Guest and sponsored opinion pieces published on The Daily Blog, offering diverse perspectives within clear editorial guidelines.
At the time that Metiria Turei was dealing with trying to obtain a ‘living’ benefit, Christine Rankin was head of what we know as WINZ and her and her Deputy threw lavish parties and spent loads of money on doing up their offices. Allegations were that Rankin was incredibly lazy and did very little in the way of work.
I don’t believe for a second that she was thinking about becoming co-leader for a game changing political party. I can’t be convinced that she used a story about her situation back then as political leverage (she’s a smart cookie who knew the risk of this disclosure). I most certainly don’t feel she is unfit as a leader, or is an untrustworthy fraudster, nor do I feel ripped off – not by her at least. I feel NOTHING about this. Not a thing. I give no fucks that 20 something years ago, a person living as a pōhara, single parent, student, managed to get a few extra groceries by not declaring flatmates. It doesn’t even register on my richter scale of what is moral vs immoral.
So tonight, some of the world’s brightest citizen heroes are coming together to once again shine a spotlight on the crimes of the spy agencies against New Zealand citizens and residents. Barrett Brown, Kim Dotcom, Lauri Love, Lee Camp and other special guests will join myself to discuss everything that our government and their collaborators do not want us to talk to you about. Everything that the media will never say.
Now is the time to join with us and make a real change in New Zealand politics. With Kelvin as Deputy, it gives us the opportunity to get Maori issues to the forefront and with Jacinda as Leader, we have a real chance to do something meaningful on poverty, housing, inequality, education and mental health.
We all owe Andrew our gratitude to give a fresh Leader the opportunity to step up, and what a magnificent job of stepping up did Jacindaachieve in her first press conference? Her mana shone through and she has given so many New Zealanders a new hope that Labour will win this election.
Thanks, Andrew. This will be a bitter disappointment; however you did what needed to be done. You gave Labour a fighting chance of leading the country again. Now it’s up to others to deliver the knockout blow. Not just the new leadership team, but all party members, all activists, all Kiwis who want a better way.
Here, the Minister of Māori Development makes a clear pitch for a Māori Party-National Government. So don’t believe the nonsense that they are interested in doing a deal with us. They want to do a deal with National despite all the terrible statistics that we see with Māori at the moment.
What is the most important thing in the world? It is ALL the people, it is ALL the people, it is ALL the people
We are so used to partisan politics, it can be a bit uncomfortable to deal with a political party that doesn’t fit into the usual boxes. People tend to pick a side, a tribe – left or right, red or blue – and they want to know if The Opportunities Party (TOP) are part of their tribe too.