Bill Dalton

There is absolutely no doubt that the events of the last week have damaged the reputation of politicians and that damage and lack of trust will linger for a long time.

And it took me back 25 years when I was considering a political career. A senior politician was sent to take me to lunch (I clearly remember that I paid for us both) and his pitch was appalling. If he used the term “gravy train” once he used it 10 times, his whole theme was about the perks of the job – service to ones country was not mentioned.

I can remember that luncheon clearly and yet now we have former Ministers of the Crown who can’t remember who they had lunch or dinner with just a few short years ago. It is just rubbish isn’t it?

Much is being made of Shane Jones watching blue movies in his room. Frankly I couldn’t care less if Jones wants to sit in his hotel room watching porn and eating chocolate bars. What concerns me is that this fellow, who has been seen by many including himself as a future leader and therefore perhaps our Prime Minister, is either so dumb that the thinks he could get away with charging the cost to his employers – you and I the humble taxpayers –or so arrogant that, at the time, he didn’t care.

As for Chris Carter – the mind boggles that this fellow may have become our Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Carter will naturally claim that he is being persecuted because of his homosexuality. That, like Shane Jones’ choice of viewing material is largely irrelevant. What is relevant is that Carter headed off around the world with his partner, apparently whenever he felt like it, despite having portfolios with domestic responsibilities and charged it all to you and me.

These guys, and others, have simply taken advantage of their position and for my dough they are no different to the employee in a shop who gets their hand in the till.

When you are being paid from the public purse your judgement needs to be beyond reproach.

A number of our politicians have been found wanting.

There is no doubt politics is a tough playground to play in. Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister was one of the strongest and most decisive leaders during the economic meltdown that struck the world in 2008 and 2009. He acted whilst others dithered. But it appears the British public have given him no credit for that international leadership.

And now Britain has got a ridiculous government that is bound to fail. No coalition government has run full term in Britain other than in war time, and this one will be no different. How can a party on the right of the political spectrum, work successfully with a party that is radically left of the Labour Party. It beggars belief.

It is almost as stupid as the situation we have here in New Zealand. How any one party can produce Don Brash and his Orewa speech and John Key and his pandering to all things Maori, I don’t know. How does a government made up of a steady as you go – don’t upset the voters party, a redneck right wing party and a what’s in it for us racist party, govern New Zealand? And the answer to that is not very well. Clearly the New Zealand economy is being as well managed as possible in these extremely difficult times but the degradation in the social fabric of our country is alarming.

We will never compete with Australia economically but we can be a nicer place to live. Right now we are not.

A client said to me yesterday that all the bright kids are heading overseas and New Zealand is becoming a nation of dumbos and slick-willy financial conmen. A bit radical I thought but I know where he is coming from.

We seem to have our priorities all wrong. We have armies of policemen doing booze checkpoints at 4.30 in the afternoon in Waipukurau and yet violent crime is out of control on our streets. We are told by the police hierarchy that they are having a war on speeding and if necessary they will sit policemen up trees to catch speeding motorists.

How bloody silly is that? Don’t waste the time of police personnel by sitting them up trees to catch some poor sod doing a few clicks over the limit – put them on the streets in our cities and let’s get rid of the scumbags that are increasingly giving New Zealand a poor reputation.

Our Government needs to know that there is more to running a country than fiddling with the figures and pandering to their junior coalition partners.

On my radio piece of July 22nd, I suggested that Rodney Hide was now the clown prince of New Zealand politics. I must say some of my close friends had a go at me about that. Rodney was exceptionally bright they said – Rodney had strong principles they said – Rodney keeps everyone honest they said.

I have to tell you I haven’t heard a chirp out of those friends over the last few days – no doubt because their hero has proven them wrong.

Despite his proper apology, Rodney Hide is not exceptionally bright. He is exceptionally dumb to think he could point the finger at everyone else and get away with sneaking his current girlfriend off to Hawaii, to UK for a wedding, to Disneyland, all at the expense of you and me the humble tax payer.

Rodney Hide has no principles whatsoever. He was quite happy to use the perks he has been campaigning against, and shiftily tried to repay the cost of one trip, when he knew he was going to be caught. And how can Rodney Hide keep everyone honest when clearly he has lost all credibility with the public, and his colleagues alike.

