Agreed on the level of honesty from the Maori Party. They understand the value of integrity in a way most parties cannot begin to approach. Turia was the one suggesting a change in unemployment benefit earlier on - ie work for the dole. They clearly are used to saying it as it is to their own people, and this is reflected in their communications to the community as a whole. Pita Sharples continues to grow in stature as leader in this country. It is good for National to work along side him and learn from his practice.

er ... wait, what?

Since when could you assume that "what you saw is what you got" with the National Party?

I'm a committed right-winger, but even I don't expect National to keep their promises and not ambush us with some arrogant betrayals of their core constituents (let alone the rest of New Zealand).

"What you saw is what you got" is THE antithesis of National's approach to policy-making.

CE, I was waiting for this follow up blog.

I'm not surprised that's happened and quite frankly, it probably says more about how 'astute' National is...NOT VERY.

The back tracking at the moment just proves how naive National is about issue management. Peter Sharples could easily be seen as a lack of political nous and this will probably - in the end - be costly for National.

PS. Hope you enjoyed Samoa.

I'm really glad you are big enough to write such a post. Pity National cannot be this honest with the public.

Is this just another case of Key telling the parties what they want to hear, making the deal, and being economical with the truth and consequences?

The price of this deal seems to be getting bigger by the day. So is the amount of humble pie Key has to eat if it unravels.

Well done Colin...at last reading like a perceptive investigating journalist and not just an apologist for John Key...who's been lying yet again - first denying/covering the extra dealings and then saying the Insulation concessions were for all NZ'ers in specific working class areas ! Porkies. But what's this about a 2 for 1 deal for Maori on Carbon Credits ( will be a huge handout ? ).....and re-negotiating with Ngae Tahu ??!! More nightmares - and they'll probably try to rename half the South Island while they're at it. Mt Cook wasn't enough - had to be Aoraki/Mt Cook with the aki part first.

And while the Maori Separatist Party ( separate flag, subtitles, language, TV programs and station, prisons, courts, education, forests, sections of beach and sea, compulsory hakas 24/7 etc etc ) are fairly candid, the bottom line is that they're in the business of Prostitution....as opposed to Sex Working .....where bottom lines become more critical. They will go with whoever pays them the most. The gains they've bled out of National already are alarming and if this becomes a contest in bribery - with Labour joining in - then we'll have national chaos by the next election. Key figures he's doing enough to pay off the Maori Party and win the next election - after which much of the country will be sold overseas. Kiwibank already has had policy change and now just been merged with huge Yankee finance company GE finance ! And they haven't even been in for a year yet, while saying ' We won't sell Kiwibank'....after Bill English said at a party that they would !

Forget the aspirational, striving for greater things bla bla bla garbage. This is dishonest and naked wheeling and dealing.....with clothes on ( except during the optional Sex Working....now fully endorsed and legal ). It's hard to strive for greater returns when the country's been sold and the profits and control go overseas. Time for mainstream Maori commentators like Ron Mark and Winston Peters ( Colin's friend ) to talk about the so called 'Maori Party' and where this is all going ? Long live Wanganui, pronounced with a guttural W, as it should be.

Colin - I don't know why National is even bothered with this ETS crap. They should be bold enought to scrap this and say, we will do our part when the biggest polluters on earth - USA, China and India come up with a plan to reduce green house gas emissions.

We are already dealing with the emissions from Goff and on top of this - ETS. Get on with some wealth generating schemes.

Jeez, would have been a few blankets and muskets not so long ago. Thats the price of progress I suppose. Jokes aside, its still going to cost half what Labour had us committed to, and some bribes to get it through without input from Labour is worth it. Would rather JK had been up front about what they were.

While it seems that a bipartisan approach would give more certainty, there is still no guarantee that a future government would not alter the policy citing "changing circumstances". One could argue that a partisan approach is actually better as voters can determine at each election which policy they prefer. But I agree that the worst is the case we have here where the policy is sold to the highest/lowest bidder.

Interesting too that Labour now argues so fervently for a bipartisan approach, when they had no such moral fortitude when developing the original ETS only last year...

Cullen's Sidekick #6

Absolutely right. ETS is total waste of time and the only thing it will achieve is creating a whole pile more bureaucrats. Time for NZ to generate wealth again after the last lot let the economy stall

Surprised the spin doctors haven't been out stating 'Not only is our version of ETS keeping jobs in NZ, it is creating jobs by putting insulation in 2000 homes'