0 Breaking news: David Cunliffe advocated for Donghua Liu

The Herald has just posted this story:

Labour Party leader David Cunliffe - who said this week he had never met Donghua Liu or advocated on his behalf - wrote a letter to immigration officials on behalf of the controversial businessman who was applying for residency in New Zealand.
The 2003 letter was written in his capacity as the MP for New Lynn after he was "approached my constituent Donghua Lui [sic] who is concerned at the time it is taking to process his Investment Category application".
Mr Cunliffe this week denied any involvement with Liu's residency bid after the Herald revealed the property developer paid $15,000 at a Labour Party fundraiser for a book signed by Helen Clark in 2007.
The letter, released to the Herald today under the Official Information Act, dated April 11, 2003 said Liu's application for residency was accepted for processing by the Immigration Service on August 13, 2002.

Mr Cunliffe said Mr Liu wished to set up a joint venture business with his Tianlong Property Development Company - which owns his stalled property development in Newmarket - to export large quantities of agricultural and horticultural products to China.
"It is hoped that products from the company will be available to the market in July 2003," wrote Mr Cunliffe.
"I am aware of the difficulties facing the Business Migration Branch of New Zealand Immigration Services in coping with the overwhelming numbers of applicants that have applied for consideration under these categories and the time taken to verify documents.
"However, it would be very helpful to Mr Liu to be advised of an estimated period of time in which he could expect a decision on his case."
"Yesterday, Mr Cunliffe told reporters questioning him about Liu's financial support for Labour he did not recall meeting him and denied advocating on Liu's behalf in his residency application."
Liu was granted residency under the Investor Category in 2005 by Labour's associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor against official advice.

And the Herald has posted this snippet from an interview with Mr Cunliffe yesterday on Twitter:

Wow. Is this ever going to set a cat amongst the pigeons! It's hard to imagine how Mr Cunliffe can survive this.

Even this morning, he told Tim Fookes at Newstalk ZB in Wellington that to the best of his knowledge, he had never met Mr Liu. Just hours later, he is exposed as having written a letter to the Immigration Service where he said that he had been "approached by my constituent Donghua Lui [sic] who is concerned at the time it is taking to process his Investment Category application".

Here, via the Herald, is the letter in question:
 

And John Armstrong has chimed in; he opines:

David Cunliffe is in deep political trouble. So deep that his resignation as Labour's leader may now be very much in order.
It now emerges that - contrary to the point-blank denials that Cunliffe gave to a press conference only yesterday - that he did assist controversial businessman Donghua Liu in the latter's application for New Zealand residency.
At a minimum, the revelation that Cunliffe wrote a letter to immigration officials seeking information on progress regarding the residency application is a massive blow to the Labour leader's personal credibility. How can anyone have any confidence in what he says from hereon?
Cunliffe may argue that the letter was about immigration processes and written on a constituent's behalf - something MPs frequently do - and therefore was not an endorsement of the application.
But that does not wash. Either deliberately or through a lapse of memory, Cunliffe has been economical with the truth.

He has called for National Party ministers' heads to roll for the equivalent or less. Having set the standard required of others, it is incumbent on him to himself follow suit.
The self-ravaging of his credibility means Labour now has to abandon its strategy of trying to paint John Key and National as corrupt. To carry on it that fashion would be the height of hypocrisy.

This is a huge blow to David Cunliffe, and a huge blow to the credibility of the Labour Party.

Parliament sits in just over 40 minutes. It will be unmissable this afternoon.

0 A sensible strategy...

The Herald had a story over the weekend over the upcoming John Banks donations case; check this out:

John Banks' lawyer is seeking details of Kim Dotcom's convictions in Germany to establish the tycoon's "credibility" as a key witness against him in his trial over donations.
David Jones, QC, was instructed by the High Court to serve Immigration NZ with papers aimed at extracting information supplied as part of Dotcom's residency application. The order comes ahead of the May 17 High Court trial of Mr Banks' allegedly filing a false electoral return. Mr Jones told the High Court he wanted permission to seek from Immigration NZ "information pertaining to the criminal convictions of Mr Dotcom in any country other than New Zealand".
Justice Edwin Wylie said the information was "potentially relevant". "It is information which should have been disclosed in the course of an immigration application. It could also go to the credibility of Mr Dotcom and he is a key Crown witness."
Official Information Act material released by Immigration NZ in 2012 showed Mr Dotcom had declared two criminal convictions from Germany.

The information, released to media, showed the convictions were voluntarily declared because no formal record of them existed after being wiped by the Germany's "clean slate"-style legislation.
Documents show Mr Dotcom's immigration agency volunteered the details that he had convictions - which had expired - for computer hacking and insider trading.

It's hardly rocket science to suggest that part of John Banks' defence will be to investigate Herr Dotcom's credibility. A quick scan of his Twitter feed is likely to provide the Banks defence team with plenty of ammunition as well.

Kim Dotcom does indeed have a chequered history. As well as the offences committed in Germany, he was also prosecuted for dishonesty offences by the Hong Kong authorities after he had been granted New Zealand residence. He was convicted of eight charges with regard to trading activities on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Dotcom's evidence will be a key part of the Crown case against John Banks. But under our justice system, the Crown has the obligation to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, and the credibility of Crown witnesses is a very relevant issue. Given some of the information that has emerged about Mr Dotcom in recent months, it will be very interesting to see how this plays out.