NZ総選挙9/17:G.ベイヤーの選挙事務所にレンガが投げつけられる

New Zealand lawmaker has brick, note tossed through office door (AP 2005/09/13)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A New Zealand lawmaker accused political vandals on Tuesday of tossing a brick through the glass door of her electoral office in a small rural town.

Georgina Beyer, seeking a third three-year term as a center-left Labour legislator, said whoever threw the brick should save their protest for the ballot box in the Sept. 17 general elections.

The brick, which was thrown on Sunday in Masterton, 110 kilometers north of the capital, Wellington, had a note attached to it saying: "We don't forget what you've done, Parekura."

Beyer, part Maori, said she believes the message was for Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia and referred to the government's plans to nationalize the nation's entire shoreline.

Both lawmakers strongly supported the nationalization law.

Some indigenous Maori claim the shoreline is their land and is being confiscated by the government without compensation.

"Intelligent people would save their protest for the ballot" box, Beyer said.

Police are investigating the incident but Beyer said she has no fears for her safety.

Beyer, the nation's only transsexual lawmaker, was a former male prostitute and stripper who underwent a sex change.

She is expected to be returned to Parliament in the elections, despite trying to quit national politics twice in the past four years.

At the 2002 election she won by 6,000 votes, doubling her majority in the conservative rural constituency where she first entered public life in 1992 as a councilwoman and later mayor of a small town. (AP)



Election race turns nasty
13 September 2005
By OSKAR ALLEY - stuff.co.nz

The election campaign's final week has degenerated into more mud slinging after an extraordinary day of personal attacks, obscene phone calls, office vandalism and further anti-Government pamphlets linked to the Exclusive Brethren.

Labour was fighting off its own allegations last night after it was claimed that a minister smoothed the path of an overstayer who performed work on his holiday home.

Associate Pacific Island Affairs Minister Phillip Field rejected any suggestion his approach to Associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor was connected to tiling done at Mr Field's home in Samoa.

National, meanwhile, moved to get the election debate back on to tax, announcing plans for a temporary cut in petrol taxes of five cents a litre.

Labour is claiming that a second series of leaflets criticising the Government – due to be delivered to homes in the next few days – is again the work of the "secret seven" fundamentalist Christians outed for a $500,000 campaign championing the National Party.

The latest pamphlets state that thousands of people are leaving for Australia, attack Labour for not caring about the elderly or healthcare and suggest that voters spend their share of the Government's $7 billion surplus flying to Australia to watch the All Blacks play.

Some of the leaflets are again authorised by the fictitious New Zealand Advocates for Timely Healthcare, while others are authorised by names that appear to be fake.

Meanwhile, NZ First leader Winston Peters attacked his National opponent in Tauranga, Bob Clarkson, alleging the millionaire had been the subject of a sexual harassment complaint and an Inland Revenue investigation.

Mr Peters released details of a 1990 Inland Revenue investigation involving Mr Clarkson, including private details such as investments, life insurance and savings.

Mr Peters also claimed Mr Clarkson had been the subject of a sexual harassment complaint by a former female staffer.

Mr Clarkson – who is polling well ahead of Mr Peters – dismissed the allegations last night, saying: "Winston is now a slimeball out of the ditch. He's in panic mode and we don't need a politician that does this."

Mr Clarkson said that after an IRD investigation in 1990 he paid $30,000 in unpaid tax to the department, but no penalty payments were enforced. The investigation had focused on a businessman who had bought his business, not on him.

The National candidate confirmed he had been the subject of a sexual harassment claim, later withdrawn, in 2002 by a woman he fired because of her offensive language. She had sought $250,000 and Mr Clarkson's allegedly offensive comment was: "I bet my left testicle that the All Blacks win."

The woman was paid "about $30,000" which was solely for contractual obligations and had nothing to do with sexual harassment, Mr Clarkson said.

"My left testicle was a lot cleaner than her mouth."

National leader Don Brash – who had called for a final week of debating policies, not personalities – said Mr Peters was in "quite considerable danger" in Tauranga.

"I'm making it clear that he may be irrelevant after the election and if that is the case we may see the NZ First vote shrink even further."

National MP Katherine Rich meanwhile outlined the contents of 18 obscene and threatening telephone messages her office received from two men last Thursday night. The recorded messages, cleared by her electorate secretary, made references to gang sex, bestiality and a shotgun and Ms Rich.

The MP said she had not considered asking for protection or extra security measures.

Wairarapa MP Georgina Beyer – who is not contesting the seat this year – had a brick thrown through her Masterton office window early yesterday. A message tied to the brick read, "Parekura – we have not forgotten," in an apparent reference to the foreshore and seabed legislation.

Ms Beyer said the vandalism was pointless and wasted taxpayers' money to get it repaired.

Labour Party president Mike Williams defended fake eviction notices sent to 70,000 state house tenants, despite complaints to Housing NZ. The notices claimed National would sell state houses if elected.

Election 2005 - stuff.co.nz

Elections.org.nz(NZ政府による公式の選挙情報ホームページ)

Party lists for the 2005 General Election
(Georgina BeyerはLabourの35位)

日本語による解説ページ

日本語による解説 (PDF)


Georgina Beyer (Labour Party)