So crazy old Uncle Nick Smith has finally exploded at some Millennial staffer who sees anything other than being greeted with a reusable cup of fair trade coffee and vegan biscuits as a personal massacre.
Good.
I never liked Nick and if he’s been finally sunk by the micro aggression policing pretensions of the next generation, even more hilarious.
Nick was a spiteful prick whose sense of superiority was as misplaced as your average Green Party activist in Wellington.
His intellect was a vanity and his interests always self serving. He managed to embody all the worst elements of National’s venal selfishness and him leaving politics is the equivalent of squeezing pus out of a wound.
Here are his greatest hits…
Nick’s defense of the war on drugs was one of his most tedious traits. Getting torn to shreds by Chloe Swarbrick was a thing of beauty.
His denial that there was a housing crisis at the same time National were throwing state tenants onto the streets because of the state housing meth scam was Nick at his most delusional.
That time Nick took a bus load of journalists to show them all the council land National were going to build housing on that they never used to build housing on.
Nick’s censorship of environmental reports, his swimmable river lies, his affordable housing lies and his callousness when state tenants were freezing to death all combine as a legacy of contempt for anyone weaker than himself.
Him shit squatting as a statue is a fitting symbol of his time in Parliament.
Nick being replaced by the fanatical Christian Harete Hipango highlights how fundamentalist Christians are now the default ideology of National Party MPs. Judith thinks Harete is her mate but the little baby Jesus will tell Harete she needs to back Luxon.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
Bomber
A good description of a unpleasant upstart.
He was an objectionable caucus colleague.
Only bad news about this resignation is; it’s 20 years late!
He did put a stop to the Milford tunnel and snowdon monorail environmental nightmares.
Once a very effective local MP too.
Remember the good with the bad even if you have to scratch around a bit.
Jaspinda’s ideal male. Smith’s ideals for 30 years are why Labour are constantly voted back in to fix National’s bankrupting of our country. Freezing money to the public sector whilst pumping money into the private sector, hoping, yes hoping it will trickle down is a constant failure. Key’s borrowing of over 100 billion to support this ideology has left a massive divide in this country that Labour are forced to narrow. Smith was the epitome of this 80’s style Government that fortunately the majority see past now. The minority are still entrenched with their 80’s heads in the sand, they long for a low wage economy and if people die on the streets then let it be so.
The irony of course is the Blairite and Grunter have continued to manage the economy in the same way just with woke tinges around the edges and a bout of governmental department incompetence.
As for Borrowing I think you’ll find English managed to pay this back. Grunter on the other hand, has pissed his borrowing against the collective wall and Beetroot and him can’t work out why urine doesn’t provide a return.
What did Cullen leave Key with and what did English leave Ardern with?
Bert – English left Ardern with a generation of young men designated as useless layabouts and skyrocketing suicide rates , and Cullen left Key with finances in pretty good shape.
Twenty years ago Parliament was peopled with male chauvinist pigs, they were the norm, and they supported each other in their puerile antics. Smith looks like just another sheltered-life-ist coming to terms with a slightly more mature workplace and not before time.
Well said. Now just a couple left to oust and I’ll be happy.
Cullen left Key with a wobbling economy and an insolvent investment requiring substantial capital outlay in Kiwirail. English left the Blairite with a reasonable economy and little fiscal debt. Your point?
Grunter is still trying to work out how you convert urine into gold.
The irony is I back things up with evidence rather than making ” I think ” statements.
NZ debt end of 2008 21.4 billion. End of 2017 63.71 billion. Now Frankie if that’s paying down debt then you went to the Steven A Hole Joyce school of failed economics.
I’m sure business, employers and employees would completely disagree with your pissing against a collective wall if that’s what you believe they are.
Thankfully we don’t have Collivida, Brownstains, Woodlice and the exiled Smithers running the cutter, we’d all have covid and the economy dead in the water now.
Dear Bertie,
You always compare apples with apples not oranges. As such govt debt is usually based on a percentage of GDP. Do some research and compare debt to GDP rates in 2008 vs 2017. Also factor in the cost of the Chch rebuild and debt % trends following this event. This will paint a very different story.
Do you justify house prices off 2008 values also?
Honestly Frank? You’re defending the indefensible and have been for a long time.
Oh i’m no fan of the Key years however it’s your mob that are covering your eyes and ears if you somehow think this government is doing an adequate or better job than anything but covid.
