Oh dear
The “Brash propelled into the National leadership by the Business-Roundtable” email furore has just turned a further degree uglier. Gerry Brownlee fronted National’s race policies on Campbell Live last night because Dr Brash didn’t want to face questioning over the emails. He has now said that Labour was behind the leaks. Steve Maharey has shot back:
Brash must either pull Brownlee into line or back his claims. These are serious allegations for Mr Brownlee to be making, including allegations of criminal activity. Brash should either front up with the evidence or apologise for these allegations.
Is Dr Brash suggesting journalists lied about the source of the leaks when they said that the emails were leaked by a ‘National Party source concerned at the influence of big business on the party’ Does Brash seriously think members of the Labour party have access to his emails?
If Dr Brash wants evidence of a ‘dirty tricks campaign’ he need look no further than his own party. Between Mr Brownlee’s mud-slinging and the damaging leaks from within National, he has plenty to occupy him. These leaks are deeply embarrassing to National because they continue to expose the deep splits within the party and its lack of readiness for office.
Oh dear. I suspect that National’s pointing the finger at Labour just gave this story legs for several more news cycles. Why not just say:
“I receive advice from lots of people, and I use my own judgement whether to listen to them or not. This leak, while concerning, is not at all important to me right now. I want to concentrate on the issues facing New Zealand, and we’ll deal with the leak after the election.”
Conducting an elaborate investigation into the leak and accusing Labour of being involved, just keeps the story alive. This week is turning into just as blunder-prone as the last one. How many bad weeks in a row can National afford before its campaign is in crisis?
August 30th, 2005 at 11:42 am
How many? One. Evidence: campaign is in crisis.
August 30th, 2005 at 11:44 am
i think if we feed yo girl any more testosterone hormone, she just attack randomly, disgusting woman,
August 30th, 2005 at 11:50 am
OK, so I am a naive old grandma when it comes to emails, but I really, truly do fail to see how PRIVATE emails from, for example, Roger Kerr to Don Brash could reach the Labour party. Is it technically possible? Joy.
August 30th, 2005 at 12:13 pm
Joy,
I would’ve thought they could reach the Labour Party in exactly the same way they reached the Sunday Star Times. That is, someone who had access to them gave them to someone who National wishes didn’t have access
That doesn’t answer the question of whether Labour does have them or not of course. Personally I would’ve thought that Labour would be crazy to have possession of them - way too likely to blow up in the faces.
Labour’s ideal situation has to be that the media keeps running with this story and that Labour’s hands stay squeaky clean. Strangely National seems to be flailing about in a way which will make sure both that the story stays live, and that Labour gets to (repeatedly) demonstrate their clean hands.
One has to wonder why Brownlee would do something guaranteed to keep the story leading up the news.
Anita
August 30th, 2005 at 12:44 pm
re nationals’ campaign crisis..for me this whole campaign has morphed into an observation/study of a political campaign just totally out of control..getting worse every day….and with no sign of any let-up….(labour must be pinching themselves in disbelief..)
having watched/blogged questiontime there were no surprises for me at the monstering clark gave brash in the leaders debate..but all the other stuff..cor..!
brash and the actites currently running labour have systematically offended an enormous number of us voters…have burnt off any possible coalition partners..and are now trying to do the number on peters in tauranga..
(this campaign has all the sensitive/scorched earth, touchs of the roger douglas..eh..?..oh, that’s right..!..)
national are a trainwreck just waiting to happen..in a couple of weeks….
and the question is…will the national party survive this upcoming routing…
they will have the ritualised disembowellings of the actites..but then what…?
for national to have any hopes of ruling again, the party will have to be dragged back to the centre..or something….
or the green party becomes the significant other on the new zealand political scene…that’s the scenario i like..and will argue..
national has no soul/no core..it is a party of only one dimension (this is why the act coup was so easy/such a breeze)..national now only have a desire for power..and we all know that politics is much more than that..
and we all know that the green party is the poitics of now and the future..whereas with national it is a case of
‘back to the past..with national’
imho the green party is the one to step into the vacuum left by the sidelining of national…
phil(whoar.co.nz)
August 30th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
I liked Don Brash’s suggestion on National Radio this morning that the journo’s at SST may be lying about their sources.
Hardly a way to kill an unwanted story.
