Mossack Fonseca bites National on the arse
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7:19 am, April 29th, 2016 - 348 comments
Categories: david cunliffe, Globalisation, greens, john key, national, same old national, tax -
Tags: paul goldsmith, todd mclay
Maybe there is a God and if so she has to be a left winger. Latest events are trashing John Key’s carefully constructed persona of being an ordinary dude who is good to have a beer with and cares about everyone and have highlighted his fundamental weakness. He is not a former Housing Corp house dweller done good trying to make New Zealand a better place for all of us. He is part of the 1% and totally indifferent to the damage to societies and governments that tax evasion by the rich causes.
The trouble with issues surrounding Mossack Fonseca is that there is that much information and so many deals to be investigated the Government must feel like it is playing whack-a-mole in trying to deal with the fallout.
One recent issue was disclosed by David Cunliffe yesterday. The Overseas Investment Organisation had allowed a Mossack Fonseca associated entity to purchase a farm in the Taranaki. From Radio New Zealand:
Labour has found, using written Parliamentary questions, the date of the transaction and we were then able to search back through the OIO’s papers to find which one it was.
“And there’s only one it can be.
“[Ceol & Muir] has three directors which have together been associated with about 1400 other company purchases – most of those registered in Panama.”
Mr Cunliffe told Morning Report the two people who effectively own the station now were not currently directors of Ceol & Muir.
He said he was not claiming Ceol & Muir had done anything wrong – his concern was that the OIO must be relied upon to conduct a robust investigation of every application to buy sensitive land.
“We do not know and it must be now told to the public exactly what good character test was applied to whom when the application was made.
“As the minister herself has said that good character test is actually an ongoing test so we need also to know whether the OIO has recently satisfied itself that all the conditions have been met.”
Mr Cunliffe said the OIO was internationally known as a “wet bus ticket” having approved more than 99.75 percent of all applications since 2011.
And it emerged this morning that the two people behind the purchase were found criminally responsible in 2011 for polluting a river in Argentina with toxic material from a tannery they owned.
You have to wonder how an entity or individuals can pass the good character test given all of this. The OIO has power to review decisions to check on compliance. It should do so.
The second and potentially the most damaging issue is the disclosure that John Key’s lawyer Ken Whitney lobbied Key to not change rules surrounding foreign trusts. Key told Whitney to speak to revenue minister Todd McLay. He then did so and despite IRD advice that the issue be addressed the Government refused to do so.
A timeline based on an OIA response obtained by the Greens is fascinating:
- December 3, 2014 – Whitney emails Todd McLay, mentions that he had raised the issue with Key and was told he should meet with McLay to discuss concerns. His email also said “[w]e are concerned that there appears to be a sudden change of view by the IRD in respect of their previous support for the industry. I have spoken to the Prime Minister about this and he advised that the Government has no plans to change the status of the foreign trust regime.”
- December 4, 2014 – McLay’s staff writes to IRD to say that “after further reflecting on the discussion yesterday, he expressed some concern that one of the options that will be presented in the report to him before the end of the year would be the removal of the foreign trust regime.” A senior IRD official replied saying they will “bear this in mind in how we write the report.”
- December 12, 2014 – IRD urges the Government to add a review of foreign trusts to its work programme on the basis that the trusts regime has attracted adverse international comment because New Zealand based trusts with a foreign settlor and beneficiaries do not have to pay tax in New Zealand and New Zealand was perceived as a tax haven in that regard. It did not include an option of removal of the foreign trust regime but the option of reviewing the operation of foreign trusts was the next best thing.
- December 18, 2014 – Todd McLay meets with representatives of the industry at Whitney’s office. Nice that a Minister of the Crown should make a house visit and so soon after the request was made.
- January 22, 2015 – Olivershaw Ltd states in a letter “[f]oreign trust industry very pleased with their meeting with Minister”. A further meeting on February 19, 2015 is confirmed.
- March 18, 2015 – the NZ Trustee Companies Association Ltd writes to Paul Goldsmith and states “[l]ast year a report to ministers by tax policy officials was publicly released raising the possibility that this year the government might initiate a review of the foreign trust tax rules with a view to taxing such trusts on offshore income. This would be likely to close the New Zealand industry down – foreign investors can have their funds managed in many other countries that do not levy additional taxes on them, hence they would shift their funds to those countries.”
- May 15, 2015 – McLay decides that no review will occur.
- April 4, 2016 – The Panama Papers leak is announced.
- April 11, 2016 – Key announces review of foreign trusts regime, reversing the earlier decision although former PWC director John Shewan and not the IRD will conduct the review.
- April 12, 2016 – Key’s register of pecuniary interests is published and his deposit with Whitney’s Foreign Trust company is disclosed.
- April 14, 2016 – Key told media that “one of the [lobby] groups asked me about it [the IRD report].” He said he told the individual that “I haven’t got a clue about any changes but go and take it up with the minister”. He did not mention that the individual was his lawyer. It is surprising that the Government response was so immediately negative given Key’s presentation of the issue in such a passive way.
So basically Ken says to John changing the rules will destroy Ken’s business. John tells Ken to talk to Todd. Ken emails Todd and Todd immediately tells IRD to not say that foreign trust rules should be changed. IRD says to Todd that it thinks foreign trusts should be reviewed. Todd makes a special visit to Ken’s office to speak to Ken’s friends. Ken’s friends are happy with the meeting. Todd decides not to even review the foreign trust rules. Of course there is nothing to see here and it is all an unfortunate series of coincidences.
Make of it what you will. I suspect that over the next couple of weeks the media and political focus on this issue and on Key’s actions will be intense. And his Teflon coating will be shown to have been scoured.
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- Release: Hikes for company directors but not ordinary Kiwis
Working people are going backwards while company directors are being given huge pay hikes. ...4 days ago
- ECE no place to cut corners
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...4 days ago
- Release: Strengthening Justice Services for New Zealanders
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...4 days ago
- Release: Labour will continue fight against destructive projects
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...5 days ago
- Green Government will revoke dodgy fast-track projects
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...5 days ago
- Government for the wealthy keeps pushing austerity
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...5 days ago
- Release: Visa changes let migrant workers be paid less
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...5 days ago
- Release: Nightmare before Christmas for Nicola Willis
With more debt and a larger deficit, Nicola Willis’ reputation is in tatters after her failure to return the Government’s books to surplus. ...5 days ago
- Warning to Fast-Track Applicants – ‘Exploit the Whenua, Face the Consequences’
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...5 days ago
- Release: Govt cuts wages for lowest paid NZers… again
For the second year running, the government has effectively cut wages for the lowest paid workers in New Zealand. ...5 days ago
- Govt’s miserly 1.5% minimum wage will take workers backwards
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...5 days ago
- Release: Govt shirking responsibility for rate hikes
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...5 days ago
- Luxon’s ‘localism’ strikes again
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...6 days ago
- Release: Govt breaks promise on EV chargers
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...6 days ago
- Greens call for end to subsidies for Methanex
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...6 days ago
- Govt child poverty targets allow for increase in poverty
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...1 week ago
- Release: Four weeks annual leave under threat
The Government’s attack on workers continues with news it is scrapping work on the Holidays Act. ...1 week ago
- Govt’s emissions plan for measly 1% reduction
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...1 week ago
- Greens stand in solidarity with Whakaata Māori on sad day
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...1 week ago
- Sanctions regime to create more hardship for families
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...1 week ago
- Govt gifts renters housing anxiety for Christmas
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...1 week ago
- Release: National Party urged to support modern slavery legislation
Labour is urging the Prime Minister to walk the talk and support legislation combating modern slavery. ...1 week ago
- Release: Labour has lost confidence in the Speaker
The Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament made an unprecedented decision on the government amendment to the Fast Track Approvals Bill last night. ...1 week ago
- One year on, still no progress on new ferries
Today’s announcement from the Government on its plan for new ferries throws more uncertainty on the future of the country’s rail network. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Nicola Willis’ smaller ferries will cost more
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...2 weeks ago
- Bill to sanction unlawful occupation of Palestine
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour fully supports greyhound racing ban
The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...2 weeks ago
- Greyhound racing industry ban marks new era for animal welfare
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...2 weeks ago
- Rangatahi voices must be centred in Government’s Relationship and Sexuality Education refresh
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt introduces archaic anti-worker legislation
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...2 weeks ago
- Winston Peters – Kinleith Mill Speech
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...2 weeks ago - Swarbrick calls on Auckland Mayor to end delay of revival of St James Theatre
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...2 weeks ago
- He Ara Anamata: Greens launch Emissions Reduction Plan
Today, the Green Party of Aotearoa proudly unveils its new Emissions Reduction Plan–He Ara Anamata–a blueprint reimagining our collective future. ...2 weeks ago
- Internationally-trained doctors jump at chance to boost health workforce
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...7 hours ago - PM appoints business leader to APEC Business Advisory Council
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...2 days ago
- New intelligence oversight appointments
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...2 days ago
- New housing developments able to progress more quickly
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...2 days ago
- Actions to speed up air travel delivering results
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...2 days ago
- Ending contracted emergency housing in Rotorua
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...2 days ago
- Vocational education and training decisions support return to regions
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...2 days ago
- Reducing the environmental impact of synthetic refrigerants
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...2 days ago
- Ngāruawāhia section of Waikato Expressway back to 4 lanes for Christmas
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...2 days ago
- Appointments to the ENZ board
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...3 days ago
- Government to celebrate Waitangi Day around NZ
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...3 days ago
- More gangs added to Gangs Act list
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...3 days ago
- Judicial appointment announced
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...3 days ago
- GDP data highlights importance of growth
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...3 days ago
- Strengthening Free Speech in Universities
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...3 days ago
- Launch of Emergency Cellular Priority Service
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...3 days ago
- Minister reopens Mangamuka Gorge
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...3 days ago
- Funding confirmed for second Ashburton Bridge
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...3 days ago
- Government boosts support for avian influenza response
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...3 days ago
- Levelling the playing field for media advertising
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...4 days ago
- Inspector-General of Defence appointed
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...4 days ago
- Fire and Emergency New Zealand final levy rates confirmed
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...4 days ago
- More AML relief on the way for Kiwi businesses
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...4 days ago
- Hawke’s Bay Expressway moving at pace
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...4 days ago
- Government seeks partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned-land
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...4 days ago
- Wide ranging legislation to make justice system more efficient
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...4 days ago
- Diverse skills in community trust appointments
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...4 days ago
- Torture redress for survivors of the Lake Alice Unit
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...4 days ago
- A busy year in the House
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...4 days ago
- Consultation opens on working with engineered stone
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...4 days ago
- Greater reporting on Treaty settlement commitments
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...4 days ago
- New appointments to the Charities Registration Board
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...4 days ago
- Building consent processing times improve
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...4 days ago
- Faster access to support through Innovation Fund
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...4 days ago
- New Zealand to assist Vanuatu on earthquake response
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...4 days ago
- Government takes steps to reduce card fees for Kiwis
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...4 days ago
- Review recommends ECE regulation shakeup
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...4 days ago
- Offshore Renewable Energy Bill passes first reading
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...5 days ago
- Local Government (Water Services) Bill passes first reading
Legislation to enable new water service delivery models that will drive critical investment in infrastructure has passed its first reading in Parliament, marking a significant step towards the delivery of Local Water Done Well, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly say.“Councils and voters ...5 days ago
- Gene Technology Bill passes first reading
New Zealand is one step closer to reaping the benefits of gene technology with the passing of the first reading of the Gene Technology Bill, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins says. "This legislation will end New Zealand's near 30-year ban on gene technology outside the lab and is ...5 days ago
- Signs of the hīkoi: More than just ‘words on cardboard’
The placards seen at the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti conveyed "huge kōrero with immediacy", expert says: "People know the power of the word." ...3 hours ago - A final Ode to .. King Luxon
Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...10 hours ago - A hater and an enthusiast review The Royal Free by Carl Shuker
Spinoff editor Mad Chapman and books editor Claire Mabey debate Carl Shuker’s new novel about… an editor. Claire: Hello Mad, you just finished The Royal Free – overall impressions? Mad: Hi Claire, I literally just put the book down and I would have to say my immediate impression is ...12 hours ago - Survive to 25 (December, that is)
Christmas and its buildup are often lonely, hard and full of unreasonable expectations. Here’s how to make it to Jesus’s birthday and find the little bit of joy we all deserve. Have you found this year relentless? Has the latest Apple update “fucked up your life”? Have you lost two ...12 hours ago
- All I want for Christmas is modern day slavery legislation
Despite overwhelming public and corporate support, the government has stalled progress on a modern day slavery law. That puts us behind other countries – and makes Christmas a time of tragedy rather than joy, argues Shanti Mathias. Picture the scene on Christmas Day. Everyone replete with nice things to eat, ...12 hours ago
- Israeli-American historian describes attacks on Gaza as ‘war of annihilation’
Asia Pacific Report “It looks like Hiroshima. It looks like Germany at the end of World War Two,” says an Israeli-American historian and professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University about the horrifying reality of Gaza. Professor Omer Bartov, has described Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as an ...15 hours ago - NZ govt plans to make ‘heavy handed’ change to free speech rules for universities
The New Zealand government coalition is tweaking university regulations to curb what it says is an increasingly “risk-averse approach” to free speech. The proposed changes will set clear expectations on how universities should approach freedom of speech issues. Each university will then have to adopt a “freedom of speech statement” ...15 hours ago
- Caitlin Johnstone: Where does the aggression really begin?
