Honesty And Integrity Are Important Except When It Concerns The Labor Party

OK, that’s not entirely fair because I reckon its safe to say that most politicians, regardless of the party they’re affiliated with, are not well known for their honesty. Before I get into the post proper I would like to set the scene.

Most people would probably agree that honesty and integrity is a very important quality. We look for it in almost everything we do in life from sport to business. That’s why people get so upset when they discover that the only reason their sporting hero or team won was because they took drugs. That’s why people who lie and cheat to profit from others usually end up in court.

Yep, most people get into trouble for being dishonest, unless they happen to be a politician. So, where the heck is all this leading to? Well, last Saturday, the 20th of March 2010, South Australia went to the polls to vote. As it turned out Labor pretty well won the election, and while Premier Rann called it a ‘sweet victory’ it turns out that it was marred by Labors less than honorable tactics.

What Labor did was to have members masquerade as Family First in the most marginal of seats so they could hand out their version of Family First how to vote cards. Where the legitimate family first cards gave their preference to the Liberal party, Labor’s phony how to vote cards gave the first preference to their own party!

This is bullshit because they cheated the voting public out of voting the way they had intended to. They went to a whole lot of trouble to defraud the public, from designing similar t-shirts to printing the phony cards. What is really deplorable is that I heard Kevin Foley saying on TV how that’s “what you do in politics.” This is from the deputy Premier, and he’s saying how it’s alright to rip off the public.

Although he and others in the Labor party are alright with getting votes dishonestly members of the public are really pissed off about it. Even today, four days after the election, people are still making their disgust felt. Apparently it’s even got the public in other states into an uproar. People want to make sure that this never happens again.

What amazes me is how Labor defends their actions, although Rann himself has been rather quiet. I’ve already mentioned how Foley felt about it, well it seems that two of his cronies, Grace Portolesi and Leon Bignell said that although they didn’t know it was going on they didn’t have a problem with it. Just goes to show how much they value honesty and integrity.

I must say that it’s unfair to tar the whole Labor party with the same brush as there were some members who knew of the tactics and decided they wanted nothing to do with it. Sort of makes you wonder how those others didn’t know what was going on in their own electorate though.

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This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. peter petterson

    I didn’t realise the results were that clear, mate. Please check your post title too. I know little about your state elections, and only a bit about your national politics.

    But what I do know are the poor are getting the boot in th guts here in NZ. All under the guise of welfare reform. Get out and look for work they are saying to the beneficiaries. All well and good, but unemployment is well over 7%, and state workers are getting the chop too.

    They want to mine in some of our most beautiful national parks claiming we will make billions – bu the truth is the nation would get 1% in royalties. All the foreign mining companies would get the other 99%.

    Oh for an election soon, and Kiwis will realise what a big mistake they made throwing out Labour.

    Your Labor will survive, Pete, because the Liberals don’t have a good leader in Abbott.

    See you later mate,

    Peter
    .-= peter petterson´s last blog ..Paula Bennet’s guide to poverty, perhaps… =-.

    1. BS Artist

      This was the State election Peter and not the Federal, and Labor survived by the skin of their teeth. They knew they were in trouble which is why they resorted to these dirty tactics.

      As for Federal Politics, all Labor has done so far is to give the country a huge debt. Their problem is that they go off half cocked creating policies without seeing the affect they will have.

      I actually like Abbott, whether he will make a good leader remains to be seen. As to Labor surviving, well let’s just say I don’t think they will fair well in the next election. They may still win, but it will only be by a minority.

  2. I agree with your statement that politicians are all generally just as bad, regardless of what party they represent. Lately over here in UK there’s been a huge uproar about all the revelations about MPs abusing the expenses system, from false claims for second homes to moat cleaning to duck houses. It’s put a serious dent in the public’s confidence, and small wonder that election turnouts these days are so low.

    It’s sad because I’m sure many of these individuals started out with the best of intentions, but somewhere along the way they seem to have sacrificed their integrity for the sake of getting ahead.
    .-= Rod – solar panel electricity´s last blog ..Solar Power Economics: the costs and benefits of residential solar power – part 2 =-.

    1. peter petterson

      That is probably a good description of many pollies. Yes, they all start out with the best of intentions and somewhere along the line the party macheine corrupts them. I make no apology for being a left winger, but I will not put up with political BS either. I haven’t been a member of the NZ Labour Party since 1983, because I wasn’t happy with what went down during local elections here in Lower hutt.
      .-= peter petterson´s last blog ..Glasses aren’t so geeky after all – could be sexy… =-.

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