Today, the corrupt and arrogant Judith Collins was forced to resign. Clearly her position had already become untenable because of her involvement in the Oravida debacle and a smear campaign against a public servant. Because of Collins and attack blogger Cameron Slater's conspiracy, Simon Pleasants received serious death threats against himself and his family.
Coupled with previous evidence of her corruption, the letter released to Prime Minister John Key late last night showing that she was "gunning" for SFO Director Adam Feeley meant that there was no other choice. The Prime Minister had to sack...I mean accept the resignation of the immoral Justice Minister, Judith Collins.
Today, the NZ Herald reported on the leaked email:
Clearly this email shows that Judith Collins shouldn't just resign from her duties as a Minister, she should be charged with corruption as well. By actively participating in a campaign to undermine the Director of the Serious Fraud Office, Judith Collins has broken numerous parliamentary codes of conduct and judicial laws. In my opinion she should be charged at the soonest opportunity.
This email also raises serious concerns about press impartiality in New Zealand, especially the issue of certain journalists such as Fran O'Sullivan, Jock Anderson and Matt Nippert appearing to use blogs to publish information they cannot publish themselves. Obviously there are good reasons why they aren't meant to usurp the law and publish certain material through a third party.
This gives the distinct impression that these journalists are biased and were undertaking covert operations for their own vested interests or misguided political beliefs.
It appears that a number of journalists were also receiving information from Cameron Slater that was likely sourced from the Minister in question or other National party officials. Because of the sensitive information the government has at its fingertips, this is perhaps the most serious issue to come out of the Dirty Politics scandal. Who knows how many people they have tried to blackmail or discredit because of their access to people's private information?
It also shows that there was insider trading with iPredict's Matthew Hooton using the website to promote certain politicians and attack public officials like Adam Feeley. This type of behaviour is entirely unacceptable in a so-called democracy.
Personally I would be spitting tacks about now if I were to learn of a concerted effort by the government and their propagandists to undermine my professional career. Let's hope this mess starts to get cleaned up before polling day. However I presume that the infection runs very deep within the ranks of the right wing and will take a number of years to remedy.
There is no question that this requires more than just a simple resignation to put right...it requires those involved to come clean about their dirty and underhanded tactics and a Prime Minister who's willing to work hard to remove the rot.
Clearly John Key isn't the Prime Minister we need to clean up Dirty Politics.
Coupled with previous evidence of her corruption, the letter released to Prime Minister John Key late last night showing that she was "gunning" for SFO Director Adam Feeley meant that there was no other choice. The Prime Minister had to sack...I mean accept the resignation of the immoral Justice Minister, Judith Collins.
Today, the NZ Herald reported on the leaked email:
The email that brought down Judith Collins
Here is the full text of the email released by the Prime Minister today and which led to the resignation of Judith Collins as Justice Minister. It dates from 2011.
From Cam Slater
To mark {redacted] Carrick
Ok guys here is an update on the state of play on Adam Feeley.
Today is the 4th straight day of headlines and additional revelations about Adam Feeley
I am maintaining daily communications with Jared Savage at the Herald and he is passing information directly to me that the Herald can't run and so are feeding me to run on the blog. in the meantime I also have additional information flowing in via my tipline. That information will be drip fed into the media or via my blog.
Herald articles
Fran O'Sullivan: More than a storm in a champagne flute
Editorial: SFOs bubbly an error of judgment
SFO bubby celebrations vindictive: Petricevic
Ex-SFO chief decries champagne incident
Cathy can outline her contact with Fran O'Sullivan separately. Basically though the Herald and other media are now picking up our lines that this situation is like "Caesar's Wife" where the SFO must be beyond reproach. If he nicked a bottle of wine what else has he nicked or hidden from receivers and liquidators?
So far the Herald has been running NBR to publish on Friday. Cathy will be chatting with Jock Anderson and I will cover Matt Nippert.
Our (Cathy's) nickname for Feeley (Five Fingers Feeley) has stuck. journalists ringing me actually use to describe Feeley now in phone conversations.
I also spoke at length with the Minister responsible today (Judith Collins). She is gunning for Feeley. Any information that we can provide her on his background is appreciated. I have outlined for her a coming blog post about the massive staff turnover and she has added that to the review of the State Services Commissioner. She is using the review of these events to go on a trawl looking for anything else. It is my opinion that Feeley's position is untenable.
I have also arranged with Matthew Hooton for iPredict (https://www.ipredict.co.nz) the prediction markets to have a new stock released so people can invest on the probability of Adam Feeley getting the sack before Christmas or leaving. These stocks [Email cuts off]
Clearly this email shows that Judith Collins shouldn't just resign from her duties as a Minister, she should be charged with corruption as well. By actively participating in a campaign to undermine the Director of the Serious Fraud Office, Judith Collins has broken numerous parliamentary codes of conduct and judicial laws. In my opinion she should be charged at the soonest opportunity.
This email also raises serious concerns about press impartiality in New Zealand, especially the issue of certain journalists such as Fran O'Sullivan, Jock Anderson and Matt Nippert appearing to use blogs to publish information they cannot publish themselves. Obviously there are good reasons why they aren't meant to usurp the law and publish certain material through a third party.This gives the distinct impression that these journalists are biased and were undertaking covert operations for their own vested interests or misguided political beliefs.
It appears that a number of journalists were also receiving information from Cameron Slater that was likely sourced from the Minister in question or other National party officials. Because of the sensitive information the government has at its fingertips, this is perhaps the most serious issue to come out of the Dirty Politics scandal. Who knows how many people they have tried to blackmail or discredit because of their access to people's private information?
It also shows that there was insider trading with iPredict's Matthew Hooton using the website to promote certain politicians and attack public officials like Adam Feeley. This type of behaviour is entirely unacceptable in a so-called democracy.
Personally I would be spitting tacks about now if I were to learn of a concerted effort by the government and their propagandists to undermine my professional career. Let's hope this mess starts to get cleaned up before polling day. However I presume that the infection runs very deep within the ranks of the right wing and will take a number of years to remedy.
There is no question that this requires more than just a simple resignation to put right...it requires those involved to come clean about their dirty and underhanded tactics and a Prime Minister who's willing to work hard to remove the rot.
Clearly John Key isn't the Prime Minister we need to clean up Dirty Politics.
