Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, December 22nd, 2010 - 45 comments
It seems we don’t have a government at the moment. John Key is incommunicado in Hawaii. The Acting PM, Bill English, and Key’s press people refuse to speak for him. Someone needs to front up because serious questions are emerging about the honesty of statements Gerry Brownlee and Murray McCully made in Parliament and to the New Zealand people.
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, December 21st, 2010 - 130 comments
The Herald has used the OIA to get hold of emails Peter Jackson sent Gerry Brownlee during the Hobbit shakedown. They show that the Actors’ Equity blacklisting was not a threat to the film staying here – yet Jackson and Brownlee told us it was to justify handing Warners $34 million and rushing through an anti-worker law.
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, December 15th, 2010 - 35 comments
Rortbuster Pete Hodgson unveiled yet more information about Pansy and Sammy Wong’s business activities in China on the taxpayer dime in Parliament yesterday. It’s damning material. The Auditor-General had decided not to investigate but there’s every chance she will now or that the Police will.
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, December 14th, 2010 - 16 comments
Key has been very busy defending sacked Minister Pansy Wong. He has been desperately ignoring the calls for an Auditor General’s investigation as the cracks in the whitewash report on her illegal spending continue to grow. But Key is very quick to call for the Auditor General to investigate a single solitary billboard.
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, December 10th, 2010 - 12 comments
The Auditor-General seems certain to launch an investigation into the Wongs’ taxpayer-funded travel as even more evidence shows the Parliamentary report isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. A majority of Kiwis want her to resign. Why John Key hasn’t already called on the A-G to investigate, as he did with Phil Heatley, is beyond me.
Written By: - Date published: 11:57 pm, December 8th, 2010 - 59 comments
Fresh evidence was presented in the House yesterday by rortbuster Pete Hodgson that makes a lie of testimony Sammy Wong gave to the investigation into his and his wife’s travel on taxpayer money. A proper inquiry by the Auditor-General must now be undertaken. There are also questions over John Key’s involvement.
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, December 8th, 2010 - 29 comments
In the Herald yesterday, there was a half-page ad thanking Pansy Wong for her “significant contribution” to National’s coffers the country. John Campbell went in hunt of that contribution. Worth watching all the way through for Duncan Garner’s assessment. As a bonus, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi gets his first media mention that isn’t about corruption.
Written By: - Date published: 11:48 pm, December 3rd, 2010 - 37 comments
Once again the play is performed. A minister is caught rorting, admits wrong-doing, an investigation is launched, the investigation doesn’t ask crucial questions, it finds no fault just confusion on the part of the poor old minister, the rules are changed. English, Worth, Heatley, Wong… all the same. These farces need a new script.
Written By: - Date published: 11:17 pm, November 28th, 2010 - 12 comments
Wong briefly came out of hiding to answer questions from Parliamentary Services on her abuse of flight perks. Back in hiding now. Key’s still telling her not to talk. But surely she can tell journos what she told the invesigators. Will the report on her corruption be the worst problem for the Nats this week? Or will corrupt David Carter overshadow it?
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, November 28th, 2010 - 86 comments
Agriculture Minister David Carter has been exposed abusing his ministerial powers to protect the trade interests of his private investments. Earlier this year, Carter banned Jewish religious slaughtering practices because of perceived risks to the meat trade with Muslim nations after being briefed by companies he owns that take part in the trade.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, November 25th, 2010 - 34 comments
Labour revealed yesterday that Pansy Wong traveled abroad an astonishing eleven times as Minister for Women’s Affairs and Ethnic Affairs, spending $147,000 in two years making her one of the highest spending ministers. Six of those trips were to China. What was she doing? Why did Key sign off on these trips?
Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, November 24th, 2010 - 61 comments
Two Friday’s ago, corrupt Nat Pansy Wong resigns as minister. Key tells her not to talk to media. As if she can’t remember her own overseas trips. Gives her a week’s leave. Wong disappears. Week’s up – no Wong. Where is she? Mallard’s heard she’s overseas. Fundraising for the Nats. Is she using her travel perk?
Written By: - Date published: 6:12 am, November 23rd, 2010 - 67 comments
Why are we waiting for Pansy Wong to resign from Parliament for her corrupt use of her MP’s perks or, failing that, for the Nats to evict her? The theory is the Nats want to avoid a by-election over summer. As Trevor Mallard puts it – Key wants to have his Hawaii holiday in peace. But the NBR’s Matt Nippert has other reasons for Wong’s soft treatment.
Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, November 17th, 2010 - 25 comments
With Pansy Wong in hiding on John Key’s orders, rort-buster Pete Hodgson laid the blame her corruption and all the other rorts squarely on Key yesterday. In question after question, Key couldn’t make a serious defence of his record. Then, he made an extraordinary admission: his ministers will keep on rorting – it’s up to Labour to catch them.
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, November 17th, 2010 - 33 comments
What little we know of Whanau Ora is that it is essentially the privatisation of government delivery of social services to private groups. Rather than deliver services themselves, government departments entrust taxpayer funds to small groups that often have little or no track record to do the job instead. It’s an invitation for corruption.
