Hard News: The Letter
443 Responses
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Stephen Keys, in reply to
"As I said on Twitter, Jared Savage did the kind of basic follow-up on a legitimate story that journalists should be doing as a matter of course. I’m sorry if this time it’s been politically inconvenient to the Labour Party, but I’d like to see more of it not less. And let the chips fall where they may."
Well said. Labour and National have both been involved in the same shenanigans over the years. The more serious issue is the donations not the letters. The letters stem from the donations.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
This is war...
albeit a class war of sorts...to actually have some material to work with
They have the personnel,
just not the materiel...
perhaps an ordnance ordinance
under urgency, mortar come.... -
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Blind man's bluff...
people still seem really keen to pin the new donation story on him too
Yes folks there's always time for
another round of
'Pin the Tale on the Donghua'
or is it more correctly
'Spin the Tale on the JohnKey'How long till the piñata comes out?
Though we'll get the 'spiñata',
some gaudy papier mâché construct
full of shiny morsels of little substance
to divert the blindfolded masses
lashing out in search of hope.some party...
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
mortar come….
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The plot thickens further:
[Labour Party President Moira Coatsworth says] while the Herald on Sunday had reported the fundraiser at which Liu bought the wine was on June 3 2007, "[Labour] have found no record of any fundraiser held on that date''.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
Snap
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Now Brook Sabin on TV3 shows zero understanding of the law, and imagines a police investigation. Such a basic error, you couldn't make it up (but he did).
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I wish I could organize some way to get alerted as to when the news gets back to the differences between the parties that might affect NZers.
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Sacha, in reply to
And 3 June 2007 was the Sunday in the middle of Queens Birthday apparently. Even more unlikely to be true.
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Sacha, in reply to
schedule an alert for 21 September
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Hey, I’ll give you a heads up ;0
Here’s a National Party Policy, Colin Craig gets East coast Bays.David Seymour gets Epsom. There’s some policy for ya. -
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Andrew Geddis has written a useful blog post in response to the latest news
So, no offense was committed against laws as porous as a Swiss cheese done over with a shotgun so nothing to see here? Don't recall Geddis, the Labour Party or very many people hereabouts being particularly sympathetic to that line coming from National when those money laundry trusts started getting media play.
Damn it! you could have bought the whole river for that back in ’07. Where do these people go to make up those numbers?
I don't know about you Steve, but I'd like to know what seasoning they use in Chinese cookery that induces amnesia in foreign politicians. It could become a serious little earner for China.
Yes. It’s been interesting today that people still seem really keen to pin the new donation story on him too.
It's the downside of sitting at the head of the top table. You also end up getting held responsible for all the skeletons rattling around in the cloakroom -- it's not always fair, but it is what it is.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
The plot thickens further:
[Labour Party President Moira Coatsworth says] while the Herald on Sunday had reported the fundraiser at which Liu bought the wine was on June 3 2007, “[Labour] have found no record of any fundraiser held on that date’’.
At the moment, I think we could be justified in seeking independent verification if Moira Coatsworth and Peter Goodfellow issued a joint press release claiming fire is hot, water is wet and shit stinks.
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Sacha, in reply to
Electoral law around donations has been fixed a little since 2007. I know cos Farrar put up those billboards complaining about it.
Personally I'm keen to see *all* political donations published. All of them.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
I don’t know about you Steve, but I’d like to know what seasoning they use in Chinese cookery that induces amnesia in foreign politicians.
Mono Sodium Gotcha Mate?
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
for currying favour?
Mono Sodium Gotcha Mate
Nice...
HOOC(CH 2) 2 (NH 2)COONa. +SNaP! -
Meanwhile, CCCP confirms he's running for East Coast Bays. Murray McCully sounds like he's still umming & ahhing about it, but he'll maintain a lot of respect among his long-time constituents if he doesn't give in to the temptation to forfeit his seat to Craig.
