Facebook Status of the Day

We spotted this earlier this morning. Nick Kearney is an Act Party insider, and unlike the Labour Party and the Greens who get all self-righteous about these things demonstrates an ability to have a laugh at his party's expense; check this out:

We're sure that when Mr Dunne has consulted his whole caucus, he will be well equipped to make the right decision. We're sure that his close friend and confidante, the MP for Ohariu will steer him in the right direction.

As for Mr Banks; he'll just consult the tea-leaves!

Does United have any Future?

The Electoral Commission has re-registered Peter Dunne's United Future Party; Voxy reports:

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne has welcomed the Electoral Commission’s decision to re-register UnitedFuture as a political party.
The Commission advised today that it has agreed to restore UnitedFuture to the register of political parties from August 15th.
"I am very pleased that this decision has finally been reached, and will now pursue with Mr Speaker the restoration of UnitedFuture’s recognition as a recognised Parliamentary party.
"While I am pleased that this situation has been resolved, I remain unhappy with the cumbersome process the Electoral Commission felt obliged to follow.
"I am therefore drafting a Member’s Bill to provide for the acceptance of online party memberships as legitimate for party registration purposes, and for a separate re-registration procedure for established registered parties that deregister, and seek fresh registration within a specified period of time.
"My Bill will also require the Electoral Commission to formally audit the membership of all registered parties once every three years, unlike the current situation where the membership of registered parties is never checked by the Commission," he says.
Mr Dunne expressed his thanks to UnitedFuture’s board, volunteers and general membership for their efforts in recent weeks.
"It is a phenomenal achievement to have completed the registration process in just under ten weeks, and it is a great tribute to their hard work and efforts," he says.

 

Oddly, getting deregistered might prove to be the best thing that ever happened to United Future. It galvanised Peter Dunne and his party officials into action, and the party is reported to now have significantly more members than required to maintain registration. Using the old maxim that any publicity is good publicity, the party has certainly been talked about!

 

Whether that will be enough for Peter Dunne to retain his Ohariu seat, and possibly even bring another MP in on his coat-tails remains to be seen, but we wouldn't bet the house on it. 

 

It hasn't been a red-letter year for Peter Dunne. And the question has to be asked; does United have any Future?

 

 

Rodney's memory serves him well

Rodney Hide delves into his memory bank to explain why he's finding it hard to get upset at the "revelation" that Andrea Vance's phone logs were released to the Henry inquiry. And what he remembers is pretty compelling; check this out:

I am struggling, despite my best efforts, to work myself up into much of a lather over a journalist's phone log and emails being handed across by mistake to a Prime Ministerial inquiry.
The Parliamentary press gallery is in hyperdrive pumping the release as the worst abuse of state power since the Year Dot.
I don't share in the outrage because of: (a) the hypocrisy, (b) the lack of damage and (c) the journalist's amateurishness.
The media had no qualms publishing to great fanfare and effect Don Brash's emails. At the time he was the leader of the National Party. His emails were stolen.
Brash's emails were published as a book, splashed across the front page of every major newspaper and led TV news night after night. They were made into a play and a movie. The permission of Don Brash and those who had emailed him was not obtained.
The Parliamentary press gallery regarded the publishing of the emails as the scoop of the year.

Hide is right on the money here. The theft of Don Brash's e-mails when he was leader of the Opposition was infinitely more serious than any abuse of power committed against Andrea Vance and to a lesser extent Peter Dunne. The Police's efforts to find the culprit were lukewarm; hardly surprising when one of Helen Clark's first acts as Prime Minister was to engineer the resignation of Police Commissioner Peter Doone and instal her own man. 

And far from condemning the theft of Brash's e-mails, the liberal Left and the media celebrated. Nicky Hager's book was feted and celebrated, turned into a play, and a film was made which debuted shortly before the 2008 General Election, part-funded by the taxpayer through via a $25,000 Screen Innovation Production Fund grant. Where was the Left's outrage then? Labour and the Greens' condemnatory silence was deafening.

Hide continues:

Presumably, if the emails between Peter Dunne and the journalist were stolen then it would be okay.
The emails and the phone log weren't stolen. Parliamentary Services, who held them, handed them over to David Henry. He was undertaking an inquiry the Prime Minister ordered into the unauthorised disclosure of a sensitive government document. Henry is a former Commissioner of Inland Revenue and hence is well-used to overseeing the handling of sensitive material on politicians, journalists and everyone else.
The emails weren't published and weren't used in the inquiry. Peter Dunne and the journalist emailed each other prolifically, up to 23 times a day. Their emails would make far juicier reading than Don Brash's musings on policy and political strategy. I fear the world has lost out on an exciting book, a play, and, quite possibly, a steamy movie.

