Internet MANA and the 2014 election

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It was always going to be a hard task for Hone Harawira to hold onto his Te Tai Tokerau seat when the political establishment united in a coalition to defeat him and the chance for Internet MANA to bring more MPs into parliament.

From the outset Labour candidate Kelvin Davis announced he was going hard-out to win the seat despite any sane strategist realising at that stage that Labour would almost certainly need Internet MANA votes in a coalition of the left to change the government. Killing off MANA’s parliamentary representation would be a self-defeating strategy. However Davis was quickly backed up by several more of the party’s right wing MPs such as Phil Goff and Chris Hipkins and then by Labour leader David Cunliffe.

Davis and the right wing of Labour saw changing the government as a second priority to driving MANA out of parliament. Davis preferred to be a MP on the losing team rather than a supporter of the winning team.

Prime Minister John Key joined Labour’s campaign calling National supporters to vote for Davis (the only other time I can recall a National Party leader urging their supporters to vote Labour was in 2011 when Key similarly called for Hone’s defeat)

The Maori Party leadership were arguing the same strategy behind the scenes and finally Winston Peters joined in with a last minute appeal to New Zealand First voters to back Davis.

Alongside the coalition ran a media onslaught attacking Kim Dotcom and by direct association Internet MANA. TV3 for example flew a crew to the Philippines to interview three former employees of Kim Dotcom over workplace grievances. Fair enough. But the same channel couldn’t find the journalistic justification to send a crew walk down the road to find the Prime Minister’s employee, Jason Ede, who worked with Cameron Slater to hack Labour Party computers and write vicious attack blogs against anyone who fell foul of the National government.

I could write a small book about media coverage of the campaign but don’t have the time or the patience. Suffice to say that no politician should object to being held accountable by the media and neither should they object to journalists getting stuck in to get to the truth behind the dissembling political spin of candidates, parties and their cronies. Neither is it a problem when journalists give their opinions on the issues of the day. However when those opinions drive the narrative that is presented to the public as news then we have a serious problem.

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And so it was that Maoridom’s greatest contemporary champion was knocked out of parliament.

Just how important this was for the ruling elite was clear when the largest cheer at the news Kelvin Davis was ahead of Hone Harawira came from those attending the National Party’s post-election campaign celebration.

And so why was Internet MANA such a threat to the political establishment and their corporate backers? Because our policies such as free tertiary education, feeding the kids, building more state houses, shifted the tax burden to the rich who don’t pay taxes are a serious threat to the “free market” policies of the past 30 years which have enriched the few at the expense of the many.

National and Labour were happy to accommodate Internet MANA provided we stayed in our own small space on the field while the big boys played the game. But when we made a strategic alliance with the Internet Party all that changed.

The political establishment and the corporate media wanted us to remain pure and powerless but were enraged when we dared threaten to disrupt the cosy arrangement where Labour and National take turns to run the free market on behalf of the corporate sector.

In this month’s New Zealand Herald “Mood of the Boardroom” survey of the opinions of the Chief Executives of our largest companies one referred to Internet MANA as “dangerous radicals”. I’m happy to take that as a compliment.

Every political party gets corporate donations but unlike other parties which mould their policies to ensure the corporate donations keep flowing, Internet MANA had no such constraints.

MANA entered this strategic alliance with the Internet Party on the basis there would be no compromise – not even a single comma – on any of our policies.

The whole country knows who our corporate donor was and knows the policies MANA approved before Dotcom was in sight have not changed. We can’t say the same for National or Labour on either point in relation to their corporate donations.

All of us in MANA knew the association with Kim Dotcom was a big risk but it was a risk we were prepared to take to break out of the one percent polling we were stuck in and get more MANA MPs into parliament. We went in with our eyes open. We were prepared to risk everything and lose everything because the struggle of families on low-incomes demands active campaigning outside parliament and a louder voice in parliament.

Our parliamentary strategy failed spectacularly on Saturday but I have no regrets that we tried.

MANA as a movement works with people in many and various local campaigns as well as gaining representation in parliament. For the meantime the parliamentary side has stalled but the campaigning goes on and so the day after the election MANA banners were on the Queen Street march calling for action on climate change. The corporates will hate us for it.

There were no National or Labour banners.

106 COMMENTS

    • The writing was on the all for Hone the moment Mana decided to take Dotcom’s 3 million pieces of silver. NZers saw that and their stomachs were turned.

      Good riddance.

      Sue Bradford can hold her head high today.

      • Well clown it clearly states that you no nothing, the 3mil your talking about didn’t come MANA way at all, should do your homework. the 3mil went towards Internet Party campaign clown, get the true facts before you write on the all ooh(wall)!!!!

      • SHG -so answer me this.

        Q1: What is the difference between Mana-Internet’s one wealthy benefactor, and National, Labour, and ACT’s multiple wealthy benefactors?

        Q2: Why is it ok for National, Labour, and ACT to have wealthy benefactors – but not Mana-Internet?

        Q3: Why shouldn’t there be a level playing field between National, Labour, and ACT and the Mana-Internet alliance?

        Answer me those three questions if you can.

        Because, really, I’m interested in the answers.

        • Answers:
          1: Being financially backed by a convicted criminal using the proceeds of his crimes is unacceptable. The electorate agreed.
          2: Same answer as 1.
          3:There was/is a level playing field. Same rules apply to everyone.

          Close to defamation. Skirting a month ban. – Scarletmod

          • 1. “Proceeds of crime”? What crime has he been convicted of that he gained “proceeds” from?

            Seems to me he hasn’t had his day in Court, and you’ve prejudged him?

            3. Not according to certain people like you, right-wingers, and the MSM. Tried and convicted, without a single second in Court.

            See what I mean about double standards, Mike?

            • Totally agree with all your comments Frank

              Q: What did Kim ever do to us or to you Mike to deserve the treatment he as been getting

              Q: What did we do to him – imprisoned him (illegally) – confiscated his personal belongs (illegally) – impounded his bank accounts (illegally) – attacked his home (illegally)

              Oh sorry I forgot thats right we’re living in Syria – Iraq – Afganistan – Pakistan – the Gazza strip – Russia – Chile during the time that they voted DEMOCRATICALLY for a Communist or Socialist Government – I could go on but I think you get the picture Mike

            • Proceeds of Crime
              Megaupload charged fee for ppl to have storage on site.
              Trademe charged fee for ppl to list auctions on site.
              Megaupload customers mostly stored legal content. Some stored copyrighted content which they shared illegally.
              Trademe customers sold mostly legal articles. Some sold non-existent goods, fake brands & stolen items.
              Megaupload had free complaints facility to report copyright issues.
              Trademe had report facilities which they charged phone fees for and didn’t refund even when goods were stolen etc.
              Trademe kept listing fees etc of bad auctions even when they were stolen goods involved.

