Whaleleaks is a term that might come to be one of those 2011 election year zeitgeist words representing one of the major features of political debate and discussion. It refers, of course, to the publishing of internal Labour Party information by rightwing blogger Cameron Slater on his Whale Oil Beef Hooked blogsite. At this stage, it’s hard to know whether Slater’s data treasure trove is going to result in a mere minor scandal soon to be forgotten in what looks likely to be an increasingly bitter and dirty election campaign, or whether he’s got so much juicy but substantial information that he’ll be able to drip feed it throughout the next few months, and thus have a huge impact on Labour’s election campaign. If it’s the latter, then the blogosphere and dirty politics have well and truly come of age in New Zealand politics. Comparisons are already being made with the acquisition of the National Party’s 2004/5 internal emails by Nicky Hager. The publication of The Hollow Men was a landmark political event and, although it ended Don Brash’s lame duck leadership of National, it had a more ongoing impact on our understanding of how political parties and politicians operate. So if the Hollow Men was National’s turn under the microscope, perhaps now it will be Labour’s. Certainly, as Hager himself said when launching the Hollow Men, he thought that a similar book could be written about Labour if only the internal documents were available. It’s unlikely that we’ll see anything similar, however, as Slater seems much more inclined to make a big splash now, than write a carefully considered and analytical expose. He seems to want to have an electoral impact here and now, and with the usual fanfare and hubris we’ve come to expect.
Nonetheless, the first Whaleleaks are concerned with a very serious and legitimate target: the misuse of parliamentary resources by political parties. See Slater’s first two posts: Labour Leaks – Part 1 and Illegal Use of Parliamentary Services Funds which show that the Labour Party has the intention of using Parliamentary Service resources to help fight the Te Tai Tokerau by-election. Following up on this straight away, Parliamentary Service is reported to be on the case: Party staffers warned over campaigning rules. The Standard blog respond intelligently to this aspect of the Whaleleaks with the post, Time to add parliamentary services to the OIA. And this hits the mark, although it has to be pointed out the Slater is already very open in suggesting that National is also prone to misusing taxpayer resources. The whole issue is, in my view, a political time bomb waiting to go off. We saw the first detonation with the 2005 scandal over misuse of resources picked up by the Auditor General, which partly lead to the huge debate over political finance regulation (and the EFA), but it seems that the question of the misuse of resources has never been resolved by the parliamentarians. In fact, I’ve published a fair amount of in depth investigation of this misuse myself – see, for example: National to entrench backdoor state funding of parties, Labour’s latest taxpayer-funded electioneering, and The public funding of boozy political party conferences.
Whether Slater has broken the law is being discussed widely. The best accounts are by Chris Keall in the NBR, Did Whaleoil break law with Labour data grab? A snap legal opinion as well as the opinion of leftwing blog, No Right Turn, who says that ‘allegations of criminality here are utterly ridiculous’ – see: Poor analogies and Labour’s leak. But, secondly, has he acted ethically? This is a question that is hard to resolve, and as James Meager blogs, seems to come down to whether you’re pro-Labour in which case it’s unethical or if you’re pro-National it’s totally fine – see: Transparency for all! Sometimes. Meager suggests that there’s some hypocrisy on display here, as the same ‘partisan hacks’ appear to have had the opposite view on the ethics of Nicky Hager’s use of internal National Party material. [Continue reading below for a full list of the highlights of NZ Politics Daily]
Whaleleaks: Ethics and debate
Adam Bennett (NZH): Labour security breach a "politically motivated attack"
Chris Keall (NBR): Did Whaleoil break law with Labour data grab? A snap legal opinion
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Labour: Donor details 'malicious' breach
David Fisher (NZH): Labour Party’s information breach
Claire Trevett (NZH): Labour investigates breach of database
Whale oil: Labour Leaks — How I did it
Whaleoil: Labour Leaks – damage control underway
Whaleoil: Labour Leaks - Threatening a blogger
Whaleoil: Dear Chris
Whaleoil: Wikileaks good, Whaleleaks bad
Whaleoil: Labour Leaks — Privacy and Labour’s donors
Matt Nippert (NBR): Slater to reveal names of 452 Labour donors at 2pm
The Dim-Post: What a shame
James Meager (mydeology): Transparency for all! Sometimes.