The Left has had a very convenient memory loss over the theft of the Brash e-mails. That underlines their hypocrisy over the latest goings-on.

And lastly, Hide offers some friendly advice to Peter Dunne, to Andrea Vance and to any other politicians wanting to ensure that their communications with outsiders remain confidential:

The other reason I have no sympathy for the case is the journalist's amateurishness. Dunne's emails and phone log are all run by the Parliamentary Service. That creates an obvious and easily managed risk.
When I was an MP I dealt with a great many whistleblowers. I never communicated with them through a Parliamentary phone or on a Parliamentary email account. I felt the risk to them was too great. There were several government and police inquiries into my sources. They were never caught from my end. It's journalism 101 to be using a phone and computer under your full control for the purpose of all sensitive communications.
It's a mark of the professionalism of the Parliamentary Service that the journalist's emails have not been leaked. It's a shame: they would make a great movie.

This is an excellent column from Rodney Hide. Sadly, the fact that the column is by Rodney Hide means that the people who should read it, reflect and then hang their heads in shame probably won't.

We can't help but wonder...

Cameron Slater has blogged on a subject that we've been pondering over the last week or so; check this out:

via the tipline
How come Winston Peters is sitting on the Privileges Committee investigation regarding Andrea Vance and the idiot Peter Dunne when he has claimed all along, in parliament, that he has known the content of the emails since the get go?
Why isn’t he giving evidence instead of sitting in judgment?
Surely this is closer to Zimbabwe than his fanciful claims?

Whaleoil's tipline correspondent makes a very good point. All along, Winston Peters has dropped all sorts of "hints" that he had all the good oil on Peter Dunne. Here's just one example, courtesy of the NBR:

United Future leader Peter Dunne exchanged personally embarrassing emails with Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance, NZ First leader Winston Peters claims. Mr Peters told TV3's The Nation he had seen the email exchange that Mr Dunne refused to hand over in the inquiry into the GCSB report leak.

So we can't help but wonder; given that Mr Peters has shown a significant amount of personal antipathy towards Mr Dunne, and given that he has told the media that he had either seen or had in his possession information germane to the Privileges Committee, does he not have a pretty significant conflict of interest here. After all, how can Winston Peters objectively judge an issue over the release of personal information when he has claimed to have that very information, and has used it to make political attacks on Peter Dunne.

Winston Peters is, of course, no stranger to the inner workings of the Privileges Committee. But on this matter, he should and must recuse himself from the hearing. Perhaps he could ask his deputy leader to deputise for him; oh, wait...

Maybe this is why they wanted them Winston

Winston Peters does faux outrage better than most. And he has been in a state of high dudgeon today, after telling Parliament that the police wanted to access his phone records when they investigated cameraman Bradley Ambrose in late 2011. 

Now we know that Winston Peters is getting on a bit, but he claimed to be ignorant as to why the Police would be connecting NZ First and Winston Peters with a meeting between the National and Act leaders. He's obviously forgotten this, but fortunately, Stuff's archives haven't:

Winston Peters flew into Invercargill yesterday claiming he had information most of the New Zealand media wanted to know – what was in the Teapot Tapes.
He didn't disappoint the sizeable media contingent at the Invercargill Workingmen's Club, revealing in dramatic style what Prime Minister John Key apparently told John Banks during their now infamous cup of tea.
He said Mr Key had told Mr Banks the next leader of the ACT Party should be Catherine Isaac, the party's former president and No2 list candidate.
"Here is the leader of the National Party telling Mr Banks, on whose coat-tails (ACT) hope to get back into Parliament, who the new leader of the ACT Party should be," Mr Peters said. "And that person is, according to Mr Key, Ms Isaac. That caught you unaware, didn't it?"
He said Mr Banks had described ACT leader Don Brash as "a strange fellow" and that Mr Key had then said "we've been down that road before". 

Whilst the Police were investigating Mr Ambrose and his motives in recording the conversation between Key and Banks, any Police officer with a better nose than Inspector Clouseau would wonder how Winston Peters came to be in possession of a conversation that occurred at a meeting that he wasn't at. 

The police seized, under a search warrant, text messages between Mr Ambrose and a number of other individuals. There's nothing at all unusual about that. And if Mr Ambrose happened to have entered Winston Peters' name in his contacts, that name would show up on any text messages between the two. 

