Ugly politics

You can’t escape politics no matter where you move. That’s one of the reasons why we didn’t move from Colorado because of our feelings on the current U.S. political climate. Even so, it was nice to come to New Zealand and have a break for a few months.

The break is officially over. Last week the National Party leader Don Brash resigned. New Zealand has several political parties running on a parliamentary system, and we are currently governed by a Labour-party-led coalition elected in 2005. National is the ‘out’ party and their leader has been going through a number of scandals in recent months including an affair and election finance issues. Because we are a parliamentary system, I can’t compare this very well to US politics. But it is akin to if Tony Blair resigned as leader of his party (Labour I believe), or better yet as if Tony Blair’s chief rival in the competing party resigned (I don’t know who this is, but I’m sure s/he is famous in Britain). Don Brash unsuccessfully sought the Prime Minister position in the 2005 election and has been National’s 5th leader in some 9 years.

Two weeks ago Don Brash sought an injunction against JANE AND JOHN DOE—essentially anyone in the country—from publishing emails written to or from him. It was an unprecedented ruling and begged the questions, what is he hiding and from whom? As it turns out it was the contents of a book yet to be released and sold called The Hollow Men, based on 2 years of research and leaked emails from Brash’s office about the National Party during the 2005 election. The book has been printed and we’ve all seen the cover on the news, but the injunction forbid its release.

Then last Thursday out of the blue Brash just resigned. I guess it wasn’t really out of the blue as insiders were expecting it for some time, it was a scandal he just couldn’t survive. But of course it was just prior to the anticipated publish date of this book. Dr. Brash also said he would lift the injunction because he “had nothing to hide.” The book is expected to be released for sale on Monday.

So now articles have come out about the book’s contents, given to reporters in advance: the book apparently describes the National Party’s allegiance to poll data to do whatever they can to get elected, not to party policies, beliefs, or what the party stands for. Specifically Don Brash is accused of pandering to and making promises to the Exclusive Brethren, a far-right-wing religious zealot sect to whom Brash claims he’s never been allied. Guess he lied about that one, and the emails and photos seem to prove it. He’s also apparently lied about taking campaign money from this group—guess there were plenty of donations made to non-party trusts (like the US 527 orgs, or whatever the number is, who smear to their heart’s content) that ended up in National’s election spending wallet.

Now this morning, as the book’s contents trickle out, we learned that many of New Zealand’s wealthiest individuals had given bucket-loads to National through these separate trusts to get them elected in 2005, lobbying Brash personally and vigorously. In addition, the Talley family—Talleys is one of the biggest seafood companies in New Zealand, a very recognizable name—has been accused of offering Don Brash $1M for the 2005 election to be funneled outside the party to hire political operatives to ensure his election, operatives who would operate in secret. Apparently the Talleys were unhappy with the National Party’s chosen political gurus and this $1M was a near-bribe to toss money Dr. Brash’s way if he would hire the people the Talley family wanted so that he could just get himself elected (using polling data and manipulation).

Gosh, does it ever end?? (rhetorical question)