9 May 2005

Helen Can't Decide an Election Date

Winston Peters' rise in the polls is adding to the instability the Maori Party has caused for Labour. Labour's support is beginning to erode as the scandals pile up and more incompetence is exposed. Don Brash is sticking to the strategy of pushing positive long-term policy. It doesn't get National in the news every day, but it's building up a credible far reaching programme to change the nation's direction. We will have to work hard to attract new support, but it will come when people realise Labour will struggle to win. When Labour's polling hits 40% the election will open up in the public mind.

Labour can't decide when to hold the election and its time the media said so. Because they are far too prone to describing the election uncertainty as clever Labour tactics, when in fact it's a muddle. Indecision by Clark who is increasingly worried that her political momentum is slowing and a third term is at risk.

Zaoui and the lost Iraqis

Several years ago Ahmed Zaoui entered the country illegally. He should have been put on a plane immediately. Instead, after 3 years of litigation he has become a hero for the left. New Zealand is seen now as a soft touch for other fascists, terrorists, whoever is on the losing side in bad regimes, unwanted at home and unable to get into any other country.

Labour has turned our migration control into a joke. If you turn up at the border with an apple, you get done. If you turn up with an Iraqi passport and references from Saddam Hussein you get in. I have dealt with a constituent who was turned away at the UK border because they said they had a UK boyfriend they might marry. We need migrants, but we don't need leftovers from middle east terrorist regions.

Now Labour have reacted with a massive search of thousands of immigrants, determined to kick out someone who looks swarthy, and to get it on TV. The truth is, Labour were incompetent over Zaoui and it's sent a green light to the world. National will certainly turn the green light red.

Every dollar off the Road on the Road

Most media missed one of Don Brash's bigger announcements. In our first two terms a National government would move to spend every dollar of petrol tax on roading. Priority petrol tax has irritated drivers for decades. The economy needs big investment in roading and the petrol tax is the last way to find it. A lazy media decided Brash's announcement wasn't as sexy as Labour's on small wasteful pre-budget lolly scramble which has been reported faithfully in every detail. National is using a billboard campaign in the cities to get its messages across where the media won't report hard news.

Public TV Pornography

More and more sexual scenes are appearing on prime time TV and the scenes are becoming more explicit. This week I was dumbfounded to see scenes on TV One between 9.30 and 10pm which I could only describe as pornography. Too many of us have become accustomed to programmes loaded with sexual innuendo and increasingly explicit sex scenes.

This is not commercial TV. It's the state funded channel with a charter waxing lyrical with lovely phrases about the nation and its destiny. I have written to TV One to complain. It's not inevitable that television content gets more and more smutty and explicit.

Bill English www.billenglish.co.nz www.national.org.nz

ENDS

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