The baublemobile is returned
Both Sunday newspapers have picked up on a story that was exclusively broken by Whale Oil, on the fact Winston had not returned his Ministerial self-drive car.
The HoS reports that it finally got picked up on Friday afternoon by Internal Affairs, after being seen being used for shopping in the morning.
The SST has a response from Peters:
“First of all, start off with a fact and not a tissue of lies as well, on your first question,” he told the Sunday Star-Times before adding: “Now don’t be a numbskull. If you want to believe a whole lot of blog sites and Rodney Hide, and every other twit in town, go right ahead. Stop indulging in lies and stop wasting my time.” He then hung up.
I’m not sure what part of the stories Winston claims is incorrect, as it is a fact he still has the Ministerial car (untl Friday) and is no longer a Minister.
February 1st, 2009 at 8:06 am
Well done Whaleoil and his secret spy who revealed the location.
Winston obviously still doesn’t get it. The arrogance of the man is breathtaking.
February 1st, 2009 at 8:20 am
Well let’s hope Rodney won’t have any such reticence. Wonder what the ipredict price is going to be on a “it didn’t” answer.
February 1st, 2009 at 8:28 am
I will find out.
Well done the Whale!
Rodney
February 1st, 2009 at 8:44 am
Don’t give up on the $150k he owes us either, Mr Hide.
February 1st, 2009 at 8:49 am
Go Rodney, go!!
February 1st, 2009 at 8:49 am
I sincerely hope the buablemobile undergoes extensive detoxification before it’s handed on to another owner? Did you have to put blocks on the foot pedals Mr Winebox Numbskuller?
February 1st, 2009 at 8:55 am
Does anyone think Winnies decades in office have all been reduced to one word?
Although, Jim Anderton is over 70 and I got no idea what he’s identified with.
February 1st, 2009 at 9:08 am
Go Rodney!
Why not Just send a Repo man for the car though ^_^
February 1st, 2009 at 9:16 am
They should spend some time seaching the pricks house. A $22,000 Ford territory would be the tip of the ‘government property’ iceberg
February 1st, 2009 at 9:18 am
Ahhhh…almost make you nostaligic doesn’t it?
February 1st, 2009 at 9:32 am
Do reporters only read the internet all day to get their best stories? First the whites only compound, now this!
February 1st, 2009 at 9:41 am
What’s also great to know is that judging by the quotes in the SST today Winston actively read’s Whaleoils blog:-)
“If you want to believe a whole lot of blog sites ……..go right ahead. “
February 1st, 2009 at 9:51 am
Apart from the missing 150K what about our prawn quota? Where is Roar Prawn. No longer on the Prawn Boiler?
February 1st, 2009 at 9:53 am
and did the Vela’s get their chopper back?
February 1st, 2009 at 10:34 am
There was a vaguely similar situation in 1984. Rob Mulfdoon allegedly removed various chattels from Vogel House (then the Prime Ministerial residence) and poor David Lange did not have the means to make a cup of tea or toast some bread. Apparently, not wanting the inconvenience of opening the car window to ’swipe’ into the Parliamentary underground car park, he had a garage door opener for that purpose. He apparently refused to hand that over to David Lange and staffers told David to sort it out with Rob (IMO they should have got a new opener and re-set the code.
February 1st, 2009 at 10:52 am
Maybe we should get a sack of unwanted Xmas tree baubles and leave them at Mrs Trotman’s for Winnie to play with?
February 1st, 2009 at 11:05 am
Winston’s response to this pretty much typifies his entire career. He shot the messenger when he had been found wanting. Basically every time he came out fighting – he was obsfucating or telling bold faced lies like his “NO” fiasco.
Winston should apologise to all he denigrated in this, admit he had once again crossed the “baubles of office” line and man up.
Well done Whale (& Rodney).
February 1st, 2009 at 11:12 am
Give the guy a break – surely the indignity of losing office is punishment enough…
Only joking
!!! Make that Mother Fecker pay!
Winston is complicit along with the former PM of stealing the 2005 election. He deserve whatever he gets.
February 1st, 2009 at 11:26 am
I cannot begin to say how glad that clown was turfed out of Parliament and out of office. God this country is better off without his thievery and obfuscation.
Now, get him to pay back his $158K. The government should retrospectively make all their overspending illegal and go after every cent. That includes whatever Peter Dunne owes as well.
February 1st, 2009 at 11:43 am
Brian Smaller wrote:
$158k (NZ1st) + $880K (Labour) + $60K (Dunne) = $1.1 million = Labour’s third term.
^ $1.1 million is the equivalent cost of what is allowed for half an election campaign.
