Geoffrey Miller

New Zealand geopolitical analyst & Arabic/Russian learner

Tagged: David Farrar

Politics

Exclusive: Who is Simon Lusk? Lessons from his Master’s thesis on Ecampaigning (2001)

In my previous post, I looked at why Simon Lusk is such an important figure in Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics. His strategy to change National from within represents the end which justifies the means – the questionable tactics which have been covered extensively by New Zealand media since the book’s release on Wednesday, 13 August 2014. In this post, I look exclusively at Simon Lusk’s Master’s thesis in politics, which he wrote at the University of Otago in 2001. The thesis, called Ecampaigning, looks at how political parties can harness the internet to target potential voters. The 137 page...

Politics

Conference 2009: coverage guide

Not attending ACT’s conference myself, I’ve spent the last couple of days digesting the reportage on it, which has actually been very good. For an excellent background to the conference, I suggest listening to last Friday’s Focus on Politics programme from Radio New Zealand, which examined the state of ACT. ACT MPs Rodney Hide, Roger Douglas and David Garrett were interviewed for the programme, along with University of Otago Politics lecturer Dr. Bryce Edwards. All of the participants on the programme shared some interesting insights. Hide explained that his low profile since the election was driven by a desire to...

Politics

Time warps, Peter Dunne and ACT

This a “well-strained” post (given that it relates to a comment on a Kiwiblog post about an interview at the Scoop website) but I couldn’t help chuckling at a particularly sharp reader comment about a party which is faring even worse in the polls than ACT: Peter Dunne’s United Future: United Future – the personality cult without a personality. The interview is classic Peter Dunn[e] isn’t it. Sounds oh so reasonable but actually the sum is meaningless. I remember the 1980’s: yes [Sir] Roger [Douglas] was dynamic and exciting. Peter Dunn[e] can never been accused of that….. even then. I...

Politics

Not my typical post

I was alerted by one of my parliamentary sources to a minor controversy about an ACT leaflet, specifically, whether it was in breach of the Electoral Finance Act (EFA) 2007. According to a report by Audrey Young in the New Zealand Herald last week: The commission agreed that the Act booklet Not Your Typical Party was an election advertisement but is not sure it was “published” when it was distributed to journalists at the Act Party conference. It is seeking legal advice. If it decides that distribution to journalists is publication, then it should have had proper authorisation from the...

Politics

Summer speeches 2008: why it’s not the economy, stupid

First, a Dominion-Post/David Farrar-style evaluation of my “predictions” made a few weeks back on the highest trafficked post on this blog to date: The date was correct Duncan Garner reported for 3 News Even Hilary Barry was back from her holiday But apart from John Key being the man giving the speech, that’s about it. The speech was at Ellerslie, not Burnside, and the topic had nothing remotely to do with ACT. Quelle surprise! But Key’s speech on Tuesday morning nevertheless held some interesting talking points with regards to ACT. The media have universally reported the speech as being solely...

Politics

‘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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