              Therefore, both KDC and Sam Morgan’s wealth contains the same element – some of it comes from the proceeds of crime.

              Why is it the Prime Minister of New Zealand does not have a beef with Sam Morgan?

                • Yeah no problem. I just think its hypocritical that one is NZ’s poster boy & his family is allowed a political voice, and the other is treated appallingly.

              • Agree. Calling Dotcom a criminal re Megaupload is like calling Toyota a criminal for manufacturing cars people go on to break the road rules in. He admits hacking in to both NASA and the German Chancellor’s personal bank accounts aged 19, and doing time for that. I think NZ owes him a huge thankyou for having the courage to take on the transnational corporate juggernaut via their puppet John Key, for funding a political grouping that puts people above profit, for promoting policies that would bring NZ into the 21st century on IT issues, and for the astonishing achievement of getting 3 of the most significant world whistleblowers into the AK town hall together to warn NZers of the terrible danger we face from the juggernaut. The same powers whose corruption has been exposed by particularly Snowden ultimately control the world news sources, including ours – so of course our system has focussed solely on trashing Dotcom. Apparently the link to Snowden in Moscow was in doubt until after the meeting had begun. That Dotcom recognised the import of what was occurring, and stepped down from promoting his personal agenda to let those men speak, was gracious and adult. That THEY took Greenwald (and Dotcom’s Moment) seriously to all appear together, speaks of their respect. After reading Hager’s book – just apply what he reveals in it to every media situation and you begin to see how we are being manipulated.

              • Think the priority for Mr Dotcom at the moment is/was disclosing to the public the very individuals that are using corruption ,lies and deceit against him are the same individuals who are now doing it to the public of NZ .

                Thusly – HIS STORY HAS BECOME OUR STORY.

                And thats called being NOBLE.

      • Internet Mana could have been a successful strategy. Let’s not give in to the media discourse here. It allowed Mana to expand beyond it’s electorate to include other policies such as increased Internet, digital economy and so forth. As well as an injection of cash that other parties get through donations to run a campaign. Nothing unusual here at all. Kim Dotcom was successful for Mana until he became such a threat to the establishment that ALL political parties including some in Mana turned against him. He is a victim too here and by regurgitating the main stream media discourses (tried to buy NZ etc) fall in with their strategy. NEWS FLASH here – NZ has already been sold – that was the point of the moment of truth, SKy city, Roading etc. Also Moment of Truth was extremely successful to the point that the establishment has to do something. Can’t have dissenters with power out there. I see it as a successful strategy that failed at the end and only just by 1000 votes. Pretty close I think. Don’t turn on Dot Com – you are just marginalizing yourself instead embrace him back – even if you are not in power he is a symbol and an archives heal to those that are.

    • Same here John. Please don’t get bogged down in endless blame; just as David Cunliffe is losing respect daily for failing to acknowledge he/they made bad decisions, it might be cathartic if your good guys and girls did the same. Strategic calls have to be made all over; Mana made a strategic call with Dotcom – it seems to have not helped although the $$ allowed much travel and resource. Other losing parties should also ponder their bad calls. Though in truth – none of us can really unlock the essence of the failure. NZ just adores John Key; that’s the long and short of it. Hone’s defeat is a huge loss to NZ parliament and politics. He must carry on. (Sue Bradford also)

  1. Personally I don’t understand the ‘supposed’ hatred/distrust of Kim Dotcom that’s being reported across NZ, and I suspect much of this is the media talking up public distrust of him (I’m sure there’s some that really don’t like him, but many who are neither here nor there).

    But seriously, in all of this, what on earth was Labour thinking by ruling out a coalition with Internet MANA – what strategists or polls had they been listening to to make that decision a week or so out from election?!

    • They were listening to the ABC’s….who have an inordinate amount of power in Labour.

      They are simply the embedded stooges of the neo liberals in the National party…..Davis is simply the boy working for them.

      Until Labour grows a pair and dismisses these neo liberals….you will see more of the same disintegration of Labour.

      And the Left.

    • I hope that Mana and the Internet party will continue. It is clearly missing the point to blame either Kim Dotcom or Hone Harawira for this defeat. Look at the facts: in approx the last week of the election the Green vote fell 4% having been consistently around 13% all year; Internet Mana vote, which had been rising steadily to around 4% fell to about a third of that; the NZ First vote that had been around 4% for months goes up to 9%. What happened to affect the minor parties like this?
      Simple. Labour refused to endorse the Greens and IMP but courted NZ First, without any guarantee that NZ First would give their votes to Labour. Labour got exactly the result that it wanted. Colluding with National to win Hone Hanawira’s seat was the icing on the cake.
      Labour and National are a duopoly. If you dont believe me, see what happens if the Greens ever get more votes than Labour ~ Labour will go into coalition with the Nats. Between them Nats and Labour, with the full support of the media, will destroy any party that looks like threatening their power. In short Labour is treacherous; no true leftwing party should have any dealings with them.
      So where from here? The Mana Party and Internet Party need to regroup. On the Internet Party web site (Loomio) I suggest 8 steps that need to be taken to contest the 2017 election. The disaster on 20th Sept was mainly due to the perfidity of Labour. Learn the lesson and start again.