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone New York prosecutors have charged Luigi Mangione with “murder as an act of terrorism” in his alleged shooting of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month. This news comes out at the same time as ...18 hours ago
- OECD Report Highlights That More Is Needed
This report reflects that gap in our dealings overseas, and it shows that legislators, the public sector and businesses need to walk the talk. ...1 day ago - Government quietly scraps waste minimisation policies
The government has quietly cancelled plans to improve recycling and roll out a kerbside food scraps composting scheme. ...1 day ago
- MEAA welcomes News MAP funding ‘leg up’ for Australian journalism
Pacific Media Watch The union for Australian journalists has welcomed the delivery by the federal government of more than $150 million to support the sustainability of public interest journalism over the next four years. Combined with the announcement of the revamped News Bargaining Initiative, this could result in up to ...1 day ago
- Transmission Gully partnership breakdown will not hurt future public-private partnerships, Infrastru...
The roads partnership unravelled under a confidential settlement this week, meaning NZTA will now finish off what it had said was incomplete work. ...1 day ago
- Funding cuts to charity particularly felt over Christmas period
The number of people seeking help from Lifeline is expected to increase by 10 to 20 percent over Christmas. ...1 day ago
- Nelson Hospital conditions ‘unbearable’ – staff
One worker says the building is decrepit and falling down around them. ...1 day ago
- The Secret Diary of .. Luxon at Xmas
MONDAY“Merry Xmas, and praise the Lord,” said Sheriff Luxon, and smiled for the camera. There was a flash of smoke when the shutter pressed down on the magnesium powder. The sheriff had arranged for a photographer from the Dodge Gazette to attend a ceremony where he handed out food parcels to ...1 day ago
- Stand by for cricket’s Smash Palace
It’s a little under two months since the White Ferns shocked the cricketing world, deservedly taking home the T20 World Cup. Since then the trophy has had a tour around the country, five of the squad have played in the WBBL in Australia while most others have returned to domestic ...1 day ago
- Early-onset dementia under the microscope
Comment: If we say the word ‘dementia’, many will picture an older person struggling to remember the names of their loved ones, maybe a grandparent living out their final years in an aged care facility. Dementia can also occur in people younger than 65, but it can take time before ...1 day ago
- Keeping the pirates at bay: Should the Australian ‘Blocking Order’ case prompt a discussion in N...
Piracy is a reality of modern life – but copyright law has struggled to play catch-up for as long as the entertainment industry has existed. As far back as 1988, the House of Lords criticised copyright law’s conflict with the reality of human behaviour in the context of burning cassette ...1 day ago
- ‘We were as famous as Tom Cruise’: Craig Parker on 90s Shortland St fandom
As he makes a surprise return to Shortland Street, actor Craig Parker takes us through his life in television. Craig Parker has been a fixture on television in Aotearoa for nearly four decades. He had starring roles in iconic local series like Gloss, Mercy Peak and Diplomatic Immunity, featured in ...2 days ago
- ‘I prioritise the mission, not my health’: Adam McGrath’s perfect weekend playlist
The Ōtautahi musician shares the 10 tracks he loves to spin, including the folk classic that cured him of a ‘case of the give-ups’. When singer-songwriter Adam McGrath returns to Kumeu’s Auckland Folk Festival from January 24-27, he’s not planning on simply idling his way through – he wants the late ...2 days ago
- The rescue dog bringing joy to Christchurch retirement homes
Alex Casey spends an afternoon on the job with River, the rescue dog on a mission to spread joy to Ōtautahi rest homes. Almost everyone says it is never enough time. But River the rescue dog, a jet black huntaway border collie cross, has to keep a tight pace to ...2 days ago
- Fiji pro-Palestine nativity scene exposes Gaza as ‘hell on earth’ at Christmas
Asia Pacific Report Fiji activists have recreated the nativity scene at a solidarity for Palestine gathering in Fiji’s capital Suva just days before Christmas. The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and Fijians for Palestine Solidarity Network recreated the scene at the FWCC compound — a baby Jesus figurine lies amidst the ...2 days ago
- Vanuatu quake: ‘Our shop was flattened like a deck of cards’
By 1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver and 1News reporters A number of Kiwis have been successfully evacuated from Vanuatu after a devastating earthquake shook the Pacific island nation earlier this week. The death toll was still unclear, though at least 14 people were killed according to an earlier statement from ...2 days ago
- How diplomats have broken the law in NZ – and what happened next
A handful of foreign diplomats have misbehaved during their time here - and not all of them have been brought to justice. ...2 days ago
- Swim schools report sinking enrolments as downturn deepens
Being able to swim is often considered a life skill, but tough economic times are forcing many families to pull their children out of lessons. ...2 days ago
- ‘There will be deaths because of this’ – Warning over Health NZ IT cuts
A West Coast IT worker is warning patients will die as Health New Zealand aims to slash its data and digital staff. ...2 days ago
- Polytech sales possible but unlikely when Te Pūkenga disestablished – minister
In a surprise move, the sale of polytechnics will be on the table when the national institute of technology Te Pūkenga is disestablished. ...2 days ago
- Parliament’s final sitting day an insight into party factions
On Parliament's last day of the year, there was a rare glimpse of the factions within the major parties. ...2 days ago
- Former Labour MP, North Shore mayor Ann Hartley dies
Former Labour MP and mayor of Auckland's North Shore City Ann Hartley has died. ...2 days ago
- The closest thing Australian cartooning had to a prophet: the sometimes celebrated, sometimes contro...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Scully, Professor in Modern History, University of New England Bunker. Image courtesy of Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-SA Michael Leunig – who died in the early hours of Thursday December 19, surrounded by “his children, loved ones, and sunflowers” – was the ...2 days ago
- Labour moves Speaker from the ‘nice’ to ‘naughty’ list
Last week's fights with the Speaker over the Fast Track schedule may have changed the tone in Parliament. ...2 days ago
- Govt ends pilot programme for Māori and Pacific, sparking outrage
The Government announced the end of the programme that allowed Māori and Pacific people to acess bowel cancer screening at 50-years-old. ...2 days ago
- Parliament fits an extra morning into final sitting day
The House - On Parliament's last day of the year, there was the rare occurrence of a personal (conscience) vote on selling booze over the Easter weekend. While it didn't have the numbers to pass, it was a chance to get a rare glimpse of the fact ...2 days ago
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A new poem by Holly Fletcher. bejeweled log i was dreaming about wasps / wee darlings that followed me / ducking under objects / that i was fated to pickup / my fingers seeking / and meeting with tiny proboscis’s / but instead / i wake up / roll sideways ...2 days ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flora Hui, Research Fellow, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Honorary Fellow, Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne Versta/Shutterstock Australians are exposed to some of the highest levels of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the world. While we ...2 days ago
- How does franchising work?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Terry, Professor of Business Regulation, University of Sydney Michael von Aichberger/Shutterstock Even if you’ve no idea how the business model underpinning franchises works, there’s a good chance you’ve spent money at one. Franchising is essentially a strategy for cloning ...2 days ago
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If something big is going to happen in Ferndale, it’s going to happen at Christmas. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If there’s one episode of Shortland Street you should watch each year, it’s the annual Christmas cliffhanger. The final episode of ...2 days ago
- As China expands its cyber espionage and sabotage operations, how will the Trump administration resp...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William A. Stoltz, Lecturer and expert Associate, National Security College, Australian National University US President-elect Donald Trump has named most of the members of his proposed cabinet. However, he’s yet to reveal key appointees to America’s powerful cyber warfare and intelligence institutions. ...2 days ago
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Announcing the top 10 books of the the year at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $37) The phenomenal Irish writer is the unsurprising chart topper for 2024 with her fourth novel that, much like her first ...2 days ago
- Government confirms plan to dismantle Te Pūkenga, re-establish polytechs
The government has confirmed its plan to break up Te Pūkenga / New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and re-establish independent polytechnics. ...2 days ago
What an embarrassing situation. A shonkey PM supported by a “nothing to see here” media. Thank goodness that somewhere in the world people with integrity decided that enough was enough and that the world needed to know the extent of corruption. Shame it had to be a bunch of foreign journos running with the Olympic torch on this one (bar the likes of Nicky Hagar who I believe is looking into yet another scandal?).