The man is a fool.

Hone Harawira is a racist bigot and frankly is a disgrace to this country and an embarrassment to our parliament. His arrogance beggars belief and in my opinion he is not a fit and proper person to sit in our house of representatives. There would be very few public bars in the country that would tolerate Harawira’s behaviour, and I strongly resent the fact that my taxes are subsidizing this fellow’s lifestyle.

Rodney Hide’s party got 3.65% of the vote last election and Hone Harawira’s considerably less than that. And yet these guys are able to arrange trips around the world – to take their girlfriend to her brother’s wedding or the wife to Paris – on the pretence that they are our representatives – I can tell you, I don’t want them representing me!

The truth is the system is broke – we need to fix it: we need to implement a system that gets rid of these unprincipled bludgers, and to look to a system that understands the meaning of the word service. We need to be led by people who want to serve their fellow man – not by those who see leadership roles as a free ticket on the gravy train.

And we need a system that is transparent.

I am delighted that the government has announced that there will be a referendum on MMP although it appears to me that the long drawn out process is planned to fail.

No one likes change and the whole MMP process has been managed to give it time to be accepted before the question of its future as an electoral system is challenged.

But whilst I appear to be increasingly in the minority, I am still of the opinion that MMP is a ridiculous system.

Take the Napier electorate as an example – and I stress I am not critical of the people involved – I am strongly critical of the system.

We had an elected Labour MP – Russell Fairbrother. Along came the National candidate, Chris Tremain and he beat Russell fair and square. The people of Napier said “We want Chris Tremain to be our representative in the House of Representatives”. So off Chris went to Wellington but so did Russell. He was high enough on the list to get back in.

Then in to town on his big red charger rode Stuart Nash. He challenged Russell Fairbrother for the Labour nomination and lost. The Labour party said we don’t want you Stuart, we want Russell, so Stuart went off and began the restructure of the Art Deco Trust.

At the next election Chris Tremain trounced Russell Fairbrother and Russell went back to the private sector feeling like the lucky lion who had escaped from the zoo.

Then the odd Labour member decided to go and do something else and a vacancy occurred in Wellington. So they rang Stuart and said “How would you like a seat in the House of Representatives?”, and off Stuart went to Wellington.

Who is he representing? Chris Tremain is our elected representative – the Labour Party rejected Stuart – how can we possibly accept a system that has people sitting in our House of Representatives who represent no-one?

And what does an opposition list MP do all day? They’ve got no constituents, can achieve nothing in Wellington – frankly they are just a spare part – a spare part in an electoral machine that needs a full overhaul.

For some strange reason, I have started getting emails from the office of Sir Roger Douglas and one offered me a free book. Something for nothing seemed too good to miss so I replied, requesting a copy.

Now despite the fact that I have often disagreed with his politics, Roger Douglas is a politician I admire. He is a politician who has the courage of his convictions, the guts to stand up for what he believes in, the guts to stand up and be counted. He is always prepared to state his case and then argue the points with those of a different view.

And isn’t that a very important part of a politicians role. Shouldn’t politicians whether they be central government or local body politicians, be out in the community expressing views, encouraging debate on important issues leading public opinion. It seems to me that too many politicians are not prepared to express opinions, to state their position on important matters strongly, in case they alienate a few voters. They seem to take the view that if they don’t state where they stand on an issue then no-one can disagree with them.

I suppose in the fickle world of politics that makes a bit of sense. Keep your head down, don’t say anything that anyone can disagree with, be seen at all the right places, tell everyone you are passionate about your electorate or city – politicians love that word passionate – and you will be in for another 3 years.

Well frankly – that is simply not my style.

I will always state my view on matters that are important and fully expect there will be those who disagree with me. Then the matter can be openly debated which is of course not only positive, but healthy for society.

In his time as finance minister, Roger Douglas completely restructured the New Zealand economy and at the time, came under enormous criticism. Subsequently we have had both right and left wing governments and neither has reverted to the old system. That would suggest to me that Roger Douglas got it fairly right.

