Right-wing political commentator and "straw man", Matthew Hooton has turned on John Key an tweeted :
“Were John Key not afraid of what Murray McCully would do to him from the backbenches, he’d have sacked him by now”
The government is trying to cover up the truth that they offered a bribe to a Saudi businessman providing him with a farm and sheep they had already bought off him - all to void being sued - a much more expensive option.
This is a clue as to what awaits us in this country if Tim Groser ever gets to sign Obama's TPP. US corporations will have power to sue sovereign governments if they don't get their ways and governments chose to opt for the national interest.
Right- wing commentator
Hooton: Govt sheepgate story a shameful coverup"
"Murray
McCully’s account of why he appointed government contractor Alex
Matheson to negotiate the $11.5 million New Zealand demonstration
farm in Saudi Arabia is seemingly turning to dust. Contrary to the
minister’s assertions last week, NBR can reveal the former
contractor had no previous experience in the Middle East, nor with
Gulf interests. “
Hooton's piece in the NBR is behind an expensive pay wall but here is journalism lecturer, Bryce Edwards's Summary
Bryce
Edwards @bryce_edwards 1h 1hour ago
Hooton:
"Key is now impotent as prime minister over even the worst
behaviour by his senior ministers"
12
retweets 10 favorites
Bryce
Edwards @bryce_edwards 1h1 hour ago
Hooton:
“A minister who tells the PM and the cabinet they face a $30
million legal risk when they do not… should obviously be sacked"
12
retweets 11 favorites
Bryce
Edwards @bryce_edwards 1h1 hour ago
Hooton
on McCully: He “appears to get some sort of childish thrill out of
subterfuge, even when it is unnecessary and not in his interests”
8
retweets 5 favorites
Bryce
Edwards @bryce_edwards 1h1 hour ago
Hooton:
“I have never known a more pathetically obvious case of a
government trying to wilfully ignore wrongdoing by a minister”
7
retweets 8 favorites
Bryce
Edwards @bryce_edwards 1h1 hour ago
Hooton:
“Were John Key not afraid of what Murray McCully would do to him
from the backbenches, he’d have sacked him by now”
From Radio NZ this morning -
Govt concedes it's part of the Saudi problem
Foreign
Affairs Minister Murray McCully has conceded that Saudi businessman
Hamood Al Ali Al-Khalaf was unhappy with the National Government when
it did not lift the live exports ban in 2010.
5
June, 2015
In
2009, the National Government's Agriculture Minister David Carter
said he was thinking about lifting the ban on live sheep exports that
had been in place since 2003.
But
a year later, he extended the ban.
More
on this story Closing
Sheepgate behind him?
Mr
McCully was asked if Mr Al-Khalaf felt misled by the Government.
"Look,
I think you'll find that the National Government did exactly the
right thing by telling Mr Al-Khalaf what was going to be possible and
what wasn't, what the rules were going to be, to the extent that he
was disappointed with that," Mr McCully said.
"Fronting
up and having a discussion with him - that's something the previous
government hadn't done, and that's why he was taking legal advice
about his remedies."
The
Government has since struck a controversial deal with Mr Al-Khalaf,
spending more than $11 million kitting out his Saudi farm, including
flying 900 sheep there.
Mr
McCully said the Government was trying to avoid a potential $30
million legal claim but continues to blame that on the former Labour
Government, an allegation that is fiercely disputed by Labour.
However,
Labour MP and former trade minister Phil Goff said Labour had also
considered lifting the live sheep export ban in 2007 - if its
concerns about the welfare of sheep while at sea could be met.
But
Mr Goff said another problem became apparent.
"And
that was the problem of inhumane slaughter.
"You'll
recall there was coverage on television of Australian live exports to
the Middle East ,where animals were having their tendons cut in order
to immobilise them prior to slaughter, where animals were being
slaughtered inhumanely.
"And
Cabinet made the decision in 2007 that we could not tolerate that
sort of thing," Mr Goff told reporters this week.
But
as part of the deal Mr McCully made with Mr Al-Khalaf, taxpayers will
be funding an abattoir on his farm and Saudi laws will apply when it
comes to how livestock are treated and killed there.
Labour
MP Damien O'Connor said Saudis often slaughtered animals in ways New
Zealanders would find inhumane.
"To
think that those animals would go and then be slaughtered in a way
that we'd be horrified adds further fuel on the fire," Mr
O'Connor said.
"It's
pretty barbaric - we should not be in anyway allowing or condoning
this."
