Pre-election 2014 thread

[CCS]

Huntly. That will be the fringe of Auckland soon enough.

[Ab]

Huntly used to be one hour from downtown Auckland on a Friday night BEFORE the SH1 upgrade.

[CCS]

Anyone who wants a cheap house in Auckland, go to the suburb of Huntly.

Focken choice cunt.

[Ab]

Fucking overseas buyers driving up NZ house prices, thank god David Cunliffe is here to sort this shit ou--

Labour leader David Cunliffe has defended helping a Chicago-based friend buy a house in Omaha, despite saying overseas investors were hurting the housing market.

Mr Cunliffe told Radio New Zealand this morning that the Labour Party planned to lower immigration levels, but refused to put a limit on it.

Mr Cunliffe said overseas property investors buying houses in New Zealand were pushing up the prices for houses in Auckland.

He said he helped New Zealand Chicago-based business man Perry Keenan purchase a $4 million house in Omaha because he was an old friend and a citizen.

"He is a returning New Zealander who I'm sure at some point will live here," he said.

"He is a returning citizen and an old friend, I helped out a friend."

He said was not an overseas speculator.

In March the Herald on Sunday revealed Mr Cunliffe visited the property when it was on the market in 2013 on behalf of Mr Keenan.

Mr Keenan was a donor behind Mr Cunliffe's campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party last year.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11262561

[fixed_truth]

NEW ZEALANDER LIVING OVERSEAS BUYS HOUSE IN OWN COUNTRY!?!

[pxpx]

"He is a returning New Zealander who I'm sure at some point will live here"

Until his plane tickets are booked, he's not a returning New Zealander?

Anyway, bit of a nothing article. Funny to read Cunliffes response though.

[Lightspeed]

I mean, if we're hyper-inflating every little thing because it's election year, shall I play a game with corrupt ex-minister Williamson, a leader of the National Party who clearly thought it was acceptable to use his role to influence police investigations and responses that involved his mates?

Compare "Hey mate, looking to set up a home back home, giz a hand?"
with "Hey mate, coppers put me up on a charge/won't proceed with this case, giz a hand?"

[Ab]

Maybe if Williamson was the leader of a party that had just announced a new pre-election policy of "never ever ring the police, nothing good ever comes of it", yeah.

[Lightspeed]

Corrupt person in a position of power trumps any wannabes.

[Lightspeed]

Critical responses to this article, anyone?
Peter Lyons: Truth a casualty in Orwellian economy

I ask, because I like what's being said, which usually means there's another side to the story.

[pxpx]

Total misuse of the term Orwellian.

He seems to think the problem is anything but supply (given that only one paragraph mentions it, but only as a dig to the govt).

He also appears to assume that in the absence of available data, it's definitely overseas buyers causing the problem.

Unsure why he's taking a dig at pensioners.

There is no magic bullet to solving the housing market quandary in areas such as Auckland.

Agree on this, and that more data would be nice.

[Ab]

Wow, Labour's going fucking mental over (InternetMana) (threadmerge)

Labour leader David Cunliffe now says his party would make it a priority to get rid of ''coat-tailing" under MMP if it leads the Government after the September election.

He says that within its first 100 days, Labour would remove the coat-tailing provision and lower the MMP threshold required for a party to get MPs without an electorate seats from 5 per cent to 4 per cent.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11267455

With all the hypocrisy and disrespect for electoral process that we have come to expect from NZ Labour.

[pxpx]

I don't see why he didn't just say "if we get in we'll remove the coat-tailing part of MMP before the next election"

There's no need to do it within 100 days and under urgency?

I reckon Labour have given up on the election, aren't keen for the 5 headed monster coalition, and this is an attempt to save face by looking outraged.

Or they are truly, truly insane and maybe we'll see the self destruction of labour before September?

[CCS]

Originally Posted by pxpx

I don't see why he didn't just say "if we get in we'll remove the coat-tailing part of MMP before the next election"

There's no need to do it within 100 days and under urgency?

He wants to look like a bad ass.

He should take some swagger n' strut lessons from Goff.

[Ab]

Perhaps the problem would be better expressed as

"I, David Cunliffe, Leader of the Labour Party, promise that if elected to power we will hastily rewrite the Electoral Act so that the process by which parties are elected to power is changed to a process that suits the Labour Party."

Hey, when expressed like that it sounds remarkably familiar.

JUST. WON'T. LEARN.

[Lightspeed]

Fill me in on what's specific to Labour that can't be generalised to other parties in this regard?

[BoyWonder]

Does DC realise that trying to put that through parliament might just be the first ironic failure of the zoological coalition?

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Fill me in on what's specific to Labour that can't be generalised to other parties in this regard?

You don't fuck with the Electoral Act without consulting the entire Parliament. The Labour Party is the only party I can think of that has ever tried to make changes without consulting the other parties, and look how well that worked.

[fixed_truth]

take steps = start the process within 100 days

Originally Posted by John Key

If you're really, really going to have major change to MMP you'd want to have either consensus or to put it to the people.

National is happy to support the will of the people. No consultation problem here.

[pxpx]

Latest Roy Morgan is out:
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/56...n-201406050202

Nats on 52%

[Ab]

If a National Election were held now the latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows that the result would be a landslide victory for the National Party and a third term for Prime Minister John Key.

Fire up the barbecues boys! Is there time to knife an opposition leader before the election?

[Lightspeed]

Polls. Lolz.

That's the long and short of it.

