Banks a fine ACT MP…

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, January 24th, 2012 - 39 comments
Categories: act, john banks, john key - Tags: , ,

There are a couple of nice pieces in the Herald today on upstanding ACT MP John Banks.

Firstly how he advised Kim Dotcom on residency and gave advice on the Overseas Investment Commission to help Dotcom buy the Chrisco mansion (he failed, and got a long-term lease instead).  It’s alright according to Banksie, as he hardly knows the guy, and had only spent about 20 minutes talking to him ever.  That 20 minutes includes a dinner and look through of Dotcom’s extensive car fleet.  Must have been a very quiet dinner.

Dotcom initially got to meet Banks to propose his funding a $500,000 fireworks show for New Year’s Eve 2010 so Banksie’s council didn’t need to and may have contributed to Banks’ mayoral campaign.

They also met at bankrupt former property developer David Henderson‘s New Year’s Eve party to watch the fireworks.

So far nicely ACT, with wealthy mates who have trouble with the law…

Also on Banks though is his rejected proposals to the Electoral Commission for his billboard designs for the election.  Unsurprisingly the Commission ruled that “A Vote for me / Helps John Key. John Banks Epsom” (or other options like “A vote for me helps a John Key Govt”) was an endorsement of John Key and encouraging people to vote National – and thus some of the billboard cost would have to be attributed to the National Party.

So they had to go with the yellow John Banks billboards, that mentioned ACT in the fine print at the bottom.  Always great when your best candidate wants to back another party…

39 comments on “Banks a fine ACT MP… ”

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  1. randal 1
    24 January 2012 at 11:44 am

    well banksy is another money and noise freak.
    they think because their brrrrm brrrrm cost a lot of money they also get a license to make as much noise as they like.
    and banksy has no qulams whatsoever about letting pin heads come here if they give him a big enough brown paper bag.

  2. Janice 2
    24 January 2012 at 11:46 am

    John Banks – Idiot MP for Epsom. However it has been demonstrated that there are a lot of idiots in Epsom and everyone deserves some representation……..

  3. dv 3
    24 January 2012 at 11:49 am

    And reported by Bernard Hickey on interest.co.nz

    http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/57575/opinion-bernard-hickey-argues-kim-dotcom-convicted-thief-and-insider-trader-who-expose

    It was startling to hear that John Banks, the newly elected ACT MP (and my MP by the way) swore black and blue this morning to a Radio Live reporter this morning that Kim Dotcom was doing nothing wrong.

    • McFlock 3.1
      24 January 2012 at 12:04 pm

      He imported the water for his pool? What a dick.

      • Macro 3.1.1
        24 January 2012 at 12:21 pm

        If he’s living at the “chrisco” residence then he would have to import it from Albany anyway. He like everyone else in Coatesville are on tank supply. He probably confused the Albany (Auckland) with Albany (NY) 🙂

        • tc 3.1.1.1
          24 January 2012 at 1:42 pm

          Nope apparently wasn’t allowed to buy it so bought an equally ugly one down the road. Probably used up his ‘$$favours’ getting in and the house was a ‘favour’ too far.

    • Blue 3.2
      24 January 2012 at 12:30 pm

      Why is it “startling”? The guy has yet to be tried for any crime. What, you don’t want to wait and see if he did it before pronouncing sentence?

      • RJL 3.2.1
        24 January 2012 at 12:43 pm

        What, you don’t want to wait and see if he did it before pronouncing sentence?

        That’s exactly the point. While he hasn’t been tried, he has been arrested. So, why is Banks pronoucing Dotcom’s innocence?

        • Blue 3.2.1.1
          24 January 2012 at 2:06 pm

          I couldn’t see where it says that “Banks pronoucing Dotcom’s innocence” in either link. So as it doesn’t say that why are you using it. What Banks said was he had met him and talked to him about residency and so on. He didn’t ‘pronounce him innocent’.

          • RJL 3.2.1.1.1
            24 January 2012 at 3:09 pm

            “It was startling to hear that John Banks, the newly elected ACT MP (and my MP by the way) swore black and blue this morning to a Radio Live reporter this morning that Kim Dotcom was doing nothing wrong.”

            http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/57575/opinion-bernard-hickey-argues-kim-dotcom-convicted-thief-and-insider-trader-who-expose

            • Jackal 3.2.1.1.1.1
              24 January 2012 at 7:31 pm

              What a wicked web they weave… firstly you have the FBI calling the shots on behalf of private industries and demanding extradition from New Zealand despite the charges not being covered by the NZ/US extradition agreement.

