Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Never mind the quality ...

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  • Chris Waugh, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    and has failed conspicuously to detect actual threats in their area of concern (Rainbow Warrior bombings, Israeli passport fraud).

    Perhaps of tangential relevance.

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 2401 posts Report

  • blindjackdog, in reply to Russell Brown,

    trainwreck

    And comparing Hager to Assange is preposterous. Oh, they couch it nice and vaguely, but given their readership of increasingly befuddled and reactionary boomers, it seems to me like a pretty calculated slur against a member of their profession they might actually think to admire rather than slyly to defame.

    Since Nov 2007 • 40 posts Report

  • blindjackdog, in reply to Carol Stewart,

    I might have to reinstate my subscription just to have the satisfaction of cancelling it again.

    +1

    (Lord, it's been nearly ten years since I ended that destructive relationship, and I've never felt better -- more confident, sure of myself, less consumed by rage and doubt....)

    Since Nov 2007 • 40 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to giovanni tiso,

    The entirely predictable Listener editorial: “Hager, of course, is no less guilty than Slater of trying to exert influence on the political process.”

    Well, yes of course he bloody is. If anyone at The Listener is lurking hereabouts, I can state the blindingly obvious like it's a startlingly new insight into the meaning of life. And I'll lowball whoever is doing it now by at least 5%. My line is open...

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • izogi, in reply to Kumara Republic,

    Just heard the podcast below*

    Sheesh. That whole Morning Report interview could have been a National Party ad in itself. Suzie Ferguson might as well have just given him a podium.

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 1142 posts Report

  • WH,

    I just watched this John Campbell interview with Phil Goff. I've always thought of Phil Goff as a basically decent guy.

    John Key looks a bit rattled.

    Since Nov 2006 • 797 posts Report

  • Tom Semmens,

    I might have to reinstate my subscription just to have the satisfaction of cancelling it again.

    The Listener used to be part of whatever it was that made up the fragile pickings of intellectual life in NZ, but no one even bothers discussing it anymore. It is just another "lifestyle" magazine printed on worse paper than North and South. I guess the people who wrecked it will claim they did it to save the magazine, but destroying the village to save it was, is and never will be good policy.

    Quite sad, really.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report

  • Stephen R,

    Video of John Key (taken just after the SIS OIA was released to Cameron Slater) saying he'd been told by Tucker that he had to release it... It rather directly contradicts the "I was never told" message.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10411491/Keys-SIS-claims-contradicted-by-video

    Just .... I don't even.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2009 • 259 posts Report

  • giovanni tiso, in reply to WH,

    I've always thought of Phil Goff as a basically decent guy.

    Okay, let's not say things we can never take back now.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • izogi, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,

    But, but, (my butt) he was on holiday now. say Harold

    And now Fairfax has dug up a video from days after the release, where John Key refers to having been briefed.

    "What happened is Warren Tucker didn't come to me, he went to his legal adviser and his legal advisers told him this is the process they have to follow and when he was going through that process it was at that point he told me he'd release it because he has to tell me that under the no-surprises doctrine," Key says on the recording.

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 1142 posts Report

  • izogi, in reply to Stephen R,

    Video of John Key

    Hey, you bet me too it. I should reload more frequently.

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 1142 posts Report

  • Stephen R, in reply to izogi,

    Hey, you bet me too it. I should reload more frequently.

    You added the damning transcript, so superior service slightly slower.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2009 • 259 posts Report

  • Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to izogi,

    Hey, you bet me too it. I should reload more frequently.

    And I linked to the story at te Harold on t’other thread. I should reload more often!

    Also, we were saying the other day. Every day that JK says anything ,there will be another day he would have said a contradiction. If journalists dig they can find more I'm sure.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report

  • Pete George, in reply to WH,

    Phil Goff blatantly lied to Campbell.

    Campbell: Can I ask you a question? You were a leader of the Labour Party, up against and extraordinarily popular Prime Minister John Key.

    Did you ever seek to do what you’re accusing him of doing, or use your office to do it, which is to get really dirty behind the scenes, arms length?

    Goff: No no not at all…

    Campbell: Never, not once?

    Goff: No, no, because fundamentally to me the integrity of our political system is important.

    Goff has a history of misleading and leaking and accusing others of lying. He has been involved in:

    – Leaking and misleading over the Don Brash ‘gone by lunchtime’ statement in 2004.
    – His office leaks from MFAT in 2012 which led to a fight through the courts to hide the identity of the Labour associated leaker.
    – A Goff office leak led to the forced resignation of National MP Richard Worth in 2009.
    – Goff “appears to have broken the law by releasing pages from a suppressed Court of Inquiry report into the death of a Kiwi soldier in Afghanistan” in 2013.
    – Accused SIS director Warren Tucker of lying about briefing him in 2011.

    http://yournz.org/2014/08/22/goff-blatantly-lies-about-dirty-politics/

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2011 • 139 posts Report

  • Pete George,

    Perhaps coincidental but the 'diry parties' - National, Labour and NZ First all went down in the latest NZ Herald poll.

    The 'clean' parties - Greens in p[articular, Conservatives, Maori Party, Act and United Future - all went up in the poll.

