National have gotten away with corruption again. Just like our Alpha Police force who can never admit being wrong, the supposed checks and balances built into our Democracy are loath to ever really challenge the Executive because the Executive is sovereign.
So we get this whitewash report that Murray MCully kinda acted within the law. Nothing to see here folks, just a Senior Minister paying an $11million dollar bribe to a Saudi Businessman in the sad hope that we can get a free trade deal with Saudi Arabia, a country with one of the worst Human Rights records on the planet and who is also one of the biggest funders of extremism.
You know, just another day in NZ. No one checked if McCully’s claim of a $30m legal threat was even real, no one has seen an assessment of the money used, no one can explain why so many of the sheep died and no one can explain what ongoing benefit this breeding program gives NZ.
We’ve just trusted Uncle Muzza with $11million to try and cut a dodgy deal for reasons that are mercenary and without any actual ethics. Yay!
Saudi Arabia crucifies human beings – just think about that for a second. Do we really want a free trade deal with a country that crucifies human beings? To be told that we not only are attempting to in fact cut a free trade deal with a country that whips women for being raped, we fucking well spent $11million trying to bribe these buggers to get that trade deal!
And the bribe might not have been enough!
The issue is not that Murray McCully and the National Party are unethical pigs who’d sell their own grandmothers into slavery if it meant making a buck, the issue is why the Christ we are trying to bribe a Saudi businessmen to trade with the worst human rights abusers on the planet.
I am digusted by this.
White washing corruption in NZ has just taken on a whole new dimension.
It seems that right-wing governments can now get away with naked corruption.
When a plan like this is signed off by cabinet and the shakedown steered by a bloodyminded foreign government, it isn’t Corruption in the classical sense, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t stink to high heaven.
However, it is a “corruption” (with a small c) of good government as well as hideously unseemly.
I don’t remember anyone saying it was legally corrupt. But to suggest that if it isn’t legally corrupt, it must be fine, is to take a bizzarely narrow view of governmental probity.
There are plenty of other way to act badly, like blaming the unfortunate international consequences of your own indisciplined mouth on the then Labour government and then to start throwing money around to curry favour with the morally questionable Saudis by flying in some pregnant sheep who I gather all died, then not even getting a deal out of your hamfisted realpolitik.
Who needs to prove corruption when you have this pack of clots.
Go back through our MSM reports and there’s many instances of corruption by this government where their only defence of it was but it was legal.
In fact, you can go back quite a ways and find the same or similar excuses. Remember when AirNZ was going to ferry Australian soldiers to Iraq after our government specifically kept out of it? Yep, we saw the same excuse from the right-wing about that as well despite the fact that, as a government owned airline, it would have been going fully against the expressed wishes of the government and the people of NZ.
And, of course, they’ve been going round making corrupt actions legal: 90 day fire at will bill, turning NZ in to a tax haven, and probably many others that I can’t recall ATM and possibly haven’t heard of.
This whitewash of a report clarifies the fact the whole damn system has been corrupted by this foul, odious government, infecting everything it touches like a filthy contaminating plague!
We need to rid ourselves of these cesspit dwelling rodents, quick smart!
Most people will not even take note, they only value things now by what can I buy for how much of my money, and what use has it to me?
As the saying goes “Nothing to see here, let’s look forward to next year’s election and put all this behind us!”
David See No More is here to distract us, to deflect from what is really in the report, he has not even read it himself, what a hopeless manipulating operator, who gets away with his nonsense on this blog. Lock him up, lock him up, those in the US would call, reading his comments.
Spoken like a true visionary
Visionary view up an anal canal full of darkness, right?
Like a road to Damascus.
It’s just interesting watching see more try and appeal to the left while talking hard right.
Times are changing Mike.
Your chosen pseudonym tells it all, where your journey is going.
Well, well, well, I watched Parliament TV, I do not get inclined to do it so often these days, given the usual nonsense from our politicians. But it was some impressive development, that even the otherwise not always so “neutral” Speaker allowed a debate on this debacle, and the Auditor General’s report.
