Rotten Fish
January 24th, 2004 at 7:10 pm by David FarrarHave been watching the Peters free dinner scandal with some amusement. Never have been and never will be a Peters fan. However I should start off by saying that this is not an issue about corruption – no MPs can be brought for the occassional free dinner – it takes at least a free villa in France (kidding).
The original issue was merely one of judgement with a conflict of interest. Accepting a free dinner (for whatever reason) from someone at the centre of an inquiry you sit on is plain stupid, as it undermines confidence of the other parties involved.
However in politics it is often the explanations that get you in the most crap, and the debate is now about Peters’ claim he never got a free meal except once to make up for a previous over charging, and TVNZ saying it has several affadavits to the contrary.
Personally I can’t see how one can have accounts proving the claims are wrong, because if you did get the meal for free, you won’t have a receipt will you!
The NZ Herald Editorial is a sensible read on the issue.
No tag for this post.
January 25th, 2004 at 12:32 am
Personally I’m not too worried about Winston’s meals. Given that he drinks plenty, it would be a miracle to expect him to recall accurately what happened.
Quite a few things are strange about this affair.
1) What is a restaurant accounts manager doing passing out information about clients to the media?
2) I’m a bit leery that one of the witnesses (an erstwhile manager at the restaurant) has no legal last name. Coupled with 1), I suspect that the restaurant has poor owner-employee relations and a lot of bad luck in hiring dedicated workers.
3) I’m astounded that Winston, who originally brought up the accusations, got himself subbed onto the select committee and attended most of the hearings of one of the longest select committee inquiries. I’d never thought he had so much capacity for hard work in him.
–Peter Metcalfe
Vote:January 26th, 2004 at 10:07 am
I’ve blogged over on NZPundit that I’m rather conflicted about this: I would love to see the arch-scandalmonger go down in a blizzard of his own shit. But I just don’t see the scandal here, unless someone is going to get very serious about tightening the rules around lobbying. And I just can’t see the unions (or Chen & Palmer) being terribly keen about a US-style register for lobbyists, or the Prime Minister being required to publish her appointment book.
Vote:January 26th, 2004 at 1:11 pm
Oh I agree Craig – there is no scandal – at most some foolish lack of perception. But what I find hilarious is Winston’s inability to tell the truth and instead of just saying “Yeah probably wasn’t a great idea”, he is twisting all over the place.
Vote: