The unacceptable behaviour of those named in Nicky Hager's book, Dirty Politics, should be a wake up call to everybody who values our democracy in New Zealand. Not only have senior officials in the Prime Minister's office been implicated in the scandal, the emails the book is based upon also prove beyond a doubt that Minister’s themselves have been involved in totally underhanded and devious tactics that are entirely unacceptable!
Here are a few of the undemocratic things National and their propagandists have been up to:
We now know that the National party colluded with right wing blogger Cameron Slater to illegally access (hack) the Labour Party’s computers and that they used the private information gained to launch a smear campaign against Labour in the lead up to an election, that the Prime Minister's press secretary at the time, Jason Ede, informed Slater about sensitive SIS information and that John Key fast-tracked its release in order to damage opposition leader Phil Goff. We also had our suspicions confirmed that National regularly colludes with Slater and David Farrar to attack the opposition and that articles on Kiwiblog are written by National’s communications staffers and published under David Farrar’s name.
Perhaps the most concerning revelation however has been that Judith Collins released private information to Slater with the intention of it being published and in order to damage an Internal Affairs official named Simon Pleasants who later received death threats. Possibly with the Ministers help, Slater somehow manipulated corrections to shift an inmate to a remote prison, which resulted in the prisoners attempted suicide. Like Kiwiblog, National directly contributes much of the nasty content on Whale Oil Beef Hooked. It's also been shown that a number of right wing propagandists manipulate the iPredict system and then use those fake results to promote National party propaganda and that it’s likely Slater et al blackmailed Rodney Hide to resign because of the ‘dodgy texts’ he had sent to a young woman in 2011.
We also know that Slater promotes tobacco and alcohol interest with articles written by Carrick Graham, spin that is published under Cameron Slater’s own name. The publishing of these vicious attack articles is paid for by the tobacco industry to target academics in order to discredit their research. Furthermore, we have learnt that Slater and Simon Lusk run smear campaigns in National safe-seats to ensure their candidates are selected to stand, and that Mark Mitchell was one such client who was selected to stand and is now an MP. Last but not least, we have learnt that Slater employs the services of prostitutes in order to gain information he uses to blackmail and attack people online.
With an all too obvious association between Cameron Slater’s deviousness and the National party, I really don’t think John Key can simply bluff his way out of all this. Strangely enough that’s exactly what the Prime Minister appears to be trying to do…shrug it off like none of it matters. In my opinion, his tired old Crosby Textor script isn’t going to work this time because; despite a lack of proper coverage by some mainstream media outlets, a hell of a lot of people are really interested in National’s Dirty Politics.
The other claim John Key has made is that left wing parties have launched a smear campaign and aren’t interested in the issues that really matter. Anybody who compares the release and promotion of policy from the various parties will know that John Key’s claims are completely untrue. The idiot is also saying the opposition is somehow involved in the actual hacking and leaking of the Dirty Politics emails and that more people are interested in National’s cycle lanes. This is about as stupid as his claims that the Internet/Mana party was somehow involved in burning an effigy of the Prime Minister…it’s about as moronic as Slater jumping to conclusions and laying a police complaint against Kim Dotcom.
Clearly the National party had no idea what Nicky Hager’s book was about, which has resulted in the Prime Minister being left out in the cold and floundering for excuses. Unless he properly addresses the serious issues raised in Nicky Hager’s book by sacking Judith Collins to start with, he looks weak and set to drown in the political torrent of negative press that will likely ensure National is all washed up come election time.
Here are a few of the undemocratic things National and their propagandists have been up to:
We now know that the National party colluded with right wing blogger Cameron Slater to illegally access (hack) the Labour Party’s computers and that they used the private information gained to launch a smear campaign against Labour in the lead up to an election, that the Prime Minister's press secretary at the time, Jason Ede, informed Slater about sensitive SIS information and that John Key fast-tracked its release in order to damage opposition leader Phil Goff. We also had our suspicions confirmed that National regularly colludes with Slater and David Farrar to attack the opposition and that articles on Kiwiblog are written by National’s communications staffers and published under David Farrar’s name.
Perhaps the most concerning revelation however has been that Judith Collins released private information to Slater with the intention of it being published and in order to damage an Internal Affairs official named Simon Pleasants who later received death threats. Possibly with the Ministers help, Slater somehow manipulated corrections to shift an inmate to a remote prison, which resulted in the prisoners attempted suicide. Like Kiwiblog, National directly contributes much of the nasty content on Whale Oil Beef Hooked. It's also been shown that a number of right wing propagandists manipulate the iPredict system and then use those fake results to promote National party propaganda and that it’s likely Slater et al blackmailed Rodney Hide to resign because of the ‘dodgy texts’ he had sent to a young woman in 2011.
We also know that Slater promotes tobacco and alcohol interest with articles written by Carrick Graham, spin that is published under Cameron Slater’s own name. The publishing of these vicious attack articles is paid for by the tobacco industry to target academics in order to discredit their research. Furthermore, we have learnt that Slater and Simon Lusk run smear campaigns in National safe-seats to ensure their candidates are selected to stand, and that Mark Mitchell was one such client who was selected to stand and is now an MP. Last but not least, we have learnt that Slater employs the services of prostitutes in order to gain information he uses to blackmail and attack people online.
The other claim John Key has made is that left wing parties have launched a smear campaign and aren’t interested in the issues that really matter. Anybody who compares the release and promotion of policy from the various parties will know that John Key’s claims are completely untrue. The idiot is also saying the opposition is somehow involved in the actual hacking and leaking of the Dirty Politics emails and that more people are interested in National’s cycle lanes. This is about as stupid as his claims that the Internet/Mana party was somehow involved in burning an effigy of the Prime Minister…it’s about as moronic as Slater jumping to conclusions and laying a police complaint against Kim Dotcom.
Clearly the National party had no idea what Nicky Hager’s book was about, which has resulted in the Prime Minister being left out in the cold and floundering for excuses. Unless he properly addresses the serious issues raised in Nicky Hager’s book by sacking Judith Collins to start with, he looks weak and set to drown in the political torrent of negative press that will likely ensure National is all washed up come election time.