              Then we have John Banks (who’s obviously lying about the extent of the relationship) claiming Kim Schmitz is innocent despite an absence of any judgement and the initial evidence looking decidedly bad.

              There’s also the Labour party and others wanting an enquiry into why Schmitz was allowed into the country in the first place with it either being a few well placed bribes or a complete failure on the part of immigration to properly determine Schmitz’s suitability.

              I wonder how many other dodgy people have bought their way into the country?

  4. tsmithfield 4
    24 January 2012 at 12:46 pm

    Exactly.

    I find it stunning that the police can show such excessive force for what is a relatively minor charge compared to murder, child molestation, etc. Also, seizing assets before guilt is even determined seems way over the top. I am sure that victims of burglary etc in NZ would love to see the police put in that much effort for them.

    Granted dotcom may well be guilty of breaching copyright. The courts will determine that. However, some of the charges seem to be trumped up out of all proportion. For instance alleging losses of 100’s of millions to copyright holders in based on potential lost revenue is ridiculous. The reason is that most of the people doing the downloading probably wouldn’t have bothered if they had to pay for it. Thus, the estimated lossed revenue would never have been generated in the first place.

    • McFlock 4.1
      24 January 2012 at 12:55 pm

      Agree completely.

      Burglary has a maximum sentence of ten years. Copyright violation is 5, I believe. Money laundering is 7.

      For anyone who has actually read the charges, do the money laundering charges revolve around otherwise legitimate dealings with the proceeds of the megaupload company? In which case, would the $10mil in NZ Govt bonds he used to buy residency count as “laundering”?

    • RJL 4.2
      24 January 2012 at 4:43 pm

      I struggle to see a problem with how the police actually went about the arrest. Sure, it was probably a bit hysterical on their behalf to bring quite so many resources to bear. But, the whole point of being the police is that you can escalate such situations beyond the capacity of others to respond. If only PC plod and his mate showed up, then the situation may have evolved totally differently.

      • McFlock 4.2.1
        25 January 2012 at 11:00 am

        Wasn’t it something like 70 officers for 4 suspects? That’s not just a bit of overkill?

        • The Voice of Reason 4.2.1.1
          25 January 2012 at 11:26 am

          While I’m sure there were a few coppers along for the thrill of the helicopter ride, I would have thought that a fair few would have been computer forensics guys, there to secure the servers and other equipment. And the cops obviously knew that there was hired security to deal with, not to mention the various security measures built into the property. The fact that the raid went perfectly suggests that RJL has identified the approach correctly; better too many than too few.
           
          I must say, the apparent support for this leech here at The Standard surprises me. A more obvious example of an irresponsible Randian superman is hard to imagine and the wealth he has amassed is almost entirely as the result of fraudulently taking money due to businesses and workers in the entertainment industry. The only difference between Dotcom and the various finance company and Ponzi scheme crooks we have in NZ is a matter of scale.
           
           

          • McFlock 4.2.1.1.1
            25 January 2012 at 12:27 pm

            two points:
            Firstly, questioning the speed and enthusiasm with which the NZP assisted the legal front of US corporate profits is not supporting the actions of their target, who looks like at best a bit of a dick. People can’t help but compare it to the less than speedy resolution of their own difficulties by police.

            Secondly, the above questioning is made slightly more interesting when the said legal front is not to protect the property rights of the creative artists, but simply to protect the hypothetical income of (as other people have pointed out) an outmoded and inefficient business model, simply because the corporations are to inflexible to adapt to the new market as well as megaupload did. Indeed, it’s rather quixotic – tilting at internet windmills on the assumption that if they are slain, the corporation will receive a giant amount of cash from everyone who’s now unable to download illegally.

        • RJL 4.2.1.2
          26 January 2012 at 11:48 am

          There were considerably more than 4 people at the location.

          I’m not saying it is a great idea to extradite him. That will depend on the evidence offered by the FBI and how the circumstances are read under New Zealand law, and I have no idea what that evidence is. The decision to (or not to) extradite Dotcom has not yet been made.

          However, the NZ police tactics in the actual arrest seem fine. The NZ Police received a well-formed request from the FBI to arrest Dotcom and others for pending extradition proceedings. The police action request, mobilising sufficient resources to ensure that most targets are arrested with, apparently, no harm to anyone, and pass the arrested suspects into our NZ judicial system. This is exactly what we would expect the FBI to do for our police.

          If there is any criticism of the police, it is that some suspects are apparently still at large. Depending on the exact circumstances of how that came to be, the criticism might be that our police did not mobilise enough resources.

  5. vto 5
    24 January 2012 at 12:52 pm

    A con over here and a con over there…

    Here a con, there a con, everywhere a con con

    New Zealand, the land ruled by con artists.