This is the kind of stuff that Peters thrives on. He will deny that the Storm in a Teacup helped get him back into Parliament, but he gleefully broadcast the news that he knew what was in the conversation, just as he has claimed to have seen Peter Dunne's e-mails and phone records.

This time however, he's moaning because his role in this saga has been exposed. He's claiming to be an injured innocent, but that simply won't wash. 

Winston Peters has built a political career out of innuendo, attacks under parliamentary privilege, telling half-truths and far more. This time however his chickens have come home to roost, and we have no sympathy for him whatsoever.

Newsflash; we agree with Peter Dunne

It's not every day that we agree with the former Mr Sensible Peter Dunne. But the MP for Ohariu has come out swinging against protesters who have taken the protest to the suburban street in which he dwells; Stuff reports:

A group protesting at the Government Communications Security Bureau bill have taken their fight to the Wellington home of United Future MP Peter Dunne, prompting him to call them "irresponsible scum".
Eight protesters were outside his home in Khandallah yesterday afternoon, calling on him to cross the floor and vote against the bill.
Mr Dunne, who was not home at the time of the protest, said the "hardcore group" were at his house with a loudhailer on Sunday, past 11pm on Monday night, and also yesterday morning at 7am.
He was concerned his wife and neighbours were being intimidated by the group, whom he said were "irresponsible scum".
"They are the lowest form of life imaginable. If they think they are going to persuade anyone to their point of view with these tactics, they're frankly deluded." 

We agree wholeheartedly with Peter Dunne on this one.Protest is fine, but taking those protests to the homes of MP's, especially late at night and early in the morning is a step too far. Politicians' families are NOT fair game for protesters, nor should neighbours be inconvenienced and intimidated merely because their neighbours are MP's. If anything, these protesters will make it easier for Peter Dunne to retain Ohariu next year should he choose to stand again.

And not only does the un-named Stuff reporter have a poor grasp on the intent of the GCSB Bill; they give a peek into the vindictive mind of the protesters; read on:

The Ohariu MP's vote is vital in ensuring the Government Communications Security Bureau bill becomes law. The bill would make it easier for the intelligence services to spy on New Zealanders.
Protester Ariana Paretutanganui-Tamati said they were at Mr Dunne's home "to give him a taste of what it feels like to have your privacy intruded on". 

Now in all probability none of the protesters has ever been spied on, so this argument is totally fatuous. But we reckon that by targeting Peter Dunne in this manner, the protesters are doing their cause more harm than good.

But what about the e-mails they wanted seized?

David Shearer, Russel Norman and Winston Peters have made a lot of noise this week. All are incensed that journalist Andrea Vance's phone log (as opposed to any data regarding actual calls) was handed over to David Henry whilst he investigated the leak of the Kitteridge Report on failings of the GCSB.

But turn the clock back around 7 weeks, and you'll find that things were very different. Winston Peters wanted the Police to investigate Peter Dunne, and boasted proudly how he had seen private e-mails between Dunne and Ms Vance. Dr Norman told Radio New Zealand this:

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the inquiry into the leak to Fairfax Media does not confirm whether Mr Dunne in fact did it, and police need to investigate and force Mr Dunne to release the emails.
"Clearly (inquiry head) David Henry didn't have sufficient powers to make Peter Dunne release the emails. If the police are investigating a Crimes Act offence, then they do have the powers to get Peter Dunne to release the emails."
Dr Norman said it needs to be seen whether Mr Dunne has breached the Crimes Act.

To his credit, Dr Norman thought things through over the weekend that followed, and did a complete u-turn. But his initial response was that private information involving Ms Vance should be taken by force by the Police.

And David Shearer took a similar stance to Dr Norman's initial one, as the Dominion-Post editorial reported on 11 June 2013:

Labour leader David Shearer's call for police to seize UnitedFuture MP Peter Dunne's emails and question him under oath about the leaking of the GCSB review suggests he has a remarkably short memory. It is little more than a year since Labour colleague Phil Goff used leaked Mfat documents to reveal that cuts within the ministry were undermining New Zealand's diplomatic capability. 
The Labour leader's comments also show a worrying lack of understanding of important principles. Is Mr Shearer really suggesting the police should have the power to seize material from anyone suspected of embarrassing the government? 

David Shearer's comments may have been made in the heat of the moment, but they reveal a particular lack of political nous. It is really ironic now that he wants John Key's head on a platter because Ms Vance's telephone records were erroneously given to Mr Henry by Parliamentary Services.

