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| Simon Bridges - National Party Leader |
Not only are these secret donations, namely two $100,000 amounts that were split up to avoid declaration, a part of a Serious Fraud Office case currently before the courts, but their former senior whip, Jami-Lee Ross, has now revealed that the National Party has been sitting on a further $150,000 in undeclared donations from China.
Yesterday, Newshub reported:
Jami-Lee Ross accuses National of holding donations linked to Chinese Communist Party
Jami-Lee Ross has used the protection of parliamentary privilege to accuse the National Party of holding $150,000 in donations linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
It's not clear whether the allegation is related to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into two $100,000 donations to the National Party.
Actually it’s clear from the Hansard that Jami-Lee Ross is talking about another $150,000 worth of National Party donations that are completely different to the two $100,000 donations currently before the courts.
"The National Party had been the beneficiary of large amounts of foreign donations," Ross, a former National MP, said in Parliament on Thursday.
"These donations are linked back to China and linked back to the Chinese Communist Party, and with ease entered New Zealand."
Ross added, "What I learned was that large sums of money adding up to around $150,000 coming directly out of China in Chinese yuan over successive years ended up as political party donations."
Ross hasn't made these allegations before. He did so in the House today because parliamentary privilege protects him from legal action like defamation.
The truth is also a pretty good protection against defamation claims.
"These funds eventually made their way to the New Zealand National Party," Ross said. "The New Zealand National Party still holds those funds. The National Party is still holding $150,000 in donations made over two successive years."
Sure, it’s easy to get blasé about another $150,000 in donations that the National Party failed to declare. But it would be good if the MSM gave it more attention than they did Helen Clark when she signed somebody else’s painting for charity. I mean on the scale of corruption the National Party’s secret Communist Party of China donations are a clear winner.
Here's Jami-Lee Ross spilling the beans in Parliament:
But let’s cut to the chase. Here’s where Jami-Lee Ross links the $150,000 CCP donations to the National Party:
Last year, I learnt, off the back of concerns I myself took to the proper authorities, that the National Party had been the beneficiary of large amounts of foreign donations. These donations are linked back to China and linked to the Chinese Communist Party, and with ease entered New Zealand. I didn't go searching for this information. I was asked if I knew anything of the origins of the donations. I didn't know. It was all new information to me, and I was surprised by what I learnt.
What I learnt was that large sums of money adding up to around $150,000 coming directly out of China in Chinese yuan over successive years ended up as political party donations. Two individuals, Xi Xiaoli and Shaona Zhang, were used as conduits for the donations.
These funds eventually made their way to the New Zealand National Party. The New Zealand National Party still holds those funds. The National Party is still holding at least $150,000 of foreign donations received in two successive years. I call on the National Party to return those foreign donations that it holds or transfer the money to the Electoral Commission.
So $150,000 worth of donations, converted from around ¥658,492 Yuan (which is a shit load of money), that wasn’t recorded properly by the National Party or registered by them with the Electoral Commission, has received less media attention than Helen Clark signing a painting?
But why exactly would the National Party fail to declare such large donations from the Communist Party of China? Surely they aren’t doing the bidding of a foreign government for cash donations, which if true would of course amount to treason!
And while we’re on the topic…since when exactly has treason not been treated seriously in New Zealand by the mainstream media? Is it perhaps too difficult for the right wing propagandists to acknowledge that their beloved National Party is in fact corrupt?
Here, Jami-Lee Ross summarises the CCP’s interference activities in New Zealand, making no mistake to categorically outline how the National Party was paid off:
The foreign donations I mentioned earlier all have connections to the Chao Shan General Association. The founder and chairman of Chao Shan General Association is Zhang Yikun. To summarise these two bits of information, the largest party in this Parliament has been the beneficiary of large sums of foreign money. That money is linked to an individual who was listed as one of the top three Chinese Communist Party united front representatives in New Zealand. That individual's PR agents say he has donated to many political parties and campaigns, yet he's never showing up in any donation returns in the past.
One of Professor Brady's concluding remarks in her submission to the Justice Committee was that foreign interference activities can only thrive if public opinion in the affected nation tolerates or condones it. We must not tolerate or condone any foreign interference activities. We must also not stay silent when we see problems right under our nose. It's time for the political parties in this Parliament to address seriously the political party donation regime that we have.
So according to Jami-Lee Ross a top Chinese Communist Party united front representative provided the National Party of New Zealand with a further $150,000 that they also failed to declare. Why exactly isn't this information on the front page of the NZ Herald?
There’s no question that the current leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges, was directly involved in at least one of the $100,000 secret donations that the National Party failed to declare. It must also be said that if Bridges wasn’t aware of the other large donations directly funding his political party, he is entirely incompetent and should therefore resign.
If Simon Bridges is allowed to stand, then we risk having somebody who is likely a party to bribery from a foreign state potentially becoming Prime Minister of New Zealand...and that my friends is something no free thinking Kiwi or democracy should allow.
