Political Diary

TUESDAY
Education Minister Anne Tolley gets Labour and the left-wing blogs in a lather after complaining about the contents of a research paper produced by the Parliamentary Library.

She tells the Herald she intends raising the matter with the Speaker Lockwood Smith, who has responsibility for the library.

Before she does, however, the library pulls the paper from its website, presumably after seeing the Herald's story.

Tolley's critics variously accuse her of censorship and "book burning". Let's get real.

The paper raised eyebrows in its long list of assertions made by opponents of national standards which were not sourced back to their authors. It looked like the library was taking a view on national standards.

The library produces such occasional research papers, but they are always scrupulously objective. This one wasn't. It jeopardised the library's authority and independence.

Tolley had little choice but to go to the Speaker because sooner or later the document would have been wielded against her in Parliament as supposedly authoritative evidence of the failings of national standards.

Would a Labour education minister have done any differently? Of course not.

WEDNESDAY

The wonders of technology ... tobacco giant Philip Morris appears before the Maori Affairs select committee inquiry into the consequences of tobacco use by Maori.

The company says it supports the licensing of tobacco retailers. The words have barely departed the lips of the company's representative before Labour's associate health spokesman Iain Lees-Galloway sends an email to Labour's media team elsewhere in Parliament Buildings.

A press statement expressing both welcome surprise and support for the company's stance is rapidly drawn up under Lees-Galloway's name and fired off to the news media - all within 15 minutes of the company beginning its submission to the inquiry.

THURSDAY

Auckland Chinese lawyer and Labour list MP Raymond Huo throws the cat among the pigeons with a lengthy and provocative post on Red Alert, the Labour MPs' blog site.

Huo's contribution illustrates why the blog is required reading for anyone watching the party - particularly its crop of talented backbenchers - groping for new meaning and direction.

Huo notes the outrage in Auckland's Chinese community at Greens co-leader Russel Norman's waving the Tibetan flag and chanting "Free Tibet" at visiting Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping.

Huo notes Tibet's Dalai Lamas were no great shakes on the human rights front and Norman was grandstanding to get media exposure. Not surprisingly, this view does not meet with universal accord in Huo's own camp, with fellow backbenchers Phil Twyford and Darien Fenton responding.

Twyford says Huo might not like it, but the Dalai Lama is "as far as I can tell" the legitimate and widely recognised leader of Tibetans both in China and outside. "He has become a symbol of their aspirations to self-determination, and a lightning rod for international concern about breaches of human rights by the Chinese Government."

In her posts, Fenton interestingly reveals she has been a practising Tibetan Buddhist . She pulls up Huo for overlooking the fundamental precept of Buddhism of "impermanence" in criticising the use of human bones by Dalai Lamas to make such things as musical instruments. "I thought Raymond understood this."

Huo responds by thanking "my good friends and colleagues Phil and Darien" for their comments - "that's what the freedom of speech is all about".

... Meanwhile, Parliament will not be officially marking the Dalai Lama's 75th birthday.

Green MP Sue Kedgley puts a notice of motion to that effect on Parliament's order paper. She thought she had the required cross-party support for the motion to be put to the House, but at the last minute National baulked at the idea, to no one's great surprise.

- compiled by John Armstrong