Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Deep, deep trouble.
The chance for Peters to go back to the Parliament after the election is getting slimmer and slimmer. Owen Glenn gave conflicting evidences to Privileges Committee, and now it is revealed that Helen Clark knew that $100,000 donation right back before this whole saga happened.
So who lied?
I don't know really. The only thing I'm quite sure is, Mr Peters is now unfit for his foreign minister duty before he's either cleared or go doomed.
This came at a very interesting time. The emission trading scheme needs New Zealand First, and since Key has ruled out the possibility of any dealings with Peters after the election - in other words, Peters and Helen are now on the same boat.
The problem is, Helen's boat is sinking too. And since Peters has become a sort of "ballot poison", I have to say Mr Key has made a smart move by left Aunty Helen with the poison.
Finally...
Just got rid of all the assignments at the moment, great.
Lots of interesting stuffs happened while I’m away, including the latest transport policy from National – a user pay system that charges around $5 for some sections of Motorway in Auckland. It is likely to increase the cost of an average Auckland commuter by $50 a week.
I usually refer people to this clip every time when National announces something. The user-pay system should nicely fit into that category too.
The system sounds fair, but it’s not, it only seeks fairness in the economic sense.
From a planning point of view, I’m more concerned about the accessibility issues, how to ensure that the low income people have the maximum accessibility to the opportunities provided by the CBD? Motorway is tolled; Dominion Road and Great North/South road are all in a miserable state and you cannot see a bus for half an hour in some area - well people need a way to move around a city?
Sure there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but you cannot force people to take one type of lunch or get them unfairly disadvantaged. The toll just shouldn’t go ahead without viable alternatives to people.
Helen Clark by Stealth
After John Key announced that he will keep the "Working for Families", I really start to wonder, what's the difference between this guy and the Big Sister Helen? Especially the scheme was label by the same person who wants to be our Prime Minister as "Communism by stealth"?
No wonder that Mr key is more like a "Helen Clark by stealth".
Nah that's just a joke. Actually Mr Key is on the right way.
The reason why the old Don fell short by few seats in the last election is that, while people were tired with the Labour, they were not yet ready to accept a right-wing party to govern. Don went too right, and that's definitely very unattractive to Labour and centrist voters.
National improved a lot in the last election, but it was came by squeeze seats out of future coalition partners - Labour lost only one seat in that election
What John Key is doing, is to show Labour voters that, I got all Auntie Helen would offer to you people, and I have stuffs like big tax cut, which she doesn't have.
I think it would be a effective strategy to get labour votes, as long as people don't care about their children and grandchildren...
Bounty on Rice.
as you may know, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be in Auckland this weekend.
I like this idea but this $5,000 bounty is unlikely to be claimed by anyone as it is very unlikely to make a "successful" citizen's arrest of a high level diplomat.
And for $5,000 it is really not worth to risk your own life, but I reckon there will be at least one attempt if there are students who actually work in the hotel where Rice stays.
Just hope no one gets hurt ...
BTW, when I was searching this news in AUSA's site, I accidentally found out that there is a large number of spam links hidden at the bottom of each page. Anyone know how to do this? I need a bit of PageRank boost as well, haha.
About ... Winston
The first thing i wanted to do when I heard that Winnie is in trouble is to laugh out loud, "haha", like Nelson in the Simpsons.
This man was an expert to find other's dirt and plays it, and now the tide is turning.
Anyway, I actually trust Peters this time. I believe he really didn't know anything wrong on his legal fund. Reason? Simple, Peters is a very experienced politician, he knows if he lies on this issue it probably means the end of his life, oh political life I mean.
But whether he intentionally lied really doesn't matter now, public don't care.
I am not familiar with parliament rules so I cannot comment on whether Peters breached any rules. But in my untrained eyes, there is clearly a conflict of interest when racing businesses start to donate Money to Racing Minister.
About that $100,000 dollars, I don't know whether donation to a legal fund should be decleared, but there is, again, a conflict of interest. A job-wanting person gives the man who is responsible to dish jobs out 100 grand is clearly not right.
If Peters did not declare either of both he's clearly in deep trouble. Maybe this is the last year that we will see Winston Peters jumping up and down in the parliament.
Oh I'll miss him. He's quite good most time actually, at least there's very few harms he has done. In the situations where Peters is not useful, he'll at least say something entertaining, like the comments regarding immigrants.
How to pass the time in Parliament
I know Parliament debate can sometimes get very boring and making our "hard working" MPs go crazy or fall asleep (David Benson-Pope).
For those who are still struggling to keep themselves awake in the chamber in this harsh winter, this is quite a good way to pass time:
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej passes the time folding a paper crane during the censure debate in parliament yesterday.(Source:Bangkok Post)
I doubt if Auntie Helen got the skill to fold one of those.
