Influence trading in Christchurch

Stuff reports:

Several Christchurch city councillors have questioned why Mayor Lianne Dalziel failed to publicly disclose a potential conflict of interest over family connections to water bottler Cloud Ocean Water.
Dalziel held talks with elected members on Tuesday to explain her situation after Stuff revealed a law firm run by her husband, Rob Davidson, is representing the China-owned firm and offered to use long-standing political connections to lobby politicians on its behalf.

Now it is important to note that it appears no lobbying actually happened, and both Dalziel and her husband seemed to be unaware that a staffer at Davidson’s firm made this offer.

But it is still of concern that someone at Davidson’s law firm thought it was appropriate to boast of their political connections (married to the Mayor and father of a Councillor) to a client.