      • Totally agree, there is something wrong with Labour. I am an ex Labour voter who abandoned them. Why did I do this? Firstly I am interested in center policies with social and environmental outcomes. I do not like to see kids without food, but have a mortgage too and (shock horror) a rental property. I should be voting National right? But no, I believe in Anti corruption, Free Education, free health, social and environmental good, public transport, freedom of speech, Justice and the like. I don’t hate farmers or foreigners because quite frankly they still helping stability in the economy until we move more into the digital age, which NZ should be embracing (and isn’t, exempt in rhetoric). I would prefer to have IT gurus immigrating to NZ like Dotcom (who can set up a company that apparently controlled 5% of the internet traffic) than polluters who set up mining and pollute our seas under the our immigration policy. Since I believe you are innocent until proven guilty I don’t think Dotcom is a criminal at all – and I would like him to get a transparent trial in his resident country NZ not the US. At least he lives here full time unlike most of the other rich foreigners here. Quite frankly I think he will be found innocent and don’t even think he should be charged with anything in the first place. I want NZ to have a media that just reports the facts and actually does investigative journalism not just eye candy and hype. (this maybe the biggest dream of all). So the reason I did not vote National or Labour but actually the Internet Mana party is that I thought they were in the best position to root out corruption and had policies were the best and seemed to believe in social justice not just for Maori but also pakeha and shock horror again Dotcom who is not getting a fair trial in NZ. Right to the wire I did not know who to vote for was Labour, Green or Internet Mana. But when the other parties turned against Dot com and entered the media fray against him – I was completely turned off them – because they did not say Innocent until proven guilty, Lets investigate dirty trick and clean up politics – NZ is going corrupt – Is there a privacy issue in NZ – What is the relationship between NSA and GSCB etc – they said Lets not get distracted from the issues – Im sick of Dot com. WTF? Those are not issues? – the message I got from Labour and Greens is that we are career politicians that don’t care or understand when a relevant issue that came up – Corruption is top of my list of my priorities as a voter. I want accountability. I don’t want dirty deals and attacking individuals human rights in this country. I don’t want to vote for a BRAND politician while policy is decided by a powerful group behind the scenes and the PM’s job is just to make it sound palatable. So corruption, human rights and accountability is my first issue (apparently irrelevant to labour and the Greens). If they could not mobilize with all the ammunition they were given by the Internet Mana, Dirty Politics and Judith Collins and instead spun the ‘vote positive’ message because they were some lap dog of the labour strategy and told to repeat that. Get a grip – The town hall was full of people – they were mobilizing and the Labour and the Greens let everyone down because they shot down the issues and said they were not relevant to their campaign. So my guess is that floating voters like me (who decide elections) believed them and didn’t vote, or voted national or NZ First ) as Labour and the Greens did NOT get a message out there against dirty politics and corruption but instead just looked like lazy lap dogs leading many younger voters not to bother voting and the middle classed to vote National. This was not a free and fair election when All Blacks are tweeting vote National to the poor on election day and ALL other parties including Labour and Greens told a poor electorate not to vote Internet Mana.

        • “Save NZ” Thank you, thank you.
          You have expressed word for word what I think and believe in. I wish I could express it so well when I defend my decision to vote Mana. People seemed convinced that it is a wasted vote but I would rather vote for what I want and not get it than vote (or not vote) for what I don’t want and get heaps of it!

    • Agree with you Booker – they gained one seat – Kelvins – had they left things alone and let Hone get on with it the left vote would have gained 4 seats – it became impossible for Hone to hang on when Labour – the Maori Party – NZ First supported by the National party got in behind Kelvin – as it turned out 4 wouldnt have been enough to change the Government because (laughably) the Labour vote collapsed!! – Hone will be back!

  2. Right on John – battle’s only just begun.

    There was a piece by Tau Henare in my local rag today ascribing Hone’s loss to the link up with Internet Party/Kim Dotcom. Hone was good Hone when he was going to be lone voice Hone but the threat of a much stronger voice was too scary.

    Henare’s analysis is a convenient smokescreen. It seems clear to me that Maori, NZF, transNational, Labour etc didn’t want any chance of Hone + Laila, Annette and John. You lot would have been very awkward for all of them all the time.

    • Some would say Henare ‘s analysis is a smokescreen …..others would rather be more direct and blunt with the truth.

      Henare is a sell out to the National party and neo liberalism.

  3. “And so why was Internet MANA such a threat to the political establishment and their corporate backers?”

    Because of the underlying issue of conscience, copyright and fair use. Fair use falls within the domain of equity, not law or legislation. Equity is based on matters of conscience, and injury of fair use, eg US doctrine which results in copying being deemed to be theft, is a consequence of a fundamental ethical disconnect.

    This explains in part why Labour had to oppose Internet Mana: Cunliffe’s CGT (Contemptible Gangster Tactics) attacks trusts, and trusts also fall within the domain of equity.

  4. Winston was out of parliament for three years and look at him now. Since he’s probably not going to run again there are a lot of votes up for grabs at the next election.

  5. Well written analysis John, as a swing voter I waited till Saturday to cast my Vote, I’m happy I made the decision to vote Internet/MANA, you have been up against the establishment as has Hone an I do hope you can all stick together, Kim, Laila the whole group, I’m sure the supporters will be their in three years, an hopefully KDC won’t have Uncle Sam on his case, the public still have a couple of inquiries which if are treated honestly by their Judges should prove to the general public that Dirty Politics is deep in National Party an Government , So stand strong an I look forward to reading an watching Internet Party future, thanks for your honesty, John, Kim, Hone, Laila.

  6. “To whom do lions cast their gentle looks? Not to the beast that would usurp their den. The smallest worm will turn being trodden on, And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.”

    William Shakespeare’s – Henry VI, Part 3.

    The worm WILL turn

  7. Oh come on John give Kelvin some credit, he has fought 3 previous battles to win the seat. Just like Sue Bradford who I greatly respect, I thought Hone is a gone burger going down the Dotcom track. Too many of his previous voters were seeing MANA as a failed political party. This come from them, by linking up with a man who had donated to bent Bankie and if not busted would probably carried on donating to ACT & National.

    Davis and his team were there during the floods aftermath clean up, food parcels, fund raising. People saw this and people talk, coupled with plenty are related to both of them. Kelvin is a good man and works hard in his community, he has the numbers of Maori MP’s to gets some runs on the board. About all that went right was Maori support for Labour held up on a tuff night for us.

    The two party’s should never have merged it was chalk & cheese.

    I will

    • Sorry, but we need less bureaucrats in parliament and more risk takers, and champions. Tai Tokerau had a chance to do something and make history. Instead, they chose the establishment.

    • Maori get burned by labour over and over. We are like the battered wife who keeps going back – till one day they kill us.

    • You also forget it was the testimony in court by the very man you are implying was the downfall of IMP this election that finally secured the verdict ,conviction and sentencing in court of Banks.

      Show some gratitude for truth ,democracy and political integrity if you really want to call yourself Left.

    • Well Kelvin was only there because it was election year, where the hell was he when we hikoi against Legal Highs and Stop the Oil Drilling!!!!
      Kelvin was only getting brownie points for himself, I have no respect for that. MANA was cheated we all know that, why are you fellows playing the blame game… We know who to blame Natz, Labour, So called Maori Party and Natz first!!!!Stop blaming Dot.com or Mana to justify your fellows crookedness you cowards!!!!

      • Yes – how all those partys dealt with IMP , KDC ……..AFTER being the beneficiaries of the town hall meeting exposing JohnXKEYSCORE and his grubby little dealings with the NSA…

        Im sorry but there is only one word that deals adequately with that ……….

        TREACHERY.

    • Skinny – Davis won only because of endorsement from John Key, Winston Peters, and the Maori Party.

      If their endorsements were meaningless in the final analysis – why did those three Parties make them?