Thank goodness for “dog with a bone” Politicians like David Cunliffe and praise be to leftie bloggers!
Yep, Cunliffe excellent on Morning Report this morning.
+ 1
Until he was made to look stupid by this http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/381366/oio-satisfied-land-purchase
IR you would have to be one of the more stupid trolls we have …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11631031
I’m sorry, who is looking stupid?
A few hours after Labour does a sucker punch the OIO folds and re-opens the review of the Onetahi farmland sale
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11631031
Seems our troll, like so many of their kind, has problems with premature expostulation….
Ah no. Re-opening the review doesn’t mean anything.
It means that the person who lobbied to have it reopened doesn’t look stupid, and you can’t understand that, because you’re twisted by hate.
No, just waiting for the actual facts.
…and making false assertions, motivated by malice.
No false assertions made. No malice either. You, on the other hand, seem driven by it.
Malicious cretin spotting, 101.
In stage one, the cretin calls someone “stupid”, unwittingly describing himself. In stage two, this is pointed out, and in stage three, the cretin denies it all.
I think it is telling that none of the mainstream media outlets in NZ were involved in the initial investigation of the Mossack Fonseca papers.
Indeed, I just briefly skimmed an article on NZHerald.co.nz blaming the Greens for bringing it to light! Thank goodness for the likes of Cunfliffe, the Greens & Matt Nippert!!!!
The criticism was the hamfisted, and frankly dishonest, way the Greens offered this to the media.
“Wah wah wah, the Greens made Daddy launder money.”
Things are starting to unravel, these are the facts and there must be answers, no more tricky answers. Well done David Cunliff finding this information to help expose the shonkey dealings taking place in NZ
Stinks to high heaven!
Hopefully, all opposition parties will keep this one fired up and burning hot when Parliament resumes next week. Msm journalists need to also do the same, proving their worth as the proxy of the people, by exposing FJK and his ministers!
FJK telling his lawyer Whitney to have a word in the ear of the minister of revenue McClay, in an effort to prevent the IRD taking action against NZ’s foreign tax rules, demonstrates there is definite corruption in the ranks of NatzKEY! This is serious!
Something has to come out to corner FJK through his involvement here, enough to have him removed from office!
If not, then we are really in big trouble!!
That would be nice but I don’t think we actually have any laws against corruption in this country. And even if we did would they get applied?
We have one overriding law: Parliament is sovereign.
In case you don’t understand, it means whoever controls parliament can do whatever they fucking want.
No, the Sovereign is sovereign. That’s why she’s called the Sovereign. If parliament does whatever it fucking wants, it runs the risk of being dissolved by the Sovereign’s local representative.
@ Magisterium
Very funny. Are you just back from a visit to Planet Key or did you just forget to take your medication?
Even if 90% of Mossack Fonseca’s deal’s are legit, the problem for Key is that because of their total lack of transparency, no-one knows which ones are good and which ones are bad.
These secret arrangements reverse the usual burden of proof; it has to be assumed that they are ALL bad. Any association at all with any secret tax-haven entity must be judged as criminal until provable otherwise.
Good point.
Exactly. Essentially we need a law that says and and all dealings with tax havens is criminal and all assets of the person with such dealings will be confiscated.
We would need a list of all countries that act as tax havens and we would have to not be a tax haven.
Is that really what Mossack Fonseca has written on their t-shirts?
“Because taxes are for poor people”?
Unbelievable. Maybe it’s a set-up…
It’s photoshopped 😉
It’s also bs. The ‘poor’ pay virtually no net tax in NZ. Everything they get comes from the middle class and the wealthy.
HOW do the poor avoid GST?
They don’t. Nor do the non-poor. The non-poor just pay a whole lot more and don’t get the handouts.
Apart from the free education and healthcare and the rule of law and an educated workforce, and defending democracy and human rights against National Party values, no handouts at all.
Let’s face it, the vast majority of us are grateful for it too. Why are you such trash?
Oh you want some examples? Working for Families. Rent subsidies. Low cost housing. Transport subsidies. The list goes on, and on, and on, and…
No, you moronic numpty: I’m giving you examples of the subsidies the “non-poor” get. Why is basic English communication so difficult for you? It’s because your opinions are twisted by hate.
And I’m giving you examples of subsidies the poor get.
And you made another false assertion: that the wealthy get nothing back, when in fact they are the biggest beneficiaries.
“that the wealthy get nothing back, when in fact they are the biggest beneficiaries.”
Really? The poor get the same as the non-poor. Plus many other benefits and subsidies.
The wealthy get the same as the poor, plus vastly more money and capital and they don’t even pay tax. All the money and capital relies 100% on their living in a social framework that supports them: gardeners and cooks and drivers and politicians who must be bought and lawyers to hide their income.
Policing, a fire service, the internet, the rule of law, so that when their greed pollutes and destroys they can sometimes be forced (accompanied by cheers from the cheap seats) to hire even more expensive lawyers to duck their personal responsibility.
Not to mention (for a large percentage) Mummy and Daddy to inherit it all from in the first place.
What good choices they made 🙄
“The wealthy get the same as the poor, plus vastly more money and capital and they don’t even pay tax. ”
Where do you get this stuff? Tax is paid on income. Wealthy people will have paid tax when they earned that wealth. Any capital they have has been earned by someone.
“All the money and capital relies 100% on their living in a social framework that supports them: gardeners and cooks and drivers and politicians who must be bought and lawyers to hide their income.”
Do you have any actual evidence for these delusions?
“Policing, a fire service, the internet, the rule of law…”
Is available to all, paid for primarily by high income earners.
SO
no net tax in NZ. is untrue.
The richest get the handouts from the Gnats, and the poor get poorer.
If you want a healthy economy you need a government that realises that taxing the richest and letting the poorest in society spend those taxes, in the end,makes everyone richer.
IR you need to change your mind-set and realise that redistributing wealth downwards is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy society. Sure you can debate detail as about how you tax the rich and how you distribute the wealth to the poorer in society, but you must realise that a government that allows an increase in the disparity between the richest and poorest in society is damaging everyone in that society.
We have a government that has shown it is prepared to put the whole country in debt so it can give hand outs to the richest in the country, while cutting back on a wide range of social services for the poorest. The Gnats don’t even realise what an economy is, they think they are running a business, dohh.
“If you want a healthy economy you need a government that realises that taxing the richest and letting the poorest in society spend those taxes, in the end,makes everyone richer.”
That’s sort of what we do now. The rich and middle class pay virtually all of the tax in NZ, the poor pay virtually none, net of benefits.
The rich and middle class: those who have benefited the most from there being a society in the first place. You ungrateful, tiresome, graceless cretin.
Oh so in your world the rich and middle class benefit more than the poor? The same non-poor who pay their own medical insurance? Who pay higher school fees? Who most likely use less (subsidised) public transport? You jealous, one dimensional leftie.
They most certainly do, especially those who are in a position to “minimise their tax burden”. You speak of one dimension while only looking at one side of the ledger – the social welfare budget.
I find it funny that so many of you wingnut cretins reveal yourselves in your projections about me. You cannot conceive that someone successful and happy would give a shit about the less fortunate.
Paging Dr. Dunning-Kruger.
“They most certainly do, especially those who are in a position to “minimise their tax burden”. ”
The non-poor pay most of the tax. Fact. Whichever way you slice it.
“You cannot conceive that someone successful and happy would give a shit about the less fortunate.”
Actually I identify with that quite easily. I care very much about the poor, but my solutions empower people, yours enslave them.
Meanwhile, on Earth, poverty enslaves twice as many children (below 60% of median household income) as it did in 1984 (who benefited from that? Don’t answer! Look the other way! Call me jealous!), and your Daddy personally oversaw a law change which made it easier for child sex traffickers to hide their cash.
“Meanwhile, on Earth, poverty enslaves twice as many children (below 60% of median household income) as it did in 1984 ”
That’s not poverty. Poverty is when people have no access to food, clothing, power, clean water. Capitalism is reducing poverty across the planet, which is why silly measurements like the one you use has been devised by the left.
Pathetic: faced with an unwelcome message you shoot the messenger. Shall we measure it by the increased rate of “third world” infectious disease admissions to NZ hospitals, or is The Lancet a hotbed of Socialism in your litany of witless derivative denials?
“Pathetic: faced with an unwelcome message you shoot the messenger. ”
Pathetic. Failure to discern the difference between a comment about calculating poverty and shooting the messenger.
Preventable infectious diseases. Hospital admissions. The Lancet. Nah, blame the Left for pointing it out.
“Preventable infectious diseases. ”
By preventable, you must include by actions of people themselves. We have a first world water supply, for example. This isn’t India. Meanwhile…
http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/rheumatic-fever.
The Lancet cites poor housing conditions. They blame income inequality. You’ll deny that exists, of course, and then I can quote the OECD’s estimates of how much the rise in the GINI has cost us in lost potential and GDP, and you’ll move the goalposts, and generally be a tiresome cretin.
Can’t be bothered. You are motivated by hate, your arguments are lies, and even your criminal money laundering Daddy has (belatedly, reluctantly) acknowledged that there’s a problem.
“They blame income inequality. ”
Newsflash…inequality is not the same as poverty. You raised the issue of poverty. There is poverty in NZ, but mostly self imposed. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight it, but interviewing your keyboard and getting confused between inequality and poverty isn’t helpful.
Baker et al.
Keep twisting and lying, hatey boy.
Edit: mostly self imposed. Twisted hate speech, shithead: the unemployed crashed the global economy and doubled unemployment did they? What a loser.
“These findings support the need for stronger prevention efforts for infectious diseases…”
Like the rheumatic fever program, free doctors visits for children under 13…
“and reinforce the need to reduce ethnic and social inequalities and to address disparities in broad social determinants such as income levels, housing conditions, and access to health services.”
More confusion. Inequality is not poverty. Inequality is an inevitable outcome of all economic systems, and is mitigated in NZ by a substantial income redistribution system (tax and WFF) and welfare system.
So if there’s no poverty in New Zealand, cretin, who are these poor people you cite who are getting all the benefits? What a loser.
Back to the OECD and the rise in the GINI.
“So if there’s no poverty in New Zealand, cretin, who are these poor people you cite who are getting all the benefits?”
You don’t have to be in poverty to be poor. In the NZ context ‘poor’ is defined as “lacking sufficient money to live at a standard considered comfortable or normal in a society.”
I suggest two things for you:
1. Take a comprehension lesson. You are confusing terms rather too often.
2. Travel. Even a quick trip to Fiji will show you real poverty.
Tell that to people begging on the streets and families living in cars, and make sure to explain to them that it’s their own fault.
