Yawn. How embarrassing for Hamish Rutherford and Andrea Vance, their breathless article today suggests that the idea of Labour and NZ First cutting a deal over the buy back of assets is some how new news.
Silly mainstream media journalists. If they spent nearly as much time reading The Daily Blog as they do reading Whaleoil and KiwiBlog they would have known that we covered this back in April of this year! That’s right – APRIL, this is now August – that’s 4 months ago! All Vance and Rutherford are displaying here is the total lack of a perspective outside the Wellington bubble. How tedious, it’s the blind leading the lame.
Let me explain in really slow language how the 2014 Labour-Green minority Government actually works for the bewildered journalists of NZ – honestly, the biggest problem with NZ political journalism is that we have a First-Past-The-Post Press Gallery covering an MMP election – they’re lack of intellectual curiosity is remarkable.
So – the Labour/Green minority Government works like this – Labour + Greens sign a supply and confidence deal with Internet MANA so that Labour + Greens + Internet MANA = the Parliamentary majority. Internet MANA gain some real policy wins in return for their supply and confidence deal – these include 30 000 new state house, feed the kids in the poorest schools, revoke the GCSB and TICS legislation and a large scale investment into internet infrastructure. Once that progressive majority is established THEN Labour offer an arrangement for NZ First to become involved in the Government. This gives Labour the flexibility to tack left and right during their Government. The deal to bring NZ First into the tent is focused on a legacy project for Winston that makes KiwiSave universal and the vast money generated by universal is then reinvested into buying back NZs Asset base, and here’s the twist, in the buy back each asset get’s ‘greened’. Making our assets sustainable is the mosts expensive part of the Greens economic policy, but in a universal KiwiSave world, the money would be there to be able to make our assets green. So NZ First get a legacy project, the Greens get to upgrade our economy into a sustainable one and Labour get to be the Government while Internet MANA take real policy wins back to their supporters.
Here are the 2 possible hiccups to this strategy.
1 – Greens + Labour + Internet MANA does not = the Parliamentary majority. That starts to make things more of a balancing act between egos.
2 – NZ First doesn’t get over 5% – which is a real possibility now Conservative Party are raiding so deep into Winston’s voter pool. Watching the two of them cannibalise both voting bases to under 5% will be one of there great joys of the 2014 election campaign. This isn’t so much of a flaw as a silver lining because the redistribution of votes from Conservatives and NZ First would most certainly create a Labour/Green/IMP majority.
If the media could focus less on hip hop lyrics, burning effigies and chanting students, we might have a more informed voter.
Excellent synopsis Martyn,
Thank you Martyn for this thought provoking plan & for crafting this possible starting point for coalition discussions that we would like to forward to the four prospective coalition Parties today.
Our opposition parties must unite together in a common cause to rid the tyrannical ultra right wing extremists from our country to save our country.
Our community associations are personally asking all four Political Parties:
of Labour, Greens, NZ First, & Internet Mana, the following;
Please set aside your differences in a new air of co-operation and meet to give the Key Government their marching orders, before the next level of all Nationals agendas are implemented including the TPPA which will take our sovereign rights away to be controlled by overseas interests.
Kind of reminds me of the media sudden “discovery” of Kim Dotcom’s speech referring to his hacking activities in his teens. The speech has been out there for a month, during his Road Show town hall meetings – but the MSM has only now discovered it.
Next “news”;
* Allies win WW2!
* Penicillin new miracle drug!
* Asteroid on-course to hit Earth – dinosaur population threatened – PM relaxed
Still waiting on news of a .22 calibre bullet being shot through a Left wing politicians office window……I guess we’ll hear news of that in the year 2025…
The ‘Lame Street Glove puppet media aren’t interested in covering the election per say, they’re interested in looking like they’re covering it and happy (for their jobs !!) to just pass on the Natz party propaganda as news.
We NEED unbiased media and until the left wing do something about it, and stop hiding behind the ‘OH it’s so dangerous to interfere with the media’ (and yes I’m referring directly to you Hone, from a chat we had recently) we in NZ are screwed and the right wing fascist leaning Natz are in clover.
All evil needs to succeed is for honest men to do nothing !!!!
p.s. HOW come Cam slater is on an Israeli Government sponsored trip? O M G !!!
p.s.2. Notice how almost every time there is a major right wing leaning expose, those ‘exposed’ disappear off shore !!! Oh to be wealthy enough to run away from the mess one has created.
If (Crooked) Collins wasn’t a minister, I’m pretty sure she’d be off lapping it up in China with her wealthy Chinese sponsors-backers-masters.
“they’re lack of intellectual curiosity is remarkable”
their
Sorry if this is a dumb question, I’d just like to know the facts. If internet gets only say 2% and mana 5%, does internet still go into government with mana? what about if both parties get below 5% but combined they make over 5%? and is it really possible for the party with less votes to end up in government? ie if national gets 40%, labour gets 35% but with greens at 10% they end up with more so they win? granted, national with have act and maori party on their side, but assuming labour greens internet mana combined have more of the votes even if national had more on their own than labour on their own, will they then be the government? i think that’s what you were saying but just making sure. i have been wondering if this was possible or not.
Internet MANA are not separate parties for the purpose of the election. A Party gains representation in Parliament if they A) get over 5% or B) win an electorate seat.
MANA are highly likely to win an electorate seat (they will actually win 2) and that means Internet MANA DO NOT have to get over 5% to gain electoral representation. So, if MANA win an electorate seat and Internet MANA gain 4% – they will get the MP for the electorate PLUS they will get a proportion of list MPs worth 4% (around 3 or 4 extra MPs)
Have IMP published their party list yet? Have been looking but can’t find it (can find IP and Mana separate lists).
I don’t know about IMP’s party list, but what struck me as hilarious last week was this: Colin Craig announced the first 5 on the Conservative party list.
My immediate response on facebook was “I have compiled a list of the first 5 European supermodels I would like to invite to my birthday party. I expect my party list to have the same real-world relevance as Craig’s.”
The new TV3 poll has me a little concerned about maybe having to eat my words. Also, more concerned that we could have both NZF and CC in positions of power.
Just imagine for a moment a government with out act, nz first and old what’s his name with the hair. ‘A the serenity’:-)
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