Posts by Matthew Poole
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Hard News: The sole party of government, in reply to Russell Brown,
I think what has been discovered is troubling and needs setting right. The overwhelming nature of the victory unfortunately makes that less likely.
I would say that "less likely" is being generous. If I were Key, I'd be taking this result as an endorsement of the Dirty Politics school of politicking. He was quite happy enough to take his 30-point-whatever-percent of eligible-voters' votes as support for asset sales.
There will definitely be no bigger inquiry into the SIS-OIA-Slater affair, or into the Collins-Slater-Ede affair, or any of the rest of what came out in Dirty Politics. "Nothing to see here, as declared by the electorate. Move along."
I'm also worried that the Ombudsman's Office is going to get quite the squeeze in this coming term, even more so than it is currently, now that Dame Beverly has declared open season on ministerial interference in OIA responses. The Ombudsmen are our last independent inquisitor when it comes to the government, and the Office is already under significant financial pressure. Keeping on the squeeze so that citizens just stop trying to have bad government behaviour investigated looks to be a given, especially if they want to take on the Executive. -
Question, Graeme: what happens about the Speaker? Carter continues on and gets replaced by someone else from National's list?
He's going to be even more unbearable and useless now that all the oversight mechanisms of Parliament are majority National.
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The Herald's electorate boundary tool. It's the proposed boundaries not the final ones, but very few actually changed markedly from the proposal.
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Hard News: Time to Vote, in reply to Steve Barnes,
the Herald is scraping the barrels bottom today.
Child drops ice cream in supermarket
Well, not quite but news?.a) Syndicated off APNZ, so not exactly a Herald reporter rushing in breathlessly to file copy.
b) That's a moderately sizeable spill. Would cover quite a bit of a petrol station's forecourt. -
One thing I noticed but which only just clicked was that all the people working the roll books were under 30 at my polling station. That level of engagement is a good thing.
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Took Daniel with us to the polling station (conveniently located four properties up the street), and he posted both our ballot papers. If the "Vote early, vote often" phrase is true, having cast two ballots at age 16-months will hopefully stand him in good stead for a long and vibrant life of democratic involvement.
I'm really not sure what to make of the massive advance vote turnout. If the turnout for yesterday was even the same as the turnout on Thursday, never mind the higher turnout indicated by history, we'll have seen double the advance votes cast this year of 2011.
I am hopeful that it means increased overall turnout, but with a significant un-enrolled proportion and the toxic environment being known to discourage participation it's really hard to tell. I guess we'll find out tonight.Also unsure whether or not to watch the results. Last time I went to bed depressed at what I perceived as the chronic stupidity of my fellow voters.
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This is gold. You've got a private stash and are holding out. I can tell!
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Hard News: Privacy and the Public Interest, in reply to A S,
Once upon a time, breach of the CM would have seen the transgressing minister quickly sanctioned by all of their peers.
Which is a problem when you are the senior-most minister and the party's hope of electoral victory.
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Hard News: Privacy and the Public Interest, in reply to Hebe,
Who is going to hold Key to account for breaking the Cabinet Manual rules?
The electorate, hopefully, but that is far from assured. There is certainly no other recourse, as the CM has no legal standing as grounds to bring a suit (AFAIK. Graeme? Andrew?)
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Is it plausible that Key has been such a helicopter manager that he never got his hands dirty when #TeamWhaleCollins was digging dirty on ACC claimants and public servants? Sort of a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, where he'd leave ministers to their own devices while he swanned around for photo ops and golf games? He certainly seems like the type, but I don't know if it's stretching credibility beyond recovery for a PM to be that uninvolved in what's happening within the cabinet.