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Labour MP Rick Barker said he never intended to deceive when he told pollsters they could give false names and say they worked for a company which no longer existed.

The poll Mr Barker ran used volunteers aligned with Labour to ask questions about what issues were important to voters.

He was unaware then that Data Research was no longer operating.

It emerged that pollsters were using fake names and saying they were calling from Data Research

Labour leader Phil Goff said earlier today people should not have used false names.

Mr Barker told reporters this afternoon Data Research had been used by Labour pollsters in the past and he thought that would have been okay had the company not been deregistered.

“Given the controversy around it”, the polling was unlikely to continue in the same form and in the future the party was likely to continue with its traditional practice of using professional polling companies, he said.”

While it was a mistake to say people could use false names, he could not see a problem with using a company name, because if pollsters said they were from Labour people may not answer honestly.

However, he said: “You don’t actually have to have a registered company to undertake polling.

“I haven’t done anything intentionally wrong.

National people did not say they were party supporters when they did their own polling, Mr Barker said.

“The intention was never to deceive.”

Asked if the party would continue to use Data Research’s name, Mr Barker initially said the party needed to sort out registration but under further questioning said the name would be shelved. . .”

None of the volunteers who did the polling was paid and worked in their free time. the intention was to get data on how people felt about issues in various areas which is a very legitimate thing to do in politics. . Phone calls were paid with taxpayer funds out of the party leader’s budget.

“Labour are usually lecturing other people about being up front, so I think in this case they need to explain what they are doing,” he said.

Acting Prime Minister Bill English earlier today said party polling needed to be done openly.

Speaking from Asia at the weekend, Prime Minister John Key said it was wrong to use false names and taxpayer money for political polling.

Mr English said the National Party had transparency around who paid for polls and who conducted them.

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Jamaica has joined England as a genuine threat to netball’s traditional powerbases at next year’s Commonwealth Games by stunning the Silver Ferns 53-50 in Kingston today.

The winners capped a glorious week to celebrate the sport’s 50th anniversary in Jamaica, notching just their second win over the Silver Ferns in 44 attempts.

And it comes just four days after completing an equally rare one-goal victory over world champion Australia.

Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken, who also watched her side require extra time to deny England on this trip, admitted a bridging of the gap was a concern 12 months out from New Zealand’s title defence.

The world No 4 Sunshine Girls shared both series , an ominous development that suggests the gold medal match in India next October will not automatically be a trans-Tasman affair.

“It’s not just about Australia any more,” she told .

“The reality is we need to prepare for three different styles going into Commonwealth Games – England, Jamaica and Australia. .”

Jamaica’s compelling second quarter propelled the game beyond the Silver Ferns’ reach as they outscored to world No 2 13-5 – confining shooters Irene van Dyk and Maria Tutaia to just six attempts. You get someone like Romelda (Aiken) one day then a moving circle with (Australians) Sharelle (McMahon) and Susan Pratley.

“We lost a bit of our courage and our willingness to work off the ball.

“We lost our drive on attack, they tightened up (defensively), we made a few errors and suddenly we’re examining at only six attempts in that quarter – we can’t win games on that,” Aitken said.”

Aitken said different umpiring interpretations – the local official gave the Jamaican circle defenders more leeway – knocked New Zealand off kilter though it was not an excuse. Jamaica really upped the pressure and we got distracted, we didn’t stick to our structure.

The Silver Ferns started impressively, skipping out to a six-goal lead midway through the opening stanza at the National Indoor Stadium.

The Silver Ferns started impressively, skipping out to a six-goal lead midway through the opening stanza at the National Indoor Stadium.

Van Dyk shot a perfect 16 from 16 to the main break but the Jamaican duo had the luxury of making nine more attempts – an imbalance that engineered a 27-21 advantage for the hosts.

Jamaica then wrestled the initiative by ruling the 15-minute period to halftime – clogging the supply lines to van Dyk as the Silver Ferns’ passing accuracy deteriorated.

