The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself

PS: Ian Dalziel called. He wants his schtick back.

And particularly necessary for full disclosure in that case. Hiding a criminal case against a Minister behind "personal matters" is really not up to scratch...

National MP Richard Worth quit as a minister because of a criminal matter, Prime Minister John Key confirmed this morning, saying if he had not resigned he would have been sacked.

DPF is understandably upset that they tried to fudge it.

One would think that a member of the Auckland elite would be free from the taint of criminality and scandal... Oh... hang on...

Criminal matter? Hasn't he also been called as a witness in the Glucina/Saunder stoush?

Yes.

What's a DCM and when did Worth get one?

According to Wiki he's an Officer of the British Empire for services to NZ. Looks like it might have been from his naval career?

And yes, Wiki already has the 2009 criminal investigation matter.

We NEVER have juicy scandals in N.Z.

What's a DCM and when did Worth get one?

Don't Come Monday.

It's an honour the smiling assassin has reputedly bestowed quite often, although in this case, it would appear he didn't actually have to pull out the ceremonial sword.

Will David Garrett be demanding harsher counselling? Three sessions and you're out?

What is the maximum penalty for personal matters?

About 6 months of media speculation & a gig on next year's Dancing with the Stars.

Richard Worth tries to pevert justice

An allegation has been made against a sitting member of Parliament. Wellington police are conducting a preliminary investigation into this matter.

So. Farewell Then

That police statement in full:

Sure is Private Eye in here. I'm tempted to post right up to page 94 just for the hell of it.

sadly it seems the ex-Infernal Affairs Minister
(and hopefully soon ex-Member of Parliament)
has merely reverted to his diminutive – DICK...

The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself

I suspect that as Minister for the National Library?

It is a window into their mindset, a carefully constructed world of mutually supporting prejudices that cannot countenance the intrusion of any reality for fear that?

UPDATE: Well, I've just returned from a quite extraordinary press conference with John Key.

It took a long time to get any details at all. But it transpires that Key's office was contacted last week by a third party with some information about Worth that relates?

"His conduct does not befit a minister. I will not have him in my Cabinet. I have lost confidence in him as a minister."

That sounds pretty serious – and it makes the initial attempt at a coverup look even worse.

Question?

Question Time will be fun today

Sadly, it will probably just follow the usual pattern:

Long-winded questions from Goff, jokey blokey non-answers from Key, pointless points of order from Labour benches, arguing with Lockwood Smith while the real target escapes.

I hope I'm wrong.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/horses-mouth/why-has-minister-internal-affairs-richard-worth-resigned

Glucina's mother claims to have been defamed because Saunders allegedly linked a weird poison-pen letter she received to her.

These people are like infants.

Which means it must be Whaleoil time.

There's some bizarre generational?

Nicked this from the Kiwiblog thread

Which goes like this:

The key OIA question relating to this was:

"16. Information which confirms that Watercare Services Ltd has ever employed (including by contract) anyone directly related (spouse, sibling, son or daughter, brother or sister in law) to yourself, Minister of Internal?

This OIA request was sent to Minster of Internal Affairs Richard Worth on Saturday 31 May 2009.

But Stuff reports 'Mr Key said an outside party had informed his office of the allegation of a ''relatively recent'' incident last week.'

In my world, cause precedes effect.

Ahem. Perhaps I'll hold up for a moment.

Wellingon Police dipping their toes in Aukland Water?
I think you're very cold there.

Good point.

I fail to see how police would get involved in that at all

Labour crimes are always financial;
Tory crimes are always sexual;
Liberal crimes are mixture of the two.

Not that I know anything of this particular case, but Mr Espiner's question to Mr Key was interesting.

Liberal crimes are mixture of the two.

I think only one Liberal has been accused (and acquitted) of serious crime in living memory – that was attempted murder of his ex-boyfriend. Not to mention shooting the dog.

I guess you chalk that up as sexual.

Not to mention shooting the dog.
I guess you chalk that up as sexual.

If that's what you crazy Wellingtonistas are calling it these days...

