Transparency under Ardern – party submissions on donations are kept secret and Taxpayers’ Union is banned from LGNZ conference

Yet again we are being reminded that from the moment she took office in 2017, Jacinda Ardern made a promise she would not keep – she promised her government would be the most open and transparent New Zealand has seen.

In her first formal speech to Parliament she pledged:

“This government will foster a more open and democratic society. It will strengthen transparency around official information.”

A visit to Kiwiblog today draws attention to the latest breach of Ardern’s commitment.

Political parties’ submissions on donation law reform are being kept secret.

The very next Kiwiblog post takes us from bad to worse.  It tells of Local Government New Zealand’s annual conference being closed to an organisation which represents taxpayers because LGNZ poobahs disapprove of their opinions.

We imagine no such ban applies to the mainstream media, now that they have become reliant on state subsidies and have committed themselves to promote the Ardern Government’s highly contentious interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Little wins award for Beehive bollocks after bragging of “ban” on foreign political donations

Andrew Little comfortably won the “bollocks” award when the Point of Order team sifted through puzzling or contentious headlines from the Beehive yesterday.

Among the contenders were –

• Cancer Control Agency to drive improved care

This introduced a press statement which said the new independent Cancer Control Agency, formally opened yesterday, was ”delivering on the Government’s plan to improve cancer care in New Zealand”.

The statement included the names of the advisory council members who will be supporting the new agency and outlined key components of the Government’s plan to improve cancer care and control.

But why – we wonder – has it not been called the Cancer Care Agency or something similarly caring?  “Control” implies a dubious ambition to maintain the incidence of cancer at current levels, rather than to reduce it. It also implies a central government obsession with keeping a firm grip on whatever happens in the domain of cancer treatment and care. 

We encounter stubborn silence rather than spin in our pursuit of a Parliamentary fracas

We wonder if we were supposed top be gobsmacked, consternated  or otherwise thunderstruck by the headline we encountered at the top of page 16 in our Dominion-Post today.

“Fracas in Parliament,” it bellowed in a truncated version of the headline that can be found on the same report at Stuff.

The opening sentence of the report to which we were lured told us:

“A political fracas has broken out at Parliament on the third day of a NZ First donations saga.

“NZ First MPs were in denial-mode, National revealed a $30 million lawsuit threat, and another MP called out for someone to ring the police.”

Hmm.  Some MPs were denying something (as they persistently do), a lawsuit threat has been made and someone has called for the cops to be phoned.  Good luck with the phone call.,

The dictionary we consulted gives this definition – a fracas is a rough, noisy quarrel or fight.