And if he hadn’t had the guts to make that stand, to take the criticism on the chin, to do what he believed was right for the country, then New Zealand would have been the loser.

Politicians should express their views and be prepared to debate them.

It is a matter of record that I have real concerns about the formation of an “Auckland Super-City”. The current situation is clearly untenable and therefore change is required. But to move from an extremely fragmented system to one where all the power is concentrated into so few hands, seems to me to be almost undemocratic. It is going from one extreme to another and generally that is anything but positive.

Regular listeners will have often heard me say, that if I led a political party, it would be the SMG – the sensible middle ground party. The party where common sense prevails. It is my view that there is not too much common sense or sensible middle ground in Rodney Hide’s proposals for Auckland’s governance.

And neither is there any sense in the attitude of the Maori Party. I watched Hone Harawira on Q&A on Sunday morning – the most inappropriately scheduled programme on New Zealand TV – and frankly I was disgusted. This fellow clearly has no interest in a united New Zealand where we are one people – albeit from different racial backgrounds.

Whilst I have very real reservations about the “Auckland Super City” – if it is to happen – I can see no justification for seats being allocated on a racial basis. Auckland is the largest Polynesian city in the world – many of those Polynesians are Maori. Surely the answer is for Maori to stand worthy candidates and to rally support behind those candidates to ensure they are elected.

That, Mr Harawira, is democracy.

I have long been a supporter of the sensible settlement of Maori grievances. Where land was illegally confiscated, Maori should be compensated. Where there has been injustice – justice must prevail

But surely we have moved beyond the situation where we have to reserve seats on a city council representing one of the most multi-racial cities in the world, for members of any one race.

Have you ever attended a funeral and listened to the minister or celebrant – who probably didn’t know the deceased at all – waxing lyrical about what a wonderful person dear old John was.  They never quite tell the truth do they!

And it’s like that with Michael Cullen.  Now at the end of his parliamentary career we are told that he had an amazing wit, he was sartorially elegant and that in the house he was wonderfully eloquent.

All these things are good to be remembered by but what about the finances of the county.  Rightly or wrongly we remember Nordy’s Black Budget, Muldoon’s think big, Douglas’ reforms of the economy without which New Zealand would be out the back door economically.  

And what will we remember Michael Cullen for?  Being a witty smart-arse who wore flash suits.
 
Cullen held the financial reigns in this country for 9 years – 8 of which were some of the most buoyant economic years we have known.  At a time when we should have been broadening the productive sector, the tax base, Cullen paid off debt and used the funds to build up an enormous army of civil servants.  I use the term army because the IRD alone musters more troops than the whole New Zealand army!

Clark and Cullen are gone and Phil Goff, one of the brightest politicians in the house, though no charismatic leader is in the hot seat. 

And he has had a cabinet reshuffle and brought Labour’s bovver boy Trevor Mallard back to the front bench.  I would have thought May was a good month for Mallard to keep his head down.

Some of the Labour members who have gained promotion I’ve never heard of.  Clearly due to lack of depth in the Labour party they are having to promote list MPs who are there because they brought the best scones for supper at the local branch meetings.

National faces incredibly difficult times – some of the most difficult times ever experienced for a government.  All I ask of them is that they be open and honest.  Take the people with you.

The last thing New Zealand needs now is to find out that another Government is not telling us the truth.

Regular readers will know I am a fierce opponent of MMP and yet even a bad electoral system can produce a good result.

Winston Peters is gone.
 
The man, who used to be a lightweight entertainer – who was one of the real characters of politics but became a nasty vindictive negative influence, is gone.
 
Well done.
 
Proponents of MMP claim that the party vote means we get the party we want – that the voice of the nation is heard.  How come then, the New Zealand First Party gained 4.2% of the party vote and is not represented in Parliament and ACT gained 3.7% of the vote, has 5 MP’s and is able to box well above that weight.  Great system eh!

Stuart Nash here in Napier – rejected by his own party as a candidate but may possibly, depending on special votes, just wander in to Parliament.  Great system eh!

