Posts Tagged ‘corruption’

Judith Collins: fudging evidence

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, April 26th, 2014 - 32 comments

Judith Colllins & the PM are probably toasting Shane Jones (and Murray McCully) right now: the heat around the Oravida controversy has been pushed off the front pages.  Information and marginalised news don’t easily disappear off the web – or Wikipedia.  Collins quietly slipped out a press release on the delay of her decision on alcohol pricing – media shy suddenly?

NRT: Stinkier and stinkier

Written By: - Date published: 5:29 pm, March 24th, 2014 - 37 comments

In the ongoing saga about the Problem Gambling Foundation, The Salvation Army were unaware that the Ministry of Health had decided that they would take over as the national provider. They hadn’t even applied for it. It appears that only thing driving the ministry’s decision was the complaints from the gambling industry about the PGF trying to reduce problem gambling…. Is the gambling industry is thoroughly corrupting National’s ministers?

Dinner money

Written By: - Date published: 3:38 pm, March 9th, 2014 - 60 comments

The reason we know about John Key’s Antoine’s dinner donations was that they were grouped into a single donation that had to be declared.

But what about all the other dinners where each seat is considered a separate donation?

Key hides advice, Collins goes to ground

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 pm, March 6th, 2014 - 76 comments

Radio New Zealand has reported that John Key is refusing to release the advice he claims clears Judith Collins over her conflict of interest. And is now claiming that the Cabinet rules are ” just a guideline anyway”

NRT: Ticket clipping

Written By: - Date published: 4:53 pm, February 13th, 2014 - 29 comments

National’s charter schools are predicated on the idea that the public education system is doing a bad job. They’re (over-)funded to do things differently. So its more than a little odd that He Puna Marama Trust’s charter school is simply getting local state schools to do all their teaching for them. They just clip the ticket converting taxpayers money to private profit. Ridiculous corrupt NAct policy.

Tariana’s final days?

Written By: - Date published: 6:49 am, June 29th, 2012 - 40 comments

Tariana Turia’s privatisation by stealth of welfare for Maori, known as Whanau Ora, was an open invitation to fraud. Money was signed over to groups with no track record and no plan. It’s finally caught up with her as New Zealand First, Women’s Refuge, and the Greens team up to reveal Turia’s lies and willful blindness over reported fraud in Palmerston North.

Nat Civil War: Key backs Boag over Collins

Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, April 2nd, 2012 - 54 comments

John Key gave one of his least sure and most defensive interviews in five years on Q+A on the weekend. His goal was clearly to protect his personal brand and close the issue down. He failed. He failed because he refused to criticise Pullar and Boag, and refused to back Collins’ law suits. That puts him at odds with the Collins faction and onside with Boag’s.

Confused? A guide to the letters & leaks in the Nats’ Civil War

Written By: - Date published: 4:03 pm, March 31st, 2012 - 77 comments

The ever-growing list of letters, emails, and leaks in the National Party Civil War, that started off as an apparently apolitical privacy breach by ACC, is getting hard to follow. Here’s a summary of the various documents and their ramifications – so far.

Bullying the media

Written By: - Date published: 6:21 am, September 22nd, 2009 - 15 comments

National are up to their old tricks again – bullying the media to try and shut down critical comment. This time the culprit is Bill English, lashing out* at those who are covering the story of his ongoing hypocrisy and greed: Radio New Zealand’s political editor reports that Mr English rang journalists from TVNZ and […]

If you’re gonna cut, make it clean

Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, June 3rd, 2009 - 97 comments

How titillating. Worth has resigned and he won’t say why. ‘Personal reasons’ eh? Heard that one before. Key’s not talking either. He describes it as a ‘private reason’. Got to wonder what’s in the Tories’ heads on this one. Don’t keep a secret unless you really need to. Bad look. The public has a right […]

Mayday Mayday, Worth’s bought it and I’m losing altitude – Groser out

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 1st, 2009 - 36 comments

Richard Worth, OBE, is now in very serious trouble having been snared in what looks like untruths about using his Ministerial portfolio to further the interests of a company he had a private commercial interest in. It’s pretty blatant and really Key won’t be able to get away with keeping him on for much longer. […]

Standard Scoop: Key exposed again on secret shares and Tranzrail

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 pm, October 26th, 2008 - 145 comments

When the Tranzrail shares came to light, Key was asked whether he had any other undisclosed shares entailing a conflict of interest. He said he didn’t. That was not true. National Party Leader John Key failed to disclose his conflict of interest arising from his share holding in Fletcher Challenge Forests while using his privileges […]