0 How could Winston forget Bellazeel

Winston Peters' "smoking gun" yesterday was a suggestion that Judith Collins might have filed an incomplete Pecuniary Interest return.

But now his arch-nemesis Brendan Horan has suggested that the Winston First leader might have his own Pecuniary Interest issue. He has put out this presser:

It’s time for Winston Peters to come clean

Wednesday, 14 May 2014, 2:14 pm
Press Release: Brendan Horan MP

Independent MP Brendan Horan says Winston Peters must come clean about his own pecuniary interests and his own use of taxpayer money before making spurious allegations against other people.
The 5 year old bay mare Bellazeel is owned by Mr Peters and others, and has a successful racing career. So far in the 2013/14 season from seven starts, the horse has had two wins and a third place, earning prize-money of $20,175. Mr Peters has conspicuously failed to declare the horse in his pecuniary interests return.
“Mr Peters needs to take an honest look in the mirror. He is a prime example of why our Parliament needs to be subject to the Official Information Act,” Mr Horan says.
Brendan Horan says he is also concerned that the New Zealand First Leader could be misusing taxpayer funds. “I am concerned at reports I am hearing regarding overseas junkets, use of contractors and consultants, and other serious mis-spending. Certainly Mr Peters refuses to follow normal practice and report to his caucus on how the Leaders Budget - some $2.5 million in the current Parliament - is being used. I challenge him to open the books so that taxpayers can be sure the money is being used only for proper purposes.
“Real parties are open with their MPs about what funding is being used for and allow them to bid for funding for projects. That doesn’t happen in Winston’s party where Mr Peters like Smaug secretively guards the budget as if it was his own personal treasure," said Brendan Horan.
Ends 

We did our own little piece of research, and Googled Bellazeel. And here's what we found at the very first result the Google search threw up:

Perhaps Brendan Horan has got Winston Peters, former Racing Minister mixed up with some other Winston Peters. But we don't think so.

Mr Peters is denying owning the horse, claiming that he has sold his interest in it. Even if that is the case, there's the issue of whether or not he owned Bellazeel in 2013, the period for which the latest Pecuniary Interest register applies.

This is terribly embarrassing for Winston Peters; facing an accusation identical to that for which he demands the Prime Minister sack Judith Collins. It's a terrible own goal.

It does however solve the mystery of the absence of a smoking gun yesterday. Bellazeel ate it!


UPDATE: The media scrum gathered around Winston Peters after Question Time this afternoon. Have a listen to this raw audio, as Peters tells misleading story after porkie after untruth.

And here's what's on Racing NZ's website as at 5.30pm this evening; after Winston supposedly talked to the boss there. It clearly shows Winston Peters as an owner of Bellazeel.

As for the breeder, Miss D Ho; draw your own conclusions!

0 Clifton on Peters

Even the woman doing sign language struggled with Winston Peters yesterday!

Jane Clifton has been around Parliament's Press Gallery for almost as long as Winston Peters has been a patron of the Green Parrot cafe. And it's fair to say that they have crossed swords more than once.

But Clifton's column on Stuff today is so good that it merits publication in full and interrupted. It's vintage Clifton reporting on a less-than-vintage Peters; under the heading Winston shoots from hip, Henare hits bullseye Clifton opines:

It was less the promised "smoking gun" than a dribbling water pistol, but Winston Peters made sure to get himself turfed out of Parliament yesterday to ensure his allegations about Judith Collins made the news one way or another.
With great fanfare, including giving it his special gravelly- voiced shouting treatment, he announced that the justice minister had sinned by failing to declare aspects of the funding of her Chinese trip on the MPs' register of pecuniary interest, given that a portion of the trip was for private purposes.
And the prime minister knew all about it, he added, seemingly pausing for gasps of astonishment.
"Why . . . didn't he sack her?" he thundered, when the gasps were not forthcoming.
The NZ First leader seemed genuinely astonished that Prime Minister John Key didn't break down and confess to this conspiracy. Instead, Key said he would look into the matter, but as Collins had declared all the information about her trip and its funding in her ministerial declaration - which was why Peters was able to access the details - the material was hardly a dark secret.
The Government backbench sniggered.
This lack of traction so irked Peters that he cranked up from his Avenging Prosecutor setting, to his Witchfinder- General mode. This involves repeating allegations at machinegun speed, with extra rhetoric and gravelly shouting and his trademark eyebrow haka.
Unfortunately, at this tempo, Peters' words emerge so fast, they barge into one another - "Benefits-cover-up- foreknowledge-November 7-pecuniary-interest . . . !" - leading, as Key smirkingly pointed out, to incoherence.
"From what I can see, if the member could just speak a bit more clearly, it might help everyone, including the media," Key said.
Adding to Peters' annoyance, Speaker David Carter was gun-shy about MPs making imputations against one another's integrity, as he ruled had occurred illicitly during last week's "cash for access" allegations. He interrupted and warned Peters several times.
Peters furiously declared that he would not be stopped from "answering" questions, when he meant to say "asking" them. Then he called Carter's rulings unfair, and had to withdraw and apologise.
In a subsequent exchange, Peters muttered aloud in a derogatory tone during another of Carter's rulings, prompting the Speaker to expel him.
"And pick up your smoking gun on the way out!" National's Tau Henare interjected, to general hilarity.
Peters' deputy, Tracey Martin, complained that Henare should be turfed out as well, as he too was guilty of interjecting.
While Carter was considering this, a beaming Henare evicted himself - safe in the knowledge that no-one was going to top his well-timed one-liner. 