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Four glaring van Dyk misses in the third quarter and concerns over the Jamaican umpire when she controlled New Zealand’s shooting end prompted Aitken to pull her ace shooter (19/23) for the more mobile Paula Griffin in a bid to erase a four-goal deficit on the home stretch

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The Maori Party plans to have 18 seats in Parliament
by 2017, which will include all the Maori seats, its president told
a group of Maori Party supporters today.

About 200 leaders and supporters attended the Maori Party’s annual general meeting in Auckland today.

Maori Party president Professor Whatarangi Winata said the party had been active in Parliament to date and had delivered 180 speeches since the beginning of the term.

Leaders, members and MPs discussed the party’s role in Parliament to date and its future plans. .

The party wanted to increase its membership to have more influence in legislation, but co-leader Tariana Turia said for this to be done, more people needed to “cough up” more funds, particually those who were “well heeled”.

“We do have a respectful relationship (but) we don’t have to agree with one another,” she said.

She said she expected the party to be able to see out its term with National and had a good relationship with Prime Minister John Key and his party.”

The leaders discussed the climate change and the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), and while Mrs Turia said she was personally opposed to the ETS, because it would effect forestry, fishing and farming, three areas essential to the Maori economy, the Maori Party supported the bill because that was what their supporters wanted.

“The most important thing is the Maori Party is sitting at the same table as whoever is in Government.

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Controversial American cyclist Floyd Landis, stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title after failing a doping test, is a confirmed starter the Tour of Southland next month.

Landis would compete as part of the Cyclingnz.Cyclingnz.com/Biosport team, Tour of Southland race director Bruce Ross said today.”Although we asked a number of local riders to ride for our team, close toly all of them had already committed to other teams for the tour,” Hudson said.com team manager Wayne Hudson said the decision to approach Landis came about two weeks ago, when one of their original lineup for the Southland tour switched to another team.”We thought, ‘why not?’ All we can do is ask and if we don’t ask, we’ll never know whether or not he might have said yes.He admitted it had been a long shot to ask Landis.”Floyd had just finished his competitive season, so was in pretty good form and Scott was confident Floyd would rise to the occasion.”Hudson said the deal was struck after they were put in contact with Landis’ agent, Scott Thompson.”He said sponsors had reacted positively to help offset the cost of flying Landis in.”Floyd is the kind of guy who will give his best and turn up every day to ride as hard as he can.”Landis will be supported by Auckland riders Nico de Jong, Nick Lovegrove, Jeremy Meech and Southland triathlete Jamie Whyte, all of whom will be racing their second Southland tour.”We got an almost instant response of ‘we’re in’ from two of them.He launched an impressive all out attack on that stage to win by almost six minutes and got the boost he needed to go on take the overall tour title.Landis was trailing leader Tour de France leader Oscar Pereiro by more than eight minutes going into the 17th stage in the 2006 Tour de France.Landis, who has strongly maintained his innocence, was banned for two years and made his comeback this year with the Maxxis team.Then he failed the doping test which showed elevated levels of synthetic testosterone, a performance-enhancing substance.”To my mind, he has served his time, been cleared to ride again and he will be treated the same as any other bike rider will be treated. .

.”Landis helped Lance Armstrong to three Tour de France victories in the US Postal team between 2002-2004 before becoming the headline rider with the Phonak team from 2005

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New Zealand’s provincial rugby players have been itching to get behind a good cause, and it’s fair to say they’ve found one and it’s growing on them.

Beards are back – well they are on the Air NZ Cup scene anyway as the nation’s footy players go hirsute in the name of a cause they believe is worth a little discomfort for.

In case you’ve been wondering why there are so many bearded rugby players running round in the Air NZ Cup these days, well it’s all about raising awareness for the NZ Blood Service and the NZ Leukaemia and Blood Foundation.

McPhee had decided to go a bit old school and grow a beard for the season, and Stevenson suggested they should get a good cause behind it.

