Really, it isn't that important. The man who spent the last two terms of Parliament keeping Labour in government has now decided to not support a Labour led government after the election according to the Dominion Post. A party that polls no better than Libertarianz has been promised a seat at the Cabinet table in exchange.
Dunne has been gutless. On the one hand he has supported Labour up till now, and is still a Minister. He always maintained he couldn't back a government the Greens were a part of. Now he is saying he couldn't back a government the Greens would be a part of, and National "policies lined up "far better" with his own and would move the country in the right direction." Clark maintains "I remember at the last election Peter Dunne went for coffee with Don Brash, and that didn't stop him becoming a minister in a Labour-led government, so I wouldn't read too much into what happened today". Indeed. Although it is almost certain Labour would also need the Greens to govern after the election.
Note Dunne's statement said "his own". Even Dunne knows he will be a one man band after the election. United Future is about to go back to whence it came, it is an irrelevance, and Peter Dunne's future is up to the people of Ohariu. I can only hope they will vote for Katrina Shanks so the Minister of Revenue has to get a real job, and stops demanding Transmission Gully.
Dunne has been gutless. On the one hand he has supported Labour up till now, and is still a Minister. He always maintained he couldn't back a government the Greens were a part of. Now he is saying he couldn't back a government the Greens would be a part of, and National "policies lined up "far better" with his own and would move the country in the right direction." Clark maintains "I remember at the last election Peter Dunne went for coffee with Don Brash, and that didn't stop him becoming a minister in a Labour-led government, so I wouldn't read too much into what happened today". Indeed. Although it is almost certain Labour would also need the Greens to govern after the election.
Note Dunne's statement said "his own". Even Dunne knows he will be a one man band after the election. United Future is about to go back to whence it came, it is an irrelevance, and Peter Dunne's future is up to the people of Ohariu. I can only hope they will vote for Katrina Shanks so the Minister of Revenue has to get a real job, and stops demanding Transmission Gully.
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I, for one, will never forgive Peter Dunne for the back room deal that stopped the public consultation on the North Wellington Public Transport Study. This was asking whether to keep the current Johnsonville passenger rail Line or convert the line into a guided busway.
At every stage of the NWPTS, the public had indicated that improving the bus service (bus users already greatly outnumber train users and are predicted to rise to 3:1). Just when the preferred option was about to be put to the public, the government (in a change of position) indicated it would not permit the busway to be built.
This is best reported by a Dominion Post article quoted on the pro-rail blog (note the key fact is in the third paragraph of the article). Feel free to read through the comments :)
Peter Dunne then evn claimed credit for this undemocratic government intervention in a subsequent article to a local paper:
Ohariu-Belmount MP Peter Dunne has welcomed the de-railing of the Wellington City Council's Northern Suburbs transport Study - and is claiming credit for the outcome.
. . . I had to stand up for my constituents, as I did on Transmission Gully, because the WCC would not," he said. "If I have to intervene again to de-rail similar daft WCC plans that adversely affect my constituents, I will - no matter what WCC might think."
What he does not mention is that individual submissions favoring converting the line to a busway outnumbered rail submissions nearly 2:1 !
All this is documented in a (not my) pro-busway blog betterbus.blogspot.com
with the final article summarizing the frustrations of being a constituent to an MP who will happily run his own agenda.
I will NEVER give my electorate vote to Peter Dunne and urge everyone else to toss this turncoat turkey and bauble chaser.
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