Political diary

SATURDAY

Labour MP Chris "it's because I'm gay" Carter drops yet another clanger. He sees John Key standing on a balcony outside the Beehive for a photo shoot and yells out his window "you resemble Mussolini" - a reference to how the fascist dictator would often address the Italian people from his palace. Despite the bad taste, Key takes it in good humour. Carter then rushes to blog his "clever" joke on the Labour MP's Red Alert site, but takes it down only minutes later. Someone in the tech-savvy blogosphere retrieves it and it spreads everywhere. Most withering in their criticism of Carter is the Labour-linked Standard, which castigates the "vainglorious" Carter for hurting Labour in a run of bad form on his part.

MONDAY

John Key's reputation for witty one-liners grows apace. Asked why TV3 was also party to the Maori Television and TVNZ group bid for Rugby World Cup screening rights, Key replies: "Because they know how to run a political poll." TV3 had support for National a tad short of an amazing 60 per cent in its poll the previous evening, while Key's rating as preferred prime minister was a very healthy 56 per cent. Addressing a meeting at the School of Business and Government, Key is asked if he thinks Australia and New Zealand will ever share the same prime minister. "I'm too busy to run Australia as well" is the response. Key was also in form in Parliament the day before deflecting Phil Goff's broadside on ACC levy rises. Goff asked if it is fair that motorcycle riders were facing increases of up to 300 per cent. Key replied that Goff should rest assured that people did not have to pay the levy "if they only borrow a motorbike, and do not actually own it" - a reference to Goff's attempt to eradicate Labour's image of political correctness by rolling up to last month's Labour Party Conference on an 850cc motorcycle which belonged to fellow Labour MP Rick Barker.

TUESDAY

Labour's Phil Twyford gets what he calls his "moment of glory" when he suddenly finds himself co-opted into the Speaker's chair in Parliament by Lindsay Tisch, the Deputy Speaker. Tisch was in something of a quandary. He had been chairing the House while the committee stages of a bill were being debated. The debate ending, Tisch needed to report progress to the Speaker or one of the two designated Assistant Speakers, but none were on hand. So Tisch announced he needed a temporary assistant Speaker. Spotting Twyford nearby, Tisch told the Opposition backbencher "you'll do" and asked Twyford to "sit here and read this" while Tisch left the chamber and then immediately came back in again to take over the chair once more. Twyford's new status lasted all of a minute. Someone later suggested he should have seized the moment and dissolved Parliament on the grounds the National minority Government was incompetent.

THURSDAY

It's cosmic in here, man. We're not sure why passing the Carter Observatory Act Repeal Bill is so pressing it needed to be debated by the House under urgency. But we're glad MPs did debate it - or, rather, tried to do so. There was not much to say about routine legislation which simply transfers the former national observatory's assets and liabilities to the Wellington City Council. Those speaking in the debate had to turn to the heavens for inspiration to fill their allotted time. National's Colin King ruminated on spotting Halley's Comet back in the 1980s and someone mentioned Neil Armstrong's observation as he was about to step onto the Moon. Colin King could not stop himself. "It would be an exaggeration to say the bill is one small step for man but one giant leap for mankind."