The Letter - 26 days to go

26 days to go

In October 2011 NZ First, ACT and the Conservatives were all polling around 1 percent. In a month NZ First broke the threshold, the Conservatives tripled their vote and ACT won Epsom. ACT’s support has risen strongly in five of the six campaigns ACT has run and this campaign will be no different.

ACT big winner in Compass poll

Over 200,000 people have completed the TVNZ Compass poll and the Letter understands that ACT is relatively the biggest winner. If the Compass poll reflects ACT’s own attitudinal survey then 17% of those surveyed are learning that ACT shares their values and has the policies that they prefer. By Election Day up to 80 thousand voters will have discovered that ACT is either closest or second closest to their values. Many of those who do the survey will decide to use one of their votes for ACT.

The media’s obsession with Nicky Hager

Readers are asking why the parliamentary press gallery is continuing to parrot Nicky Hager’s absurd claims. The media has invested so much of their credibility in the story – printing silly statements like “National hacked Labour’s website” (No they did not, Labour left it open). “John Key is lying”. (Key is telling the truth say the head of the SIS, the Ombudsman and John Key’s diary showing the PM was in Hawaii). All the dump of emails and texts show is why Judith Collins is called Crusher. Labour has Trevor Mallard, National has Judith Collins. It is now too much for reporters to say “Actually there was no story. The emails show how clean New Zealand politics is. There was nothing wrong with Judith Collins telling the name of a civil servant and his government supplied telephone numbers. Journalists ask politicians for the name of the person in charge and their contact numbers every day. In an open society we are entitled to know” Having said for 10 days “This is very damaging to John Key” the media feels they must make sure it is damaging. Q&A even put up Winston Peters to say it is “a new low”. You have run out of credible commentators when Winston of Owen Glenn and missing donations fame is your authority.

Mob psychology

The press gallery all follow the same line for the same reason that birds fly in flocks, safety in numbers. No journalist is going to be fired by his editor for having been wrong about the Hager book when every other journalist is wrong. To step out and say “Judith Collins does not run National’s strategy. There is nothing here to implicate John Key” would take courage. If some smoking gun was found it might be career threatening. So it is safer not to point out the media is being manipulated. Who believes no Labour MP has ever emailed Whale Oil? Who believes that politicians are not the source of many news stories? Apparently just press gallery journalists.

Who needs a campaign?

The media is stealing the voters’ right to have an election. It is Labour that needs a campaign. In every campaign the PM usually goes down and the Opposition Leader goes up as the media gives equal time. Phil Goff with his absurd claims took away a week of Labour’s campaign. We were surprised Mr. Goff wanted to remind us that he had claimed that he had never been briefed by the SIS over the Israeli “spy scandal” when the OIA revealed Goff had been briefed “at length”. But then Phil Goff may not be too upset that David Cunliffe’s campaign is failing.

No texts or emails from ACT

Jamie Whyte has stuck to ACT’s core messages. Yesterday he made a substantive speech on the need for the rule of law and for justice to be seen. www.act.org.nz National and Labour are promising to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars on housing which will increase house prices. Jamie Whyte has a plan that will cost the taxpayer nothing and will reduce the cost of housing. Watch this space.

Our fascist broadcasting rules

New Zealand has a handicapped election system devised by the two major parties. If we had UN international monitors they would say our elections are not fair. Television and radio time is allocated by a government agency called the Electoral Commission. The Commission gives nearly all the time to National and Labour. Parties are prohibited from buying advertising so it is illegal to get equal time. It gets worse. The Electoral Commission selects when the Party Opening Broadcast is to air. Only a bureaucrat would broadcast at the same time as a rugby test. It is proof that state funding of political parties is a waste of taxpayer money.

Who won?

Visually Labour: Politically National. Labour clearly put a lot of effort into their unwatched broadcast. Politically it failed as it featured unknown caucus members and ended up in a stream of impossible to remember promises. National’s just feature John Key and a message the country is going OK, an easy message to remember. For the minor parties there is not enough time to win any votes but more than enough time to lose votes. The worst broadcast? A bizarre cartoon from Internet/Mana. The Conservatives brought a court case on Friday demanding ACT’s broadcast time be reduced and their’s increased. There are few things more boring than a film of a politician addressing a meeting so Colin should be pleased he did not have more time. Jamie Whyte’s wife Zainab is absolutely stunning in ACT’s broadcast. It is now must watch U-tube. Check it out for yourself – of course you are just looking to see what the Conservatives did not want you to see www.act.org.nz

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