The rumours I'm hearing from a reliable source are (a) nothing to do with Watercare or any such matters, (b) very serious and (c) very very ugly. Even if they prove untrue Worth should have told the PM about them.

And defamatory to repeat if untrue.

If there's even the?

Will the Epsom National party select a keen new National candidate now? Or will they adopt Melissa Lee?

The deathly silence in the House for these questions spoke volumes.

Yes, and I was wrong up-thread. I've never heard Goff be so succinct.

The general tone of restraint suggests that the MPs have heard enough on the grapevine to know that piling on in the usual manner would not?

The general tone of restraint suggests that the MPs have heard enough on the grapevine to know that piling on in the usual manner would not look good.

Yes. And there's a clear contrast in behaviour with the way the now-Government treated serious allegations leading to resignation when it was?

The general tone of restraint suggests that the MPs have heard enough on the grapevine to know that piling on in the usual manner would not look good.

Or they haven't got enough of the story yet and will pile on in due course.

Someone campaigning for John Boscawen is driving around our residential neighbourhood with a very loud loudspeaker telling everyone how "strong" and "effective" he'd be as the member for Mt Albert.

Presumably they don't have the people to knock on doors, but I can't imagine it's?

Is NZ the only country where the minister of internal affairs is outside of cabinet? Generally it's one of the very top posts.

Not in NZ, and especially not since we broke everything off into standalone portfolios.

I wonder if it points to just how much the country isn't a?

I just watched question time... John Key looked like he had seen a ghost, everyone looked grim and the it was the silence of the stunned.

Yes. The contrast with national's baying for blood over every Labour Ministerial sacking/resignation couldn't be greater. OTOH, given the seriousness of the rumours, I?

If by coincidence, somebody in Wellington is charged with bizarre and florid sexual perversions and given the usual name suppression, there will be a tendency for people to jump to conclusions?

Hey at least you could hear what it was saying. The indecipherable ranting I heard a couple of days back just confirmed my impressions of the candidate.

About a fortnight ago, John Boscawen and a friend were campaigning of all places at the bottom of a stairwell in the Mount?

If by coincidence, somebody in Wellington is charged with bizarre and florid sexual perversions and given the usual name suppression, there will be a tendency for people to jump to conclusions?

Well if they're anything to do with an executed canine I'm looking in your direction pal...

:>

Key had investigated Worth before

03/06/2009 15:03:40

The Prime Minister has dropped another bombshell on his way into the debating chamber, revealing it is not the first time he has investigated Richard Worth for allegedly harassing women.

Whoops. I wonder if he thought that was off the?

Prime Minister John Key has revealed he previously investigated an allegation of Richard Worth "making a nuisance of himself towards women".

Mr Key said the allegation – separate to the matter being investigated by police that led?

I notice some functions like eGovt being transferred from SSC to DIA. Anyone know more about the reasoning or the implications?

Sacha, it's the Government Technology Services that are moving to DIA on 1 July. The policy bit of ICT that remained with SSC has just been eviscerated through 'disestablishment'?

But doesn't improving IT infrastructure help productivity? I welcome any journos following up on this one.

Surely a Windows box full of expensive, proprietary software that needs updating every 8.6 seconds should be enough for any government department? Anyone who says otherwise is clearly a nasty longhair who hates capitalism.

making a nuisance of himself towards women

Ruh-roh.

Surely a Windows box full of expensive, proprietary software that needs updating every 8.6 seconds should be enough for any government department? Anyone who says otherwise is clearly a nasty longhair who hates capitalism.

This isn't about use of open source, per se, although some of that might have been?

Well if they're anything to do with an executed canine I'm looking in your direction pal...

Better leave the country..

to innovate on things like use of online tools for citizen engagement

There are at least two things there in which the current government seems to have little interest" "innovation" and "citizen engagement".

Investment in capacity is another.

Unless it's motorway capacity.

But doesn't improving IT infrastructure help productivity?