It started with an impromptu discussion between pioneer whiskers-grower Jack McPhee of North Harbour and Sky Television’s popular rugby colour man Scotty ‘Sumo’ Stevenson, and soon developed into a fully grown “Beards for Blood” campaign.

“The support’s been fantastic,” said Stevenson. With Harbour already having an association with the Blood Service, it was decided to get a bit of a national theme going to raise awareness in the area of blood donation and also to provide some support for the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation which deals with serious blood-related illnesses. “Just about all the teams in the competition have now got at least a player or two with a full beard on supporting the cause.

“What is impressive is how many boys have said ‘yep, we’re in’.”

The idea is that around the last week of the regular season the beards will get the chop, and hopefully some money, and awareness, will have been raised for the cause.

Northland and Manawatu have adopted the concept team-wide, but Stevenson said selected players from Harbour, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago had also got behind the concept. It shows how community minded they are, and how tuned in they are for something as important as this,” added Stevenson. .

Stevenson said the drive was about raising both awareness and money. That saves lives. That saves lives. Honourable mention also went to Cory Jane’s “pretty boy” effort at Wellington, while Stevenson felt the less said the better about what Northland’s Karl Haitana had come up with.”

Stevenson felt early contenders for most impressive beards in the competition included McPhee’s Ned Kelly-inspired look, some fairly lush growth from Doug Tietjens of Manawatu and a typically solid effort from Canterbury’s Corey Flynn.

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Fonterra has emerged from dairying’s toughest year in living memory in a buoyant mood.

The cooperative was yesterday praising its management of a year in which commodity prices plummeted as farmers produced more milk.20 a kg of milksolids, well down on the $7.

It confirmed the payout to farmers for the year to July 31 would be $5.

But it also pointed to a stronger balance sheet, reduced stockpiles and improved performance in adding value to its basic products.90 record high of the year before.10, the company’s leadership was upbeat.

With a recovery in commodity prices now underway and a lift in the payout forecast for this year to $5.

He said the company had weathered business challenges and market volatility that were probably unique in the lifetimes of anyone involved in dairying.

Chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden said Fonterra’s strategy of “combining a broad business footprint, a powerful sales network, strong customer relationships and valued brands” was delivering more profit to farmers.

On top of this, the market turmoil occurred as many farmers were emerging from the worst drought in more than a century.

Commodity prices fell from record highs, the exchange rate was a roller coaster, much of the world plunged into a deep recession and the global financial meltdown rewrote the rules about how companies obtained finance. This had come momentarily early this year when exchange rates took a brief favourable turn.

However, the company had decided to hold onto stocks and wait for a lift in the market.5 per cent in January to 52. Now inventories were down and the debt ratio had fallen from a high of 61.

Chief executive Andrew Ferrier said a solid performance in both the consumer brands and ingredients businesses had driven a strong growth in profits and had lifted the value-added proportion of the payout, from 31c to 49c.7 per cent at July 31. Overall, more than $6.

This had added $603 million to the distributable profit, compared with $364m the previous year.

The company increased sales of infant formula to global customers, held margins above falling commodity prices for ingredients products in the large developed markets, and achieved some early success with the commercialisation of products developed by Fonterra researchers.3 billion would be distributed to farmers. .

These included specialised proteins for sports bars, beverages and medical nutrition, special yoghurt texturisers, and unique processed cheeses for the foodservices sector

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A bill drawn today which would make it legal for parents to lightly smack their children will not have the Government’s support, the Prime Minister says.

The member’s bill, put up by ACT MP John Boscawen, was drawn from the ballot today.

Its selection threatened to revive the divisive smacking debate just days after a referendum resoundingly backed the right of parents to smack.

The bill, which would make it legal for parents to lightly smack their children, has been in the ballot since March.

Labour is also likely to oppose the bill when it comes up for debate in a few weeks.