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2011 • 139 posts Report

  • Lucy Telfar Barnard,

    Pete, I'm not sure that those leaks count as playing dirty behind the scenes. For a start, with the possible exception of the Richard Worth business, which I don't remember well, the other matters are all actually about politics. Those leaks were all things in which there was public interest.

    The problem with the SIS release of documents on Goff to Slater is not that the documents were released - it is with the fact they were released only to Slater, and that the PM's office was apparently involved in advising Slater on just how to ask to get them; and the current possibility that Key has lied about whether his office had anything to do with that release.

    I'm not arguing Goff is squeaky clean - I really never got a sense of what he was like at all, which was part of the problem with his leadership - but leaking doesn't count as dirty politics all on its own.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 585 posts Report

  • Stephen R,

    My recollection is that nice Mr Key was saying that David Cunliffe couldn't be trusted to run the country because he couldn't remember a letter he wrote in support of Mr Liu 11 years ago, and was therefore shifty and unreliable.

    Since Mr Key now appears to be unable to remember a briefing five years ago, does that make him twice as shifty and unreliable?

    Wellington • Since Jul 2009 • 259 posts Report

  • Pete George, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,

    and that the PM’s office was apparently involved in advising Slater on just how to ask to get them;

    That is speculation only isn't it? Slater has just given his version of what happened.

    I watched Phil Goff on TV slam into the SIS about not being briefed about the situation with Israeli tourists. I thought to myself…that can’t be right, he is the Leader of the Opposition he must have been briefed. So I decided to write an OIA.

    In the meantime several sources, none of which work in the PM’s or any other Minister’s office or indeed any National MPs office contacted me, about the very same thing.

    When politicians dump on civil servants who cannot speak for themselves then sometimes they get pushed too far.

    I put in the OIA and within hours I was being pressured by the PM’s office and others senior in the government to withdraw the request. I refused. I was told that people wouldn’t speak to me etc. I said so what. I won’t be told what to do by anyone. About the only person who can even try to tell me what to do passed away two years ago.

    So I waited, and I waited. I was then phoned to be told that the release was coming and that It was being posted to me, it was also being released to other media the same day by post…I was livid. I was the first one to put in an OIA. Selwyn Manning was a couple of days behind me I’m told. I was livid because it was being posted…and being in Auckland I was at a distinct disadvantage.

    I received the letter the next day and scanned it and rang TV3, they agreed to a joint release and at 6pm that night the story broke.

    Far from the mad conspiracy theories of Phil Goff, the government actually tried to stop me asking the OIA.

    I am happy to swear under oath what happened, and then I expect a personal apology in writing for publication on the blog from Phil Goff for lying about me.

    I haven’t seen anything yet that contradicts this.

    While it’s possible the SIS leaked to him or someone in the Prime Minister’s office leaked to him (John Key emphasised that was an imprisonable offence it’s quite feasible that someone outside of those with experience of OIA and perhaps the SIS gave him advice on the best way to request the information.

    This possibility should at least be considered seriously.

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2011 • 139 posts Report

  • Sacha, in reply to Pete George,

    His office leaks from MFAT in 2012 which led to a fight through the courts to hide the identity of the Labour associated leaker.

    I thought the leaker was never identified, let alone their associations?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Lucy Telfar Barnard, in reply to Pete George,

    I haven’t seen anything yet that contradicts this.

    I haven't seen anything yet that would make me trust a single word that Slater says or writes.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 585 posts Report

  • JLM, in reply to Stephen R,

    My recollection is that nice Mr Key was saying that David Cunliffe couldn’t be trusted to run the country because he couldn’t remember a letter he wrote in support of Mr Liu 11 years ago, and was therefore shifty and unreliable.

    Since Mr Key now appears to be unable to remember a briefing five years ago, does that make him twice as shifty and unreliable?

    This is what I would rather the media would focus on, rather than the minuteae of who said what, when.

    I also hope that David Cunliffe resists the temptation to drag this out in the leader's debates, by which time most people will be starting to flag. These debates really should be about policy, with a wee bit of trust and leadership on the side.

    Judy Martin's southern sl… • Since Apr 2007 • 241 posts Report

  • Dismal Soyanz,

    But when policy (ooh say for example combating cyber bullying) is promulgated by people who engage in contrary behaviour, what confidence can you have in those policy statements?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2010 • 310 posts Report

  • Rufus McEwan, in reply to Pete George,

    Two flags for me here:
    1) How is anyone outside of the Prime Minister's office gaining access to classified information to then leak it to Slater. If confirmed this surely raises new questions about the running of the SIS.
    2) The PMs office is directly encouraging him to withdraw the request still implies more involvement in this particular release then they are currently prepared to admit and only confirms Hager's assessment that the Prime Minister's office works closely with Slater.

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 1 posts Report

  • simon g, in reply to Pete George,

    I think this sums it up pretty well:

    I won’t be told what to do by anyone.

    and

    I am happy to swear under oath what happened

    Feel free to take Slater - or anyone else - at their word, that's your prerogative, but don't expect the rest of us to fall into line.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1333 posts Report

  • Angela Hart, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,

    I haven't seen anything yet that would make me trust a single word that Slater says or writes.

    This.
    The more he says/writes, the less credible he appears. Given the now exposed duplicity I couldn't accept any of his statements without independent evidence.

    Christchurch • Since Apr 2014 • 614 posts Report

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