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, November 17th, 2010 - 79 comments
The latest revelation in the Pansy Wong saga is a Chinese newspaper article where she, as Minister, endorses her husband’s company’s product. John Key says that it would be a sacking offence were she a minister but its up to her if she resigns from Parliament. Here’s a question then: is he going to let this corrupt MP remain in his party’s caucus?
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 pm, November 15th, 2010 - 98 comments
We learn from rort-buster Pete Hodgson that Pansy Wong and her husband have been running private companies out of her taxpayer-funded electorate office. I don’t see how she can remain in Parliament now. Who set and enforced the standards that have seen so many ministers involved in rorts? There’s only one person to point the finger at: Key
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, November 15th, 2010 - 40 comments
Will Pansy Wong face criminal charges for fraudulently abusing her MP’s travel perk? Will she be forced to leave Parliament triggering a(nother) by-election and possibly even an extra early election? What will Lockwood Smith’s investigation turn up? Whatever comes, at least she isn’t a minister anymore but who will replace her?
Written By: - Date published: 1:31 pm, November 12th, 2010 - 86 comments
Pansy Wong has been stood down resigned over her abuse of her ministerial status and perks for her husband’s private business dealings. I expected that Key act ‘relaxed’ and hope for this blow over. That he hasn’t indicates they’ve uncovered something more. Will we find out what it is, or will Key pull another Richard Worth on us? Updates coming.
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, November 12th, 2010 - 29 comments
We’re getting to the meat of the Pansy Wong affair. Stating her occupation when witnessing a form for her husband’s business deal was no major problem. But Wong’s flights were paid with her MP’s travel perk. That is a serious problem. The rules “expressly forbid MPs from using their private travel perk to pursue their own or their spouse’s private business interests”.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, November 9th, 2010 - 23 comments
I’m a nurse at a public hospital. Our social fund is looking a bit thin this year so we thought would invite school groups to come along to the hospital, charge $25 a head, and let them play around with the equipment like X-ray machines and bandages to get a sense of how we work as a team. I’m sure Mr Key will say it’s a “good idea“.
Written By: - Date published: 12:22 am, November 4th, 2010 - 48 comments
Weren’t Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English and other ministers caught rorting the housing allowance system last year? Didn’t the Government revamp the system by giving ministers capped allowances, supposedly to save money and stop rorts? Why then are we, as I predicted, paying more than ever while ministers blatantly rip us off?
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, October 29th, 2010 - 34 comments
It takes a lot to screw up a great country like New Zealand. It can’t be done overnight. But if you’re really negligent, anti-worker, and focused on hand outs to the rich, you can start to make things worse pretty quickly. Let’s look at the key measures of National’s performance, according to their own criteria:
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, October 22nd, 2010 - 32 comments
When Justice Bill Wilson was accused of serious misconduct, Attorney-General Chris Finlayson didn’t want to investigate telling fellow National MP Colin King “Justice Wilson is a mate of mine and there’s no way I am pursuing this any further”. Now, Wilson’s got a $885,000 golden handshake from the government to make the issue go away.
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, September 26th, 2010 - 35 comments
It looks like a Labour candidate may be involved in electoral fraud.
If this is the case the party says it will come down on them hard.
But it may also have to take a look at how local body candidates get on the Labour ticket.
Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, August 9th, 2010 - 15 comments
I regard the invasion of Iraq as one of the most shameful events in America’s history. The made up cover story about “weapons of mass destruction” was quickly shown to be a lie. It was always about the oil. And for too many of those on the ground it was always about lining their pockets with billions of dollars worth of slush money.
Written By: - Date published: 3:13 pm, June 14th, 2010 - 22 comments
Labour holds it’s MPs to higher standards than National. This post from the archives looks at some examples. If Key doesn’t act on his profligate MPs it will be time to add another chapter.
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 pm, June 8th, 2010 - 26 comments
Over the weekend, I read the right wing blogs with interest and their frequent references to left-wing politicians troughing at the taxpayers expense and other such instances of abuse. I then lent my mind to the National-led Government and how they have fared in this regard over the last 18 months.
This is what I came up with:
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, May 31st, 2010 - 18 comments
One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same Can you guess which one is not like the other, Can you tell me before I finish the game?
Written By: - Date published: 1:02 pm, May 25th, 2010 - 11 comments
Last month Colin King revealed that his National Party colleague Chris Finlayson had said he would block an investigation into the behaviour of his old mate Supreme Court Judge Bill Wilson. Finlayson should have recognised his conflict of interest and stood aside months ago but only did so once the media got the story. It says something about National’s standards.
Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, May 2nd, 2010 - 9 comments
In Florida, a legislative plan to close as many as five state prisons and ship inmates to a private prison run by GEO Group was scaled back last month.
The feds may be searching to see if former state House Speaker Sansom received any kickbacks from the company. The GEO group are also contenders for running private prisons here.
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