NZ POLITICS DAILY: You can't make this stuff up
You can't make this stuff up. Well, you can, but it is hard to distinguish from the stuff that isn't made up.
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You can’t make this stuff up. Well, you can, but it is hard to distinguish from the stuff that isn’t made up.
Such is the case with Colin Craig’s sense-of-humour failure at being ‘quoted’ by satirical blog The Civilian. Toby Manhire thinks that the Christian politician just can’t be for real, and we’re all victims of a huge hoax: ‘For you must be a character, a chimera, an invention. Mustn't you? The alternative is too bizarre to contemplate’ – see: Politics spawns a truth stranger than fiction.
Craig’s legal advisers – who issued defamation orders against the satirist Ben Uffindell – should instead have given him some common-sense advice about the unintended consequences of these types of threats, says Andrew Geddis: ‘I hope whomsoever it was at Chapman Tripp that advised Mr Craig about his legal options also drew his attention to the Streisand Effect. Because I think that the next few days are going to see it operating in full force’ – see: Colin Craig, Chapman Tripp and the Streisand Effect. Steven Price at Media Law Journal puts it more bluntly: ‘Memo to anyone thinking of suing or threatening someone else for defamation after that person made fun of them. Don’t’ – see: Defamation and satire.
If Colin Craig wanted more media attention he certainly succeeded, but if he actually wanted to stop satirical interviews then it’s a big ‘F’ – see: Danyl Mclauchlan’s The Dim-Post interviews Conservative Party leader Colin Craig. Scott Yorke, perhaps taking pity on Craig, decided to poke fun at himself instead – see: Defamation hoax leaves blogger red-faced. Mind you, after sinking $1.6 million into his political party and image (Conservative leader is his party's only disclosed donor) we shouldn’t be surprised that Colin Craig isn’t laughing along with everyone else.
Green MP Gareth Hughes’ ‘Hey Clint’ moment is being debated – both for what it says about politicians, their handlers and the reporters who cover them. Patrick Gower has no regrets about using the footage, saying it exposed the way politicians often disguise their true feeling’s when commenting on the record – see: Broadcasting 'Hey Clint!' was right move.
No Right Turn sees a different problem: ‘The spin doctors and advisers, the apparat, are interested in perpetuating their cosy, well-paid Parliamentary jobs more than they are in party policies, and will compromise the latter to protect the former. That happened long ago with Labour’ – see: A look inside the sausage factory.
The media are a part of the problem, rather than the solution, thinks Will de Cleene: ‘As any Politics 101 student can tell you, journalists and politicians are symbiotic parasites. One cannot live without their tentacles in the other sucker's guts’ – see: Parasites Lost.
Will Labour be as bold in other economic policies as it has been with the electricity market? Deputy Leader Grant Robertson tried to calm the horses, moving to ‘try and reassure financial markets that its sudden lurch to favour central planning in the electricity industry is one-off’ – see the NBR’s Labour won't intervene in any other market, says deputy.
‘Well that didn’t take long, did it?’ is Chris Trotter’s response, where he attacks Robertson for ‘surrendering all the gains his party had made’, and makes some observations on the Labour deputy leader’s political motivations from personal experience – see: “Hey, Julian! – We Are NOT Pleased!” Grant Robertson Calls Off Labour’s Assault On Neoliberalism. Not so, says David Farrar, claiming ‘Labour has already indicated significant interventions in Broadcasting, Insurance, Farming, Forestry, Building and Land’ – see: Where else?
It was just what David Shearer needed, argues Brian Rudman: ‘What just happened? Bland, colourless Labour leader David Shearer has suddenly been transmogrified into a working-class hero’ – see: Shearer electrifying free-market debate.
John Key’s refusal to attack Winston Peter’s over his share buy-back policy was telling, says Vernon Small who argues that ‘Choosing not to criticise Peters was as clear a signal as any that Key sees New Zealand First as his best – maybe his only – lifeline back into office in 2014’ – see: Key on back foot over power policy. Small thinks there is no evidence of the policy creating a major poll shift immediately but believes the Labour-Greens plan ‘is a slow burner as the power bills roll in’.
The impact of the plan on the share floats is still being hotly debated in what is as much a political issue as a financial one. Pattrick Smellie thinks the shares have gone from being a ‘simple savings-style proposition’ to a punt to be made using risk capital – money you can afford to lose – see: Power play over shares just got trickier. There seems a consensus that it will have a substantial impact on the price taxpayers will receive – see Tim Hunter’s Analyst cuts 10pc off MRP. This is all enough for the Dominion Post to say Key should consider MRP sale delay.
Gerald Hensley, the former head of the Prime Minister's Department under David Lange has published a new book which portrays his boss’ dealings over ANZUS as filled with ‘indiscipline and duplicity’ – see Nick Venter’s Lange tripped on nuclear linoleum.
Hindsight is a great thing and there was plenty of it as numerous writers tried to tiptoe through our military history on ANZAC day without offending sensibilities on all sides. Looking at our most recent and current military engagements is always the most contentious and difficult but that didn’t deter some. TVNZ’s Michael Parkin thinks the threat from neighbouring regions means the future of Bamiyan province, where New Zealand troops have just left, is not as rosy as we are told: ‘But while outwardly our Government and Defence Force express every confidence that ANP officers will stand and fight and not cut and run when called on, what's happened on the ground tells a different story’ – see: New Zealand's legacy in Afghanistan under fire.
Maori Television screened the documentary He Toki Huna: New Zealand in Afghanistan (which can be viewed online), including the perspective of journalist Jon Stevenson who has for many years given an independent view of the war and who has been attacked by our government because of it.
Finally, they used to be nicknamed ‘Razor Gangs’ when Roger Douglas, Bill Birch and Ruth Richardson were in charge, but the current official name is Better Public Services, and former journalist and DOC boss Alistair Morrison is joining the team – see Kate Chapman’s Morrison leaves DOC for SSC.
Bryce Edwards
Fri, 26 Apr 2013
Fri, 26 Apr 2013
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NZ POLITICS DAILY: You can't make this stuff up
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