Posts Tagged ‘Donghua Liu’

Hypocrites

Written By: - Date published: 7:37 am, November 22nd, 2019 - 57 comments

National’s attacks on NZ First’s Foundation are hypocritical in the extreme given that it also has a Foundation and has used this foundation to hide the identity of donors who have collectively potentially contributed huge amounts of money to the party.

National’s double standard

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, September 15th, 2019 - 100 comments

National has a rather murky past when it comes to dealing with issues relating to the behaviour of its Members of Parliament.

Everything is awesome

Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, October 21st, 2018 - 463 comments

National is trying to say that everything is fine with Simon Bridges’ leadership, that he has handled the Jami-Lee Ross crisis well and that his leadership is assured. I beg to differ.

Herald praises Cunliffe for CGT policy

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, May 19th, 2015 - 29 comments

The Herald has praised David Cunliffe with changing public opinion about the introduction of a capital gains tax. And rubbished John Key’s suggestion that the announced limited tax on increasing housing values is not a capital gains tax.

Political donations and conflicts of interest

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, March 2nd, 2015 - 53 comments

Whether it’s about election donations or portfolios, some people do seem to think MPs should always get the benefit of the doubt.

John Key channels Clarke and Dawe

Written By: - Date published: 7:16 pm, February 26th, 2015 - 27 comments

David Parker recaps Key’s bluster on his Donghua Liu dinner, and it’s pure comedy.

National’s electoral returns and the Donghua Liu donation

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, February 25th, 2015 - 41 comments

The Electoral Commission has now released individual returns of donations and electoral expenses.  And the Donghua Liu donation appears in Jamie-Lee Ross’s return.  But the vast majority of electorate campaigns recorded head office donations and the overwhelming impression is that cabinet club donations are collected centrally and then distributed.  So what happened with the Liu donation?

The more complete Donghua Liu timeline

Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, February 22nd, 2015 - 90 comments

Yesterday’s Herald revealed that Donghua Liu made a second donation to National in 2013 which was repaid to him after last year’s election.  A brief timeline was provided but in the interests of greater understanding I thought a fuller timeline would be helpful.

A random impertinent question about Donghua Liu

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 pm, February 21st, 2015 - 61 comments

The Herald announced today that Donghua Liu donated to National the sum of $25,000 in 2013.  But the National return for donations in that year, signed on April 30, 2014, do not include this donation and Lee-Ross did not put it in his declaration of pecuniary interests.  Maurice Williamson resigned on May 1 2014 for his attempting to affect a police prosecution of Donghua.  But the story broke earlier.

Jared Savage still trying for more inches

Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, July 4th, 2014 - 12 comments

I realise that journalists have to show some column inches sometimes to justify their existence on the payroll. However the “Investigations editor” Jared Savage at the the NZ Herald appears to be overdoing that. The latest is Jared’s attempt to puff up three routine immigration letters in 2005. He really must be desperate for those extra inches. There doesn’t appear to be anything about it that holds much public interest apart from a simple desire to smear. Hardly journalism.

 

Bryan Gould: An impartial press

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, June 29th, 2014 - 34 comments

Ed Miliband is competent, has the support of his party, but has abysmal poll ratings. The right-wing British press has played a significant role. For instance a messy bacon sandwich. In New Zealand, we all know that the British press is notoriously biased and that our own press may have their own allegiances but are reasonably  impartial. Which is why there are some disturbing features about the press treatment of the supposed “scandal” (as it is regularly referred to) of Donghua Liu and David Cunliffe.

Irascible: The Herald and Key duck, scuttle and run as Donghua Liu story loses credibility

Written By: - Date published: 2:19 pm, June 28th, 2014 - 35 comments

John Key - spy vs lie

It looks like the powers that be on the Herald’s editorial board are starting to realise that being a paid shill for the Key owned National Party is not as wise a move as they thought. Particularly as the realisation that the allegations fed from John Key and those around Donghua Liu are proving to be a quicksand that is sucking the already doubtful credibility of the paper as a crusading, principled record of fact away from it.

The people respond to the Herald Editorial on Donghua Liu

Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, June 27th, 2014 - 66 comments

Further to lprent’s post this morning there is an avalanche of responses on the Herald website to its Donghua Liu editorial. People are obviously furious and the anger is palpable. And there is a trade me sale of John Key’s book with a very funny series of questions and answers

NZ Herald: Be journalists, check before ‘reporting’

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, June 27th, 2014 - 62 comments

There is a self-serving anonymously authored editorial in the NZ Herald this morning “Editorial: Cries of bias will not stop reporting”.  Well for a start the problem isn’t with the Herald reporting. The journalism on the story has been performed by amateur journalists and facilitated by incompetent editors who didn’t check the story. This probably including whoever wrote this pathetic editorial. It appears to have been an abrupt change from their usual competent style of journalism. Of course the question has to be asked about what caused this change?

Imperator Fish: My statement to the New Zealand Herald

Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, June 26th, 2014 - 14 comments

Scott Yorke writes a statement for Jared Savage at the NZ Herald to conceal while attacking Labour with. As we know Jared will treat this with his usual journalistic caution and therefore briefly read it before publishing. Some of it might be true!!! Labour should be able to prove a negative with no information. That works for that paragon of journalism Cameron Slater, so why should the NZ Herald miss out on the joys of getting headlines out of nothing being verified. In fact the only thing wrong is that the source isn’t National dirty tricks (John Key’s top drawer).

Key and Herald embarrassed as Liu statement changes

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, June 25th, 2014 - 113 comments

The Herald has now published details of a further statement from Donghua Liu which directly contradicts previous claims.  So what did it do to ensure the accuracy of the original claims and why did it print those allegations without verification?  And who is the mysterious person who prepared a statement that with the benefit of hindsight was clearly inaccurate?

