Monthly Archive: November 2007

NZPA on Roy

NZPA has a report on Heather Roy standing in Wellington Central and gives some good background: Wellington Central is going to be open territory for candidates next year because the Labour MP who holds it, Marian Hobbs, is standing down.Ms Hobbs retained it in 2005 with 20,199 votes – a majority of 6180 over Mark Blumsky, the former Wellington mayor who stood for National.A former Act MP, Stephen Franks, contested the seat in that election but gained only 1254 votes, fewer than the Green’s Sue Kedgley who came third. Richard Prebble, a former ACT leader, won the seat in 1996...

It’s a Right Roy-al con!

The candidate ACT will be standing in Wellington Central, mysteriously foreshadowed last week and reported at this blog, is none other than….Heather Roy! Readers who take only a passing interest in ACT may be forgiven for not knowing who Roy is, but she is currently ACT’s sole list MP. Douglas to Dancing will analyse the pros and cons of standing Roy in Wellington Central in greater detail later, but for now some raw data from this evening’s events: – Roy has launched a personal website, http://www.roy.org.nz. The 1990s-style website design must be a deliberate ploy to subtly remind visitors of...

Gerry Effed-off

The Otago Daily Times reported today that former ACT MP and now Otago Regional Councillor Gerry Eckhoff was annoyed about being excluded from a workshop on air quality, because he had made a submission to council on the matter in a private capacity prior to being elected: As a former Act New Zealand MP, and having sat on a select committee, he had more than illustrated he could not be accused of predetermination or bias, he said. It was ‘‘insulting’’ to suggest otherwise. ‘‘Councillors say it’s not personal. It’s just a matter of process. I do not see it that...

ACT vs. New Zealand First

The latest Roy Morgan poll finds that New Zealand First has increased its support from 3.5% to 5.5%. ACT, however, continues to be down in the cellar at 1%, where it has been pretty much for the last two years. Now, I’m no fan of the Duncan Garner-style breathless commentary (“will come as a massive blow to the…”) on individual polls, but I think it might be useful to look at the differences in ACT and NZ First behaviour in recent weeks. First and foremost, New Zealand First found itself a winning issue for its potential constituents. The support of...

On Newztext

A major resource for anyone writing about a New Zealand political topic is the Newztext database. This is a online subscriber-only database but is commonly accessible through institutions. When I was writing my dissertation, I had access to the database through the University of Otago. If you don’t belong to such an institution, however, don’t despair. Newztext is also freely available through many public libraries and is quite likely accessible simply by going to your local library’s website (click here for a list of every library in the country) and entering your library card number and PIN. What’s so great...

ACT contesting Wellington Central

Party newsletter ACTion! reported today that ACT will be contesting the Wellington Central seat at the 2008 election, with the candidate to be “unveiled” next Thursday. By the sound of the announcement it must be a stellar candidate, who knows, perhaps a former MP or city councillor? Or someone from media or sport? Whoever it is, he or she will have to be well known to Wellingtonians to have any chance of winning the seat. Richard Prebble held this seat from 1996-1999, but the electoral boundaries have since changed, making this a harder seat for ACT to win. Indeed, Marion...

‘The Economist’ and school vouchers

In an earlier post I mused over whether ACT would bring back a voucher scheme as a key policy. Here’s a reason why not. This week’s issue of The Economist (which recently unlocked the walled garden that was its website and made its content freely available) reports on the failure of school voucher systems in the United States: Mr [Michael] Bloomberg [New York City mayor] has not been as brave with schools as Mr Giuliani was with crime. Oddly given his belief in competition, the former media mogul shunned the most radical option—vouchers that allow parents to shop around beyond...

Comment by Craig Foss MP on Rodney Hide

This comment from Craig Foss (first-term National MP) was posted at his blog. It’s facetious but he makes his point: Identity Fraud at Parliament The Inland Revenue Department was reviewed by Parliaments Finance and Expenditure Committee this morning. During the review, a guy came in and sat down in Rodney Hide’s, from the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers Party, (ACT), designated seat. This person then took Mr Hides call to speak and proceeded to wax lyrical about what a great job IRD were doing! He was also very generous, almost loving in his praise of the Labour party! Who was...

Response from Stephen Franks to dissertation

After submission, I sent copies of my dissertation to a number of figures connected in some way to ACT, including former MPs. Stephen Franks, an ACT MP from 1999-2005, sent me this response after reading a couple of weeks ago. I have been holding off publishing it as I wanted to seek his permission to post it here. Today I have received permission to publish it in a slightly modified version supplied to me by Franks. I have also received comments from another person and will reproduce these in due course. Anyone who wishes to comment on my research in...

‘We’re Here to Help’ reviews and links

I keep meaning to write a fuller post on Craig Heatley, seeing he generated some discussion in the comments in a post a few days ago. Until I get around to that, here are some reviews and links of We’re Here to Help. I still haven’t seen the film yet, but hope to do so soon. The reviews I have found are universally positive and usually take the view that the film is non-partisan and is a classic example of the proverbial “little guy” taking on the big guns and winning. For example, back in October, David Farrar of Kiwiblog...

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