[Ab]

Roy Morgan is the most erratic of all the NZ polls, so there's some wiggle room there. But with Labour under 30 and National over 50 there are many Labour List MPs facing unemployment. If the question solidifies as "stay quiet and definitely lose my job vs. sack the leader and maybe lose my job"...

[CCS]

Originally Posted by Ab

Fire up the barbecues boys! Is there time to knife an opposition leader before the election?

Snap election!

[Ab]

Hell, the Banks trial gives Key the perfect opportunity. Unless Banks gets discharged without conviction Banks can't remain in parliament.

SNAP ELECTION, DO EEEET

[Lightspeed]

[Ab]

I can't tell the ironic pisstakes from the actual political material any more.

[pxpx]

Place bets now!

Originally Posted by Claire Trevett

From June 20, Labour’s caucus has a three-month window to change the leader without having to go through the party’s new primary-style process giving its membership a vote.

What does everyone reckon? Cunliffe to survive until September?

I hope he does (he's doing a great job for National), but have a feeling that a new leader/deputy partnership will generate a small spike for labour come poll-day, which could be just enough to tip the scales.

[Golden Teapot]

I've been impressed by each of the most recent three labour leaders and what amazes me is that each time they change they pull one out of the hat that is even better than the one before. If they can do this again before the election then I say "go for it".

[fixed_truth]

[Ab]

New Herald Digipoll numbers.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11275259

The poll has National on 50.4 per cent (down 0.4), Labour on 30.5 (up 1), and the Green Party on 10.7 (down 2.4).

Of the smaller parties, NZ First is on 3.6 (no change), the Conservative Party 1.5 (up 0.2), Maori Party 0.8 (up 0.6) and Act on 0.7 (down 0.1). United Future is on 0.1 (up from zero).

Internet Mana got 1.4 – the combined total of 0.5% for Mana, the 0.2% for Internet Party and the 0.7% who said Internet Mana.

There were 12.2 per cent undecided voters.

On those numbers Internana would coat-tail in one extra MP (Harre) if Harawira wins TTT, and the Greens would lose two MPs. National to govern alone easily.

[spigalau]

How does one provide support to Kelvin Davis - would really love to see him have his own electorate.

[Ab]

Let's wait and see whether or not Cunliffe's even going to let him campaign.

Then again, the whole point of a Labour strategy to throw TTT is to increase the numbers of potential Left coalition partners. Based on the new poll, throwing TTT *costs* Labour a coalition seat, since SURPRISE SURPRISE TO ANYONE WHO ISN'T FUCKING RETARDED the Internana party isn't drawing support from National voters, it's sucking away Green support.

[Ab]

I guess now we know why Labour was so upset about Maurice Williamson's interactions with Donghua Liu - they considered him a Labour donor:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11276071

Undeclared donations? Dinners in China? Oh my.

[Ab]

Oh fuck this gets better and better in the way that only NZ Labour can fuck something up:

Labour Party leader David Cunliffe - who said this week he had never met Donghua Liu or advocated on his behalf - wrote a letter to immigration officials on behalf of the controversial businessman who was applying for residency in New Zealand.

Yesterday, Mr Cunliffe told reporters questioning him about Liu's financial support for Labour he did not recall meeting him and denied advocating on Liu's behalf in his residency application.

Liu was granted residency under the Investor Category in 2005 by Labour's associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor against official advice.

Mr Cunliffe this week denied any involvement with Liu's residency bid after the Herald revealed the property developer paid $15,000 at a Labour Party fundraiser for a book signed by Helen Clark in 2007.

The Herald this week revealed Liu's $15,000 secret donation to Labour and today published a 2007 photograph of Labour MP Rick Barker, the Internal Affairs Minister at the time, presenting a bottle of wine to Liu's partner at another Labour Party fundraiser.

Mr Barker also visited Liu in his hometown of Chongqing for a lavish dinner that year.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11276510

Cunliffe has well and truly fucked himself here.

And Labour has now completely immunised National against any accusations of corruption or special-treatment-for-Chinese-business that Labour might have wanted to use between here and the election.

Fucking incredible.

[Lightspeed]

Which of Labour's MPs found the time in their schedule to network Lui's holiday home?

I'm not buying it Ab. Beyond something the media can wave around to appear balanced and give Nat supporters a comforting knee-jerk.

[Ab]

This is end-of-leadership stuff. He's fucked.

Update - NZ Herald:

David Cunliffe is in deep political trouble. So deep that his resignation as Labour's leader may now be very much in order.

It now emerges that - contrary to the point-blank denials that Cunliffe gave to a press conference only yesterday - that he did assist controversial businessman Donghua Liu in the latter's application for New Zealand residency.

At a minimum, the revelation that Cunliffe wrote a letter to immigration officials seeking information on progress regarding the residency application is a massive blow to the Labour leader's personal credibility. How can anyone have any confidence in what he says from here on?

Cunliffe may argue that the letter was about immigration processes and written on a constituent's behalf - something MPs frequently do - and therefore was not an endorsement of the application.

But that does not wash. Either deliberately or through a lapse of memory, Cunliffe has been economical with the truth.

He has called for National Party ministers' heads to roll for the equivalent or less. Having set the standard required of others, it is incumbent on him to himself follow suit.

[CCS]

[pxpx]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

I'm not buying it Ab.

Wake up LS - Cunliffe is bad for Labour and the writing is now on the wall.

[pxpx]

The worst part about this whole thing is going to be the huge boost in green vote