0 Diplomatic name suppression lifted

We were sent a link this morning which identified the diplomat who invoked diplomatic immunity and fled New Zealand after an alleged sexual assault. Unlike some, including Labour Party MP Clare Curran, we did not share the link because there was a court-ordered suppression order in force.

However this afternoon, a Wellington District Court Judge has lifted the suppression order, and the diplomat's identity and nationality are now known; the Herald reports:

The diplomat at the centre of an alleged sexual assault case can now be named after media organisations challenged a judge's decision to grant permanent name suppression.
He is Mohammed Rizalman Bin Ismail and worked at the Malaysian High Commission in Wellington.
Ismail, who claimed diplomatic immunity, could not initially be identified because of a suppression order imposed by a Wellington District Court judge on May 30.
However, Malaysian media were now reporting the case, and its Foreign Affairs Ministry planned to hold a press conference about it today.
An urgent hearing to overturn the suppression ruling was held in the High Court at Wellington today, where the name suppression was overturned.
Media organisations, including the New Zealand Herald, challenged the decision to grant name suppression.
Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully earlier said the Solicitor-General had advised the Government abide by the suppression ruling while it was in place.
"I can't see any good public policy reason why you'd want to protect someone from publicity given there won't be a trial."
Ismail, in his 30s, left the country after being charged by Wellington police with burglary and assault with intent to rape.
He had followed a 21-year-old woman to her Brooklyn home on May 9 when the alleged assault occurred.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs formally asked for Malaysia to waive diplomatic immunity, but it declined.

It is unfortunate that the Malaysian Foreign Affairs Ministry would not waive diplomatic immunity in Ishmail's case. He has been charged with serious criminal offences in New Zealand, and ought to have faced charges here. However as a signatory to the Vienna Convention, New Zealand authorities had to accept Malaysia's decision.

It is to be hoped that Ishmail will face sanctions in his home country which would be as severe as those likely to be imposed by a New Zealand court. No one, as John Banks discovered recently, is above the law. The Malaysian Government will be making a statement in the next couple of hours, and it will be interesting to hear what action they plan to take.

0 UPDATED - The Labour list

UPDATED: The Herald reports:

No newcomers are likely to make it into Parliament on Labour's new list unless the party polls almost 32 per cent in September.
After delaying the announcement due to the ongoing controversy around donations from Donghua Liu, Labour released the list this afternoon.
The list has ensured that - assuming sitting electorate MPs ranked above them retain their seats - four of the first six MPs likely to get in on the list are women, which will meet the new requirement to have a caucus with at least 45 per cent women after the 2014 election.
They are Jacinda Ardern who is at no.5, Sue Moroney at no. 10, Maryan Street at no. 15, and Moana Mackey who is at no. 17.
However the first newcomer on the list Ministry of Women's Affairs policy analyst Priyanka Radhakrishnan at 23 won't come in unless the party polls 31.67 per cent or more.

The outlook is rather stormy for former TVNZ weatherman Tamati Coffey. He would probably need Labour to get around 34% of the party vote if he cannot win the Rotorua seat.

 ****************************************

The Labour Party has finally released its list after several false starts over the last two days; Stuff reports:

Policy analyst Priyanca Radhakrishnan, small business owner Rachel Jones from Tauranga and former TVNZ presenter Tamati Coffey are the top ranked non-MPs in Labour's list released today.
Five sitting MPs Ruth Dyson, Kris Faafoi, Clare Curran, Trevor Mallard and Rino Tirikatene have opted off the list as has Napier candidate Stuart Nash.
Radhakrishnan, is ranked 23, Jones 25 and Coffey, who is standing in Rotorua, is at 30.
As expected leader David Cunliffe and his deputy take out the top two slots, followed by Grant Robertson, Annette King, Jacinda Ardern and Nanaia Mahuta, who is the top-ranked Maori MP.
Maungakiekie candidate Carol Beaumont has slipped from 22 to 26.
Party president Moira Coatsworth said the list was ''an outstanding group of talented New Zealanders".
"The party's renewal and the number of skilled candidates meant that the biggest challenge was having to rank 64 people of such high calibre. We are excited by the skilled, experienced people we expect to join our Caucus team."
Cunliffe said he was delighted at the ''fantastic array of talented candidates''.
The list is made up of 30 men and 34 women.   A further 16 men and five women are standing only for electorates.
LABOUR LIST
1    David Cunliffe
2    David Parker
3    Grant Robertson
4    Annette King
5    Jacinda Ardern
6    Nanaia Mahuta
7    Phil Twyford
8    Clayton Cosgrove
9    Chris Hipkins
10    Sue Moroney
11    Andrew Little
12    Louisa Wall
13    David Shearer
14    Su'a William Sio
15    Maryan Street
16    Phil Goff
17    Moana Mackey
18    Kelvin Davis
19    Meka Whaitiri
20    Megan Woods
21    Raymond Huo
22    Damien O'Connor
23    Priyanca Radhakrishnan
24    Iain Lees-Galloway
25    Rachel Jones
26    David Clark
27    Carol Beaumont
28    Poto Williams
29    Carmel Sepuloni
30    Tamati Coffey
31    Jenny Salesa
32    Liz Craig
33    Deborah Russell
34    Willow-Jean Prime
35    Jerome Mika
36    Tony Milne
37    Virginia Andersen
38    Claire Szabo
39    Michael Wood
40    Arena Williams
41    Hamish McDouall
42    Anjum Rahman
43    Sunny Kaushal
44    Christine Greer
45    Penny Gaylor
46    Janette Walker
47    Richard Hills
48    Shanan Halbert
49    Anahila Suisuiki
50    Clare Wilson
51    James Dann
52    Kelly Ellis
53    Corie Haddock
54    Jamie Strange
55    Katie Paul
56    Steven Gibson
57    Chao-Fu Wu
58    Paul Grimshaw
59    Tracey Dorreen
60    Tofik Mamedov
61    Hikiera Toroa
62    Hugh Tyler
63    Susan Elliot
64    Simon Buckingham 

There are plenty of interesting features. Trevor Mallard and Clare Curran have gone electorate only, along with Ruth Dyson, Kris Faafoi and Rino Tirakatene. 

Although Trevor Mallard won Hutt South by 4825 votes last time around, that was against Paul Quinn. But Mallard will be worried that the party vote in Hutt South favoured National by nearly 2000 votes in 2011. He cannot take his electorate seat for granted, and newcomer Chris Bishop is, from all reports, going to mount a very strong challenge.

Likewise Clare Curran. She won her seat by over 4000 votes in 2011, but the the first time since MMP began, Labour lost the party vote in Dunedin South by almost 2000 votes.  She will have to campaign very hard against Dunedin born-and-educated Hamish Walker.

Interestingly though, a total of 21 electorate candidates are not ranked on the Labour list (16 men and 5 women). Given that some of them are likely to win their electorate seats, Labour's percentage of the party vote probably needs to get up around the 33% mark for the likes of Kelvin Davis, Moana Mackey, Raymond Huo and Carol Beaumont to get back, if they do not win their respective seats. And because of the Man-Ban, Damian O'Connor (#22) and Iain Lees-Galloway (24) will almost certainly have to win their seats to keep their jobs.

And of course, it'll get even tougher for Labour's men in 2017 when women MUST comprise 50% of caucus. We won't resile from our contention that ability is more important than gender. Labour's Man-Ban is going to haunt the party in the years ahead. 

0 Cunliffe tries to out-Winston Winston

David Cunliffe will slash immigrant numbers if Labour is elected in September; 3News reports:

Labour leader David Cunliffe has taken his hardest line yet against immigrants, blaming them for rising house prices.

It follows a 3 News-Reid Research poll which shows almost two-thirds of voters say immigration should be restricted.

"It would take 80 percent of our housing supply just to accommodate this year's migrants - and National is doing nothing," says Mr Cunliffe.

Mr Cunliffe is already copping a backlash from within Labour. DPF blogs about that here, including a tweet from a Labour Party activist who sought the Christchurch East nomination last year. And Twitter is full of disparaging comments today about Cunliffe's xenophobia. There are plenty of comparisons to Winston Peters, and none of them flatters David Cunliffe.

