Yesterday, the Green Party co-leader Dr Russel Norman asked the Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key a number of pertinent questions concerning Ministers receiving “corporate hospitality.” As usual John Key was evasive and did not answer appropriately continuing to obfuscate and deliberately withhold relevant information. The current Speaker of the House Lockwood Smith then protected John Key by implementing procedural trivialities in an appalling display of arrogance that perverted the course of Parliamentary justice.
Mr Smith’s haughtiness allowed John Key to avoid answering the questions, which further undermines due process. It is highly likely that some corruption has been uncovered in that Ministers of the Crown have not been declaring the perks they are receiving. The Westpac and BMW bribes are simply unacceptable and Ministers must be held to account.
One of the main points here is that John Key did not record the "corporate hospitality" he received on his pecuniary interest statement. This is more than just an oversight and highlights what is a systemic failure by many National Ministers to declare their financial conflicts of interest.
It is the action of National Ministers that has discredited their positions. To question them about these actions does not infer that they are corrupt, it simply tries to clarify certain details. This is something the biased Lockwood Smith obviously does not comprehend. It's a similar incomprehension shared by the Prime Minster John Key, as Idiot/Savant has so succinctly pointed out:
"Contrary to Key's claim, public servants have always been prohibited from accepting gifts. Key is taking a very relaxed attitude to what could be a serious breach of public service ethics. But then, he has to - because otherwise it would make the double standard over Ministerial bribes even more obvious.
As for the Ministers themselves, Key retreated into faux outrage and obfuscation of the sort seen above. Though he did make the remarkable claim that the public would not be concerned about Ministers receiving hospitality from the recipient of a major government contract. Just another example of his corrupt corporate values, and how utterly divorced they are from those of ordinary New Zealanders."