“Tell that to people begging on the streets and families living in cars, and make sure to explain to them that it’s their own fault.”
OAB there is absolutely no reason for anyone in NZ to be begging or living in cars. There is ample financial and other support from Gvt and NGO’s. We have an increasing problem with people who are unable or unwilling to access this support, and that’s where I get involved, because that’s where I see the need. You can carry on thinking this is some fault of a neo-liberal experiment if you wish, but your delusions are impoverishing of the mind.
Hi International Rescue,
First, relative to a lot of these people, ‘the poor’ includes those who most of us would consider high earners (e.g., earning over $100,000). They pay tax but are well out of the income league of these tax avoiders. So I took the t-shirt as referencing the perspective of the Mossack Fonseca ‘beneficiaries’.
Second, the poorest people in society pay in ways far more devastating than through taxes. They pay in their health, their prospects, their community (which have typically been dismantled, sometimes, repeatedly, over the last decades), their mental state, the removal of their dignity.
1. People earning over $100,00o pa cannot be poor, unless they are hopeless.
2. What nonsense. In NZ there is no reason for the poor to suffer as you imagine. We have universal health care and education (being made even better by partnership schools). We have a comprehensive welfare safety net, with overlapping NGO support services. The only people who could fit you alarmist description are those who are simply too hopeless to help themselves.
1. *whoosh* Looks like PG is going to have to use smaller words.
Nah, you’re wasting your time; International Rescue is channeling Bill English with the judicious use of the word “hopeless”.
And why not?
Or should we go back to workhouses?
It’s a piss-take teeshirt…
http://www.redbubble.com/people/redcowtees/works/21487355-mossack-fonseca-because-taxes-are-for-poor-people
Yep, only 18 bucks on line. I’m tempted to buy one.
Do you know that the word “gullible” isn’t actually in the dictionary? Try and look it up.
We’ll need to see more of a polling impact to put either Key or the electorate in play. As PM I would call a snap election now rather than grind remains of term out.
Not even Budget will clean this off media.
Still, good to see Cunliffe delegated to actually do something.
Hopefully he drip feeds stories over a 6 month spread.
Water on rock.
Cunliffe is the most able Labour caucus member to be doing this kind of high profile work. Why Little demoted him to unranked bottom of the caucus pile is unintelligible.
Done right this will totally destabilise Key’s leadership.
“Done right this will totally destabilise Key’s leadership”
And there lies the issue. They should be attacking McLay for being swayed, once he steps down attack the PM for putting him in that situation.
Why does the left (both Labour and the Greens in this case) always try to go straight at Key before they have anything on him!
The left need to read ‘The Art of War’ “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”
@ Bob
You ALWAYS kill the leader first.
@ CV
“Why Little demoted him (Cunliffe) to unranked bottom of the caucus pile is unintelligible.”
Colonial Viper: There you go again trying to apply reason to the activities of a tribe. Tribes have their own social norms which they slavishly embrace, even when they are counterproductive and self-destructive. Penalties for violating the tribe’s norms are excommunication and banishment.
I forgot, was I describing the Labour or National caucus?
Not even Budget will clean this off media.
Take a look at the Herald or Fairfax, it’s already been and gone.
As a voter I want the power of recall so that we can directly hold these MPs to account.
Good luck Draco. It ain’t gonna come from Labour.
NZ First has a platform calling for binding referendums, which would include recall elections.
Great post. Good to see Labour and the Greens working on unravelling this disgusting government intervention on IRD to keep those in the 0.1% convicted polluters richer than ever and paying no NZ tax while buying up NZ real estate.
0.1%? What happened to the 1%?
The .1 percent are the true villains: What Americans don’t understand about income inequality
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/14/the_1_percent_are_the_real_villains_what_americans_dont_understand_about_income_inequality_partner/
“We are the 99 percent” is a great slogan, but is it distracting our attention from a sinister reality? There’s strong evidence that it’s not the 1 percent you should worry about—it’s the 0.1 percent. That decimal point makes a big difference.
Over the last decade, a gigantic share of America’s income and wealth gains has flowed to this group, the wealthiest one out of 1,000 households. These are the wildly exotic and rapidly growing plants in our economic hothouse. Their habits and approaches to life are far divorced from the rest of us, and if we let them, they will soon cut off all our air and light.”
Well when the reporter Corin Dann presenting this on the news acts like a Government defence lawyer to sum up the piece, its a much easier ride for National. (News clip at top of page)
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/john-keys-lawyers-involvement-in-lobbying-government-over-tax-laws-revealed?autoPlay=4867168008001
Another one for Blip’s list.
A statement is only a lie if the speaker knows or suspects it to be false at the time it is spoken.
The vast majority of Blip’s list, and this latest item, cannot be proven to meet that standard.
Key’s defenders out in force.
Er, no.
Don’t think I need to say anything more than that, really.
@ Lanthanide
Basic ethics: There are lies of commission (when you know it’s not true) and lies of omission (when you withhold critical facts in order to deceive).
Lanthanide, when you say, “A statement is only a lie if the speaker knows or suspects it to be false at the time it is spoken,” is it because you don’t understand ethics or because you want to mislead us with your lie of omission?
Good work by Cunliffe and the Greens. Would love to see something at some point from both parties about reforming the OIO.
Have to admit to a certain degree of shade frauds at the thought of increasing stress some people will be feeling. Decide to leave the autocorrect in place 😉
@ weka
“Would love to see something at some point from both parties about reforming the OIO. ”
Whatever good they did would be immediately undone by the next Nats government. I’ll bet $100 on that.
Crikey mate, that’s pretty dark.
Yawn. nothing here is the smoking gun you are trying to turn it into. It’s another straw perhaps. but not the final one.
it’s hardly criminal any of this. And we still haven’t seen a single new zealand entity who has evaded taxes via mossack fonseca.
Last I checked, that was exactly the problem.
Rather a meaningless argument, since the issues raised from the very beginning have related to New Zealand being used as a tax haven by foreign entities.
Since when has New Zealand been the world’s tax policeman?
It’s OK Henry Filth, currently NZ is rather a long way from bearing that particular burden.
You should be more worried about the burdensome ‘policing roles’ NZ has already heaved onto its shoulders.
You know, all those other aspects of being a good ‘global citizen’ – the kinds of things that we supposedly relied upon to gain a Security Council seat.
Why, for example, did we ever become the world’s policeman on whaling? Why did we ever become the world’s policeman for peacekeeping (almost literally some of ‘the world’s policemen’)? Why did we ever become the world’s policeman on global terrorism (you know, and agree to all those restrictions on freedom)?
All entirely senseless commitments that have absolutely nothing to do with us, don’t you agree?
Seriously, are the benefits of good-faith cooperation completely lost on you?
“Not criminal” is not an appropriate measure for the conduct of a Prime Minister.
I Am Not A Crook.
9/5/2016 has a delightful ring about it….
Just the other day Trolls were trying to fill the blogs with how there was absolutely no connection with NZ in the Panama papers even though we are mentioned 60,000 times and convicted foreign polluters now have ended up with NZ farms…. yep mossack fonseca is only the 4th largest tax haven firm, there are three others much larger. This is the tip of the ice burg.
As for “haven’t seen a single new zealand entity who has evaded taxes via mossack fonseca”
NZ are still waiting to see John Keys tax returns…
@ save NZ
These tax haven trusts don’t go on an individual’s tax returns. That’s the beauty of them. You will need to somehow see all his financial assets. Only the GCSB and WikiLeaks can get that for you.
New Zealand has income tax returns, which do not measure wealth. Wealth is held in various vehicles, and any income is attributable to the vehicles, not an individual.
Or ayou really as naive as to think that. . .
+ 1 (Henry Filth)
“NZ are still waiting to see John Keys tax returns”
New Zealand is still waiting to see Andrew Little’s tax returns.
After he promised to table them in Parliament too. Anyone know when he is going to carry out that promise? Or is it like so many of the things he says. Just a load of bs.
He did.
Rubbish. The material that was published was only the figures from the EPMU and then Parliament, whoever there pays him. of the salary and wages they paid him and the PAYE that was deducted.
They weren’t his actual tax return.
John Key could have matched him by saying that his pay as PM was X and that he was taxed at 33% on the salary. That would have matched what Little produced.
It is conceivable that Little doesn’t have any other income at all but it hard to believe he doesn’t have even one bank account that pays some interest.
Let’s see his real tax return, which he promised, not some of the numbers he might have used to prepare it.
Oops theres another pin head.
“Oops theres another pin head”
I presume you mean your brain.
Try doing a tax return where you put in ONLY your salary and wages.
Ignore totally the $10,000 in interest and the $10,000 in dividends you have.
Ignore, like David Shearer, the interest on the very large bank accounts you have overseas.
Then see what the IRD are going to do to you.
Nope dancing on the head of a pin Alwyn.
I thought an erudite person such as your self would have got the reference.
Sigh
@ Nessalt (10) … OK. We will wait to see what comes out on 10 May, when a whole lot of information from the Panama papers is released. Expected to be some expose`, with names etc being revealed!
can’t wait. moment of truth. h fee etc etc
now 10/5……..NEVAH FORGET
don’t you feel just a little desperate pinning your hopes on these hail mary plays?
-Nessalt
All straws are welcome. There seems to be a never-ending supply, so keep them coming!
Meant to include in my previous post. Excellent work from David Cunliffe and James Shaw. Great to see Labour and NZ Greens working well together on this.
But they’re not working together. David is talking about farm ownership and the OIO, and James is talking about Key changing government policy for his mate.
They’re unrelated issues.
@ Lanthanide (11.1) .. the two issues might well be unrelated, but they are still connected, getting back to the same thing. Possible incompetence in the OIO and likely corruption in government, with both issues in turn pointing back at FJK.
But they’re not working together.
@ Lanthanide (11.1.1.1) … I concede you are not wrong there.
Quite. We can’t celebrate ‘working well together’ if it just means fortunately not standing on one another’s toes.
Arguably this is an example of them not working together for the best impact.
As far as I can tell, both stories first came to light yesterday – Cunliffe’s in the morning news, and the Green’s sometime later in the day (I first heard it on the evening news, and again this morning on the radio).
While there is some benefit to having two stories out at the same time, I think we would have had more of a lasting impact in the media news cycle if Cunliffe’s story was left to run today and this weekend, and the Green’s hadn’t come out with their story until Monday or maybe Tuesday next week.
The MSM has a short attention span and largely prefer to concentrate on a couple of stories at a time. By working together and spreading these stories out over time, they could have had a bigger impact than what we’re seeing now.
Guessing the Greens have not hired their next comms manager yet.
Or their next chief of staff.
same issue from different directions…corruption
@ Lathanide
“But they’re not working together.”
