NZ

Labour has finally caved to the mounting pressure on Shane Jones after serious inconsistencies developed in his stories.

On Monday David Shearer ruled out standing down Jones over his involvement in the Bill Liu cash for citizenship case with Larry Williams on Monday night.

He explicitly said says it’s meaningless anyway.

What new information has he received that made him change his mind?

Perhaps it was the information that the herald brought to light on top of the sterling work done by Wishart on the Bill Liu case back in 08/09.

This Herald article from 2009 also makes an interesting observation:

Liu was considered a high-risk gambler by the DIA’s casino monitoring division because of his volatility, high-stakes gambling and history of self-barring, the Herald was told.

A DIA spokesman confirmed that Liu was of interest. “Mr Liu is one of a number of gamblers of significance whom the department has discussed in its interaction with SkyCity”.

Liu’s gambling also attracted the attention of the police. That interest was at times intense and included surveillance, a source told the Herald. “The focus was to see whether evidence of money laundering could be detected.” No charges have been laid.

… so Liu was being watched by the DIA and police for potentially laundering money – as well as his immigration issues – but Jones still approved citizenship.

Has Labour only just googled this stuff?

It is also interesting that apart from claiming that he would be executed he also claimed membership of Falun Gong. There is a little problem with given his propensity for gambling. Falun Gong prohibits gambling so his claim to be a member (which Jones appears to have accepted) seems a bit convenient:

As part of its emphasis on ethical behavior, Falun Gong’s teachings prescribe a strict personal morality for practitioners, which includes abstention from smoking, drugs, gambling, premarital or extramarital sex, and homosexuality.

David Shearer has kicked this to the Auditor-General but their request is for the Auditor-General to look at the process….not the decision. This is farcical.

“I’ve asked for the Auditor-General to look into all the departmental as well as ministerial processes involved in this case.

“Shane has encouraged me to take this action because he has been left in the impossible position of not being able to clear his name. An inquiry will enable him to do so.

“While the inquiry is underway, Shane Jones will stand down from his portfolio responsibilities and from Labour’s Front Bench.

Based on what Labour has asked of the Auditor-General they are simply trying on what Helen Clark did with Philip Field. There really should be a full indepedent inquiry now.

There are many reasons why Shane Jones’ story on Bill Liu doesn’t stack up.

Liu claimed to be involved in ‘formalising’ agreements and good relations between NZ and China.  What agreements? Officials said they could not confirm this was true.  And how does a fugitive who supposedly faces torture and organ harvesting in China find himself helping develop good trade relations?

Of course, citizenship can be revoked if you tell porkies on your application, just like residency (and a fake name certainly qualifies) – extradition/deportation can then follow.

Jones knew this.

Furthermore - this advice to Jones (see the top of Page 7) explicitly rules out the humanitarian clause as a reason to grant citizenship.

“It is therefore considered that Mr Liu is not eligible for the grant of citizenship under the former section 9(1)(d) of the Citizenship Act 1977.”

Jones’ decision last night to parrot the claims made by Dover Samuels, made the whole thing look even more murky.

Time for David Shearer to show some leadership and demand a full independent inquiry into this cash for citizenship scandal.

ᔥ Stuff.co.nz

Andrew Little is upset because a process server shone a torch in his eyes:

Little last week invited Collins to send “thuggish characters” and last night a process serving agent was waiting for him when he got home.

“It was dark, the guy leapt up and shined a torch in my face and served me with the papers, so fair cop.”

There was an unwritten law that politicians didn’t bother each other’s families, he said.

“I was pleased they didn’t come inside the gate, they didn’t hassle my home, that’s what I was most worried about.

“I think Judith Collins came very close to the mark. As it was the guy was sitting just outside our place, and lying in wait for me to get home.”

God he is pathetic. He started the silly game by defaming Judith Collins, then by saying bring it on to her law suit, then by skulking like a coward.

Unbelievably he still thinks Judith Collins isn’t serious.

Little said he would be consulting with his lawyer today and be releasing details of the case to back up his and Mallard’s claim they had done nothing wrong.

They would show Collins had refused to answer questions in Parliament about the leaked letter and the MPs were doing their job by trying to hold her account.

“To the extent that her reputation is based on her being a straight shooter in Parliament, there is evidence to the contrary of that and I want to get that out sooner rather than later so people can see exactly what it is she is on about.”

Little said he was convinced Collins wouldn’t want the matter to go to trial she would be forced to defend her personal reputation.

Little has said to anyone who would listen around parliament that he has consulted 4 lawyers already…now he is off to a real one as it turns out that the advice of Charles Chauvel, David Parker, himself  and Lianne Dalziel didn’t amount to much.

ᔥ NZ Herald

Emmerson is brilliant…Shane Jones movie viewing pleasures, carpet cleaners and dodgy behaviour…nice.

Mark Sainsbury had a real sook on Close-Up last night because Anne Tolley fronted, but wouldn’t debate with a so-called “expert” on drug and alcohol counselling.

What Sainsbury didn’t point out during his tears and whining was that this “expert” – Roger Brooking – is a grassroots Labour activist. True to form this tool hijacked the interview to push his ideological opposition to private prisons.

If Sainsbury had bothered to look at Brooking’s Twitter account, rather than repeat crap he heard on Moaning Report, he would also have seen personal attacks on Tolley.