No Right Turn: Poor analogies
No Right Turn: Labour’s leak
The Standard: Nats steal Labour donor data
The Standard: You can’t make this stuff up
Whaleoil: The big deal about Political Consultants
John Pagani (Stuff): How the dirty tricks machine works
Whaleleaks: Parliamentary resources
Whaleoil: Illegal Use of Parliamentary Services Funds
Whaleoil: Labour Leaks – Part 1
Stuff: Party staffers warned over campaigning rules
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Labour’s minutes
The Standard: Time to add parliamentary services to the OIA
Whaleleaks: Labour’s donations
Whaleoil: Labour Leaks – Online Donations
Cactus Kate: My Labour Donation Shame
TV3: Whale Oil mocks Labour fundraising effort
SkyCity deal
TVNZ: Govt accused of putting laws up for sale
Danya Levy (Stuff): SkyCity deal ‘puts laws up for sale’
Katie Bradford-Crozier (Newstalk ZB): Skycity and Govt discuss gambling laws
Tim Hunter (Stuff): Convention centre, suitcase of cash, same thing
John Hartevelt (Stuff): Govt folds for SkyCity
Taniwha
Editorial (NZH): Taniwha rears head to sabotage Maori cause
Morgan Godfery (Maui Street): David f*cking Farrar (updated)
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): A response to Maui Street
Greens
Metiria Turei on The Nation – full interview
Metiria Turei interviewed by Duncan Garner (TV3): Transcript
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Turei on The Nation
g.blog: The relationship between the Green Party and the Mana Party
Te Tai Tokerau byelection and Mana Party
Morgan Godfery (Maui Street): Labour and the byelection
TVNZ: Tai Tokerau candidates go head to head
Yvonne Tahana (NZH): Voters back Harawira, but only by a whisker
TVNZ: Q+A Interviews By-Election Candidates
Chris Ford (Voxy): Hone And His Date With Destiny – The Left Debates Its Stance Towards Mana
Darren Hughes
Claire Trevett (NZH): When politicians bounce back
David Fisher (NZH): Hughes drama: Annette King opens up
Sunday Star Times: Darren Hughes’ claims ‘unwise’
Editorial (ODT): A matter handled badly
Anthony Hubbard (SST): Politics, sex go hand-in-hand
Steve Braunas (Southland Times): Secret diary of Darren Hughes
Whaleoil: Bring Back Darren
Regulation of lobbying
Stuff: Bill to set up political lobbyists register
TVNZ: New bill to target political lobbyists
No Right Turn: Time for transparency on lobbying II
Alex Tarrant (interest.co.nz): Have your say: Green Party calls on government to reveal lobbyists, introduces Member's Bill to create lobby-list
Employment law
Matt McCarten (NZH): Key signals another attack on workers
John Hartevelt (Sunday Star Times): Youth rates likely target of National reforms
Steven Cowan (Against the Current): Bleak Times
Welfare reform
John Hartevelt (SST): Welfare and job reform is key for National
Paul Holmes (NZH): Nothing for free – it’s the basic welfare rule
Other
John Armstrong (NZH): Selling asset sales is a hard job even for Key
The Standard: Key’s Midas touch
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Dom Post): Details on new public service agency revealed
TV3: What lies beneath John Key’s exterior?
ODT Editorial: Electoral funding: paying the piper
Stuff: Labour urges alcohol reform after student's death
Bernard Hickey (NZH): Tacticians lack vision
Greg Ninness (SST): Why our economy plays by Aussie rules
Neil Reid (SST): Special cup law took a departmental kicking
Kate Chapman and Danya Levy (Stuff): Govt looks at Fiji travel ban list
Neil Reid (SST): NZ low-risk terror target but still push to toughen SIS
Newstalk ZB: Keith Locke slams the SIS
Susan Pepperell (SST): Pulling them up by the bootstraps
Neil Reid (SST): Mayors for wider patch ban
Amanda Fisher (Dom Post): 'Hidden shame' of child poverty
Dave Armstrong (Dom Post): Harley-lujah for Brian Tamaki, the richest Maori in showbiz
Deborah Coddington (NZH): Most shocking fact about abuse – yet help is at hand
TVNZ: Brash: Act will fight against compulsory Te Reo
The Standard: Mining II: The Empire Strikes back
Karl du Fresne: Curran surprised? I don’t think so
mydeology: Tweet of the day, nude MP protests employment figures edition
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Political Report: June 13
Dom Post: Politics briefs – Saturday, June 11
Dom Post: Politics briefs – Monday, June 13