More on Hager.
Nicky Hager's book alleges National used it's Leaders Fund to fund advertisements by the Racing Industry.
Auditor-General Kevin Brady didn't include it in his report, so I think it's unlikely to be true. Also, if the ads exist, they would have to include the Parliamentary Crest, or else Parliamentary Services wouldn't pay for it. And no-ones produced copies yet.
But even if it is true, thanks to Labour passing retrospective legislation, it's all completely legal! So if Kevin Brady does investigate, he'll have to report it as being within the rules.
UPDATE: Seems I got this one bang on. Gerry Brownless has confirmed it was not paid for with Parliamentary funds, so Kevin Brady didn't find and report it. And Kevin Brady has confirmed that Michael Cullen's validating legislation has meant he's got nothing to investigate.
Auditor-General Kevin Brady didn't include it in his report, so I think it's unlikely to be true. Also, if the ads exist, they would have to include the Parliamentary Crest, or else Parliamentary Services wouldn't pay for it. And no-ones produced copies yet.
But even if it is true, thanks to Labour passing retrospective legislation, it's all completely legal! So if Kevin Brady does investigate, he'll have to report it as being within the rules.
UPDATE: Seems I got this one bang on. Gerry Brownless has confirmed it was not paid for with Parliamentary funds, so Kevin Brady didn't find and report it. And Kevin Brady has confirmed that Michael Cullen's validating legislation has meant he's got nothing to investigate.
posted by Michael at
5:03 PM
3 Comments:
Michael, you are trying to raise a smokescreen about Nicky Hager's book and what it means.
I think it proves that Brash lied, and knowingly lied, many times over his involvement with the Exclusive Bretheren and when this first happened. Brash has been found out several times and to put it bluntly we don't want people with his selective grasp on memory to be in positions of political power. I hope that Keys is more honest and learns from the many Brash cock-ups as the country badly needs a viable option for next years elections.
By
Steven, at 2:01 AM
I'm not sure why Brash lied about the Exclusive Brethern - if he'd said that they had approached them to see how they could support and advised that any direct pamphlet would effect their budget and then sent them on their way (which is the truth) then the issue would have died before the election.
Furthermore, if he'd explained why the EB wanted to help National (it's not about just social conservatism) then he could have turned it into an advantage - here are people who don't vote but can see how our suite of policies will help New Zealand!
But my point about Hager is that he has only part of the story from a collection of emails. And every day, another part of his book gets discredited.
And every for revelation he makes about National there is an equally obvious revelation about Labour and the Greens. It took me 5 minutes to find those Union Pamphlets on the CTU website - which lays bare Hager's editorial bias. If he really wanted to write about deception in NZ politics, he should have included all of Labour and the Greens deceptions as well.
By
Michael, at 3:29 PM
Yes, Nicky Hager is a strange bird. You wouldn't want to have him as a friend as he could and will turn on anyone if he thinks there is a book in it. He and Alan Wishart are the visible tip of a strange lunatic iceberg which believes in Conspiracy theory and sees crime and political interference in everything.
John Key comes into the National leaders job with a fairly clean slate and so far he has made every move and winning one.
By
Steven, at 7:32 PM
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