On Tue, 14 Mar 2017 12:21:58 -0700 (PDT), JohnO <
johno1234@gmail.com>
wrote:
On Tuesday, 14 March 2017 23:31:16 UTC+13, Rich80105 wrote:
On Tue, 14 Mar 2017 00:24:23 -0700 (PDT), JohnO <johno1234@gmail.com>
wrote:
Lol. Still obsessed.
Did you read the article? Its about Bill English continuing the
obfuscation!
Yet you saw fit to make the title of your post "Key", such is your ongoing obsession with the guy. Get help.
Oh Dear - Key is the most well known politician for "dirty tricks'-
but it seems that Bill English is continuing his policies. I had heard
that the word has gone out not to mention Key, but all you are doing
is drawing attnetion to the reality that his legacy is likely to
remain one of "ditrty tricks'- especially as Bill English is it seems continuing that Nat-tradition.
Here is the article to save you clicking on the link. :
Felix Marwick: No sunlight, no disinfectant. Political machinations
remain behind the veil
Author Felix Marwick, Section Opinion, Publish Date Monday, 13 March
2017, 1:22PM
The most senior politician in the land probably had something to hide,
writes Felix Marwick (Photo / NZ Herald)
A little over three years ago the then Prime Minister, John Key, made
an off the cuff comment at one of his weekly post-cabinet press
conferences that he did have contact with bloggers. It was an
interesting statement at the time as it was quite clear Government
messages were being channelled directly to websites that were aligned
with, and sympathetic to, the National Government’s agenda. I was
curious to see what these contacts entailed so lodged a series of
Official Information Act requests with the Prime Minister and several
Cabinet Ministers to see exactly what was being passed on, and to
whom.
Initially some ministers responded revealing minor interactions, while
others said they’d had none at all. However some, including the Prime
Minister and Ministers Judith Collins and Paula Bennett refused to
disclose information. As a result of those responses in April of 2014
I lodged a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsmen to seek its
intercession. Now, almost three years later, I have a result - of
sorts.
The Office of the Prime Minister has consistently refused to release
any of the details I have sought. Its position, via Chief of Staff
Wayne Eagleson, has been the information sought fell under the Prime
Minister’s position as Leader of the National Party so the information
was not subject to the Official Information Act. Mr Eagleson’s
position has also been that to provide the information, in the case of interactions with blogger and party pollster David Farrar, it would
require the searching of a large volume of correspondence. In a
nutshell, any information the Prime Minister’s office held, it was not
willing to disclose.
On this point the Ombudsmen have accepted the view of the Prime
Minister’s Office with Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier’s view that the
threshold for him to check the communications in question has not been
met.
Matters have also been further complicated by John Key’s departure
from the office of Prime Minister. The Chief Ombudsman did approach Mr English’s office last December to see if he adopted the position of
his predecessor. Mr English, via his chief of staff Wayne Eagleson,
backed the position of his predecessor and also made the point that
given Mr Key’s departure, and that of many of his staff, he couldn’t
be certain in what capacity Mr Key made the communications and
whether they were official information or not.
Add to this the fact that when a Minister or official ceases office, information that they alone hold stops being official information at
that point, and it becomes immediately apparent any formal attempt to
use the OIA to elicit details is a lost cause.
So what can we learn from all of this?
Well a lot of the material disclosed in Nicky Hager’s book Dirty
Politics probably went through the exact same channels that I tried to
use the OIA on. Hager came in for intense criticism, mainly from those
who were front and centre in his book over their political
machinations, for his ethics and the way he acquired his information.
What my use of the OIA shows is that leaks and surreptitious
acquisition of evidence is the only way you are going to get political
material of this nature that is in the public interest. The Official Information Act won’t overcome political self interest as long as
politicians are allowed to determine what hat they’re wearing when
they’re using public information for their own political ends. Being a
Minister and a Prime Minister is a full time job. Politicians
shouldn’t get to finagle the system just so as to protect their
political manoeuvring. Governments wield immense power so there need
to be adequate checks and balances on those that exercise that power.
The other thing you can deduce from a three year battle over access to correspondence is that the most senior politician in the land probably
had something to hide.
Felix Marwick is Newstalk ZB's Chief Political Reporter.
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