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Sacha, in reply to
.. but that Ambassadorship to Washington will also help his constituents/sponsors.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
McCully sounds like he’s still umming & ahhing about it, but he’ll maintain a lot of respect among his long-time constituents if he doesn’t give in to the temptation to forfeit his seat to Craig
Having been through the whole Wellington Central flustercluck, I think it would maintain a lot more than "respect" if they didn't decide to be so smart it's dumb. I've talked to a LOT of Nats on the Shore (and not just in East Coast Bays proper) who aren't interested in being my Vile Namesake's tame bitches. They're certainly not going to reach for the stout walking shoes or the check books for that.
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This morning's instalment of the slow drip:
Liu said he paid "close to $100,000" for the prize, according to a signed statement dated May 3, a price tag Mr Barker called "an extraordinary and eye-watering amount, one that I would recall if it happened and I don't".
Mr Barker, who was Minister of Internal Affairs at the time, added: "Had $100,000 been paid for a bottle of wine at a fundraiser that I was not at, I am certain I would have been told about it and I haven't. That figure for one item is considerably more than most fundraisers got in total."
Mr Barker said he handed over a bottle of wine at a number of Labour fundraisers.
"I can say [the one handed to Ms Zhang] wasn't a $100,000 bottle."
And:
Liu also said he paid at least $50,000 hosting Mr Barker on the Yangtze River trip and visited him in Hawkes Bay in 2006, dining with him at an exclusive lodge and meeting for breakfast the next morning.
According to Barker, the dinner on the Yangtze included what seemed to be all Liu's local staff, which might explain the $50k cost. Adding that to the claimed donation and presenting it as Businessman gifts $150k to Labour Party, as the Herald did yesterday, is extremely misleading.
He said he made a donation to Hawkes Bay Rowing, which Mr Barker was associated with.
Barker seems to have seen a bit more of Liu than he'd like it to be known, but I don't think there's anything to hang him on so far.
Liu now won't say any more than is in his "written statement" -- including who he wrote the May 3 statement for in the first place, and why. And how did the Prime Minister know so much about the contents of the statement?
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Adding that to the claimed donation and presenting it as Businessman gifts $150k to Labour Party, as the Herald did yesterday, is extremely misleading.
Well, Russell, don’t you think the real takeaway from this is it’s time to give the Register of Pecuniary Interests real teeth and bring in full, prompt and public first-dollar disclosure of donations and interactions with lobbyists?
Sorry, but I find it really hard to feel much sympathy for politicians and their when the very system they’ve carefully constructed to throw up a thick fog around their activities comes back to bite them in the arse. It’s all very nice to say “trust me, now!” but they don’t exactly make it easy.
Mr Barker, who was Minister of Internal Affairs at the time, added: “Had $100,000 been paid for a bottle of wine at a fundraiser that I was not at, I am certain I would have been told about it and I haven’t. That figure for one item is considerably more than most fundraisers got in total.”
But wait a moment, I thought the party line was that politicians never know where the money is coming from, the party does -- even though they really seem to have not-that-great record keeping? It's so hard to keep the stories straight...
Look, in the end I agree with you. There's nothing intrinsically sinister about Barker (or Collins) having dinner in China. But damn, it's a little precious to pretend nobody should raise an eyebrow at the convenient memory loss (and partial recovery), the records that can't be found, until they are, and get lost again; the "corrections" that get made to pecuniary interest registers and the Electoral Commission as soon as the media start asking questions.
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Tim Murphy on Morning Report:
- The Herald only got Liu's statement on Saturday, and not from Liu. Won't say who it came from.
- Won't show the statement to Labour because there's "more to be done" and "it's a matter of us working through things first".
Given the big-noting from the PM and various National Party activists about the claimed donations, it's evident that National at the least was aware of the statement. So they had this and the electorate letter in early May.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Given the big-noting from the PM and various National Party activists about the claimed donations, it’s evident that National at the least was aware of the statement. So they had this and the electorate letter in early May.
So, are you saying The Herald should give up a source, because you think that source is a bad faith actor? Or that Liu is just lying?
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Sacha, in reply to
There's nothing intrinsically sinister about Barker (or Collins) having dinner in China.
Who Collins had dinner with is much more significant given her conflicting interests in Oravida. Hence her determination to avoid naming the 'Chinese border official'.
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Sacha, in reply to
there's "more to be done"
cheque's in the mail, dupe
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