Helen Clark - gutless wonder

After weeks and weeks of refraining from taking any major stance on the Winston Peters affair because it was in-front of the Privileges Committee and because (many times) she didn't want to pre-judge/emp anything...

This morning she come out and says: "the whole process of investigation into New Zealand First’s finances has been tainted from the outset."

Helen Clark says "the privileges committee process has been totally unsatisfactory in terms of any natural justice." She says for that reason she is unlikely to be forced into a decision over Winston Peters this week. She says it has become so politicised with some MPs going into committee with made up minds before they had even heard a single piece of evidence. (Like the Labour MPs who make up the largest number of the committee?)

So now that there is no way there could be a credible reason not to fire Peters, she's going to bag the Privileges Committee and the process.

What an utter joke that woman has become. For all her good work she'll be remembered as gutless over the WP affair.

R

the politics of survival... I think she's playing a much more complex and possibly clever game than you credit her with Rob

Agree. Hey Rob, if it was you in her shoes what would you have done?

I can't read any political thread at the moment without thinking it is a subtle form of propaganda in order to get me to change my view on who to vote for.

Hey - for all I know you could be a Labour supporter through and through, but this thread just makes think you're a young Nat or something.

At least you're not doing a vads (Obama is a terrorist because he said that Chicago people are tough :lol

In other funny news, drove through Island Bay yesterday to see a Labour billboard, a Green billboard and a smashed up billboard. Mum confirmed that is was a National billboard that had only been put up that morning, but denied that it was her who smashed it.

self preservation over the good of the nation or the party?

I call for Sepuku!

And what would YOU have done if you were Aunty... or better yet, Winston.

She's right though... the privileges committee make up is a joke. Probably something bough in by a National Govt.

I would have said: OK, you have one chance - make your statement about what happened. Show us the books, get permission to view the Trust dealings. If anything doesn't match up - you're fired.

Peters has run merry rings around everyone here. No court of law would entertain his and Henry's crap for a second. For Clark to now come out and say the process was tainted - especially since it was run by Labour - is a joke.

Funny thing is, in other news, Clark is saying Fonterra were slow to speak on the milk scandal. Maybe they are using her as their benchmark for openness.

R

I thought she blew a chance to gain a lot of votes by distancing herself from him.

Brought in by her and dominated by Labour and friendly MPs (Dale Jones from NZ First even :roll

R

I agree. No stance = almost as bad a making the wrong call in these sort of situations.

R

wahtever she does right now will lead some to paint her as the worst sort of person this planet has ever produced and others will support/sympatise with the position she finds her govt/party and self in

I feel this situation could have been handled very differently but its NZ First and their leader that are potentially the scumbags

Would there be repercussions for her if she fired him without a strong legal case to back it up?

Nope. Because she's already given him leeway on numerous technical breaches of the rules - some of which she could ping him on.

Pure and simple, she is making sure he doesn't dish the dirt he has on their involvement and facilitating the donations. If she knew he didn't have any, he'd have been fired ages ago.

R

So if, as expected, the Committee report comes back completely divided along political lines, will you still be claiming she should take it as solid evidence?

It does look like it's going to be heavily politicised on both sides so she ain't that wrong on the call...

The committee has recommended Winston Peters be censured for "knowingly providing false or misleading information on a return of pecuniary interests".

The vote was split with all Labour MPs and NZ First's Dale Jones voting against the majority decision.

It now gets debated and voted on in parliament tomorrow to decide whether to go with the censuring.. So we know what will happen there. I sincerely hope the Maori, Greens etc vote for the censure.

After QC Peter Williams' public wank about the committee members not voting along party lines, it is the people on his client's side who've done just that.

Top legal expert has also said Peters' police complaint re the SFO wont work.

R

Rob, you realise that ALL parties voted on party lines huh? National and Act one way, Labour the other.

The guy needs to go as Minister but I find it saddening (from all sides) that Parliamentary process was taken over by partisan lines in the sand.

Actually to be fair, it was really only Labour that dissented huh.
God, is ANYTHING they've done in the last 18months not blind self-interest?

If you remove Labour and National, the only vote in favour of Peters was from Dail Jones. All of Labour's coalition patners voted against him.

The worst thing about this whole thing is Clark all along said "lets wait for due process". Now she doesn't get the result she likes it has changed to "process was tainted". Of course she is too blind to see that it was tainted by her own committee members.

Maori, ACT, Greens etc voted so they didn't look like complete lapdog idiots just before an election. Good on them.

R

regardless of how the comittee came to their verdict - does anyone think Winston is worried about being censured?

He's won this round....

I agree with this, I don't know what their plan is but obviously they have one and it involves keeping Winston Peters in parliament, for now anyway.

I don't really see any major public outcry for Peters to be sacked and I think that is what would be required before Helen would even consider sacking him.

Helen Clarke has always been very cautious when it comes to sacking her own staff anyway, I think for her it is always the very last resort.

This is how cunning Labour are... after not getting their way in the media over all of this, they attempted to pervert the committee's findings by badgering Maori Party members.

politicing... politics... its election year

they are all guilty

Rob mate - Peters has been one of the wiliest politicians of NZ's history. SO many people have written him off, have burnt their bridge with him, only to be flotsam or jetsam along the next political tide, that she's playing it safe.

It LOOKS like he's cooked his goose, but shit, so many people have done worse and survived.

She's a much more gutsy person that you are Rob. Any day of the week. If anyone here had even 1/10th the guts she's had in her life they wouldn't be sitting around wasting out lives potential on a chat forum! heh