Not so I've noticed. Employees spend all their days on Facebook and other online fora :)

I notice some functions like eGovt being transferred from SSC to DIA. Anyone know more about the reasoning or the implications?

I believe the reasoning was that SSC should not be carrying out operational activities, and these have been transferred to DIA. SSC would then focus on a policy/advisory role.?

Why is Whaleoil on TVNZ commenting on this??? Seriously, they're that desperate for comment? Phil Goff (quite rightly) refused to be in the same studio.

Perhaps TVNZ have decided that a mix of current and former talk-back hosts is too high-brow.

...

But these people aren't so clever that they could engineer the viral explosion of that first video.

You reckon? I'd think it was a natural to get a fairly good number,?

Why is Whaleoil on TVNZ commenting on this??

I switched channels immediately. I'm not having that son of a bitch in my living room.

Boyle's story fits a lot of deep cultural stereotypes really well. Resonates widely.?

Slater was captioned as "right wing blogger" and alternated between relaying what the Nats were saying and owning up to knowing nothing despite Sainsbury's best efforts to make like Whaleboy is plugged into the pulse of guvmint.

What really pisses me off about having that slanderous and libelous man on?

1. Labour. How much they must have looked forward to having 3 years of Worth in a Minister's position. A complete UK-like parody of a Tory toff.

Kind of like revenge for the Benson-Pope?

Labour leader Phil Goff took an allegation of Richard Worth's inappropriate behaviour towards a woman to Prime Minister John Key about a month ago, it emerged tonight.

It appears that Key has been boxed into officially losing confidence in his Minister some time between Goff's question a week ago?

2.ACT. There goes the guaranteed electorate seat.

All hope is not lost. There are many other talented candidates, as we're seeing in Mt Albert.

In truth, I think his understandable refusal to appear alongside?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10576305&pnum=0

Slater wasn't terrible but he wasn't any good either and more importantly he didn't seem to know anything. His reputation on the blogosphere aside, he's not very good TV talent – it was?

Not only because of his sordid reputation, but because he had nothing to add to the matter. Couldn't they have interviewed someone with a clue?

Kudos to Goff for refusing to be part of it.

By convention the opposition leader generally only debates the PM, senior cabinet ministers and other party leaders. You have to wonder what kind of half-wit producer ever thought he'd go on live TV to debate a blogger no matter what?

So that makes it all?

A position for a position, so to speak.

Slater was introduced there as a national party spokesman,

Presumably nobody from National wanted to touch this with a barge pole. At least, I hope that is the case, because CS as a regular party spokesman is a train wreck of monumental proportions in the making.

Another note to National?

Also last night, Labour leader Phil Goff revealed that he approached Mr Key a month ago with a complaint about "inappropriate" behaviour by Dr Worth towards a woman.

"It was offers of political positions [on boards] with the underlying sense that Dr Worth was interested?

eBut basically, we are being treated to an awesome display of the right wing commntariats?

The two dicks – Beavis and Butthead as boomers.

loves it!

It seems we can all breath easy. According to Sean Plunkett and his two Dicks – Griffin and Prebble – it is all Phill Goff's fault.

That discussion was a disgrace. An utter disgrace. A Wellington old-boys circle-jerk that should never have got to air in the first place.

Griffin?

But let's just go back a few pages to that accusation which we now know to be not related to Mr Worth's demise....

__"The allegation, which was put to me by a second 'Watercare Whistleblower' was that it was?

That discussion was a disgrace.

Yeah, I had to write to the producers just to calm the throbbing in my temporal veins. It made me feel thirty years older, several layers crustier, but it had to be done.

Plunket's become a joke.

And I loved Colin Espiner?s comment on the question of whether Worth would leave parliament gracefully: ?Well, he does have a high sense of self-entitlement?.

BTW, call me cynical, but I wonder if one of?

Even putting aside all the other stuff, Slater?s not really made for TV, is he?

He has the perfect face for radio and the perfect voice for blogging. Lacks the brain for blogging, but them's the breaks.

Close-Up really did make a balls-up of that, didn't they?

I think it is a chilling peek into how much journalists interview the internet these days.