  6. Spratwax 6
    24 January 2012 at 1:12 pm

    Would the Police have been so zealous and quick to pounce on Dotcom & Co if the request had come from the French, German, Chinese or other Government and their secret service? Guilty until proven innocent? And isn’t it a little creepy that the Key Government-the Crown- is opposing bail at the behest of its US masters? The secretive TPP currently being negotiated by this Government with the US will seriously curb our current rights and freedoms in the name of protecting corporate profits.

    http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2012/01/24/gordon-campbell-on-kim-dotcoms-bail-application/

    • The Voice of Reason 6.1
      24 January 2012 at 1:26 pm

      Actually, the bail issue is a no brainer. The man is a resident in two countries and a citizen of two others. He has multiple passports and identities. He also has massive financial resources, a significant criminal record and was found with a weapon. He has also previously fled a country while on bail facing similar charges.

      • Tiger Mountain 6.1.1
        24 January 2012 at 2:36 pm

        Sounds like a recommendation Voice, the natz should swoop him up. (Alert: speculation only follows…) It would be interesting to discover if Mr Kim has any links to the tory dirty tricks squad. Shonkey might find his knackers figuratively in a vice after the Warners ‘Hobbit’ capitulation with Banksie appearing to support this guy.

        • The Voice of Reason 6.1.1.1
          24 January 2012 at 5:13 pm

          Ha! I think he’d lift the average intelligence of the caucus by a few points, TM, but I suspect Key likes the status of being the richest man in the room too much to let him in.
           
          It would be worth checking donors to the National Party or Banks’s campaign to see if there are any connections. Wouldn’t surprise me one iota if he’s bunged them some thank you money.

  7. Tom Gould 7
    24 January 2012 at 2:33 pm

    I see Banks has his temporary amnesia back again, just like when asked about the Huljich scam. And the lazy brain-dead media give him a free pass, as usual.

    • Hami Shearlie 7.1
      26 January 2012 at 11:07 pm

      He’s just been programmed wrongly!! Doesn’t anyone recognise the close similarity to Hymie the robot on Get Smart – maybe Banksie is the previous model now defunct! Same monotonal voice, same blank face – or is that the oversupply of Botox??

  8. randal 8
    24 January 2012 at 2:52 pm

    yes I often wonder why binky always seems to get a free pass.
    is there anyone out there who would care to comment on this?

    • tc 8.1
      24 January 2012 at 2:57 pm

      Plays for the right team so what passes for a media look the other way at the infringements, pretty much all of the ministers do….past and present.

  9. tsmithfield 9
    24 January 2012 at 3:11 pm

    I wonder if the police thought they were auditioning for an episode of “24”. 🙂

  10. Mike - move2nz 10
    24 January 2012 at 5:08 pm

    As Mayor of Auckland Mr. Banks may not have been aware that in providing immigration advice he would have been committing a serious criminal offence punishable by up to 7 years in prison – arguably more than Kim .com will face in the USA.

    A perfect example of a much needed piece of legislation that was very poorly written and implemented (the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007) was introduced in 2008 that prohibits anyone not licensed or exempt from providing immigration advice.

    Mr. Banks is not registered as a licensed immigration adviser and does not appear to fall into any of the classifications of an exempt person as Mayor (although bizarrely as an MP he does as if this somehow gives him magical information on immigration law and policy):

    People providing informal/family advice – I don’t think you could call a Mayor talking to a person contributing half a million dollars to his council as acting informally;
     
    MPs and their staff – nope, not then;
     
    Foreign diplomats and consular staff – nope;
     
    NZ public servants with ‘providing immigration advice’ as part of their employment contract – nope;
     
    Lawyers – nope;
     
    NZ community law centre employees – nope;
     
    Citizens Advice Bureau employees and volunteers – nope;
     
    Offshore advice relating to student applications – nope.

    Source

    Move2NZ as an independent migration commentator has written to the Immigration Advisers Authority to ask what their response to this will be. Their reply has been that they are thinking about it and will respond next week. Hmmm.

    Mike
    move2nz.com 

    • Lanthanide 10.1
      24 January 2012 at 5:21 pm

      “Their reply has been that they are thinking about it and will respond next week. Hmmm.”

      After they ask the Beehive what to do, I’m sure.

      • vto 10.1.1
        24 January 2012 at 5:40 pm

        Sounds like NZ on Air. Is there no body that acts independently anymore? Sure don’t sound like it. Sure don’t feel like it. Sure sounds like Canterbury with its commissioners making decisions around the water resource based on commands from the top – anyone recall David Carter’s threat to other regional councils a couple year ago following their dictator actions with ecan?

