Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
Thinking about the National Party’s recent woes – there’s a funny sort of … I guess you’d say “symmetry” to a lot of happenings politics; and not simply in the sense that they occur “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce”.
9 November, 2018, 8.30am to 6.30pm
James Cook Hotel, Wellington
Registration $91.50+bf from Eventfinda
Not to worry, though, because Marama Davidson is rehabilitating the word “cunt” and sticking it to the misogynist “bros” on social media. Right-on, sister!
The bottom line is that a donation was made. The question is: how was it made? Both claims of a single $100k donation and “eight donations” cannot be reconciled.
Someone is lying. By now the Police probably have a good idea who.
Questions, questions, questions: there is still so much that we don’t know about the extraordinary events of the past ten days. And perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the whole saga is how unwilling all but a handful of journalists have been to dig too deeply for the facts the public is so anxious to learn.
So you get somebody at TVNZ endeavouring to engage in a nice gesture (which, again, I *do* think is a pretty cool intent here – and should be lauded, up to a point), on grounds that they’ve heard that Auckland City Council is holding a “Diwali” event, and therefore without doing the proper research, they just kinda assume … and ‘get onboard’ by wishing us all a “Happy Diwali” two weeks early across multiple channels.
Who has that acid now? Who is in possession of Ross’ property? His family? The unnamed mental health facility detaining him? The Police? The National Party? What, if any, obligation are those holding Ross’s phone, his laptop, his hard-copy files, under to keep them safe from prying eyes? What, if anything, has been happening at Ross’s home and/or his parliamentary and electorate offices in the time that has elapsed since he was taken into state custody? Has anyone come calling? If so, who was it – and what were they after?
Despite claiming National was concerned about Jami-Lee Ross’s mental health, Paula did her best to exacerbate it in revealing aspects of his private life.
Getting revenge is built deeply into our psyche. There are lots of words for it: “payback”, “balance sheet”, “settlement”, “nemesis”, “an eye for an eye” and so on. Where a person is killed, the victim’s family often feel high levels of anxiety until such time as the perpetrator is punished. It is partly that unexplained level of emotion – often stronger even than grief – that drives the failed punitive systems of justice.
There are several things that need to be said on the most recent development with everybody’s favourite Botanical bete-noir.
