When the news broke that the Government had handed millions of dollars over to an organisation closely affiliated to the Mongrel Mob, the Prime Minister stated on many occasions including in Parliament that the local Police supported the decision to fund this programme.
Then the news broke that a senior local Police Officer had contradicted the words of the Prime Minister.
So, I thought I’d use the Official Information Act to ask for the evidence to back up the Prime Minister’s claims.
In Parliament on 4 August 2021 you stated “The member asked a question around the process around the proceeds of crime. My recollection, and with some prompts, I received some information around the proceeds of crime programme in February. I asked for additional advice on the outcomes of the trials that the member references and also the perspective of the police. What I received in return was confirmation that the local police in the Hawke’s Bay supported the programme. That formed the basis of my and other Ministers’ approval of the funding.”
[Hansard Reference: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-…]
Please provide the details and supporting documentation, including emails, file notes, aide memoires, text messages that provide the basis for the claim that “the local police in the Hawke’s Bay supported the programme.”
FYI OIA request
That request was made on August 6, and they have responded one month later asking for more time, another 20 days before they will respond.
This is just a pathetic excuse from the Prime Minister’s Office to delay releasing information, if it even exists, that the Prime Minister said existed, and specifically mentioned it in Parliament.
It was clearly to hand and available as she paraphrased it.
This can be translated from the official-speak as ‘We are just working out how to spin this, and failing that making sure all our stories line up, give us more time and we will get there’.
This is a deliberate delaying tactic that shows that the promises of Jacinda Ardern before she became Prime Minister, that her Government would be the most open and transparent government ever, were nothing but an aspirational goal and a hollow false promise.
Now we wait for another 20 days while they attempt to fabricate the evidence to back the Prime Minister’s claims made in the house, or failing that establish plausible deniability that will see some low cop chucked under a bus.
There is absolutely no reason why this information should be delayed other than it might embarrass the Prime Minister even more than just giving the Mongrel Mob taxpayer cash.
Official Information Act 2021 177 by The BFD on Scribd
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