So we had David Parker, working hard and endlessly, on proving the government was nothing much short of corrupt, and we had Murray McCully think and state he was more or less “vindicated”, as the Auditor General did not find any “corruption” and “illegal” activities.
Well, a whitewash it was, by Murray, and even Finlayson, who defended his mate and the government, like a professional lawyer would defend any accused before a court.
The report is fresh, it is only covering stuff the OAG (Office of the Auditor General, known to not bother with examining all stuff that deserves to be looked at) is actually having authority to deal with (excludes a lot, really).
So the government gets off a lot of apparent wrongdoings, merely for the reason the OAG has no authority to report on it.
Key was not there, nowhere to be heard and seen, leaving it to his soldiers to defend the government. English was also not speaking, not even there, I think, I wonder why.
The Saudi Sheep Deal will get its place on Wikipedia, I am sure, same as in the New Zealand Year Book, and so forth. It will be showing how corruption of a kind set in, under Key and Gang, and how this was just one example of poor performance, of processes not followed as they should be, and how transparency was poor and avoided, and how this government bends the rules all the time.
I have now got access to more info, re MSD, who are refusing OIA requested info on their hatchet doctors and more, as usual, while years ago they made some info available. We also get no reports on evaluations on Mental Health Employment Services and other trials and programs they run, it is a scandal.
Yet the government MPs and ministers go on TV and speak in Parliament, about their dodgy “Better Public Services” program. They go and boast about lower beneficiaries numbers, while Lisa Owen on TV3 News just revealed how MSD and WINZ work with dodgy employment agencies, forcing contracts onto those jobseekers that WINZ wants to get rid of, they are ILLEGAL!
It is pressure, bending rules, false reporting, changing the statistics for being unemployed, obfuscation, lying and more immoral and I suggest even illegal activity, that gets this government the supposedly “positive” results they regularly report.
It is a government that does not care about the letter of the law, that changes the law all the time, and that abuses its powers, and misuses media, to use propaganda and constantly misinform the people of the truth in NZ.
Does anybody realise also, they changed the Official Information Act not long ago, so they can now cover up more of what Ministers and senior administrators advise their staff on?
It is endless, the quasi corruption under this government, the Saudi Sheep Deal is just the tip of the iceberg.
Martyn, I am interested in your views and you are obviously an intelligent man, so I am sure you can express yourself clearly without the foul language. Try it. Your message will lose nothing in the process.
I suppose you would also object to a good hanging as well lovey
Martyn’s a passionate guy. He gets genuinely enraged by much of what passes for government these days, as do many of us here. I think we can forgive him a little salty language every now and then.
The Auditor General is actually another “poodle” watchdog, when you check their history of dealing with complaints, they pick and choose what to “investigate”, “audit” or “review”, and mostly they stick strictly to their very limited scope of authority. Read the Act they work under:
http://www.oag.govt.nz/about-us/our-governing-legislation
Some others have tried to raise issues even with the Office of Ombudsmen, another “watchdog” that is often without teeth, and has a narrow scope to act under:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2016/09/05/the-new-zealand-ombudsman-underfunded-and-compromised-the-auditor-general-sees-no-need-for-action/
New Zealand is a country where most are ignorant of the law, of what really goes on, and what is of relevance to all of us. Some are so, because their circumstances does not allow them to have more insight, others are ignorant by choice, as all they are interested in is their own personal benefits, as consumers, career seekers, as business people and whatever there is.
I consider many NZers to be rather corrupt themselves, given the choices they make and what they put up with.
