Hard News: A Taito Spot
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Could the Taito Phillip Field thing just be over, sometime?
Hey, I'd be happy if Noel Ingram, QC would get a few very public apologies for the vocal and hideously unfair ballocking he got from all sides.
As for the rest of it, I await with interest to see what's going to come to light in the *cough* more rigorous and transparent environment of an open court.
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Could the Taito Phillip Field thing just be over, sometime?
Well, we could declare the thread closed now.
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If he goes to trial it isn't over by a long shot.
Can you imagine what will happen if he goes to Court in election year? You can all but guarantee there will be intense scrutiny of his political activities and that means there'll be a fair chance the actions of other Labour MP's and Ministers will be discussed in open Court.
Now given Mr Field made over 400 immigration representations to the Minister and Associate Minister of Immigration how do you think they'll be feeling about the prospect?
Not too happy would be my guess.
Also I note Section 103 states it's an offence to both accept and offer a bribe. Isn't it interesting that the police only want to lay charges against Field and no-one else?
Can we assume from that the Crown has offered immunity in exchange for testimony? I'll be interested to see how that pans out.
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If the alleged corruption is small scale or at least morally ambiguous and this goes to court it risks making Field into a martyr of sorts, sort of what happened to Pauline Hanson a couple of years back I believe.
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If the alleged corruption is small scale or at least morally ambiguous and this goes to court it risks making Field into a martyr of sorts, sort of what happened to Pauline Hanson a couple of years back I believe.
Which would be ironic, because I'm personally in no doubt that he acted unacceptably.
For all we moan about MPs, they (almost) all understand the need to be seen to act appropriately and avoid conflicts of interest (especially as Cabinet ministers), but it doesn't seem to have occurred to Field.
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but it doesn't seem to have occurred to Field.
I suspect his martyrdom or lack thereof will come down to whether he tries to play the "it's my culture!" card, as he did early on, and how much traction that gets him with Polynesian voters.
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Ben:
I'm sure that's the 'depends on what the definition of is is' argument various parties will try and run in the months ahead. But to risk getting all Pollyanna-ish here, I think MPs of all stripes and their staff take their ethical responsibilities to their constituents a wee bit more seriously. Being a little bit sleazy is like being a little bit pregnant. Just doesn't fly, or at least it shouldn't.
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Also I note Section 103 states it's an offence to both accept and offer a bribe. Isn't it interesting that the police only want to lay charges against Field and no-one else?
Can we assume from that the Crown has offered immunity in exchange for testimony? I'll be interested to see how that pans out.
Immunity? Not a chance. It all but never happens in New Zealand (any offer has to be personally approved by the Solicitor-General, and offers can only be made where there is no other way to secure a conviction).
My guess is that some of the charges may relate to attempting to obtain bribes, which would not necessitate there being other parties to any alleged offending.
For all we moan about MPs, they (almost) all understand the need to be seen to act appropriately and avoid conflicts of interest (especially as Cabinet ministers), but it doesn't seem to have occurred to Field.
Helpfully for Field, he was cleared of any wrong-doing as a minister (that would have seen him face a potential 14 year prison term on each charge), and indeed cleared of conflicts of interest as a minister as well (I'd note too that Field was never in cabinet).
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I suspect his martyrdom or lack thereof will come down to whether he tries to play the "it's my culture!" card, as he did early on, and how much traction that gets him with Polynesian voters.
I don't have any comment on the validity of that card, though I'd be curious to see how other people in similar positions (Polynesians in position of authority) comment on it. I would hope that some would view their positions as requiring more 'mana' than what increasingly sounds like "hey, do some work on my house, I'll help get you what you want".
However I can see now the "I should have been born Polynesian so I can get bribed as part of my culture" discussions and letters to the editor and whatnot. I do so tire of "one brown person said this so I will apply it to every brown person with a broad brush" comments.
Being a little bit sleazy is like being a little bit pregnant. Just doesn't fly, or at least it shouldn't.
It's the last trimester that you shouldn't fly. Oh, not what you meant? Nevermind.
Helpfully for Field, he was cleared of any wrong-doing as a minister (that would have seen him face a potential 14 year prison term on each charge), and indeed cleared of conflicts of interest as a minister as well (I'd note too that Field was never in cabinet).
If this court case goes through, I would have thought those clearings would look pretty shabby to the public once the details of his actions have all been through the court microscope.
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Could the Taito Phillip Field thing just be over, sometime?
Amen to that!! Especially if he takes his mate Brian the Bish with him, ideally to somewhere very, very, very,very far away.
Destiny Church is calling for restrictions on the religious practices of non-Christian faiths.
Bishop Brian Tamaki says members of other faiths should enter New Zealand on the basis they are entering a Christian country and have to conform to certain standards. He says they cannot be regarded as equal and should be subject to restrictions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10441776
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Bishop Brian Tamaki says members of other faiths should enter New Zealand on the basis they are entering a Christian country and have to conform to certain standards.
Oh, my aching Indignation Gland...
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I note Section 103 states it's an offence to both accept and offer a bribe
It might be that whilst Field knew that the help with tiling his house amounted to a corrupt payment the tiler did not.
For instance: a corrupt overseas policeman stops you on the road and says "that's a $50 fine or you'll have to come to the station", you pay him the $50 and he pockets it and goes. You could quite reasonably think that that's how things work. The cop on the other hand *knows* whats going on and is thus guilty of corruption.
