It would be good if we could get through at least one election in New Zealand without some sort of scandal making our politicians look like a bunch of damn crooks. I mean we aren’t even a full day into the official 2020 campaign yet and National is already lowering the bar.The news that the Serious Fraud Office has laid charges against four people involved in the National Party’s electoral fraud is a bittersweet pill to swallow. On one hand it provides voters with a clear indication that National isn’t trustworthy, but on the other hand it shows that the political donations system is corrupted.
Today, the NZ Herald reported:
Serious Fraud Office charges four people over National Party donations
The Serious Fraud Office filed criminal charges today against four people in relation to donations paid into a National Party electorate bank account.
But a spokesperson for National Leader Simon Bridges says no one in the National Party has been charged.
The SFO's statement, which was released this afternoon, said defendants are scheduled to appear in the Auckland District Court on February 25.
If National's spokesperson is to be believed, Simon Bridges, the guy who said that the $100,000 donation should be split up in order to hide it from the Electoral Commission, isn’t being charged?
This apparent lack of any proper prosecution is highly questionable, being that Jami-Lee Ross was simply following instructions from the current leader of the National Party.
Bridges was also a key player in organising the secret donation from Chinese businessman, Zhang Yikun. He was obviously instrumental in how that money was handled to best avoid scrutiny from officials and voters alike, who would assuredly view such bribes with distaste.
Zhang Yikun, whose donation led to @SFO investigation & now criminal charges of 4 people, is 1 of CCP govt's 3 designated United Front Work reps for NZ--see link below— Professor Anne-Marie Brady (@Anne_MarieBrady) January 29, 2020
Our politicians can say they didn't know about CCP UFW in 2016, 2017; but not anymore https://t.co/gSqWlV9IUc pic.twitter.com/30bHAHCojP
“I believe Simon Bridges is a corrupt politician” Jami-Lee Ross said when he spilled the beans about the dodgy $100,000 donation. But instead of doing the right thing the National Party simply got rid of the whistle-blower.
I guess the temptation of large sums of untracked Yuan bolstering National's dishonest election campaigns is far more enticing than doing things like being an honest politician and upholding New Zealand law.
MP Jami-Lee Ross, who was kicked out of the National Party last year, lodged a complaint with police in October 2018.
Bridges has always denied any wrongdoing. He said today the SFO's statement vindicated him.
The problem for Bridges is that Ross recorded him agreeing that they should split the donation up. In my opinion he is therefore complicit in the electoral fraud.
But if that wasn’t bad enough, in the recording Bridges also confirms that he had arranged the donation with Zhang Yikun understanding that he was purchasing a position for another Chinese MP within the National Party.
Here's a small excerpt from a taped conversation between Simon Bridges and Jami-Lee Ross discussing the $100,000 donation:
Ross: Yeah they’re good people. Now there’s no catch or anything to it. You may recall at the dinner they did discuss candidacy, and another Chinese candidate.
Bridges: Two MPs, yeah.
Ross: Colin Zheng, the younger one, he’s put his name in for candidates college and so I assume he’ll get through candidates college and we’ll just make some decisions as a party further down the track as to what we want to do with candidates.
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| Simon Bridges - Current leader of the National Party |
There's already considerable controversy about National’s existing Chinese MP, Jian Yang, who was outed in 2017 as an officer in the Chinese military who had taught at Chinese military intelligence schools. Yang, who has largely gone to ground, also lied about his previous positions in his application to become a New Zealand citizen, an offence that would normally result in extradition.
But if all that wasn't bad enough, in September last year Simon Bridges also went to meet the head of China's secret Police, a meeting that we found out was secretly arranged by Jian Yang, which clearly indicates that the current leader of the National Party is in the pocket of the Chinese. No wonder people now call him Beijing Bridges.
Why is the leader of New Zealand’s biggest opposition party meeting with the head of China’s secret police? And why is he in Beijing with a NZ member of parliament who spent 15 years working for Chinese military intelligence? @jacindaardern @Anne_MarieBrady @winstonpeters— Jamil Anderlini (@JamilAnderlini) September 9, 2019
Here's another brief excerpt of the taped conversation where Bridges confirms that he wanted the donation split up and hidden from the Electoral Commission so that National could, amongst other things, pay for “some more attack ads” on the Labour led Government.
Um look, I just think we want it for, uh, the advertisements and the like, you know? We want it for the things that we’re gonna need to do over the next year or so, sort of outside of the – not outside of the party but um, uh, you know, like I say we want to do some more attack ads – say we want to do another regional fuel one, say we want to do an industrial relations one. We just want to keep doing those things, right?
Being a key player in the arrangement to sell a political position for a $100,000 donation and conspiring to commit electoral fraud makes Simon Bridges unfit to pump gas, let alone lead the National Party into the 2020 election. He should therefore resign without further delay.
