Molesworth & Featherston - Weekend Update edition
Business and Political News
October 8th 2006
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Election spending
Brady punch
As the auditor-general Kevin Brady prepares his final election spending report, to be released next week, he continues
to prune the amount he believes the various parties “unlawfully” spent. The latest to declare himself squeaky clean
personally was Trade Minister Phil Goff whose two yearly newsletter that has been running for nine years - and cost a
few thousand bucks - was declared within the rules, just as the Green Party Green Times newsletter had been before.
However, the Labour caucus heard this week that Brady was still adamant about the bulk of the $800,000 he had found it
had spent. It now looks as if a report absolving Labour and all the other parties of deliberate wrong-doing is on the
cards, but Labour may still choose to pay it back to clear the political air. Individual back-benchers should be bracing
themselves for a bill of at least $10,000 each.
National
Bill’s will
The National Party caucus is nowhere near united around John Key as the likely replacement for Don Brash - according to
his potential rival Bill English.
Last week we said a leadership spill had been explicitly discussed before the 26 September caucus, but got dropped when
polls showed National surging ahead of Labour. And we added “Mr Key has emerged by consensus as the leader in waiting.
Gerry Brownlee is safe as deputy.” That brought a heavily pregnant response from Bill English in an email to us: “As an
expert on leadership changes, the caucus came nowhere near it in recent weeks although there was a fair bit of bluster,
and certainly no ‘consensus’.”
If there were no consensus, who would the other candidate be? Looks like a declaration to us. The caucus never came
close to launching a coup - as we noted, Mr Key left the country. But Mr English's note confirms the prospect was
canvassed. It fits our soundings that a challenge is most likely in February or March 2007. John Key would need to keep
Gerry Brownlee on as his number two to be sure of the numbers. That may only be a temporary thing while Mr Key proves
himself as a leader in the rough and tumble of the House and on the stump against Prime Minister Helen Clark.
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