Reverse ferret bites PM on arse.

Written By: - Date published: 2:46 pm, June 24th, 2014 - 83 comments

PM John Key has performed a backflip by now suggesting Donghua Liu should front up with evidence to support the NZ Herald’s unsubstantiated claim that he donated substantial sums to Labour. This is a world away from his previous position that it was up to Labour to show that no donation was made. It’s increasingly looking like it simply not true and the Herald has been played like a fiddle. And two, the fiddle planter is Cameron Slater, the PM’s bestie from way back.

The middle of Queens birthday weekend? Yeah right!

Written By: - Date published: 5:12 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 225 comments

Ok, so according to the NZ Herald Donhua Liu is alleging that a fund raiser was held on Sunday 3rd of June 2007.

That is the Sunday in the middle of Queens birthday weekend. To say that is hardly credible is an understatement. No-one schedules fund-raisers on Sunday. They certainly don’t do it in a long weekend. And can’t the journalists at the Herald read a calendar?
Updated: This mornings Herald story looks like being more about face saving than accuracy, and the interview on Morning Report make the journalistic process at the Herald look even more dodgy.

The police must investigate the alleged Liu donations because…

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 24 comments

Scott Yorke makes some excellent arguments in favour of a full police investigation into the Liu saga.

NZ Herald – again that curious lack of detail

Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 112 comments

I’ve been around the Labour party campaigners for a long time. I’d have expected to hear of auction sales of near to $100,000 by rumour if nothing else. It is possible that I didn’t. But then so is time travel. Quite simply the NZ Heralds reporting of Liu’s letter without any corroboration or details about where and when isn’t what I expect from journalists. It is what I expect from Whaleoil – a simple smear. I hadn’t realised that the Herald was that desperate.

Turn out and vote National out

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, June 21st, 2014 - 110 comments

At the last election, the high non-vote spoke to one important truth – many voters saw no reason to turn out. The media had told them that National would win by a landslide and they either didn’t mind or thought that one vote wouldn’t make any difference. This election is radically different. It is rapidly becoming clear that we are losing control of our country.  Vote on September 20, and vote against this Government.

NRT: An abuse of the OIA

Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, June 20th, 2014 - 39 comments

So it turns out that Immigration released letters from David Cunliffe and Chris Carter in support of Donghua Liu. However, the Department of Internal Affairs refused to release the letters sent by Mr Williamson and Mr Banks under the privacy and commercial provisions in the Official Information Act.  This looks like a blatantly political release decision to advance the interests of the government of the day.  Transparency of official information applies to everyone, not just the government’s enemies.

 

Is the $15,000 even true?

Written By: - Date published: 1:28 pm, June 20th, 2014 - 214 comments

John Key’s alleging that hundreds of thousands flowed to Labour from Donghua Liu, but as the Nat’s smear campaign unravels, even the $15,000 can’t be found. Who do we trust – an unnamed ‘party source’ in the Herald, or Party records? $15,000 is a sizeable donation that is likely to be noted or remembered. And where’s Donghua himself in all this – surely he could clear this up very quickly…

Polity: The game is the game

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, June 20th, 2014 - 24 comments

Rob Salmond offers some advice to the National smear team. When you screw up and start contradicting each other’s stories, you look like a pack of low-rent numpties. And it reveals your tactics for all to see, which is what you were trying to avoid in the first place. Bill English and John Key should really communicate so they don’t trample over each others stories. And the  spectacle of Michael Woodhouse changing his mind within hours about when he first saw the letter, and what he did with it? Pure comedy

The dirtiest election campaign backfires

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, June 19th, 2014 - 280 comments

Yesterday wasn’t a good day for Labour. But it’s not the end of the world – because we know how this game goes.

Herald loses perspective

Written By: - Date published: 3:36 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 74 comments

So apparently forgetting about signing a form letter for a constituent 11 years ago is a resignable offence now.

Update: Key memory lapses

The Herald is turning against the Government

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, May 11th, 2014 - 92 comments

The Herald, normally a bastion of support for National, has this weekend printed a number of stories openly critical of the National Government. As John Armstrong asks, have the wheels fallen off the Government’s reelection campaign?

NRT: “No intention to interfere”

Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, May 1st, 2014 - 20 comments

When the Prime Minister found out that Maurice Williamson had contacted police over their investigation of a National Party donor on domestic violence charges, Williamson “assured [him] that he did not in any way intend to influence the Police investigation”. That is bullshit. But it gets worse. The police gave the Minister exactly what he asked for.

Williamson’s head isn’t the only one that should be on a spike.

NRT: Two obvious questions

Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, May 1st, 2014 - 70 comments

Maurice Williamson was sacked within the space of 2 hours this morning after the Herald revealed he had attempted to interfere in a police investigation on behalf of a party donor. Its exactly what should happen when a Minister behaves corruptly and pisses on our constitutional norms like this. At the same time, it raises an obvious question: why hasn’t Judith Collins suffered the same fate? Or is corrupt behaviour only punished when it involves older Ministers the PM would like to dispose of?

Williamson now. How corrupt is the National cabinet?

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, May 1st, 2014 - 199 comments

It never seems to end does it? A National Party Minister contacted a top ranking police officer after a wealthy businessman with close ties to him was arrested on domestic violence charges. The Prime Minister’s office is understood to be considering Maurice Williamson’s future as a Minister, following Herald inquiries into the phone call that he made and over his involvement with Donghua Liu’s criminal case.

Bunji: And he’s gone – resigned as a Minister

Williamson in trouble

Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, May 1st, 2014 - 23 comments

Maurice William’s career is in the balance as news of an inappropriate approach to the police on behalf of a National Party donor emerges.