Transtasman Political Letter – 22 March Digest
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22nd March 2007
Helen Clark earns a place alongside other Labour leaders for her foreign policy achievement in Washington....
Will it help revive Labour’s poll ratings?....
Budget with its tax breaks for business may not be all that popular with Labour punters....
Blood testing contract debacle another blow to Govt credibility, though it waves away responsibility....
And Winston Peters goes on safari in South America.
High Point In International Diplomacy
The Govt will be looking to revive its popularity ratings, first with the success of the PM’s visit to the White House,
and then with the budget next month.
Clark’s White House Visit Signals Major Victory
Helen Clark’s call on President George W Bush marks an historic shift in NZ’s foreign relations and a personal triumph
for the former lecturer once in the van of anti Vietnam demonstrations.
Health Board Fiasco Points To Flawed Ideology
The Health Board fiasco in Auckland where a High Court judgement ruled three Boards had not conducted a fair tender
process over a new blood testing contract left the Govt lamenting a “regrettable” situation.
Peters’ South American Trek
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has set himself the task of expanding economic and political relationships with South
American countries, and is due to meet Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, Uruguay’s President Dr Tabare
Vazquez and Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana on his current mission.
CAPITAL TALK
How much is $20bn if you stacked it up? ACT’s Rodney Hide worked it out and told his party’s South Island Conference if $100 bills were stacked in a pile it would be 20km high.
Play Of The Week: Basic Stuff
Even the smallest Community Board in the country’s most remote areas – the sort of places some high paid Aucklanders
like to look down on – know the basics of conflict of interest. If you stand to gain materially from a decision being
made, you absent yourself from the decision making process.
Transtasman is a subscriber newsletter published weekly and read widely in New Zealand and abroad. The above is a
summary of this week's edition. To subscribe and read the full newsletter see.. http://Transtasman.co.nz