But wait, as they say on the infomercials, there's more. Check out this tweet from Patrick Gower:

Yes Dear Readers. One one hand and to one audience, David Cunliffe wants to slash the numbers of immigrants coming to New Zealand. But on the other hand, he's quite prepared to do a deal with a party formed by a convicted criminal, a immigrant facing extradition the the United States to face serious criminal charges, and a immigrant who has been shown to have some very unsavoury personal characteristics.

The writing should have been on the wall however. There has been no denial that Kim Dotcom helped to write Labour's ICT policy, and it is common knowledge that Labour's now-ICT Spokeswoman Clare Curran visited Dotcom's rental house in Coatesville at least twice.

We wonder how Helen Clark is feeling today. Under her leadership of Labour, the immigrant community was seem as Labour's, almost by right. A lot has changed in six years, and we look forward to hearing David Cunliffe take his "Sorry, you're not welcome" message to the Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Indian and other immigrant communities.

Perhaps David Cunliffe is angling for Winston Peters' job leading NZ First. But David First doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?

0 Darien Fenton retires; is Clare Curran next?

Labour list MP Darien Fenton will leave Parliament at the General Election. Whether she has retired or whether she is being retired is a moot point. But Ms Fenton joins fellow unranked (Labour's caucus is ranked down to #25 of 34) MP Rajen Prasad in heading for greener pastures.

Interestingly, we blogged a prediction of this in September last year, courtesy of Patrick Gower from 3News; check this out:

Paddy Gower also tipped the imminent demise of Clare Curran. Neither she nor Ms Fenton were Cunliffe loyalists, as evidenced by their low rankings within Labour's caucus. Will Clare Curran be next to be pensioned off?

And as a final irony, Darien Fenton came to Parliament after many years as the general secretary of the Service and Food Workers' Union. Isn't it ironic that Labour's 2012 rule change gave the unions the determining vote in Labour leadership contests, and Ms Fenton's political career has been ended by the bloke who the unions wanted to lead the Labour Party.

0 Taurima misused TVNZ funds, but wasn't biased

Shane Taurima is claiming to have been vindicated by the TVNZ investigation into its Maori and Pacific Programmes department. But he seems not to have read the whole report; under the heading
No bias, but Shane Taurima did misuse funds, review finds One News reports:

An independent review has found the former General Manager of TVNZ's Maori and Pacific Programmes department did misuse company resources for political activities with the Labour Party.
But the panel cleared Shane Taurima of any political bias in his interviews and the editorial content he produced for TVNZ programmes.
Mr Taurima resigned from his position following revelations he had participated in a Labour Party strategy meeting and had attended a fundraising meeting at TVNZ which involved the company's staff and resources.
The review panel found Mr Taurima failed to adequately disclose extensive party political activity during his final year with the company, after his unsuccessful bid for Labour's Ikaroa-Rawhiti candidacy in May 2013.
TVNZ's Chief Executive, Kevin Kenrick, says he accepts the findings of the review into the political activities of Mr Taurima and three other members of his staff while working at TVNZ.

David Cunliffe is refusing to comment on the report, saying it is a matter for the Labour Party's council to consider. We find that fascinating, given Mr Cunliffe's recent demands for everyone except himself to be transparent, and given the outrage that a number of Labour MP's have expressed, most recently Clare Curran, over a National candidate's link to the tobacco industry.

We could be cynical, and suggest that given Mr Cunliffe's desire for the taxpayer to fund political parties, Mr Taurima already has the inside running with his attitude to his employer's resources. But we'll resist the temptation to wander too far down that path.

It will be interesting to see whether this will nobble Taurima's bid to become Labour's Tamaki Makarau candidate. Personally, we believe that Labour ought not have a bar of anyone who has been found to have misused his employer's resources for political activity. Labour always has the option of sneaking Taurima in by the side door, via the party list.  

Interesting times await. But Shane Taurima is wrong to claim to have been vindicated by this report.