        New Zealand gets more corrupt by the day. At least with the last labour lot they weren’t so corrupt, even if they were just as devious and full of shit.

        Adjust thyselves to the new regime folks. A whole new set of rules is emerging as the past and current practices of National Party pegheads in accessing political knowledge for their own free market enrichment becomes more and more clear to the “electorate” by the day.

        • vto 10.1.1.1
          24 January 2012 at 5:54 pm

          Excuse me for a minute but fuck that ecan dictatorship galls … on top of that above, John Key and Nick Smith based their decision to replace democracy with dictatorship on one sole report. And that report was authored by someone who was …

          1. A National Party member.
          2. A former National government Minister.
          3. A businessman with considerable ownership of the dairy industry.

          Fucking bullshit. And cowshit. And corruption to the core of the core.

          I’m out. Leave the pricks to wallow in their sprayed effluent. What a shithole these people create with their blinded eyes. Corruption Corruption Corruption. Fuck them and the cows they rode into town on.

          What is the matter with New Zealand society when all of that corruption comes to pass?

          Shit on their heads.

          • vto 10.1.1.1.1
            25 January 2012 at 9:17 am

            And today, in further proof of the corruption at the core of this National party and government, we see the author of the cowshit report that allowed the replacement of democracy with dictatorship in Canterbury, Wyatt Creech, having charges laid against him in the Auckland courts for his role as a director of the Blue Chip Property group.

            You may recall Blue Chip, headed by bankrupt criminal Mark Bryers. It was the one that simply stole from its investors, who had trusted them with sometimes their life savings. Its failure has caused massive loss to many elderly who now have to live their remaining days in a much poorer poor house.

            Wyatt Creech, liar and deceptor extraordinaire. Disgusting. Makes me vomit.

            It should be a wake up call to the “electorate” on the state of the games that these people play.

        • Draco T Bastard 10.1.1.2
          24 January 2012 at 6:21 pm

          Is there no body that acts independently anymore?

          Whatever gave you the idea that people act independently? We’re a communal species and thus we operate communally. Unfortunately, once a community gets above a couple of thousand of people (i.e. everyone knows everybody else) then the community gets subdivided into groups – rich and poor, rulers and ruled, the in-crowd and the nerds.

          New Zealand gets more corrupt by the day.

          Sometimes I’m not sure if it’s that NZ is getting more corrupt or that the corruption is just starting to show through due to more visibility from high-speed public communications.

    • felix 10.2
      24 January 2012 at 5:37 pm

      Isn’t there an exemption for “f@scist multimillionaire egomaniac who thinks he can do wtf he likes”?

  11. Jum 11
    24 January 2012 at 5:57 pm

    Well, higherstandard…

    ‘upstanding ACT MP John Banks.
    Firstly how he advised Kim Dotcom on residency and gave advice on the Overseas Investment Commission to help Dotcom buy the Chrisco mansion (he failed, and got a long-term lease instead). It’s alright according to Banksie, as he hardly knows the guy, and had only spent about 20 minutes talking to him ever. That 20 minutes includes a dinner and look through of Dotcom’s extensive car fleet. Must have been a very quiet dinner.
    Dotcom initially got to meet Banks to propose his funding a $500,000 fireworks show for New Year’s Eve 2010 so Banksie’s council didn’t need to and may have contributed to Banks’ mayoral campaign.
    They also met at bankrupt former property developer David Henderson‘s New Year’s Eve party to watch the fireworks.
    So far nicely ACT, with wealthy mates who have trouble with the law…

    http://thestandard.org.nz/ports-of-auckland-vs-400000-wharfies/
    *******************************************
    higherstandard 7.1.1.1 21 January 2012 at 4:44 pm
    Jum
    ‘John Banks would have done the same as Len Brown 2/10ths of fuck all…’
    ****************************************…
    ‘Jum … 21 January 2012 at 8:26 pm
    higherstandard, It does my heart good to see a bit of passion in a post. *****You may need it sooner than you think.’

    Seems to me that John Banks and banks are fxcking over NZ and NZers – please don’t ever try and put Banks and Brown on the same level.
    In actual fact, Banks is in the same nasty little league as banks. Their combined business is always about making money i.e. all about fxcking over New Zealand and New Zealanders.

    And before anyone says – give the guy a chance… No. NAct never gave a chance for anyone else. That’s what the rightwing is all about – eat or be eaten – “ nasty, brutish and short” and so is Banks.

  12. randal 12
    24 January 2012 at 7:34 pm

    20 minutes huh.
    thats enough time to hand over the brown bag and then count the money.

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