Cactus Kate has been doing some investigation into housing arrangements for our top diplomat in Hong Kong. She OIA’d Murray McCully’s office for the details only to be fobbed off.
McCully claims commercial sensitivity for not releasing how much this rent costs. But as you can see on google it doesn’t matter. The answer is a shit load and it would make most New Zealanders, even those in the 1% blush.
I don’t know anyone in Hong Kong, even wealthy clients who pay this much rent.
The brilliance of McCully lies in the last paragraph. He knows the answer looks ugly if he gave you the number, he’s taunted you by not giving it to you as he hides behind the skirt of a strict interpretation of the law and possible scenario. But then for those charmable bimbos or men in awe of the McCully, he makes it sound like he’s actually listened to you and is concerned about the answer that he cannot give you.
Masterful.
The problem for McCully is that by now not giving me the answer I can tell the story based on the numbers I have dug up and call it New Zealand’s most expensive rental from probably one of the best diplomatic troughs around these days Hong Kong and China.
If I was actually a journalist and not a blogger, I would have the time to now follow up precisely the value of renting a “flat” that even the richest New Zealanders would not be able to afford (we are talking ball park Hong Kong current market value of NZ$40,000 per month here so NZ$480,000 p.a) and whether New Zealand through its former nice but average and new Consulate-General are using the expenditure to provide the sort of return it would need to justify investment in a city such as Hong Kong which is increasingly becoming critical along with China to the success of the New Zealand economy.
I could also call the real estate firm renting out the above apartments in the same building and find out from them what House 2, Duplex 1A is renting for. It would not take much to get the estimate from the agent based on the big mouths in the industry.
It is time McCully asked his charges just what New Zealand taxpayers are paying for and the return on this astronomical expenditure. How are the KPI’s going and how deep has the diplomatic trough here become.
Phil Goff may also like to ask the question, problem is in 2005 he was the Minister in charge and probably started the rorting himself and if made Ambassador to China basing himself in Hong Kong and taking over this relative palace may be part of the grand plan.
McCully should have made up a figure, any figure and given it out. I doubt Cactus would have pursued it then, she would have looked at the number, thought that it sounded about right and forgotten about it. Instead McCully ducked for cover and skirted the details and tried to hide under the little fib about confidentiality without actually understanding the mind of a Chinese landlord wanting to skite to his pals that he has a long term government tenant pouring cash into his coffers.
