We have been fascinated with the May 2003 Submission that Ross Meurant prepared for Winston Peters on the Hoki allocation scandal that we have been reading over the last few days. He presented it with vim and vigour to the Primary production select committee looking into the scampi scandal. Then he backed off pursuing it after he got some dodgy advice and some sort of incentive to change his mind. The submission states that the relevant papers relating to the alleged offer and tender rounds of Hoki had disappeared.On 14 May 2003 Tim Donoghue reported that scampi audit files from 1994 were also missing.
Today we discovered that relevant documents for the squid allocation round are also missing from the Ministry's files. This, may seem like ancient history - but we think that means that this story cannot be forgotten.
Lives were changed, businesses grew and went bust over these allocations.
We believe that a full inquiry of the quota allocation process needs to be carried out. If Winston had done his job and continued to pursue the Hoki issue the NZ Seafood Industry may have looked very different that it does today.
So the question that must be asked - for a few pieces of silver, and probably a helicopter ride, did Winston Peters turn his back on good men?
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1 comment:
There were and still are some very slippery people at the helm of the Ministry aligned with equally slippery seafood magnates. To this mix add that lying areshole Peters and you have the recipe for corruption on a grand scale.
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