From Rodney’s latest in the Herald on Sunday:
The date of any briefing is explosive. It’s certainly not nitpicking. Sabin chaired the law and order select committee, which oversees the police. He was hopelessly conflicted. So, too, was our Parliament and justice system.
How could the chairman be holding police to account when he himself was under police investigation?
We deserve to know who was responsible for such dreadful judgment and management.
It’s true, and very amusing to me, given how many rightwing commenters at blogs like The Standard have been trying their usual “this is just a beltway issue” or “this just proves Labour isn’t focused on the real issues” lines on it. Sorry, people, but even stalwart rightwingers can tell when something stinks.
As with Matthew Hooton’s scathing NBR piece about the SkyCity deal – in which he makes such damning statements as:
The origins of this fiasco lie in the close private relationship established between John Key and SkyCity in the mid 2000s. When he became prime minister, Mr Key surprised many when he appointed himself minister of tourism but it was old news to SkyCity. Its executives had advised business partners well before election day that things were looking up because Mr Key had “agreed” to become tourism minister.
… it’s important not to get too excited. Neither Hide nor Hooton* have suddenly seen the light and realised that our government has been running the country for the benefit of an undeserving few, motivated entirely by self-interest. As Danyl notes at Dim-Post, Hooton is deliberately targeting his business rivals with this one.
But we can still marvel at the fact that only months into its third term, the rightwing fanboys are starting to turn on Key. Perhaps they’re hoping to resurrect the Act Party by getting enough rightwing folk fed up about National’s centrist ways. Perhaps with the discrediting of the Taxpayers’ Union there’s thought of creating yet another far-right front
What I’m saying is, their motives are far from pure. But most people aren’t as cynical as me and don’t spend nearly as much time thinking about that kind of thing. What the general public are seeing is their sensible, authoritative** rightwing columnists in sensible, authoritative publications disagreeing strongly with the PM and questioning his “relaxed” attitude on serious issues of conduct and selling out to big business.
That ain’t good for the government.
*Now I’m picturing a series of kids’ books about politics, following the magical adventures of two political hacks on a neverending quest to capture the mystical Thorndon Bubble.
**Because they’re published in our Paper of Record so what they say must be important.
Stephanie Rodgers 