Tau Henare's interjection was one of those rare moments where almost the whole House (bar the NZ First caucus) found humour in Peters' discomfort. Even David Carter found it hard to suppress a smile when Tracey Martin made the rookie mistake of repeating Tau Henare's interjection verbatim, to further mirth.

Poor old Winston; he's copping it from all over today. That's really no way to treat Parliament's elder statesman. Even Gordon Campbell from Scoop has fired a shot at Peters this morning, beginning his piece with "Once again, Winston Peters failed to ignite on the launch pad.".

It's sad to see in some ways. Winston Peters was, in his prime, a very good politician. Sadly, those days were some considerable time ago, and the 2014 version of Peters is a shadow of his former self.

0 Is Winston Peters past it?

Winston Peters got turfed out of Parliament again this afternoon. He claimed to have found the smoking gun that was going to end Judith Collins' political career. Make yourself a cuppa, sit down somewhere comfortable, and watch the fun:

The actual ejection doesn't take place until around the 17:30 mark. But it was a long and tortuous build-up as Peters rambled on and on in an often barely-coherent manner. He did not look well, and more than one of the Press Gallery journalists who gathered in the foyer as Peters tried to plead his case noticed that he was sweating profusely. We were wondering if he has had a small stroke, whilst other, less charitable explanations were offered which we will not repeat here.

Winston Peters not only didn't have a smoking gun, but whatever he had wasn't loaded, and probably wasn't even a gun. But more than that; we wonder if he has another election campaign in him. He is a shadow of the cheeky, grinning Winston Peters of days gone by. Father Time, fags and late nights seem to have caught up with him.

Is Winston Peters past it? Based on today's effort, after John Key called his bluff yesterday, you'd have to seriously wonder if this is the beginning of the end of NZ First and its charismatic leader.

0 Where's the smoking gun?

Left-leaning bloggers and a few journalists were cock-a-hoop yesterday. Judith Collins' office released documents under the OIA which, they claimed, Proved beyond doubt that Mrs Collins' dinner in China was an official one, not a private one. Except the documents didn't prove that at all; if anything, they added weight to Collins' denials

Vernon Small reports on Stuff:

Justice Minister Judith Collins' office initially asked for a foreign affairs briefing before a controversial dinner in China with Oravida representatives and an unnamed border official.
Collins has insisted the dinner was a private affair with no official business discussed.
However, documents released to Fairfax Media under the Official Information Act show that five days before the dinner her office sought the briefing from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat).
An October 15 email from her office noted:
"On Sunday, October 20, the minister will be having a dinner that will include (redacted name). He has agreed to meet with the minister arranged by Mr Stone Shi, Oravida. The minister would like ambassador Carl Worker and his wife to attend this dinner. A briefing from Mfat will be required."
Worker did not attend and the dinner went ahead with Collins, her official, Oravida executives Shi and Julia Xu and the Chinese official present.
But later emails show that Collins' office declined Mfat assistance and said no briefing would be required.
The New Zealand embassy in Beijing asked about the dinner and said it assumed the booking would be made by Shi. It also asked if transport was required.
Collins' office replied nothing was required from Mfat.
"The minister is having a private dinner on the Sunday evening."
Mfat's China unit policy officer, Nicholas Clutterbuck, advised that "while the dinner can be regarded as private, the minister cannot make unplanned/uncommunicated travel movements around Beijing during her stay".
Asked today why there was an initial request for a briefing before the dinner, and then it changed, Collins said:
"My office naturally asks for briefings for everything but it was a private dinner so it wasn't needed." 

If Winston Peters and Grant Robertson were hoping to find a smoking gun yesterday in Ms Collins' OIA dump, they will have been somewhat disappointed. Judith Collins' handling of this issue may have been haphazard, but there is no evidence that she gave Oravida any favourable treatment as a result of the private dinner.

Labour now has a choice to make. Grant Robertson has pursued this matter now for two months. He has wasted a number of oral questions from Labour's daily allocation which could be used to hold the Government to account on other matters. When the House resumes on Tuesday, Judith Collins will still be on National's front bench.

There were signs when Parliament went into recess that the public was tiring of Labour's attack on Ms Collins, and reigniting the attack next week will be a risky strategy for Labour. It will be interesting to see how Labour handles this going forward, because it could all end very badly for them unless they find the smoking gun.

It was disclosed yesterday by the Electoral Commission that Oravida donated $30,000 to National just prior to Christmas. Labour of course sees this as further evidence of cronyism. But Oravida has a legal right to donate to any political party, and National has correctly declared the donation. Contrast that with David Cunliffe's lack of transparency over his anonymous donations to a secret trust last year. We suspect that Labour's angst is more because no one will give them the time of day, let alone any donations to be declared.

Winston Peters will continue to pursue this, because unsubstantiated allegations, threats of release of non-existant documents and innuendo are his stock-in-trade. Labour might be better advised to leave the mud-slinging to the master mud-slinger and look for more fertile ground.