      • Frank I know the story I’ve spoken to plenty of those who voted in the TTT seat. Davis didn’t lose by much last time. While Hone was in Wellington Kelvin was chipping away in the region. You have to remember they both are related to each other and plenty of the voters are related to them aswell. Some had voted twice for Hone and simply voted for the underdog. Others thought Hone had got too big for his boots. To say the ringing endoresment from Key and Peters was why he won is bullshit. Key telling voters how to vote in TTT is insulting it’s not Epsom Frank. Kelvin had gained plenty of voters over on merit of working hard being approachable.

        Dotcom if not busted would probably been donating large donations of money to the cabinet club. Hone knew things were sketchy the Dotcom link didn’t go down well. He wasn’t sticking to the kupapa. West Auckland Mana’s campaigning wasn’t strong and Labour’s was which Davis benefited from being with a bigger party.

        • Come on Skinny are you for real? – clearly Kelvin gained votes because NZ First & National strongly supported him and Cunliffe was running around the country telling everyone he wasnt having a bar of InternetMANA nor Hone – couple them all together and thats a huge vote counting number for Hone to have to deal with because as you say Kelvin hasnt been all that far behind in earlier elections – but we’ll be back next time round and no matter who Labour put up as their candidate they will be swamped by the support we will be giving Hone and the MANA Movement – United We Stand brother

  8. Thank you John….

    As said above … The battle`s has only just begun , we are down but not out!!

    We are the fighter for the poor and dispossessed , and we will ensure those whom NZ have elected , do their jobs in parliament and not sit on their bums for the next three years….

  9. Look at Mt Albert. Labour won Electorate vote easily but lost the Party vote! Shearer supporters wanted him in but were worried about Labour bringing in Dotcom and the Green economy ideas, so voted National for their party vote.

    Elections are won near the centre and Labour needs to distance themselves from far Left, or just hide the far Left in their own party somewhere. Greens need to stick to green policys and leave economy ideas up to Labour.

    • For goodness sake I wouldn’t be a Green voter or Green member and supporter if the Greens left the economy to Labour. When Clark’s government went down the gurgler after 9 years of great economic times, there were 100,000+ kids living in poverty. If they couldn’t do something about this why would we ever expect the right wing too. Labour moved to the right in the eighties and has never really moved back to the left. Labour continue to be to entrenched with big business and mostly don’t look after the poor and dispossesed. What you are saying here is that the Left will never win, well they are the activists, they are the people on the street and they are the people that truly care.I don’t ever envisage voting for Labour ever ever again, they are weak and aren’t bold enough to put the big ideas out there.

      • It is because of two reasons that Labour continues to fail in social democratic solutions.

        1) There are too many right wing neo libeals STILL undealt with that hold prominent positions .

        2) They are vehemently against Keynesian based social democracy , and are quite prepared to sabotage the party and other parties and cause it to loose if it appears the neo liberal grip will be weakened.

        Davis is merely a stooge – a boy – for the neo liberals of both National and Labour.

  10. Internet-Mana lost precisely because it ran on the ONLY COHERENT SET of policies — especially in the economic area. Whether as a result of a traditonally second rate educagtion system that fails to teach kids not to continue the knee-bending pro-Authority attitudes of their parents, or because Kiwis can’t sdem to think beyond ONE-ISSUE politics — be it a capital-gains tax, hatred of “the German”, or whatever — the electoral disaster Saturday was not one ceated by KDC or Internet-Mana or Hone. It was brought down by the People on their own heads…a HUGE problem in the future for the only party that sees a need fo FUNDAMENTAL change in this country — Internet-Mana.

  11. Very accurate summary Mr. Minto, it’s unfortunate things didn’t go our way but as you say, it’s deffinitely not the end of MANA we will still be out there doing the ground work for the people that national etc don’t go near to unless it’s for a photo op. Of course they were all running scared with the possibility of yourself, Hone, Annette, Laila & so on, making it in to hold them accountable for ‘every breath’ & the fact that they all had a vested interest in what happened in Tai Tokerau & doing/saying all they could to sway votes away from Hone speaks volumes of that fear of MANA MOVEMENT/ MANA IPURANGI & what it could achieve with a larger parliamentary presence. KDC was just a convenient smokescreen to use by them & the media. After initially feeling somewhat deflated, my perspective changed, as I said above MANA is still MANA & I hope that fire for change stays in our bellies as it has for yourself, Hone & Annette these decades you all have been fighting hard at the ‘frontlines’. The job is a bit harder now but we have 3 years to get unified, prepared & stronger for 2017. I have no doubt national & their partners will unravel themselves, they cannot maintain the lies & secrecy from the good citizens of Aotearoa.

    Bring it on!

    “an arrow can only be shot if it is pulled back”

    Mauri Ora

  12. Well done John, I always intended to vote Internet Mana and did so. Will be supporting Mana Movement over the coming years too.

    It was worth the effort and the gamble with IMP but the struggle goes on.
    Having Laila and Hone in parliament would have taken some of the sting out Sat result but not to be this time. IMP got more party vote though than either ACT or Hairdo who will be ministers in the next government thanks to an unreformed MMP system.

    Two important points; Labour is a class collaborationist party that sometimes has to be worked with but there should be no doubt about its true nature. The media–“manufacturing consent” is an old phrase but it applies today because from “Dirty Politics” to the relentless attacks on the left they help create large sections of kiwis more interested in sport or Kim Kardashian breaking a fingernail than civic society.

    Kia Kaha Mana Movement.

  13. I knew Hone had to sacrifice . This has now created another journey and direction for Hone his calling is coming and Mana supporters will be guided once more on their pathway that the Lord is going to provide. Trust me. Do not give up hope. The Lord has never foesakwn you Hone he wanted to see how much you truly live him and you have transparently shown us. Do not lose faith as you have to take time in solitude to get your answers and they are coming soon. KDC has changed the game plan but that was needed in order to continue on with Gods plan not those who are blinded by greed like Kelvin and his oversized ego. Remember the lord knows everything. Everything he orchestrated because he has a mission that you are to fulfil and he sees you as the chosen one to lead his people not key. Blessings

  14. It was too much for the establishment. Hone on his own is fine. Hone with other like minded people would be difficult to control. That’s why he lost. Not that people gave up on him. Davis was talking to WO prior to the election. The world with the support of the US has gone right. Labour will only survive if they go to the centre. The left is being kicked to the kerb all around the world. I won’t go on but obvious if you follow alternative news media sources. Hone had no show really. I hope the car crash wasn’t part of it.

    • I think what Laila said is right, if it weren’t Dotcom they were bagging it would have been Minto, anything any distraction. If you say something enough times on mainstram media then it gets traction
      ‘it was a conspiracy’
      ‘we are on the cusp of something big’ (God knows what people really thought that meant.

      Plus to be frank Kiwis don’t give a shit about spying because ‘we’re not doing anything wrong’!