If you work for the SIS or GCSB, you can tap all their communications and know that. Otherwise your statement is pure conjecture.
By the same token, assuming they are working together is pure conjecture.
And, I’ve already offered an opinion that suggests if they were working together, they would have delayed the Green’s story until this upcoming week, instead of having both stories appear in the news on the same day.
How the IOA didn’t bother to do a thorough search for good character of the owners of the Tannery who bought the farm in Taranaki, before permitting them to buy the farm, beggars belief. To neglect to do a simple Google search and find they had serious charges brought against them for polluting a river in Argentina and to discharge a “good character” pass to the buyers, requires some heads to roll and resignations to apply. Just how many more slack decisions have been made and permissions granted to buyers of our beautiful land is a disturbing prospect to think about.
Now I read in the Listener this morning in Jane Clifton’s column that metropolitan real estate agents in Auckland are not unfamiliar with homes being bought with “suitcases full of the readies” – since when has it become acceptable for very big purchases to be bought with swags of bills of notes – surely the car yard franchises and real estate companies are complicit in this for not advising the Govt Depts who should be notified, that this is happening. Jane Clifton was referring to the 50/60 people that China wishes to have extradited for corruption – shouldn’t this area be investigated and the companies receiving this money charged for aiding and abetting.
Methinks this is the beginning of the end of this current government and it can’t come soon enough, we will all be wearing nose pegs if this continues.
Somewhere buried deep in a filing cabinet must be the smoking gun, the memo directly from John Key ordering the IOA to look the other way. Finding this memo is now your holy quest.
There are two possibilities.
1. Key didn’t realise that the law change he personally lobbied for in 2011 would be used to launder money, in which case he’s incompetent and a little bit dull.
2. He did realise, and went ahead anyway because…?
The thing is, money laundering. As a direct result of the PM’s personal involvement (sly or bumbling, who cares?), we are now a money laundering enterprise.
Keep twisting and turning and avoiding that to your heart’s content.
Smoking schmoking.
” “suitcases full of the readies””
That is very interesting. I’m pretty sure that banks will ask if deposits of cash are over a certain amount. I (vaguely) remember attending an anti money laundering session while temping at a merchant bank in London decades ago.
Given the preponderance since then of electronic transactions, large cash transactions seem even more suspect.
What makes you think they didn’t do a thorough search?
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/381366/oio-satisfied-land-purchase
“While the OIO was conducting a search of its records, the OIO noted that Ceol & Muir’s registered office is at the Panama office of Mossack Fonseca,” the agency said.
“The OIO has no evidence that would suggest that this connection with Mossack Fonseca is in breach of any laws.“
You are boring …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11631031
OIO decides to reopen application.
From your own source:
“Yesterday it released a statement said it was confident due process was followed and emphasised the foreign buyers had to “be and remain of good character” for OIO approval.”
Nothing has changed.
Yet they’ve re-opened the application.
Since the events being discussed occurred before the application was originally lodged, the fact that they have re-opened it in order to further investigate these events just tells us that although “due process was followed”, the process itself was clearly flawed.
Actually no, at least not until the application is processed.
If work, of any sort, has to be re-done, it tells you the work wasn’t done to the proper standard to begin with.
I find it difficult that you would seriously try to argue that point.
I guess work could be re-done for shits and giggles, but government departments don’t usually do things for shits and giggles.
No, it simply means new information has come to light. It may or may not affect the outcome. My point has simply been that this is an OIA investigation, yet it is portrayed as a hit on Key. Another silly bluster by the left.
“No, it simply means new information has come to light.”
Ahh, there’s you problem.
This information existed and was publicly accessible at the time the first application was processed. It is not “new” information, it is “old” information that they did not properly account for.
That’s the whole point. They didn’t do their job properly because they missed information that was material to the application that was easily publicly accessible.
This isn’t information that was in a locked toilet stall with “beware of the leopard” scrawled on it in a basement of a disused local planning office.
“My point has simply been that this is an OIA investigation, yet it is portrayed as a hit on Key. Another silly bluster by the left.”
Please show me anyone who is saying that the OIO incompetence is a “hit on Key”. I don’t recall anyone saying that. What I recall is various discussions about how much of a problem it is for the government that he leads, and that it raises questions about the competence of the party he leads to hold the government benches.
Perhaps you got this issued confused with Key’s personal dealings with a lawyer who successfully lobbied the government to change its review process over legislation that a government department had determined to be ethically questionable and needed review?
“Please show me anyone who is saying that the OIO incompetence is a “hit on Key”.”
You’re kidding, right? Read the article. Then read the heading.
@IR:
I take it by your reply that you concede all other points I raised, and that you therefore agree the work wasn’t done properly the first time and that they didn’t do a thorough search.
“You’re kidding, right? Read the article. Then read the heading.”
I see that you have poor reading comprehension (not surprising given you tried to argue that a government departing re-doing their work is not a sign that they did the work poorly the first time):
“Mossack Fonseca bites National on the arse”
Nowhere does the heading say “John Key”.
As for the text, there are clearly two separate issues being discussed – both together are bad for Key, but the specific one we are talking about in this comment thread is the OIO one, which reflects on Key’s government and party, but not directly on him. The bulk of this part of the text is quotations from David Cunliffe, where he also does not mention Key once.
The OIO one points out that they have approved 99.75% of all requests since 2011 (I believe when the rules were last updated by this current government). In other words they’re a wet bus ticket.
So, nothing in the article talks about the OIO issue being “a hit on Key” like you claim, instead it talks about his crappy government.
I guess you have internally made a permanent conflation between “National party” and “John Key”. Pretty good demonstration that the party really doesn’t have anything else going for it…
Micky, you’re right, he really is boring. I’ve wasted a heap of time dealing with IR’s inability to read or think.
Labour and Greens seem to be finding their common core? Good. 🙂
John Key’s legacy: He unified Labour and the Greens 🙂
Why is Shewan leading the review and not the IRD?
How about Adam Feeley? Now that would be far too truthful.
I suspect that over the next couple of weeks the media and political focus on this issue and on Key’s actions will be intense.
Yeah sure, given past history, I suspect MSM will bury it.
“Yeah sure, given past history, I suspect MSM will bury it.”
Yep. Quite right, Richard Christie. I “can’t wait” for the “Look – over there – Pandas” moment,
Any minute now.
It’s a conspiracy. Every single employee of every newspaper, radio station, and website is in on it.
Nah, just their editorial overseers and boards.
I know that the lefties on here are desperately trying to find something, anything to pin on john Key, that the lefties think that this, finally, is the smoking gun that will lead to John Keys eternal damnation
It isn’t and that’ll be reflected in the next few polls but keep up the good work
So what do you think about the disclosures? Endlessly repeating “nothing to see here” is not going to work.
Endlessly repeating “the PM’s corrupt” is not going to work.
FIFY, you see the difference is, I have 7 years of evidence to back my version up.
Let’s run through this story shall we:
Ken asks John for help, John says not my portfolio talk to Todd, John carries on being PM…
Wow, that will really stick to him! I can almost see the Teflon coating peeling off now! PR, how dare you say nothing to see here!
John says that Ken changed firms and happened to store John’s money at the new firm, a firm whose relationship to a current tax scandal is questionable. It turns out that Ken owns said company and has been associated with it for a couple of decades. The PM is obliged to be absolutely certain of his financial and legal dealings when explakning his actions to the NZ electorate. A massive inaccuracy (or imprecision at best) like that raises questions as to whether he is actually operating in NZ’s best interests. Whether his mishandling is by accident or by design is of no importance. He appears to be acting in a manner that is unfit for the office he holds.
Anyway, John can’t remember and it all depends on what hat he was wearing at the time.
Was it this one?
https://clubfantasci.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/ehp-logo-square-300×265.png?w=529
Perfecto!
.. Ken tells Todd that John said he should set up a meeting with Ken’s pals in the industry. Todd jumps like a good boy to do what the boss wants.
Nope, can’t describe that as peddling influence. Nothing to see here.
Apparently endlessly repeating “the PM’s not corrupt” is going to work.
The difference is, in this country people are raised on the legal presumption of ‘innocent until proven guilty’, running around shouting GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY with no proof just makes you look like the Labour Party
No-one’s being charged with a crime here and facing a jury and judge. Your hyperbole says a lot. Meanwhile in the rest of the world, people look at evidence long before proof is required. There’s plenty of evidence surfacing, various people are asking questions and wanting things investigated. That’s what happens in a democracy.
Hey, I’m just reading the email the PM’s lawyer sent:
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/keys-lawyer-lobbied-over-foreign-trusts-greens-ck-188356
“The PM asked me to contact you to arrange a meeting at your convenience with a small group of industry leaders ..”
Either he’s over-egging the strength of the PM’s endorsement, or Key is ‘misremembering’ it by claiming he said go talk to the minister and nothing more.
Who to believe? If only there were prior form to guide us ..
Lol, I’m betting they’re both as slippery as each other. Hope the lawyer throws Key under the bus when the time comes.
Notice he said PM.
Not my friend John.
From a voters point of view, nothing.
Now if theres some actual evidence that links John Key or another National MP then yes it absolutely is a big deal but at the moment all you’ve got is insinuations
The people who vote John Key probably won’t change their votes over this or if they do they’ll vote NZFirst as a protest but they won’t vote Labour/Green, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if National don’t receive a slight bump in the polls as people get tired of the lefts constant “boy who cried wolf” act
You already gave your assertions on an imaginary majority of voters’ point of view in the previous post. The question regarded what you think.
Linking them to what? There is already evidence of the link between Whitney and Key, and the emails show that Whitney asked Key about the issue, got a fairly cosy hearing with McLay and ultimately got the outcome he desired. As far as “actual evidence” goes, that’s about as “actual” as you can get. It isn’t proof of wrongdoing, but it’s essentially incontrovertible evidence that the PM was linked to one of the main lobbyists, and that said lobbyist received a very sympathetic hearing with McLay on Key’s recommendation. An impartial investigation is definitely warranted.
My opinion is this is a nothing, belt-way interest only story. Whiney asked Key and Key him nothing to do with him and directed him to correct person.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/381366/oio-satisfied-land-purchase
“The OIO has no evidence that would suggest that this connection with Mossack Fonseca is in breach of any laws.”
Unless the left have more then its game over for this smear.
So you still have no opinion on the issue, only on who’s interested. Typical tory obfuscation.
“Puckish Rogue” endlessly presents the same claim; “this is nothing, Key’s support will rise”. He takes the position that everything Key and National does is clean, and mocks those who say otherwise. No one, however, believes that Key and his team are spotless and Puckish Rogue’s “superior” tone rings untrue. It’s not possible that he genuinely holds those shallow views so his reasons for being here on The Standard and holding so fast to his line have to be strategic and intended to destabilize and disrupt.