No wonder Anne Tolley got demoted from Education. Now in charge of prisons and still can’t add up. infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?id=87…

— Roger Brooking (@RogerBrooking) March 23, 2012

Good on her for not treating this left-wing low-life as an equal.

Close Up looks like a lame horse waiting for the final shot. No wonder the pressure is getting to Sainsbury.

ᔥ Cactus Kate

Cactus compares Trevor Mallard to O.J. Simpson…and not in a good way:

Some people I know have played the game of dodging the civil serve. It can go on for months and you are well within your rights to do it and really there is no point other than adding to the psyche sport. Mallard I reckon is clever enough to drag it on for a month if he really wants to.

He is relying on the “OJ” effect, in so far that after a period of time you actually want OJ to escape as the whole process has become so hilarious.

But being neither an adored sports star or black, Mallard is probably not going to gain the same level of public sympathy.

Yes Trevor, we are laughing at you, not with you.

ᔥ 3 News

Shane Jones says he granted citizenship to Bill Liu because he believed the poor guy was going to be shot and his organ’s harvested.

“I was told the execution of this man… that he would be executed… which is the reason the officials gave for him not wanting to go back to China.”

Mr Jones said declining it would have been like signing a death warrant.

Mr Jones says he was told that Mr Yan would be “jailed, executed and his organs harvested” if he was sent back to China.

“That to me comprised grounds for a humanitarian decision,” Mr Jones says.

Really?

How come Bill Liu was planning to take these Labour MPs to China?

“He said he had a lot of support from members of Parliament … he was going to take them to China,”

Surely if he was going to be shot in China that would be the last place he’d want to visit?

The excuse given by Jones holds as much water as a colander.

ᔥ Stuff.co.nz

West Auckland that is, where people have taken to aflicting their children with Silly First Name Syndrome. Only pain and suffering comes from Silly First Names.

Ruby and Liam were among the most popular baby names in New Zealand last year but in West Auckland be prepared to come across Unique or Hannibal.

Many parents in the west are proud to give their children names that are a little different.

Shaela Nathan and John Tike of Henderson are parents to 10-month-old Hurricayn Rob and his 2-year-old sister Riivah Jayde.

Miss Nathan says her children’s names reflect their personalities.

“Riivah was pretty hard to name and it took three weeks before one stuck. She’s really calm and quiet,” Miss Nathan says.

“But when Hurricayn came out the midwife said he was loud and proud. When he cried you could hear him from the letterbox.

“Hurricayn also matches the season he was born in because when I went into labour it was 3am and pouring with rain.”

Miss Nathan has always liked unusual names but her parents were shocked by her choices.

“They were like `why’d you name him that for?’ but you only have to spend five minutes with him to know why. He’s going to be a rugby player for sure.”

Suburbs rugby premier team coach Ramsey Tomakino says he’s come across some unusual names during his three years with the Waitakere team.

“Last year we had Hannibal, Nissan and Rambo – we have lots of people who say they like seeing our team lists because of the names.”

ᔥ NZ Herald

The NZ Herald notes that David Shearer is applying an interesting test in his reasoning for not standing down Shane Jones:

Shearer has rejected Key’s claim he is being hypocritical and says he would stand his MP Shane Jones down if Mr Jones was under police investigation.

Interesting…using that test…why isn’t Charles Chauvel now warming the naughty chair, or Megan Woods? they are currently being investigated by Police.

Of course the Shane Jones case is much worse than the other two, and certainly worse than the manufactured allegations against John Banks who was a private citizen at the time.

Shane Jones in contrast was a minister, making a decision that benefited materially a donor to the Labour party and to several MPs.

ᔥ Kiwiblog

David Farrar raises some very good questions for Shane Jones to answer…if he can:

1. Who was this official who told him this? It wasn’t by some chance Daniel Phillips was it, the brother of Shane Te Pou – the Labour fundraiser who got paid $5,000 to help get Liu citizenship
2. Does having citizenship in any way impact whether or not one can be extradited to China over the fraud charges laid against him?
3. If one truly believes you face execution and persecution in your home country, don’t you apply for asylum not citizenship?
4. But if one applied for asylum, wouldn’t that actually require some substantiation of the claims that he was Falun Gong and fearing for his life, with adjudication by an independent tribunal, rather than Ministerial discretion as with citizenship?
5. Has Jones or Liu or anyone at all ever produced a shred of evidence that he actually faced anything in China except a fraud trial?
6. Does anyone seriously think Liu would have been granted citizenship if he had not donated to various Labour MPs, who advocated so strongly on his behalf?
7. Is anyone else curious about why Liu paid Labour Party fundraiser Shane Te Pou $5,000 to fill in a citizenship form for him? That’s a lot of money for filling in a form.
8. Is the more likely explanation that he paid Te Pou the $5,000, so Te Pou could use his political influence to get him citizenship.
9. Is it a coincidence that Te Pou immediately introduced him to then Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker
10. Is it also a coincidence that a donation to Dover Samuels election campaign was made from an unknown Chinese entity using the address of Daniel Philips, who is Shane Te Pou’s brother and worked for Shane Jones

I agree with David, and since Shane Jones also welcomes and inquiry, let’s be having one then.