    • Really? It was a vote against the left rather than a vote for the right, because of the big guy overshadowing the left.

      • That just displays and reinforces the ignorance , short attention span , and banal attitude of many people then.

        JohnXKEYSCORE.

        Go away and have a little think about it.

  15. Good job John.

    Internet Mana policy was further left than any other party, yet, Cunliffe couldn`t support them – no balls. Neither could the Greens – again, no guts.

    The media manipulate the public at will. Every MSM damning the MoT as a bunch of “henchman” picking up on the vernacular, spreading it, and indoctrinating the public. What a farce.

    When did we hear the debate about charter schools, netocracy, fracking, fossil fuel mining, TPPA etc – not a whisper. The entire election was personality driven and the media it seemed were intent on ridiculing Kim Dotcom, and with it Hone. A travesty, when you consider the lies and history of our RT Hon Mr Key.

    NZ appears set for a disastrous 3 yrs, unless of course the ombudsman can pull something out of the bag in a last gasp turnarond. And perhaps she will.

  16. The left parties should stop slagging each other, the loss was none of the left’s fault. Most commentators are missing the real culprit here – The National Party and it’s Dirty, DIRTY politics campaign over 7 years to smear its enemies and turn off voters, and a pliant, right-leaning commercial mainstream media.

    ONE MILLION PEOPLE DID NOT VOTE. They handed a victory by proxy to the corrupt party that has screwed the lower half of the population over, manipulated the other half with a smiling two-track politics leader, and now have the ability to do it for another 3 years as the worst, most corrupt minority government since Muldoon’s time.

    The irony is that the revelation of the dirty politics, instead of caning the wrongdoers, has further alienated the masses, and by default, rewarded the corrupt National party, as they had planned.

    Nicky Hager warned that our democracy was in grave danger, and he was right. He actually admitted at his book release talks that he thought the damage had already been done, the smears had worked too well, and people were already too disengaged to wake up to the reality of their being manipulated, by election day.

    But he encouraged us to stand up and start the discussions, get much more involved, expose corruption, question every smear we see in the media as to who and why it has appeared, hold the media to account for shoddy partisan reporting, push for honest policy, and re-energise the citizens.

    To that, I would add, we must PROTEST the corruption. Everyone should read ‘The Hollow Men’, and ‘Dirty Politics’, to see how well we’ve all been played with Dirty attack politics, and how these corrupt scum also played the masses with the anti-MMP movement too.

    Call for resignations, call for Police to press charges. Call for the government to declare the levels of payments made to National’s PR spin Doctors, the aussie firm Crosby Textor who specialise in attack politics. Call for wide-ranging independent enquiries into the activities of, and payments made to, Judith Collins, Jason Ede, Simon Lusk, Jordan Williams, Carrick Graham, Cameron Slater, Matthew Hooten, David Farrar, Aaron Bhatnager, and Cathy Odgers (the latter whose posts have been systematically deleted from the WhaleOil blogsite by Slater, presumably because she wishes to hide her involvement).

    The proof of this vile corruption is out there, and we need to push for the truth to be told, retold, and finally understood by the general populace. We have 3 years starting now.

    • David this is sooooo true – you only had to watch the Parliament debates and no matter what the question fired at the National Party to answer was – they always attacked the questioner never the question – and they all – Key – Joyce – English – Bridges – Ryall – Collins etc were very good at the put down – the denegration and attempted humiliation tactics – vile vile vile stuff – and we will see heaps of it for the next three years and they will do it with impunity fearing nobody and nothing because they have unbridled power in numbers

  17. I’m a born & bred Labour supporter, but I am pissed and I will never vote for them again & I will tell you why.

    The Maori seats were established to ensure Maori representation in parliament & I don’t think this is being considered when people are voting for a pakeha led party like Labour or National (who call themselves “The Maori Party” on the Maori seats).

    We have only ever had the choice of Maori right or maori left, Mana was a vote for Maori without the influence of left or right a independent Maori caucus, not puppets of a bigger pakeha led party.

    Maori MPs answerable to a pakeha party leader on all 7 Maori seats defeats the whole purpose of having Maori seats. Then to top it off David Cunliffe is cheering that they have ruined the only independent representation we had.. Unforgivable!

    BTW I’m too pissed to check spelling soz

  18. Labour lost 3 candidate elections due to the stupidity of the Green Party (of which I’m a member) standing candidates in Ohariu, Auckland Central and Christchurch Central. The left lost having Laila Hare in Parliament due to the stupidity of Labour’s anti-Hone campaign. Like a bunch of people all rowing in different directions as the boat goes nowhere. Interesting how Winston Peters was part of the coalition to knee-cap Hone. Has he forgotten how National and Act knee-capped him in 2008? The man gets my prize for the worst figure in the NZ political establishment.

    • Ive been waiting for someone to mention this. I too cant understand the Green stratergy of standing a candidate in Auckland central and especially in Peter Dunnes electorate. To be fair its hard to understand the motivation of the voters also ticking the Green candidates when a vote another way could have a far greater positive influence for your own party.

      • They stand candidates so they can promote the party at candidate meetings – but they need to explicitly say do NOT vote Green with your electorate vote.

    • One of WInston’s life goals has been to ensure that Maori have no independent representation. That he should try to speak on behalf of Tai Tokerau Maori when he spent his early life denying that he was one of them makes me sick. FJK and FWP.

    • Labour and the Greens will have to together and pick a few strategic seats plus a few more where only one or the other stands. Some may better with one or the other party, others can be allocated with a lucky dip or something, but as long as they keep splitting the vote that could be one or the others then they will keep on losing, more is the pity.

  19. When fear and smear postponed the day . Thats my initial impression of this election when I saw the results late on the night.

    The six years of dirty politics and media smears were to much to overcome in the short time since their revelation. Their attack marketing against Labour and others held for them.

    And people were scared for their jobs, scared of a uncertain future and things like paying their mortgages, keeping up the car payments etc

    If you read the mainstream media you were lead to believe National were the sensible steady hand instead of the cynical reckless gamblers they really are. The big lie faithfully spread by the news media over many years helped scare some people into voting for something they know is bad but they are scared and are voting out of fear …. miss informed fear.

    When the initial Dohang Liu lies and smears started running against Cunliffe and Labor early in the campaign I stated here at ‘the daily blog’ and at other sites NZ first would be the main winner out of this. And so it proved to be.

    Although national did not appear to suffer a wound on election night for standing neck deep in the shit they are indeed seriously wounded and the infection from their dirty politics will not heal without some serious surgery which in itself may be fatal….. at least for a few of them.

    There was a small dollop of karma in the conservatives missing the 5% barrier …. more so as the nats left the 5% level in place to try and get rid of Winston.

