0 A flip-flop on the u-turn

You couldn't make stuff like this up; check out Gerry Brownlee's presser, via Scoop:

Hon Gerry Brownlee
Minister of Transport
17 July 2014 Media Statement

Another Labour U-turn on Puhoi to Wellsford – that’s a 360!

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee says Labour’s Northland list MP and candidate for Te Tai Tokerau, Kelvin Davis, must be alarmed at what a pernicious viper’s nest his party has become.
“Three days ago it seemed Labour had seen sense on the $1.38 billion Puhoi to Wellsford State Highway 1 upgrade, one of the Government’s seven Roads of National Significance,” Mr Brownlee says.
“Their transport spokesman Phil Twyford clearly told The New Zealand Herald Labour would no longer axe the road, merely postpone its construction.
“This was a huge change of heart from Labour, but a sensible one, as the road is supported wholeheartedly by every regional authority from Auckland to Cape Reinga, and the vast majority of the people who live in the far north.
“It was also a big boost for Mr Davis, who had bravely spoken out in favour of investing in greater resilience for Northland’s infrastructure following this week’s damaging storms.
“But 72 hours later Labour’s Auckland-centric powerbrokers have told their plucky upstart from the sticks to get back in his box.
“In an interview with Duncan Garner on Radio Live this afternoon Phil Twyford made it clear that when he says postponed, he means never – under Labour the roading lifeline to the north is a goner.
“The message for the people of Northland is clear: with $1.66 billion worth of roading projects already committed to the far north, the only major political party offering the sort of first-world infrastructure that will see you deliver on your abundant potential is the National Party,” Mr Brownlee says.

Apart from the good folk of points north of Puhoi, the big loser here is Kelvin Davis. Labour has just pulled the rug out from underneath Davis, almost guaranteeing that Hone Harawira will retain Te Tai Tokerau, and almost guaranteeing that MegaMana will be in the 51st Parliament. But the way that Labour is polling at the moment, Mr Davis may struggle to get in off Labour's list.

This flip-flop followed by a u-turn is a slap in the face for the people of Northland. The latte-drinking academics in Labour don't care about them, regardless of their platitudes about regional development. Instead, they will continue to make snide comments about the "holiday highway", forgetting that this is a vital link for Northland to Auckland and points south. 

Is it any wonder that Labour holds no electorates whatsoever north of the Auckland Harbour Bridge? When push comes to shove, Labour doesn't care about the roading needs of the people of Northland.

This is Labour's reaction to two dreadful poll results; a complete 360* two-step turnaround in the space of just four days. Can you imagine what a disaster it would be if they somehow won the Treasury Benches in two months time?

0 Holiday Highway, Holiday Highway, Holiday Highway, Great Idea!

Is the no policy that Labour will not flip-flop over? It would seem not.

And the latest flip-flop is over the Puhoi to Wellsford upgrade to State Highway One north of Auckland; that piece of road known by opposition parties as the Holiday Highway. Here's a potted summary of Labour's opposition:

• 2011 - Phil Goff wants it scrapped
• 2012 - Phil Twyford calls for the Government to "take a hard look" at the road, because it doesn't stack up.
• 2013 - Labour continues to oppose the road, and Holiday Highway bashing continues unabated

Since before the 2011 election Labour's opposition to Puhoi to Wellsford has been constant. What you see above is only a small sample of "anti" stories.

But now, led by renegade List MP Kelvin Davis, Labour has done a back-flip, prompting this presser from Gerry Brownlee:

Gerry Brownlee

15 July, 2014

Labour’s panicked U-turn on the road from Puhoi to Wellsford

Backed into a corner and on the wrong side of public opinion, Labour is making up major policy on the hoof with its announcement it now supports the Puhoi to Wellsford Road of National Significance, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee says.
“The brave but sensible stance of Northland list MP Kelvin Davis to stand up to the Labour leadership and state the obvious – that most people in the north support the Puhoi to Wellsford upgrade of State Highway 1 – has led to an immediate U-turn by his party today with the statement by Labour Transport Spokesman Phil Twyford that Labour would no longer cancel the road, but postpone its construction,” Mr Brownlee says.
“This is a spectacular U-turn for Labour, and as with all such maneuverers there is significant risk, and the potential for unintended consequences.
“For Labour it now raises the huge question of where the money is coming from for its commitment to immediately begin building Auckland’s City Rail Link.
“National is committed to co-funding construction of the rail link on a schedule that will see it delivered ahead of when Auckland City’s own research says it’s required.
“Labour was going to fund construction of the link from next year with money the Government has committed to building the Puhoi to Wellsford highway.
“Now it has to tell the people of Northland how long they’ll have to wait for their much-need highway upgrade, and where the $1.38 billion will come from to build it.
“That’s assuming Labour is still committed to beginning construction of the City Rail Link next year.
“Or does Mr Twyford have as big a surprise for Aucklanders today as he just delivered to the people of Northland this morning?
“Labour’s policy processes are woefully inadequate and clearly reliant on knee-jerk reactions,” Mr Brownlee says.

 

Gerry Brownlee is right; this is knee-jerk politics from Labour and especially from Phil Twyford. Alfred Ngaro will be looking forward to Mr Twyford telling the good folk of Te Atatu they won't be getting better train services any time soon.

 

Whilst we welcome this particular u-turn by Labour, it is a u-turn nonetheless. But with Labour v2014, that's par for the course. Why would we expect anything else?

0 Smalley tears into Labour

Rachel Smalley writes an opinion column on the Newstalk ZB website. And her column this morning tears into the Labour Party and Te Atatu MP Phil Twyford for politicising the murder of Henderson dairy owner Arun Kumar; Smalley opines:

Labour, it seems, has been quick to politicise the murder of dairy owner Arun Kumar in Henderson, and you'll no doubt be aware by now that a 13-year-old has been charged with his murder.
Labour MP Phil Twyford has been quick to jump on this. He says Mr Kumar's death raises questions about whether the community has been let down by the authorities.
This was in a media release that came out last night. Mr Twyford questions what kind of country we've become when a dairy owner is killed in his shop at seven o'clock in the morning and allegedly by a 13-year-old with a knife. He's right to question that. We're all questioning that.
However Mr Twyford suggests that questions should be asked about why there hasn't been a more visible police presence in Henderson with regular foot patrols to discourage law-breaking. There is a suggestion that a more visible police presence would have prevented this crime.
I don't think you can say that a lack of police resources contributed, on some level, to Mr Kumar's death. I don't think that police officers walking the streets would have stopped such a senseless crime. Whoever killed Mr Kumar had no compassion or respect for humanity, and I don't believe that you could have prevented what happened by instructing a policeman to walk down the street from time to time. 

We agree with Rachel Smalley. Unless a police officer had been outside the dairy or very close by, the young thugs who allegedly tried to rob Mr Kumar and ended up killing him would not have been deterred. If there had been a police officer outside Mr Kumar's store, in all likelihood, the youths would have gone and done the same thing to another shop-keeper.

Ms Smalley continues:

Tragedies like the murder of Arun Kumar should not be politicised. We've seen politicians out in Henderson. Len Brown's been there, the Auckland mayor. Labour MPs have paid their respects. But I think the Kumar family's greatest support right now will come from the police, not from politicians.
I don't want to see more police on the streets. I want to see better parenting in our homes. That's where the issue of accountability lies. Children who are loved and nurtured don't grow up to be killers.
Labour, I think, has picked the wrong fight on this. 

Once again, we agree with Smalley. Phil Twyford should have simply made a simple statement acknowledging Mr Kumar's tragic death, and passing on his and Labour's condolences to the Kumar family. There would be plenty of time to grandstand later in the piece.