But Mr Key today scotched any likelihood of the bill passing its first parliamentary vote by declaring National’s opposition.4 percent of voters do not want a light smack to be a criminal offence.

Having the bill on Parliament’s agenda offered Mr Key an opportunity to change his mind about leaving the law as it is after the referendum result which showed nearly 87.The law as it stands bans smacking for the purposes of correction but the police have the discretion not to prosecute for inconsequential smacks.He did not take it and is standing by the decision he announced on Monday, which was to strengthen assurances that the police and welfare authorities will not prosecute parents who lightly smack their children.”I’ve given New Zealanders an absolute assurance that if the law doesn’t work I will change it and I don’t need a member’s bill to do that. .”We’ve had 33 complaints, we’ve had one withdrawn prosecution,” he said.”Mr Key said all the statistics showed the law, which was passed in 2007, was working the way Parliament intended it to. I feel very strongly I’ve got a message from New Zealanders and they want a degree of comfort.”I gave this due consideration.”Mr Key said the message from the referendum was that there was “some unease” about the law.”I’m going to try and provide that comfort, I’m very firm in the view that I can deliver that comfort that the law is working.”I think that’s a more difficult issue.”It didn’t ask the question about whether the law should be changed,” he said.”I’m comfortable that I have the support of the National caucus,” he said.”Mr Key could have allowed his MPs a free vote on Mr Boscawen’s bill but he decided against that as well.”I don’t think giving parents comfort is sufficient when 87 percent of New Zealanders say that they don’t believe a smack as correction should be illegal,” he told .Mr Boscawen said he was very disappointed by Mr Key’s decision.”Mr Boscawen rejected Mr Key’s assertion that the law was working.”Mr Boscawen rejected Mr Key’s assertion that the law was working.”How do you know a young child doesn’t come home and give the fingers to their parents, or say to their parents ‘you can’t touch me’,” he said”John Key doesn’t know how many parents are frightened to physically discipline their children if all other methods have failed.”

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Contractor Transfield Services is proposing to make 154 staff redundant, saying it needed to adapt its telecommunications business to stay ahead of significant changes.

The move was revealed today by the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) which said 125 of the redundancies involved field managers, designers and field staff throughout much of the country.

In June Telecom’s network access business Chorus announced it was awarding a 10-year contract worth about $1 billion to Transfield to carry out field force operations in several parts of the country.

The EPMU said Transfield was a major contractor for Telecom and the redundancies showed Telecom’s failure to properly fund the network.

The three 10-year contracts were worth a total of about $3 billion.

But it also announced it was bringing in Australian company Visionstream in some areas, making it the third company doing the work, along with Transfield and Downer EDi Engineering. .

Today the EPMU said it would be fighting the Transfield redundancies, but also said the entire industry was being starved of cash as Telecom moved to squeeze profit from its operations.”

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little said Telecom had an ongoing tactic of playing contractors off against each other to drive prices down.

“The union is calling for the Government to step in now before it is too late for the skilled workforce and for New Zealand’s vital telecommunications infrastructure.

Telecom had shown it could not be trusted with the responsibility to maintain vital communications infrastructure.

“It’s a model that’s hurting our members and endangering the long term security of New Zealand’s broadband,” he said.

Following a consultation process, Transfield was intending to make its final decision known on September 4.

The EPMU said Transfield had told workers the redundancies were part of the company’s response to “remain competitive to match changing market conditions and win new business”.

“We need to adapt and evolve our telecommunications business to stay ahead of those changes,” Mr Jamieson said.

In a brief statement, Transfield corporate affairs manager David Jamieson said the telecommunications industry was in the middle of significant changes.

As well as the $3b commitment for the next 10 years with its service companies, Chorus spent $364 million on just the fixed network last year, and was planning to spend $417 million this year, she said.

Chorus spokeswoman Melanie Marshall said changes in the industry were not because Chorus wanted a network that ran cheaper, but because customers were demanding even better services.