We all know that there is an element of the theatrical to politics. But Mr Shearer, Dr Norman and Mr Peters, in the best traditions of Cirque de Soliel, added gymnastics to the theatrics with their back-flips and u-turns. The end result, once their faux outrage is added in is little more than farce, and does them no credit whatsoever. 

Bad luck Winston; how about an apology...

Winston Peters' loathing of Peter Dunne saw him complain to the Police over an alleged GCSB leak. But Peters has drawn a blank; the Herald reports:

Police will not progress a complaint from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters about the leaking of a report into the GCSB.
In a statement issued today, Assistant Commissioner Malcolm Burgess said police had decided not to take any action over the complaint about the leaking of the report Review of Compliance at the GCSB to Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance.
Mr Peters made his complaint under the Crimes Act and the Summary Offences Act.
"After considering the information presented by the complainant police are satisfied that no offence is disclosed and that further investigation will fail to provide evidence leading to a prosecution under either piece of legislation,'' Mr Burgess said.
"Police consider this matter ended unless additional information becomes available which might warrant further assessment.''

Winston Peters of course implied that he had seen or had knowledge of the e-mail correspondence between Peter Dunne and Andrea Vance. Having been unable to put up, he would now be well advised to shut up. He was very hasty in his complaint to the police, but he seems to have forgotten that the police deal with evidence, not innuendo and unsubstantiated rumours.

Just as the Speaker last week ruled that there was no question of privilege against Dunne as alleged by David Shearer, Peters' complaint to the Police has been swiftly dismissed. And let's not forget that Green Party co-leader Russel Norman was originally calling for the release of the e-mails in question, before he suddenly realised what the consequences of that might be and had a change of heart.  

Winston Peters however invested the most in this case. Another of his wild accusations has been unable to be substantiated. He owes Peter Dunne an apology.

Not a great day for David

It hasn't been a brilliant last 24 hours for David Shearer. He has racked up a rather unfortunate trifecta, as he strives to stave off rumours from within his caucus and without that his leadership in under threat.

It all started yesterday afternoon when the Speaker ruled on Mr Shearer's complaint against Peter Dunne; the Herald reports:

United Future leader Peter Dunne says he has been cleared by the Speaker of misleading a select committee about leaking a confidential report.
In a statement, Mr Dunne claimed that the Speaker had ruled that he did not deliberately mislead the Finance and Expenditure Committee when he denied being responsible for leaking the Kitteridge Report on the GCSB.
Labour made a breach of privilege complaint following the Henry Report into the leaking of the GCSB document.
Mr Dunne resigned after he was unable to produce emails requested by inquiry head David Henry.
He said: "I welcome the Speaker's decision to dismiss the complaint and his ruling that my answers did not deliberately mislead the Finance and Expenditure Committee, nor were in contempt of Parliament.''

Labour and David Shearer were trying to paint Peter Dunne into a corner, where he would have no option but to resign, possibly bringing the Key-led Government down. They have failed, although that may be a blessing in disguise as a dysfunctional and reportedly broke Labour Party is in no condition at the moment to fight an election.

That's a segue into the second leg of the trifecta. Stuff has been running a poll on Mr Shearer's leadership, and the numbers don't look good; check this out:

Those are not got figures for David Shearer. More than 10,000 people have responded to the poll, and whilst website polls are less than scientific, the trend certainly suggests that Mr Shearer has a lot of work to do to silence those who are trying to pull the rug out from underneath him.

 The final leg of the trifecta happened this morning. As we were driving to work, RadioLive breakfast host was lamenting the no-show of Mr Shearer for a scheduled interview; one that Shearer's staff had been badgering Lush for. A date was arranged, and Marcus Lush had even ordered in the flat white reported to be Mr Shearer's coffee of choice. But then this happened:

Marcus Lush was incredulous that Shearer had failed to front for an interview which his staff had lobbied for. Whilst Lush wasn't questioning Mr Shearer's excuse (taking his son to the airport for an overseas trip) he was incredulous at Shearer's explanation that it "fell through the cracks". And so he should be.

There are two possible explanations for Mr Shearer's no-show. Either he forgot that his staff had made the appointment with Marcus Lush (and his memory has been less than reliable this year!), or someone has set him up by not diarying the interview, and by not making sure that the Leader of the Opposition turned up. Given what's been happening over the last few weeks, we would lean towards the latter.

But whatever, it is a poor show by David Shearer. After going to ground earlier in the week because of Labour's Man-Ban, he has stuffed up the opportunity to end the week on a high, and is now the target of fun for a broadcaster with a significant sized audience. It may be winter, but we reckon that there might be a BBQ or two whilst Parliament is in its winter recess.

