The ups and downs of this week in politics
Are you confused by all the hoo-ha about Red Peak? Thought the political cup of tea was dead? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Here is this week’s definitive list of who’s up and who’s down in politics.
UP – Red Peak
It’s out with the Silver Fern and in with Red Peak. The Red Peak flag may not be everyone’s cup of tea but that’s exactly why it is growing in popularity. It’s the flag you back when you really want to ditch the old flag but don’t want to be so uncool as to back the same flag the Prime Minister wants.
David Seymour
UP – David Seymour
Any interview that starts with the words ‘‘the French love the Coq’’ is always going to end badly. The Act leader’s reaction the moment he realised his gaffe? Priceless. For the record he was comparing the French coq to the Silver Fern.
UP – Bromance
It was a trans-Tasman love-fest after Malcolm Turnbull rolled Tony Abbott as Australian prime minister and credited John Key as his motivation for doing so.
UP – Satire
MPs are finally ready to ditch a rule about using footage from Parliament TV to ridicule or mock them. The rule was imposed in 2007 by MPs worried youtube might make them look silly. Who needs YouTube?
DOWN– Penny pinching
After discovering it had been underpaying beneficiaries for years the Government introduced retrospective legislation making the underpayments legal, rather than reimburse them. As beneficiaries advocate Kay Brereton observed: ‘‘Would this happen if a parliamentary allowance was underpaid? I doubt it very much.’’
DOWN– Serco
The private prison operator keeps making headlines of the worst kind for Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga. The latest are over a string of breaches at its Mt Eden Corrections facility attracting more than $1 million in fines.
DOWN– Raiding the piggy bank
New Zealand has missed out on returns totalling $17.8 billion over the last six years as a result of National stopping contributions to the NZ Superannuation fund. And rubbing salt in the wound, there’s still no surplus.
Fail of the week
John Key and Labour leader Andrew Little for putting politics above resolving the impasse over Red Peak. After rejecting each other’s offer to sit down and discuss the matter over a cuppa, a furious exchange of letters and plenty of sledging, Key and Little refused to budge from their positions on the flag row.
Sledge of the week
‘‘If that’s Malcolm Turnbull’s ambitions, then I pity Australia.’’ Labour leader Andrew Little slaps down Turnbull’s praise of the Key Government’s record.