Comments on: Perk buster busted

By: Pascal's bookie

Pascal's bookie — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:20:26 +0000

Peter if you going to claim that people are selectively quoting the leaflet, quoting a single word of it to try and prove the rest of it doesn’t say what it obviously says is a pretty stupid move.

By: peteremcc

peteremcc — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:52:35 +0000

So presumably no minister ever spoke at a Labour Party conference or event in the last 9 years right?

Or did they just all talk about each others portfolios? Helen spoke about finance, Michael spoke about law and order, Clayton spoke about being Prime Minister, Goff spoke about education and Annette spoke about Trade?

The leaflet clearly says that Rodney is there to talk about “his” views on Local Government not the government’s.

All the selective quoting of the leaflet in the world won’t help you when people can just go and read it for themselves.

By: Akldnut

Akldnut — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:49:53 +0000

Cactus Kate October 22 at 5:18 pm “Rodney is not personally profiting from the event.”

Kate as leader of the Act party he definitely has a pecuniary interest which will make him personally better off for it.

By: jabba

jabba — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:01:43 +0000

maybe she didn’t Trevor .. hehe

By: Trevor Mallard

Trevor Mallard — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:15:21 +0000

Think you mean snacks jennifer

By: Pascal's bookie

Pascal's bookie — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:08:16 +0000

“why on earth would ACT be targetting Councillors who are highly unlikely to be a sympathetic audience given the changes in Auckland proposed? ”

Because Hide’s the Minister of local government Kate, and ACT decided to try and use that fact to score a few donations to the party. Keep up.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:53:47 +0000

Cactus Kate, selective reading of the rules, I see. Will Rodney follow the rule that requires him or the organiser to pay back to the taxpayer the full cost of his travel and accommodation and incidentals? That’s airfares at full whack, BMW limo from VIP Transport, accommodation if he over-nights the night before, the mini-bar and smacks, must be plenty of that, any food and entertaining the night before? Sounds like the fundraiser might run at a loss. So much for ACT’s famous business acumen. Talk the talk but can’t walk the walk.

By: Trevor Mallard

Trevor Mallard — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:46:10 +0000

I know of no examples where they did that and charged people to a hear a speech in their area of Ministerial repsonsibility and put the money in either their own pockets or party funds.

By: jabba

jabba — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:43:18 +0000

Trevor .. you were a Minister, not the Party Leader. Labour and National are flush with funds compared to the little guys (Maori, ACT, Greens, UF and the Jim Anderton Party). Are you saying that while Peter Dunne and Jim Anderton were Ministers of the previous Labour led Govt, they never had fundraisers with themselves as the primary speaker??

By: Trevor Mallard

Trevor Mallard — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:24:01 +0000

Kate – I’m sure common sense would dictate that it doesn’t matter whether the cash goes to the party or the individual that similar rules would apply. As a Minister I took a lot of care in this area – to the extent that I would not speak on an issue that Cabinet was considering at any of the hundreds of professionally organised conferences which charge exhorbitant amounts and provide terrible food.