And I imagine Paul Henry is only interested in how attractive the victim is.

And her facial hair.

I thought about clicking the next thread entitled "Should pregnant international students be able to give birth in NZ?", but given the?

Nat Radio's Nine to Noon is now doing a National Party advertorial – Mathew Hooton is being interviewed about it all as if he is some independent analyst.

Um... they described Hooten as an ex-nat staffer. From memory there was even a slight aside about his slant. Hardly holding him?

What role did Richard Worth play in Christine Rankins new position?

What role did Richard Worth play in Christine Rankins new position?

Okay, that's a place we shouldn't be going, and not just for the mental image – implying that someone slept their way into a job is *not cool*.

Meanwhile, Goff on Breakfast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPaOrAKb6cY&feature=player_embedded

It's an evidence based question.

No, it isn't. It's a fairly nasty piece of implicit slander, based on Worth being a sleazebag and Rankin being widely disliked. However much you may dislike Rankin's appointment, and God knows I disagree with it, to imply she slept her way into it without?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53UBNDUuvOY&feature=player_embedded

It had a Warning up front so was pretty obvious it was not a serious accusation?

that was just a little bit beyond tacky
is he angling for a job with fox news?

It had a Warning up front so was pretty obvious it was not a serious accusation?

I'm gonna grab my Humourless Feminist hat and say that just because it was intended as a joke doesn't make it okay.

Perhaps I need to find a hat.

And check out the monumental failure of taste in Paul Henry

That sentence works just fine if you stop it there.

So typical of the totalitarian left. if you oppose socialism, they refuse to admit your existence.

Heh.

Well I don?t know what Just Thinking was just thinking, but I thought the butt of the joke was Worth.

So it's okay to slander a woman to make a joke about Worth? The kind of slander that women in positions of power get all the time, by virtue of?

[PASSAGE DELETED. Please don't put me at risk of defamation action – RB]

So off you go to Facebook, but hello! Their page is no longer there.

What role did Richard Worth play . . .

None at all. It was Paula Bennett who took the proposal to the Cabinet Committee (APH – Appointments and Honours) and Worth was never a member of APH nor of Cabinet itself.

Phil Lyth
who is far too earnest for his?

So off you go to Facebook, but hello! Their page is no longer there.

There's been a loss of 'net Worth?

Get the door myself, etc.

You know how it is. Somebody asks to friend you, and you don't have the heart to say no. But then you hear dreadful things about them and you think perhaps I'll un-friend them now>/quote>

When he friended me, I didn't know who he was (true) – I found out?

Satirically, of course..

Stephen Franks is getting closer.

Just a couple more scandals to go. Or only one, if Melissa Lee works a miracle on Saturday week.

Guess we should've buried him under the Basin Reserve with a steak through his heart...

with a steak through his heart...

Ah. Hence the garlic.

with a steak through his heart...
Ah. Hence the garlic.

I think that's how Garth's finally going to go.

Fast food is not junk. It contains legitimate, nutritious ingredients, is prepared in generally spotlessly hygienic surroundings and provides a convenient, tasty and filling meal without the need to prepare it or clean up after.

Fast food – be it fish and chips, hamburgers, fried chicken, pizza or pies, all?

Guess we should've buried him under the Basin Reserve with a steak through his heart...

OI!!!

Leave the Basin alone.

Leave the Basin alone.

It's like a crossroads, only more so.

But maybe Kelburn Viaduct or somewhere.

Someone campaigning for John Boscawen is driving around our residential neighbourhood with a very loud loudspeaker telling everyone how "strong" and "effective" he'd be as the member for Mt Albert.

I remember Richard Worth did that along Broadway in Newmarket one weekend back when he had Epsom. At?

Really, watching The News these days is like living in a Lewis Carrol story.

(to Guyon Espiner) ...This is why people like us live isn't it? For stories like this – I mean this is the sort of thing that makes politics very, very interesting, sadly there are human beings involved.

Damn those meddling mammal bipeds!

But at least we?

