winston peters Archive

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  Greens want Winston on Board - by frog

  
  
  
  Green Co-Leader Dr Russel Norman today formally invited Winston Peters to join the Green Party, saying it would help the Greens broaden their voter base. “More  than  four percent of voters at the last election voted for New Zealand First,” Dr Norman said. “I am confident that a large proportion of those voters would give their [...] read more
  April 1, 2009 11:46 am - 23 Comments
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  Hammed ambush - by frog

  
  
  
  Act failed to copy our ads and now Winston failed to copy Jeanette’s shopping mall ambush of John Key. According to Colin Espiner: Mr Key was due in the Tauranga suburb of Greerton for a walkabout at 11.30am but left his supporters standing on the sidewalk after discovering Mr Peters planned an ambush. Key’s minders [...] read more
  November 4, 2008 2:35 pm - 34 Comments
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  A ship leaving a sinking rat? - by frog

  
  
  
  Russel’s reiteration of the Greens long-standing position on the Winston Peters scandals – that the Greens would probably not be able to sit at a cabinet table with Peters unless everything was cleared up – seems to have got a lot more media coverage this time around than previously. And Helen Clark seems to have [...] read more
  November 4, 2008 10:11 am - 7 Comments
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  Peters donations scandal gets deeper - by frog

  
  
  
  The most compelling part of Phil Kitchin’s Dominion Post story about Winston Peters and the Velas is the three paragraphs at the very end: A box of documents sent to the newspaper this week shows that Vela interests made donations to NZ First as early as 1999. Mr Meurant suggested to Mr Vela that this [...] read more
  November 1, 2008 9:57 am - 133 Comments
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  Accountancy and accountability - by frog

  
  
  
  Did everyone enjoy the brief interlude in the election campaign where we got to talk about issues other than Winston Peters and his unusual accountancy systems?  (Maybe Jim Bolger was on to something when he made him treasurer, given his ability to run a party on no declared donations.) Interestingly Winston’s $80,000 donation from the [...] read more
  October 29, 2008 3:49 pm - 7 Comments
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  Clark’s poor advice - by frog

  
  
  
  Even if voters’ choice were simply a Labour-led government or a National-led government Helen Clark’s ‘advice‘ yesterday would be patently false given the Greens’ preference announcement last week: When she was asked at a meeting with Foodstuffs workers if they should vote strategically to ensure a Labour coalition, she said the best way was to [...] read more
  October 25, 2008 8:17 am - 13 Comments
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  Jeanette is the nation’s most trusted leader. - by frog

  
  
  
  Oops. Last night that ‘this election is about trust’ statement from the Prime Minister kind of backfired on her and her Minister without portfolio. The TVNZ poll about which political leader we trust the most shows Jeanette has the trust of 64 percent of New Zealanders, probably due to consistently saying what she means and [...] read more
  October 8, 2008 9:01 am - 7 Comments
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  A choice for the media - by frog

  
  
  
  Here’s a challenge for the media this Sunday.  Two parties are officially launching their election campaigns.  One in Wellington and one in Auckland.  The Auckland launch belongs to the party that is only polling about half as much as the other, it’s leader is widely discredited and censured, and its chances of re-election look slim [...] read more
  October 2, 2008 7:32 am - 12 Comments
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  Trustworthiness; it’s like truthiness - by frog

  
  
  
  Nice work by McTap, a bunch of Young Greens and some Frogblog readers, has in two days seen Winston Peters go from zero percent in TVNZ’s online poll on the most trustworthy MP in Parliament, to 36 percent, neck and neck for the lead with John Key.  Turia and Sharples have now been belatedly added [...] read more
  September 27, 2008 9:57 am - 11 Comments
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  Who will it be? - by frog

  
  
  
  Triennially the question goes on to all the MMP parties: So who’s it going to be, who will you go with? This time, with the exception of the Maori Party, we pretty much know the answer, or will know the answer before the election for all of them.   But what we don’t know is [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 8:29 am - 53 Comments
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  Russel’s speech on the Privileges Committee findings - by frog

  
  
  
  Ok, so as speeches go the atmosphere is not quite Barack Obama in front of faux Greek pillars, but it’s a pretty clear annunciation of why Russel voted to censure Winston Peters. read more
  September 24, 2008 3:08 pm - 15 Comments
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  The Privileges Committee vote - by frog

  
  
  
  Well I’m pleased and grateful to admit that I was wrong and the Privileges Committee did find against Winston Peters.  I only saw a portion of the evidence and being a frog rather than lawyer obviously did not weight it properly. It was disappointing to see that the committee voted along party lines.  It would [...] read more
  September 23, 2008 8:37 am - 41 Comments
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  Peters: Turn off, tune out, drop out - by frog

  
  
  
  Winston the Blogster has had enough of the media. He suggests you Leave your TV or radio switched off, save that money you’d otherwise spend on a newspaper. Vote uninformed? No if you must know what’s going on he gives further advice: Or, if you’re interested in politics and want to make an informed decision [...] read more
  September 16, 2008 5:02 pm - 11 Comments
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  The one that got away? - by frog

  
  
  
  I cannot believe that I am typing this, but I have the feeling that Winston Peters, via his lawyer’s testimony to the Privileges Committee today, has just wriggled off the hook. Even Rodney Hide was squirming in his seat as Mr Henry detailed a plausible version of events where Owen Glenn rings Peters, who rings [...] read more
  September 16, 2008 11:45 am - 17 Comments
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  Helen Clark on Checkpoint - by frog

  
  
  
  I’ve just been listening to the Prime Minister’s interview with Mary Wilson this evening and have got three comments I’d like to make.  First she said in relation to her not disclosing her knowledge about the conflicting evidence in relation to Mr Peters’ story relating to Mr Glenn’s $100,000 donation: It wasn’t my job to [...] read more
  September 12, 2008 7:47 pm - 38 Comments
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  Doing deals - by frog

  
  
  
  To me the most interesting bit of Owen Glenn’s testimony yesterday was the involvement of Mike Williams in signing off the $100,000 donation to Winston Peters.  The obvious question is why would a Labour Party president direct $100,000 towards another a politician in another party that competes for the same share of votes? And the [...] read more
  September 10, 2008 8:30 am - 2 Comments
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  Winston and electoral funding law - by frog

  
  
  
  From my perspective, Russell Brown managed to get right to the nub of the Winston Peters affair this morning. [T]he perfectly legal means by which, according to Audrey Young’s Herald story, $80,000, probably from the Vela family, was split into eight chunks and channelled through linked companies to avoid declaration, does demonstrate quite what could [...] read more
  September 9, 2008 12:10 pm - 7 Comments
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  I can’t recall - by frog

  
  
  
  Oh, this is bad, bad news for politicians with dirty laundry: MEMORY loss is widely considered as one of the banes of old age, but a world-first Australian study suggests that people over 50 who walk for just 2 1/2 hours a week can halt and even reverse it. West Australian researchers found that over-50s [...] read more
  September 3, 2008 2:11 pm - 4 Comments
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  Agenda - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Isn’t it bizarre how the sole issue in politics some ten weeks before an election is the behaviour of one MP, whose  party is running at 2-4% in the polls? Whether we can take his word; who would or would not sack him; what his lawyers think; and who said what to whom. Frankly, who [...] read more
  September 1, 2008 8:51 am - 156 Comments
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  Secret money - by frog

  
  
  
  “Well, that was an informative political investigation into the corrosive power of secret trusts and large private donations to politicians,” she said brightly. “Who’s next?” read more
  August 29, 2008 7:28 pm - 22 Comments