Monday, September 05, 2005

Nats in Eastern Corridor Spin??

I caught the end of a One News item this evening which seemed to show Don Brash over-ruling Maurice Williamson on the Eastern Corridor issue.

Maurice once again extolled the virtues of the corridor at the debate I had with him over transport policy a couple of months ago, so I would be extremely interested to know if this was the case.

There doesn't yet seem to be anything online... did anyone see the full story?

13 comments:

Too Right and Having A Blast said...

Mikey - I would not go there. You will find most of your electorate are supporters of the Eastern Corridor. Given many earn their living in Auckland and choose to live in Manukau.

We both know the Eastern Corridor will be completed.

Anonymous said...

Yes Herald this morning confirms that Don and Maurice disagree over the Eastern Motorway.

Insolent Prick said...

Again, Michael, WHO FUCKING CARES?

Get a frigging grip, boy. The reason why your party is flagging in the polls is because you've got nothing to talk about except what the other guys are doing.

What ever happened to taking pride in all of your personal and partisan achievements, Michael?

Span said...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10344199

for the Herald story on this, titled "Brash sidelines eastern highway"

IP - i imagine those in the electorate that the highway is supposed to serve do care actually. are you encouraging a local candidate to ignore an important local issue?? that's a bit weird.

Insolent Prick said...

No, Spanner. You can't have it both ways.

What Brash has said is that he's not going to railroad local opinion to get the Eastern Corridor up and moving.

What he's also said is that those projects that do have strong local support will be given priority.

Now it's up for Manukau and Auckland Cities to get their collective acts together and support the Eastern Corridor if they want it.

Anonymous said...

Which throws, IP, your assessment that

"We both know the Eastern Corridor will be completed"

into considerable doubt.

What Maurice wants to do is have it reassigned as a state highway. He does want to 'railroad'.

Anonymous said...

I saw the news piece and Brash had completely overridden Maurice on the issue (he actually seemed pretty angry about it)..

Insolent Prick, don't be a chump. You obviously doesn't live in the electorate if you think this isn't an issue.

Span said...

so IP you wrote "WHO FUCKING CARES" about Wood's post on the Eastern Highway.

and then I wrote "are you encouraging a local candidate to ignore an important local issue?? that's a bit weird."

you then told me i couldn't have it both ways. which doesn't actually seem to respond at all to my point.

which is, i repeat, that you are effectively getting stuck in to an electorate candidate for posting on a local issue that is important to his electorate - not (just) because you disagree but because he is posting on something you don't care about.

remind me again - is this your blog or his? why do you give a shit what someone else posts on their blog??

again i repeat myself - that's a bit weird.

Too Right and Having A Blast said...

Picking up Michael's sentiment about what the Nats are doing - I am more interested in how he is going to explain the anti-democratic thuggery by the member for Dunedin North, who also happens to be Labour's chief strategist.

Anonymous said...

Ask Gerry Brownlee.

Anonymous said...

Is Michael Wood real? I've only seen the National, ACT and independent candidates in the electorate.

The local Eastern Courier newspaper mentioned a debate where Chris Carter had to front for the Labour party, to debate Maurice on the environment.

And I notice that on the Labour website, Michael has a buddy MP, a phone-a-friend called Ross Robertson. Ross' photo is even on the Pakuranga electorate page, not Michael's, with some generic pap about Labour's 'achievements'.

All this makes me wonder if there is a Michael Wood? He is invisible.

Perhaps he's the first virtual candidate?

Michael Wood said...

A lot of people actually care about this issue IP.

For a start, 400 odd families on Ti Rakau Dr who are living on tenterhooks not knowing whether their homes are going to be bowled or not care.

Maurice also cared when there was a suggestion that the Highway might go through his patch around Fisher Parade. Perhaps that was when the National Party began re-evaluating their position...

Seriously, this is about not just the Eastern Corridor itself, but about National's credibility. They want to govern the country yet on issues as diverse as transport, primary health provision, Iraq, and Forestry (just to name a few), they have flip-flopped around like a just caught snapper during this campaign.

Anonymous said...

now Ryan, your praise of the visibility of the Act candidate is probably the best laugh in politics of the day - albeit one nearly matched by Don Brash on many occasions daily - and goes to show where your helpless, hapless, frenetic biases lie.
Act is a laughing stock. Always has been.

I think the Conservation Minister is a good person to represent Labour on the environment myself...there are some candidate debates coming up on Monday and Tuesday, according to the local papers. I wonder if Maurice will be there.