Twyford will face stiff competition for the Te Atatu seat in September from Alfred Ngaro, who issued this simple statement via Facebook:

 

Politicians have one flaw which is prevalent right across the political spectrum. They tend to want to use a thousand words when a hundred will suffice, and Phil Twyford seems to have fallen into that trap on Tuesday. A brief message such as Mr Ngaro's would have been just as effective, and wouldn't have attracted negative attention for both Labour and Mr Twyford. This was definitely a case where less would have been more.

There will be a time and a place to debate the underlying issues in the case. But Phil Twyford has made a major error in judgment in trying to start that debate before Mr Kumar's family have even had the opportunity to send him on his final journey.

0 Alfred for Te Atatu

We met National Party List MP Alfred Ngaro last year and were most impressed by him. We've previously posted his maiden speech to Parliament in 2011, which was widely acclaimed.

Last night Alfred won selection to stand in the Labour-held seat of Te Atatu; the National Party website reports:

The National Party has announced that Alfred Ngaro will be its candidate for the Te Atatu electorate at the 2014 General Election. Mr Ngaro was selected by a meeting of local party members tonight. “Alfred has been tireless in representing Auckland’s diversity, ensuring that all communities have a strong voice in Government. His experience makes him an outstanding candidate, and he will be a great representative for Te Atatu if elected in September,” said Northern Regional Chair Andrew Hunt. “National won the party vote here last time and we’ll be working hard to do it again by getting all our supporters in Te Atatu out to vote.” “I also want to thank Tau Henare for his dedication to the electorate as a List MP over the past nine years." Mr Ngaro said he was honoured to receive the nomination and was looking forward to the challenge ahead. “It’s incredibly humbling to be chosen to contest the seat for National and Te Atatu’s communities,” said Mr Ngaro. “Under John Key’s leadership, this National-led Government is delivering real opportunities for West Aucklanders.
“We’ve been focussed on bringing more jobs and better public services to the region, and I am committed to ensuring that Te Atatu has a strong local voice in National at the election.”

Labour's Phil Twyford won the seat from Tau Henare in 2011. Although Mr Twyford's majority was north of 5000 votes, National won the party vote in the electorate, and boundary changes announced recently will be favourable to National.

Alfred Ngaro will launch a formidable campaign. And we will make the prediction now that the Te Atatu result could be one to watch on election night. As New Zealand's first MP of Cook Islands Maori origin, Ngaro will have plenty if support from Pasifika people in the electorate.

We wish both Messrs Twyford and Ngaro well for what could be one of the more fascinating general electorate contests in September. We will be keeping a close eye on Te Atatu.

Footnote: Alfred's bio on the above link makes impressive reading.

0 Boat people target New Zealand

Tony Wall's story on Stuff this morning is a must-read. Under the headline People-smugglers bid to sail first boat to New Zealand it begins thus:

Under cover of darkness last Wednesday night, eight cars containing around 50 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh slipped out of the mountain town of Cisarua, 60km south of Indonesia's capital Jakarta, and drove towards the coast.
The tension was palpable. They'd been holed up in a villa for weeks waiting for this moment, the first step on a long, treacherous journey they hoped would end in a new life in faraway New Zealand.
The passengers, all adults, had paid people-smugglers deposits of around $US500 ($585), with the remaining $US5000 ($5800) or so due if they reached their destination.
But their dreams were dashed at the last minute. Although corrupt officials had been paid off, according to sources, it wasn't enough - police intercepted them and the group was turned around.
They are now back in Cisarua, the disillusioned walking away, the desperate vowing to give it another go in the next few days.
Fairfax Media learned of the plan to send a boat of 50 asylum seekers to New Zealand during a joint investigation with Fairfax Australia.
We obtained video footage of the boats involved in the plan, listened to secret recordings of a money-changer talking about New Zealand as the best option now that Australia is "closed", and, posing as an asylum seeker, contacted the smuggling kingpin.
Last night, sources in Cisarua who had spoken directly to the smugglers said corrupt police were demanding more money to let the boat go, and the Indonesian captain was demanding $US2500 ($2900) in advance.
Increasingly desperate, the smugglers are now offering berths for just $US2500, as long as it is paid up-front.
No asylum boat has ever made it to New Zealand but the current operation is the third attempt in recent months. In March, four men were arrested in Jayapura, West Papua on their way to link with a boat, and last month asylum seekers gathered in West Sumatra for a proposed voyage down Australia's west coast that was cancelled.
A source said two of the men arrested in Jayapura had managed to escape immigration authorities, made their way to Cisarua, and were among those who headed to the beach last Wednesday.
Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said last night there was "no doubt" New Zealand was a target for people-smugglers, especially since boats had stopped arriving in Australia under their staunch Operation Sovereign Borders turn-back policy. 

