New Zealand politics has got very interesting all of a sudden and I'm making this thread in the vain hope somebody else on Interference might want to talk about the upcoming election on 20 September and the scandals surrounding it.
Here's a brief rundown for those of you unfamiliar with Kiwi politics. First the system, then the scandal.
The system and major players
The current Prime Minister, John Key, has been in power for two terms, dating back to 2008. He leads the National Party, the main centre-right party, and is currently polling pretty well. His main opposition is the centre-left Labour Party led by David Cunliffe, who lack a strong or popular leader and have been polling poorly despite a series of controversies involving the government. Under the New Zealand electoral system of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), minor parties are quite significant and ever since the first MMP election in 1996 every government has been a coalition of some description (suck that, Australia and your hysteria about minority governments; the sky hasn't fallen yet). The largest minor party are the Greens, but also currently in parliament are the indigenous-rights Maori Party and its left-wing offshoot the Mana Movement, the right-wing classical liberal ACT Party, the populist/nationalist New Zealand First, and the centrist United Future.
At this election, the Mana Movement has signed a temporary deal with the new Internet Party founded by Kim Dotcom - yes, that Kim Dotcon, the guy behind Megaupload. They will run a joint Internet Mana ticket, with a review of their arrangement to be made a month after the election. Also seeking entry to parliament is the far-right Conservative Party, led by a chap called Colin Craig whose main hobby is threatening litigation. There are a bunch of other microparties in contention; none of them stand a chance this time around, but the satirical Citizen Party should give us some laughs. I for one am fully supportive of their policy to declare national independence from the city of Hamilton.
The Dirty Politics scandal
Last Wednesday, investigative journalist Nicky Hager launched a book in Wellington amidst some secrecy. Everybody thought that he was writing a book about the Five Eyes surveillance network. Boy did they get a surprise. Hager's a well-respected journo whose books have caused trouble for both National and Labour in the past - though he is on the political left. This new book, Dirty Politics, is based on emails and Facebook messages Hager received from an anonymous source between Cameron Slater and political staffers. Slater runs Whale Oil Beef Hooked, a rabid and tawdry right wing blog with considerable prominence in New Zealand (political blogging in general has a high profile in New Zealand and leading bloggers are public figures in their own right). Many of Slater's messages are with Jason Ede, long-serving press officer for the Prime Minister. The revelations are massive. Here is a selection:
- The National Party accessed (probably illegally) the Labour Party's computers during the 2011 election campaign, with information then supplied by Ede to Slater to publicly attack Labour without having the National Party's fingerprints on it.
- Slater was tipped off by Ede when information requested under the Official Information Act (a freedom of information law) was to be released to an opposition party or a media outlet. Slater then made his own requests, sometimes drafted by Ede, and was given the information first, so that it was published on Whale Oil with pro-National spin before any other outlet had it.
- Slater made an OIA request to the Security Intelligence Service for information on a briefing given to Phil Goff, then Labour leader, to contradict a claim made by Goff. Media outlets who made almost identical requests were rejected. Requests to the SIS are almost always rejected, or if approved take weeks to process. Slater's request was expedited in a matter of days and he was given foreknowledge of what the content would be. It appears this was done with the approval of the Prime Minister's office, if not the PM himself. As you can imagine, Goff is apoplectic. This really is a gross abuse and politicisation of the OIA.
- A leading source of Slater's infamous "tipline" of dirt on politicians - mainly regarding members of the opposition - is Justice Minister Judith Collins. When Minister of Police she discussed leaking info to Slater for publication on his blog, and appears to have moved a prisoner at Slater's request to a more isolated prison, leading to the prisoner attempting suicide.
- Slater also collaborates with National political strategist Simon Lusk to run smear campaigns, including in National pre-selection battles to ensure their mates and allies win pre-selection. It means the smears do not appear to have come from within the party.
- Slater and National political strategist Simon Lusk conspired to blackmail Rodney Hide to resign the leadership of the ACT Party by threatening to release "dodgy texts" between Hide and a young woman. Hide subsequently resigned. Hide denies the allegations, but the timeline fits perfectly. Whether or not Hide resigned because of blackmail, Slater and Lusk still conspired to blackmail him - which is illegal.
The basic thrust of the book is that while John Key presents a public image as an easygoing guy who is above the fray, the reality is the most concerted programme of dirty tricks in New Zealand in decades, using friendly high-profile bloggers such as Slater so that the National Party's fingerprints are not on the disclosures or taunts. The activity described ranges from odious to illegal. National right now are busy playing the man, not playing the ball, evidently in the hope the allegations will just go away (especially since Hager has extensive documentation so they're going to have trouble winning if they play the ball). A Twitter account - not run by Hager - is now releasing the emails Hager used as his source, plus some he did not. This whole affair could really tarnish Key's public image, especially as he vowed to represent a break with unsavoury behaviour by his predecessors that Hager exposed in an earlier book, The Hollow Men.
Aaaand Kim Dotcom says that he will hold a press conference in the week before the election to release new information about New Zealand's involvement in international espionage. This is going to be good. It's unlikely these disclosures will change the course of the election as Labour & Friends are so far behind in polling, but it should dash National's hopes of being the first MMP-era majority government and it's definitely turned a potentially dull election campaign into the most interesting since 2005.
