Uncovering that hid in plain sight
Stuff reports:
A new politician has been dragged into the saga of Donghua Liu's funding of political parties.
National's coromandel MP Scott Simpson received a $5000 donation from the controversial Chinese-born property developer for his 2011 election campaign, after meeting Liu about 10 times, including a couple of dinner dates.
The donation was declared in Simpson's post-election return, and has been uncovered by the sunday star-times during a forensic trawl of donations to MPs.
The donation was declared in 2012. It has been sitting on the Electoral Commission website for a couple of years. There was nothing to uncover.
And I presume a “forensic trawl” is a fancy name for going to the electoral Commission website and reading the returns online.