Much is being made by a number of very silly commentators that New Zealand has changed to a “Far Right” government and that of course is unmitigated rubbish.  Labour and National are both parties of the centre – in fact if you look at their policies they both flop from side to side of each other.  Phil Goff for instance would be right of John Key on many issues.  The difference between the parties is the team they can put up. 
For those poor silly commentators that somehow have come to the conclusion that Labour was the party of the people and that National is some far right uncaring mob, let me explain what happened on Saturday.

We stopped the cart and took a tired old horse out from between the shafts.  The tired old horse had been reliable but its vision was not that good and we decided a fresh horse with better vision was required.
The horses are pulling the same cart – we are on the same journey but we decided a different horse suited the road ahead.  We made that decision to avoid problems ahead not to create them.

So despite the extremely rough economic road ahead, we should be celebrating the fact that we have a fresh horse that will hopefully pick its way through the difficult terrain.

My great hope is that, whatever your political persuasion, you will get behind this government.
Times are tough and they are going to need all the help we can offer.

Let’s get positive.

I have been keen on politics as long as I can remember and I can not recall a more boring or pathetic election.

I mean – it’s just bizarre when the most exciting question of the week – just days from polling day – is whether Rodney Hide should be displaying an authorisation on his yellow jacket or not.

Who cares!  The electoral finance act that demands such things is a nonsense and must go.

The TV 3 debate on Monday night was also pathetic.  How people watch that John Campbell I just don’t know.  After the so called debate, the panel of experts were disappointed that neither Helen Clark nor John Key had addressed the financial crisis that is affecting the world.

Of course they didn’t.  They were trying to answer the silly bloody questions put by Campbell.  If answers on specific topics were required – why weren’t questions on these topics asked?

I watched Agenda on Sunday morning – the best programme of the week on at the silliest time.  Winston Peters was simply an embarrassment apart from the fact that what he was saying was completely untrue.

Winston Peters used to be an entertaining lightweight but he has become so arrogant (God knows what he has got to be arrogant about) that he now lets every politician or aspiring politician down.  He has become a caricature of a politician.

Frankly the American election has been far more interesting and more and more New Zealanders have turned off from our boring little soap opera and tuned in to the Presidential race.

New Zealand politics seems to be lacking characters.  David Lange – Big Norm -  dare I say it Rob Muldoon.  Guys like Norman Jones from Invercargill were always fun.  Election campaigns in those days were informative and entertaining.

Now candidates are all controlled by the party machine – they all trumpet the party line and the whole process has lost its colour.

The only colour in this year’s election is Rodney Hide’s jacket and even that is under threat.

Frankly – I guess like you – I will be pleased when it’s all over.

It will come as no surprise to you that I have been involved in some pretty fiery political debates recently – mainly with the poor demented souls who still believe that MMP is good for New Zealand.

The basis of the pro MMP argument seems to be that minority views now have a voice.  That view – of course – completely ignores the fact that these groups have always had a voice within the main stream political parties.  Both Labour and National had their environmental lobbyists – their champions of all things Maori – their right or left wing rumps.  The sort of totally ridiculous nonsense we are now hearing from the Greens about New Zealand becoming totally organic would be noted but not become policy.  These views were heard within a balanced framework.

Just look at the bizarre scenarios that are being suggested as being possible after this election.

National – only able to govern with the support of the Maori Party.  The Maori Party has made it clear that they are not prepared to simply support on supply and demand – they want to be equal partners.  So a party with 7 seats or less could be an equal governing party with a party that gains say 55 or 56 seats.

The Greens have nailed their colours to Labour’s mast.  Doesn’t that prove what a nonsense MMP is?  Surely if they were really subscribing to the MMP myth, they would have left their options open so they could have environmental influence on whichever party is in power.

So the polls suggest that it is just possible that Labour might be able to stitch a government together with support from the Greens, Jim Anderton’s so called political party, perhaps the Maori Party and God forbid, Winston Peters.  The only way that could work is if they all agreed to do nothing.

Can you imagine the likes of Sue Bradford, Winston Peters, Hone Harawera – making collective decisions in New Zealand’s best interests.

I have said so often – I will vote for the party that promises a binding referendum on MMP and for that reason National will get my vote.