Here's a brief rundown for those of you unfamiliar with Kiwi politics. First the system, then the scandal.
The system and major players
The current Prime Minister, John Key, has been in power for two terms, dating back to 2008. He leads the National Party, the main centre-right party, and is currently polling pretty well. His main opposition is the centre-left Labour Party led by David Cunliffe, who lack a strong or popular leader and have been polling poorly despite a series of controversies involving the government. Under the New Zealand electoral system of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), minor parties are quite significant and ever since the first MMP election in 1996 every government has been a coalition of some description (suck that, Australia and your hysteria about minority governments; the sky hasn't fallen yet). The largest minor party are the Greens, but also currently in parliament are the indigenous-rights Maori Party and its left-wing offshoot the Mana Movement, the right-wing classical liberal ACT Party, the populist/nationalist New Zealand First, and the centrist United Future.
At this election, the Mana Movement has signed a temporary deal with the new Internet Party founded by Kim Dotcom - yes, that Kim Dotcon, the guy behind Megaupload. They will run a joint Internet Mana ticket, with a review of their arrangement to be made a month after the election. Also seeking entry to parliament is the far-right Conservative Party, led by a chap called Colin Craig whose main hobby is threatening litigation. There are a bunch of other microparties in contention; none of them stand a chance this time around, but the satirical Citizen Party should give us some laughs. I for one am fully supportive of their policy to declare national independence from the city of Hamilton.
The Dirty Politics scandal
Last Wednesday, investigative journalist Nicky Hager launched a book in Wellington amidst some secrecy. Everybody thought that he was writing a book about the Five Eyes surveillance network. Boy did they get a surprise. Hager's a well-respected journo whose books have caused trouble for both National and Labour in the past - though he is on the political left. This new book, Dirty Politics, is based on emails and Facebook messages Hager received from an anonymous source between Cameron Slater and political staffers. Slater runs Whale Oil Beef Hooked, a rabid and tawdry right wing blog with considerable prominence in New Zealand (political blogging in general has a high profile in New Zealand and leading bloggers are public figures in their own right). Many of Slater's messages are with Jason Ede, long-serving press officer for the Prime Minister. The revelations are massive. Here is a selection:
- The National Party accessed (probably illegally) the Labour Party's computers during the 2011 election campaign, with information then supplied by Ede to Slater to publicly attack Labour without having the National Party's fingerprints on it.
- Slater was tipped off by Ede when information requested under the Official Information Act (a freedom of information law) was to be released to an opposition party or a media outlet. Slater then made his own requests, sometimes drafted by Ede, and was given the information first, so that it was published on Whale Oil with pro-National spin before any other outlet had it.
- Slater made an OIA request to the Security Intelligence Service for information on a briefing given to Phil Goff, then Labour leader, to contradict a claim made by Goff. Media outlets who made almost identical requests were rejected. Requests to the SIS are almost always rejected, or if approved take weeks to process. Slater's request was expedited in a matter of days and he was given foreknowledge of what the content would be. It appears this was done with the approval of the Prime Minister's office, if not the PM himself. As you can imagine, Goff is apoplectic. This really is a gross abuse and politicisation of the OIA.
- A leading source of Slater's infamous "tipline" of dirt on politicians - mainly regarding members of the opposition - is Justice Minister Judith Collins. When Minister of Police she discussed leaking info to Slater for publication on his blog, and appears to have moved a prisoner at Slater's request to a more isolated prison, leading to the prisoner attempting suicide.
- Slater also collaborates with National political strategist Simon Lusk to run smear campaigns, including in National pre-selection battles to ensure their mates and allies win pre-selection. It means the smears do not appear to have come from within the party.
- Slater and National political strategist Simon Lusk conspired to blackmail Rodney Hide to resign the leadership of the ACT Party by threatening to release "dodgy texts" between Hide and a young woman. Hide subsequently resigned. Hide denies the allegations, but the timeline fits perfectly. Whether or not Hide resigned because of blackmail, Slater and Lusk still conspired to blackmail him - which is illegal.
The basic thrust of the book is that while John Key presents a public image as an easygoing guy who is above the fray, the reality is the most concerted programme of dirty tricks in New Zealand in decades, using friendly high-profile bloggers such as Slater so that the National Party's fingerprints are not on the disclosures or taunts. The activity described ranges from odious to illegal. National right now are busy playing the man, not playing the ball, evidently in the hope the allegations will just go away (especially since Hager has extensive documentation so they're going to have trouble winning if they play the ball). A Twitter account - not run by Hager - is now releasing the emails Hager used as his source, plus some he did not. This whole affair could really tarnish Key's public image, especially as he vowed to represent a break with unsavoury behaviour by his predecessors that Hager exposed in an earlier book, The Hollow Men.
Aaaand Kim Dotcom says that he will hold a press conference in the week before the election to release new information about New Zealand's involvement in international espionage. This is going to be good. It's unlikely these disclosures will change the course of the election as Labour & Friends are so far behind in polling, but it should dash National's hopes of being the first MMP-era majority government and it's definitely turned a potentially dull election campaign into the most interesting since 2005.