Can you prove anything illegal has occurred? No, then stop trolling
@ Puckish Rogue … we will see what’s exposed next month shall we?
Well if its more of the same insinuations then it’ll be a big yawn, I prefer the results of the polls to gauge the public reaction
“I prefer the results of the polls to gauge the public reaction”
Well, my dear Puckers, the first post-Panama Papers Poll has come out and what do we find ?
(1) National down to its lowest rating in any Post-Election Poll.
(2) Opposition Bloc’s 54% = Highest in any poll since last Election
(3) Oppo Bloc’s lead over Govt Bloc by 8 points = Largest since last Election
(4) Govt’s 46% and Broader Right’s 47% = Lowest in any poll since last Election.
True, Labour’s also down. but in the scheme of things, that pales into insignificance. Since February, the Nats are down 5.5 points, whereas Labour have slipped by just the one point (Roy Morgans).
**************************************************************
Story breaks Early April (4th-5th), Shewan review announced April 11. Roy Morgan fieldwork = 4-17 April.
UMR Research Poll (April 14-18) says 57% “Concerned” / 23% “Not Concerned” about NZ’s reputation as a tax haven.
(40% of Nats “Concerned” / 36% “Not Concerned”)
Thinks he’s clocked off.
Red delusion is now on duty.
More details from UMR Research Poll
46% said the Key Govt had handled the fallout “Poorly” / with just 21% saying it was being handled “Well”
52% said the Shewan review was an “inadequate” response to the issue.
All before the latest, much more specific and damaging revelations.
illegal is a bit of a red herring – appearance matters as much as fact in govt
and thats what the rules say – not my opinion
You are spot on there framu, and the appearance of the opposition trying to pin this on John Key when his part in this was to say “I’m not the minister, talk to Todd McLay” just goes to re-enforce that this is nothing but a personal smear campaign by an opposition who has nothing else to do with their time.
They do it time and again and it always backfires!
H-fee, living in a leafy suburb, blind trust, now this…insanity
no – your 100% incorrect re: what the cabinet manual has to say on this
keys lawyer meets key > key (according to the lawyer) says that they are looking into trusts > lawyer lobbies govt > lobby group gets what it wants
thats the chain of events that causes the appearance of a conflict of interest
stop painting those who are central to this as the victims – they are grown adults who should be able to either explain them selves or stand up to a look from the relevant bodies
Bob.
Just another paid or deluded supporter of the uber rich.
Loves tax havens.
Paul, I am neither paid by, or a supporter of the super rich, and I particularly hate tax havens (on a global scale) and (on a side note) a big fan of the UBI.
What I am a fan of is strong opposition, the issue I have is it has been so long since we have had one I am starting to give up hope. This obsession with trying to pin absolutely everything to John Key directly is starting to do my fucking head in!
The opposition have a chance here to take down Todd McLay and pin his demise back to the PM putting him in a compromised position. Instead, as usual, the opposition have gone off half cocked, got two steps ahead of themselves and will once again fall flat on their face.
The problem for the left is that they have falsely cried ‘crisis’ or ‘corruption’ so many times that no-one is listening anymore. The ‘moment of truth’ is now in political folklore.
There is nothing in this story, yet Labour and the Greens are doing their usual histrionics. They just don’t learn that Key is immensely popular, and they’ve been trying this personal attack agenda on him for a decade and failed every time.
That must be true, because the IRD is full of Lefty Greeny types.
Meanwhile, money laundering for crims and terrorists is profitable enough for you to look the other way? Your lies are showing 😆
Do you have any evidence of this money laundering by ‘crims and terrorists’? A real example? Anything?
Of course I have evidence, hatey-boy: my employees, the Inland Revenue Department, mentioned it specifically as a reason not to relax the rules.
Also, dupe, the adverts from the money-laundering law-firms.
Also, loyal unquestioning authoritarian team member, my employees, the Justice Department:
Also, why are you cuddling up to crims, trash?
“Of course I have evidence, hatey-boy: my employees, the Inland Revenue Department, mentioned it specifically as a reason not to relax the rules.”
Ah, evidence? Not warnings about something that might, maybe, could, possibly happen. Evidence of it actually happening.
Cough up.
No crim-cuddler, if I had direct evidence I’d take it to the Police. There’s a reason the IRD warned against your Daddy’s money laundering plan. The reason being that money laundering is a thing.
You’ve got your tongue stuck so far up the Prime Minster that you can ‘t abide the fact that he personally lobbied for the money laundering rules to be relaxed.
So far, the best you can do is pretend that no-one’s taken advantage yet. That’s because your opinions are twisted by hate.
On the contrary, the thing about this one is that nobody seems to be needing to try especially hard at all.
“I know that the lefties on here are desperately trying to find something, anything to pin on john Key, that the lefties think that this, finally, is the smoking gun that will lead to John Keys eternal damnation”
Citation needed. Go on, give us 3 credible links to lefties saying this is the One that will bring Key down. If you can’t do that, I’ll happily spend the rest of the day calling you a liar, because here you are again making shit up, about the left, and using it to push your CT-esque agenda.
and I care about your opinion of me why exactly?
Fair enough.
Puckish Rogue, spending another day on the Standard as a liar and RW shill.
He/she is a complete tosser.
do you add anything of value to the world? anything, no matter how minor.
How about these examples?
From the original post, at the beginning.
“Maybe there is a God and if so she has to be a left winger. Latest events are trashing John Key’s carefully constructed persona …”.
And at the end
” I suspect that over the next couple of weeks the media and political focus on this issue and on Key’s actions will be intense. And his Teflon coating will be shown to have been scoured.”
Then from Heather at comment 2
“Things are starting to unravel”
or Colonial Viper at comment 6.1
“Done right this will totally destabilise Key’s leadership”
or Whispering Kate at comment 12
“Methinks this is the beginning of the end of this current government and it can’t come soon enough”.
They all look to be examples of what PR is proposing, don’t they?
None of those things suggest the belief that this latest scandal is The smoking gun that will damn Key forever. Which is what PR was claiming.
Of course many people think that Key’s teflon is wearing off, and that it’s a reasonably significant point in the wind down of his career and National’s goverment, lots of analysis on that. But that’s not what PR claimed or based his line of argument on. He told some outright lies about what lefties are doing, and he did this intentional misleading in order to push a certain agenda.
Apparently sarcasm and hyperbole is unknown to the left…
Hyperbole is very well known to the left.
They just don’t realise that most of their comments about Key and the current government involve a very large dose of it.
How about from mary_a on Cunliffe
“And why was that? Because FJK and his corrupt mob of miscreants, used a compliant msm to take David Cunliffe down, knowing full well what he is capable of doing to them”
She probably thinks that that is simply an uncontentious statement of fact with no hyperbole at all..
alwyn you are dribbling again,
here, have a napkin.
Those polls already showing the Gnats at 42.5% and plummeting?
Obviously, it’s all been a series of ghastly misunderstandings, Puckers.
PR, just keep repeating “John Key is not a crook, John Key is not a crook, John Key is not a crook………”
I remember a friend working for the public service saying a few years back that all sorts of people could walk straight into National ministers’ offices that normal people couldn’t. This sort of situation is probably endemic to this government.
That’s called “knowing people”.
Now it’s obvious why David Cunliffe should have stayed as Leader – He is feared by Steven Joyce and all the Nats, and rightly so. He has done a great job on exposing this so far, as have the Greens. I have no doubt there will be more, much more, and joy of joys, Parliament is back next week!!! Looking forward to Key passing out due to excessive sucking in of the breath!!
Let me explain something to you (it won’t help but I’ll try anyway)
National do not fear The Cunliffe. National took out The Cunliffe because The Cunliffe was leader of the opposition. National took out Goff because he was leader of the opposition, National took out Shearer because he was leader of the opposition and National will be taking out Little because he is leader of the opposition.
National are taking them out because of their position not because they’re feared.
strange….I always thought that Labour selected its own leaders….guess the Nats must have more control over the Labour Party than i understood.
Judging by how often Little sticks his own feet in his mouth I wouldn’t be surprised if Little was a National sleeper agent
I think you mean Shearer and the Labour membership dealt to him.
Hami, did it escape your notice that he led Labour to its worst electoral result since the 1920s?
Why would that scare anyone?
@ The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell (19.1.1.1.1.1) …
You post … “Hami, did it escape your notice that he led Labour to its worst electoral result since the 1920s?
And why was that? Because FJK and his corrupt mob of miscreants, used a compliant msm to take David Cunliffe down, knowing full well what he is capable of doing to them.
What’s happening right now with Cunliffe’s recent work, questioning some of the rot involving NZ in the Panama papers, is evidence of this! Hence the reason, NatzKEY don’t want him anywhere near the Labour leadership!
NatzKEY has good reason indeed to be very scared of David Cunliffe!
Cunliffe is doing msm’s job of sourcing details, informing NZers, because mainstream media is too gutless to publish anything which is likely to incriminate its beloved leader “honest” John!
The public hates Cunliffe. By all means make him leader again.
No, no The Cunliffe only needed a couple more months in the job then the public would have loved him
Your scary face is showing.
What David Cunliffe needed was some fair and even treatment from the MSM, which he never got.
Case in point: “I’m sorry for being a man” – in CONTEXT that actually was a reasonable thing to say, but out of context it sounds insane. That’s why the media repeated it out of context.
Case in point: the Dong Hua Liu story was a complete beatup, where the media failed to get an affidavit for his claims of donations (which were later shown to be grossly exaggerated and spun), followed up by Cunliffe being crucified for a purely procedural letter that his electorate office had written 11 years ago. At least one prominent MSM reporter has publicly apologised for their involvement in the letter ‘scandal’.
What also hurt Cunliffe a lot was The Internet-Mana party, which was a case of collateral damage, no matter how much distance he tried to put between Labour and them.
Cunliffe was also a victim of circumstance with Nicky Hagar’s book. No-one was expecting that bombshell, but Labour had already embarked on a policy platform where they wouldn’t outright criticise National or John Key. That left them unable to capitalise on the scandal as much as they should have. A strategic mis-step by Cunliffe there, but Dirty Politics was a black swan event that no-one could anticipate.
A good summation of the circumstances Lanthanide.
If we’re talking desperation to see a leader brought down, the best example is that 6 month period prior to the last election when much commentary in the media seemed remarkably keen on depicting Cunliffe as some kind of an exceptionally sneaky, tricky, lying, arrogant person, apparently undeserving of a ‘fair go’.
Whatever motive such commentators had it was remarkably unprofessional behaviour.
@ The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
You post … “The public hates Cunliffe …”
Are you able to support your claim with some substantial evidence?
