Author: Ben Ross - Talking Auckland

Admin and author of Talking Auckland Blog ( http://voakl.net )

So is National’s campaign “slick” or “a mess”?

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Perception is key.
As is Spin Control
Something I have said all before

jononatusch's avatarOccasionally Erudite Publications

Political punditry is definitely a matter of perspective. If you were a Fox News commentator during the last US presidential election, Mitt Romney’s campaign was a dead cert winner; if you were Nate Silver, Obama was going to romp home. (Of course, if you rely on Fox News for your political commentary, you probably deserve to be duped.)

Here in New Zealand, in Election 2014, I’ve just read two very different accounts of the two main parties’ campaigns – Andrea Vance’s ‘The slick and the dead calm‘ and Tim Watkin’s ‘If this was Labour we’d be calling it a mess‘. On the one hand, Ms Vance describes National’s campaign as “slick, polished and organised to the last detail”, while Labour’s “is ad hoc, chaotic and oddly low-energy”.

Her description of Team Key?

National leader John Key whizzed his way across Auckland on Monday, barely pausing for a…

View original post 500 more words

Labour’s Prefu SNAFU

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Always pays to check before opening one’s gob

jononatusch's avatarOccasionally Erudite Publications

When National opened the books ahead of the election with the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (Prefu), the projected surplus for 2014/15 fell from $372 million to $297 million. In a way, the decrease in the projected surplus was an electoral bonus for National. John Key and Bill English have been painting National as sound fiscal managers, while accusing Labour of spending projected surpluses before they’ve been achieved. The Prefu’s decrease in the 2014/15 surplus allowed National to keep their budget halo intact (“We’re still achieving a surplus as promised!”), while being able to warn that conditions were not so rosy as to allow Labour’s proposed spending increases.

David Parker’s mantra has been that all Labour’s policies were fully costed. He and Cunliffe have been desperate to appear just as fiscally responsible as National, such that Labour (and indeed even the Greens!) were boasting that they would in fact be paying…

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Changing of the Guard at Council? Transformation Time

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Could we see the eventual change of the guard with Auckland Council?

 

Prominent writer Bob Dey has penned together a rather thought-provoking post about a transformation a Council. Tomorrow he will post part two of this upcoming transformation but below is an excerpt of part one.

From The Property Report

Council transformation begins with a must-change moment

on Monday 25 August 2014
At what point does transformation begin? It’s most often a gradual process with occasional reference points where significant change occurs or is agreed.I saw transformation at Auckland Council last week. It’s by no means complete, though many battles have been waged to get the council to the point it reached by Thursday.

What’s different is that the council must change.

…

In short, I see change coming:

  • New councillors who are pragmatic, with an understanding of how businesses should be asked to operate, raising their profiles
  • The governing body working hard to establish smoother funding lines to the local boards
  • The governing body putting proposals to its commercial arms on how they should operate and what they should be targeting, not just waiting for the CCOs to put proposal to which the answer is yea or think again
  • More co-operation between council & Government, led by a council push to state its objectives forcefully, ending the era of lurching, politically motivated decision-making and also ending the era of central government dropping unfunded costs & tasks on local government.

Is this mere imagination? No, I think the moment of change has arrived. I’ll write in more detail about this tomorrow.

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Full post (and source) can be seen here: http://www.propbd.co.nz/council-transformation-begins-must-change-moment/

 

“New councillors who are pragmatic, with an understanding of how businesses should be asked to operate, raising their profiles”

Could we see a changing of the guard in 2016 (next Local Government Elections) with the Legacy Era finally and phasing out new Councillors (new blood who have never been an elected representative prior to the Super City being formed in 2010) coming in? We will soon see I suppose

 

Resigned from The Party

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No longer a member of the National Party

 

Well the announcement on Twitter certainly lit the place up yesterday and this morning. Never thought it would garner the response it did but it did.

Yesterday I had decided that after 11 years of membership I will no longer be a National Party member. The email when to National HQ in Wellington this morning stating that I have left the organisation as a Party member.

The email simply said:

I wish to inform the National Party that after being a member since 2003 I will be resigning my membership to the Party effective immediately
While it has been an adventure and I have met many new people along the way over the last 11 years I feel that the Party no longer presents my Social Liberal values nor is represents a Party that champions the Common Good.
The Hager saga has also shown National to be lacking in the skills required to navigate through a stormy patch that do come up from time to time.
The Prime Minister, and the Hon Judith Collins acting in obfuscation, stretching the truth and belittling the intelligence of the populace through their handling of the situation has also been a catalyst for me leaving the Party.
Until such time National is more in line with my own values of Social Liberalism and the Common Good, as well as Collins no longer being an MP I will remain a political freelancer, my vote always that of a Swing voter.
Despite the mess National has gotten itself in I wish no ill upon members and MP’s who do the hard yards out in the electorates. Sadly a few bad apples ruin it for everyone else.
Thus I wish the Party all the best into the future and in acknowledgement that we might meet up again some day. I do point out I have no desire in joining any other Party either.
All the best to the campaign
And thank you for the last 11 years.
With Kind Regards

 

So I am a political freelancer, my vote a swing vote at Central Level.

And the end of the day there is no point being part of a Political Party that does not line up with your own values (nor morals). Sadly a few bad apples ruined it and the rest is now as they say – history.

However this does not end my political involvement in any way. Well it does at Central Level as I step back but at Local Level I will still be definitely around (I can hear Auckland Transport saying “nuts” from here 😉 ). My affiliations at Auckland Council level do not change – that is I am still a supporter of the Deputy Mayor. But for now I take a break from Central Politics and turn all attention towards Auckland’s politics.

The blog will still be here, the posts and commentary will still be here, the pressers will still be posted when they come, the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request still filed, the presentations and live tweetings out of Committees continue. 

 

As I said in the email though, I do wish the Party all the best in the future and in acknowledgement that we might meet up again one day.