Green
MP Steffan Browning, said if New Zealand's funding the
slaughterhouse, then this country's animal welfare standards should
be met.
New
Zealand First's Richard Prosser said he understood that while New
Zealanders will pay for the abattoir, Mr Al-Khalaf will own it.
He
said if that was the case, the Saudis would set the rules.
Yesterday,
the Government blocked an attempt in Parliament by the Labour Party
to make Cabinet papers from 2007 public.
Prime
Minister John Key claimed the papers would reveal that Labour was
considering doing a deal of its own with Mr Al-Khalaf.
Labour
said he was bluffing, and worried that the Government will be shown
to have paid a bribe to Mr Al-Khalaf to try to secure a free trade
deal with the Gulf States.
Radio
New Zealand has lodged an urgent official information act request for
the four Cabinet papers.
Saudi-bound
sheep bought from man Govt gave them to
FAIRFAX NZ
Former Labour minister Phil Goff is happy that papers on Saudi live sheep exports will be released.
4
June, 2015
Nearly
200 of the pregnant ewes flown to Saudi Arabia to stock an
agri-business hub were bought by taxpayers from the same businessman
the Government gave them to as part of a multi-million dollar deal.
A
total of 900 pregnant awassi breed ewes were flown to Saudi Arabia
for a "pilot research breeding programme" on a farm owned
by Hamood Al Ali Al Khalaf in October 2014.
A
spokeswoman for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise - one of the
agencies involved in setting up the farm - said 195 were awassi ewes
from Mathews Station in central Hawke's Bay, which is owned by Awassi
NZ.
The
rest of the sheep were bought from private on-farm sales and through
an auction system.
Brownrigg,
as lead provider, was responsible for that, NZTE said.
Al
Khalaf's Awassi NZ Land Holdings company owns nearly a quarter - 24.9
per cent - of Brownrigg Agriculture Group.
The
Dammam farm in Saudi is the only New Zealand Government sponsored and
funded "demonstration farm" in the world, and has been
described by officials as "an innovative way of showcasing New
Zealand agriculture".
While
all 900 ewes arrived safely and in good health, NZTE said at the end
of April, only 800 remained on the demonstration farm.
"NZTE
understands that some ewes were gifted, and others may have died."
Officials
have confirmed that the cost of flying 900 ewes to Saudi Arabia,
accompanied by New Zealand vets to ensure they arrived safely, was
$1.5 million.
That
was part of an $11.5m deal made by the New Zealand Government.
Opposition
MPs speaking in Parliament have labelled it a "multimillion
dollar bribe" to facilitate a free trade agreement with Gulf
States, and have called for Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully
to be stood down from Cabinet over it.
A
portion of the cost was a $4m payment which McCully has said
recognised "the intellectual property which the Saudi investor
brings to the platform, the services and in-market networks he will
contribute, as well as the settlement of the long running dispute".
That
was in addition to the $6m that the Government had already invested
in setting up the agribusiness hub, which it is estimated the Al
Khalaf Group has contributed around $80m to.
Al
Khalaf's Sydney-based business partner George Assaf has reportedly
described the farm fit-out by the Government as "compensation"
for New Zealand's ban on live sheep exports for slaughter.
The
Government imposed a ban in 2003 after at least 4000 sheep died en
route to the Middle East.
Prime
Minister John Key on Thursday indicated papers from the Labour
government which introduced the ban would be released. That was soon
after Labour MPs gave the OK for their release.
"There's
a convention… in terms of Cabinet papers relating to previous
administrations, and I can't circumvent that - I wouldn't want to
break that convention. But I'm pretty happy to have them released as
soon as we possibly can," he said.
Goff
told reporters on Thursday he did not think he had ever met or
communicated with Al Khalaf, who had invested heavily in New Zealand
in the live sheep export business.
Labour's
decision to ban live exports was made on animal welfare grounds, he
said.
- Stuff
Meanwhile, McCully, who is really a National Party hatchetman is in the Middle East playing 'diplomat'
Labour
continued to bay for Murray McCully's blood in Parliament yesterday
over the Saudi farm saga but the Foreign Minister was a world away,
immersed in the Middle East peace process ahead of New Zealand
chairing the Security Council next month.
He
is on a scoping mission for a possible New Zealand resolution to the
Security Council in the event that there is not enough support for a
French resolution on a peace timetable which is likely to be voted on
in September when world leaders meet at the UN.
Foreign
Minister Murray McCully should be removed from Cabinet over his
handling of the Saudi farm deal, Labour says
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