Msm virtually ran David Cunliffe out of town, with nasty, petty statements, obviously intended to turn the public against him, making him seem insignificant and foolish!
Go back and read some msm headlines and stories in 2014, leading up the the last election, if you can’t remember! One from NZH’s John Armstrong in particular, calling for Cunliffe’s resignation, over an 11 year old letter he wrote. When he retired, Armstrong said he regretted writing that column! Then there was the pathetic piece about Cunliffe wearing a red scarf for goodness sake! And don’t forget at the same time, Fairfax media through STUFF etc, was also putting the boot into Cunliffe!
Are you able to support your claim with some substantial evidence?
The 2014 general election.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell whilst you still ignore the valid points Lanthanide and Mary_A wrote, the election doesn’t show “the public hates Cunliffe.”
OK, leftie. Why do you think fewer people voted for Cunliffe than any Labour leader ever since Ava Garnder was born?
Lanthanide and Mary_A already told you, The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell.
I do believe Cunliffe would do a better job than Little of further reducing the Labour vote in 2017.
While Cunliffe is the pin up boy to the left of Labour…he is toxic to middle NZ (where the votes are that Labour needs to pick up).
David Cunliffe is by all accounts a talented intelligent man.
He is also the worst political campaigner in the world.
“Because FJK and his corrupt mob of miscreants, used a compliant msm to take David Cunliffe down, knowing full well what he is capable of doing to them.”
No, that’s just delusional. Cunliffe lost because the voters saw through the veneer and realised there was no substance. We have seen what Cunliffe is capable of, getting Labour thrashed.
You have been living on planet key way too long IR.
Oh, did Cunliffe win the last election?
Shill
Flibbertigibbet
So down to sexist insults now are we Puckish Rouge.
You like to cry wolf don’t you
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/flibbertigibbet
You mean some else who has read Shakespeare.
Scared and lying again ah Puckish Rogue – just to much of a habit.
Here another definition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flibbertigibbet
And the context it is generally used in, is to degenerate young women – just letting you know – scared one.
So taking your link we see:
“Flibbertigibbet is a Middle English word referring to a flighty or whimsical person, usually a young woman. In modern use, it is used as a slang term, especially in Yorkshire, for a gossipy or overly talkative person.”
– Usually being the key word, usually not always
but lets move on shall we:
“This word also has a historical use as a name for a fiend, devil or spirit. In the 15th-century English morality play The Castle of Perseverence, the Bad Angel addresses the vice figure Detraccio (also called Backbiter and the messenger of the World) as Flyprgebet (line 1724). In Shakespeare’s King Lear (IV, i (1605)), he is one of the five fiends Edgar (in the posture of a beggar, Tom o’ Bedlam) claimed was possessing him.”
“he is one of the five fiends Edgar claimed was possessing him”
But wait theres more:
“Flibbertigibbet similarly features as a name in a local legend about Wayland’s Smithy. According to the tale, Flibbertigibbet was apprentice to Wayland the Smith, and greatly exasperated his master. Eventually Wayland threw Flibbertigibbet down the hill and into a valley, where he was transformed into a stone. Scott associates his Flibbertigibbet character in Kenilworth with Wayland Smith.”
Still more hes in there or didn’t you read that far?
Also amusingly enough:
“By extension it has also been used as a synonym for Puck. Through its use as a nickname for a character in Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth, it has gained the meaning of an impish child”
If you’re going to post a link in defence of your argument you should probably read it first 🙂
This from Richard Harman is interesting (although his last sentence about the Shewan investigation is a bit of a joke). According to Key all foreign trust register with the IRD only it seems more than a third don’t.
http://politik.co.nz/en/content/economy/827/How-the-foreign-trusts-operated-in-the-shade-away-from-Inland-Revenue's-gaze-Inland-revenue-Antipodes-Trust-Ken-Witney-trusts-tax.htm
If they specialised in that area, for sure, that is entirely apt
Green Leader Shaw says
“”Ordinary people, those who care about child poverty or about the environment and want the Government to change its policies, do not get this kind of access or this kind of immediate response to their concerns,” Mr Shaw said.”
I wonder if he proposes to introduce the actions he is asking for where his own party is concerned?
For example I suppose he will have to say things like.
“Our MPs will not meet with organisations such as Greenpeace as that would give them preference over ordinary members of the public”.
“Our MPs will not attend any meetings at which Green Party members are present or talk to any party members as that would give our party members preference over ordinary members of the public”.
“Party members will not be allowed any say on party policy as that would give them preference over ordinary members of the public”.
Why not tell the truth Shaw? Tell the public you think it is fun to attack John Key and to throw s**t at him and at anyone who has anything to do with him. We have been taking lessons from little Andy.
Wow whole lot of irrelevant stuff and false equivalences there alwyn. Next thing you will say is because there is no actual evidence of Key drowning kittens there is nothing to see. How about addressing the allegations.
What allegations? All I see here is a long string of smears with nothing to back them up.
Even Cunliffe says “He said he was not claiming Ceol & Muir had done anything wrong”.
The other rubbish appears to be saying that because someone knows John Key they shouldn’t be allowed to express an opinion on what Governments should do.
Did the Labour Party in Clark’s day refuse to talk to people who had opinions on public affairs? I certainly hope not. Our MPs should listen to everyone.
This is a blog which has a post complaining that Talleys are trying to silence a union. You attack that but appear to be in favour of gagging anyone who doesn’t happen to be on your side of politics.
Just why don’t you want people to be able to write (e-mail) a Minister?
Jeez thats a hard choose Alwn
Listen to green peace or foreign trust lawyers.
How to believe?
Personally I would much rather listen to old recordings of Janis Joplin or Joan Baez but to each his own.
“Just why don’t you want people to be able to write (e-mail) a Minister?”
Rhetorical question plainly stupid Alwyn.
Well hello you silly little man.
When are you going to put up or shut up for your lies about me?
Ready to apologise yet for lying about me?
http://thestandard.org.nz/johns-keys-lawyer-is-not-a-lawyer/#comment-1163386
Blah, blah, blah, the Greens do it too 🙄
Not even going to bother explaining why your argument is false. If you can’t see the difference between open lobbying by public interest groups and covert crony capitalism, then there’s no point in discussing it. Of course, you also haven’t posted any evidence to back up your claim about Shaw and Greenpeace.
“If you can’t see the difference between open lobbying by public interest groups and covert crony capitalism, then there’s no point in discussing it”
Like Pharma lobbyists meeting with opposition leaders, then said opposition leaders lobbying for Pharma products to be subsidised? Is that the type of thing you are referring too?
Can you give an example?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/77406691/Andrew-Little-dines-with-drug-company-executives-months-before-adopting-Keytruda-stance
In what ways specifically is that the same as or similar to the Mossack Fonseca/foreign trust/dodgy boundaries PM thing? Or are you suggesting that politicians never meet with industry or vested interests? How would they govern then?
Lobbyist meets politician (Whitney and McLay/Merck Sharp and Little), politician supports lobbyists stance. That is what is specifically the same or similar, that is basically the gist of this whole situation.
We just need to find out the Merck Sharp lobbyist used to be Andrew Little’s local pharmacist and its a slam dunk apparently.
But Bob, its not the same as the PM’s friend/lawyer, who specializes in tax havens, and who actively sought out ministerial favours to ensure foreign trust rules remained untouched, is it?
You have just answered your own question…they all do it weka!!
“you also haven’t posted any evidence to back up your claim about Shaw and Greenpeace.”
And just what do you think is this “claim” I am making that needs evidence? All I did was give examples of things Shaw would have to do if he was going to do the things he is demanding National do. In other words, “Don’t listen to anyone”.
I am quite sure that Shaw is never going to come out with such a statement so there will certainly never be any evidence that he is going to propose the same things for his own party that he expects from National.
Shaw isn’t demanding that National never listens to anyone. I was going to give you some credit for not telling outright lies about the Greens and instead using inference, but you just couldn’t help yourself could you.
You’re talking a load of nonsense. There’s no valid comparison and your argument today is particularly stupid. I’m guessing you understand that because you can’t even defend it properly.
Hand them a napkin weka, they are dribbling.
Seems like alwyn isn’t the only person to receive the CT reminder to blame other people. Frances Cook, in this appalling article, writes that the Greens can’t be trusted because they didn’t give her a scoop. She seems to th ok that is worse than tax havens, corruption and dodgy money.
The msm is part of the problem.
The comments below her article, though, are priceless.
Here is one of my favourites.
‘I thought given the headline this was a story about how John Key cannot be trusted, turns out it was a bleat about news organisations not getting exclusives fed to them from political parties.
When are you lot going to stop blaming the messenger and actually scrutinise the actions of dear leader?
Who cares who got your story first? If journalists in this country actually did any investigative journalism then we wouldn’t need the Green’s to be digging this up and doing your job for you! This is self serving rubbish, try focusing on the guy running the country!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11630702
Another riposte to Frances Cook’s ghastly Herald article.
‘So you’re trying to turn a story about just how corrupt this government is into ‘Bad Greens’ for exposing it. Maybe the media should have done some investigative reporting instead of just waiting for the press releases to regurgitate. John Key has survived harassing and physically assaulting a waitress for months, he’s survived rubbing little girl’s hair in his fingers, he’s survived having ministers accused of corruption. Maybe now that it’s all to do with money people will finally pay some attention and see that he is not fit to be running the country.’
And another..
‘”We are concerned that there appears to be a sudden change of view by the IRD in respect of their previous support for the industry. I have spoken to the Prime Minister about this and he advised that the Government has no plans to change the status of the foreign trust regime,”
This passage from the email clearly indicates that the PM was wholly aware of the situation with foreign trust and what the governments position and intent was before his lawyer than met with the (so called) minister in charge.
IF this was an isolated incident then it would be fine however this is part of a much larger pattern of behaviour since becoming the PM and shows our laws are for sale to the highest bigger, need we list all the dodgy dealings the PM has had personal hand in?
The fact is this foreign trusts business benefits no-one except a few lawyers back pockets but hurts the countries reputation. Even the tax man sees very little benefit so for the sake of our countries reputation we need to fix this issue quick smart.
IT is also very interesting that this publication takes (yet another) faux pas by our PM and turns it into an attack on the opposition instead!’
And PR and the shill brigade wonder why some of think the tide has turned.
No you misunderstand me, I mean of course the tide is turning, once a political party gets into power theres only one way for it go and that’s out
I just think that National has more then enough left in the tank to win the next election, helped in no small matter by a pretty useless opposition
So really we agree on the main point, Nationals on the way out but the only difference is the time frame
“No you misunderstand me, I mean of course the tide is turning, once a political party gets into power theres only one way for it go and that’s out”
Sorry but that’s just pathetic, especially as you’ve made a career out of crowing about Key and National’s apparent popularity and how they will go on an on. It does show a level of desperation though.
