Minor Leaders debate on RNZ

The minor leaders debate on Radio NZ this morning was instructive: Greens confident, Winston all guns blazing with direct arguments with Brash, Brash himself basically conceeding Act was toast, Hone delivering from the heart and sounding mature, hoping for four MPs for Mana, Peter Dunne and Te Ururoa Flavell - because their parties are welded to supporting National no matter what - came across as defensive, ineffectual and irrelevant.

Phil Goff has been on RNZ this last hour giving a good performance on all policy areas. Phil is sounding fairly confident too - especially after last night's TV One debate with John Key where he really took it to Key and made him look weak and dithering. This was the third debate and Phil has won all of them. Phil's got nothing to lose and everything to gain and he's relishing this - it shows. He's having a great time. Meanwhile John Key is looking bad and the bizarre 'teapot tape' saga is reaching a denoument as the police commence their raids (or complete appointments depending on the stance of the media organisations) to grab the recording.

Nixon at his worst - this behaviour; and yet a pathetic NZ media used to kowtowing to government has let Key sidestep the constitutional impropriety of using the powers of the state to hush up his personal political embarrassment. If there is a recording - if it actually exists and contains something important to voters - it should be released. If I find the recording in my inbox this blog will publish it. Can't pay for it of course, but will publish it provided it is in the public interest to do so.

Tumeke! reacted more responsibly than the sensationalist NZ Herald when we received Corrections Dept. files and reacted more responsibly than the mainstream media over Paula Bennett's unlawful disclosure of private files of beneficiaries on her political hit list. Tumeke! has a solid track record of acting responsibly compared with other media.