Geoffrey Miller

New Zealand geopolitical analyst & Arabic/Russian learner

Category: Politics

Politics

ACT’s Christmas mailout – part 2

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] In a pre-Christmas posting, I looked at what ACT president Garry Mallett had to say to members in a December 2007 letter. Today I examine what leader Rodney Hide had to say for himself. Hide’s letter is an important document, as it is the closest guide we currently have as to how ACT is planning to campaign in this year’s election. First, Hide talks about a “Taxpayer Rights Campaign”. According to Hide, this “campaign will demonstrate what makes ACT fundamentally different…[the] party will advocate for a constitutional limit on the size of the tax take and tax cuts”....

Politics

ACT’s Christmas letter – part 1

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] I joined ACT for research purposes in February 2007, at the outset of my research, but on Thursday this week finally received my first piece of conventional mail from the party. Of course, like most parties these days, ACT prefers to save money and use e-mail. Accordingly, it sends out the weekly ACTion! e-mail newsletter to members every Friday. The problem with ACTion! is that there’s not a lot in it and most of it is the same each week, having been copied and pasted from the previous edition. It’s also not very personalised and I’m sure for...

Politics

Newsflash: ACT overshadowed by the Herald

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] It’s interesting that ACT and Rodney Hide were overshadowed in the New Zealand Herald‘s coverage of the opposition to the Electoral Finance Bill by other small parties, most notably the Maori Party. In the report space was given only for a comment by Hide in a collection of quotes from MPs opposing the bill. It wasn’t a particularly exciting comment – perhaps that’s why it came last, even after the Progressives (the 1 MP party). Indeed, it was Hone Harawira who was allocated much attention by the Herald and it’s not hard to see why – he gave...

Politics

John Boscawen, the Electoral Finance Act and ACT

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] There have been a number of letters to the editor in newspapers recently on John Boscawen, who has been leading a campaign against the Electoral Finance Bill (since yesterday the Electoral Finance Act). Take this letter for example, from the Christchurch Press last week: Is this democracy? If you or I want to have our say, we can write to the editor. Maximum 150 words, may get published, but odds are it won’t, may be edited. John Boscawen (sword and shield of democracy), just writes a fat cheque for another ad campaign. Publication guaranteed. Money talks and he...

Politics

Dual citizenship restrictions on MPs

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] This week in Melbourne I attended a lecture at which I learnt that here one is barred from standing for parliament if he or she is a dual citizenship holder. This means that every MP in the Australian House or Senate in Canberra is an Australian citizen only. As far as I know, no such rule applies in New Zealand, although the Harry Duynhoven case in 2003, in which a special law was passed to allow Duynhoven to continue as an MP despite breaking the Electoral Act by reapplying for his Dutch citizenship, while still an MP. The...

Politics

Another reason why a “Country Party” is not a good idea

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] Earlier in the year I covered an op-ed piece by former ACT MP Gerry Eckhoff in which he advocated the establishment of a Country Party to better represent rural interests in New Zealand. He used the example of the Nationals in Australia to support his argument. Well, the results of the recent Australian federal election should provide him with some advice. Australians gave the Nationals just 10 seats, its worst ever result. One of the reasons suggested by the Sydney Morning Herald for the party’s decline in fortunes was that urban lifestylers have encroached into more traditional rural...

Politics

The real home of ACT – and Derek Quigley

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] This week I’ve been in Australia and I can’t get over how much stuff in the papers there is on ACT. Much more than the Herald. The “Roger Douglas Fan Club” (as a journalist described ACT in 1996) must have definitely found a home across the Tasman, right? Well, although ACT likes to highlight its “global heritage”, I’m afraid this is not the case. For those who did not see through my feeble attempt at humour, I’m referring to the Australian Capital Territory. But on a more serious note, former ACT (New Zealand!) MP Derek Quigley moved to...

Politics

Stephen Franks to stand for National!

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] Some very interesting news out today: Stephen Franks is standing for National in Wellington Central. Although this was signalled in the NBR in July 2007, the big surprise for me is that he is standing in Wellington Central, where Heather Roy recently announced she was standing for ACT. This can only be seen as a slap in the face for ACT. Admittedly, it is quite likely that Franks’s nomination was already finalized before Roy announced her candidacy. Still, this will make for some interesting campaign meetings. Although we knew that Franks was being courted by National, I wonder...

Politics

NZPA on Roy

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] 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...

Politics

It’s a Right Roy-al con!

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] 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...

geopolitics.nz - Understand the world through New Zealand eyeswww.geopolitics.nz
+