    I feel sorry for Hone and ashamed for our country that hungry children and hardship for them seems not to matter for our well off nation. Hone will be back though and this shameful problem will exist until we collectively say we are better than this.

    But on the bright side this election was like a hospital pass with nationals reliance on the price of milk and a property bubble looking like the wobbly piece of shit it truly is.

    If ever there were a good election to lose this was it and Labour may have dodged a bullet as whoever is in power when the shit hits the fan over the next couple of years will get the blame for it.

    So I predict an economic slump for our rock star economy for reason related to milk prices or china trade , more sackings from dirty politics revelations and the resignation of Key at some point.

    I hate to imagine who winstons dragged into parliament with him but no doubt we’ll find out. And I doubt in a good way.

    In other words I see a shambles followed by a rout . This is how both previous national governments have ended.

    In the meantime I think the Herald and Dompost and a few reporters still have a price to pay for their involvement as part of the national party marketing machine …..

    Never buy or pay for either.

    • Although national did not appear to suffer a wound on election night for standing neck deep in the shit they are indeed seriously wounded and the infection from their dirty politics will not heal without some serious surgery which in itself may be fatal….. at least for a few of them.

      Indeed – we need to keep the pressure on about the revelations and shonky behaviour.

  20. Joining with Dotcom was obviously a PR disaster from the start. I said this to a friend who was supporting Internet Mana months ago. I also told him that it would hurt the left block in general, which it did. But he wouldn’t listen. I respect you John Minto, but Mana is all spirit and no PR smarts, and that has always been the problem.

    • What ever Phil Mason we don’t all think left brain like yourself, Internet MANA wasn’t a disaster! Natz, Labour, Maori Party and Natz first caused this disaster, so they can sell off Aotearoa Assets, Oil Drill and TPPA, which that signing is happening in November!!!!

  21. Good on you JOhn – you are a man of prinicple and what a shame that people couldn’t see through the media obfuscation to appreciate the seriousness of the revelations. It seems that everyone is hopping on the bash Dotcom bandwagon – this is unfortunate , as the issues he raised are vitally important for the future of democrcacy and justice here and elsewhere. THis ( the surveillance state) and other issues such as the TPP , inequality, poverty etc are worth keeping fighting for.

    We know you’re in there for the long haul JOhn – kia kaha – Bruce from hamilton

  22. xox

    @Reason.

    ” … Labour may have dodged a bullet …”

    Global meltdown and the price of milk ( powder ) will determine our countries fate? Austerity in other words.
    Cold comfort for a duped public.
    The voters didn’t get it wrong. They were mislead and manipulated in a deceitful and dishonest way.
    It is neither a just nor fair democracy when the MSM is as unbalanced as it is in NZ.
    Overcoming this hurdle is essential to the return of a healthy Democracy.

  23. To Hone Harawiri
    Although I am a Green voter, I believe that NZ needs someone like you in parliament.
    It is a shame that things panned out as they did, but as soon as you threw your hat in the ring with Kim Dotcom, you were on a hiding to nothing. I said it at the time.
    I imagine this will be a tough 3 years to come back from, but I really do hope you do.
    In reality you have more right to be there that ACT or UF, even the two put together actually, based on party vote.
    Your passion, whether one agreed with your solutions or not, is/was there for anyone to see and only the hardest of hearts could not see that you really do care for your people, who are now no longer just Maori.
    Can I say that I really think someone should crunch the numbers on a transaction tax. Imagine if it had been a Labour policy, how THAT debate would have gone
    John Key – “Will a financial transaction tax (although I expect he would have said Robin Hood) apply if my home is in a trust?”
    David Cunliffe – “A financial transaction tax applies to EVERY financial transaction” Easy peasy, eh?
    Anyway all the best for the next 3 years and I hope we see you back in parliament after that

  24. I voted left but the election was won by the party perceived as being better organized and more cohesive. IMP, Greens and Labour did not appear to gel; David Cunliffe, as leader of the largest of those parties, failed to mould them into a single credible coalition. However much I agree with them IMP needed to view the situation through the eyes of “middle NZ” rather than the morally outraged left. I hated National’s image of the squabbling opposition parties in the rowboat but there were simply too many bold challenges for the voting public to change the government by voting left. The strategy should have been more conciliatory and work for incremental change after gaining the trust of mainstream NZ.

  25. Hone !!! Internet Mana !!! Laila !!! Annette !!!, John !!!

    STAND UP !!!

    You’re brave raw courage has gone before you !!!

    You exposed Key and the National party neo liberal agenda of corruption and mass surveillance !! Now is not the time to rest, you have a hard campaign ahead of you .

    Now more than ever this country needs your input. They feared you…your information , the fact you would not stay silent !!!

    RISE UP,STAND UP !!! REGROUP AND COME BACK ON THE ATTACK !!!

  26. Hand on heart now Minto, do you really think KImdotcom shares the values of TeMana?

    Ya make a deal with Raymond Tusk, you get burn.

    Something to think about.

    • And wasn’t it bullsheet John who once stated ‘I don’t believe Mr Banks has done anything wrong’?

      Wasn’t til Mr Kim Dotcom went to court to testify that the judge sentenced and convicted Banks for electoral fraud , now wasn’t it?

      Well I wonder if Mr JohnXKEYSCORE was ‘comfortable ‘ with that….

      • Little bit like when asked directly about whether the GSCB gathers metadata for sharing….

        What was the answer he gave?

        ‘I don’t believe they do’

        He doesn’t BELIEVE they do !!!!!???

        When hes the head of the bloody SIS and GSCB !!!!????

        When hes the same mutt who talks glowingly about the ‘NO SURPRISES ‘ POLICY !!??

        Who is this bloody idiot !!??……is he incompetent !!??….and head of these security agencies !!??

        Or is he a liar !!??- in which case explains why he had to change his story 4-5 times under Mr Greenwalds withering factual data which demolished his argument ……finally FORCING HIM TO ADMIT THAT THE GSCB ACTUALLY DOES !!!

        Kinda makes a mockery of the whole ‘NO SURPRISES ‘ POLICY , EH MATE.

        And you trust that clown !!??

        NO wonder he was so desperate to gang up with Cunliffe in the election to shut Hone down !!!!

        LOOL!!!

        So next time JohnXKEYSCORE talks about a no surprises policy- just remember hes talkin crap and ya cant go wrong.

        In fact , …next time bullsheet John opens his mouth about anything , just remember he don’t give a flying fuck about you , me …or this country. And not only that -he’s having a good laugh at the naivety of the voting public who fell for that shit.

        Pissing his pants laughing at you.

