Labour leader Phil Goff still owns a property in Wellington despite saying he would sell it when it was revealed he was claiming a Parliamentary allowance as well as collecting rent.
In a statement this afternoon, Goff said media had been asking questions about the property.
He said his arrangements were within Parliamentary rules and that he was not 'rorting the system'.
Cabinet Minister Gerry Brownlee told TV3 that Mr Goff had taken a hard-line on accommodation allowances.
"He's got a bit to explain."In his defence Goff says that he has been exploring the options of selling or renting.
But if (as the article claims) Goff claimed he would sell the house, why hasn't he even put the place on the market? How can he hope to claim the moral high ground on MPs' housing allowances when he claims an allowance while owning a property in Wellington?
You would think that senior MPs would have learned by now that every expense they claim will be scrutinised. Did Goff really think nobody would notice or care?
It doesn't matter whether Goff's expenses are within the rules, or that much of the noise around expenses is just media froth. When you're being beaten up daily in the press, why would you hand your attackers another club?
The pack mentality media isn't just in love with Key - they are actively seeking to hurt Goff. One can't help but suspect that the timing of this is deliberate payback by a pro-National media for the demise of Pansy Wong.
ReplyDeleteGiven that the current polls will see an already arrogant (abuse of urgency, constant refusal to front the serious media) National government cheerleaded to an absolute majority without having to bother to explain their agenda the prospects for New Zealand are chilling.
Mind you, my partner and I have almost certainly decided to leave New Zealand within the next 12-18 months - the place is only going to become more and more a South American, latifunda economy. For the sake of any children we might have, it is time to leave.
Not sure if the timing is a coincidence or deliberate. From what I can gather between the lines it sounds like a Nat staffer got a lucky break and rang TV3 today to tell them.
ReplyDeleteIt suits the media narrative. Stories about a leader flailng and in trouble become self-fulfilling prophecies in the end.
Now about this leaving thing: where will you go that is better? Is leaving really the best option? Who will read this blog once you go? I may have to close the doors.
What'll it be next? That the chainsaw story was bullshit?
ReplyDeletePlease sanctuary, take Phil with you into exile. Like the ghastly Tizards he never gave a rat's about social justice, and shouldn't have risen beyond being another self-serving boil on the bum of the party.
The media were clearly fed the story on Goff by the National Party as revenge for Wong, and they've accepted it with uncritical glee - a pretty much accurate summing up of our craven media and their total abrogation of any sense of critical reporting, speaking truth to power or holding governments to account. These days, in this country, the news is seen as a ratings driven soap opera where the reporters themselves are part of the cast and expect to treated with the deference accorded to all the stars in the show. They've got a common cause with the rest of the elites - the fear of the fickle mob, who need to be cajoled and manipulated to deliver the ratings and results for the gravy train to continue on it's way. Goff will be rolled now, this is probably the final straw. The plotting will be done over summer. But he'll be replaced by another from the right wing of the Labour party. For the last twenty five years both our main political parties (and most of the media) have been much further to the right than the general population, why would rolling Goff make any difference to that?
ReplyDeleteIn terms of our leaving, nothing is yet set in concrete. I would like to go back to France, I love that place. But we must be practical. We both work in sectors that are, in Australia, heavily unionised. In the case of my partner, she works for a trans-Tasman company where a transfer will be a piece of cake and where the difference in the total package - terms and conditions as well as the money - for exactly the same job SHOULD be causing a massive scandal in this country. We've figured she would get at least a 20-25% wage increase in real terms after factoring in the higher cost of living. But the all the rest of the conditions of employment are so much better as to render comical the right wing splutterings in this country about our worker's rights and the power of our unions.
In my case I'll be considerably better off in absolute money terms as well, probably by up to 20%. I can easily transfer. I have good terms and conditions, so that isn't a factor for me.
I don't really want to leave New Zealand. I'm a sixth generation New Zealander with deep ties to my motherland. This country has reared me and given me and my partner fantastic educations. But for me, the tipping point into active consideration of leaving was this government's changes in employment law. In instructed me of the total poverty of imagination in our business and political elites. They no plan - and more importantly no will - to address increasing productivity and wages for ordinary New Zealanders. For me, that was it - there is no future for anyone in this country now unless they are part of the top 20%. The rest will slowly slide back into the third world. Douglas and Richardson set out to create Chile in the South Seas, and so far I can see there no one with the guts to stop their plan eventually succeeding. I have lost my belief in the future of this country as a good place to bring up kids.
I can't see any agent for changing this. Our media is a joke. Over the last ten years there has been a sharp decline in the quality of deate in this country, to the point where it now approaches the crudeness of what passes for political debate in the United States. It isn't so much the an Orwellian jackboot stamping on my face as a rolled up copy of the Sunday Star Times, wielded by Jonathan Marshall. Anti-intellectualism and narrow minded provincialism are the proud outriders of our media, and of our public life. Rodney Hide's shameless corruption in his attempt to gift wrap Auckland to his funders in the Auckland business oligarchy (eventually he will succeed, the right wing smear machine will guarantee the next mayor will be far more to the liking of the oligarchy) shows how hollowed out our democracy is.
Sorry for the rant!
I can't see any agent for changing this. Our media is a joke.
ReplyDeleteWe need an effective opposition for starters, something Goff has never shown any interest in beyond personal self-advancement. That's his nature. He envies Key, and the electorate knows it.