Corruption

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Rodney Hide has another blinder.

In an attempt to look into the research done on Auckland’s transport options, he finds he’s being stonewalled at every turn.  But he discovers Tony Randle, who managed to extract the actual spreadsheet from Auckland Transport only to discover what appears to be systematic “errors” somehow all magically in favour of proving light rail is the best option.

My research led me to Wellingtonian Tony Randle, who spent months trying to get the analysis underpinning the 2010 Rail Business Case, succeeding only after a complaint to the Ombudsman.

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The Labour party here is making as much as they can about what they call a crony appointment. The very next thing they will allege is corruption. They know what they are talking about.

Take a look at Australia and the ongoing revelation from the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The latest revelation shows just how corrupt the ALP and their affiliated unions became.

The managing director of NuCoal admitted in a private examination by the state’s corruption watchdog that John Maitland, a friend of the then mining minister Ian Macdonald, had done his job by “opening doors” and obtaining an exploration licence worth millions of dollars.

In a secret interrogation just last month, Glen Lewis said Mr Maitland was removed as chairman of Doyles Creek Mining – a company which was sold into NuCoal before being floated on the stock exchange – because he had already “helped facilitate the application” for an exploration licence, which Mr Macdonald directly issued to the company without a tender.

The circumstances of the allocation of the licence are under public investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Mr Macdonald announced he had approved a “training mine” for Doyles Creek in the Hunter Valley on Christmas Eve 2008, but he did so contrary to the advice of his department, the ICAC has heard.

The decision effectively turned an investment of $165,000 by Mr Maitland, a former mining union official and Labor Party figure, into shares worth as much as $14 million.  Read more »

Elba Esther Gordillo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Not here…in Mexico…but can’t be far off happening here. Nevertheless, anywhere in the world that unions exist, corruption soon follows:

Union head Elba Esther Gordillo, known as Mexico’s most powerful woman, has been arrested on corruption charges.

Ms Gordillo, who runs the 1.5 million-member Mexican teachers’ union, is alleged to have diverted about $200m from union funds to personal accounts.

No-one from her legal team has responded to the allegations, but in the past she has denied any wrongdoing in handling the funds.

The arrest came after major reforms to the education system on Monday.  Read more »

The dodgy Labor and union ratbags in Australia are being skewered daily by the ICAC. Ian Macdonald appears to have had 14 banka accounts  I suppose he might have worried about misplacing a couple.

The disgraced former resources minister Ian Macdonald had 14 separate bank accounts during his time as a NSW cabinet minister, a corruption inquiry has been told.

Mr Macdonald accepted it might be possible he had that many, but suggested some might be related to several “farm enterprises”, and said he didn’t know whether all of them were “operational”.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is questioning Mr Macdonald over almost $200,000 in loans he had received from his former best friend, Greg Jones.

Mr Jones was also a secret investor in Cascade Coal, which was awarded a lucrative exploration licence in 2009 over a coal tenement at Mt Penny, near Mudgee, which is the subject of the inquiry.

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All the talk of “envelopes” in Spain with their corruption trials running makes me wonder if Winston isn’t moonlighting over there advising them.

We will know for sure if it turns out instead of cash there were undeclared airline travel vouchers used.

For 20 years, Luis Bárcenas toiled in obscurity for Spain’s governing Popular Party, working as a bookkeeper and treasurer. These days when he walks the streets of Madrid in his signature chesterfield coat, strangers lash out at him with just one word: “Envelope!”

While Spaniards suffer with the sacrifices of government-imposed austerity, Spain’s top politicians, including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, have been accused in a widening scandal of pocketing envelopes of cash sometimes amounting to nearly $35,000 a year for nearly two decades. Mr. Bárcenas is suspected of distributing the illicit payments in an elaborate scheme to finance the party and enrich its leadership.  Read more »

Neither the reports into David Benson-Pope nor Philip Field went the way of the spin and eventually both men were axed from Labour.

Philip Field was of course axed for daring to suggest he stand as an independent rather than for his corruption. To this day Labour has never said anything officially about Philip Field other than they respect the judgement of the court.

Meanwhile Labour are spinning and leaking the draft A-G report into Jones and Cunliffe like a top…not a good sign that he is cleared.

In fact the media have been back-pedalling quickly ever since the first reports were shopped to them:   Read more »

Dodgy former union boss Craig Thomson was arrested, charged with 150 counts of fraud and released on bail. Earlier in the day Julia Gillard announced the election date 8 months out….connected? Possibly but I think that Gillard won’t be able to last until September, she is too closely wedded to Thomson.