    • Actually, Beasly, KDC probably did have more empathy with Mana than you’d care to admit.

      Dotcom came from Germany, a social democratic nation where social welfare and food in schools is comprehensive and the norm. In many respects, NZ lags far behind the social democracies of Europe, and if KDC said he wanted to bring those values to New Zealand Aotearoa, I for one believe him.

      • Oh pass the tiny violin Macskasy – no one that narcissistic has much empathy for anyone other than himself. He didn’t appear to be overly concerned about the dependents of his staff he didn’t pay. Did he give a damn about the people who may have lost their life savings in the Letsbuyit.com fiasco? He certainly didn’t seem to care about the feelings of women with those offensively misogynistic and rape joke tweets.

        • At least he didn’t ‘look after his own ‘ by smearing a fellow NZer and then covering it up with diplomatic ‘immunity’ and secrecy like a prominent Nat MP has a few months back …..

          And that wasn’t even intended to be a joke.

          Has the offender in question been brought back to NZ for trial yet?

          NO!!

          AND MORE THAN LIKELY NEVER WILL BE .

  27. Brilliant article john! And huge solidarity to you and all #InternetMANA crew!

    On saturday night my 8 year old son and I excitedly missioned down town to the #InternetMANA H.Q. He was so excited about doing this the whole day and i was happy to accomadate this excitement.
    My son who is wise beyond his years was excitedly explaining what the reasons why he thought #InternetMANA was the best choice. His reasons were “# InternetMANA dont want to let kids go hungry, they want me to have a free education, they want solar power, they want hoverboards” I smiled as my boy said this and a tear came to my eye and I said ” yes they do! And they want to protect your future”

    We arrived @ the cloud and instantly i knew i was sharing a space with some of Aotearoas best political minds and stauchest defenders of the people and i was proud to be a part of it!

    After all the hullabaloo and MSM attacks I am still proud to be part of #InternetMANA as my son will always remember us going to the cloud and meeting alot of the candidates and asking them shyly to sign his el gato poster. I will always be proud that I am still part of a movement that choose the kids over corporate donations. I am still proud to be part of a movement whose strength has always been and will always be on the front lines of the struggle. I will be even prouder when we organise and create real change on the streets in the very near future as our new government attacks all sectors of our society , like we all know they will.

    I pity those parents who voted for national when they realise they have sold their kids future!

    At least I know in my heart i had my darling boys best intentions as I took him too the polling booth and ticked twice for #InternetMANA and again I was a hero in his eyes .
    ” What parliament does! The streets can undo!” #InternetMANA Hard!

  28. Kia ora koutou,,,What can we Internet/mana whanau do to help get voters to vote???
    I am desperate for advice and to play my part in helping all our Rangatira Hone,Kereama,Annette,etc? get elected into parliament???
    please contact me on facebook via name,,,and if this is not allowed on here please let me know asap…Kia ora.

  29. Thank you John & MANA crew. Don’t give up. We need you out there now more than ever. Something special happened in the small town where I was on Sept 20. An estimated 90 or so percent of the ‘of age’ voters came out to have their say. In a 99% Māori community. A lot if people have been waiting for a movement they can believe in & trust, Labour is too old school for our Māori youth. Keep at it and you will have a much stronger & more vocal following in 2017.

  30. Thanks for the contribution after which has obviously been a tough couple of days.

    Today’s blogs and media have been all about the blame game, whose fault is it, why we lost etc. Maybe it is no ones fault, the majority of the voting public chose National, so the majority of the voting public prefer John Key and his team to run the country, that is the end of it really.

    You should be staunch on your ideals, morals, and visions, but just accept sometimes that just because they are yours, doesn’t meant they are everyone’s.

    If you accept a democratic process, you have to accept the results and not blame others for the results you are unhappy with. The public has spoken, you may not agree but no one here is afraid of being in the minority.

    This in fighting and blame game is playing into the rights hands, suck it up.

  31. John, for whatever it’s worth, Mana (or Mana-Internet) has my support.

    As for the shameful behaviour of Labour, I believe it was a factor instrumental in their losing the election.

    • Frank I totally agree with you on that one. I’ll be supporting Mana next round and any rounds after that. I’ll never vote Labour again. They deservedly got nothing.

  32. MANA on its own is a good party. It didn’t need to hitch its wagon to IP or Dotcom. It was those two factors that went against MANA. Such a shame.

  33. Copy and paste for those unwilling to follow the link.
    This article was written early August.

    I’m seeing a lot of misinformation in the media about Kim Dotcom so I thought I should share what I’ve learnt.

    Is Kim Dotcom a criminal?

    In 1994 Kim Dotcom was convicted of things like hacking and selling access to phone systems but his sentence was suspended because he was under age (Wikipedia). I think it’s important to note that Dotcom’s convictions aren’t dissimilar to what Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniack did when they created the Blue Box that allowed people to make free phone calls. Jobs and Wozniak are now seen as pioneers of the personal cumputer age.

    As an adult Dotcom pleaded guilty to embezzlement because he inflated the stock price of his company Letsbuyit.com and after spending five months in jail awaiting trial received a suspended sentence of 20 months. Dotcom was also convicted for failing to disclose his shareholding to the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong for his company Trendax and was fined 8000 Hong Kong dollars.

    I personally don’t think it’s fair to call Dotcom a criminal in National media. It points more to a propganda campaign to discredit him.

    Was Megaupload a criminal enterprise?

    No it wasn’t. It was a cloud based file sharing service offering exactly the same service as Google, Microsoft, DropBox and hundreds of other cloud based file sharing sites. However it got singled out because it contained a lot of copyrighted material such as MP3s and movies that were uploaded by it’s members. Many other websites do the same thing but because Megaupload was, at its peak, the 13th most popular website in the World, the FBI and US film industry targeted Megaupload.

    Did he start the Internet Party to avoid extradition?

    It’s not relevant because it’s a matter for the courts. On the 19th of February, 2014, The New Zealand Court of Appeal deemed the raids on Kim Dotcom to be legal but not the FBI’s taking of information. Proceedings to extradite Dotcom to the US have been delayed until February 2015.

    I personally think it’s unlikely that Dotcom will be extradited. The GCSB raid has some serious flaws and if anything has left the GCSB, and the Government, directly liable. Ask yourself this question, if your property was illegally given to the FBI by the GCSB and your assets frozen which caused the demise of your $175M a year business and much more, would you sue? Or, from the Government’s perspective, if you might be held liable would you want to discredit your opponent?

