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Bill Liu
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David Cunliffe
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Donghua Liu
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Electoral Finance Bill
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Hypocrisy
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Labour Party
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Moira Coatsworth
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Political donations
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Rick Barker
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Sniff test
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Tim Barnett
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| Donghua Liu's partner Juan Zhang and Rick Barker at a Labour fundraising auction in 2007. (NZ Herald photo) |
The links between Chinese businessman Donghua Liu and the Labour Party are becoming more obvious; the Herald reports:
A Labour Cabinet Minister presented a bottle of wine to the partner of businessman Donghua Liu at a fundraiser for the party.
The Herald has obtained a photograph of Rick Barker with Juan Zhang, who has two children with Liu, after he won an auction for the bottle at an Auckland restaurant in June 2007.
It is not known how much Liu paid for the wine - believed to be signed by then-Prime Minister Helen Clark - and Mr Barker said he presented auction prizes several times at Labour fundraisers.
He was the Minister for Internal Affairs at the time, and visited Liu in his hometown of Chongqing in China earlier that year, although he did not know Liu was a donor to Labour.
Two sources have told the Herald that Liu paid $15,000 at an auction in 2007 for a book signed by Helen Clark.
Labour general secretary Tim Barnett said a check of the party's records showed no donation from Liu under his name.
However, he said it was possible he made donations at the local electorate level and had not been recorded by the party's central administration.
The Labour Party has previously accused the Government of making "cash for access" deals with Donghua Liu, who received citizenship after lobbying from National minister Maurice Williamson and whose hotel was later opened by Prime Minister John Key.
So now, even though Labour cannot find any record of even ONE donation from Mr Liu, there is evidence from more than one source that the Chinese businessman made at least two donations to Labour in 2007. This was AFTER he had been approved for NZ residence by Damien O'Connor.
Rick Barker appears to be the common denominator here, as he was with the other Mr Liu; Dover Samuels' mate Bill Liu, about whom we have commented frequently. The Herald story continues to detail Mr Barker's involvement:
Mr Barker, now a regional councillor in Hawkes Bay, said he was a guest of Liu at the dinner in Chongqing and visited his cement company while on holiday in China. But he had not known Liu was a Labour donor and he was not in China on official business as a minister.
"I went to China to catch up with some friends of mine, see some sights ... and I made a side trip to Chongqing - I had not been to the city before.
"I was in the city a short time. Mr Liu showed me his business and that night, I attended a dinner which seemed to be a dinner he had put on for all his staff."
Mr Barker could not remember how he came to be invited to visit Liu in Chongqing.
He said it was "probable" he also had dinner with Liu in New Zealand.
"I am trying to recall events of over seven years ago, so it's a little challenging.
"But it can't have been a regular event, because if it was I would recall that. In fact, my contact with Liu fell away quite quickly."
At the time of the donation and dinner with Mr Barker, Liu had permanent residency - granted in 2005 by Labour's Associate Immigration Minister, Damien O'Connor, against official advice - but was not yet a New Zealand citizen.
We've heard some numbers bandied around for the price paid for the bottle of wine shown above. The figure of $100,000 has been mentioned by several sources. If that is indeed accurate it is a serious donation, and even an organisation as inept as the Labour Party would have some record of it, you would think.
Mr Barker's "side-trip" to Chongqing is also interesting. We've heard media reports that Chongqing was 1800km from where Mr Barker was holidaying in China; almost the distance from Auckland to Sydney. That's a long way to travel to visit a cement factory and have dinner with a casual contact. It puts Judith Collins' 30km "side-trip" to Oravida for a glass of milk into perspective!
But what is really interesting here is the political background against which these events took place. Labour introduced the insidious Electoral Finance Bill in July 2007, the month after Donghua Liu made a substantial donation to the party at a fundraising dinner. Wikipedia reports this of the Bill:
The Electoral Finance Act 2007 was a controversial[2][3] act in New Zealand. The Electoral Finance Bill was introduced by the Fifth Labour Government partly in response to the 2005 New Zealand election funding controversy, in particular "third-party" campaigns.
The proponents of the bill generally held that it was required to prevent wealthy private parties from "buying elections" anonymously via advertising campaigns or other financially costly lobbying, while the opponents considered it a serious restriction of civil liberties, and further considered that spending private money on political campaigning was a democratic right.
It is already apparent that Donghua Liu made two donations to the Labour Party via items purchased at fundraising auctions. There seems to be no dispute over the value of the first donation; $15,000 for a book signed by Helen Clark. At the time that donation was made, the threshold for donations requiring declaration was $10,000. On that basis, it can be reasonably alleged that Labour, whether at branch or national level has broken the law. If the second donation was also over the threshold, that's two breaches; at a time when Labour was about to introduce a draconian law to restrict political donations.
This looks very bad for the Labour Party, and must be investigated. Labour has railed against National receiving a donation from Donghua Liu (which WAS properly declared), but is Labour's own house in order? It would appear not.
David Cunliffe will continue to distance himself from this scandal, but he cannot do that. He was a senior member of the party's caucus at the time, and now that he is party leader, the buck stops with him. He cannot simply move on as though nothing has happened. He, party general secretary Tim Barnett and president Moira Coatsworth need to provide answers as to whether Labour has broken the law.
But the consequences for Labour do not end there. Labour and Green MP's are fond of saying that certain things don't meet the "sniff test", a phrase that was thrown around with some considerable abandon with regard to Judith Collins.
Having accused Mrs Collins of corruption, and having accused National of accepting cash for access from Mr Liu, Labour now faces a sniff test of its own. And the stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming.
