New Zealand politics

Key misled public over Jason Ede

Russel Norman

Jason Ede featured in Nicky Hager's book - Dirty Politics.

Green Party,

24 November, 2014

Information contained in a new chapter of the book Key: Portrait of a Prime Minister, that Jason Ede stopped working for the National Party on the night the book Dirty Politics was released, shows Mr Key and senior ministers hid crucial facts from the public during the election campaign, says the Green Party.

“All through the campaign John Key misled New Zealanders by pretending that Jason Ede was still working for the National Party, when in fact he had stopped immediately after the revelations about his attack politics came out,” said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman.

“By pretending that Mr Ede was still working for the National Party in the wake of Dirty Politics, John Key gave the impression that National was unfazed by allegations that Mr Ede had run a black ops attack regime from the Prime Minister’s ninth floor office.

“Mr Key has gone to such lengths to stress how much time he spends wearing his National Party leader hat lately that it defies belief he wouldn’t have known the second Mr Ede stopped working for his party.

“Mr Key misled New Zealanders. Had he told the truth – that Jason Ede had stopped working for National immediately – then the public would have taken a very different impression of the allegations.

“When John Key told journalists on 17 August 2014, ‘he (Ede) works for the National Party now, that’s all I know’ he misled the public, because Mr Ede didn’t work for the National Party then at all.

“Why didn’t John Key just tell the truth and let New Zealanders know that Jason Ede stopped working for National as soon as the damaging book came out? And why, when announcing Mr Ede’s resignation shortly after the election, didn’t he reveal that Mr Ede hadn’t worked for National for several weeks?

“John Key knew that the fact Mr Ede stopped working for National as soon as Dirty Politics was published contradicted his claim that attack politics like Ede was engaged in was normal practice for all parties. Clearly it was only normal for National,” Dr Norman said.

'Short-term' terror laws until 2018

Opponents say PM breaking his promise on rules aimed at foreign fighters.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman described the law changes as draconian and anti-democratic. Photo / Jason

NZ Herald

24 November, 2014

Urgent law changes being introduced to combat the threat of "foreign fighters" will be in place until 2018, prompting opponents to question the Government's promise they would be "short-term" measures.

Prime Minister John Key yesterday released the final draft of the Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill, which would be tabled in the House tomorrow.

He expected it to be passed into law before the end of the year, though there would be time for some public consultation.

Mr Key denied there had been little consultation with other political parties about the bill.

He told TVNZ's Breakfast show today there had been a very "thorough and private" briefing with political parties that could support the bill, including the Labour Party.

"It's not only been a pretty thorough consultation, we actually gave pre-disclosure copies of the bill to a range of people who are interested in making submissions."

There was also a select committee process to go through, he said.

"What we're trying to do is put a short term band aid on a very serious issue."

It was "nonsense" that people should now fear being spied on in their homes without just cause, Mr Key said.

"If you have a look at what's happening here, for a start off, what we're doing is we're giving authorities the capacity to cancel a passport - not just for 12 months, but for three years.

"To get your passport cancelled is a very high threshold and is nothing to do with spying."

The surveillance aspect was only extending powers to the SIS, he said.

The law changes follow Mr Key's speech on national security this month in which he outlined a number of urgent counter-terrorism measures including passport cancellations and warrantless searches.

Mr Key said at the time the measures were designed for the short-term and would be subject to a sunset clause. The draft bill shows the legislation would expire on April 1, 2018.

Mr Key said this deadline reflected the length of time it would take to complete a more comprehensive review of New Zealand's security and intelligence legislation.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman described the law changes as draconian and anti-democratic.

He was particularly opposed to changes which made it possible to render a person stateless by cancelling their passport, and warrantless searches on houses by spies who were under ministerial control.

"It's a kind of extraordinary thing that you expect the Chinese Communist Party to do," he said.

Dr Norman said the expiry date for the changes belied Mr Key's reassurance the changes would be short-term.

National was seeking cross-party support for the changes, but Dr Norman said it was difficult to see how his party would support it. Labour remains undecided on the law changes.

Mr Key said there would be time for a shortened select committee process before the bill was passed.

The bill had been shared with all parties and also interested groups outside Parliament to allow them more time to consider it.

We know how far we have come towards a fascist state based on neo-fedalism when the history of social welfare in this country is rewritten

Social housing policies “stupid”

Via Facebook

Well, Mike Hosking is the first political commentator I have heard to describe the state housing policies of the first Labour government (Savage+Fraser) "stupid".

Who knew? Apparently providing quality housing for thousands of New Zealanders in the wake of a world war and a financial crisis was "stupid". Actually Mr. Hosking, it was a terrific leap forward for our country.

What has made the state of state-owned housing the nightmare which it is in some areas today, is not the housing or the policy, it is the affects of inequality which are felt in it's communities. That is where we went wrong as a country.

--- Bennett Morgan