    Many other commentators have discussed issues with the GCSB such as:

    Law Socitey – Expansion of GCSB intelligence gathering instrusive
    Privacy Commisioner – Submission by the Privacy Commissioner to the Intelligence and Security Committee
    Human Rights Commission – Issues relating to surveillance and the human rights of people in New Zealand
    Dame Anne Salmond – A warning to New Zealanders keep hold of democracy
    This story on Campbell Live gives an interesting insight to the case:

    http://www.youtube.com/embed/bxytPFfTozE

    Why is Kim Dotcom being singled out?

    National

    Prime Minister John Key is the Minister responsible for the GCSB which now has more rights to spy on New Zealanders than ever before. Key even stated that the Law Society, Privacy Commission and the Human Rights Commission were all wrong in their opposition to the GCSB Bill.

    If Dotcom’s extradition is refused and the GCSB is found to be in the wrong and Key knew about and endorsed it, then it could be New Zealand’s “Watergate”. I believe that John Key is doing what he thinks is best for New Zealand but the GCSB without sufficient oversight that is enforced with transparent processes is a recipe for disaster and if the GCSB is proved wrong it could force his resignation.

    Labour

    Labour Party list MP Kelvin Davis opposes Kim Dotcom because:

    Donated $50,000 to John Banks
    Said the police turning up at his front door was as bad as the suffering Maori have endured for close to two centuries.
    Had nothing to do with Maori until he found a way to take advantage of some to try to keep himself out of an American jail.
    Garage is bigger and flasher than 99% of homes in Te Tai Tokerau.
    If he really cared about the people of Te Tai Tokerau, would have got out … after the floods and storms and distributed food packages to those who needed them.
    Turned up to hui up north in a limousine.
    Davis’ statements are a shame because he seems to be an intelligent and empathetic politician but his statements aren’t really valid arguments but more like a tantrum because he doesn’t want to run against the Internet Mana Party candidate Hone Harawira in Te Tai Tokerau – he might also have “garage envy” 😉

    The Internet Mana Party is mobilizing the 41.8% of 18 – 24 year olds and the 26.2% of 25 – 44 year olds that didn’t vote in the last election. Davis would have been better to try and convert those voters to Labour voters rather than exclude himself from their vote by attacking Internet Mana whose policies are very similar to Labour’s.

    How many votes will Internet Mana get?

    As NZ First showed in the 2011 election polls can get it totally wrong (ie; 3 News Reid Research polled that NZ First would get 3.5% but they got 6.59%). This may be because many people, particularly 18 – 44, no longer use land-line telephones and may not be getting surveyed which could be a very important factor in the coming election since Internet Mana are mobilizing youth. Presently Internet Mana is polling at 2.3% but I predict that they’ll get more than 4% in the election from what I’ve seen of their Internet strategies and communications.

    Conclusion

    In case you’re wondering, I’m not writing this blog as an “advertorial” for the Internet Mana Party. I wrote it because I’m seeing a lot of misinformation about Kim Dotcom and I thought I should write about what I’ve learnt. He’s certainly not “squeaky clean” but he doesn’t deserve the smear campaigns against him.

    I’m not anti Key, Cunliffe, Dotcom, etc. I’ve voted for many different parties and will make my decision on the day based on what I think is best fiscally, socially and environmentally for New Zealand. Of course you may totally disagree with me and that’s fine because we live in democracy where it’s OK to disagree.

    brynn 🙂

  34. I dont give a shit what people say about Hone Harawira, I believe he has worked hard for the people in his electorate and hard for those who need help no matter who they are.
    I was definately not a fan of Harawira for many years, but having seen how hard he campeigned to bring poverty into the spotlight and to try and get people some real help, I changed my mind and supported him this election.
    I am sick of all these Nobodys who do nothing for no one and yet always have an opinion of how other people should behave.
    Maybe joining up with Dotcom was right, maybe it was the wrong move, but either way I believe that the intention on Hone’s part was to further his cause for the welfare of others and not feather his own nest.
    I dont think I have seen anyone work as hard as Hone Harawira this election.
    Sad to think that yet again the public voice has been silenced by smear campeigns and the selfish Sheep who trot along behind the National Govt, all frightened of change.
    Speaking of feathering your own nest, its amazing to me that despite all we have seen on television regarding poverty and hardship in this country lately, that people can still choose their own selfish agendas over helping someone else, by choosing that Asshat Key.
    If you want to talk about a bunch of Criminals, Look at the National Party.
    Keep fighting Hone and keep your self respect. You have done nothing to deserve losing it.

  35. Hey John – one of the highlights for me in this election was meeting people like yourself, Hone Harewira, Joe Carolan, Laila Harre, Miriam Pierard, Joe Trinder, Pam Corkery and so many other great people who have been involved in the Internet Mana campaign.

    This afternoon I put this comment up on one of my posts, and tagged all of the “ABCs” in the NZ Labour party, including the left’s #1 traitor, Kelvin Davis, in reference to the election defeat, and the betrayal of Internet Mana…

    “It was apathy, “comfy shoes syndrome” and the failure of the Labour Party to work with the other parties of the left, and put ordinary New Zealanders first, before all of their selfish, self-serving, petty inter-party politicking and individual politicians’ personal aspirations.

    We can take heart from that, but the “New Zealand Labour party” had better start listening if they want to be part of the next progressive government – they’ve just had their very LAST chance. Move away from your neo-liberal centrist obsession, or we will form our own truly progressive party to represent us all in 2017 !

    You’d better start thinking about that, and coming out of your “National Lite” closet NOW, because we’re not going to wait another 3 years for you to lead us down the path to another abysmal failure !

    And if your amazing advisors / “think tank” (!) still believe that raising the pension age to 67, signing the TPPA, allowing deep sea oil drilling and fracking are still worth hanging on to, I respectfully suggest that you fire them immediately, and that you all step down now, to save us another 3 years of pretence and false hope !”

    Kia Kaha John, Hone and the rest of the Internet Mana team !

    • I agree the Labour strap line that came up said it all
      ‘ONLY a vote for Labour will change the government’, such bloody arrogance and a total lie!

  36. Keep up the good fight John! Don’t always see eye to eye with what you’re fighting for though your tireless dedication is an inspiration.

  37. Yes, John Minto, Internet Mana posed the only serious threat to the status quo that relegates the vast majority of us to secondary status in New Zealand – and the New Zealand people, swayed by the media spin and skewed rhetoric squandered the one and only opportunity they had in this election to initiate real change and the creation of a more fair, just, equitable and sustainable system for EVERYONE. And the while we failed to achieve our objective this election, we will continue to work, organize, strengthen our position, broaden our ranks and educate the public to the necessity of recognizing the true priorities if we are to create the kind of New Zealand we want to live in and pass onto to future generations. Thanks for all the good work you are doing – and NOW on with the task – We will prevail – We have to. Best regards, Dr Tony Minervino, Kaitaia

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