Rortbuster Pete Hodgson unveiled yet more information about Pansy and Sammy Wong’s business activities in China on the taxpayer dime in Parliament yesterday. It’s damning material. The Auditor-General had decided not to investigate but there’s every chance she will now or that the Police will.
The latest material centres around the December 2008 trip that was supposedly for private, non-business activities. This is the trip when the Wong’s “inadvertently” and “mistakenly” engaged in business activity, including Pansy witnessing a business document as a Minister of the Crown, that led to Pansy’s resignation.
The new evidence shows that none of this was “inadvertent”. Hodgson told Parliament that:
“upon arrival in “Mrs Wong was greeted in Lianyungang by a large, pre-printed banner, which, when translated, read: “Warm welcome to New Zealand Cabinet Minister to visit and inspect our company””
Hodgson put that new information to John Key and further asked:
“Would he be surprised to learn that Mrs Wong then inspected that company and encouraged “the staff members of Hovercraft to be innovative and brave”, and that she wished “the company achieve a great success in the nearest future”; and noting that her husband is a part-owner of that company, does it now occur to the Prime Minister that the trip to Lianyungang was motivated by matters other than attending the flower show, as Mrs Wong claimed?”
Key avoided these serious questions with his usual petty insults and snide put-downs. He then denied Hodgson leave to table the new evidence, which was gained from Chinese language websites that have been taken down since the scandal broke. Fortunately, Labour has side-stepped that attempt to suppress debate by putting the information on their new site: pansyfacts.co.nz
You only need to look at his answers to see that Key had clearly been made aware of these new facts, which were kept secret from the Parliamentary Service inquiry.
The author of that whitewash, independent contractor Hugh McPhail is, bizarrely, “sticking by” his findings despite the gaping holes in the evidence that led to them. The need for a proper investigation that re-examines the trips that McPhail supposedly investigated and all of Wong’s trips as a minister grows by the day.
I suspect that we’ll hear more revelations from the Rortbuster before Parliament rises or in the new year.
Rortbuster Pete is to be thanked for cleansing Parliament of yet another corrupt Nat. It’s a pity that he’s retiring next year, because there’s a lot more cleansing that needs to be done. Still he might have time for one or two more. Any guesses who will next be in his sights?
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