This is what was tried to get dealt with by the Auditor General, but they had NO interest in reviewing or investigating the matter:
Link to anonymised request letter to the OAG:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-cag-reqst-f-inquiry-audit-into-ombudsmen-office-anon-28-08-2014.pdf
Links to Maria Rawiri’s letter in response, dated 30 Oct. 2014:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-request-f-inquiry-ombudsmen-office-refusal-m-rawiri-sector-mgr-ltr-30-10-2014.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-request-f-inquiry-ombudsmen-office-refusal-m-rawiri-ltr-hilit-30-10-14.pdf
Link to Ombudsmen’s Office Annual Reports page (contained in Maria Rawiri’s letter):
http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resources-and-publications/corporate-documents/annual-reports
Link to response letter by complainant (also anonymised), also with second request, dated 04 Nov. 2014 (please note the link has the wrong date, i.e. 01 Nov.):
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-cag-reqst-f-inquiry-audit-of-ombudsman-complaint-handling-anon-01-11-2014.pdf
Links to Maria Rawiri’s second letter in response, dated 17 Dec. 2014:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-request-f-inquiry-ombudsmen-office-refusal-m-rawiri-sector-mgr-ltr-17-12-14.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-request-f-inquiry-ombudsmen-office-refusal-m-rawiri-ltr-hilit-17-12-14.pdf
Link to third request by complainant (also anonymised), dated 30 Dec. 2014:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-cag-reqst-f-inquiry-audit-of-ombudsmans-complaint-handling-new-anon-30-12-14.pdf
Link to document with report held by Transparency NZ (contained in letter):
http://www.transparency.org.nz/docs/2013/Integrity-Plus-2013-Pillar-7-Ombudsman.pdf
Links to Maria Rawiri’s third response letter to the third request for an inquiry and review, dated 09 April 2015:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-request-f-inquiry-ombudsmen-office-refusal-m-rawiri-sector-mgr-ltr-09-04-15.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-request-f-inquiry-ombudsmen-office-refusal-m-rawiri-ltr-hilit-09-04-15.pdf
Link to the complainant’s anonymised response letter to the above third letter by M. Rawiri, his one dated 23 April 2015:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-cag-reqst-f-inquiry-audit-of-ombudsmans-office-ref-13xxx-reply-anon-23-04-2015.pdf
Link to the complainant’s anonymised Privacy Act request to the OAG, dated 07 May 2015:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-cag-privacy-act-request-info-held-re-ref-13xxx-ltr-anon-07-05-2015.pdf
Link to the Acting Auditor General’s reply to the Privacy Act request by the complainant, also partly anonymised, dated 20 May 2015:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-request-f-inquiry-ombudsmen-personal-info-priv-act-e-child-assistt-ag-ltr-20-05-15.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/oag-request-f-inquiry-ombudsmen-personal-info-priv-act-assistt-ag-ltr-hilit-20-05-15.pdf
So should we have too much faith in an OAG report? I think so not, as they are part of the Officers of Parliament, that call themselves “independent”, but who are ALL paid for by Parliament, which is dominated by government, and which spends our taxpayers money.
The OAG is only claiming to be independent, in effect, many of its decision put into question that very claim to be “independent”.
Given the above experience of some, and what we got in today’s report, I fear the OAG let the government off rather lightly.
National’s dirty corruption was always going to be whitewashed away. Why do people still think our so called independent watch dogs are still independent? Why do people still think we are living in a democracy, when we don’t. key and his government will always be airbrushed cleaned, it’s all about perception, remember?
The was a bribe. Simple as that and thus McCully should be in jail because of it. Why the AG found otherwise should be a serious concern to NZers.
Also, why are we even wanting to trade with such a despicable regime anyway?
Are we really so lacking that we even need to contemplate doing so?
Totally agree Draco. Corruption is exactly what it is.
In my own personal opinion, this Saudi sheep deal is corrupt to the legal degree that Helen Clark closed it before she was voted out. National re-opened and negotiated the deal under supposed threat of the government being sued under claim that the Saudi had lost $30 million, when it was proven the deal was a failure from the start, through the loss of live stock in transit, and this was why Helen Clark closed the deal in the first place.
We all know by now that when this government wants to deflect blame and create a diversion they always resort to ” its all Labours fault ”
They have been in government for nine years and its still all someone elses fault.
Comments are closed.