Three weeks, sir?
So, Winston Peters is trying to slay the ghosts of the 1996. He’s saying he’ll take no more than three weeks to come to an agreement after the election with National or Labour.
He’s clearly worried that some of his potential supporters will be put off by the memory of him drawing out negotiations to a couple of months back in 1996. This is a smart move, and evidence again that Mr Peters is one of the wiliest political operators in New Zealand.
However, I suspect the greatest dangers for Winston lie in other aspects of his actions in 1996, specifically the way he led everyone to believe a vote for NZ First was a vote for a change of government only to gift Jim Bolger a third term. Already, we know that Helen Clark hasn’t forgotten what happened nine years ago. She has already stated explicitly that she would prefer to work with the Greens than NZ First because she views the latter as unstable and unreliable and holding views anathema to Labour’s values.
However most damaging for Winston will be his equivocation between National and Labour. In a political climate in which there is a very close race between National and Labour, voters will care whether, from Winston, they’re getting a Labour-led or National-led government. His failure to declare his hand will, in my view, lead to many of his supporters to flock back to the major parties.
July 6th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
Can someone remind me what Winston is bribing us oldies with? I do not now recall the figures and time frame he announced. Personally, I think he is too wily for his own good and totally untrustworthy, but I do see that some of my generation are interested in him. I thought they would have a keener sense of history.
July 6th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
The main bribe is re the level of NZ Superannuation. He proposes to incrementally raise the base minimum level of New Zealand Superannuation to 72.5% of the net average wage (calculated on married couples with a similar adjustment of rates for single persons). Currently, the base level is 65% of the net average wage, as agreed in the NZ Superannuation Accord which NZ First declined to agree to. No detailsa re given as to the timeframe for this.
Some of the other NZ First bribes to older people are detailed on their Senior Citizens policy page.
July 6th, 2005 at 3:31 pm
Thank you for that reply. So it joins with the Nats tax cuts as being an empty bribe. Sure, many beneficeries, including means tested superanns, deserve an increase in their piece of the pie, but in the words of a guest on Simon Dallow’s tax talk fest, “If this election is only about is tax cuts, (money in the pocket) then there is not much wrong with the current situation”.
Quite frankly, despite our extremely modest household, we are embarrassed that the hue and cry is about tax cuts. Am I greedy too? Yes, perhaps I am, greedy for an holistic future for my grandchildren.
July 6th, 2005 at 3:31 pm
i thought it was fairly clear (and an idea to be encouraged) that things were shaping up into a two-way race..with lab/grns on one side and nat/nz first on the other..
i reckon peters support will soften when those nz firsters who are ex-labour realise just that..a vote for winston is a vote for brash..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
July 6th, 2005 at 3:43 pm
Thanks Phil.
That needs to be made very clear to the public. I remember the outcry last time when Peters spunned Labour and shook hands with the Nats.
July 6th, 2005 at 7:34 pm
You will have centre left including Green 45% plus, so you get first go
then we will shuffle around with NAT and Untied NZ, and so on
during this time your $NZ will drop sharply, the tyrant will play his hand when the dollar has drooped by ten % and then form centre right govt
then he wilkl kilkl don brash
July 6th, 2005 at 7:39 pm
the right wing fascist conspiracy is uniformly against the tyrant, we donts want 1984 currency problem or 1996 political vacuum
July 6th, 2005 at 7:59 pm
yous gotsta help us fwwog .. strategy fwwog .. yous can save Dr. Bwash life, and only yous, from a dweadful fate,we donts know what to do with the colonial chap,
ok now you takes the tyrant into the group to the left, you donst have to name it coalition, because if you say coalition, we dont get to do nothing about yo Green
now, while the tyrant there near you and helen give him a section 59, clause 2, national emergency rules, hurt so hard he go to old peoples home ‘nocommebackie’
July 6th, 2005 at 8:20 pm
fwwog with the peoples leg jerk going on, because the tyrant not say whats fwwog and whats fogg.. well the centre right swoop down on those votes .. from the falling tyrant .. olds people hates to thinks about dead carbons and things fwwog, so you put like more votes than one per cent on our sides
you better off to take up the river option which keep you in good cwedit, with us, this way the peoples know that it donts matter what tyrant or colonial or mn girl with lipstick they gets for the prime minister, they always get the clean river option .. but yous only got a few weeks to negotiate with ACT and NAT , youds dont clean river with a old proactor, you cleans rivers with the votes transferred across the party lines .. the right wing fascist party supports clean wiver and gives the votes to the Gween .. i gets this in the bag shortly
July 7th, 2005 at 12:25 am
You’re flogging a dead animal here. Labour won’t be forming the next government. The only thing she’ll be able to turn to the greens for is “therapy”, and morris dancing.
July 7th, 2005 at 10:03 am
Whats with morris dancing? My economics teacher likes to think of morris dancing when he thinks of the greens, so again, what the?
July 7th, 2005 at 12:08 pm
“Morris dancing” is when you get caught dancing with someone called ‘Morris” or ‘Rod” or something embarrassing like that
.. that right fwwog?
July 8th, 2005 at 1:31 pm
all together now..kum-bay-a..
phil(whoar.co.nz)