Two a penny

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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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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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A New Zealander has set a new land speed record in Utah this morning.

Dean Veale, 44, from Kaukapakapa, north of Auckland, set the new land speed record – for the 1650cc A-G class of motorcycles – at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

With the existing record for the class standing at 191. He was riding “White Elephant”, his special construction Hayabusa engine motorcycle.5mph (311.593mph (305kph), Veale confirmed his initial record breaking run yesterday with a backup run this morning (local time) that set the new record at 194.

This morning’s conditions were apparently near perfect for the record setting run.2kph). .

A statement released this morning said Veale had been concerned something might force him to have to repeat his runs.

Only at that point did Veale relax, and revealed the purpose of a pipe which ran along the bottom left-hand side of White Elephant/

“Releasing the retaining clip and removing the custom made aluminium cap, Veale pulled a Bunnings umbrella from the pipe: ‘I’d been told it got hot here and didn’t want to sit in the sun and cook, so I packed some shade’,” the statement said. Extending his hand toward Veale the inspector offered his congratulations as he confirmed the record with the words ‘Welcome to the record books’.