0 Cash for access

A new name has emerged in the Donghua Liu saga; the Herald introduces Steven Ching:

The man who hoped to be the first Chinese MP for the Labour Party has emerged as a central figure in the donation claims of Donghua Liu.
Steven Ching was a successful fundraiser for Labour and was No42 on the party list ahead of the 2005 election, but withdrew.

Mr Ching seems to have an interesting history. The Herald reported in 2005 why he was stood down from being a candidate, and amazingly, another man named Liu is involved! Here's the story, from May 2005:

The man on track to become Labour’s first Chinese MP was yesterday forced to stand down while police investigate serious allegations he misused Government connections.
In the latest in a string of embarrassments for the Labour Party, list candidate Steven Ching was asked to stand down over claims that he offered to get a man appointed as a justice of the peace in exchange for a $50,000 loan.
The Herald on Sunday yesterday claimed that Mr Ching told Auckland broadcaster Paul Liu he would get two senior Labour MPs to sign his application form to become a JP.
In exchange, Mr Liu was asked to give a $50,000 loan to Mr Ching.
Mr Ching denied the claims.
Yesterday morning Mr Ching - number 42 on the Labour list - was out on the campaign trail with MPs Dover Samuels and John Tamihere, but by mid-morning he had been asked to stand down as the Labour Party handed the matter over to the police to investigate.
Party president Mike Williams has written to the Herald on Sunday asking that all its affidavits be sent to the police and the Labour Party.
Mr Ching, 63, denied the allegations and said he was confident police would clear his name in time for him to stand in the election.

"I intend to sue the Sunday Herald [sic] because they are reporting rubbish things."
He issued a written statement, signed by Mr Liu, which said the allegations were not true.
"Mr Ching did ask to borrow money from me for a revolving fund," the statement said, "but his request was absolutely no connection with the JP’s application he proposed to me.
"There were totally two different issues, and obviously, the writer had put them together."
It is not Mr Ching’s first brush with controversy. In the past month he was forced to resign as a justice of the peace after Herald on Sunday investigations found he had two undisclosed convictions under the Fisheries Act.
Mr Ching had also pleaded guilty to obstructing a fisheries officer in 2001 and was discharged without conviction.
Despite the revelations, Labour initially stood by Mr Ching, who is highly regarded for his ability to draw donations from Auckland’s Asian community and attract their votes.
Mr Williams said the convictions were minor and the party had accepted that Mr Ching did not know about them because they were handled by his lawyer.

We don't know if Mr Ching ever made good of his threat to sue the Herald on Sunday. But we would suggest that because the story was the very first item on the list when we did a Google search of "steven ching labour party", there was never any requirement for the Herald on Sunday or the weekday Herald to spike the story.

But then today's story about Mr Ching mentions something which Labour has banged on at John Key and his National colleagues for months; cash for access. Have a read of this:

 

The Herald can now reveal that the Auckland businessman, who organised dinners where guests donated $1000 to sit beside former Prime Minister Helen Clark, approached the office of David Cunliffe about Liu's residency bid.
Mr Ching was not home and did not return messages, but Labour sources confirmed he was the "conduit" between Liu and the party.
When the Herald broke the news that Mr Cunliffe wrote a 2003 letter on behalf of Liu's residency bid, the Labour leader said he did not recall having ever met the businessman.
"To the best of my knowledge that letter came through my office and an immigration agent on his behalf."
Mr Cunliffe this week said "to the best of my knowledge" Mr Ching was not that agent. "However he appears to have had some contact at staff level with the New Lynn Electorate Office over the matter."
Labour sources said Mr Ching had links to Liu and became the "conduit" between the party and the millionaire businessman. "Ching was the 'money man' responsible for organising the fundraising dinners and established a good relationship with Liu," said one.

So diners paid a grand a time to sit next to Helen Clark at dinners. If that's not cash for access, we don't know what is. Perhaps Mr Cunliffe will now seek to revise this presser he put out on 8th June:

"There has been more than a whiff of opportunism around Mr Banks since Mr Key infamously sat down with him over a cup of tea and gifted the seat of Epsom to him.
“While Mr Banks has finally stepped down, the spectre of special deals - whether over National's coat-tailing arrangements, their 'cash for access' fundraising activities, Judith Collins' promotion of a company owned by a National donor, and Maurice Williamson's attempt to influence police actions on another wealthy National donor - will follow National. 