The issue of boat people, and of the predatory people-smugglers who rip them off is a highly emotive one. But this is the clearest evidence yet that New Zealand has to be ready to deal with this problem when, not if, the first boat arrives in our waters.

Unfortunately, every time that John Key has raised the issue, he has been shouted down by his political opponents. In 2010, Labour MP Phil Twyford blogged this on Red Alert:

Does John Key really think New Zealand is about to be hit by a wave of boat people?

“What I’ve said to the Australian prime minister is that we recognise there is a problem, and we recognise that from New Zealand’s perspective it’s a problem that is coming towards our shores at some point in the future.”
Mr Key said that from all the intelligence he had received, this was “a real issue”.

Has he looked at a map recently? There is a lot of ocean between us and them. Short of us putting out the welcome mat for people-smugglers it seems very unlikely they will make it this far.

In 2011, former Green MP Keith Locke accused the PM of scaremongering in this post on the party's Frogblog:

John Key's scaremongering about boat people flooding into the country damages New Zealand's race relations, Green Party immigration spokesperson Keith Locke said today.

"While John Key's approach may increase the National Party's 'redneck' vote, as happened to John Howard in Australia, it will be at a cost to race relations in New Zealand," said Keith Locke.

"Racial dog whistling about refugees is unbefitting of a Prime Minister. 

And just last year, those bastions of left-wing reason at The Standard accused John Key of invoking the "yellow peril":

Bad jobs numbers and a succession of collapses of major businesses weighing your government down? You need: distraction! How about an old classic from the New Zealand politician’s playbook – the Yellow Peril!
Passed on by Richard Seddon and Winston Peters, Yellow Peril’s now being wielded by John Key as he talks of vague, unsubstantiated threats that boatloads of Indonesians are heading for our shores (no, I’m not sure what terrors are meant to eventuate when they land, either).
Of course, the closest any boat people have actually come to reaching New Zealand was when our mates, the Aussies, thought about helping them…
Never mind that Indonesia is literally 1/6th of the world away,* John Key wants us to know the ‘threat’ from boat people, threat of what I don’t know, is very real and something we should all be worried about. Far more worried than we should be about, say, the threat of losing our jobs.
(* At nearly 4,000 miles the distance from the closest parts of Indonesia to New Zealand is the distance from Europe to North America and back. Most boat people make trips from Indonesia to one of Australia’s offshore islands, a journey of a couple of hundred miles. So, we’re being asked to believe that boat people are planning, for no apparent reason, to make a journey 20 times longer and over colder, rougher, open seas in the Tasman, when Australia’s right there, literally in the way – doesn’t seem like a profitable business venture for the people smugglers for a start, 20 times the operating costs.)

We hope that Labour, the Greens and Zetetic at The Standard (who has long been suspected of being a Labour Party MP) take the time to read Tony Wall's piece this morning which has been written in partnership with his Fairfax colleagues from Australia.

As we said above, it's only a matter of time when the first boat reaches our waters. The Government is right to have been worried about this situation happening, and planning for such an eventuality is sensible. 

Desperate people will do desperate things, even if it puts them and their families in greater peril. And as long as there is a market of desperate people, the predatory and parasitic people-smugglers will take their money and send them on their way, not really caring if they reach their destination.

We will watch reaction to this story with much interest. Instead of burying our heads in the sand and pretending that boat people aren't a problem for New Zealand as Labour and the Greens seem to have done, let's be ready to manage the first boat when it arrives.