It can at times take an atheist to remind us of some of the true messages in Christmas. Thus with Russel Norman in Parliament last Wednesday.
Christmas is “an enduring part of our culture,” he said, commemorating “the start of some unlikely trouble” — a revolutionary new sect — “and the start of new hope.”
Carmel Sepuloni would be in Parliament and Paula Bennett relegated to the list if Sue Bradford hadn’t stood in Waitakere. That says something about the tactics of the left-of-the-left.
Bradford could argue that if Labour was strong 322-odd votes to a micro-party candidate to its left would not matter — 611 mini-party Conservative votes to Bennett’s right didn’t stop her.
Which C word sums up National’s deal with ACT: concession or convenience? Now ask if the same applies to the Maori party deal.
Run through the ACT list.
Charter schools are one way to give effect to National’s stated policy of “choice” of school for parents. John Key favours it. The issue is how it will be done, by whom, in what numbers and under what accreditation and accountability regime. A senior minister points to an initiative by the Waananga o Aotearoa and Massey University. Stand by for a stoush if teachers obstruct.
Too big to fail. (Too small to succeed?)
Auckland One Year On, 13 December 2011
Norman Kirk lost weight, got a decent suit and better hair and won in 1972. David Lange had his stomach stapled to statesman size and won in 1984. Helen Clark got swept-up hair, designer clothes and makeup and won in 1999. Grant Robertson has been measured for a new suit.
Robertson is the fulcrum in Labour’s transition from the post-1980s era to the pre-2020s one. That involves Labour looking and being fresh in face and policy and a generational transition.
ANZSOG Seminar, Wellington, 2 December 2011
John Key took office three years ago amid global financial and economic mayhem. Then came earthquakes in Christchurch, a mine disaster and a ship grounding causing widespread environmental damage.
Another such concatenation of disasters is unlikely in the next three years — though financial and economic mayhem cannot be ruled out (whether the Greek crisis had really been resolved was unclear when this was written).
John Key laid down the challenge for his second term the day after the All Blacks ground out their rugby world cup win. That, he said, was “an achievement built on courage, determination, grit and great teamwork … all values New Zealanders hold highly.”
Did we see those four qualities in National’s and Key’s campaign?
Colin James’s post-election extra for the Otago Daily Times for 28 November 2011
John Key has impressively won a second term, with a version of his first-term supermajority and a lift in his party’s vote — the fifth time in 75 years a first-term government has done that.
The supermajority allows him to turn to John Banks and Peter Dunne on issues the Maori party opposes and vice-versa. That mirrors what he had in 2008-11 but both ACT and the Maori party are smaller, one seat and three, down from five each in 2008.
Having given Winston Peters air with what he is said to have said at his tea party, John Key has declared he will milk Peters’ inconstancy hard in this last week of campaign. That is either marvellously machiavellian or making the best of a mistake.
New Zealand First’s poll average has lifted 1 per cent to about 3.5 per cent this month. Then last week Peters claimed to know Key and John Banks had disparaged old people and “strange” Don Brash.