Transtasman Political Letter – 19 October Digest

19th October 2006

PM seeks to “move on,” but the Brady report’s impact won’t go away just yet
... Parliament shows it’s still makes “the fastest law in the West”
... We have a question for Brady. Will he root out “electioneering” miss-spending in other areas of Govt?
... Peters and Dunne jostle each other in claiming credit for tax cuts
... Trouble looms at the Pacific Forum
... And is there a new aristocracy in state houses?

Polls To Assess Brady Damage

Polling this week will be closely watched by politicians of all stripes to determine the extent of damage they have suffered from the Brady report.

Back To “Fastest Law In The West”

The speed with which the Govt rushed through legislation validating unlawful election spending recalled Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s cherished phrase “the fastest law in the west” which he stigmatised as the constitutional deficiency of regimes in the first-past-the-post era.

Brady To Be Canonised? Not By Govt

Kevin Brady got rave reviews for his report into advertising expenditure incurred by the Parliamentary Service in the three months before the 2005 election. The NZ Herald virtually canonised him in an editorial.

Jostling For Tax Cut Credit

Both NZ First’s Winston Peters and United Future’s Peter Dunne are jostling to claim the credit for personal tax cuts they say are coming, despite the reluctance shown by Michael Cullen.

CAPITAL TALK

Three key figures are missing from Parliament this week: National’s John Carter, Labour’s Lynne Pillay and Green’s Nandor Tanczos. They are all in Geneva, attending the 107-years-old, 140-member Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly.

Play Of The Week: Warnings >From The ‘Real’ World

Parliament went into urgency to validate its election spending, producing a display of massed butt-covering and finger pointing you can normally see in the monkeys’ enclosure at the zoo.

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