Unfit character used money as doormat through Labour's Chinese walls

NZ Herald:

Yan became a New Zealand citizen under the name Yang Liu, but changed his name days later and was granted a passport in the name of William Yan.

Passports he held in two other names were earlier seized by investigators.

He was granted citizenship in a VIP ceremony in Wellington last year after lobbying from former Labour MP Dover Samuels, who regards him as a close friend.

Rick Barker, the then Internal Affairs Minister charged with approving citizenship applications, was also on the list of politicians who knew Yan. Because of this, he passed the file to another minister, Shane Jones.

Mr Jones overruled Internal Affairs advice that Liu - now Yan - did not meet character requirements and granted him citizenship.

Mr Jones, now the Opposition spokesman for economic development and the environment, last night declined to comment.

This is looking very smelly for Shane Jones - and things are going to go further South for the great waha of the North as the media unpick why a dodgy Chinese businessman was given the royal treatment against official warnings. If Jones was the one left to sign off after the ministerial pass-the-parcel on this character then the dog shit he's about to have unwrapped by the police is going to be dropped straight in his lap. Jones has acted as though he knew better than departmental advice - his account of what his motivations were for doing that will be pivotal to his career. Jones risks being a scapegoat for the chain of command regardless of the details of his involvement.

The citizenship was granted nine months after officials advised the Immigration Minister at the time, David Cunliffe, that dual identities allegedly used by Liu were grounds to revoke his permanent residency.

So we've got Cunliffe and Samuels and Barker and Jones passing the hot potato around.

The restaurant hosted election fundraising dinners last year for Labour candidate Raymond Huo, National's Ms Wong and Act's Kenneth Wang. Yan also made donations of $5000 each to Labour and National in 2005.

And now the other side of politics will be wincing as it's revealed they've taken some of his notes smeared in it. Labour will be thankful the stink isn't entirely in their corner.

The EFA changed things a bit and Labour had a clause so that Owen Glenn (a NZ citizen but not resident for decades and unable to vote in NZ) could still contribute to them; but one way of solving this would be that only citizens can give money to political parties - not just any resident (who may be trying to use a donation to buy their citizenship). Many of these issues arise because the NZ system has voting rights as separate from citizenship - rather than voters and citizens and candidates being the same group. In NZ a non-citizen resident may vote and be on a jury, but only citizens can stand for office. Aligning everything with citizenship and making the distinctions clearer is one way of limiting conflicts of interest. It is a real problem rather than just the appearance of potential conflicts too. Remember:
Remember the Steven Ching affair? Remember how reluctant the Labour Party President, Mike Williams, was to dump him from the list despite his lies and allegations of selling honours? Remember:
Labour candidate Steven Ching is alleged to have offered to use his Government connections to have a friend appointed as a justice of the peace.
Chinese broadcaster Paul Liu says he refused a request from Ching for a $50,000 loan in exchange.
Ching resigned as a JP after Herald on Sunday revelations led to the discovery of two undisclosed convictions, but the Labour Party says his winnable place on the party list is secure.
... and then remember:
In the latest in a string of embarrassments for the Labour Party, list candidate Steven Ching was asked to stand down over claims that he offered to get a man appointed as a justice of the peace in exchange for a $50,000 loan.

It took a very long time for the party, ie. Williams, to stand Ching down. The party, ie. Williams, was well prepared to staunch it out even after Ching was forced to resign as a JP. Why? Because he was the Labour Party's Chinese ATM. They, ie. Williams, didn't care how Ching got the money or where or from who. Ching was given a list placing so high he would almost certainly be an MP, because that was the pay-off for his cash (gathering abilities for the party). Oh, he was (allegedly) offering public/quasi-judicial offices for money - but hey, it's "don't ask - don't tell" as far as they, ie. Williams, is concerned. But that was all in 2005 and they learnt their lesson from that didn't they, ie. Williams, - well no, of course not. There was no punishment, no real scrutiny of the dodgy modus operandi of the Labour Party's bag men, ie. Williams, and so it is all business as usual in 2008.

- That was last year and the blow-back in 2009 - both with the former Labour Minister Taito Philip Field's case (on-going) and this one against Yan/Liu - paints an unflattering picture of executive and party malfeasance; one quite at odds with the popular self-belief New Zealanders have of corruption-free politics and government. And that's just Labour's effect. The former National minister, Richard Worth's supposed offer of appointments to various females at the sincere request of his penis clear erection - rather than any other basis whatsoever - is similarly disheartening.

So long as you have a citizenship system and a JP system and an entire system of political patronage (the appointments to numerous Crown agencies and entities and commissions) that comes down to a personal discretion of an MP and/or Minister then there will be transparency and accountability issues. If there is a person receiving a gift of state (via an MP and/or a Minister) and that person has donated money to a party or an MP (or is a member or has an interest in the party, or a relationship with that MP) then it should be at least declared.

Watery bowels for Labour this morning reports Barnsley:

You have to hand it to National, at least their Asian scandals only involve sex.

[UPDATE-- 05/06/2009: ... or not.

Let us not forget here - now that I've remembered it - the run-in involving National backbencher Kanwal Bakshi and his immigration business that smells very whiffy:

But he told the Herald he would not rule out what he described as a "wellwisher" acting without his knowledge.

"I did not authorise anybody to act on my behalf," said Mr Bakshi. "If you have got any wellwisher who can act on your behalf, I can't say."

Mr Bakshi told National whip Nathan Guy he was cleared by the investigation when it was closed in March. He did not reveal that he was accused of paying off the woman.

Prime Minister John Key would not comment last night, but a spokesman said he accepted the explanation given to Mr Guy.

Mrs Kaur and Mr Singh sent a complaint to the New Zealand Sikh Society in September last year alleging Mr Bakshi made a fake job offer to support a 2003 residency application.

- The guardian angel defence that maybe someone unconnected with himself made a pay-off that just happened to have the effect of shutting the complainants up is astounding.

The Immigration Service also investigated two other job offers Mr Bakshi made to Indians with the same immigration agent in 2003/04.

A woman said she paid the agent about $25,000 and received a job offer from Mr Bakshi. Her application was also declined.

A man said he paid $2500 to the agent and got a job offer from Mr Bakshi.

His application was granted and he came to New Zealand, but never worked or even met Mr Bakshi.

The report says Mr Bakshi denied receiving any money for the job offers or giving false or misleading information to the Immigration Service.

-Very, very whiffy.--UPDATE ENDS]