Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
Bryce Edwards
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Donghua Liu
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Hypocrisy
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Labour Party
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Political donations
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Registrar of Pecuniary Interests
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Rick Barker
The Herald on Sunday has more revelations this morning in the Donghua Liu case:
Millionaire businessman Donghua Liu spent more than $150,000 on the previous Labour government, including $100,000 on a bottle of wine signed by former prime minister Helen Clark at a party fundraiser.
The embarrassing revelations are contained in a signed statement from Liu, which the Herald on Sunday has obtained.
They come at the end of a horror week for Labour, already under pressure after the New Zealand Herald revealed that Liu paid $15,000 for a book at the same fundraiser in 2007. Labour has said it had no record of any donations from Liu. And leader David Cunliffe had to fight to keep his job after revelations he wrote a letter for Liu's residency, despite previous denials.
The Chinese businessman, who has also donated to National, has been at the centre of a New Zealand political storm in recent weeks.
Maurice Williamson resigned as a minister after an admission he intervened in a police investigation on Liu's behalf.
Labour loudly condemned National for so-called cash-for-access in the wake of the resignation.
If the allegations contained in Mr Liu's statement are true (and why would they not be?), the Labour Party has clearly broken the electoral laws of the day which required donations of greater than $10,000 to be declared. Mr Liu has made at least two donations above that threshhold.But Labour cannot account for them, so where did the money go?
Even supposed friends of Labour's from the Left are now calling for a proper investigation into this issue; read on:
The latest developments have sparked calls for a police inquiry.
"This is scandalous from the public's perspective. There has to be some sort of official investigation, whether it's a police one or a parliamentary one," said political commentator Bryce Edwards. "There must be some sort of official investigation, whether it's a police or parliamentary."
Asked about a potential investigation under electoral finance laws, Liu's lawyer Todd Simmonds indicated that Liu was comfortable with his financial support and would cooperate with any inquiry.
And as the Labour Party hierarchy gathers to finalise Labour's party list today, David Cunliffe is in full retreat, leaving damage control to the party organisation:
Cunliffe last night dodged questions, saying it was a "matter for Labour Party's head office". Labour Party general secretary Tim Barnett said the party had no record of the donation.
Having spent months attacking National over its links with Mr Liu, David Cunliffe simply cannot walk away from this scandal. His hands may not have personally touched Donghua Liu's loot, but unless he withdraws every single allegation he or any of his MPs have made against any National MP who had anything to do with Mr Liu, he is a weapons-grade hypocrite.
Bryce Edwards is especially uncharitable to Mr Cunliffe. Further down in the story Edwards added that although the blame did not lie with Cunliffe personally, he had to deal with egg on his face. "It does create a charge of hypocrisy because he's campaigned strongly against the Government relationship with Donghua Liu and it appears Labour's relationship is just as deep.".
We disagree with Bryce Edwards here; Labour is in this mess far, far deeper than National, whose donation from Mr Liu was properly declared as required by law. Labour cannot even find the money, let alone have declared the donations!
Labour has tried for months to make political capital out of National's links with big business, and especially with Donghua Liu. We now learn that Labour was only too happy to take Mr Liu's case, and that one of its former MP's faces prima facie evidence of having had a very cosy relationship with the Chinese businessman, which was not declared to the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests.
Here's a summary of Mr Liu's donations to Labour, or to those linked to Labour:
Liu's signed statement was dated May 3, two days after Williamson's resignation. It said:
• Liu paid "close to $100,000" for wine at a 2007 Labour Party fundraiser;
• That he spent $50-60,000 hosting then-labour minister Rick Barker on a cruise on the Yangtze River in China in 2007; and
• That Liu visited Barker in Hawke's Bay in 2006, having dinner with him at an exclusive lodge and then meeting for breakfast the next morning. Liu said he made a donation to Hawke's Bay Rowing, which Barker was associated with.
Barker previously told the Herald that he could barely remember having dinner.
Last night Barker, now a regional councillor, said the revelations came "as a surprise and a complete reversal" of Liu's previous comments.
This whole case now needs to be referred to an independent body such as the Office of the Auditor-General, or the Electoral Commission for investigation. In the meantime, every allegation made by Labour about cronyism, cash for access, cash for policy and other such things stands in tatters, as does the credibility of the Labour Party and its leader.