Putting aside that there are NO coat-tailing MP's in the current Parliament, a statement that no one seems to want to challenge Mr Cunliffe on, it's clear that Labour made money out of Helen Clark, just as National does out of John Key and other Ministers. We don't have a problem with that, as long as any money earned by the parties is declared in the proper manner, as required by law. 

If people are prepared to part with their hard-earned cash to hob-nob with a senior politician to benefit their party of choice, that's their decision. It's certainly preferable to the long-suffering taxpayer having to pay for every excess of any political party.

We don't have a problem with people paying to meet MP's, Ministers and the Prime Minister socially. What we DO have a problem with is the hypocrisy of the Labour Party in bleating for months about "cash for access" when they do it themselves.

0 Cash for policy?

We've heard a lot about "cash for access" in the last couple of weeks. But all we've really discovered is that pretty much all political parties fund-raise, and their MP's are a significant drawcard.

But writing in the Manawatu Standard, Liam Hehir wonders about cash for policy, and addresses the elephant in the room. Under the headline Deals keep the grassroots tilled Hehir opines:

Are you ready to hear something that will shake your faith in our democracy? Brace yourself.
I can reveal that a network of highly organised corporations have gained influence over one of our political parties. They give this party thousands of dollars - and there is no doubt they get their money's worth.
For instance, the corporations in question have privileged party connections. As hard as it is to believe, they actually have a direct hand in choosing the party leader. Less directly, a high number of party MPs and organisers used to work for them.
The party regularly proposes legislation that furthers the goals of these corporations.
One of their umbrella organisations was even awarded a government contract that one watchdog group called a "cosy deal" to do "little, if anything". 

Goodness; who could this be? Is Mr Hehir talking about the Business Roundtable? Is he talking about the Exclusive Brethren, or the Chinese branch of the Cabinet Club?

Well no, actually he isn't; he continues:

Yes, the role and influence of unions over the Labour Party is truly disturbing.  

Oh, the unions. Isn't it strange, that as the media leaps to condemn the National Party for daring to leverage the popularity of the most popular Prime Minister in living memory, the role of trade unions in funding the Labour Party continues to pass beneath the radar.

It has of course been a minor topic of discussion this week with the Public Service Association's rather quaint notion that politically neutral public servants in broadcasting should be free to be openly political. That in itself rather diminishes the outrage over National asking its supporters for donations, which are given willingly, to help it get re-elected.

Liam Hehir's piece is deserving of a read in its entirety. There are two sides to the "cash for access" argument, but one side doesn't get many column centimetres or soundbites; is that good, balanced journalism?

0 Cash for access?

The Botany branch of the Labour Party held a fundraiser over the weekend at the Lucky Fortune restaurant.

Interestingly, after all the protestations this week about "cash for access" and dodgy fundraising dinners for wealthy Asian guests, a number of senior Labour MP's attended, as you will see in the photographs below.

David Cunliffe, David Parker, Phil Goff and Jacinda Ardern; the former Labour leader, the current leader and deputy and the woman tipped to be the next Helen Clark were all in attendance at a dinner which by Botany Labour's own admission had the purpose of raising money for the party. We don't know how much it cost, or how much was raised, but that's largely irrelevant.

We need your help here; we can't decide whether the decision by those MP's named above to attend a cash-for-access dinner whilst they are protesting about National's alleged cash-for-access dinners is:

• appalling judgement by Ms Ardern and Messrs Cunliffe, Parker and Goff, or
• absolute arrogance, or
• complete and utter hypocrisy

It may in fact be all three, but you're welcome to leave a comment and indicate your preference. In the meantime though, the true agenda continues to emerge.

At 9am, we heard David Cunliffe say on Newstalk ZB's news that "it's time to have a conversation" about taxpayer funding for political parties. Might the reason for wanting to have that conversation be because donations to the Labour Party have all but dried up since Mr Cunliffe was elected as leader?

Make no mistake Dear Readers; rather than going out and raising money the traditional way, Labour and the Greens want to pick your pocket - again. And we don't know about you, but we can think of plenty of things we'd rather our hard-earned tax dollar was spent on than politicians; especially when David Cunliffe is promising to tax the bejesus out of those who dare to earn reasonable coin if he ever becomes Prime Minister.