labour's own admission had the purpose of raising money for the party. We don't know how much it cost, or how much was raised, but that's largely irrelevant.

We need your help here; we can't decide whether the decision by those MP's named above to attend a cash-for-access dinner whilst they are protesting about National's alleged cash-for-access dinners is:

• appalling judgement by Ms Ardern and Messrs Cunliffe, Parker and Goff, or
• absolute arrogance, or
• complete and utter hypocrisy

It may in fact be all three, but you're welcome to leave a comment and indicate your preference. In the meantime though, the true agenda continues to emerge.

At 9am, we heard David Cunliffe say on Newstalk ZB's news that "it's time to have a conversation" about taxpayer funding for political parties. Might the reason for wanting to have that conversation be because donations to the Labour Party have all but dried up since Mr Cunliffe was elected as leader?

Make no mistake Dear Readers; rather than going out and raising money the traditional way, Labour and the Greens want to pick your pocket - again. And we don't know about you, but we can think of plenty of things we'd rather our hard-earned tax dollar was spent on than politicians; especially when David Cunliffe is promising to tax the bejesus out of those who dare to earn reasonable coin if he ever becomes Prime Minister.

0 The Winners & Losers Caption Contest

Things have been pretty tense for the last few days. So let's lighten up for an hour or two.

David Cunliffe has reshuffled his caucus today, and as with any reshuffle, there have been winners and losers. First elected in 1984, Trevor Mallard would appear to the the new hope of the Labour Party, rocketing up from being in the bottom eight unranked MP's (of a caucus of 34) to #15. On the other hand, Chris Hipkins, who has been one of Labour's best performers slips off the front bench to #10 to allow the almost anonymous Nanaia Mahuta to rejoin the front bench.

The Herald story on the reshuffle was accompanied by this photograph:

We're not sure why Kieran McAnulty was present. Perhaps, as a TAB bookie, he was setting the odds on the winners and losers. But we digress; you know the rules; keep 'em short, humourous, pithy and relevant, and don't get unnecessarily personal. Beyond that, you are limited only by your own imagination.

The floor is yours...

0 Easter good news #3

There was far too much good news at the end of this week for it all to be crammed into one post. And this presser from Social Development Minister Paula Bennett brings very good news indeed:

15,000 fewer people dependent on benefits

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says the latest benefit figures showing a five year low confirm New Zealand welfare numbers are back to where they were pre-global recession.
Benefit numbers have dropped five percent or nearly 15,000 to 295,320 in the past year (March 2013 – March 2014).  This has resulted in 17,700 fewer children living in beneficiary households compared to March last year and a whopping 29,500 children fewer than two years ago.
“Beneficiary numbers have fallen to the lowest level since March 2009.  When the Government took office in late 2008, the global financial crisis was already beginning to bite with benefit numbers increasing in the three quarters prior to and including the election,” says Mrs Bennett.

This is excellent news, especially the news that there are nearly 30,000 fewer children living in benefit-dependent households. There is plenty of research that shows that outcomes for children improve where one or both of their parents is in paid employment.

There has also been a significant drop in the numbers of teenaged beneficiaries; read on:

“The big success is the 10 per cent drop in sole parents and their children coming off Sole Parent Support. 
“More than 8,600 sole parents have come off Sole Parent Support in the past 12 months, making up almost 60 per cent of the total reduction.
“Particularly pleasing is the 13.4 per cent decrease in young parents aged 18 on Young Parent Payments.  We know that going on a benefit as teenager with children puts that person and their kids at huge risk of becoming trapped in welfare dependency. 
“In fact 70 per cent of the country’s future liability welfare bill can be attributed to people who first went on benefit in their teens.
“The reductions we’re now seeing will mean fewer people on benefit in the years to come.  We have more young people getting education and training through our Youth Service support which means we’re going to see healthier, more prosperous households,” says Mrs Bennett.

This too is excellent and welcome news. And further decreases in the number of people dependent on the state for support are likely as employment growth continues.

Paula Bennett's appointment as Minister of Social Development in 2008 raised eyebrows. But she has proved to be a formidable Minister, seeing off Annette King and Jacinda Ardern. Her latest opponent, Sue Moroney has yet to land a glove on Ms Bennett.

And Paula Bennett notes one final statistic:

 

“Post peak recession in March 2010, beneficiaries made up 12 per cent of the working age population.  This has dropped to 10.6 per cent as at the end of March. 
“This Government is putting more money than ever before into the welfare system.  We are supporting people earlier, being clearer in our job expectations and putting more focus on at-risk teens.  All of this is making a significant difference.
“Only a few weeks ago New Zealand was judged the best country in the world to live in – our latest welfare figures show things are just getting better,” says Mrs Bennett.

We congratulate Paula Bennett and National's Social Development team (which includes our local MP Chester Borrows) on a job well done. We look forward to that percentage of working age beneficiaries dropping into single figures in the near future.