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Perhaps if they all wore something yellow, so the rest of us can know who "they" are. Not racist, just, you know, to be on the safe side. You can't be too careful nowadays.
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A cross-post there, obviously!
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Also I note Section 103 states it's an offence to both accept and offer a bribe. Isn't it interesting that the police only want to lay charges against Field and no-one else?
Well, maybe the people 'offerring' the bribe weren't so much 'offerring' them as having a cap waved in front of them by Mr Fields, together with a short speech about Lafu (sp?), and a wink and a nod about how busy the minister is and he'd love to help but he really is quite busy. It's quite possible Mr Fields was more of a shakedown artist than an innocent politician seduced by 'donations'. A court case might clear that up.
because I'm personally in no doubt that he acted unacceptably.
I suppose you can't say much more since the trial hasn't started yet; but I hope this isn't some sort of spin to dismiss what he allegedly did as some sort of 'impropriety'. The NZ Police have a reasonable track record of choosing not to prosecute when it comes to Politicians (and I'm not suggesting they weren't being pragmatic - I don't think signing someone elses work for a charity fundraiser is any great/real crime) so when they do (Donna Awatere for example) it's quite big deal. If the Police have evidence that Mr Fields was soliciting bribes then they should take it to a court of Law. And let the chips fall where they may ...
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Perhaps if they all wore something yellow, so the rest of us can know who "they" are. Not racist, just, you know, to be on the safe side. You can't be too careful nowadays.
Fortunately a lot of the blighters wear towels on their heads, which helps. The women often wear scarves, kinda like our good dear Christian nuns used in the old days.... although my dear late Glaswegian great-aunt always used to wonder if papists were really proper Christians too........ One can't be too careful indeed!! -
I don't have any comment on the validity of that card, though I'd be curious to see how other people in similar positions (Polynesians in position of authority) comment on it.
Yes, and let's hear from some of the immigrants who came to this country to get as far away as possible from various 'cultural practices' that aren't legally tolerated here -- including endemic political and civil service corruption.
I think I get your point, but FFS let's be careful about playing the culture card. I don't recall the idea that belting the crap out of your children is a precious 'cultural practice' among Maori and PI folks getting much sympathy around here.
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And I apolgise for letting Brian The Bish jack this thread any further, but why doesn't he go the whole hog and suggest we follow the example of our head of state? Since the Act of Settlement became British law in 1701, no person who did not "join in communion with the Church of England" -- or married a non-Anglican -- could occupy the throne.
Any old Christian denomination just won't do, Brian!
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Note the 14 bribery charges aren't representative, or at least they don't appear to be.
That suggests multiple instances - though we'll have to wait until a Court hearing to know more. Even Simativa Perese seemed surprised at the number according to the way he's been quoted.
Still if it does get to a hearing I'd guess there's a very good chance he'll apply for a stay in proceedings. Given the media coverage of the past 18 months (guilty) I wouldn't be surprised if Perese argues it's been prejudicial to Taito's chances of getting a fair trial
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Well whether or not its morally ambiguous or not the timing will add significantly to Field's case for martyrdom.
Oh and Brian, if NZ really was a Christian based nation why do politicians feel necessary to downplay or ignore their Christianity in the public arena? Perhaps it is because they know the electorate/nation won't have a bar of it?If I was a little more unhinged I'd almost think that Tamaki had been created by atheist/secularists to mobilise secular forces in NZ. His cartoonish statements and press releases seem to point that way at least.
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why do politicians feel necessary to downplay or ignore their Christianity in the public arena? Perhaps it is because they know the electorate/nation won't have a bar of it?
Because they at least sense that the electorate knows that, after country music and patriotism, religion is the third-to-last refuge of a scoundrel?
BTW it wasn't Pauline Hanson's being jailed that made her a 'martyr'. It was the public exposure of the silly moo's having been duped by her manipulative backers. It earned her a degree of pity, but mostly contempt. Australia is perhaps the only Western democracy where voting is compulsory, and participation enforced by law. The vast majority of Hanson voters (and remember, this was almost a decade ago) knew that were giving the finger to the electoral system by voting for a joke candidate.
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Helen Clark stood by Philip Field while he claimed to have been exonerated by the Ingram report. Here is the picture and story.
After the Ingram report was released, Michael Cullen continued to say "After all, the fundamental fault Mr Field committed was to work too hard on behalf of the many, many hundreds of people who come to his electorate office on immigration matters."
Here is the Hansard of Dr Cullen's comment in the snap debate. The Hansard includes a number of other gems, including the Deputy Prime Minister saying Mr Brownlee would "have to dry out Mr Siriwan if he were to put him in the witness box" and being immediately followed by Taito Philip Field saying "I am delighted that the Ingram report has now finally been completed and that I have been cleared of the serious, false allegations of conflict of interest."
That was the official Parliamentary Labour party response in the snap debate on the Ingram report.
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BTW, great subbing RB.
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Thanks for the Hansard link Malcolm - some great stuff in there.
From Russel Fairbrother:
This is a report that Mr Field can wave around as a tribute to his integrity, and it suggests he will continue to be a profitable and good member of the House.
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You know I almost feel bad about writing that Destiny story now.
Though I must emphasise the word "almost".
Interviewing Brian Tamaki is always an interesting experience
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