Well done Todd McClay; and Peter Dunne

New Revenue and Associate Health Minister Todd McClay has scored his first major win; the passage into law of the Psychoactive Substances Bill. The Bill passed its Third Reading yesterday by an almost unanimous majority of 119 to one, with John Banks being the lone dissenter.

McClay inherited the Bill from former Minister Peter Dunne, and needed to shepherd it through its remaining stages before the House adjourned for the July recess yesterday. He achieved that, so we reckon that he is entitled to put out a celebratory presser; check this out:

Associate Health Minister Todd McClay is delighted Parliament has passed the Psychoactive Substances Bill. The bill received overwhelming cross-party support with 119 members voting in favour with one against.
This new law provides effective restrictions on the availability and accessibility of so-called ‘legal highs’ in communities around New Zealand including:

• No sales from dairies or any sort of grocery store,  petrol stations, or anywhere alcohol is sold;
• No sales to under 18 year olds;
• No advertising, except at the point of sale
• Anyone breaching the rules will face up to 2 years in prison or a fine of up to half a million dollars.

“This Bill is squarely about public safety and will ensure that the onus will be on anyone wanting to produce a psychoactive product to show it poses no more than a low risk of harm. It is fitting that I should at this time acknowledge the considerable amount of work by the Hon Peter Dunne in getting this Bill to this stage. He has been the driving force behind this world-leading legislation,” Mr McClay says.
“I am thrilled that Local Authorities, the police and health services now have an effective legislative tool that allows them to control so-called ‘legal highs’ in New Zealand. This is an important first step, particularly with the start of school holidays. But we need to be aware that for some, particularly young people, there may be withdrawal issues or other health-related problems that will need to be addressed.”
“Managing this will take a collective effort from those in the education, health and enforcement sectors to ensure that the appropriate steps are taken when these issues arise,” says Mr McClay.
The Ministry of Health is working proactively with DHB public health units and mental health services, Police and the Ministry of Education to ensure information is available to those who want advice and help services.
Public health units and Police will continue to work with dairies and other retailers who will no longer be permitted to sell so called ‘legal highs’ from the day of enactment.
Police have agreed to collect unsold stock to dispose of in an appropriate manner. Any illegal sales following enactment will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
“The suppliers and distributers of these products have told us they want to be responsible. They’ve told us they want to make low-risk products, and market them responsibly. This is their chance to prove it. I call on them to start now with their collection of unsold stock and refund the cost to the retailer of these products, rather than waiting until this law is enacted”.
“Our Police and Health services have better things to do than go round cleaning up after this industry, so this is their chance to show social and community responsibility,” says Mr McClay.
The Ministry of Health has developed a website to address queries regarding psychoactive substances, which will go live at from 10.00am Friday 12 July.

These so-called "legal highs" are a blight on our society. We have seen almost first-hand how insidious and nasty these substances are, with the teenage children of a couple of friends dabbling in them, and turning almost instantaneously from pleasant young men into deceitful little monsters causing their parents no end of angst. That these drugs were so freely available was a loophole which needed to be closed very quickly.

It is just unfortunate that the debate over animal testing overshadowed the final stages of this debate. We would regard ourselves as animal lovers, but if drugs need to be tested on "live" subjects and there is no other alternative way to do it, we would far rather that rats, mice and even dogs be used than humans, provided stringent controls are in place. To that degree we are critical of John Banks whose animal-loving principles were the difference yesterday between a split vote and a rare show of unanimity from our Parliament on a matter of considerable significance. A vote of 120-nil on the Third Reading of the Bill would have made a real statement.

That concern aside, it is great that this legislation has passed into law. This law is world-leading, and both Messrs Dunne and McClay should feel proud to have made a real change to our communities by placing controls on these dangerous drugs.

Photo of the Day - 1 July 2013

Has there ever been a better drawing of Ohariu MP and leader-without-a-party Peter Dunne? Check this out:

That's great work by Sharon Murdoch. We reckon that even Mr Dunne will be having a wee twitter at his own expense!

Facebook Post of the Day - 26 June 2013

Peter Dunne has posted the following:

Good on Mr Dunne for his caustic reference to his holier-than-thou critics. To his credit, the MP for Ohariu has never appeared in court for fighting, nor has he been censured by his parliamentary colleagues "for knowingly providing false or misleading information on a return of pecuniary interests".

Paragons of virtue indeed, the both of 'em. Now could some kind soul pass me a Tui...