February 1st, 2009 at 11:58 am
Brian & NX, you may wonder where the money went. I would be inclined to check a certain horse auction for any horse fetching around $150k
February 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Who wants to bet the next few Winston stories are going to involve the Great Man finding ingenious ways to rort his generous retirement privileges?
February 1st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Already planned
signed WRP
February 1st, 2009 at 12:06 pm
The waffling of Internal Affairs Spokesman Colin FESLIER indicates a sloppily administered department which probably is excessively staffed and needs a cleanout.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Lets not forget Alamein Kopu.
After a big front the beehive put on retrieving the furniture she stole, the media forgot about it and so did the Beehive.
Every story dies the medias death by the end of the week.
How do you think Labour got 9 years.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Hertz or Avis would have applied penalty charges! Or got the police involved!
Go after the nasty little bleeder!
He and Klark epitomise all that is wrong with power!
They will rat on each other before too long.
Karma!!
February 1st, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Lets put the Peter’s shannagans to one side because it is nothing more than I would have expected from him. But what does it say about the workings of Internal Affairs/Ministerial Services. THe moment a Minister looses his warrant then its out with the chauffeur driven cars; why then not the same process over the self drive cars. Sure I know it is standard practise to offer the vehicle for purchase and surely a reasonable time for that process is say ten working days. After that and if the offer is not taken up then the car should be returned.
And as for the ex Minister retaining and using a fuel card then IMHO that constitutes theft from the taxpayer … Winston of course wouldn’t recognise that or he would he paid back the $158k.
Internal Affairs/Ministerial Services deserve a kick up the arse.
As for Peters there is nothing we can do or say that will shame him and his aging band of syncophants will continue to hold their daily prayer sessions calling for him to rise from the grave.
Just as well by the time of the next election most of them will be dead.
February 1st, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Let’s be clear. This is theft. So is the $140k+gst that is still owed to parliamantary services. Theft. Add to this the lying and dishonesty around donations & trusts and you should have seen the last of this weasel on our political landscape.
But just watch for 2011.
How much of this integrity-free behaviour will be remembered.. and how much will be swept under the carpet by a MSM keen to revive his fortunes (and their advertising revenues) ?
February 1st, 2009 at 1:08 pm
getstaffed
You are right. It is a cynical ploy by the MSM to keep circulation higher, and ad revenues up.
There is no right or wrong for these callow types. Just opinions to suit the weather!
Bastards.
February 1st, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Well this car debarcle just reminds us of how pathetic our administration is. I have never left a job and kept the car for 3 months. Perks of the job were the only reason WP wanted to stay in Parliament. Parlaimentary services were that kind to someone I know who mehad a cheap fax machine in their possession a few weeks after leaving the service. MPs are ’special’ not like us “twits”
February 1st, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Peters has been living in taxpayer-funded luxury for too long. It’s clear to me that he has developed a bad case, possibly terminal, of Entitleitis
February 1st, 2009 at 2:54 pm
He has gone over the mark once again.
The knives are being sharpened as we speak.
Luigi deserves everything that is coming to him, and more for good luck!
Just watch his whole world collapse in the next 12 months.
couldn’t happen to a nicer person.
February 1st, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I know we’re talking Internal Affairs (which looks after Ministers) vs Parliamentary Services (which looks after all other MPs) but one would imagine the same principles of expenditure control would apply.
So I can only recall incidents like the time the National Anthem was required (for official business) and, not finding a copy anywhere in Parliament (!!) I popped down the road and bought a CD.
When I submitted my monthly expenses I was (quite rightly) rung up and given a grilling over this apparent extravagance. The amount at stake? About $35 IIRC.
As Ross Miller and baxter point out, Internal Affairs was somewhat less than enthusiastic about making similar inquiries of Winston about an item worth over 600 times more. Indeed had Whaleoil not exposed their pathetic lack of performance, would they have acted at all?
Still, there’s a readily available punishment available for the public servant responsible for this mess. Get him or her to clean out the ashtrays now the vehicle is back. I guarantee they’ll never offend again
February 1st, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Did Whaleoil get an attribution by the MSM on this?
I certainly haven’t seen any acknowledgment or attribution as to the source — but that’s nothing unusual.
In none of the stories I’ve every broken that the MSM has taken an interest in have they ever published acknowledgment of the source.
Ah well, never mind. The days of the MSM are numbered.
They’re already increasingly reliant on blogs for their news leads and pretty soon they’ll be all washed up, given that they have very few *real* journalists left within their ranks and they’ve outsourced just about everything else.
No wonder newspapers are going tits-up in ever-increasing numbers. I suspect news broadcasters won’t be far behind.