They’ll go on and have four terms sure and they’re still very popular (calling swordfish and his stats and why Andrew Little is actually more popular than John Key) but of course they’ll lose eventually
But not before John Key gets his fourth term
What’s this ? Did somebody call my name ? …
What a sad career. Shilling for the 0.01%.
The Defender of the 0.01% speaks.
Isn’t IRD like the rest of the civil service apparatus and meant to sit kind of independent from government?
Ministers do give policy directives to their departments (think the raft of legislation and policy that Bennett foisted onto the MSD/WINZ). The wording of the IRD bod is interesing though. It does suggest that McClay wasn’t giving policy direction so much as hinting at what should be done. In which case yeah, looks like political interference.
(can’t find the context for the IRD quote because the OIA report isn’t searchable. Are they always like that?)
This will end up like Kim Dotcom’s moment of truth…
You mean another milestone in the now very long saga of John Key’s corrupt career?
More like this: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+damp+squib
The more you know 🙂
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/shill
By all means keep up with the spin, and the rest of us will continue to understand that there is no silver bullet, just a long line of disgraces that National will eventually collapse under.
They surely will but not before the 2017 election
Puckish Rough is scared – his hero’s got caught lying – again.
That’s nice dear
The supporter of tax havens for the super rich pontificates.
“the super rich pontificates”.
Really? I haven’t seen him supporting the Roman Catholic Church and its leaders during their tenure.
And doesn’t the Pope take a vow of poverty?
I realise that the church is (obscenely) rich but I didn’t think you could say it about the Pope or the Bishops personally.
It’s another damp squib, insinuates “Puckish Rogue”. Same message, on repeat. There are now a great number of smouldering issues for Mr Key, all producing smoke. People, on smelling smoke, think, “fire”. Despite all that “Puckish Rogue” and handy-chaps like him are doing, “it’s nothing! NOTHING!!!”, the smell of smoke is in everyone’s nostrils and the primal reaction that creates cares not a whit for witterings like, “nothing to see here”.
Or people will see that, once again, Labour are shouting wolf and eventually people tire of the Little boy that cried wolf
(ref. Election 2014.)
9th May.
Ok I admit that I have no idea about what that’s referencing specifically
See 10.4
Ah I see you’re referencing H-Fee 2.0 or is it KDCs moment of truth redux?
So please explain why this worries me because I’m quite baffled…unless you think this will implicate john Key?
I mean it won’t obviously
The fear is showing.
It’s not all about Key you know. It’s about a national led government who let criminals and corporations defraud other nations of there tax income.
And I think we all get you love John Key Puckish Rouge. Grow your hair out, then put it in a ponytail, and he may just show you the love you so desperately need…
🙂
Your so funny when you are scared.
Ok I’m intrigued, scared of what exactly?
You enjoy behaving like a total prat, don’t you?
I really don’t get why you think I’m scared. Since 2007 the left have tried and failed to smear John Key, politicians have flown to other countries to find dirt and failed, a hacker spent millions to find some dirt and failed, John Campbell tried all his tricks and failed etc etc
Yet you think this going to be different and that I should be scared, well I’ll tell you this, I’ll be scared if or when the left manage to find something, anything substantial
and is it a full time job, or a zero hours contract? Do you get commission base on how many people you can wind up?
Its more a labour of love really
“politicians have flown to other countries to find dirt and failed”
Party staff, but yes, same result.
Just keep repeating, “John Key is not a crook, John Key is not a crook, John Key is not a crook,,,,”
Just keep repeating, “John Key is not a crook, John Key is not a crook, John Key is not a crook,,,,”
PR, I wouldn’t bother…. it’s like arguing with a creationist.
That’s harsh 🙂
“Or…”
I don’t think so.
Key and co are skilled at stripping any and every “incident” down into its tiny parts until there’s “nothing to see”, but where that clever ploy falls over is when the regularity and number of those incidents becomes apparent, that is, the room fills with smoke.
“FIRE”
“Or people will see that, once again, Labour are shouting wolf and eventually people tire of the Little boy that cried wolf”
Translation – Crosby Textor’s memo this morning said to focus on attacking Labour because they’re still an easier target than the Greens. Don’t worry if the conversation isn’t about Labour, just keeping parroting “Labour are stupid”.
Well yes Labour is an easier target (whats up with that?) but really the more the left something is there and it isn’t the public will tire of it
You’re slurring PR, time for a lie down.
Some truth to that last statement weka
Read your own words – Labour are being accused of crying wolf, not being stupid, though it seems likely that both are true.
I look forward to Oliver Stone making a movie about this…
Indiana.
Just another troll for the 0.01%
isn’t politics meant to be nasty?
No
what rock are you living under?
Jeremy Corbyn would agree with my stance.
It was the 0.1% last time, and the 1% before that. What’s happening?
National s fans are blowing flat out today I see, it must be abig job blowing the stench of corruption coming from this one A! pucky bob and al
And they have no case.
Just diversions and petty little squabbling.
Sounds like you’re describing Labour
When do you clock off?
Puckish Rogue, liar and shill on duty.
Reading his comments reminds me of the puerile oneupmanship some kids engaged at in school, when we were about 11.
Stop fibbing paul, you left school well before you where 11😀
“Reading his comments reminds me of the puerile oneupmanship some kids engaged at in school, when we were about 11.”
What, like “liar and shill on duty”?
so how much do you get paid for doing this? That is a genuine question.
More then what begging letters for $2 or a sausage sizzle could come up with matey
Interesting, so you are paid to troll TS
It would make my day if someone broke the news that there are paid trolls on political blogs and used me as an example
Public announcement.
“puckish Rogue is a paid troll on political blogs”.
There, does that make your day?
I get my evidence, and I won’t use the word “facts”, from what the nutters on the left claim.
Given the accuracy of their claims over the last decade though I wouldn’t put any money on the truthfulness of this one.
Public announcement withdrawn.
I’ve always hoped that, despite all the hard evidence to the contrary, it isn’t happening. It’s just too pathetically sad and desperate.
Nick Naylor wannabes 😆
Edit: seriously, paying someone to say nice things about you. It’s just creepy.
Puckish Rogue is one of a team of trolls working around the clock and funded by the Koch brothers and Monsanto with the funds channelled through Mossack Fonseca… as I’m sure David Cunliffe will reveal on May 9
yes dear
I have a real job, something I will look back on with pride, you should try it………. matey.
Burn 🙂
PR is right about 2 things….
1. Everyone needs to do a better job to nail Key. He’s a slippery customer.
2. They surely will fall
I think you are 6th defender of tax dodging and tax havens on this thread.
Your blind hatred of John Key / National does not allow you to see how examples like this at best only have a small bearing on non belt way NZ’s (which is 99% of us).
Over play it and it,s like pissing into the wind…not a good idea.
You support these tax havens?
Tax havens have been around since the 1800’s so nothing new here.
Sovereign countries are free to decide if they want to be a “tax haven”. Hence tax havens are here to stay.
In some cases people can have a legitimate use for them…in other cases they are abused and used by criminals (be it drug dealers or corrupt politicians etc).
Swiss Bank secrecy is nothing like it used to be…they cave in when the US ask for customer information. OECD task force are working on making tax havens more transparent.
Do I support tax havens…no.
No one cares about john key, it’s this corrupt national government which is the problem – Oh and the tax evasion, the lies, and the bribery. Did I mention the lies?
Dirty John,the creature of the polls
bernard, forget Dirty John, it’s the national government which is the problem. Dirty John is just one man, it takes a party to wreak a nation.
The good people of NZ are of course very interested in these startling revelations, yet the most read stories on the Herald are about:
1: A stolen phone
2: An avocado
3: Hamburgers on Lincoln Rd
4: The Warriors drinking
5: Airplane toilets.
The above is a sad indictment of the state of the NZ media, and people in general, but the Left has cried wolf so many times that people just don’t listen anymore. The headline was dramatic, but reading the story reveals that Key’s lawyer asked him about trusts, so Key said speak to the minister responsible. All the rest is trying to join dots with links that are tenuous at best.
Bingo, of course the Herald will be blamed for people not reading about these revelations, it’s MSM bias!
I really do hope the left block get the shit together and win an election soon, at least then I can see an effective opposition in parliament again!
The state of the media facilitates the rule of the 0.01%.
You should know that.
Yes Paul
You enjoy George Carlin?
Bill Hicks is even better.
Hey Bob, was National effective when they were in opposition for 9 years? The msm are completely biased. You are in denial.
Ben, don’t forget to add the fluffy all warm and fuzzy feel good animal stories as well.
Sportsers drunk-dialling for an avo burger from a plane, you say? Now that’s news.
Nation of sheep beget a government of wolves, as they say
A lot of energy is being burned by right wing trolls to kill this story.
Wonder why?
Paul, the rw trolls are in a panic, that’s for sure.
Throwing money at it by paying their thugs, like they do with anything that interferes with their opulent lifestyle, sad twats.
Shuddering in fear, we only come here for entertainment, don’t over play your relevance
Entertainment? Are you that lonely, or do you have so little imagination, or are you paid?
Sad or disgusting?
this is nonsense just like dirty politics you lot are left wing nutters this will only make john key more popular nobody who is anybody pays taxes .john key lies to hid the truth behind new Zealand fire economy with out the bull shit new zealand would be Greece who whats the truth nobody so stop exposing the lies you all need to practice self censorship
[r0b: You will need to choose a different name if you want to keep commenting here]
1. It is not the Overseas Investment ‘Organisation’.
2. Ceol and Muir went through the full approval process and have broken no laws. http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/381366/oio-satisfied-land-purchase
3. Once again a dirty politics hit by Labour on private individuals has bitten them.
It amazes me that Labour never learn.
It’s all Labour’s fault that your Daddy launders money.
Do have any proof of anyone money laundering?
Yes: it’s all over the news: the Prime Minister personally saw to it that the money laundering rules were relaxed, and you can’t admit that because you’re twisted by hate.
I’m asking for evidence that this actually happened. A real life example of some terrible individual laundering their ill gotten gains here. “It’s all over the news” is quite pathetic.
Well done to Team Labour – king hit!
OIO re-opens review of farmland sale
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11631031
+1000 Joy.
The NZ CORRUPT CLASS can’t conceal the INTERNATIONAL criminality revealed by the (tip-of the iceberg) Panama papers. Their political cronies can survive this in the medium term only if media lickspittles succeed in normalising corruption in the public mind. That’s a meme the NoToSeHe commentators are spinning.
Won’t work (despite the best efforts of NAct, NZ is not yet a Banama republic), but good luck to them – every self-serving utterance is worth a chuckle, every vacuous jibe gives me a lift; the Panama papers are a gift that keeps on giving.
Good ole lyin’ John