"A horror story of Stephen King proportions"

Well might David Shearer be pondering the life of a political party leader; the Herald reports:

Voter support for Labour and its leader, David Shearer, has slumped in the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey.
The party has lost 5.5 percentage points since March, and Mr Shearer is down 6.1 points as preferred Prime Minister.
National's support has barely moved and it is still polling high at 48.8 per cent of decided voters.
Prime Minister John Key is preferred Prime Minister for 65.2 per cent, up 2.6 points on his last rating.

We knew this poll was due out this morning; Herald editor Tim Murphy tweeted thus last night:

What we didn't know was whose "horror story of Stephen King proportions" it was going to be. Now we know that it is Labour's horror story of a poll, and especially David Shearer's.

Surrounded by Grant Robertson loyalists, David Shearer is in a very lonely place right now. He, more than anyone else in the current Parliament must be sympathetic to Peter Dunne's lonely plight. And all the while, the wry smile remains on David Cunliffe's face... 


UPDATE: Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross rubs some salt into the wound:

 

The tap gets turned off for Peter Dunne

It hasn't been a great few weeks for Peter Dunne, leader of the now non-recognised United Future Party. He has today been stripped of the allocation of funding accorded to political parties; Hamish Rutherford and Vernon Small report, via the Dom-Post website:

Speaker David Carter has ruled that UnitedFuture cannot keep more than $100,000 in party funding, and its leader Peter Dunne will be treated as an independent MP in Parliament.
Carter said he would revisit the matter if UnitedFuture re-registered as a party.
UnitedFuture was de-registered as a party after it acknowledged it could not be sure it had the required 500 members.
Carter gave the party time to rectify the matter, but he said today it was going to take longer than the six to eight weeks originally offered.
Carter said the matter was still with the Electoral Commission.
The Commission was independent and he did not want to influence its decision.
But the time it would take for UnitedFuture's re-registration to be resolved had the potential to disrupt the business of the House. Carter's ruling would take effect today and would not be backdated.
He said as Speaker he had to balance two interests; that it was not tenable for a party to be funded if it was not registered, but that a party's representation expressed at a general election should not be interfered with lightly. 

David Carter's decision on this matter ties in nicely with a decision released today by Auditor-General Lyn Provost; read on:

Earlier today the Auditor-General said it was up to the Speaker to determine whether UnitedFuture should lose Parliamentary funding because of doubts over its membership.  

Despite the complaints of bias against David Carter, we reckon that he has played this with a pretty straight bat. The Speaker noted today that this situation is not expressly covered by Standing Orders, hence is earlier interim ruling in Peter Dunne's favour. 

Given however that there is now likely to be a considerable time delay before United Future is re-registered by the Electoral Commission, Carter's ruling today is a sensible and definitive one. He has asked that the situation regarding United Future be addressed in an upcoming review of Standing Orders.

Parliament must be a lonely place for the MP for Ohariu now. He has lost his ministerial warrant, and he has lost his status as a political party leader, now being treated as an independent MP. After 29 years of loyal service, we wonder if his heart will still be in it.

Kim comes 98th out of 100

The annual Readers Digest Most Trusted list has been released, and whilst sportspeople dominate the top end, it should come as no surprise that politicians are well down the list.

But the company that they keep there is interesting; the Dom-Post reports:

The usual suspects took out the most-distrusted spots once again, with Hone Harawira the bottom of the list, joined by Kim Dotcom (98) and Winston Peters (97). Dotcom's low position and election donations seemed to rub off on John Banks, ranked this year at 99.
Wellington businessman and philanthropist Gareth Morgan, at 81 this year, was jokingly miffed to have come behind Prime Minister John Key (80). "It comes and goes. I think I've been as high as No 20 or something before." 

It will be interesting to see whether a copy of the list is tabled as an exhibit at Kim Dotcom's extradition hearing, whenever that finally takes place. Being ranked as being slightly more trustworthy than John Banks but slightly less trustworthy than Winston Peters will be a blow to the Large German Gentleman's not-inconsiderable ego.

And Peter Dunne can probably count himself lucky that this survey was taken prior to his fall from grace. The again, he may well have enhanced his image with "those" e-mails!

Hide on Dunne

Rodney Hide is better placed than most to pass comment on Peter Dunne having served alongside him as a Minister outside Cabinet in the John Key-led Government between 2008 and 2011. He shares his thoughts in his Herald on Sunday column this morning:

Whenever I think commonsense I picture Peter Dunne. For 30 years he has been Mr Middle-of-the-Road, a safe pair of hands, the goody-two-shoes of the New Zealand Parliament.
And so, like everyone from the Prime Minister down, I was shocked that he was implicated in leaking a sensitive government report. I struggled to believe it.
No one is more shocked than Dunne himself. He admits to acting "extraordinarily unwisely, even stupidly" but categorically denies leaking the report. He "cannot rationally explain why things happened the way they did".
It's like he was possessed and the Devil made him do it.