Federal MP Craig Thomson declined an offer to surrender himself before he was was arrested at his electorate office and charged with 150 fraud offences, police say.

Members of the NSW fraud squad on Thursday executed an arrest warrant on behalf of the Victorian Fraud and Extortion Squad.

Victorian detectives flew to Sydney this morning where they accompanied NSW police to Mr Thomson’s Central Coast electorate office. He was arrested about 1pm.  Read more »

Jared Savage in the NZ Herald reveals more information about the dodgy decision to fast track Bill Liu’s citizenship by ministers and MPs in the Labour party.

I can’t hardly wait for the report of the Auditor-General:

Emails obtained under the Official Information Act reveal a senior Immigration NZ investigator wrote to Mr Ross after learning of the decision.

Russell Ogilvy asked whether Mr Ross recommended that citizenship be declined and whether he had told Mr Jones “to speak with his own department regarding the decision”.

Mr Jones was the Acting Internal Affairs Minister in this case but also the Associate Immigration Minister.

“The minister was advised of both the pending police and INZ investigations,” responded Mr Ross.

Despite his recommendation, Mr Jones granted citizenship subject to Mr Liu taking the oath of allegiance.

Mr Ogilvy then asked Mr Ross to tell him when the citizenship ceremony would be held.

The emails also reveal that Mr Jones granted Mr Liu an urgent private ceremony at the request of Labour MP Dover Samuels, despite the advice of another DIA official that he did not meet the criteria.

Mr Samuels also wrote three earlier letters lobbying for Mr Liu’s citizenship application.

The VIP ceremony was held in a room at Parliament days after Mr Jones’ decision in his favour.

The next day he applied for an urgent passport, then changed his name to William Yan.

The Aussies are onto it. They view the media, unions and political parties as the most corrupt institutions in society, according to a recent poll.

AUSTRALIANS view the media, unions and political parties as the most corrupt institutions in society, according to a poll by the Australian National University.

But the public has strong confidence in the police and armed services – and is less likely to think individual politicians are corrupt. The poll of 2020 people was carried out between August 13 and September 9.

Despite the belief that corruption occurs, fewer than 1 per cent of respondents said they or a family member had personally experienced corruption in the past five years.

The poll found 43 per cent of people surveyed believed corruption in Australia had increased while 41 per cent believed it had remained the same. Only 7 per cent believed corruption had declined.

The poll revealed 71 per cent of respondents were satisfied with democracy in Australia, although this figure had dipped to its lowest level since 1998.

”Both the media and trade unions have registered consistently low levels of confidence throughout the nearly 30-year period of the surveys, rarely attracting the confidence of more than one in four citizens,” the report said.

But just over half of those surveyed believed ”almost none” or just ”a few” federal politicians were involved in corruption.

Corruption allegations and investigations into dodgy unionists and labour politicians are coming to a head in Australia and the body blows are mounting.

At least in Australia they have an Independent Commission Against Corruption to investigate these allegations. Here in New Zealand our police seem reluctant to even investigate dodgy politicians.

PART ONE of the trilogy of corruption inquiries starring former Labor ministers will get under way today in a purpose-built hearing room to accommodate a battalion of barristers who, over the next five months, will represent more than 70 witnesses.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption’s three-part inquiry is expected to be one of the most sensational in NSW history and will examine explosive corruption allegations against the former ministers Eddie Obeid, Ian Macdonald and Eric Roozendaal.

Also on the witness list are three former premiers – Morris Iemma, Kristina Keneally and Nathan Rees – along with senior ministers including Frank Sartor.

Mr Roozendaal, who is the only one of the three Labor heavyweights still in Parliament, will feature in the first of the inquiries, which will start at 10am and is expected to run for a week.

Operation Indus will investigate the circumstances in which Moses Obeid, one of the five sons of the former minister, provided a brand new Honda CRV to Mr Roozendaal, the then minister for commerce and roads.

The first witness scheduled to give evidence is a Camperdown panel beater, Peter Fitzhenry, who will be followed by a car dealer, Keith Goodman.

The pair are expected to provide details of Moses Obeid’s 2007 request that the pair source a black Honda CRV for Mr Roozendaal but to put the car in the name of Nata Re.

Once Mr Roozendaal had taken delivery of the Honda, Moses Obeid organised the $44,000 payment from an account of his business partner, the property developer Rocco Triulcio.

Nata Re is the sister of Mr Triulcio. Mrs Re has previously told Fairfax Media that she had never owned a Honda CRV and that she had never heard of Eric Roozendaal.

This isn;t going to end well for Labor.