Try sticking to the topic of the article Frank. I also never said anything about any part of your comment.
And agree fully with you about adequacy. Labour better than National? Yes they are, less bad is still better than bad – National would have kept the borders open and we’d be in chaos right now.
And factor in covid Frankie you always portray one side, Gillian put you right however. Now back to the subject at hand, remember Nick Smith as portrayed in the N.Z. Herald…
“The Nick Smith scandal
Nick Smith announced his resignation on Monday night, citing an employment investigation about him being carried out by Parliamentary Service, which he believed was about to be made public the following day. The media story never eventuated, and the details have been incredibly murky since then.
For the best overall account of what has happened with Smith, it’s well worth reading Jo Moir’s in-depth story published today on Newsroom, which outlines the whole saga – see: The warning that ended Nick Smith’s career. According to this account, back in mid-2020, “Smith lost his temper and had a yelling match with his young male staffer, which included swearing at him. Another National Party staffer, who didn’t work in Smith’s office, recorded the verbal altercation and reported the incident to Parliamentary Service (the employer of the National Party staffers).”
Moir reports that National insiders say Smith has a long history of volatility: “MPs and staff, both former and current, spoken to by Newsroom say Smith has a history of treating staff poorly, and it was well-known around Parliament. One former senior MP described Smith as having a ‘volatile personality’ and was often ‘outright rude to officials and staffers’. The former MP said Smith had entered politics at a very young age and had ‘never managed anyone and didn’t know how to deal with people’.”
This account is in line with how Hooton sums up the situation in his column today: “he had been behaving in roughly the same way he had been allowed to by successive leaders for 30 years.”
Newshub’s Jenna Lynch also uncovered a number of National insiders willing to speak out against Smith, albeit anonymously – see: National MP Nick Smith’s alleged ‘verbally abusive behaviour’: Former staffers open up about Parliament’s ‘worst-kept secret’.
For example, one stated: “Nick’s irrational and verbally abusive behaviour towards his staff was one of Parliament’s worst-kept secrets. Everyone from Ministerial Services, Parliamentary Services, the Prime Minister’s Office and the bullying inquiry knew about it yet Nick’s staff continued to be collateral damage.” In contrast, however, the article also quotes a number of current National MPs denying that the party has any problems with bullying.
National MP Nick Smith looks on during the opening of New Zealand’s 53rd Parliament. Photo / Getty Images
National MP Nick Smith looks on during the opening of New Zealand’s 53rd Parliament. Photo / Getty Images
So, was Smith pushed out? This is the focus of Richard Harman’s column on Wednesday: How Judith Collins forced Nick Smith to resign (paywalled).
Here’s the key part: “Collins told Smith last Friday a story would appear this Tuesday. Smith has said that it was his understanding that a story would appear which persuaded him to resign. But so far, no story has appeared other than those reacting to his resignation. It appears either by accident or intent that Collins forced Smith’s resignation because of her claims of the imminent publication of the story. It also seems likely that she had known about the incident that lies behind the resignation for nearly a year and not acted on that information.”
However, today Jo Moir reports Collins as stating: “Nick Smith is absolutely clear that at no stage was he ever told to leave Parliament”.
There is no excuse for Smith, Frankie, no matter how hard you try to lay fault at Labour’s feet.
“As for Borrowing I think you’ll find English managed to pay this back.”
Here, I think I’ll fix that for you:
As for Borrowing I think you’ll find to pay this back English managed to take money from the health, education, and welfare budgets, he exploited Housing NZ tenants and further flogged off the Commons (such as power generation companies) to the plutocratic elites .
Smith’s most cynical legacy was his impeding of real action on climate change when that was his ministerial responsibility. He knew the science was valid and the projections and impacts real.
Just wish he would take his name sake with him.
The useless member for Kaikoura.
Your right Bert but the national lot didn’t just leave debt they left what they always leave when they have been in for three terms, inequalities.
Don’t forget the boot he put into motorcyclists when he tried to triple the registration cost to over $900 per year to ride a bike over 650cc. Then settling to double it instead. Good riddance Nix Myth.
I cannot say he was someone I regarded highly but it needs to be remembered by those that slag him off that for nearly 30 years he served the people of Nelson in a way that he constantly was reelected even when Labour had the upper hand in the country . I dislike the way some commentators dismiss a person because of their choice of party rather than what they say or do. For anybody in public service they cannot please everyone.
Comments are closed.