"Mr Middle-of-the-Road"; that's a pretty good description of Peter Dunne. He has been sufficiently moderate to be able to empower both Labour and National governments, and as we have previously noted, did a competent job with the Revenue portfolio, the ministerial role that no-one really wants. So his fall from grace was surprising and unexpected.

Hide continues, noting that leaking from politicians is nothing new:

It was Dunne's basic goodness that did for him. Politicians leak all the time. Helen Clark was masterful. But they don't get caught. That's because they know what they're doing.
You certainly don't use your Parliamentary email. You don't discuss with a journalist the possibility of leaking. That gives them the power, either through error or design, to get you sacked.
If you're going to leak, leak; don't leave your fingerprints all over it.
The leaking, too, has to have a point: it advances your cause, knocks an enemy off course, distracts the media from your own problems, or helps set the agenda. The leak was of no political benefit to Dunne whatsoever.

Hide is dead right; Helen Clark was indeed the mistress of the leak, as former Police Commissioner Peter Doone found out. Helen Clark's Wikipedia page notes:

In 2000, the then Police Commissioner, Peter Doone, resigned after the Sunday Star-Times alleged he had prevented the breath testing of his partner Robyn, who had driven the car they occupied, by telling the officer "that won't be necessary". Both Doone and the officer involved denied this happened. Doone sued the Sunday Star-Times for defamation in 2005 but the paper revealed they had checked the story with Clark. She confirmed this, but denied that she had made attempts to get Doone to resign and defended being the source as "by definition I cannot leak".

Clark and Heather Simpson were a formidable pairing; well schooled in the dark arts of politics. Peter Dunne couldn't have been much further from that, as Hide notes in his concluding paragraphs:

Parliament is a lonely place and Dunne has been especially lonely, being a long-time party of just one. He supported Helen Clark for two terms as Prime Minister. He's now in his second term supporting John Key. In our tribal Parliament, he lacks a side. His politics are middle-of-the-road and boring. No one is much interested in him.
And then whoosh - a new and engaging journalist asks about his work. He gets carried away. He says a little too much. He isn't immediately struck by lightning. He emails. He's still standing.
And then bang: his 30-year political career is toast. He struggles to explain his behaviour and reads of his misdeeds believing it must be about someone else.
That's the trouble with Sunday School-types. They don't know how to do naughty, and when to run with it and when to leave it alone. They can't distinguish a little bit naughty from too naughty even for bad boys.

That is an interesting comment from Hide. A career's worth of service has been undone by a momentary lapse in Peter Dunne's judgment. It is an unfortunate epitaph.

Making an immediate impact

New Minister Todd McClay is not going to let the grass grow under his feet; or his desk. He has synthetic cannabis in his sights, and has put out the following media release:

Todd McClay

14 June, 2013

McClay says Synthetic Drugs Bill a Priority

Associate Minister of Health Todd McClay has welcomed the Health Select Committee report today on the Psychoactive Substances Bill, and reiterated his commitment to seeing it enacted well before its August deadline.
The Bill, which proposes regulating psychoactive substances not already controlled by other legislation, establishes a testing regime which will ensure that only low-risk products can be sold.
“I particularly want to thank the committee and its chair, Dr Paul Hutchison, for the outstanding work they have done on what is a complicated bill, undertaken by necessity in a significantly more truncated timeframe than usual” said Mr McClay.
“This is an important piece of legislation that will bring relief to the thousands of parents, employers and communities that have battled the destructive impacts of legal highs, in particular synthetic cannabis products.”
The amendments in the Bill were agreed to unanimously by the Committee.
Mr McClay noted that while he couldn’t be sure how all parties would vote in the final stages of the bill’s passage, the unanimous vote did indicate that the committee recognised the significant harm that the unregulated legal high market currently posed.
“I would hope that the final vote on this bill in the House is unanimous in support. Anything less than that will mean that the health of New Zealanders, particularly young people, is not a priority for those voting against it.”
Mr McClay said it was appropriate to recognise the contribution of Hon Peter Dunne in getting the bill to this stage.
“Mr Dunne has been driving this legislation for a very long time and while I have assumed responsibility for it from here, I think it’s important that his significant contribution continues to be recognised.”
The bill will get its second reading on Thursday 27 June, with the final stages into law expected in early July. Following enactment a range of restrictions will immediately come into effect, including:

• a minimum purchase age of 18.
• restrictions on outlets, including barring all dairies from selling such products.
• labelling and packaging requirements.
• no advertising will be allowed except at point of sale.