Go ask Alice

I think she'll know

Please, someone get the man elocution lessons.

As for the substance of what he said,?

I also wonder if I've heard any other leader of their country, save for Dubya, get so tangled up in their vocabulary. He had lost?

Even putting aside all the other stuff, Slater?s not really made for TV, is he?

Just summoned the ungodly urge inside me to watch the clip online. And you're absolutely right. What's really striking about Slater is that for a supposed "activist" or "expert commentator" with his "finger on the?

So much for Holmes' 10/10.

Yeah, but he gives Paula Bennet 8/10, so I guess it's all relative, really.

]]> Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:46:59 +1200 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/island-life-the-resignation-of-captain-worth/?p=114340#post114340 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/island-life-the-resignation-of-captain-worth/?p=114340#post114340 Breaking news: Worth speaks out and the gory details come out.

He offered her a job as an ethics advisor.

]]> Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:55:37 +1200 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/island-life-the-resignation-of-captain-worth/?p=114342#post114342 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/island-life-the-resignation-of-captain-worth/?p=114342#post114342

Breaking news: Worth speaks out and the gory details come out.

He offered her a job as an ethics advisor.

You couldn't script it better, could you?

Breaking news: Worth speaks out and the gory details come out.

He offered her a job as an ethics advisor.

You couldn't script it better, could you?

No, this is just journalists having the same trouble with their script as the politicians with their diction – ethnic affairs has only?

No, this is just journalists having the same trouble with their script as the politicians with their diction – ethnic affairs has only passing relation to ethics, or is it versa vice?

The way Worth has been performing recently, you wouldn't bank on him being able to tell the difference.

I also wonder if I've heard any other leader of their country, save for Dubya, get so tangled up in their vocabulary

I can still remember Jim Bolger.

I'm not challenging you, just looking for some easy background – I'm at work & can't access much on-line.

" Rail and coastal shipping bodies have argued for years that the road mode is effectively subsidised by the Government investment in roading. Trucking companies pay nothing towards the capital investment required. They pay their share towards the subsequent maintenance of the road, but get?

get a grip jarbury – mary wilson was out of her depth.

Awesome.

Joyce is wrong when he says that roading is self-funded, because of that council funding. So basically he lied in today's interview on Morning?

here's Mary Wilson's interview of John Key.

I finally figured out what Pry Mincer Key is saying – and it is a brilliant contribution to modern legal taxonomy – he is, of course, referring to the modern plague of crime by telephony – the elegantly coined **Text?

I always thought it was just "texts". Sounds much better really.

He seems convinced that the plural of "text" is "textes".

or maybe he was just a little testy? ; – )
and other rescinds to be cheerful...
hit me... hit me...

Yrs
I the Dury
Minister without "ortf"

Stop it – you're making a visit to KiwiBlog almost tempting.

I suspect that is Key's morning meeting to get his idea for the day, then calls it consensus.

I finally figured out what Pry Mincer Key is saying –

Wel the Pry Mincer and the Wes Mincer was don 1 of ther special Eusa shows Shorsday last dint they. Dint want no trubba from Mister Worth no way. So Key bein Mister Clevver mumbel some thing wot turn?

There's been a loss of 'net Worth?

Magnificent Dad Joke. ^5

Why Mr Wylie, you's been watchin TrueBlood.

Nah – Joe's just keeping me honest – for beyond The Bedsitting Room there is a very elegantly clipped and 'edgy piece of Dystopiary which I was channelling – the truly excellent Riddley Walker by Russell?

You couldn't script it better, could you?

I'll try.
Dick "I has all been a terible misunderstanding john"
John "What about those Texteses"
Dick "well you know tecksxes speak, LOL"
John "No"
Dick "you know, short and stubby, Like OMGAIF"
John "whassat?"
Dick " oh my god am I fucked?"
John?

"Would you be interested in a position in my company"

Rofflenui

In 2002 Worth was appointed Honorary Akela (Great Lone Wolf) of the Girl Scouts Korea in the same ceremony as US First Lady Laura Bush
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Worth