August 30th, 2005 at 1:15 pm
Yeah - if you want journalists to let a story die then the best approach is to accuse them of lieing
August 30th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
Yes, it is interesting to compare the way National are tearing themselves apart with the way the UK Conservative Party has continued to implode since 1997. Faced with a Labour Party which has stolen their centre right positions, they have been forced into more and more extreme positions in order to differentiate themselves in the political marketplace. Since the voters in both countries have experience of what this market-obsessed extremism did to them in the 80s and 90s, it is hardly surprising that most of them run a mile from it. The internal divisions and lack of policy and presentational competency are just the icing on the cake for the Labour parties.
However, it should also be said that while the Greens have succeeded in recovering the support levels they need to re-enter Parliament, they have not been successful in forcing either of the two main parties to deal with the biggest issues facing us - climate change and sustainable development/growth. This has been an election pretty much entirely framed by the obsession of the right with tax cuts (and to a lesser degree, managerial competence), even if they are so far failing to reap the benefit of that because of their own divisions and incompetence. Frankly this is obscene, and there shouldn’t be an self-congratulation going on at Green HQ just because they’re likely to end up back in government with Labour: it’s not like they’re going to be able to argue that they have a clear electoral mandate to get serious on climate change and sustainability issues…
August 30th, 2005 at 1:56 pm
Unless the ‘noble lie’ (referring back to the Brash/tax cuts/strategic deficit debate) for the Greens and Labour at this election is that serious action will be taken on energy and transport policy when they are in power, but they don’t want to risk losing votes by scaring all the car owning, poor insulated home-owners out there…
August 30th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
Anita:
Oh, like Cullen accused a journalist of fabricating a quote until the man in question pulled out a tape recorder?
August 30th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Missing the point Craig.
August 30th, 2005 at 3:30 pm
Hey, I’m just agreeing with Anita. I don’t think Cullen didn’t himself any favours after the Budget constantly bitching and whining about how the cool publoc reception was all the media’s fault. And it just drew out the bad news cycle when he accused a reporter of (in effect) making up a quote, only to have a recording produced later that day.
August 30th, 2005 at 3:39 pm
I can’t see the Greens ever becoming a main-stream party (well, not untli the sea level rises over wellington), but it terms of their goals it probably doesn’t matter.
If the Greens can make environmental policies part of the centre, rather being relagated to the hard-left then the centrist parties will take them over. Greens will be crowded out in much the same way as National is now, but they will have gone some way to achieving their goals.
The difference I think is that the Greens are less interested in power for powers sake, unlike National who seem to be willing to plumb any depths to get some attention.
August 30th, 2005 at 5:42 pm
Trevor Mallards comments didn’t seem to make much difference to the election campaign for Labour, I think voters will vote on policies on election day rather than on who or whom leaked emails or made a few rash statements.
If they did that then we would have no in government as the voters would not vote for anyone.
August 30th, 2005 at 6:23 pm
stymied: At least take of the blinkers long enough to include Labour in that assessment.
August 30th, 2005 at 10:33 pm
To answer Joy’s question… e-mail is inherently insecure. It passes through (and may leave copies on) any number of machines before it reaches its destination. It may be cached in insecure memory. It is simply NOT secure.
People need to know this. Most do. Brash should.
Sensitive documents and mail CAN be encrypted. It’s free, it is not trivial to set up but it is easy enough for people who aren’t afraid of their computers.
Brash didn’t encrypt. His buddies didn’t encrypt. He basically was talking on a party line (sorry!)… and it is nobody’s fault but his own…. because the leading cause of this sort of breach isn’t someone intercepting your mail… it’s someone else sitting in front of your computer when you went out for coffee.
respectfully
BJ
August 31st, 2005 at 11:45 am
Following up on bj:
Tsk,tsk,tsk for Brash.
I don’t bother encrypting my e-mails because (let us be honest) no-one cares about me enough to try intercepting them, and I know nothing that could be called “sensitive data”.
But! Not encrypting and protecting politically explosive exchanges about behind-the-scenes negotiations among kingmakers looking to set up a new PM! Good grief. Their sysadmin must be weeping in frustration at his users disregard for security.
I hope Brash isn’t as sloppy with sensitive govt documents as he was with these e-mails.
August 31st, 2005 at 1:22 pm
I hope the great majority of voters will be thoughtful and consider the range of policies of the parties, and in particluar look at where those parties seem to be heading, such as National moving extreme right.
No need to wonder any longer about where the money for the universal tax cuts will come from if the Nats make the top seats. Joy