 

It is pleasing to see that Mr McClay is going to prioritise the passing of legislation to deal with these nasty, insidious substances, and we wholly support him. As we have mentioned before, we have several friends whose teenagers have dabbled in this junk, with significant negative effects both on the teenagers and family life.

 

We hope too that Parliament is unanimous in sending a message to those who profit from this misery as the Health Select Committee was. These substances have no redeeming features whatsoever, and the sooner that they are forced off the shelves of dairies and other shops the better.  

Clifton on Dunne

Jane Clifton reflects on the strange behaviour of UF leader Peter Dunne:

The cliche male midlife crisis entails buying a sports car, suddenly affecting demographically inappropriate clothing, and even attempting to trade in one’s spouse for a later edition. In the political male, it would seem, the middle-age wig-out is marked by temporarily mislaying one’s party, developing a powerful urge to leak to a journalist, and refusing to cooperate with an inquiry.
MPs’ falls-from-grace are typically distinguished by spectacle and farce: Chris Carter, Aaron Gilmore, David Garrett, Darren Hughes; it’s tough competition. But Peter Dunne’s is the most gobsmacking I’ve ever seen. As you can see from the footage of his press conference, he’s struggling even to explain it to himself.
In an anthropological sense, Dunne is Middle Mortgage Belt Man, who has done all things in moderation. His “Mister Sensible” tag is pretty dated now, but he has distinguished himself for the rare feat of hanging on to his Ohariu electorate in his own right, despite a waka-hopping career.
Since leaving Labour in 1995, he has enjoyed diminishing returns from his later iteration as United/United Future leader, with and without Christian and deerstalking add-ons. But Dunne has maintained a solid reputation as a competent Revenue Minister, able to work in Governments red and blue.
To witness him making an idiot of himself in this way – discussing leaking a classified document with a journalist known for getting scoops, and then refusing to disclose half of the 80-plus emails he exchanged with her – is simply staggering.
We may never know for sure whether Dunne did, even inadvertently, leak the document. He says he didn’t, and the journalist, Fairfax’s Andrea Vance, in accordance with a bedrock journalistic article of faith, is not going to say. But the fact that he refused fully to cooperate with the inquiry – the sin for which he has been forced to resign – will leave a cloud over his reputation.
It was, after all, a leak damaging to his own Government, an administration with which he has no apparent beef. On the contrary, Prime Minister John Key was shocked, saddened, and not a little inconvenienced, to have to let him go. Revenue is not an easy-to-fill portfolio.

It's hard to argue with any of what Jane Clifton has written here. When the first allegations about Peter Dunne broke, most people shook their heads in disbelief. When the extent of his e-mail communication with a journalist was revealed, that disbelief turned to a mixture of shock, awe and mirth! He's certainly been the butt of a few jokes this week.

But as Ms Clifton goes on to note, there's a degree of hypocrisy in the way that this particular leak, which has yet to be conclusively proven to have been made by Peter Dunne, has been politicised:

The affair does underline the dichotomy we in the political firmament face over the issue of leaks, though. Labour and New Zealand First are harrumphing like scandalised Wodehousian aunts about Dunne’s behaviour. Yet both have received, publicised and gloated over similarly spicey leaks in their time.
Leaks have come to the Opposition from two of the most sacred departments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government Security Communications Bureau, at times in farcical quantity. Information from these bureaucracies have the potential to harm this country’s security and trade.
It’s a very unhealthy sign that such officials are prepared to undermine the Government by leaking information that could also undermine the welfare of the country. Yet the Opposition has trafficked in them with abandon, and never has a single Labour, Green or NZ First politician called the police about such documents, as they have done over the Dunne situation.

This is a very good point. And in fact Labour is going to considerable time and trouble to protect the identity of Person A, the public servant deemed responsible for the MFAT leak. When the identity of Person A becomes public knowledge, we suspect that Labour is going to have some significant explaining to do.

There's more to this column, including some sage comment from Jane Clifton as to why politicians and journalists need one another, and why leaks can be seen as a public service. It's well worth a read in its entirety.

Of course  nothing is going to change the fact though that when this issue could have been front and centre all week, instead everyone's been talking about Labour's appalling political management. The Labour Party has only itself to blame for that, and Peter Dunne has nothing to do with it!