GIMME FIVE: a year in politics
It’s been a topsyturvy political year that destroyed more than a few reputations.
Labour leader David Shearer called for a leadership vote, which he won unanimously, and then dumped David Cunliffe. It has enhanced his standing and neutered his rival.
Minister John Key sacked Nick Smith from Cabinet over his letter supporting Bronwyn Pullar’s ACC claim. Losing a minister who was key to local government reforms and the only one who was on top of the environment portfolio was a loss, but after showing an initial reluctance the PM moved quickly.
Government did a rapid U-turn on plans to cut costs by increasing school class sizes. It takes a lot to pull the plug on a Budget announcement, especially when ministers have invested so much in defending it, but angering parents is a definite no-no.
Cabinet postponed the state asset sales programme. The challenge over Maori water rights forced ministers’ hands. But it has put further pressure on the 2014/15 Budget surplus, given the anti-asset sales referendum more punch and means the Government will now struggle to sell shares in all four state energy companies by early 2014.
Peters dumped Brendan Horan from the NZ First caucus. If Horan is cleared of the allegations he misused his dying mother’s bank account, it will look precipitate. But Peters instinctively sensed the issue would rumble on and damage the party, especially among his core older voters.
Key backing John Banks. He is stuck with a lame-duck minister and a lame-duck MP who couldn’t win back Epsom for ACT in 2014, even if he wanted to.
leadership hopeful David Cunliffe over-reaching himself by precipitating an early leadership vote that strengthened David Shearer’s’s position and probably scuttled his own prospects.
class sizes debacle – what on earth was National thinking?
Government Communications Security Bureau illegally spying on Kim Dotcom, despite all the documentary evidence that he was a New Zealand resident and therefore protected from their snooping. They make the Keystone Cops look good.
of restructuring at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which resulted in a slew of leaks and a mass exodus of some of our most
experienced diplomats.
to save money by increasing class sizes – her colleagues copped the flak from National’s heartland voters and John Key had to intervene.
– why hasn’t she stepped in to sort out the debacle over teacher pay packets?
Christchurch school
closures.
school closures – her credibility took another knock after the High Court ruled that officials failed to heed warnings about the risk of female students being sexually abused once shifted from Nelson’s girls-only Salisbury special school.
inability to master plain English – like this explanation of national standards. ‘‘What we do know is that the standards are mapped to the national curriculum and that the judgments that teachers use and the assessment tools that they make their judgments on are then mapped to the standards.’’
Christchurch quake claimants of ‘‘carping and moaning’’ and ‘‘buggerising around on Facebook’’ over their land classifications.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker a clown.
the Christchurch Press newspaper the enemy of the city’s recovery.
the Finns were barely educated, could hardly feed their people, had a terrible homicide rate, and no respect for women.
to be mystified over the identity of Yani Johanson, a Christchurch City Councillor who criticised the Government.‘‘Where does he fit in?’’ he asked a radio presenter.
MP Brendan Horan insisting he has a mandate to remain in Parliament on his salary of $142,000 a year after being expelled from the NZ First caucus over allegations about money missing from his late mother’s estate.
Maori Party’s repeated veiled threats to walk away from its support arrangement with National every time government policy is at odds with its constituency. Ever heard the story about the boy who cried wolf?
Mallard, architect of the antiscalping legislation, sprung selling tickets to a sold-out Homegrown music festival in Wellington for a healthy $276 profit.
Banks’ claim that he has ‘‘nothing to fear, nothing to hide’’ before refusing to allow police to release his statement on the circumstances surrounding a donation to his mayoralty campaign by Kim Dotcom.
leaders jumping on the Aussie-exodus bandwagon by posing in an empty stadium. Face it, none of them has the answer.
I have no memory of that. The director [of GCSB] has no memory of that. Mr Key joins the list of people struck down by amnesia on matters relating to Kim Dotcom.
‘‘Zip it, sweetie.’’ Girl fight? Social Development Minister Paula Bennett to her Labour opponent, Jacinda Ardern. ‘‘I don’t believe I’m not not connecting.’’ Is that irony? Labour leader David Shearer proves the point he was trying to deny after suggestions his delivery was too muddled to connect with voters. John Key proves why he got the tourism portfolio. It’s going to be a long 21⁄ years.’’ John Key. After a year political year dominated by headlines over Crafar farms, Cabinet Minister Nick Smith’s resignation, the Dotcom/John Banks/ GCSB scandal, the SkyCity row, Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson’s resignation over a damning inquiry into Pike River, tragedy in Afghanistan, a Maori water rights challenge, privacy breaches, a Labour leadership row and Brendan Horan’s expulsion, we reckon he got it about
right.